by R. E. Butler
Glancing to the three hyenas who stood patiently nearby, she shoved the old memories away and concentrated on finding something to hunt. This was the first time she had freedom to go where she wanted to in her shift in six long years and she wasn’t going to waste it standing around mooning over her past. She might not be lucky enough to be their shared mate, but she was damn well lucky enough to be here on this night and she wasn’t going to let the chance to hunt with them slip by.
With a bark of encouragement, she darted off into the woods in search of something fast and furry. The guys stayed with her through her hunt. They stayed a few yards away, as if they didn’t want to encroach on her hunt, but she wouldn’t have minded if they’d stood shoulder to shoulder with her.
After rousing a nest of rabbits and chasing one particularly agile one, she finally caught the furry brown creature and devoured it. It wasn’t hard to miss the approval in their eyes as they watched her hunt, and her wolf was damn near preening like a prom queen. They resumed their leisurely search through the moonlit woods. After a short while, her sensitive ears picked up the sound of deer and she took off, the woods flashing by her as she followed the sounds and scents of her prey. She was aware that the guys were with her, close enough to keep an eye on her but far enough away to give her room to move. Her paws pounded on the ground, closing the distance to the deer until she caught sight of them. The small group of deer raised their heads abruptly and the scent of fear washed over them before they darted away, crashing through the brush in an attempt to get away.
She chased the lead buck, passing by some slower-moving females in an attempt to take down the biggest one. As she breathed deep in passing, a scent tickled her nose that was at the same time both familiar and very strange. She slowed her pace, sorting the scent out in her mind. It smelled so familiar. It wasn’t a natural scent, that much she knew, but she wasn’t sure why.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw one of the guys leap towards a deer and in a heartbeat she knew what she had smelled. The deer’s eyes were glazed over and froth seeped from the corners of its mouth. Poison. The deer was poisoned. And the reason she knew the smell was because her former mate had used the same poison on a family of skunks that had tried to make a home under their trailer.
Fear washed over her like a tidal wave and she wheeled around and raced towards the deer that was being taken down by the hyena on its back. She tackled the hyena in a flying leap, shoving it away from the deer thrashing on its side but unable to get up. The hyena growled as it hit the ground, rolling under her before leaping to its feet. She backed towards the deer, which was making a low, moaning sound in its throat and still struggling to get up, and spread her front legs apart, lowering her head and growling a warning.
The guys stood several feet away from her. She could tell by the tilt of their heads that they were confused. One of them, she didn’t know which one, took a step towards her and she growled again, gnashing her teeth. They had to stay away from the deer. Now that she was close to it, the scent of the poison was strong enough that she was certain that it was the same that her former mate had used. Coupled with the scent of him that she’d thought she smelled earlier in the day, she knew now that she hadn’t imagined things. He’d found her somehow and had poisoned at least one deer in an attempt to hurt or kill her.
Forcing herself out of her shift, several hours earlier than she was ready for, she fell to the ground with a groan, her bones and muscles screaming in protest. Dizziness assaulted her and the pain returned to her stomach. As nausea filled her, she felt them approach her gingerly and she lifted her head and growled out, “The deer’s poisoned!”
As if on cue, the sound of several large bodies hitting the ground echoed around them, and she knew without seeing them that more deer had succumbed to the poison as the first one had. Her stomach rolled and she lurched away, throwing up, pressing a hand against a tree for leverage and holding back her hair with her other hand. Fear coursed through her as her stomach rid itself of the contents of her previous meals. Fear that her former mate had indeed found her. And fear that he wouldn’t leave without her. Dead or alive.
Chapter 10
Orion hadn’t ever seen a she-wolf act as crazy as Sydney did, knocking Crux off the deer and then snarling over it like it was her baby. But when she forced herself into her human form when they’d only been out less than two hours, he knew that something serious was going on.
Poison? How did she know?
The need to protect her overrode all else, and he gathered his strength and forced himself into his human form. He stumbled slightly, his body not ready to return to this form so fast, but the sight of her leaning heavily against the tree and throwing up made it worth the headache and muscle soreness that immediately plagued him.
Kneeling next to her, he tilted her chin up until she looked at him. Her eyes were bright with tears, her lower lip trembling.
“How do you know the deer is poisoned, sweetheart?”
“M-my former mate used the same poison,” she hiccupped and then stood quickly. Her legs weren’t able to keep her upright and she listed to the side. He swung her up into his arms before she hit the ground. She shivered and wrapped her arms around him immediately. “We have to get somewhere safe. He knows where I am!”
The logical part of his mind doubted that the asshole who had tortured her for six years could have found them in this middle-of-nothing town in Kentucky. But the beast in him that roared to protect his mate knew that her fear was very real.
Calling to his brothers, he sent Crux to find the others and had Sterling follow him back to the house with Sydney. He jogged back towards the house, saw Cairo and Alyssa and told them to follow him, and headed straight inside after disarming the security system.
“No one’s been inside the house, Sydney,” he reassured her, resetting the alarm after Sterling, Cairo and Alyssa were inside, and carrying Sydney straight down to the den. In the large bathroom, he grabbed a towel off the rack and wrapped it around her.
She sat on the toilet lid, her face pale and her hands trembling. He gave her a glass of water, holding it for her because she seemed so weak and distracted. Smoothing back her hair, he said, “Tell me everything, sweetheart.”
She explained that she thought she’d imagined smelling her former mate’s cologne earlier in the day. But when she caught scent of the poison from the deer, she knew that he had found her.
“He put the poison in food he left out for the skunks, and I think he did the same thing here — set food out for the deer, knowing that he was in your territory and that we would most likely come upon them.”
He nodded. “If you hadn’t stopped Crux, we all would have torn into that deer. Thank you.”
Her head snapped up and her mouth fell open. “Are you serious? ‘Thank you’? For what? Bringing hell to your doorstep?”
She moved from the toilet to the double sink, flipping one faucet on and cupping her hand under the stream. As she rinsed her mouth out, her other hand clutched the towel around her.
“Sweetheart,” he said, hating that she felt so responsible for things.
She spit out a mouthful of mouthwash and slammed the water off. Meeting his eyes in the mirror, she stared at him for several moments and then said quietly, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
She looked so sad. “What?”
“I was supposed to get picked up by someone in my cousin’s pack and whisked away to the middle of ass-nowhere where Byron would never have even thought to look for me.” She turned and leaned against the counter, her arms across her chest like she was trying to shield herself. “He found me somehow, and he’s not going to stop until he has me back in that hell or dead by his hands.”
Rage turned Orion’s vision red. He planted his hands on either side of her, his fingertips gripping into the counter like he could gouge holes through the marble. Leaning close, he stared into her blue eyes and all but growled out, “He’s not going to get you, Sy
dney. We promised to keep you safe and we’ll damn well do it. I don’t know how the fuck he found you, but he’s going to leave on his own or leave in a pine box. You’re not going anywhere.”
Her mouth parted and her brows furrowed slightly. Her eyes dropped to his mouth and she licked her lips before taking in a low breath as if she were about to speak.
“Guys? We’ve got a problem,” Cairo’s voice broke through the tension between them as quickly as a hot knife through butter and Sydney slipped out from under his arms and walked out of the bathroom and down the short hallway. Catching sight of his nakedness in the mirror, Orion snagged a towel and wrapped it around his waist before joining Sydney, Cairo, and Alyssa in the den. Sterling sat near the bed in his hyena form.
When Orion told Cairo about the deer, Cairo said, “I accidentally grabbed Dante’s cell before we left the house, and I kept getting these phone calls from a private number so I just turned off the ringer and ignored them. I decided to check the phone as we were coming here. Turns out that Sydney’s cousin called Dante’s phone when she couldn’t reach you guys on your cell.”
Cairo played one of the messages.
“This is Jan, Sydney’s cousin. I need to find Sydney and the others right away. I just found out that my daughter answered the phone when I was out yesterday and a man asked for Sydney’s new address so he could send some important documents to her. I think that her ex-mate is on the way to the house and I’m worried about her safety! Please call me right away!”
“Shit,” Orion said. She might have been able to stay safe forever, if that mistake hadn’t been made. But it wasn’t the child’s fault. It was Sydney’s former mate’s fault.
“What do you want to do?” Cairo asked.
“I’ll call Jan and then we’re going to find out where the hell that fucker is and send him packing. One way or the other.”
Sydney put her hand on his arm. “He’s crazy, Orion. You don’t know what you’re going against.”
He glanced at Cairo and Alyssa, who cleared their throats and then turned and walked out of the den and back upstairs. Putting both hands on her cheeks, he looked down into her worried eyes and felt the love that had been simmering in his heart for the last few weeks come to a boil.
“Sydney, there is no creature on earth that can take you from us. I promised that I would take care of you, that all of us would, and I don’t break my promises.” Taking a gamble on things, he said, “You’re ours, sweetheart. Ours to protect and care for and love.”
Tears filled her eyes and she gripped his wrists with both hands, the towel sliding to the floor with a soft sound. “Yours?”
He nodded, feeling like this was the fucking worst timing in history. “The moment we found you in the bus station, we knew you were ours. But we wanted to give you time. You asked me once why we were taking care of you, and this is why. Because you’re our shared mate and we’ll be damned if some asshole like your former mate is going to take you away from us.”
Her arousal spiked in the air suddenly, and his body responded. In spite of the dangerous situation, he wanted nothing more than to shut them all down in the den and bond her to them forever.
He pressed his lips to hers firmly but swiftly and said, “When this is over and you’re fully free, sweetheart, we’re going to have a very serious discussion about our future together.”
“Alaska?” she asked, licking her lips as if she wanted to taste him again.
“We’ll take you for a visit, but you’re sure as hell not living there.”
She blinked a few times and tears slipped over her cheeks, but in spite of her fear over facing her ex, she smiled. “If I say no?”
He grinned. “You like us. Admit it.”
She laughed shakily. “I do. I don’t want to be anywhere but here. But I’m scared, Orion.” The amusement left her eyes immediately and he released her face and pulled her into his arms.
“We’ll handle it, sweetheart.”
No matter what, they were going to set her free. No. Matter. What.
* * * * *
Sterling considered shifting into his human form about a hundred times while Orion bared his soul to Sydney, but he had a feeling that it was better for them all for Orion to talk to her alone. When the dust settled from this situation with her ex, then they could all talk. Orion covered Sydney back up with the towel and led her to the bed, where she sat down on the edge, wrapping her arms around herself. Orion disappeared into the back rooms, and Sterling padded over to her, nudging her knee with his muzzle.
Her hand dropped down to his head and she stroked his ear.
Orion returned from the back and announced that he had called Jan and told her that everything was under control here and that he would be in touch when the situation was neutralized. The security system beeped and alerted them that the others had come back and Cairo had opened the door for them. When it was reengaged with another reassuring beep, the sound of many paws padding down the stairs made him smile inwardly. He didn’t think any hyenas ever went into the winter den in their beast forms. Nearly their entire baro was still in their shifts. Crux joined him, resting his furry chin on Sydney’s knees.
Cairo said, “We don’t know how many wolves are out there, but we need to be prepared to fight.”
Her eyes widened and her whole body jerked, as if she hadn’t thought of them fighting. He wanted to spend the rest of his life worshipping her in every possible way, but as her mate, he would die before he let her be harmed. She slipped down to the carpet and wrapped her arms around his and Crux’s necks, holding on as if her life depended on it. “Don’t die,” her voice cracked as she pressed her face against his neck. Her tears wet his fur and he could feel her body trembling. “Please.”
Orion knelt next to them. “We’ll come back to you, Sydney.”
More than putting a personal pounding on the guy, Sterling wanted her to really know that she was free. Once and for all. Good and done.
While she leaned on them, Orion had gone upstairs and brought clothes down for Sydney. Sterling walked with Sydney into the bathroom, worried that she was so strung out she might faint. After she pushed her feet into her sneakers, he walked with her back into the main area of the den.
“I’m going to shift again and go find those bastards. Mase and Crux will stay down here in the den with Alyssa and Sydney,” Orion said.
Sterling chuffed in agreement. Although the den in Dante’s home was far more fortified, the address was compromised since it was the one that had been given to her former mate via the young cousin. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that her former mate could easily follow her scent through the woods, so moving her out of the safety of their own den was not going to happen.
Sydney said, “How can you shift again so quickly?”
“I’m your mate, sweetheart. My beast is howling at me to keep you safe. It’s all I can do right now to stay in my human form.”
Orion hugged and kissed Sydney, whispering something in her ear, and then looked down at Crux. “Keep her safe, brother.”
Crux gave a short bark and stayed close to Sydney.
She looked down at Sterling and tears slipped down her cheeks. He wished he could speak in his shifted form. “Come back to me, Sterling,” she said in a rough whisper.
He growled and rubbed his cheek against her knee. “We’ll be back when you’re safe,” Orion said.
“Promise?”
“Promise,” Orion said solemnly.
Sterling and Orion left her with Crux, Alyssa, and Mason, and joined the others who had already gone upstairs and outside. Orion shut the basement door and engaged the electronic locking mechanism. Thick steel bars inside the door shifted on gears and stretched across the door and into the wall, locking it solidly. Sterling moved out of the house and waited as Orion closed and locked the back door and checked that the alarm was on. Orion tossed the towel around his waist aside and shifted quickly, as if his beast couldn’t get back into his
furred form quickly enough. Orion gave a sharp bark and he leapt off the porch, and Sterling followed as the baro headed into the woods to find the ones that had harmed their mate.
* * * * *
Hearing the basement door’s steel beams lock was reassuring to Crux. He was honored to be guarding Sydney and Alyssa with Mason, but he wished he could bring final justice for her.
Sydney looked so worn out. She’d been looking forward to shifting and hunting. She hadn’t said exactly what her past full moons were like, but judging from her excitement at this first full moon of freedom, she hadn’t had any more freedom in her shift than in her human form. He was sorry that her first full moon with them had been cut short, and he wished that she could just rest now, but it wasn’t a good time to be napping.
Alyssa joined Sydney where she sat on the edge of the bed. “How are you holding up, Syd?”
Sydney looked at him and he closed the short distance to her and put his head in lap again. She stroked his neck. “Worried as hell.”
“They’re going to be fine. There isn’t anything that hyenas won’t do to make sure that their mate is safe.”
Sydney didn’t respond, and Crux could tell by the way her brow was furrowed that she was in deep thought. He’d spent the last few weeks watching her and had grown very attuned to her emotions. Growling softly, he pressed closer to her leg.
Time leaked by slowly and he wished he had a way of communicating with his brothers. They hadn’t been in the house long enough to really get the den set up the way that they would need, with surveillance cameras inside and outside of the house. Sterling was the one that liked to do all the electronic tinkering. Before Sydney came into their lives, they thought they didn’t need to worry about really using the den and thinking about their mate’s security. But now, he would give one of his fangs to have a security camera outside. He wondered if they’d had to go searching for the wolves. He wondered how many there were and if they were in their shifts or human forms.
