Awakened by the Wolf

by Kristal Hollis

  “Where did he take her?” Tristan asked calmly, when Brice wanted to shake the answer out of Shane. Every second they lost waiting for his response was another second Cassie faced mortal danger. Alone.

  “An abandoned house on the northwest side of the territory.” Shane’s tongue flicked the jagged cut on his bottom lip, and his mouth crumpled in a painful grimace. “Hadler said you’d remember it from five years ago.”

  “The old MacGregor place?” Brice clawed at the tension tightening around his neck. Only a handful of people knew the location of the rogue attack. Hadler shouldn’t have been one of them.

  “I tried to stop him.” Shane spat blood on the kitchen’s stone-patterned linoleum floor. “He’s baiting you for a challenge, Brice.”

  “He’s got one.” Brice spun on his feet to leave.

  “Whoa.” Tristan blocked his path. “I can’t let you go off half-cocked. You have a duty to this pack.”

  “My duty is to Cassie.” Brice shook off Tristan’s restraining hand. “She’s my mate.”

  “It’s not just you he wants.” Shane’s glacial eyes suddenly looked decades older than the pup’s actual years. “Hadler wants the pack.”

  “That’s never going to happen.” Brice gave Tristan a commanding look. “Call my dad, then get Shane checked out at the clinic.”

  “You can’t go after Hadler alone.” Tristan refused to step aside.

  “I’m not.” Brice bouldered him out of the way, pulled the cell phone from his hip pocket and headed to the car.

  “I need you,” Brice said when the call was answered. “Be ready.”

  Chapter 37

  Cassie’s fingers ached from clutching the passenger door armrest. Her heart’s hard, steady beat kept her from a dead faint.

  Please let Shane be okay, Cassie prayed, even though her prayers often went unanswered.

  “You aren’t allowed to hurt me.” She feigned bravado.

  “Who’s gonna stop me?” Vincent Hadler’s coarse laughter caused the bile in Cassie’s stomach to spew into her throat. Apparently, Wahyan laws against harming humans didn’t matter if no one was around to enforce them.

  She needed to figure a way out of this mess on her own. Shane might not wake up in time to tell someone what happened, if he woke up at all. And after yesterday’s argument and the note she’d left, Brice wouldn’t waste his time on her ever again.

  Until she’d met him, Cassie had absolute confidence in her ability to take care of herself. His arrival had sucked her into a dangerous new world where her survival skills were sorely lacking.

  “What are you going to do me?” The scenery whirred past the car window in nondescript shapes and colors. Drab. Boring. Nothing worth notice. Same as her life.

  “Whatever I want.” The filthy grime in his voice slicked her skin. His gaze drifted from the road to the rise and fall of Cassie’s chest from her quickened breaths. His tongue darted between his lips to gloss his lecherous smile. “Maybe I’ll make that Walker boy watch us before I kill him.”

  Cassie’s spine stiffened, tightening her stomach and increasing her urge to hurl. “Brice won’t come. He doesn’t care about me.”

  If he actually wanted Cassie to be part of his life, he wouldn’t have walked away from her. Brice Walker was the type of man who fought for what he wanted. Yesterday, he hadn’t even tried.

  She couldn’t blame him, though. She’d caused him nothing but trouble since he’d shown up naked in her bedroom. Correction, his bedroom.

  “Oh, he’ll come.” Hadler eased off the gas pedal, and every muscle in Cassie’s body clenched. “You see, humans act based on their emotions—” he turned off the highway “—which makes your kind unpredictable. Wahyas act on instinct. He’ll come because I took something that belongs to him.”

  “I’m not something. I’m someone.” Cassie readied herself. “And I don’t belong to anyone.”

  “I’m about to change that, Sunshine. Walker owes me. You and his pack are his retribution.”

  The car jostled over deep potholes in the washed-out road. Through the thick nest of trees, Cassie glimpsed a farmhouse. While Hadler’s attention focused on not driving them into a ravine, she shoved open the car door and jumped.

  She slammed into a ditch, pain searing her shoulder. Seconds later, the car careened to a stop.

  Cassie rolled to her feet and ran for her life. The soft soil beneath her sneakers grabbed at her feet, and the muscles in her legs strained to propel her forward.

  In one week, Cassie had ended up right where she started. Being chased by a wolfman.

  “I’m coming, Cas. Do whatever you can to stay safe. I will find you. I promise.”

  Cassie shook Brice’s imagined voice from her mind. This wasn’t the time to succumb to delusions. She wove through a thicket of trees. Sapling limbs snagged bits of her hair, yanking strands from her scalp. Unforgiving branches and leaves scratched her arms as she protected her face. Sweat and blood trickled down her skin. She had a hard time catching her breath.

  Up ahead she saw the farmhouse, run-down and abandoned. The place she ran to for safety didn’t look safe at all.

  Stopping, she swallowed the bitter frustration that in the dead of nowhere, no one but Vincent Hadler would hear her scream.

  Cassie smashed face-first into the dirt. Air gushed from her lungs in a sharp, agonizing oomph. The heavy paws digging into her shoulders turned into thickset hands.

  “I don’t do foreplay.” Hadler flipped Cassie onto her back. He forced open her mouth with a bruising kiss and rubbed his sweaty, naked body against her.

  Repulsed, Cassie bit his tongue.

  “Bitch!” He slapped her face.

  She tasted the vileness of his blood.

  “Do that again and I’ll—”

  Cassie rammed her palm up his nose. Hadler howled, bloodcurdling and fierce. The moment he fell off her, Cassie sprang to her feet in an all-out run. If she could make it back to the car—

  She slammed to the ground again. This time, her hands braced the fall.

  “Before this day is through, I’ll see that wild streak tamed.” Hadler the man tugged at her snug jeans.

  “Get off me.” Cassie grabbed a broken tree branch and whacked him upside the head. The blow stunned him long enough for her to wiggle out from beneath his weight.

  On her feet and running, Cassie heard Hadler the wolf gaining ground. Fear should’ve powered her momentum. Instead, her body lumbered in slow motion, except for her heart, which beat so fast that the thumps blended into a continuous thrum.

  The third time Hadler tackled her, Cassie’s strength failed. Even though her brain screamed for her to get up, she simply couldn’t move. Cruel laughter slithered along her skin, its venom poisoning her last bit of hope.

  Suddenly a black blur streaked over her head and knocked Vincent Hadler from her back.

  Before she could breathe easy, piercing crystal-blue eyes peered at her down the snout of a russet-colored wolf.

  “Rafe?” Cassie’s voice trembled.

  He sat on his haunches and shifted into his human form. “Let’s go, Red.” He helped her stand.

  “We can’t leave Brice.” Cassie clutched Rafe’s arm until her legs stopped wobbling.

  “I promised to get you out of here. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  Cassie glanced at the gray and black wolves circling each other. Spittle glistened on their bared teeth. Their growls crescendoed.

  Panic squeezed her heart. “Please, Rafe. You have to help him.”

  “I am.” Rafe’s steely eyes narrowed. His pupils tightened into vertical slivers. “By doing exactly what he asked. So, unless you want me to knock you out and carry you to the Jeep, run!”

  * * *

  B
rice wouldn’t say that he relaxed the moment Cassie bolted out of the woods with Rafe snapping at her heels, but he definitely found it easier to concentrate. Instead of sidestepping the gray wolf’s latest advance, Brice returned the charge.

  Surprised, Hadler retreated.

  “Scared?” Brice taunted the older male.

  “I ain’t afraid of you.” Hadler pointed his grizzled muzzle at Brice.

  “You should be. You stole my mate.”

  “She ain’t yours no more.” Hadler’s laughter clanged in Brice’s mind as he fled deep into the forest.

  White-hot and blistering, pure fury pulsed through Brice’s veins. Instinct demanded that he charge blindly after the gray wolf. Reasoning cautioned against the impulse.

  Hadler hadn’t accomplished what he implied. Once Brice had connected with Cassie through the mate-bond, he sensed everything she experienced. If Hadler had made good on his boast, the ethereal link between Brice and Cassie would’ve been broken.

  His mind unfettered by the taunt, Brice focused on where his paws landed during the nearly two-mile chase through the thicket. The old, nagging ache in his leg became a constant reminder that if he hadn’t stepped into that trap years ago, Mason wouldn’t have died. Cassie would’ve been safe. And so would the pack.

  Following Hadler over a fallen tree, Brice’s front paws absorbed the impact of the jump before his hind feet touched down.

  Hadler whipped around. “Remember this place?”

  Digging his nails into the muck, Brice slammed to a stop. “I’m not likely to forget it.” His life had gone awry in this cove.

  “We have that, and the taste of Sunshine, in common,” Hadler sneered.

  Brice’s tendons pulled and stretched at the restraint it took to keep from lunging prematurely. “You and I have nothing in common.”

  “Maybe you need your memory rattled.” The gray wolf hunkered down.

  Braced for the full-body slam, Brice felt the impact reverberate along every nerve. Toppling, their vicious snarls followed them down.

  Brice’s teeth sank into Hadler’s furry flesh. Blood pooled in Brice’s mouth, bitter and rancid.

  Yelping, Hadler thrashed until he jarred hard enough to break free. Brice scraped his tongue against his teeth. God, he wanted to throw up.

  Thick ribbons of drool dangled from the corners of Hadler’s twisted mouth. His obsidian eyes gleamed with maniacal arrogance as he slammed Brice’s right side.

  The ache in Brice’s leg turned into a fiery throb; the flames scalded all the way up his hip. Silencing the scream of pain searing his throat, Brice chomped Hadler’s exposed ear, even as Hadler’s teeth slashed across Brice’s shoulder.

  Locked in a deadly waltz, they snapped and bit any vulnerable spot to gain dominance. Soon the air became saturated with the coppery smell of blood and the pungency of wolfan male sweat.

  Dark, terrifying memories invaded Brice’s vision, followed by a disoriented sense of eerie familiarity. His gut wrenched.

  “Kill them all,” Mason demanded. So clear and lifelike that Brice jerked his head to look behind him, allowing Hadler to escape.

  Angered by the figment of his imagination, Brice stalked a semicircle around the aged pine Hadler used for cover. Brice’s shoulder burned. Blood stung his left eye from the gash above his brow, and his right hind leg trembled from the sharp, shooting pain.

  An arid breeze ruffled his fur. Brice’s muzzle tingled and twitched, and the sensation of hot pokers singeing his nostrils caused his nose to run. He snorted several times to clear his nasal passages.

  The pervasive wind continued to tease and torment his olfactory sense until, just as quickly as it had started, the stinging in his nose stopped. His next full breath drew in a repugnant musk. The fuzzy part of his memory erupted in singular clarity. Next came a primal fury.

  After the attack, when asked how many rogues he’d seen, Brice answered four because that’s how many bodies were found. In truth, he couldn’t remember. Not as a man, anyway.

  His wolf knew, though. The wolf had always known. The rogues numbered five.

  From the pit of his stomach rose a heart-stopping, nerve-numbing howl.

  “Took you long enough to remember.” Hadler’s cruel, telepathic laughter shredded Brice’s conscience.

  “You murdered my brother.” Brice’s body shook from the surge of primitive hormones and the fight to keep the primal rush from pushing him to the feral edge. “Stole my mate. And dare to take my pack?”

  “That about sums it up.” The gray wolf eased from behind the tree, a toothy grin plastered on his snout.

  “Was that your plan from the beginning? To seize control of Walker’s Run?” Brice crouched, ready to spring.

  “I didn’t give a shit about your pathetic pack. I had a job to do.” Hadler snorted. “But you went and made it personal.”

  “I made it personal? You son of a bitch. You killed my brother!”

  “Mason was the job, nothing more. But you got involved and slaughtered my packmates. So I’m goin’ to do the same to yours. Starting with that tasty little redhead.”

  “You’ll have to go through me.”

  “I intend to.” The gray wolf barreled into Brice’s hindquarter. Excruciating pain speared down his right hip and leg and strangled his breath.

  Hadler plowed into him again. Brice tried to block the pain from his thoughts. He needed air. Lots of air. No matter how much he gulped, he couldn’t find enough air to fill his lungs.

  Sharp teeth pierced the soft spot close to his jugular. Not a kill bite, but a taunting one. Brice buckled from the pressure.

  “I’m disappointed,” Hadler sneered, locking his jaw. “I expected more of a fight.”

  Brice’s struggle to dislodge Hadler was fruitless. Lightheaded and losing strength, Brice focused his thoughts on the spot where his brother had died.

  I’m sorry, Mace. Brice’s heart tightened. I’ve failed you, and everyone else, again.

  The warmth of a hand grazed Brice’s shoulder. Mason’s voice whispered the same words he’d said when Brice had stepped in the steel trap.

  Hold on, little brother. Today isn’t your day to die.

  A howl sounded on the ridge and a lone, golden wolf charged down the slope.

  Mason?

  It wasn’t possible.

  “I’ll see you dead if it’s the last thing I do.” The golden wolf plowed into the gray and knocked Brice free.

  By the time Brice caught his breath and scrambled to his paws, the young wolf had engaged the older in a death quarrel. Brice hesitated to join. Two against one wasn’t a fair fight. He wouldn’t succumb to the despicable tactic Hadler used against Mason.

  “Oh, I’ll be the last thing you see, but I’ll be far from dead.” The gray latched onto to the golden’s shoulder and drove him into a tree. Unconscious, the injured wolf crumpled into a heap in his human form.

  Hadler rounded on Brice. Bloody spittle dribbled from his sneering muzzle. “The same goes for you.”

  Five years ago, Brice swore he’d never kill again. Today he would break that promise. He launched into Hadler, ripping through fur and flesh.

  Hadler’s yelps fell on unsympathetic ears. This wolfan had killed Mason, kidnapped Cassie and threatened Brice’s family and friends. No matter what happened to Brice, Vincent Hadler would not leave this cove alive.

  Hadler threw his weight into Brice’s bad leg, forcing a momentary retreat. Wild-eyed and panting heavily, the gray wolf glared at Brice.

  “I had you dead before that piece of shit interfered.” Hadler tipped his head toward the young man beginning to stir.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m right here, you son of a bitch. Come and get me.”

  Snarling, Hadler dived through the air. His legs stretched
in a pointed formation.

  Brice waited until the last possible moment to rear on his hind legs to catch the gray wolf by the neck. Brice’s teeth pierced muscles and cartilage. He tasted dirt and hair and the nauseating tang of blood. With one hard jerk, he ripped open the gray wolf’s throat.

  Vincent Hadler the man flopped to the ground. Brice felt no pride or elation at what he’d done, only relief that Hadler would never threaten anyone again. He was also grateful that Cassie hadn’t witnessed the brutality.

  Vincent Hadler’s other victim shifted into his wolfan form and charged. Brice backed out of his path. Instead of goring Hadler’s throat to share in the kill as Brice expected, the golden wolf eviscerated the man’s genitals.

  Sympathy for the abuse Shane must’ve suffered at Hadler’s cruel, lascivious hands twisted Brice’s heart.

  Vincent Hadler’s horrified expression was the one he took to the grave. His last breath drowned in a gurgling wheeze.

  Brice shifted and laid a gentle hand on the golden wolf’s scruff. “Easy, pup. He won’t hurt you or anyone else again.”

  The young wolf’s entire body trembled. A second later, Shane drew a shaky breath. “I had to be sure.”

  Brice glanced over the bruises darkening Shane’s skin. Some were from the fight at the apartment, though the discoloration over his ribs probably came from Hadler slamming him into the tree trunk. “Tristan should’ve taken you to the clinic.”

  “I didn’t need Doc.” Shane wiped the blood from his face on his arm. “I needed to finish this.”

  “I appreciate your help, Shane. You gave me time to get my second wind.”

  “You would’ve found a way to beat him. I just needed to be a part of it, you know?” Shane turned quickly, the contents of his stomach emptying on the ground.

  “Easy does it.” Brice kept his hand on Shane’s shoulder.

  A series of howls broke through the woods. Most prevalent was the Alpha’s call. A sense of déjà vu swept over Brice. Only Shane wasn’t Mason. And Brice was far from dying.

  Physically, anyway. His heart and soul continued to teeter on shaky ground. How would he ever convince Cassie to accept him after all this?