by J. L. Wilder
“Are we sure they’re still in the area?” someone else asked. “If it were me, I probably would have taken off, knowing that we know where they live.”
“You haven’t smelled them?” the first voice scoffed. “It’s obvious we’re in the right place.”
“Take it easy, Josh,” someone counseled. “Not everyone has your impeccable sense of smell.”
It was obvious to Marco that Josh was being derided, but no comeback came. Maybe Josh didn’t know he was the butt of the joke.
Where are the guns?
He crept forward, peering through the trees. A group of about ten men was huddled around a campfire, and off to the left, rifles and gun belts had been piled beside a tent.
If I can get to them, I can even the odds a bit.
But to do it, he would need hands. He would need the stealth that came of being human.
It was terrifying to make himself vulnerable right now, but he knew that it had to be done. He took a deep breath and shifted, the sensation of the wind on his bare skin immediately making him feel exposed.
From behind him, he heard a soft huff. He turned and saw Robby.
“I have to try to get the guns,” he whispered. “If I can disarm them, we’ll have a chance here. You stay right here.”
Robby shook his head and made as if to follow Marco.
“No,” Marco said firmly, allowing his voice to swell with the authority of his position as alpha. “You can’t come with me. I have to be stealthy about this, and I’ll be quieter if I go alone.”
Robby let out a soft, almost inaudible whine. He didn’t want to be left out of the action, Marco knew. He didn’t want to leave his alpha unprotected.
“I need you here,” he said. “If something happens, you’ll be able to distract them long enough for me to get myself into a more advantageous position. I need an ace up my sleeve, and that’s you.”
Robby hesitated for a long moment, then nodded. Marco rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder and met his gaze, then turned and crept around the perimeter of the southern wolves’ campsite, heading for the guns.
He reached them easily enough. The southern wolves weren’t paying much attention to what was going on around them. The one called Josh was still holding court, describing plans for an attack on Marco’s family. A part of Marco knew that he ought to be listening and gathering information, but he was laser-focused on the task at hand. He had to get to those guns.
But before he could make his move, the campsite erupted into action.
Without warning, fur was flying, snarls ripping through the air. It was several moments before Marco spotted the newcomers to the site, several moments longer before he recognized them.
Burton and Chrissy!
Of course they would do this! They were so young, both of them, so impetuous! Now the fight was happening, and there had been no time to prepare, no time to discuss a course of action—
But the southern wolves were unprepared too. And with two rival wolves suddenly in their midst, they couldn’t very well remain in their human forms. All around Marco, bodies shifted, sinking into their animal forms, teeth exposed, hackles raised.
Nobody was even looking at the pile of guns.
Marco darted forward and swept the weapons up in his arms.
As he did so, one of the wolves in the clearing—not one of his own—saw him and leaped. There was a single, heart-stopping moment in which Marco knew he would have to drop the guns and shift. He would have to enter the fight.
Then Robby burst into the clearing and collided with Marco’s attacker.
Marco turned and ran.
The best thing to do was to get all of these weapons as far from here as he possibly could. If he could make it to the river, he could throw them in. Then he could return to the fight with just one gun. He would be the only one armed, and he would be able to control the outcome of the fight.
Probably.
He was still badly outnumbered. Even with Chrissy, Burton, and Robby at his side, they were outnumbered more than two to one. Having a gun wouldn’t change that fact.
Then, as he ran, he very nearly collided headlong with a fast-moving body.
She shifted back and looked up at him. “Marco!”
“Petra? I thought I told you to go warn the others!”
“They’re coming. They’re right behind me.” Before he could object, she reached out and plucked a gun from the pile in his arms. “Where’s the fight?”
“You don’t know how to shoot that thing.”
“They don’t know that.”
“Who’s with Sophie?”
“Cam is,” Petra said.
“Just Cam?”
“You didn’t really expect Ryker to stay behind?” she said. “It was all we could do to persuade Cam to stay back and let me come. But I needed to show them where you were. Of course, Chrissy and Burton ran ahead...did they find you?”
“Where’s Ryker?”
“I’m here.” He jogged up to them and took stock of the guns in Marco’s arms. “Are those theirs?”
Marco nodded. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go even the odds.”
He handed Ryker one of the guns. Ryker looked at it distastefully, but he held onto it. Then he turned and led the way back to the fight.
Things had gone downhill in the few minutes he had been away. Chrissy lay on the ground, pinned beneath the front paws of a much larger wolf who was now baring his teeth at her in triumph. Robby had been backed up against a tree by two other wolves, and though he was taking swipes at them, it was clear he was at the losing end of the battle. Burton was still fighting, and fighting hard, but he was badly outnumbered, and there was blood dripping down his shoulder.
Marco stepped forward and fired a shot into the air.
It tore through the sounds of snarling and snapping, and the clearing was left silent, everyone turning to face him. He was aware of Ryker and Petra stepping forward at his sides.
“Burton,” Marco said. “Chrissy. Robby. Come here.”
His packmates moved toward him.
One of the wolves who had been fighting Burton lunged, locking his teeth around Burton’s ankle.
Marco didn’t hesitate. He pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit the wolf in the hip. The animal howled, his grip on Burton releasing, and Burton limped over. The three wolves took their places beside the three humans.
“We don’t want trouble with you,” Marco said. “We never wanted trouble with you. Our pack didn’t want this fight. You forced it when you came onto our land. When you kidnapped our omega. We can end the conflict right now, and you can leave, and we never have to see one another again. Or we can end things violently, if you would prefer it.”
“We should kill them,” Ryker growled. “This is the mistake we made with the bears. We let them live.”
Marco shook his head. “We need to be the men Sophie wants us to be,” he said. “She wants her alphas to be merciful. We know that. We need to be able to offer mercy without putting the pack in danger. If we can’t do that, we’re not as strong as we think we are.”
He looked back at the southern wolves. “So what will it be?” he asked. “Can we end the conflict? The choice is yours.”
Chapter Seventeen
SOPHIE
“And they just left?”
Sophie couldn’t quite believe it. After everything they had been through, would Josh really just walk away from a fight?
“Well, not at first,” Burton said. He was sitting with his injured ankle wrapped and propped up on a rock, popping berries in his mouth from a bowl that sat at his hip. “They didn’t want to, I don’t think. At least, some of them didn’t.”
“So what happened?” Sophie asked.
“The one with the red hair, I don’t know his name—”
“He didn’t say his name,” Petra said.
“I don’t know who that is,” Sophie said. “I never met anyone with red hair.”
“I g
ot the feeling he was another alpha,” Burton said. “Anyway, he was pissed off. He shifted back and started yelling at Josh, accusing him of lying and saying that we were planning on mounting a war with the south. Apparently, he was manipulating some of the others into helping him fight us.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Josh,” Sophie agreed.
“Well, once the truth came out, they started fighting amongst themselves,” Burton said. “A bunch of them wanted to just pack it up and go home. They weren’t looking for a war with a pack that had no quarrel with them. And once it became clear that he was losing a significant chunk of his support and that he would be outnumbered if he stayed, Josh had to go.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s gone for good,” Sophie said. “If there’s one thing Josh can’t stand, it’s feeling like he’s been disgraced. He won’t forget what happened here.”
“You’re right,” Ryker said, his voice low. “But if we’re lucky, what he won’t forget is that he was made a fool of. He suffered a bad loss today. I think he’ll consider very seriously before he tries to confront us again. And it will be very hard for him to rally the kind of support he had today, now that word is out to the southern packs about the tactics he uses.” A small smile crossed his face. “I think we can consider ourselves safe for the time being.”
Marco nodded. “I agree,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll be coming back here.”
“I still say we should have kept the guns,” Chrissy said. “Just to be on the safe side.”
They had buried the stolen arsenal three miles from the cave, in an area of the woods where they hardly ever went. Ryker had been absolutely adamant about it, and he shook his head again now.
“We don’t need guns,” he said. “We’re wolves. We’re natural fighters. We have all the weapons we need without resorting to that kind of thing.”
“Guns bailed us out this time,” Chrissy pointed out.
“It wouldn’t have been necessary if they hadn’t brought them to the fight in the first place,” Ryker said. “We could have taken them if we’d needed to.”
Maybe, Sophie thought. But they probably wouldn’t have gotten out with so few injuries. Just looking at Burton was enough to make her feel like crying. Though he was in good spirits and recovering well, she knew the gash on his shoulder would leave a scar that would never fully disappear. And who knew when he would be able to walk on that foot again?
Gradually, the cave emptied out as everyone went about their daily business. Cam and Petra, with Sophie’s blessing, were taking the babies to the river so they could experience floating and become comfortable in water, a first step toward enabling them to learn how to swim. Marco and Robby were going hunting, and Ryker and Chrissy planned to check the snares and repair one that had broken.
Which left Sophie alone with Burton in the cave.
She scooted up beside him and began to unwind the bandages from around his ankle. Burton rolled his eyes good naturedly. “You’ve checked that three times in the past hour, you know,” he said.
“Well, I don’t want it to get infected.”
“It’s actually more likely to get infected if you keep fussing with it.” He sat up and placed his hands gently over hers. “But you know that. You just want to fuss, don’t you?”
“Maybe. A little.”
“You could get me some meat, if you want,” he suggested. “It would probably be good for me, since I’ve lost some blood.”
She nodded and pulled down a few strips of the freshest jerky for him. “It’s good that you have an appetite,” she said.
“I’m not that badly hurt, Sophie,” he said. “It’s really just a scratch.”
“You could have been killed,” she countered.
“I wasn’t, though.”
“How could you run into that fight without a plan? Without waiting for Marco and Ryker? You could have died, Burton. I don’t know what I would have done.”
“You would have been fine,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand. “You still have Marco and Ryker. You have the whole pack. You’re never going to be left alone.”
“It’s not about being left alone!” She stopped and took a deep breath, knowing that she needed to bring her emotions under control. “It’s about you. Don’t you understand yet that I need you? I need all of you. It’s not enough to say that I have other alphas. None of them are you.”
HE NODDED, TOOK HER wrist in his hand, and pulled her down to sit beside him. “I understand,” he said. “That’s the same way I felt when that beta girl from the southern packs was pursuing me.”
“Is it?” she asked.
“I mean, not exactly,” he amended. “I didn’t have any interest in her at all, the way you do with Marco and Ryker. But I did know that she could never replace you. From the moment you were gone, I knew that it wouldn’t matter how many women I met as long as I lived—none of them would ever be what you are to me.”
Sophie nodded. He did understand. “That’s exactly how I feel,” she said.
HOURS LATER, WHEN BURTON had fallen asleep and Chrissy had returned with a fat rabbit, Sophie went wandering into the woods on her own.
She found Ryker quickly. It hadn’t been hard. She had known which of the snares he’d planned to work on, and when she came up behind him, he was running his hands over it, testing its strength. She stopped a few yards away and watched him quietly, not wanting to startle him into springing the snare.
It was Ryker who spoke first. “I know you’re there,” he said.
“How did you know?” Sophie asked.
“Your smell,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’d know it anywhere. You’re intoxicating.”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “I had no idea.”
“You also shouldn’t be out of the cave on your own.”
“You’ve been so protective since it happened,” she said.
“Wouldn’t you be?” he countered. “That’s twice now, Sophie. Twice you’ve been taken away from us. I don’t want to lose you.”
She moved in close to him and rested her hands on his hips. “You’re not going to lose me,” she said quietly. “The bears are gone, and we all agreed that the southern wolves weren’t likely to come back. We’re completely safe at last.”
He grabbed her and kissed her passionately, as if they were on borrowed time. Sophie understood. She had been desperately afraid that she might never see her alphas again. Now, to be in Ryker’s strong arms, to feel the firm but yielding press of his lips against hers and the way his thick fingers splayed against her back...it was almost too good to be true. It was as if she had fallen into a fantasy, a dream she never wanted to wake up from.
By unspoken agreement, the two of them began to remove each other’s clothes, breaking their kiss just long enough to slip the shirts over their heads. Sophie ran her hands over the planes of his body, thrilled to be naked with him, every inch of her feeling alive and lit up with excitement.
“I missed you,” he said, his breathing ragged and his voice hoarse. “So much, Sophie. You have no idea.”
“I do,” she said, feeling her heart gallop as though she had just run a marathon. “I’ve needed you so badly, Ryker. I thought I’d never see you again. I thought I’d never...never feel you again—”
Her words were cut off as he turned her roughly in his arms and thrust into her without warning. She gasped and arched her back, feeling her body clench around him almost at once, feeling herself begin to come. She hadn’t known that her desire could sweep over her this quickly, but she didn’t have the wherewithal to be surprised by it now. All she could do was cling to the hand he gave her to hold and allow her orgasm to carry her away.
He groaned as he fucked her, a low growl that sounded like the wolf that dwelt within him. Sophie had always loved how animalistic Ryker became during sex, how close the wolf was to the surface. When she was with him, more than at any other time, she felt the truth of her dual nature—woman and wolf. It was d
ivine.
He thrust into her hard, and then his hips jerked and she felt him release within her. He caught her in his arms and stepped back, helping her ease herself slowly down onto the ground and sinking to his knees beside her.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “I needed that, Soph.”
She rested her head against his shoulder. “So did I,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it since I got back. Since before then, really.”
“Yeah?”
“I couldn’t really let myself focus on the thought when they were holding me,” she said. “There was too much else to worry about at the time. Too many other problems to focus on. I couldn’t let myself sit around and be sad about the fact that I might never get to feel you inside me again. That I might never feel your hands on me or taste your mouth...”
“Hey,” Ryker said, frowning. He cupped her cheek with one hand and swiped his thumb slowly under her eye. “Don’t cry. It’s all right now.”
She laughed out a little sob. “I know,” she said. “I know we’re fine now, and we’re all back together. It’s just hard sometimes when I remember what could have happened. I might have lost you forever.”
“What did you just finish telling me?” he asked her gently. “You’re not going to lose me.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her slowly down to the ground, rolling onto his back and bringing her to lie on top of him.
She rested her head on his chest, listening to the faint but steady rhythm of his heart. “Did you really run away from the others while I was gone?” she asked.
He didn’t answer for a moment. “Who told you?” he asked.
“Petra,” Sophie said. “Don’t be angry with her. I asked her what it was like when I was gone. She said something about a fight.”
“I was angry with myself,” Ryker sighed. “I knew it was wrong. Even at the time, I knew it. But I was so full of anger. And I couldn’t accept that the only one I was really angry with was me.”
