by Kamryn Hart
“It really is you,” the woman said. “It has to be. You have the same eyes. I mean I guess they are a little different, but I can see the yellow.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nick said in a rush as he slid around her, hugging the wall while attempting to bypass her and get out of the bathroom without touching her.
She let him move around her without making a move of her own. She even let him go so far as to get behind her, so the way out of the bathroom was a clear shot. Then she tried to reach out to him. He bolted. He dropped the towel so it wouldn’t hinder him, ran through the cabin, out the open front door he never closed, and into the forest. He didn’t have time to placate this ranger. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had tried to convince her he wasn’t a wolf. She could think or believe whatever she wanted because she would never see him again after today. All he had to do was make sure not to shift in front of her. That would hopefully encourage her to put all of this behind her. He was never going to see her again. The thought filled his chest with a heaviness like cement smothering his lungs and his heart. He ignored it.
He ran, certain he would lose her in no time, but when he glanced over his shoulder, the ranger was there running after him. She was fast for a human. It helped she had long legs, but she was really pushing herself, relentless in her pursuit of him. He had to actually try to lose her. Part of him was impressed while the other part of him was annoyed. He picked up his speed. The added exertion made him aware of the wound in his stomach. It would have been best if he could allow himself some time to heal, but he didn’t have that luxury.
He ran full speed ahead until the trees were nothing but a blur. He would’ve run into one if his eyes hadn’t been fast enough to keep up with his movements. Once he was sure he must’ve left the human in the dust, he glanced over his shoulder. She was out of sight. He shook his head and willed his body to shift. He hunched down and fell onto all fours as his bones cracked and let out an irritated growl, biting through the pain of his wounds.
He was branded with magic he didn’t understand, and his body was turning traitor, but when he focused on Willow, everything came back into place. He would save his sister and he would take down Storm Pack. He was going to bring hell. He had been Alpha of Blue Pack for only a month, but like shit was he going to let Ivan get away with this.
When he was in complete wolf form, he ran faster than he had ever run in his life on his way back to Moonwatch. He was going to gather his wolves and confront Storm Pack. His sole target was Ivan. He was the reason behind all of this because he was their Alpha. If Ivan wasn’t enough, he’d take down the whole fucking pack. He would do whatever it took to save his sister.
Chapter 3
DAMN, HE WAS FAST. Gwen was hunched over, hands on her knees as she sucked in labored breaths. She was fast too, but he outran her with hardly any effort as far as she could tell—which only made her previous statement about him being a wolf seem less fucking crazy.
What just happened?
A smoking hot guy was hurt in her cabin. Of course, she was going to check out his wounds—not because he was smoking hot but because it was part of her job to take care of visitors. He had some awful cuts. She touched him because she was trying to figure out how bad his wounds were. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she was checking him out as well. It was extremely inappropriate considering the state he was in. And yet his wounds seemed to heal before her eyes. He was strong and very much alive. She didn’t see a look of pain or defeat in his eyes. She also noticed his erection hidden under a towel. She had an uncalled for reaction of her own. Her body seemed to melt in front of him.
The whole thing was kind of fucked up.
It was nothing compared to when she touched him. When her skin met his, this overwhelming sensation flooded into her hand and throughout the rest of her body. She was smitten in a way she had never been smitten with a man. She had to wonder if that was because he wasn’t a man. There had to be some kind of supernatural force at work. Like magic. How else could a human and a wolf be the same? That wasn’t scientifically possible as far as she knew. Or maybe she was the one going crazy. It wasn’t like she saw him become a wolf or the wolf she tried to save become a human. But their wounds were exactly the same. He was her wolf. He had to be. Crazy or not, she knew it in her heart.
Perhaps the strangest part of all was that when she touched him, not only did she feel a growing wetness between her legs, her right hand started to itch terribly. She had forgotten all about her bite with the sexy stranger distracting her before, but she was inspecting it now, and it didn’t look like a bite at all. Her skin wasn’t torn. There was a crescent moon shape of pearly skin on the back of her hand.
The more she tried to make sense of it all, the more her head hurt. She tried pinching herself to see if she was dreaming, but she was still there in the forest after losing the completely naked, and body tingling sexy, man who ran away from her. Although no one was there to see her, she tried to stop herself from smiling as she remembered the rippling muscles in his back, and especially his legs, as he was running. He had the kind of body any man would kill for she was sure. She wouldn’t have minded touching him again.
She shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the crazy thoughts and feelings consuming her. Something was definitely wrong with her. This wasn’t like her at all. Besides, he was probably dangerous. If he was the wolf, he bit her. But she couldn’t bring herself to feel afraid or even concerned. There was a warmth when she looked into his eyes—and it wasn’t just in between her legs. She could get lost in his hazel eyes hiding the yellow of the wolf. There was a safety there like she could trust him with absolutely anything, like he would be on her side if she asked. That was the most ridiculous part of all of this by far.
Her breathing had returned to its normal steady rhythm. It was time for her to stop dozing off in some waking fantasy. She had work to do and a forest to keep safe. She checked her belt where her radio should have been attached, but it wasn’t there. She checked her holster. She had her pistol at least. Where did that damn radio get off to?
Backtracking, she made her way through the forest, recalling where she originally found the wolf and had her dizzy spell. If she lost her radio, it was likely somewhere around that time; she wouldn’t have been coherent enough to notice if she had lost it. It didn’t take her long to get to the place where the gray wolf collapsed and bit her. However, she didn’t see her radio in the immediate area. She headed back to the cabin, hoping she took a straight path when she was deliriously walking back there earlier. Lucky for her, she was right, and she found her radio sitting in dry grass and pine needles on the ground. This summer had been a hot one so far and today was no different.
“Answer your damn radio or I’ll have to send someone out there to look for you,” her radio fuzzed at her. She recognized the dispatcher’s voice on the other end.
Gwen picked up the radio. “Sorry, dispatch,” she replied quickly. “Ran into some trouble. Over.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. A visitor needed some help with a cut.” It was close enough to the truth.
“Rangers are crawling all over the Twin River, but they haven’t seen any sign of poachers.”
That meant the poachers had escaped Blue Forest. Possibly. Or they were just lying in wait. She would need to be cautious.
“Roger,” Gwen replied.
Her radio went silent, so she continued on her way back to her cabin. She would have gone out looking for the poachers with the other rangers, but she had a sudden splitting headache. She wasn’t going to be any use to anyone unless she got some rest. It was getting late anyway. Traversing the forest at night wasn’t usually the best idea, and she was stationed alone. Not that she minded. She liked where she was. It was her and all the animals in the forest. It was her preferred place to be.
She walked through the trees, chasing the quickly fading light of day.
When her cabin came into view, she could see the sky and the moon shining down on her. She looked at her hand and then back up to the sky. The mark on her skin looked exactly like the crescent in the sky.
Closing her eyes, she let the hot air of a summer night drift over her skin. The dying sun caressed her face. The wind picked up, simulating the way the wind hit her when she was running earlier, plants brushing against her legs and khaki pants. Then she saw him, the naked backside of the man she had chased into the forest. Her eyes were locked on him, memorizing every part of him she could see, until he finally got away from her. She could remember every detail of his body, the strength rushing through his muscles and the sight of his firm ass. Most of all, she remembered his eyes, the heated look in them, the mystery, the familiarity…
She placed her right hand over her heart, feeling the quickened beats and the simultaneous static of the moon-like mark on her skin. She wondered if she would ever see him again.
Chapter 4
DUSK HAD SETTLED IN. Blue Forest was thinning, and soon Nick would be out of the national park. He was coming up on Moonwatch, the closest town to the national park and the home of Blue Pack. Nick continued running at top speed. He wasn’t going to rest until he had Willow back home safe.
The lights of the scattered houses and farms in Moonwatch greeted him, filling him with a small sense of relief. It meant he was one step closer to saving his sister. Humans hardly ever visited Moonwatch, it being such a small place with not much to do, so he wasn’t too worried about charging forward as a big gray wolf. He planned on bypassing the Alpha Den, his home, for his Beta’s. But when he caught a whiff of and saw his Beta, Christopher, standing outside of the Alpha Den, looking right at Nick, he felt another small sense of relief. His Beta had saved him time. It was as if Christopher had anticipated Nick’s arrival. It was reasonable, considering Nick had all but disappeared. He was never out on a run this long. The time it took him to get back did explain the impatience he could sense coming from his Beta.
Nick skidded to a stop when he reached his Beta. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted. Christopher gave him a dispassionate look, his yellow-green eyes gleaming in the night, showing his wolf. His wolf looked like he was going to leap out aggressively at any second. If Nick didn’t know better, he might have thought his Beta had the intention of laying into him. It was abnormal behavior and something Nick wouldn’t have let go unpunished if Christopher had acted on it.
His fierce eyes and spicy smell gave away the Beta’s aggravation, but he held himself together, moving with calculated purpose as he opened one of the large front doors to the Alpha Den for Nick. It was a mansion by all rights, a beacon that shined for the pack to see. It was made with a beautiful burgundy colored wood and designed by the first Hunt to join Blue Pack. The Hunt family line carried on the tradition, designing all of the houses in Moonwatch and giving the town a very stylized, subtly wolf, kind of look. Nick’s favorite part of all designs was the integration of wolves in the woodwork. Becoming a Hunt architect was another responsibility Casey ran away from. Thinking the traitor’s name always brought a bad taste to Nick’s mouth. He may have been a high-level beta wolf, but he never deserved Willow.
Nick hurried inside and his Beta followed after him, shutting the door behind him. Nick shifted, opening his wounds a little again. He was healing faster than he was ripping wounds open, so there was that at least.
Christopher looked him up and down, taking in his state and asked, “What happened?”
Nick turned away from him. He led his Beta up the stairs, his hand on the smooth dark wood of the balustrade, as he led his Beta to the obscenely large master room, where he grabbed a shirt and some pants. “Willow has been kidnapped by Storm Pack,” he said as he dressed quickly. “I need you to call our best hunters together to pay Eastbrook a visit. We’re likely going to have a war on our hands. There are a good amount of humans living in Eastbrook, but I’m not going to let Ivan use them as a shield or an excuse. The asshole probably won’t accept my challenge because he’s a coward who has stooped to kidnapping, so I’ll need you and our best hunters there in case. Storm Pack won’t take orders from me until Ivan is dead. ”
“You plan on taking over Storm Pack then?”
“Their fucking Alpha has done something I can’t forgive. It’s on him for being head of the pack. Only one has to die tonight.”
“Understood,” Christopher said with a slight nod of his head. He needed no further explanation from his Alpha and left to gather the hunters like Nick told him to.
Nick closed his eyes to gather his thoughts and to prepare himself for the fight to come. In the darkness, he saw the ranger’s face again. Gwen. He wouldn’t be forgetting that face anytime soon. Her smell either. If ever. He wasn’t distracted. Not right now. Willow was his priority, but apparently, his wolf, or something, didn’t want him to forget about Gwen. The itching in his left hand reiterated that.
His hand.
He needed to cover the sigil before anyone asked him questions he wasn’t ready to answer. He needed answers himself first. Nick hadn’t brought any attention to his hand while Chris was with him, so he had to assume his Beta didn’t see the mark. He had time to figure this out.
He made a quick trip to the master bathroom, found some gauze, and wrapped it around his hand, obscuring the foreboding mark that meant change of some kind. The mark that tied him to a damn near irresistible human.
He wasn’t sure he wanted answers, but he didn’t know how to make the Lunas Sigil go away. Consulting Julie would be his only choice.
After covering his hand, Nick went outside to see his Beta and ten of his hunters in two different trucks ready to go. All Blue Pack wolves, except for Nick and Willow, were over fifty years old, but they were strong. And Storm Pack wasn’t much different. Nick, his Beta, and these hunters would be enough to get the job done. He would make sure of that.
He hopped into the passenger seat of the truck his Beta was driving. “Move out,” Nick commanded.
His Beta started the two trucks on a dirt road that eventually turned into asphalt. All Nick could do now was wait. His wolves sensed his foul mood and stayed quiet. Those sitting in the truck bed sat obediently and quietly as well. Eastbrook was fifty-three miles away. Each minute was agony, and Nick wished they could go faster. All the wait and silence did was give him more time to think about Gwen.
Why did he have such a strong urge to claim her? He had never wanted to claim anyone before. True, he didn’t have any experience with others his age other than Willow and Casey. He didn’t associate with humans. He had never had sex with another wolf shifter even though he was twenty-eight—not that he would have wanted to with how much older every wolf was in the few packs he knew, and they all had mates anyway. There was a whole world of issues when it came to wolves and mates, and it was something constantly on his mind. Fewer pups because of infertility—which was also a strange occurrence.
Usually, wolf shifters would be able to sniff out if something was different about or wrong with another wolf, but as far as any wolves could tell, everything was normal. Infertility shouldn’t have been a problem; however, females didn’t seem to go into heat anymore. When a female went into heat, she would feel the need for sex. Maybe that was part of the problem. These days, mates that succeeded in getting pregnant often ended up with a wolfless child, a human as far as anyone could tell. There was no place in the pack for wolfless children. It was all messed up and no one actually knew the reasons behind any of it.
He fucking hated it. All of it. He was supposed to solve these problems somehow. He and Willow were supposed to somehow find fertile mates and save the Wolf, but even their parents weren’t able to have more than two pups. And here Nick was, desperately wishing he could claim a human, someone who wasn’t wolf at all. Why was he so sure she was the one for him? No one said things like that. No one picked their mate. That was the Alpha’s job. He was the Alpha, but even he couldn’t have a
human.
Nick was grateful when Eastbrook finally came into view. It was a small, concentrated city surrounded by open fields and trees. Unlike Moonwatch, Eastbrook had larger neighboring cities that were only a few miles away. Storm Wolves had to associate with humans because of this. Their neighbors were humans. This was why Moonwatch was kept so small and reclusive. Blue Pack took the Wolf’s purity to an extreme, and Nick was carrying on the tradition. Or he was trying to.
Nick rolled down his window and caught the unmistakable scent of wolf shifters. Specifically, wolves not part of his pack. Wolves that kidnapped his sister. Involuntarily, his lips curled into a snarl. Silhouettes were gathering near the first buildings he and his wolves were coming up on. They walked out and blocked the road. They didn’t seem too concerned with drawing human eyes, or they figured this was the quietest way to handle Nick and his wolves.
“Stop the truck,” Nick ordered when they wouldn’t have been able to move forward without running over Storm Wolves; he truly didn’t want to shed more blood than necessary.
He kicked his door open and hopped out of the truck. Some of the wolves in front of him held their ground, others shook, but none would look him in the eye. A low rumbling growl rattled in his chest as he bared his teeth at them.
“Where’s your fucking Alpha?” he demanded. “I’m here to challenge him.”
The Storm Wolves exchanged looks with one another, and then one spoke, “There are humans deeper in the city. Our Alpha will meet you in the north field. It has trees for cover.”
Ivan had no honor, but it seemed his pack did. This wolf was likely Ivan’s Beta. He was a high-level beta regardless of if he held the title or not. He kept a cool head under pressure. Nick decided he wouldn’t mind a wolf like him in his pack.
