by Alisa Woods
She forced herself to peer ahead into the darkness. She had told Mace she belonged to Lucas. Even Lucas had heard the lie. What did he make of that? Probably figured it was just her wishful thinking… or a canny attempt to escape being claimed by Mace. Then she had given herself to Mace right in front of Lucas. He hadn’t wanted her for a mate before. She couldn’t imagine any of those things would make him want her more.
He had saved her life, many times over. She had tried to return the favor. But that wasn’t love, necessarily. She wasn’t quite sure what it was... at least for him.
Mia watched Lucas’s head loll from one side to the other. Mostly it hung down to his chest as they hoisted him through the underbrush.
“Are you sure he’s going to be okay?” Mia asked Colin again, without looking at him.
She heard him sigh, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the growing red stain on Lucas’s sheet.
“I promise you, we’ll do everything I can.”
Mia nodded, eyes still on Lucas, when she realized they were nearing the fence. And just beyond it, her roommate, Jupiter, was jumping up and down and waving frantically to her. Mia wrenched her hand free of Colin and ran past the troop of wolves. As she got closer, she realized that four hulking guys stood just behind her roommate, peering into the forest at the coming crowd.
“Jeeter!” Mia cried, fingers lacing through the deactivated fence. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought you some help!” Jupiter said.
Mia glanced behind her. She hadn’t given it a second thought, but all the Sparks wolves were in human form to help with carrying the injured… with the exception of Lev, who couldn’t safely shift. She looked nervously back to the people Jeeter had brought—what could they possibly make of a bunch of naked men carrying a wolf out of the forest?
Jeeter must have read her mind. Or the look of horror on her face. “Oh, don’t worry, Mia,” she said. “They all know you’re shifters.”
“They what?” Mia hissed.
Colin had trotted up behind her. “Are these people you know, Mia?”
She desperately cast a look around at them… and recognized Cade, the theatre guy that Jupiter had tried to set her up with. “Um… yeah,” she said.
Cade gave her a small smile.
“Remember those guys I told you about?” Jupiter asked. “The ones who were really big? And could help out if you needed it?”
“Yeah,” Mia said, vaguely recalling Jeeter’s frantic concerns about Lucas being some kind of control freak that was forcing her to move out of their dorm. Which, of course, he wasn’t, but that was before Jeeter knew she was a shifter.
“Well…” Jeeter said, sheepishly.
Mia cut a look to her. Sheepish just wasn’t Jeeter’s thing. “What?”
“Turns out they’re kinda shifters, too.”
Mia’s eyebrows flew up, and she jerked back from the fence. Colin’s arm was instantly around her, then he moved so his body was between hers and the fence. She had to fight him to even be able to see her roommate.
“Jeeter, what the hell are you talking about?” Mia asked harshly. “Did you bring another pack here?” God, she told her roommate to run away, not bring more trouble.
“No, no, no!” Jeeter said. “I told them what happened, and they wanted to help.”
Mia peered at Cade, desperately trying to remember what she knew about him. Last time she had seen him, he was making a pass at her outside her dorm. He had crystalline blue eyes, a commanding presence, and moved with restrained power. Now she wondered why she hadn’t seen it before.
“What pack are you?” she asked Cade.
“I’m not a wolf, Mia,” he said calmly.
“But I thought Jeeter said…” She didn’t understand.
Colin let out a low sound that wasn’t quite a growl. “He’s a cat.”
Cade narrowed his eyes. “Tiger. If you must know.”
No way. “Seriously? Wait… Jeeter, did you know this, all this time?”
“No!” Jeeter shoved a fist into Cade’s shoulder. It barely jostled him. “Jerk!”
Cade smirked but didn’t answer.
Jupiter put her hand on her hips and cocked them to one side. “But when I called up a guy who I thought was my best friend…” Another pinched glare for Cade. “…and told him my roommate was secretly a shifter and needed rescuing from a pack of wolves… well, it turned out Cade had a few friends of his own.”
Mia took in the other three guys standing quietly behind Cade. They were all tall and blue-eyed like him, muscular under those tight t-shirts, and looked like they could tear right through the chain link fence if they wanted to.
“I swear,” Jupiter said, “I think I’m the only human left. It’s starting to seriously freak me out.”
“We don’t need you here, cat,” Colin said, coolly. “This is pack business.”
“Yeah?” Cade took in the scene. “Looks like business is going well.”
The troops were starting to arrive, injured ones coming first. They were bloody and broken and limping. They didn’t really need four shifters—four tigers, she reminded herself with a shake of her head—to rescue them anymore. But maybe they could help them get over the fence.
Colin growled softly. “Nothing a good healer can’t fix.”
“Then you’re in luck,” Cade said. “Parker is pre-med.” He gestured to one of his fellow tigers, a dark-haired guy with intense blue eyes that seemed to reflect the moonlight.
“I have my kit in the car,” Parker said.
Colin glared. “What would cat know about stitching up a wolf?”
“As much as any pre-med veterinary student who grew up in a collective might.”
A collective? Mia looked to Colin but he wasn’t surprised. In fact, he seemed to have a new appreciation for the enigmatic Parker.
“We have three with serious injuries,” Colin said. “The rest will heal soon enough not to be of concern.”
Parker dipped his head in acknowledgment then spun to run back through the short stretch of forest out to the road. There were several vehicles parked there… including a moped. Mia felt relief trickle through her body. Somehow, someway… Jeeter had brought them a healer. The thing Lucas needed most of all.
“If you’ve got wounded, you won’t want to hoist them over the fence,” Cade said calmly. “If you could step back, ladies, we can take care of that for you.”
Mia’s eyebrows lifted, and she flicked a look to Jeeter, but she just shrugged. All of them backed away from the fence. Cade and his two shifter friends slipped their shirts over their heads and shifted so fast that Mia could barely see them in transition.
“Holy crap!” Jeeter cried, apparently deciding she needed a lot more space between her and her friends, who were suddenly enormous, two hundred pound tigers. She backed up until she was a good twenty feet from the fence.
Cade and his friends took positions at different spots and reared up to place their fore paws on the fence. Their claws made her wolf claws look like tiny playthings—these were six inch long daggers. They sliced through the chain link fence like it was spaghetti. They peeled back the raw edges, creating a gap big enough to easily carry through the injured members of their party—and all the people she loved. Lucas. Lev. The elder Mr. Sparks. How quickly she had come to think of them as hers. Even if they weren’t her mate, or her brother, or her father… they were her friends. And they risked their lives for her.
She only hoped there might be a place for her in one of their packs.
Tears sprung to her eyes as she stepped back and watched them get carried through the fence and into the forest. They were heading for the cars… and the healer Cade had brought with him. Another friend who she had more in common with than she knew.
The rest of the wolves gathered up the dropped clothes and gear, slipping them on or simply carrying them through the tiger-made hole in the fence. Cade and his friends had shifted back and were getting dressed as well.
Mia tried to keep her gaze discretely on the ground while she passed through the hole to Jupiter.
She hugged her roommate hard. “Jeeter.” She didn’t know what to say after that.
“Let’s go home,” her roommate said.
For the moment, those words swelled Mia’s heart. Once everyone was healed, she could worry about exactly where that home was.
It was a solemn caravan, one Mia hoped never to be in again.
Three cars carried sixteen members of the Sparks pack, most bloodied but already healing. Mia and Jupiter rode in the van with the three injured wolves—Lucas, his brother Lev, and their father. Their wounds were so severe, they needed a healer. Not a doctor, but someone who could stitch up wolves whose injury was so deep it would drain their magic life-giving blood before they could heal. Lucas and his father were in human form, with Lucas unconscious on the floor and his father propped up to sitting nearby. Lev was still in wolf form, lying next to them. He wouldn’t be able to shift human until the healer had stitched him up.
In a separate car behind them, Jupiter’s friend Cade and his buddies comprised the tail end of the parade through the nighttime streets of Bellevue. Cade had come to help simply because Mia was being held captive. He and his friends were all hulking young men who were apparently shifters as well, only their animal forms were tigers. That they had come in the dead of night to help a girl they barely knew told Mia they were the kind of shifter Lucas was… even if their animal was different. She recognized the type by now, and she was in awe of how selfless these shifters were. Mace proved all too well during her captivity in his house that not all shifters were that way. As awful as that had been, her heart swelled all the more to be back with people who were her kind—not just in form but in spirit as well.
Except her three favorite shifters in the world lay bleeding in front of her.
Parker, the tiger shifter who was also a pre-med student and a healer, rode in the van with them. He insisted they only drive a short distance away from the Red Wolf estate before stopping to let him do his work. Colin was driving the van, and he quickly found an empty parking lot in front of a convenience store, dark except for a few lampposts and the ever-present moonlight. The trauma of the night wore on Mia. The rocking motion of the van pulled at her eyelids, wanting them to close, but there was no way she could rest. Not until she knew Lucas would be all right.
The van eased to a stop, and Parker went to work immediately. Someone had found pants for Lucas and slipped them on, leaving the bullet wound in his side bare for the healer. Mia thought he had been shot in the shoulder as well, but she couldn’t be sure with all the blood smeared everywhere. Lev was just as bad off, but his dark fur masked most of the damage. The senior Mr. Sparks was the only one conscious, his leg wound a lot less severe, but still bleeding profusely. No one had spoken during the ride.
Parker opened his kit and pulled out several needles and thread and handfuls of bandages—the butterfly kind that basically glued your skin together. As he dug into Lucas’s wound, the air was suddenly too warm and thick for Mia. She just couldn’t watch.
“Are you okay?” Jupiter asked.
But Mia just covered her mouth, afraid she might finally lose the contents of her stomach, and headed for the door at the back of the van. She burst out into the cool night air. Her roommate was right behind her, but she waved Jeeter back and closed the van door as gently as she could. Mia rested there, needing a moment to herself while she pulled in deep lungfuls of air. The iron scent of blood was less overwhelming outside, but still too painfully present. Mia shuffled around to lean against the side of the van and close her eyes. She heard the driver’s door open, and she sensed Colin’s presence hovering protectively over her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She opened her eyes. “I’m not the one bleeding all over your van.”
He tipped up a one-sided smile. “There’s not a wolf here who isn’t glad he’s bleeding instead of you.”
She knew he was right, and it filled her with a strange mixture of guilt and pleasure: as if she was glad to be so loved at the same time as wishing it didn’t cost those who loved her so dearly. She wasn’t even sure love was the right word. Protective, maybe. Or possessive. Chivalrous even, if this were the Middle Ages, and her wolves were knights in shining armor, not sexy venture capitalists.
Her wolves.
She really was beginning to think of them that way. They belonged to her, and she to them. As if they truly were her home, her people. She just didn’t know exactly what that meant in terms of things like mates and packs.
She looked up into Colin’s attentive face. “I really can’t thank you enough… thank everyone really… for coming for me. I don’t think I have the right words for that kind of thank you.”
He smiled softly. “Then it’s a good thing words aren’t necessary.”
She couldn’t help returning his smile, but it was hesitant. “What happens now?”
He leaned his shoulder against the van and peered down at her. “In what regard?”
“I mean, didn’t we just make the Red Wolf pack more angry? Won’t they just come after us—after me—again?” She bit her lip, too easily imagining an endless pack war all because of her.
“I seriously doubt it.” Colin’s gaze wandered over her face, like he was really looking at her for the first time. He didn’t seem put off by what he saw there. The opposite, actually. “Mace will assume you will mate soon after escaping. He knows that will protect you, and we wouldn’t intentionally leave you unprotected like that again.” He dipped his chin. “I personally never want to see you left unprotected in any way.”
Mia felt her face heat up, and she suddenly realized how close they were huddled against the van. She eased back from their nearness, and he lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
“Just to be safe,” Colin said in their momentary awkward silence, “you should continue to stay at the hotel. Probably your roommate as well. At least for a little while.” He pressed his hand against the van and pushed away from it until he was standing free. “We’re bruised and bloodied, but we handed Mace a rather humiliating defeat. We breached their compound and retrieved what they had stolen. Now, the most dangerous time will be the next 24 hours.”
“Because they might strike back.”
“Precisely,” he said. “Mace is fairly unstable, so perhaps in the heat of the moment, the rage at the embarrassment, he might do something foolish. But after he’s had a day to cool off, I think it’s highly unlikely he’ll make any attempt at retaliation. I think this was Mace’s idea, and now that he’s been disgraced, I can’t see their alpha authorizing any more immediate attacks on the Sparks pack. Especially if LoopSource accepts our offer.”
“Because then Red Wolf won’t be competing with SparkTech for the deal anymore.”
Colin gave her an appreciative smile. “Yes. Although there will always be future deals. But for now, they won’t have much incentive to provoke another conflict between the packs.”
She peered up into his soft brown eyes. “Is it always like this? Bloody and fighting and drama? Because I’m not sure I’m cut out for this life.”
He smiled wide and seemed to be holding in a laugh. “No. Usually it’s quite boring.” He held her gaze. It wasn’t a commanding stare, like Mace’s, where she couldn’t look away, but it was compelling nonetheless. “You’ve brought quite a bit of excitement to our pack here recently. Something I hope you keep doing for some time.” He touched the tip of his finger to her nose.
That small touch was both cute and little too familiar. Mia eased back again, and Colin withdrew his hands, folding them across his chest, as if promising not to touch her again.
People had started to spill out of the other cars, taking a stretch break or patching up their own residual wounds. Some were still getting dressed. They were all waiting to see how the surgery went in the van. Cade and his tigers hung back, separate from the others, but he caug
ht her eye across the parking lot, and with a lift of his chin, started across the pavement toward her.
Colin seemed to tense up, dropping his hands to his sides, and training his stare on Cade as he approached. Mia didn’t know if it was a Wolves Hate Cats thing or just two different shifters that didn’t know each other… or simply that Colin was jealous their little moment alone was about to be interrupted. She was too tired to worry about any of it. Besides, Cade had brought them the healer who was now saving wolf lives, even though he didn’t have to—that was worth of a whole lot of gratitude in her book.
“Hey, Mia,” Cade said casually, hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans as he approached. “How’s the sewing up going?”
“Good. I think. I couldn’t…” She waved her hand at the van. “I’m not good with lots of blood and needles.”
“Yeah.” Cade eyed Colin’s rigid stance, cocked an eyebrow, then seemed to decide to let it pass.
“Cade,” Mia said, frowning and doubting if she had words for this one either. “Thanks so much for coming out to help tonight.”
He waved her off. “Hey, it’s not often I have a chance to get out the claws and do some serious fence damage.”
She smiled. Colin didn’t. Mia rolled her eyes. Okay, this overprotective thing had its limits. And was silly when there were three people whose lives were hanging in the balance.
“I don’t know anything about these healers,” Mia said, directing her clueless admission to both Cade and Colin. “How does it work? I mean, will everyone be fine in a few weeks or what?”
“Weeks?” Cade snorted, and it was a light-hearted college-boy sound, not so serious as the dark looks Colin was still giving the tiger shifter. Mia was grateful for the lightening of the tension, along with everything else Cade brought. “Assuming Parker can actually stop the bleeding and piece together what needs piecing, they’ll be off to another pack rumble tomorrow.” His tone was a little too sarcastic—she couldn’t be sure if he really meant it.
