by Bonnie Vanak
Chills raced down my spine as I saw the open gate, the saddled, rider less horse pacing around the barrels like a driverless car set on cruise control.
The open gate creaked as I touched it. My fingers came away stained crimson.
Blood.
Whirling, I heard the sound of Dante’s All-Terrain Vehicle putting toward the pasture.
“Dante!” I screamed. “Get over here now!”
He drove toward me. When he stopped, Dante leapt off the ATV, his face tense. “What happened?”
I showed him my hand. “Felicia’s gone. So is her trainer.”
Nostrils flaring, he looked around. “Blood’s fresh. She can’t have gone far. Search the barn.”
We took the ATV to the barn where farm equipment and hay was stored. Ryder emerged from the office, wrapping his hand.
“What happened? Where’s Felicia?” Dante demanded.
“She shifted and bit me. Nearly took my hand off.” The cowboy’s laconic drawl was gone. No more flat vowels and crisp words. He spoke in a hurried tone, the words sharp with worry.
“Felicia’s gone rogue.”
My heart raced as Dante paled.
“Why?” he demanded.
“I told her that she wasn’t focusing. She was being lazy, letting her horse do as he pleased. She lost it. She’s been edgy these past few days and I shouldn’t have pushed her so hard.” Ryder removed his cowboy hat, slid a thumb around the worn brim. “Sorry, boss.”
Dante nodded. “Your hand?”
“Already healed. But damn, she’s mighty upset. I think she broke down for good this time.”
“We’ll send teams out to find her,” Dante decided. “She can’t be far.”
As the men talked, I walked over to a small copse of trees nearby. Flickering colors, like the pulsating lights of the Aurora Borealis, came from behind a tree. I smelled something sharp and earthy, like an animal. Instinct prodded me to approach.
The timber wolf stepped from behind a large pine trunk and growled. Hair stood up on my nape.
“Oh dear,” I whispered. “I guess there’s no need for a search party after all.”
Noises behind me told me Dante and Ryder had joined me as well, and saw Felicia, now in wolf form.
Baring her teeth and looking as friendly as a rapid dog searching for a good bite to eat.
I wanted to turn and run. I knew better. Wolves chased prey.
Footsteps thundered on the ground as others joined us, shouts of alarm ringing through the throng. It was as if everyone in the pack knew Felicia was in trouble and pitched in to help.
Except this wasn’t a situation anyone could help, except me. Murmurs rippled through the crowd like wind over silk. I smelled their fear and anxiety, and their rumbling hostility toward me, a stranger and a human, who had stirred up their alpha’s beloved sister.
Felicia padded toward me, snarling. Behind me someone growled. My heart lurched. If Felicia didn’t succeed in ripping me to shreds, someone in the pack would finish the job.
And then I felt strong fingers on my arm, gently tugging me backward. Dante.
“Peyton, back away and lower your gaze. Slowly,” Dante warned.
The gray wolf raised her head, her amber gaze meeting mine. For a brief moment, they shone with misery. And then hatred and anger.
But in that brief moment, I saw the truth. Felicia didn’t want this.
I held my ground and shook off Dante’s grip. This was a telling moment. If I backed away, showing my natural fear, Felicity might attack. But worse, her delicate teenage psyche would be damaged and I’d be the proof that she was wild wolf, unable to control herself.
“Felicity, it’s me, Peyton. I know you recognize me.”
The small gray timber wolf growled, slowly padding toward me.
“Peyton,” Ryder whispered. “Back away as our alpha asks. She’ll tear you apart.”
“Felicity, remember how I smelled? Like vacation. Coconuts. The beach. Wolves don’t like beaches. But you do. It’s your dream to visit the beach some day. You can’t do that in wolf form.”
The wolf slowed a tad, as if considering. Good.
“You’d love the beach. Lots of surf and sun and playing ball, building sand castles. So relaxing. In Florida, you can even see dolphins playing along the shoreline at dusk.”
Gathering all my courage, I held out my hand, as you would for a dog to sniff. “Come here, honey. I won’t hurt you. And I know you won’t hurt me. I trust you.”
I held my breath, hoping I was right. Wolf auras could be challenging to read, but hers was the toughest I’d seen. Colors flashed so brightly and fast it was like seeing the Aurora Borealis on crack.
At first it looked like maybe it worked. The wolf remained motionless. And then she snarled, snapping her teeth as if eager to tear me apart.
But the actions didn’t alarm me, for her aura had shifted. The colors of her aura muted slightly, the fierce reds and wild silvers now laced with earth green.
Suddenly Dante shifted into wolf skin. The muscled black wolf stepped by my side, staring down Felicia.
She snarled again, her colors bouncing all over the place. I got it.
The aggression was a display, not for me, but her brother.
I put a hand on Dante’s head, stroking his silky fur. “Dante, shift back and then get away from me at least ten feet.”
He shifted back, clothing magically appearing on his body, but he remained at my side. “I will not leave you, Peyton. If she bites you I’ll have to hurt her. And then there will be an inquest by the Council of Shifters and she’ll be removed while those fools decide her fate. I could lose her.”
“Do what I say or you’ll lose her for good.” I said, my gaze never straying from the wolf. “Please. I can see her mood changing.”
No one spoke. Behind me, I heard Ryder’s jagged breaths, smelled Dante’s musk and spicy scent, mingled with the smell of leather and horses. I sensed others had gathered, and could detect movement. Ryder with his rope, ready to take action if Felicia attacked.
Finally Dante fell back, barked out an order. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the crowd had retreated more than ten feet, giving us plenty of space.
Felicia’s aura shifted to calmer blue and timid yellow.
The small wolf padded toward me, but her teeth were no longer bared. Sweat trickled down my back and my heart raced. Wolves smelled fear as easily as I smelled fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, but I knew what mattered more was showing Felicia I was willing to face her despite it.
Not because of Dante, or any of the others. For Felicia, who needed a human to trust her and be willing to take a chance.
I hunkered down to see her, eye to eye. Looking a wolf straight in the eyes meant a challenge, but I had to reach her human half. Crooning to her, I kept holding out my hand.
“Remember the cookies you baked this morning? I’d like you to show me how you made them. I could use the recipe. They smelled so good and I thought I’d have a couple for dessert tonight after dinner.”
The wolf sniffed my hand, wagged its tail. Suddenly Felicia was there on all fours, clad in jeans and a red scoop-necked shirt. “You can’t. Gabriel ate them all for lunch.”
I held out my arms and she crawled into them. I held her tight, smoothing back her hair, feeling the warmth of her tears splashing on my bare arm.
“Why am I so broken, Peyton?” she whispered.
My heart lurched. “You’re not broken, sweetie,” I told her, still stroking her hair. “Just a little confused and battered. You’re going to beat this. You’re not going to let the past win, okay? Because it will mean those people who did that to you won, and you won’t let that happen. Right?”
Felicia drew in a deep breath as I helped her to her feet. I clapped my cowboy hat on her head. “Right.”
She smiled through her tears and touched the hat. “Thanks.”
Dante was there suddenly, hugging his sister tight. His dark gaze held mine, and he
mouthed “thank you.”
Deeply shaken, I walked away to give them privacy. Members of the pack surrounded me, congratulating me. Suddenly I was accepted.
I didn’t care. Emotion clogged my throat. Breathing became difficult.
Gabriel pushed his way through the crowd and was at my side, taking my elbow, steering me away from the crowd. He led me into the hay barn, closed the door and guided me to a bench. When he emerged from the office, a red cup was in his hand.
He thrust it at me. “Drink. It’s cold water.”
Chugging it, I sat back. And then I tossed the empty cup across the aisle.
“Damnit, it’s not fair,” I whispered. “She’s just a kid.”
Gabriel glanced up as the barn door opened and Dante entered. The alpha sat on my other side.
For a moment, silence draped us.
“Felicia is special,” Dante finally admitted. “She’s my sister and I love her to the depths of my heart. But… I fear I’m losing her. She’s become unpredictable.”
Tears clogged my throat. I shook my head. “It’s not fair for her.”
“I know,” he said somberly. “But you did a good thing today, Peyton. You saved her. If she had raced off the ranch and bit another human in her rage…”
Dante took in a shuddering breath, fisted his hands. “The council made it clear. I would have had to shoot her.”
Horror filled me. “Your own sister?”
He didn’t answer, but a vein jumped in his neck.
For Dante to kill his sister would have shattered him. I couldn’t even imagine the pain it would cause, the grief, and the guilt.
“Stupid, stupid rules for shifters.” I was shouting now, banging my fists against my thighs. “Humans have mental health facilities, why can’t shifters get treatment?”
“Because shifters like Felicia are wild at heart and can’t be caged in institutions.” But as practical as Dante’s words were, I saw the grief in his eyes.
The utter pain.
Killing his own sister because of some damn rules. Because he couldn’t control her.
She was only a teenager, barely out of childhood. I lost it.
Sobs tore out of me as I buried my head into my hands, shoulders shaking. Dante slid an arm around my shoulder.
“It’s our way of life. It’s a hard way at times.”
My sobs slowed down. The barn door creaked open and wind brushed through the aisle, teasing my dress hem. I smelled a familiar, endearing scent as another knelt before me, resting his head on my lap.
Alex.
All three comforted me as I cried.
“Why can’t someone help Felicia?”
“It’s going to be all right now, sweetheart,” Dante murmured. “Just wait and see. Everything will be back to normal in our pack.”
But I wondered if it would ever be truly normal for me again.
22
Sunday afternoon, Gabriel took me for ride on his Harley to clear the cobwebs in my head, and to have a quiet picnic. Dante needed alone time with his sister to talk.
This was a weekend of many firsts. Losing my virginity, nearly getting attacked by an insane shifter at the club, visiting a real werewolf pack and now, taming a feral werewolf, and now riding on the back of a big, bad Hog.
With a big, bad wolf.
Wind rippled the leather jacket Gabriel had loaned me. Hair tied back in a long braid, I wore a black helmet with a sun visor. He’d tied his hair back with a leather thong..
We roared through the countryside. The pack lived in a wooded area, but like much of eastern Wyoming, it was windy. Yet Gabriel had no trouble balancing the big bike as we turned down a country road, speeding up a hill. At a shady spot near the forest’s edge in a sweep of green meadow, he stopped, parked the bike and helped me off.
Twin leather saddlebags held our feast – fried chicken, with potato salad, fresh fruit and an ice chest containing cold water. No beer. I wondered about that. Gabriel drank, as did the other shifters in the pack, but since arriving at the ranch, I’d never seen him with spirits in hand. Only at the club.
We carried the food and the small cooler, along with all the utensils and napkins, over the grass. Gabriel spread out a soft blanket and we sat on it.
I was really hungry. Being around the pack, seeing them with such healthy appetites, had released my own shyness about eating in public. I dug into a chicken leg, helped myself to potato salad while Gabriel downed two breasts.
“I can see you’re a breast man,” I teased as he wiped his mouth with a paper napkin.
“Wolf,” he corrected. “But I adore legs as well, especially yours.”
He bent down and nipped my bare calf. I hit him with the chicken leg. “Hey, watch it, blue eyes. I’m not dessert.”
Gabriel grinned. “But you taste so delicious.”
Flushing at the memory of the sex we’d had in the club, I chewed on the chicken leg. The food at the pack lodge was excellent. Dante had three former chefs in his pack who had taught their cooking secrets to other members.
I asked Gabriel about his favorite food and we began chatting about recipes we’d tried to make. He admitted he wasn’t great in the kitchen, but he’d learned to throw together a meal.
“Every male should know how to take care of himself, and his family,” he told me.
I told him about my grandmother’s secret recipe for cheesecake and he told me how he made the sauce for the ranch’s famous annual barbecue.
Gabriel chugged a bottle of water. Curiosity filled me.
“How come you didn’t bring any beer? In fact, since we got to the ranch Saturday morning, I haven’t seen you drink any alcohol.”
“I don’t let down my guard.” He stroked a finger along the water bottle, tracing a line of condensation. “Things are too tense and I have to be ready to fight if Dante needs me. At the club, there’s Guy as bouncer, and it’s safeguarded against bastards like the Browns.”
Tough life, always having to look over his shoulder. “What about sleep? Surely you three have to rest at some point.”
“Of course. But with the rising tensions amongst the Browns and our people, I don’t want to get my sorry ass in a bind and be unable to help Dante. Pack comes before my need for a beer.”
It took a lot to get a shifter drunk. Especially a big guy like Gabriel. I’d seen him belt back two six-packs and never slur his speech. Something else bothered him.
“Dante has safeguards at the ranch. We’re out here, no one around for miles. What’s wrong with one beer?”
His fist squeezed the water bottle tight. “If you’re that desperate for a beer, Peyton, I’ll stop at the damn convenience store.”
Whoa. “Not me. I don’t drink beer.” I put a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong? I thought a picnic out there, away from everyone, would relax you. You’re more wound up than a cheap alarm clock.”
A brief smile at the tepid joke. Then he looked grim. “I made a promise to Dante to keep you safe and I intend to keep it. No one, especially not Earl Brown, will get to you, Peyton.”
“Why does Earl want me, other than money?”
Those incredible blue eyes searched mine. “You have a special gift. You’re psi.”
Yet I sensed there was more to this.
He looked me over and sighed. “I’m afraid for you, baby. I’m afraid of you being alone in the world with shifters who would mistreat you.”
“But I’m not alone,” I murmured. “I’m with you.”
I waited.
“Are you afraid? I would never put you in any danger, Peyton.”
“Of course I’m not scared. You’re with me.”
“You’re not even scared of me?” He turned his cell phone over in his palm. “I’m not as eloquent as Alex, or as civilized as Dante…”
I gave a little laugh. “Dante, civilized?”
He gave me a meaningful look. “Dante can turn on the charm when he needs to, because he has to tangle with the Council of Shifters and b
usiness associates. At times, you wouldn’t know he’s a wolf. But me…”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened beneath his light brown beard. “I’m all wolf. With a bad rep. I’ve been in prison, Peyton, and done some bad things.”
My heart skipped a beat. Gabriel was the wildest of the trio. He slept at night at the bed’s edge as wolf, and sometimes I sensed he felt restricted while in human form. As if one night he’d turn into a wolf and bound away, never to return to skin.
“Everyone’s done things they’re not proud of, Gabriel. It doesn’t make you a bad person. Or a bad shifter. I know you’re not. I’ve seen you around the kids, and how gentle you are with them. You cherish life, and cherish them.”
Gratitude filled his warm smile. “Thanks.” He squeezed my hand.
Then he got serious. “You need to know how to defend yourself against our kind, Peyton, especially from assholes like the Browns.”
I thought of the knife back at the club that couldn’t even give a small paper cut. “True, that. But unless I go armed all the time with a shotgun, there’s not a lot I can do if a shifter catches me.”
“Yes, there is. There’s a secret amongst werewolf alphas, one that Dante revealed to me and Alex.”
He leaned close. “We never tell humans because it gives them power over us and they could misuse it. But he instructed me to share it with you.”
Secrets could be fun. Dangerous as well. I felt honored that they trusted me, and uneasy as well because it meant the boys saw our relationship in a different light than I did. Shifters seldom shared pack secrets with outsiders.
“Why does he trust me?” I asked.
Gabriel’s mouth tightened. “After what you did with Felicia, he knows you need to know this spell to protect yourself. Just in case.”
While Dante’s fierce protectiveness warmed me, it also made me uneasy. The alpha was drawing me in closer and closer to his world. My safeguard was my warped sense of humor.
“Does the spell involve fur and maybe sex?” I asked.
He didn’t smile. “It’s a magick spell.”
“Oh.”
