by E A Price
“Catch me if you can,” she teased before shifting to her wolf, wagging her tail and bounding away.
“That’s cheating!” he called after her.
The she-wolf let out a bark of excitement as she sprinted through the woods. She relished the feeling of freedom and pushed herself on. She wasn’t a fast wolf, but that didn’t mean she didn’t adore moments like these.
She yelped as something nudged her flank. A second later a huge wolf with blonde ears pulled ahead of her. He was almost twice her size and seemed to be loping along as if he barely had to make any effort to keep up with her. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was smirking at her.
The she-wolf growled and willed herself to go faster. She was too busy watching what he was doing. She didn’t seven see the tree until the male wolf pushed her out the way. The she-wolf scrambled, losing control of her limbs and she flailed, careening onto the road.
A car swerved to avoid her and slammed into a tree.
*
Simone gripped the steering wheel.
“I’m sorry, Alpha, I merely forgot what you said. No, that didn’t sound sincere. I knocked on Patrick’s door, but he must not have heard me. Better, maybe.”
She was practising her apology and excuse to the Alpha. It was much easier to disobey the Alpha when he wasn’t standing in front of her.
After talking to the Alpha, she changed her mind about allowing Patrick, the Beta to drive her to the hospital. She didn’t want to spend hours in a car with him, and there was no way she would subject her mother to him, either. Patrick was far too interested in her mother. He had the nerve to call her mother a ‘damaged female’ – and that was a direct quote. He sniffed around her and seemed to think she’d be interested in a ‘fuck buddy’ arrangement. The idea was nauseating.
The doctors wanted to keep her mother in the hospital for at least a few days. That was another thing the Alpha wouldn’t be pleased about. By which she imagined he would actually be filled with murderous rage. He didn’t like any of his pride being away for even a night. He was very possessive and considered that all pride mates belonged to him. Plus, he probably feared what would happen if any of them got a taste of life outside the pride. But it wasn’t her mother’s fault. It couldn’t be helped. Her mother had a lot of health problems and had spent the last seventeen years in and out of hospitals, and visiting various healers.
Her mother’s family had been low down the rankings ever since her grandfather took his own life. The rest of the pride considered it to be ‘shameful’. Of course, there were a few whisperings that her grandfather had been dallying with the Alpha’s female at the time, and that his death wasn’t quite straightforward, but those kind of whisperings resulted in punishments.
Nobody wanted anything to do with her family after that, so her grandmother forced Simone’s mother, Karen, into mating a much older tiger shifter, who was fairly high up in the ranks. Simone’s grandmother guilted her into it. Karen wanted to leave the pride and strike out on her own. But she was given the spiel about looking after family, yada, yada, yada, which led to a life full of misery from a selfish family and an uncaring mate. But Karen, ever the doting mother, said it was worth it to have Simone.
When Simone turned six, her father had come home drunk and accidentally set the house on fire while Karen and Simone were sleeping. Her mother managed to wake her and protected her as she got her out the house. But Karen suffered severe burns that even her healing powers couldn’t fix. Her dad died in the fire, and her mother’s body was so severely damaged that she could no longer shift. It put her family right at the bottom of the rankings and meant that her mother, as a ‘damaged female’, was treated as little better than a slave to the rest of the pack – worse than the unmated females. A few males had shown her mother interest over the years – given the lack of females in the pack, widowed females were usually snapped up – but the males were shamed by the idea of having a mate who couldn’t shift, so they left her be.
At least now with Simone being mated to the Alpha’s son, her mother could take it easy, and there was no more scrimping and saving to pay for her medical bills. The Alpha was more than happy to foot the bill. Shame he hadn’t cared about Karen for the thirteen years before that.
Simone just wished there was something better for her mother. Karen was only forty-three years old. She deserved a better life and Simone was determined that she was going to get it and… holy fuck!
A small wolf ran out onto the road. Simone swerved. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as she lost control of the car and it skidded into a tree.
Chapter Four
“Oh my god! Oh my god!” Britt scrabbled at the car window as tears streamed down her cheeks. “What have I done? What have I done?!” Her wolf flitted about, panicking pathetically, as she tried to get to the poor woman trapped inside.
She wasn’t even aware of Craig behind her until he grasped her arms and pulled her away from the car.
“Calm down,” he commanded in a soft but firm voice.
“There’s a woman in there,” she whimpered between sniffles. “What if she’s dead? I’ve killed her!”
“It’s going to be okay
“You don’t know that!” she snarled as her wolf whined, pitifully.
Craig hugged her and for a few seconds she stopped trembling. “It’s okay. I’m going to get her out. I want you to shift and run and get Acksel, okay?”
Britt shook her head. “I should stay…”
“You’re upset, the best thing you can do is get help.”
“But…”
He took her head in his hands, and his eyes swirled with the amber of his wolf. “Babe, go. And be careful, don’t rush, we don’t want another accident.”
She felt a tendril of power in his command and nodded while furiously dabbing at more tears. She tore away, shifting because her beast was faster. The she-wolf pounded through the woods until she burst into her house to find both Acksel and Hans raiding the refrigerator. She garbled some words about killing a woman. And after Acksel sat her down and soothed her, she finally told him the whole story.
Hans started swearing at her for being irresponsible, but Acksel hushed him with a growl. Acksel called a couple of enforcers and told them to get out there with a tow truck, and he called a pack member Jeanette, a retired nurse for help.
Acksel and Hans both stripped and shifted to their wolves. Britt led the way back to the car. They arrived to find Craig cradling a young woman with long black hair, dark skin and a sweet smell of strawberries.
It all happened so quickly that Acksel didn’t even have time to stop his wolf. He snarled at Craig and gently, but quickly pulled the woman into his arms. The word ‘mine’ rattled around his mind as his wolf howled in joy.
*
Ugh. Simone awoke to a banging head, a nervy tiger and to find herself being scrutinized by a man. She blinked at him, and her tiger growled softly and almost shyly.
“Ah…”
“Sorry,” he rumbled leaning back.
He was sitting in an armchair next to the bed – the bed that she was currently occupying for some reason. But it definitely wasn’t her bed, and this wasn’t her room. The chintzy flower decor screamed of a middle-aged woman. Was she in this stranger’s bed? No, this couldn’t be his. She sniffed and detected a female wolf shifter, but his scent soon blocked that out. Her tiger groaned as the strong, spicy scent of male wolf invaded her senses. It was delicious. And the man himself… he was startlingly handsome. Big but not huge, he looked like a Greek God with perfect cheekbones, a straight nose, and breathtaking, clear blue eyes. They didn’t make them like him in her pride. And he was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t quite fathom. Concern maybe, but there seemed to be a little hunger in there, too.
“No, it’s ah… what’s going on?”
She tried to sit up, and the man rose to his feet. He was tall, even taller than her five-foot-eleven frame, and so broad.
“Be careful,” he murmured in a silky, soothing voice. “Let me.”
Her tiger held her breath as he leaned over her and carefully hooked his arms around her. With a surprising gentleness, he moved her into a sitting position. She wasn’t proud of herself, but she took the opportunity to sniff his neck. He was even more divine up close.
“Thank you… wolf.”
He gave her a crooked smile. Her heart may have skipped a beat or two. “Tiger,” he growled. Or three.
Simone blushed as she realized that she ought to be concerned about waking up in a stranger’s bed. But she wasn’t. She ought to at least raise the covers to preserve her modesty. Although, with a strange feeling of disappointment, she realized she was clothed in a large, shapeless sweater.
Besides, something about him, this handsome, strange wolf, with his vague smile and striking eyes made her feel excited and safe at the same time.
More for something to do, other than lose herself entirely in his stare, she reached for a glass of water on the bedside table and felt a twinge. Her tiger grumbled. “Ooh ah, my ribs.”
The wolf winced. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
“What happened?”
“You were in a car accident.”
“Oh right, I remember I saw a wolf.” Hazy memories swam in front of her eyes. Driving, a wolf, a tree, crashing and then dancing elephants – although the latter was probably a dream. She wondered if he was the wolf, although she doubted it. The creature had been quite small. She imagined he would make quite a large beast. He’d probably be as big as her tiger.
He rubbed a hand over his head and guilt seemed to tinge his expression. “Yeah, that was my sister. I’m sorry. She feels terrible - hasn’t stopped crying since it happened.”
Simone frowned. She wasn’t a hot-headed tiger by any means, but she was easily peeved and could be pretty darn sarcastic when she wanted to be. Yet, when she tried to dredge up some resentment towards his sister, she couldn’t. Even her tiger, which by default was the more beastly of the two, was practically falling over her paws to tell this wolf ‘no harm done’ and ‘shit happens’. Was this an ideal situation? No. But it was an accident. No one was hurt, and she could already feel herself healing.
“It was just a dumb mistake,” she said, soothingly. “My ribs feel like they’ve been used as a xylophone now, but in a few hours I’ll be fine.”
A wrinkle of worry eased somewhat on his forehead. “I’m glad to hear it. A pack mate – a former nurse – checked you out. The worst damage was the airbag – knocked you unconscious.”
“Might explain the elephants, too,” she muttered but shook her head as he raised an eyebrow. Her tiger chuffed disapprovingly.
“You better prepare yourself for a crying teenage wolf because my sister wants to apologize to you in person.”
“I shall brace myself with a box of tissues and a soothing ‘there, there’,” she joked, and then for some reason felt like an enormous dork. Her tiger huffed at her to try and be cool. What? She was just being herself. The tiger didn’t even stoop to reply to that.
Simone inhaled as he leaned forward and traced a finger over her forehead. His touch burned a path along her flesh.
“You have a slight bruise there, but it’s already looking better.”
“Maybe we’ll skip the Joker scene where I look in the mirror and start laughing maniacally at my hideous appearance.” Her tiger gave up all hope for her.
He pinned her with a look. “You couldn’t be hideous if you tried.”
Simone opened her mouth to say ‘you, too’ but she managed to hold herself back. She had just met the wolf; acting like a love sick teenager would just be embarrassing. Instead, she focussed on something that really should have come up earlier.
She fingered the sweater. “These aren’t my clothes.”
“No, yours were a little torn… I didn’t undress you,” he said, firmly. Simone tried not to cringe as her tiger added ‘more’s the pity’. “My sister-in-law, Melanie did and another pack mate, in case you were wondering.”
“Good to know.” Yeah, she’d been totally worried that he might have seen her naked and been overcome with desire. Well, a tiger could dream. Simone inwardly yelled at her beast to calm down. The animal had never been so… so… frisky. It was a little unsettling.
“They’re my sister’s clothes,” he added.
“Thank you.”
“I’d say it was the very least we could do. Your car didn’t make it, I’m afraid.”
“Oh.” Simone considered whether she or the car was worth more to her Alpha. At that moment in time, she imagined the car was a lot higher in his esteem. She was likely due a punishment for sneaking off anyway. Add to that leaving her mother at the hospital, totaling the car and being alone in bed with a male wolf shifter – she was likely to be a furry, stripy shish kebab at the end of this.
He must have seen her expression and mistaken it for worry over the actual car. “My pack will pay to replace it.”
“That’s not…”
“It is… Britt will be working it off until she’s thirty.”
Simone smiled. “Poor Britt.”
He grinned, wolfishly. Simone ignored a fluttering in the chest area. “Sucks to be a teenager.”
“Where am I exactly?”
“My mom’s house – this is her room,” he said, ever so slightly embarrassed. Well, she didn’t think the needlepoint cushion that proudly proclaimed, ‘home is where the pack is’ was his.
“I’m going to need a few more details,” she told him, patiently.
“Town called Rose.”
“Ah.”
“Where are you from?”
“A small town a few hours from here,” she replied, only slightly evasively. In her defense, he was a complete stranger. A stranger who made her want to sit, stay and beg, but still. Besides, her pride wasn’t a happy topic of conversation. Strangers weren’t given changes of clothing and a nice, comfy rest in a mother’s bed in her pride. No. She wanted this wolf to stay away from her pride – for his own safety.
He smiled, his blue eyes sparkled and lit up his boyishly handsome face. Her tiger mewled like a kitten, and her insides turned to mush.
“I should probably call home,” she said, trying not to sound too unhappy about that.
His jaw ticked ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly. “Yeah, you’re right. Here, you can use my cell.” He passed it to her. “Yours was destroyed in the crash, although we managed to salvage your purse.” He stood over her and smiled for a few moments before coughing and looking away. “Are you hungry? I’ll bet you’re hungry. What would you like?”
Simeon shrugged. “Anything, I’ll pretty much eat anything. Thank you.” Growing up scrimping and saving meant that she really wasn’t picky. Although when she was fifteen she did get it into her head that she could live more cheaply if she ate all her meals as her tiger. Big mistake. She wouldn’t recommend cat food to anyone.
He spread out his large hands. “Really, this is the least I can do. I’m Acksel, by the way.”
“Right, of course, I’m Simone,” she said with a slight giggle.
He chuckled and shook her proffered hand. The warmth of his slightly rough hand seeped into hers, and she felt tingles up and down her arm. Who knew a handshake could be so enjoyable? Her tiger was almost wagging her tail like a dog.
And just as she was enjoying the moment, and wondering how long was too long to hold onto someone’s hand, there was a crash from the floor below.
Gently, he pulled away. “I better go check on that.”
“Sure.”
He looked apologetic before bolting out the door.
Simone rubbed her fingers together. “Acksel,” she whispered, and the beast inside purred.
Chapter Five
“Will you guys keep it down?” roared Acksel as his wolf snapped his jaws together. “Simone is trying to rest,” he added a little more softly.
He gla
red at his assembled pack mates. His friends and family were all there, hoping to be useful, hoping to be helpful. He and his wolf wished they would all fuck off.
By nature, he was a patient wolf. He was kind and generous. Well, he had to be in the face of the some of the wolves in his pack. Behaving like an asshole to an asshole never worked. The best way to get an asshole to back down was to ‘polite’ the hell out of them. He had plenty of practice growing up. It was just that, after all the dramas he had dealt with in the pack, all the time, effort and all the dedication he had shown – he had been sent his reward. An angel who had floated down from heaven. Or close enough. A tiger shifter who had careened into a tree.
His wolf chuffed at him. Okay, she wasn’t any tiger shifter. She was… well, she was perfect. With golden eyes, a playful smile that promised a lot of naughtiness and a wild scent of strawberries – she was as close to heaven as he could ever get.
Was it so wrong that he wanted all his friends and family to get the fuck away from him so that he could enjoy her all to himself? He wasn’t going to do anything crazy like jump her delectable body or beg her to mate with him. He just wanted to get to know her, to be near her, to feel her lithe body pressed against his…
He snapped back to the present as his sister-in-law Melanie placed a hand on his arm. “We’re sorry, Acksel.” She inclined her head to her mate. “Hans is just a little…”
“Acting like a total jackass,” snarled Gwen, who was hugging a miserable looking Britt.
Craig who didn’t appear to be leaving Britt’s side, and who still hadn’t bothered with clothes, growled at Hans. Hans curled his upper lip, and Acksel could see him tensing, preparing to shift. Ordinarily this would probably be the time that Acksel would step forward and try to calm his brother. His wolf snorted that it wasn’t happening. Yes, he agreed. Why should he? Couldn’t this be about him for once? Hadn’t he spent enough time soothing an explosive older brother and looking after three sweet but ditsy younger sisters?
