by Kate Wendley
“Shit. Where’s Kaia?”
“She’s on her way back to Wild Woods.”
“All right. I’m on my way.”
They hung up on each other and Anthony was still totally confused by Ethan. Last month he’d almost picked a fight with Anthony, tonight he was on his way to help. Anthony knew he could trust him with community issues, but still didn’t understand his personal hatred of him.
He let that thought go and instead focused on humans at the ranch. How did they get past the shifters’ and vampires’ noses? Where were they that the vampires didn’t catch their scent, and how many were there? And how did they know to be at the ranch tonight?
His head spun with questions. There were a lot of shifters, and a lot of wolves and coyotes. The wolves tended to howl a lot, but the coyotes were a noisy group all around, yipping, growling and barking while they ran through the night. It was entirely possible someone heard all the noise and followed the sounds. Even lousy human ears could hear coyotes and wolves from a good distance. Dammit.
**
The energy was chaotic at the ranch. Alistair was trying to balance himself and an entranced human in a tree while wolves and coyotes milled around the area.
“There are more hunters out there, but the shifters are surrounding them. We couldn’t get to them, sir.”
Anthony’s heart raced. He prayed he wasn’t too late to save this whole mess from becoming a tragedy for the family as well as a nightmare with the human authorities.
He materialized at a ridge and surveyed the scene. To his right was a giant blonde werewolf snarling in the face of a man decked out in camo gear. The man lay flat on his back with his rifle pinned across his chest under the angry wolf’s front paws.
Anthony paused a fraction of a second to look the wolf over. His left hindquarter was raw and bloody, and the wolf constantly shifted his weight, covering for the fact that he was slightly shaking. It was Sebastian, so Anthony didn’t spend time worrying about him right now. His wound could obviously wait if he had enough energy to keep the human trapped, and he trusted Sebastian and his control over himself with the hunter.
He turned his attention to the rest of the gruesome scene. About twenty feet away another hunter was surrounded by three wolves, all diving in to take a swipe at the man. He looked like a typical beer bellied, armchair quarterback with way too much disposable income to be able to afford the artillery and hunting gear that was scattered around. All the fancy scopes, knives and firearms didn’t do him much good while he scuttled around on his knees, yelping and stabbing the barrel of his useless shotgun at the wolves and coyotes around him.
His face was bloody and the arm of one of his jacket sleeves was torn away. Anthony stared hard at the bloody gashes, not liking what he was seeing. He cursed in his head, hoping this abomination didn’t become a wolf because of this. The only good thing about it was at least he wasn’t dead. Yet.
Anthony focused and sensed another human about fifty feet north of the other two just as a shape materialized near him. Ethan. About time. Before he could say anything, Ethan gestured and took off towards that hunter.
Two wolves lay prone on the ground in the middle of the mess, both bloodied and whining, pawing uselessly at the air in front of them in a vain attempt to deal with the shock of being shot. He wasn’t sure who these two were, only that they were in bad shape.
The next couple minutes were a whirlwind as he threw power out, called on his vampires to help, protected them from the shifters with ignore spells, and directed them to get the two injured wolves and all the humans back to the clearing nearest to where the cars were parked.
Before rejoining everyone, he slowly and cautiously appeared beside Sebastian, throwing power at him to hold him solidly in place. He didn’t like Anthony holding him with his power, and Anthony was fully aware that wolf Sebastian was not the same as human Sebastian. Even though he might recognize Anthony, he wouldn’t necessarily react the same way his human self would.
Anthony knelt down and tried to bring himself at least to Sebastian’s eye level, lower if possible. Sebastian was alpha and right now wasn’t the time to test just how dominant he really was.
His back leg shook worse than before as he stood growling and keeping watch on his surroundings. He futilely fought against Anthony’s hold on him and ended up working himself into a frenzy. Anthony decided to hell with being gentle. Expedience was more important right now. He tightened his hold on his friend and leaned over his back, close enough to the wound on his hindquarter that when he bit into his wrist, his blood only had to fall onto him.
Anthony healed too fast, though, and he had to bite himself more than once, then squeeze his arm to make the blood come out. Finally he slashed down his arm as hard as he could, grunting in pain, but a good amount of blood finally poured out onto Sebastian’s wound.
His grip on him slipped and Sebastian was like a Tasmanian devil as he fought to get away. Anthony had a split second to decide if he should grab him back up so he could give him more blood.
Sebastian’s golden wolf eyes locked on him. He panted as he stared Anthony down, then flicked his head to the side, just once, never breaking eye contact.
Against Anthony’s better judgement, he let Sebastian go.
**
Anthony rushed back to the group and was immediately irritated that some of his vampires were standing around, making no attempt to help the injured wolves.
He snapped at Rodrigo, “Why aren’t you giving blood to these wolves? I said I wanted everyone who was a level two to give blood. That means you.”
The immaculately dressed man curled his lip and said with a thick European accent, “What do I care about the shifters? Most of them hate our guts.”
Anthony’s temper broke. He was in front of Rodrigo in an instant, gripping his neck as he let his power flow free around the two of them. He seethed, “I suggest you start caring. This is part of being in this family and having my protection.”
Blood trickled down Rodrigo’s suddenly ashen face. He hurriedly nodded, so Anthony reigned in his power and let him go. Rodrigo dropped to the ground on hands and knees and wheezed out, “Yes, Master. Forgive me, Master.”
Anthony turned away from the man to try to calm his temper, only to find Ethan silently staring at him. It bothered him intensely to have Ethan at his back, no matter how helpful he pretended to be tonight. Horacio stepped forward and caught his attention before he could think too much more about it, though.
“Master, we’ve got two humans that’ve been bitten by wolves, and one’s in pretty rough shape. We need to get him some medical attention immediately, sir.”
Anthony clenched his jaw. “Can you stabilize him for now? Long enough to get to Cheryl’s facility?”
“Depends what you want to do with him. She can help treat him tonight, but after that…”
Horacio was trying to ask what Anthony would do if the man turned into a werewolf. He scowled in frustration and ignored his implied question for now. “I’ll call Cheryl. Do what you can for him for now. How’s the other one?”
“Scratches, some deep, but nothing too bad. Might need some stitches, but we can do that back home.”
Anthony took a deep breath. It’d always been his nightmare that humans would one day find the shifters like this, under a full moon and way too many of them to be able to cloud their memories of them. But there were only four men. Four men could have their memories altered just enough to misremember what they saw.
He barked out orders. “Get the two injured wolves out of here. I don’t know who they are but they’re going back home. Take whatever vehicles are here and go. I want every vampire to be bleeding for those wolves until they’re healed. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes sir!”
He pointed to the vampires watching over the hunters. “Help Horacio get that one over to Cheryl’s, the rest are going to the club with everyone else. Move it.”
Anthony spent a few moments
looking around as vampires rushed off. He watched for any shifters about to do something stupid, and noticed a wolf lingering way too close, though he seemed more anxious than aggressive.
He raced over and grabbed the wolf by the scruff of his neck, surprising the shifter into looking up into his eyes before immediately glancing away in submission. Some shifters had complete knowledge of themselves when they were their animals, and this wolf was acting like one of those. “Do you know those wolves?”
The wolf whimpered and whined, flicking a quick glance at Anthony, then away again.
Anthony quickly opened his senses further to feel for how powerful the wolf was. He was glad to sense that he wasn’t any stronger than the injured two. “If I let you go with them, you had better not try to hurt anyone, do you understand?”
The wolf perked up and licked Anthony’s face. He was so taken by surprise, he immediately let him go. “Ick. Ok.” He walked briskly over to the parking lot with the wolf in tow. “This one’s going with. He’s promised not to cause trouble.” He looked down at the wolf. “Right?”
The shifter looked up at him and yipped, then panted and looked like he could possibly be smiling, if that were possible. The wolf waited patiently to be let in the vehicle and Anthony prayed there was no shifter-on-vampire violence on the way back to the club. He tried to have faith and hoped for the best.
The human Anthony really hoped wouldn’t turn into a werewolf was carried over to a van with Horacio directing the action. Anthony called Cheryl while they got situated.
She sounded surprised to get a call from him. “Anthony. How can I help you?”
Cheryl had been an emergency room doctor that stumbled upon some strange wounds on a patient one night in the ER. After they miraculously healed on their own while she watched, she became persistently curious about her patient’s blood.
When Anthony finally found out a loner shifter had been taken to the hospital, and after talking to Cheryl that night, he decided not to erase her memory. Instead, he shared their world with her in exchange for her help in keeping them secret.
It’d been years now and she’d stayed true to her word. She even started her own clinic and still occasionally helped the supernatural community when there was an emergency.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but we’ve got a sensitive situation. There’s been some trespassers out at the ranch and a human’s been hurt, maybe seriously. Can we bring him in?”
In a very doctorly tone, she said, “Of course. What’s the nature of his wounds?”
Anthony gestured to Horacio to get going and watched them leave as he talked. “After the hunter shot one of the wolves, they attacked him. He’s got bites and scratches and I don’t know how deep they are. Horacio thinks it’s pretty bad.”
“Is he conscious?”
“I believe so. He’s in a trance. They’re all in a trance.”
“All? How many?”
Anthony closed his eyes. He hadn’t meant to share that with her. “We’re only bringing one to you. Another one has some scratches that Horacio doesn’t think are too bad, and the rest weren’t hurt.” After a brief silence he reluctantly said, “Four total, that we’ve found, anyway, and three injured wolves, two critically. I appreciate your help, Cheryl, as always. If there’s anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate.”
Cheryl’s tone lightened up. “Anthony, you’re a very generous… person. I’ll do what I can for the man, but you know he can’t stay here.”
He frowned. Cheryl had never gotten comfortable with the fact that he was vampire, or that anyone was vampire for that matter. She usually skirted around referring to him in any particular sense, but sometimes it slipped, and when it did, she always made it awkward. It made him feel unclean and like he needed to justify his existence, but he didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Yes, I know. Horacio will bring him back home once he’s stabilized.”
After a brief pause, she said, “All right. I’ll meet you at the clinic.”
“I’m not with them. It’ll be Horacio, Zoe and Sam bringing the man in.”
There was silence on the line.
“Cheryl, you’re safe. I swear it.”
“Of course, Anthony. I’ll meet them there.”
She hung up on him, which wasn’t unusual for her, but her cautiousness bothered him. She’d always had a wary tone, but tonight she seemed even more skittish. Or maybe it was just his nerves. He growled under his breath and called Horacio.
“Sir?”
“Be on your best behavior at Cheryl’s and bring the human back home as soon as you can. Don’t dawdle.”
“Yes sir.”
He hung up and cocked his head back to stare at the stars in the sky as if they’d give him some good advice, then turned around to find Ethan still staring at him. They locked eyes for a brief moment and Anthony was too haggard to try to figure out his mood tonight, or anything else Ethan might have on his mind.
“I don’t know if either of the wolves that were hit are yours.”
Ethan somewhat dryly said, “At the end of the day, aren’t all the wolves yours?”
He frowned at that. It was true that for the most part the wolves grew up in Anthony’s family, and then some went to live with Ethan at Wild Woods, but they weren’t all his. Some loners had made their home with Ethan as well.
The wolf situation was just a distraction. Ethan’s moods were getting more and more erratic lately, and Anthony had no idea why. He didn’t have time for a confrontation between them tonight, but he felt like something needed to come to a head in the very near future. He was Master of this territory and Ethan’s constant attitude towards him was finally reaching a tipping point for what he was willing to put up with, no matter how helpful the man was when it came to getting others in the area to abide by his rules. Soon enough he’d need Ethan to make a choice. Either leave Atlanta or get over whatever his problem with Anthony was. Permanently.
As if to change the subject, Ethan said, “The weapons were gathered up and I’ve got a group of vampires scanning the area. What are you going to do with the humans?”
Without even thinking about it, he said, “Find out what they were doing, how they knew to be out here tonight, and go from there. Would you prefer to take them off my hands?”
“I’ll help you with them. Maybe I should go with Horacio to meet Cheryl, first, though.”
Anthony frowned in confusion. Why would he want to… Oh. “Yes, perhaps you should.” Ethan had a way with women. With most people, actually. It was what it was and right now maybe it could smooth some rough edges for him. “Do you know where−”
Ethan started evaporating into mist as he said, “I’ll catch up to them in the car,” and he disappeared.
Irritated at Ethan now for no good reason other than jealousy of his arrogant self-confidence and natural good looks that came with a usually winning personality, Anthony called Horacio again.
“Master?”
He curled his lip as he said, “Ethan’s going to join you. He’ll catch up to you while you’re driving. Don’t be alarmed.”
Anthony took one last look around the ranch, opened his senses wide to search for any more humans, then turned towards home.
He hoped Sebastian would be all right. He wasn’t sure how much he’d actually healed him before he broke free, and he wouldn’t be surprised at all if Sebastian spent the rest of his night and early morning fighting off other wolves trying to take advantage of his weakness.
That thought made him almost stop and turn back around, but he forced himself to go home. Sebastian was alpha for a reason, and the other wolves that were shot were nowhere near powerful enough to heal themselves. There was enough barely contained animosity between many vampires and shifters in his family that they could very well let those two wolves die if he wasn’t there to make sure they didn’t.
He redoubled his efforts to get home as fast as possible.
Chapter 33
Anthony flew past vehicles parked haphazardly by the front door. He materialized inside the club amidst a frenzied group of bleeding vampires huddled over two sickly wolves. The lone healthy wolf anxiously whined as he attempted to wedge himself closer to his friend.
The crowd parted for Anthony and his eyes went wide as he looked over the wolves that’d been shot. They were pale, bloody and sweaty, and sparsely covered in sickly patches of fur. Their bodies were neither fully human nor fully wolf, caught in the more grotesque in between stage of shifting that usually happened so fast you didn’t get much of a good look at it.
The lone healthy wolf caught his attention. He looked a lot like… “Are you Patrick?”
The wolf yipped and Anthony stared in growing alarm at the wolf Patrick was trying so hard to stay near. Mostly to himself, he said, “Good Lord. That’s Cory, isn’t it?”
Patrick yipped again, then jumped towards Anthony, knocking into his legs as he paced anxiously around him.
Cory was Ethan’s roommate, usual feeding partner, and good friend. Anthony had no idea what Ethan would do if Cory didn’t make it through tonight alive. Not that Anthony wouldn’t try to help any wolf in need, but for all the headaches Ethan always gave him, and with no explanation as to why, he’d still feel bad if something terrible happened to his friend.
Anthony looked at the other bleeding wolf, who seemed to be in slightly better shape, and thought he recognized her as one of his own. Margaret.
He dropped to his knees in front of Cory and placed his hands as gently as he could on his battered body. He sent a searching pulse of energy into him to get a feel for how injured he actually was, then froze when the wolf stopped breathing and quickly began shifting back to his human form. The death shift, they called it. The final shift for a were-animal.
Anthony’s heart raced in fear as the chatter in the room filled his head. He madly shouted, “Silence!” then summoned all his power. He wasn’t a healer by nature, but he wouldn’t let Cory go without a fight.
