Pride's Pursuit (a Wolf's Pride novel, book three)

by Kalen, Cat

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sheer exhaustion takes hold and my lids fight to close as Logan drives the overstuffed SUV back to my father’s house. From the passenger seat I angle my head to see him, and when he offers me a warm smile full of love and kindness, my heart squeezes in my chest.

  He holds my hand and I blink to keep my eyes open as I listen to Malcolm question the panther that once spared Gem. When I learn of the atrocities committed against their kind, I understand that when it comes right down to it, these panthers are just as innocent in all this as we are—used as pawns in a world where greed rules.

  The boy goes on to explain that he wasn’t from the primitive village that the other shifters had come from.He’d merely been captured in the crossfire. And unlike his pride in the African jungle, where the human part of them knows the difference between right and wrong, there are still many cat colonies out there that run on pure on instinct. Just like there are some wolves out there who always let their primal side rule.

  He has no idea how they were first found and recognized as shifters by men in America, and doesn’t suppose he’ll ever know. All he knows is he wants to keep the others in his pride safe, and the best way he knows how is by staying on American soil and stopping the hunters before they set out to trap another.

  As I think about that, and all that has happened over the last month, my lids slip shut. With Logan beside me, keeping watch over me, I allow myself to drift off until we reach my father’s estate.

  Once we’re sure there are no other panthers stalking the compound, we m ake our way up the winding path. With the plan to spend one more night here to rest up before we take off to Richmond’s Village in the Jasper Mountains, we all climb from the car. Once inside the house, I talk quietly to the guards about my father as everyone makes their way to their rooms.

  After speaking with the guards I walk to the kitchen while the others prepare for bed. That’s when I see a manila envelope on the table, addressed to me.

  My pulse leaps as I pick it up. I carefully peel it open and when I glance inside to see a stack of pictures, emotions bombard me, because deep in my heart I know. I know my father left this because he never expected to come back.

  Logan steps up behind me, “You okay?”

  “I’m okay,” I answer and while I can’t bear to look at the photos, there is a part of me that takes great comfort in knowing my father was watching over me all these years, the best way he knew how.

  I draw in a breath, and when I pull in the estate’s aroma and a different, yet familiar scent fills my senses, a new calmness comes over me. As Logan stands with his back to my chest, and my skin begins to prickle, I know my fight is not quite over.

  I put the envelope down, and turn to Logan.“I need to be alone for a minute, okay?” While it’s not a lie, it’s not entirely true either. But I need him to walk away, because the fight I’m about to face is my fight and mine alone.

  Logan hesitates for a moment, and I feel tension ripple through his body.“Okay,” he says, and when he steps away, a chill moves through me, partly from the loss of his heat, and partly from the scent that is souring my stomach.

  I feel Logan hovering on the outer edges of my thoughts.He’s an alpha. A protector. I know it’s not easy for him to step back and let me do what I have to do, but I love the faith he has in my abilities, and love even more that while he’s walkedaway, he’s still staying close.

  With movements that are swift and purposeful, I head straight to the kitchen drawer, and pull it open.When I find what I’m looking for, whatI’d discovered days earlier, I spin around and come face to face with the man from my nightmares.

  “Pride,” he greets me, flecks of pewter puncturing his cruel eyes. Then he gives me a brutal grin and I watch his bones shift, his body preparing to morph, to kill the young pup who has given him nothing but trouble.“I should have known I could nevertake you by surprise.”

  “Why?” I ask, my voice hard, my wolf waiting for the signal, but I don’t need my wolf for this battle. No. The girl in me is going to take this fight on.“Why did you force Sandy to change you?”

  He grunts deep in his throat.“Come on, Pride. You’re smarter than that.”

  I stare at his face and note how much he’s aged over the last few weeks and the sight of his tired eyes has me thinking of my father.That’s when the pieces of the puzzle come together. “You were sick,” I say. “You were dying.”

  His grin is dark, menacing.“And now I’m not.”

  “We can get sick and die, just like humans,” I challenge.

  “Wolves live for centuries before old age kicks in, and with these new regenerative abilities, I’m as healthy as ever.” Looking a bit bored by the whole conversation he says, “Okay, let’s make this quick, shall we. I have things to do, and a few wolves to claim.”

  When his eyes meet mine I know what he’s thinking, that he’s more powerful than me now, and while I know better than to ever underestimate him, I know he’s still underestimating me.

  That’s his first mistake.

  I hold my ground.“Of course, old age and sickness isn’t the only way wolves can die. You of all people know that.”

  Eyes unafraid as they stare at me, he lets loose a bark of laughter, and I know he sees me as no challenge. But when I take my hand out from behind my back, and he sees what I have, his laughter dies an abrupt death. I keep my wolf settled as he drops to the floor and calls on his wolf.

  That’s his second mistake.

  Because before he can complete his transformation, I rush at him and knowing I never should have left anything to chance, never should have assumed those panthers had killed him, I do the one thing I should have done in the first place.

  I slap a collar around his neck.

  His bark echoes off the walls around me, but his tortured cries are short lived.Because he’s too inexperienced to know how to leash his wild side in the midst of transformation, and there is nothing he can do to halt the shift from man to wolf, nothing he can do to prevent the collar from snapping his neck.

  As I look at him, I let loose a long, piercing howl and think of all those I’ve loved and lost, all those who were tortured and abused by his hands.

  All those I vowed to avenge.

  I take in the unnatural angle of his head, and know in my heart that justice has finally been served.

  When I look up and see Logan in the doorway, his body, heart and soul reaching out to me, I draw a deep breath, let it out ever so slowly and say, “Now it’s over.”

  Epilogue

  Five years later. Pacific Ocean I squish the glorious white sand between my toes, my body completely warm and content as I blink against the bright sun glistening on the pacific waters. Logan waves to me from the shore, then leans down to grab the small chubby hand reaching up for him.

  Using slow, careful steps they move toward me. As I watch them, my heart gives a little putter against my chest, and I grab my camera from my bag to take a picture of two of the most important people in my life.

  Water drips from Logan’s beautiful, athletic body as he tosses the little blonde bundle of energy over his shoulder. He looks back at me and his smile is warm and tender when I snap the picture. I twist to put the camera away, and when I open the bag and see the stack of pictures that have been sitting there in a manila envelope untouched for five long years, I draw a deep breath, deciding today is the day. It’s time to finally face the past, and keep good on the promise I once made, one I was never sure I could keep. My shoulders stiffen, and I blow out a long slow breath as a riot of emotions moves through me.

  “ Hey,” Logan says when he picks up on my anxiety, speaking to me telepathically so the astute little bundle on his shoulders isn’t privy to my worries. His eyes narrow in concern. “Everything okay?”

  I pat the blanket beside me. “Come sit down,” I say to him. After removing sweet little Abigail Stone from his shoulders, named after the woman who gave birth to me, and one of the alp
has responsible for my life today, Logan drops down onto the blanket.

  The most beautiful two year old in the world settles herself on my lap, and I hand her a juice box while I dig out the pictures.

  Logan smiles at me, and brushes my hair from my shoulders.“You sure?”

  I nod.“It’s time.”

  “Momma.” Bright blue eyes that remind me of the ocean—remind me of freedom—blink up at me.

  “Look Abby,” I say and show her the picture of me when I wasn’t much older than her.

  “Abby,” she says and I smile because, except for having her father’s eyes, the similarities between mother and daughter are uncanny.

  “No, it’s momma,” I correct.

  “Momma,” she repeats.

  We flip through a few more pictures until I come across one where I’m standing on my father’s lawn at his California mansion. It was the day we stood outside and scented the panthers, the same day my father pulled grass from my hair. I think back to that moment and remember when he walked away, saying he had some last minute things to take care of. This is what he’d been up to, pulling and printing images from the security camera.

  When I consider the rest of the horrible events of that day, I remember what he asked of me, and all he taught me in the short time we managed to spend together. There was a purpose to his every action, a reason for his every word. And that purpose was to prepare me.

  As my heart races faster, emotions bombard me and I continue to flip through the pile. The next picture is another one of us standing together. It was only later that day that I knew why he wanted a photo of us together, united. He wanted to leave me with at least one good memory before he died.

  I think about his death. All the senseless deaths from that day.I’m not proud of the killing I did. I never wanted to be an assassin. But I had to protect my family, had to let my wolf do what she needed to. Like my father once told me I would. Like he did for me.

  I think about Stone, and what he, too, did for me. I used to feel him watching, but no longer do. I can only hope he’s found his path and that some girl will love him as much as I do. When I think about the kind of girl he needs, it brings a smile to my face. I know true love will happen for him one day and I also know it will be one heck of a roller coaster ride when it does.

  Pulling my thoughts back, I point to my father in the picture.“This is your grand-papa.”

  As I think about what my father asked of me tears cling to my lashes, and I can feel Logan inside my head, there to support me.Always there to pick me up when I’ve fallen down.

  “Abby,” I begin, then go quiet for a minute, remembering how Logan once told me love was about forgiveness.“We’ve all made mistakes at one time or another. But he really loved me. Just like your papa and your mommareally love you.”

  “Papa,” she says this time.

  I tip her chin until she’s looking up at me. “And your grand-papa would have loved you, too, Abby.”

  Abby points a chubby finger at the picture, and says, “Grandpapa.”

  I look past her shoulder and as I stare at the ocean I think back to five years ago when I set out on a journey to change the world so I could live a normal life. At the time I thought normal meant going to school, hanging at the mall, wearing fashionable clothes, and suppressing the primal side of me until each shift night.

  I quickly learned that wasn’t my normal, and never would be. My father tried to teach me that. To prepare me for the world and to warn that if I lose my wolf, I lose the purpose of my life.

  The purpose of a shifter, which is much different from the purpose of a human, is to survive, to find happiness and to protect our packs in a world that wants us all dead. In order to do that we must learn from the elders and pass on our knowledge to the youth. My father forgot his purpose, and before he died he wanted to make sure I knew mine. He followed me back to California, to confront the PTF, so I could learn those hard truths myself.

  What I learned was that mypurpose isn’t about going to school, working alongside humans while pretending we’re no different. Because the truth is we are different, and while I know humans will never accept us, I also understand our differences aren’t a bad thing. It’s those differences that make me who I am today, and thanks to three very important men in my life, I like the person I’ve become.

  I once thought I wanted to be more human than wolf, to let that side of me die and only come out on shift night. But I was wrong. My father taught me that I can never forget the primal side of me. He was right.

  I can’t allow the human side, or even the wolf side to ever overpower the other. It’s only when a happy medium is met, when I embrace and accept both sides equally that I can serve my purpose, and look to my future.

  The future of my family.

  Logan’s pack knew that. While they went to school, were productive members of society, and took to the woods on shift nights, they never once forgot who they were. I always thought they suppressed their primal side in order to become more human, but I was wrong about that. I was wrong about a lot of things.

  But I was right about a lot of things, too.

  Logan takes Abby off my lap, and pulls her to him, then he drags me into a three way embrace. As Abby spills her juice all over us and squirms her way out we both laugh, because we both know that she’s so much like me and is undoubtedly going to grow up to be a handful.

  Logan’s pacific blue eyes meet mine, and my chest clenches so tightly with the love I feel for him, that I can barely fill my lungs. While I might not have lived the life of a typical teenager, when I look at my mate, my daughter, and think about all the things we’ve yet to learn, yet to teach, I know thisis my normal, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

  About the author:

  Cat Kalen is a multi-published author in the romance genre under two pen names. Cat is a wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend. She loves dogs, sunny weather, anything chocolate (she never says no to a brownie) pizza and watermelon. She has two teenagers who keep her busy with their never ending activities, and a husband who is convinced he can turn her into a mixed martial arts fan. Cat can never find balance in her life, is always trying to find time to go to the gym, can never keep up with emails, Facebook or Twitter and tries to write page-turning books that her readers will love.

  Discover other titles by Cat Kalen:

  Pride’s Run: ISBN-13: 978-0-9878559-0-9 http://amzn.com/B0062O0B3E Pride Unleashed: ISBN-13: 978-0-9878559-4-7 http://amzn.com/B0078E1GTK

  Connect with Cat Online:

  Twitter:@catkalen

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002600082432 Blog: http://www.catkalen.com/blog/

  YABEYOND: http://www.yabeyond.com/

  COMING SOON

  CARVED IN STONE

  Please sign up for Cat’s Newsletter for more details www.catkalen.com

  CARVED IN STONE

  By Cat KalenI pull my hood up against the bite in the spring air and survey the dark, city streets I now call home. As I move toward a crooked lamppost, its glass shattered from a well aimed rock, a loud noise punctures the night and rings in my ears. The ground rumbles angrily beneath my feet, the pavement twisting and knotting as a savage earthquake ripples along the Pacific coast.

  Bracing myself, I stay still for a long moment, until my body stops shaking and the world around me returns to normal. When I glance up, an unnatural movement in the inky shadows gains my attention and has unease scraping down my spine.

  My heart picks up tempo and alarm bells jangle because I know there is nothing normal about the shifting shadows, nothing normal about the soulless predator stalking the city sidewalks in search of innocent prey.

  Deep inside my wolf crouches low. He’s edgy, ready to battle, but I temporarily sedate the alpha and move deeper into the darkness. In an effort to stay downwind, I weave around a parked car and step over a metal sewer grate. The stink rising up from the gutter stings my sensitive nose and pulls a reaction fr
om my agitated wolf.

  As the fetid odor assaults my senses I pick up my pace and turn down a dead end alleyway. That’s when I get a whiff of fresh blood. It calls out to my wolf in dangerous ways and while I know I should get as far away from it as possible, I also know there is little I can do to escape the coppery tang polluting the air, considering most often I’m the one who’s put it there.

  I walk quietly, my tattered military boots silenced by the street noises behind me as well as the hum of innocent humans, ones I vowed to protect. The rowdy crowd laughs as they hurry to meet their friends, oblivious to what plays in the shadows...waiting...just waiting for a taste of their rich, metallic blood.

  I look up and watch the rainstorm push east. The clouds part to reveal the night sky and I glance at the stars overheard.But it’s not the stars I’m interested in tonight. Oh no, not at all.

  Drawn by a force only my wolf can identify, my attention goes to the near full moon. As I think about what else I can’t run away from a low howl climbs out of my throat and serrates the night. I clench down on my teeth to stifle the tortured sound but this time there is nothing I can do to keep my animal side at bay, nothing I can do to stop my joints from twisting, my lips from peeling back to expose sharp canines.

  While I know I can’t hide from the lunar pull any more than I can outrun the stink polluting the air, I’m fully aware that I still have five days until I have to answer that fateful call. Five short days until I become the very thing I hunt.

  I give a hard, mental shake of my head to get my wolf under control.I can’t think about the moon when there is a wild wolf on the hunt and it’s my job to stop him.

  I drag my thoughts back to the present and pull the city scents into my lungs. As I decipher the smells, I search for the one that is trying to hide from me in this grimy alleyway.