Wild Instinct

by McCarty, Sarah

  It was pretty much a suicide mission for a human.

  “Nothing except my pack.”

  “I’m not sure Haven is going to accept us.”

  “Who the hell was talking about Haven? We’ve been pack our whole lives.” Cur dismissed the distance between them with a wave of his hand. “It’s enough for me.”

  No, it wasn’t. Though they’d been telling themselves that for years, werewolves were made to belong to a bigger whole. He and Cur might have human blood, but they were wolf to the core, Protectors, and despite the life they’d made for themselves, they were only half alive. Garrett felt the pain of it every day. He knew damn well that Cur did, too. If Garrett walked away from this opportunity to belong, he’d have his mate, but Cur would have nothing but knowledge of what could be but might never happen. And yet, he’d make the sacrifice for Garrett. Because they were friends.

  Garrett glanced back inside the dark interior and saw Donovan arguing with Sarah. Whatever they were discussing, neither was pleased. He hoped to hell the McGowans knew what they had in Cur. He was a fierce soldier, a loyal friend, and he deserved a heck of a lot better than to be cast out because his father had mated a human. If the McGowans could deliver belonging, Garrett was willing to make a few sacrifices of his own. Cur was right. They were all the pack each of them had. And pack put pack first.

  Garret straightened. Sometimes a man had to fight for what should be his. “Well, I’m thinking we’re going to take more.”

  “Your mate?”

  Garrett nodded. “And our place is in this pack.”

  It felt good to say it.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  The statement came from the interior of the cave. Garrett turned and Kelon was there. That fast, that startling. Not a sound had betrayed his approach. Yet another difference between the Protectors and themselves. He and Cur were self-taught. Their skills were limited to what they could improvise and piece together, the taint of their human blood prohibiting the assignment of a mentor to teach them the skills of their birthright. Not that it had stopped them from stealing a few, but there was so much more they could learn.

  “Don’t worry,” Garrett sneered, driven to lash out by the resentment he couldn’t shake. “It’s our policy not to leave a job until it’s done.”

  Kelon’s right brow lifted in clear mockery and the corner of his mouth twitched. Anger twisted in Garrett’s gut. If Kelon kept pushing him, he’d find out just how many of the Protectors’ secrets he and Cur had managed to uncover for themselves.

  “We appreciate that.” He jerked his head toward the interior. “Donovan wants you back inside.”

  “Why?”

  This time there was no mistaking the other Protector’s amusement. “Sarah Anne is freaking out.”

  He hadn’t claimed the woman, and Kelon knew it. “So why is that my problem?”

  Another cock of the brow accompanied by a flash of canine. “Because Donovan wants it to be.”

  What the hell did that mean? Was Donovan sanctioning the mating? He glanced at Cur. After a hesitation that indicated his own doubts, Cur shrugged.

  Garrett was finished being a pawn in the McGowans’ games. “Tough.”

  Kelon straightened, aggression whipping out in an acrid scent. “Are you challenging me, pup?”

  The one thing Garrett knew how to deal with was aggression. All it took was a lift of the mental barriers he normally kept battened down. “Call me ‘pup’ again and there won’t be any question mark at the end of that sentence.”

  Cur took a step forward, ready as always to cover his back. Garrett shook his head. This was his battle.

  Kelon glanced at Garrett. Then at Cur. Then back at Garrett. His expression was impossible to read. “Fair enough.” He motioned to the interior. “But Donovan is still your superior, and he’s still waiting.”

  “Let me guess—he doesn’t like to be kept waiting?” Cur asked, shouldering past.

  “Nearly as much as he likes dealing with hysterical women.”

  Despite himself, Garrett felt the leap of concern, the need to protect. “Sarah’s hysterical?”

  “From her scent, she’s about to go over the edge.”

  It shouldn’t have bothered Garrett. It did. “Shit.”

  He followed Cur.

  Behind them, Kelon chuckled. “I thought that would get you moving.”

  “Shut up.”

  All the order inspired was an outright laugh.

  Five

  SARAH Anne was facing Donovan, chin up, shoulders squared, her daughter tucked behind her. From the impatient slash of Donovan’s hand, it didn’t look as if he liked what he was hearing.

  “He’ll go after them now!” Sarah Anne’s order carried clearly.

  If she was intimidated by facing down her Alpha, she was hiding it well. In another second, Garrett expected her to release her wolf and, at the very least, lash out with her claws. That wouldn’t do. Attacking the Alpha incurred severe consequences.

  “You forget yourself.” And from the snarl that punctuated that statement, Donovan had reached the end of his patience.

  Sarah Anne was anything but cowed. “I haven’t forgotten a thing. Not about how my son is out there at the mercy of any rogue who finds him. Or how my friend, who’s with him, is just as de fenseless, and most especially as to how you took your own sweet time showing up with our protection.”

  “You were told to continue to lie low until we could get here and provide escort ”

  “We couldn’t.”

  “You disobeyed a direct order.”

  Sarah’s hands fisted at her sides. “The rogues came for Teri.”

  “That wasn’t your problem.”

  “Like hell. She’s my friend. She was in trouble.”

  Donovan raked his fingers through his hair. “She’s in even more trouble now.”

  “And whose fault is that?”

  “Whose do you think?”

  She came up on her toes in a direct challenge “Yours!”

  Behind Sarah Anne, Meg whimpered and hunched back against the rock. Garrett told himself this wasn’t any of his business. Sarah had, for all intents and purposes, rejected him. Her fear and her daughter’s fear were not his to soothe, but he might as well have been talking to the wind when Meg’s lip quivered and she looked at him.

  Help me.

  She might as well have screamed the words, they bored into his brain so hard. He blinked. She was telepathic?

  He held out his arms. Come.

  She didn’t just come; she ran across the dirt floor, long hair flying, tears streaming.

  Sarah’s “Meg, get back here!” was pointless, as the little girl was clinging to his neck before the last syllable got out.

  Instinct had his arms wrapping around her tiny torso as her legs wrapped around his waist. He braced himself to be repelled by her scent, but all he felt was a cataclysmic urge to protect.

  “Don’t let him hurt my mommy.”

  He knew, from Donovan’s start, that he heard. And Sarah, too, from her gasp of “Meg!”

  He ignored them both. “Donovan is your mommy’s Protector. He would never hurt her.”

  “What’s a Protector?”

  What was the human equivalent? “You know the police in your town?” She nodded. He moved to put her down, but she clung tightly. Not sure what to do with his free hand, he cupped her head as Sarah Anne had. Megan sniffed. Was she getting snot all over his neck?

  “They’re good guys,” she said.

  “Well, Donovan is like a super good guy.”

  “He yelled.”

  He shot Donavon a glare. “A super good guy with a big voice.”

  Apparently that didn’t soothe her because when Garrett started to put her down again, she clung tighter. And from the way her nose slid against his skin, she was getting snot all over his neck.

  Donovan touched his finger to her arm. Meg whimpered. Garrett’s lip curled in warning.

  “I wo
uld never hurt your mother, little one.”

  Meg froze. Garrett snarled.

  “Or you,” Donovan added calmly.

  Meg rubbed her nose on the back of her hand. Her lashes ticked Garrett’s collarbone. Just a foot away, Sarah Anne fussed, her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers biting into the puff of her jacket sleeves, betraying the tenuous hold she had on her control. In another minute, she’d rip her daughter out of his arms.

  “You’re one of them,” Meg accused the big Protector, in a tiny voice.

  Donovan’s tone gentled to an impossible level. “One of who?”

  “The bad ones who hurt Auntie T.”

  Donovan ignored Garrett’s warning and placed his hand on Meg’s back. “No, little one. I’m the good one who’s going to kill the ones who hurt your auntie T.”

  That got her nose out of Garrett’s neck. Cold air rushed over the spot. “Really?”

  No one that sweetly innocent should sound so bloodthirsty.

  Sarah Anne reached for her daughter. “No, he’s not.”

  Garrett didn’t hand Meg over, but he did give Sarah a piece of advice. “You don’t tell your Alpha what to do.”

  It was too dangerous. Donovan would be totally within his rights to cut her down.

  “The hell I don’t.”

  Meg perked up. At the tone, or the opportunity to learn a new word?

  “Watch your language.”

  Sarah Anne’s mouth opened and then snapped closed as she looked at her daughter. He turned to the right. Sarah Anne went with him, following her daughter. With every inch between her and the other man, he breathed easier. Cur moved in on Donovan’s other side. Garrett caught Donovan’s eye. However he felt about the situation, protocol had to be observed. “I apologize for my mate.”

  Donovan’s eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared. Something like satisfaction lit his expression. “You claim her, then?”

  Garrett looked over, taking in Sarah Anne’s pale face, even features and that determination that belied the fragility of her gender.

  “You take her as your mate, her children as yours?”

  The ancient sanction settled like a balm over his soul.

  “No,” Sarah Anne gasped.

  “Yes,” he said, the inevitability of it flowing through him, even as Donovan smiled.

  “Then your apology is accepted.” Donovan ruffled Meg’s hair. “Enjoy your new family.”

  “You can’t do this,” Sarah Anne protested, her head whipping back and forth, looking for help. She wouldn’t find it in this all-male crowd. No male werewolf would mess with the advantages bestowed upon them when it came to claiming their mates.

  “It’s already done,” Daire rumbled from where he sat on the floor.

  “It can’t be.” Sarah Anne grabbed for Meg. This time Garrett let the child go. She clutched Meg to her as though the child was her one last link to sanity. “I left to escape this.”

  The words had a hollow, disbelieving quality.

  Donovan’s didn’t. “You can’t escape destiny.” He bowed slightly. “Welcome to my pack and my protection.”

  Sarah Anne’s lip curled. “It didn’t last long.”

  “Long enough.”

  “What about my son?”

  This time it was Cur who answered. “I’ll bring him home to you.”

  “Rachel—”

  Cur nodded, his too-long hair rasped across the leather of his coat. “Your friend, too. Consider it a wedding present for my newest pack member.”

  Sarah Anne’s fear cut into Garrett like the edge of a blade. He wanted to give her something to hold on to. “The one thing Cur can do is keep a promise.”

  “That’s an awful name,” she whispered in that shell-shocked way people had when they just couldn’t take any more. She looked at Garrett, her big brown eyes full of pain. “I want my son.”

  “I know.”

  She looked at Teri, her gaze bouncing off Daire’s imposing presence, skimming over Kelon and Donovan, before returning to Cur. “You two are friends.”

  It wasn’t a question. “Yes.”

  “And you’re insisting on your claim?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  “And you’ll protect me?”

  “Yes.”

  “No matter what?”

  What was she up to? “Yes.”

  She ducked under his arm. “Then keep them off me while I find my son.”

  Six

  HOW the hell had she ended up back where she’d started, mated to a wolf she didn’t know, with everyone expecting her to smile and be happy? Sarah hugged Meg to her as she stepped out into the night. She took a deep breath, inhaling the cool air, blinking back tears when she couldn’t find a trace of her son’s scent. For five years, it had never been absent, but now it was nowhere to be found. The night sky, normally a thing of beauty, stretched over the landscape in an endless mocking expanse of empty black. Josiah was out there somewhere, along with Lord only knew how many rogues chasing him. She closed her eyes.

  Keep him safe, Rachel.

  Oh, God. What was she saying? Rachel was just one woman, not even trained in battle skills. Sarah Anne closed her eyes and tried again. Reaching out into the vastness of the night, searching for a connection with something bigger than herself. Please, keep them both safe.

  A feeling of peace settled over her. She blinked. Meg cupped her cheeks in her tiny palms.

  “We find ’Siah now, Mommy?”

  Sarah hitched her up. The feeling of peace disappeared as if it had never been. “He’ll be waiting for us at our special spot.”

  With everything inside her, she hoped he would be.

  “What if he’s losted?”

  He couldn’t be lost. “Auntie R is with him.”

  “What if they got hurted?”

  Dear God, Megan had to stop bringing up all her fears. She didn’t have the strength to fight them when so starkly presented. “Then we’ll make them better.”

  “What if—?”

  “Megan Lea, be quiet!”

  Meg gave that little huff that preceded a full-out squall.

  Oh, God, now she was snapping at the child she did have. Sarah Anne pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry, baby. Mommy’s just tired.”

  Meg’s lip quivered. “I don’t like yelling.”

  She’d been impervious to it until the rogues had broken into Teri’s apartment, beating and raping the other woman while Meg lay in her crib listening. As much as she wanted those wolves dead for what they had done to Teri, she wanted them dead for the fear of men they’d put into her child. Except for Garrett. She bit her lip. Meg had no fear of Garrett.

  “Then I won’t yell anymore.”

  Meg’s lower lip stuck out. “I don’t like it when you yell inside, either.”

  Oh, dear heaven, she couldn’t say things like that where anyone could hear. Among pack, differences like Megan’s were not tolerated. “Sometimes people just get angry.”

  “But your mother doesn’t have to be angry anymore,” Garrett said as he came up to them.

  Sarah Anne should have known he would follow.

  “Why?” Megan asked.

  “Because it’s my job to make sure she’s not upset.”

  “And if she is?” Sarah Anne asked.

  Garrett’s gaze met hers. The green in his eyes seemed so much more pronounced. “Then I take care of it.”

  It was a predictable male response. “I can take care of it myself.”

  Megan frowned at her. “But he’s bigger.”

  Yes, he was. Much bigger. With broad shoulders, lean hips and enough muscle layered over both to make any woman’s mouth water. “Might doesn’t make right.”

  Megan clearly didn’t get the reference. “But he’s bigger.”

  Garrett’s smile took on the depth of full amusement. “At least your daughter understands the natural order of things.”

  Natural order her aunt Fanny. That totally chau
vinistic attitude was the main reason she’d left the pack. “She’s not full wolf.”

  Garrett’s feet settled shoulder-width apart. “Which is more than enough reason that she should stay pack. A wolf mate could protect her.”

  “And who will protect her from the wolves?”

  His head tipped back. Arrogant man. “The same ones who will protect you. Cur and myself.”

  “You’d have no right if her mate claimed mate privilege.”

  Tilting his head to the side, Garrett hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. “Damn, I must have gotten all respectable-looking since joining Haven if you think I care about pack law when it comes to what’s mine.”

  “You’re a Protector.” And Protector loyalties are always pack.

  “I’m your mate first.” Though his position didn’t shift, she felt his attention home in. “And I protect what’s mine.”

  And he considered her his. He wasn’t going to be easy to shake, down the road, but for now, maybe she could use it. “Then you have to protect my son.”

  “That’s already been taken care of.”

  Why couldn’t he understand? She put her hand over Meg’s ears. “Nothing is ‘taken care of’ until I have him back.”

  “You’ll have him back tomorrow.”

  “And until then?”

  “You’ll have to have faith in your friend’s training.”

  “What makes you think she has training?”

  “What makes you think she doesn’t?”

  Her arms ached from holding Meg. Her heart ached with worry for Teri, Josiah and Rachel. And now he added the niggle of concern that maybe she didn’t know Rachel as well as she should?

  “I don’t.”

  His hands came out of his pockets. “How well do you know her?”

  Truth was, she didn’t know anything about Rachel’s past. They’d been outcasts together, clinging to each other through the common bond of their heritage, but she did know that Rachel was one of the most trustworthy people she’d ever met. “Well enough.”

  He clearly didn’t believe her. “Why did she leave her pack?”

  It didn’t matter. One of the things she’d learned after leaving the pack was how to think for herself without the prejudice that saw outsiders as people not to be trusted.

  “I don’t know, but what I do know is that my son is safer with her than he is with you.”