by Sky Winters
He was really angry at himself for being so weak the night before. Not only had he sent his men off and allowed them to separate from each other when they were clearly stronger as a pack, but he had wasted precious time and betrayed his pack by copulating with a human. It was an unspoken truth that the desire to breed with a human was considered weakness in a shifter, especially an Alpha, but somehow he had been unable to help himself. Whether that was because he was hoping to get things out of his system in case the others actually did find an Omega female hybrid who would be willing to propagate with him or if it was simply his own desires becoming too strong and difficult to overcome, he still felt like he had made a mistake.
The elder tried to convince him that mistakes were a good thing in the long run, but this one felt like a black mark on his pride. He’d been weak and put himself first, ahead of his pack and even ahead of Hunter’s feelings. He had been bothered by something. Deeply. And instead of getting to the real heart of the matter, Bronson had taken advantage of the boy’s vulnerability and unleashed something deep and pent up inside of him that he hadn’t even known was there. A vague attraction to male shifters was one thing. An attraction to a male human so intense that he hadn’t been able to resist it? That was shameful.
A familiar sound that he couldn’t place made Bronson’s ears perk up. It took him a few seconds to figure out what he was hearing. Hunter’s car sped along the dirt road at full throttle, coming right toward him. That was the last thing that he wanted to deal with right now.
“Bronson!”
Hunter’s voice had taken on a powerful quality that surprised Bronson just as much as he was surprised that Hunter had been able to find him in this concealed place.
“What are you doing here?” Bronson barked, turning to face Hunter. His heart pounded painfully when he saw that the man was holding a gun out, pointed right at his chest. “Whoa, easy there. What’s going on?”
Hunter was hysterical, his hands shaking violently and tears springing at the corners of his eyes. But his voice was even, and he didn’t let the emotion into it.
“Animal attacks. Weird things happening to outsiders around here. What’s going on, Bronson? Did you guys do something to Tyler?”
“Tyler?”
Now Bronson was just confused. Who the hell was Tyler? He could tell it had something to do with the deep anguish that he’d sensed coming from Hunter the night before, but it was still hard to connect the dots.
“Yes, Tyler!” Hunter exclaimed, emotion seeping into his voice now. He marched forward purposefully, until the barrel of his gun was close to Bronson’s chest. “My… He died here. In the campground! He was everything to me!”
Hunter’s voice cracked as he was overcome with anguish. Bronson wanted to reach out to comfort him, but the gun was still pointed squarely at his heart. One false move, and one of them was going to get very hurt. And the unfortunate fact was that it probably wouldn’t be Bronson. Even if it came to blows, for some reason, he really didn’t want anything to happen to Hunter.
“He got attacked?” Bronson asked, trying to make sense of the situation as much as he could without encouraging Hunter to pull the trigger. Then he remembered something. “Is Tyler the man who died in the campground last year? It was in the newspaper.”
He kept his voice gentle and even, despite the cold fury that was filling his chest. The mountain lion shifters had probably killed him. Hunter and his boyfriend had drawn an unlucky lot. The mountain lion shifters liked to prowl the campground for easy targets, and it sounded as if Tyler had fit the bill. It was miraculous that Hunter had survived; they usually didn’t leave anybody alive.
“Yes. He was my world. Is my world. What happened with you, that’s nothing to me. Nothing could ever compare. I feel so dirty.”
Hunter began to cry in earnest now, his gun drooping a little bit as his shoulders quaked. Soon, Bronson would be able to reach over to him, take the gun from his hands. But not quite yet.
“I would never try to replace someone so meaningful to you,” Bronson said, sincerely hurt by the accusation. For some reason, it really stung that Hunter would consider him a mistake, even though Bronson had been thinking the same exact thing. It made him feel miserable to see the ease with which Hunter apparently brushed off of the passion they’d shared.
It wasn’t as if Bronson had wanted it to happen either. He had reasons to be angry and upset. But he wouldn’t take it out on Hunter. The situation felt unfair, and yet Hunter was grieving. He knew grieving people did some crazy things sometimes.
“My mother died in an animal attack,” Bronson said carefully. “I was about ten years old. There was this merciless gang of men who were out to hurt anybody weaker than themselves. The guys I was telling you about. The ones I call my rivals.”
Hunter was quiet, his eyes closed and head bowed down to his chest. But he was clearly listening, even though his gun was still pointed at Bronson.
“It felt like I’d lost a part of myself. Like I’d never be whole again. My father told me it was the gang that had done it, and all the adults were getting together, making plans to avenge the women who were being murdered in cold blood. My dad led an attack on them the next week. But he lost. He died too.”
Hunter lifted his chin, empathetically, and the barrel of the gun wavered until it pointed closer to the ground.
“Everything I’d ever loved was gone. Lost in the blink of an eye. All because those bloodthirsty assholes like to pick on people they look down on. Women. Effeminate men. Strangers who don’t know the area.” He left one word unspoken. Humans. “We formed a group of men who wanted to take care of the threat once and for all. These guys want to hurt people, and they constantly target them in this area, especially in this town, so we made a pact to protect them. It’s how we can avenge the people we lost and take matters into our own hands.”
“Why not just call the police?” Hunter whispered. “If you know who they are, then just arrest them to keep the bastards from hurting other people. You could have saved Tyler’s life if—”
“These men are stronger than any police force. There’s something about them that makes them very difficult to fight. They’re strong and have access to things beyond most people’s understanding. It’s a deep web, Hunter, and the best way to fight it is in person, without getting other innocent people involved who don’t understand the group so well.”
“Then let me fight! I need to do something…” Hunter took a deep breath. “I came here for a reason. I still don’t know exactly what that reason is. But I do know I need to do something to stop this. To avenge Tyler.”
“Guns aren’t going to do too much to hurt people like them,” Bronson said, plucking the gun gingerly from Hunter’s hand. “Or to me.”
“What? Why?”
But Bronson didn’t answer. Instead, he held his arms out and allowed himself to feel the heartbreak as he embraced Hunter, who finally let out the sobs he had been holding back. So the boy had lost the man he loved to the mountain lion shifters. All the more reason to put them in their place once and for all.
Chapter 13
Hunter walked back to his car numb and in a daze. He could feel Bronson’s dark eyes following him. He wanted nothing more than to return to the man, to be surrounded by the strength and warmth of his embrace. He felt completely safe with Bronson. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. Not even with Tyler.
Hunter sighed heavily, putting the gun back in the glove compartment of his car. He furrowed his eyebrows, reluctant to leave Bronson alone in the woods. For some reason it didn’t seem safe, even though he seemed so strong and capable. But he couldn’t let himself succumb to the same powerful longing that had brought them together in the first place. Besides, he had a lot to think about. Especially if he was going to stay in this town.
He was surprised that he had been able to find Bronson so easily. He’d had no leads to go on. All he’d done was trust his instincts and he’d found Bronson’s tra
il and followed it. It had been almost like magic. There was no other way to describe it. When he had tried to explain bizarre things like this, tried to explain his intuition to Tyler, he would look at Hunter like he was crazy. He had a feeling Bronson would probably be more open and accepting of his strange talents though.
Why was he still thinking about Bronson as if he was some kind of potential mate or something? There was no way he would want to share anything with that man. Just because he had been sexually frustrated and they’d been together didn’t mean that they were going to date and have a happily ever after. His fiancé was dead. And Bronson probably knew more about it than he was letting on. In fact, if Bronson’s gang was responsible for it, why would he even tell him the truth about anything?
Bronson’s version of the truth sounded like a whole lot of bullshit to Hunter. If there was a group of men out there trying to fuck with outsiders and actually killing people for being different, why would it be a bad idea to get the police involved? Still, he wanted to believe Bronson. And if he was going to be honest with himself, deep down, he did. If only for the simple fact that he liked to trust his instincts and his instincts told him Bronson was trustworthy. But there was just far too much going on out here for him to feel comfortable with and—
“Shit!”
A huge animal jumped in front of his car. Hunter slammed on his brakes, terrified of injuring the animal and damaging his car. Fortunately, he was able to stop in time, but when he saw the creature’s face, he wished that he hadn’t been so quick to stop. It was huge, with wild eyes and a vicious smile. Even in his panic, he was able to identify it as a mountain lion. There was something familiar about its eyes, and they gave him goosebumps.
Almost immediately, he saw another mountain lion beside the driver’s seat door, and another on the passenger’s side. A fourth joined the mountain lion in front of him. He was slowly becoming surrounded by the vicious creatures, and they all seemed to have only one thing on their minds. Hunter could sense it, even though he couldn’t explain it. They wanted him.
An ear-splitting howl made all of the creatures jump to full attention, and they took their eerie yellow eyes off of Hunter to look for the source. Coming from the mountains, in the direction where Bronson had been, was a jet black wolf, bounding with full force toward the stalled vehicle. The mountain lions snarled, charging toward the wolf.
Hunter craned his neck to see what was happening. He didn’t want anything to happen to the wolf. With trembling hands, he removed the gun from his glove compartment and rolled his window down just enough that he was able to aim the barrel outside at the mountain lions. One of them yelped in pain when he shot it, and veered away from the black wolf. It headed into the forest and disappeared, leaving three other mountain lions behind to finish the job.
His hands were shaking terribly, but he cocked the gun and aimed again. Two of the mountain lions were jumping onto the wolf at once, and the third was ready to pounce. Hunter cursed. He couldn’t get a good aim on the third, but he knew if it attacked the wolf would probably be done for.
Against all logic, he stepped out of his car and took a shot at the third mountain lion. It howled in rage and turned to look at Hunter. He held his gun out confidently, despite the fear mounting in his chest. If the mountain lion charged at him, he would probably be a goner. But he couldn’t stand the thought of the wolf being killed. It seemed like it was trying to protect him, although that didn’t make any sense. And there was something about it that made him feel safe.
The mountain lion took a step towards him, growling, and he fired another shot at the beast’s face. It cried out in agony and followed its friend into the forest. Now all that was left were the two mountain lions fighting the wolf. Hunter’s hands were shaking too hard for him to trust his aim that well. He didn’t want to shoot the wolf on accident and make it harder for it to fight off the mountain lions.
Somehow, the wolf seemed to be getting the better of the creatures. He was twice as big as they were, which Hunter realized was way too big for a normal wolf. The wolf gripped one of them by the neck. He shook it violently before tossing it away, and then did the same to the second. It looked like the first mountain lion was close to death, but it still got up and ran toward Hunter.
Hunter ducked into his car just in time, slamming the door closed as the injured beast tried to paw its way inside. He shoved his gun through the slit in the window and fired.
It missed completely, but the sound was enough to startle the wounded creature and cause it to bound off, hot on the trail of the other injured mountain lions.
Now, all that was left was the wolf and the last mountain lion. They were fighting viciously, and Hunter gasped when the wolf yelped in pain as the beast latched down on his neck. The harder he tried to escape, the more pain the wolf seemed to feel.
Hunter was about to get back out of his car and try to rescue the wolf somehow, risking his own life, when another wolf—this one brown—appeared out of the bushes and grabbed the mountain lion by the scruff, pulling it off the black wolf and flinging it violently away. Hunter watched in shock as the second wolf took on the mountain lion with heightened energy, clearly protecting the black one from any further attacks. It was smaller than the huge black wolf, and soon found that it had met its match with the mountain lion.
Soon the new wolf found himself in the locked jaws of the mountain lion, but his rescue had given the black wolf all the time he needed to recover. Hunter watched with his jaw slackened as the indominable black wolf gripped the mountain lion’s throat and clamped down powerfully. A strangled yelp escaped the beast’s lips before it sunk limply to the ground.
The brown wolf stayed on the road panting for a moment as the majestic black wolf walked slowly to the driver’s side of Hunter’s car. His golden eyes locked on Hunter’s for a moment, as if checking to see if he was all right. There was something loving and kind in the wolf’s look, something that brought to mind the way Bronson’s strong arms felt when they were wrapped securely around Hunter’s body. He felt a warmth spread from his heart and outward, filling his body.
The wolf gave an odd, almost human nod, and turned away. He walked to his friend, who was struggling to his feet on the roadside. Together, they walked away from the scene, leaving the mountain lion’s corpse on the road behind them. For a minute, Hunter thought the mountain lion’s corpse looked like a naked human body. He blinked and drove off before he could give much thought to whether it was stress and fear or the sun playing tricks on his eyes.
Chapter 14
Bronson hissed in pain as the elder’s lackeys bathed his wounds in fresh water. The healers were all confined to the area with the elder, but fortunately for Bronson, one of the men who guarded him was out on patrol and had heard the commotion. He had saved Bronson’s life.
When his wounds were all dressed and treated with the special herbal remedies that Agun had shared with the pack from his deep, primordial knowledge of their ancient history, Bronson shifted back to his human form and walked slowly to Agun’s quarters.
“Well I asked you here for dinner,” the old man said. He seemed amused. “But I didn’t expect that you’d be quite so punctual.”
“You know me,” Bronson said, wincing with pain as he attempted to stretch out his shoulder. Fights with the mountain lion shifters always ended in bloodshed. They had honed their fighting skills over the years so that they had a slight advantage when facing a wolf shifter one on one. They had to be smart to outmaneuver the strong wolf shifters, who were usually bigger than they were by at least a size and a half. Bronson was lucky that he was an Alpha. If he only had an Omega’s strength, he would have been a goner. It was just lucky that he had gotten there in time to protect Hunter.
“Indeed. And I’ve known many others like you,” the elder said.
“Aw, don’t tell me that. I’d like to think I’m special.”
“Oh, yes,” Agun said, a wry smile playing across his thin, age-worn lips. �
��But history has a way of repeating itself.”
The elder’s words sent a chill down Bronson’s spine. Although he knew the past tended to catch up to people from time to time, hearing the words coming from a man who had lived through hell and come back again and again was something new entirely.
“At some point you will be willing to share with me what it is you are thinking and feeling, my child. You know I love you as much as anyone alive ever could. I won’t watch you walk on a wrongful path if there is anything that I can do to help you.”
“Yes, thank you, Agun. I don’t have anything to say about anything right now. I just wonder how I will find a mate. Time is running out and the mountain lion shifters are getting sneakier.” Not to mention he could only seem to think of Hunter… “If we don’t find a way to repopulate the pack, there’s a chance they’ll pick us off one by one until our kind are extinct. The men are losing the will to fight.”
“Yes, this is a problem,” Agun sighed. “There is very low morale. Most are convinced that the fight is already over. But you will show them otherwise. You have the power to bring the pack back from the dead. The Dire wolves will rise again.”
Bronson couldn’t help but smile at Agun. Even if it wasn’t true, it was always comforting to hear the endless optimism of the elder. He had seen many disasters in his time, but it was what the pack chose to do with the misfortune that counted. He couldn’t be taken off course. Not when it was so crucial that he be there for his pack and save his people from extinction.
Chapter 15
Hunter paced around in his motel room, glancing at his watch. He had two choices. He could either continue on his ill-fated job hunt, hoping to make himself a functional citizen of the town of Dire, or he could find Bronson and apologize for brandishing a gun in his face and almost killing him over his delirious drive to avenge Tyler.
