by Maddy Barone
Barry knocked Mel off her feet. She fell on her bound hands, jamming her shoulder on the packed dirt floor. A thin sound of pain was muffled by her gag. She lay on her back, trying to suck air in past the bandana in her mouth. Sam stood over her, one boot on her throat. “See now, Melissa, you could have done this much more comfortably as Rob’s wife, and you would have lived through it. We would have taken care of you. Now? Well, you made your bed.” He unbuckled his belt. “And you won’t live through it after all.”
Mel swallowed. The gag soaked up all moisture in her mouth, so swallowing hurt. Snake would kill Sam. She’d already seen what Snake would do to anyone who hurt her. For once the memory of bloody chunks of Fosses didn’t make her feel sick. Snake was probably just outside the door, waiting for the right moment to come in. Sam opened his jeans, revealing an eager erection.
“Get those jeans off her,” Sam ordered, caressing himself. “And the gun belt and the boots. Hurry up!”
“Snake!” she screamed behind the gag, kicking frantically to keep the Fosses from stripping her. “Snake!”
Curt and Barry laughed at her muffled screams, treating her struggles like a game while Sam pumped his hand up and down his cock. Sara, lying on her side with her arms tied behind her, floundered over and kicked Sam in the knee. She still had her boots on, and Mel was fiercely pleased by the pain in Sam’s shout. The Fosses took revenge for their brother’s pain. Curt and Barry abandoned her to kick and punch Sara. The horrible sounds of pained rage the teenager made shook Mel with a wrath so strong she almost forgot her own peril.
A wolf’s howl rose outside the barn with chilling fury. Mel’s heart leaped with joy as a gray-furred body ran into the barn and rammed itself into Curt’s back. Joy shriveled to horror when Barry yanked her gun out of his belt and shot the wolf.
“Damn it,” shouted Sam, “don’t shoot! Someone could hear that and come sniffing around.”
At such close range, it was a miracle the wolf wasn’t killed, but the blood splatter in the gray fur showed it was bad enough. In spite of the wound, the wolf continued his attack, still howling a frantic battle call. When his head turned her way, she saw he had only one eye. Paint. Why was he here alone?
Where the hell was Snake?
Chapter 10
Snake caught up with his cousin and followed him while he tried to run off his anger. It took an hour, but gradually Stone slowed until he sat panting in the grass three miles behind the ranch house. When Snake sat beside him and changed back to a man, Stone took the hint and changed too. They sat in companionable silence for long minutes.
“Want to talk about it?” Snake finally asked.
Stone rubbed his thumb over the backs of his knuckles. “Not really. I’m going to take Sara to go live with her uncle in Omaha. And then I’ll head back to the Clan.”
Snake sucked in a breath. “What? She’s your mate!”
“She hasn’t accepted me.”
“She married you.”
Stone flapped his hand to wave it off. “It doesn’t seem like she thinks she’s married, does it? Before our trip to find Mel’s mom, she was always pushing me away, glaring at me, sneering at me. My wolf wants her to stay with me, but I won’t force her. She wants to go to her uncle, so I’ll take her to her uncle.”
He was going to say more, Snake thought, but a distant howl caught their attention. Snake stood up and saw a party of horses and wolves heading their way. “Looks like Snow and the rest of the boys from the den are here.”
“No.” Stone stood too. “That howl wasn’t from that direction. It was—” The sound of a shot interrupted him. “Something’s wrong.”
A tiny thread of unease slid down Snake’s back. “Maybe.” He waved his arms at his cousins in the distance. “You go, check it out. We’ll be right behind you.”
Stone let his wolf out and raced in the direction of the howl and the shot. Snake ran toward Snow and the others, still waving his arms. Seeing him, they veered in his direction. “Hurry!” he bellowed at them.
A wolf ran to him and shimmered into his cousin Sand. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. But there was a gunshot from that way. And a wolf howl. I think it was Paint.”
More men and wolves came within hearing distance. Sand shouted to them, “There’s a fight ahead. Let’s go!”
Snake let out his wolf and sped over the grass, followed by Sand, Snow, and the others. His cousins ran with gleeful abandon, always happy for a fight, but worry filled him. His uneasiness grew to apprehension. A gunshot could be someone hunting, but who would use a gun this close to the ranch? Apprehension shivered into dread. Stone was right. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.
Another shot sounded. Snake’s wolf tried to jerk control away from Snake for himself. Calm down, it can’t be Mel, he told the wolf. She’s safe at the Flying D, probably getting supper ready. But neither Snake nor his wolf believed that.
There was a tumbled down barn ahead, and wolf growls and howls rose above the sound of men yelling. Somehow, the wolf found more speed. He flung himself through a gap in the barn wall right into a scene that made Snake’s blood first run cold then boil over with the wolf’s rage. Stone was bleeding, doing his best to keep two men from Sara, using only three legs. His fourth leg, his left front leg, was dragging uselessly. Sara was on her back on the floor, hands tied behind her while she kicked at the men. There was a wad of fabric stuck in her mouth, and blood showed on it. That was enough to rouse the wolf’s ire, but what put him into a killing rage was the sight of his mate. Like Sara, Mel was on the ground with her arms tied behind her and a gag in her mouth, but she was naked from the waist down, twisting desperately to get free of the man who held her legs. Paint, blood streaming down his side, was making periodic lunges at the man, but without enough speed or strength to force the man to let Mel go.
Snake gave up his last shred of control over his wolf. The wolf wanted to kill the man, to feel his flesh tear between his teeth, and Snake had no desire to stop him. Only after he let the wolf go did he remember how disturbed Mel was over the events in the hotel room in Ellsworth. It was too late to stop the wolf now. Regret stabbed him. Mel would forgive him. She would have to eventually. It would kill him, but he would live with her flinches and fear until she did.
The wolf knew no such regret. He took savage joy in ending the threat to their mate. Deep inside the wolf, Snake was only vaguely aware of his cousins pouring into the barn to join the fight. Stone latched onto the arm of one of the men attacking Sara, but couldn’t get leverage to pull him down with one of his legs so badly damaged. Some of his cousins dove in to help Stone protect his mate. Nearer to Snake, Paint backed away, panting, to allow Snake to take over. Snake’s wolf took the man down with brutal satisfaction. Other wolves crowded around wanting to join in taking down the prey, but Snake’s wolf warned them off. This was his kill.
Helpless to stop the wolf, Snake tried to see Mel. Glimpses showed him that while his wolf tore into the man’s soft belly, Mel scooted back from him on her bare bottom. She tried to wiggle the tail of her shirt down to cover herself, but with her hands tied behind her back, she couldn’t get a grip on the fabric.
When the man finally stopped fighting and his heart stopped pumping blood through his veins, the wolf turned from him to check on their mate. He saw her fear and her nakedness. Since he didn’t know what to do to calm her fear, he looked for something to cover her. Her jeans lay twisted a few yards away. The wolf went to them and carefully snagged the waistband with his mouth to drag them close to her. It took the wolf a long moment to realize why she wasn’t dressing, and used his teeth to chew with delicacy through the rope binding her wrists. Once free, she grabbed the jeans eagerly and fumbled to put her feet through the legs. After she pulled her pants up and buttoned them closed, she looked at her hands. They were covered with the man’s blood from the wolf’s teeth, smeared there when he chewed through the rope. The wolf didn’t like to se
e her touched by any part of the man, not even his cooling blood, so he tried to lick it away.
Snake was hurt but not surprised when she pushed his muzzle away. With a tremendous shove, he forced the wolf back and made the change back to human.
“Mel,” he croaked, kneeling beside her. He yanked the gag out of her mouth and threw it away. “Mel, are you okay? Did he rape you?”
“No!” She pushed to her feet. “No, I’m okay.”
She swayed on bare feet. Snake couldn’t help himself. His plan to give her space dissolved in his intense relief. He leaped up and hugged her hard to his chest. “Mel,” he murmured into her hair. “Oh, Mel.”
And he kissed her. He couldn’t stop himself. She twisted her face away and spat. She scrubbed frenziedly at her mouth and spat again.
Snake’s heart shattered. He forced his arms to drop away from his precious mate and took one long step back.
“Mel, I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
*
Mel spat again to rid her mouth of the taste of blood. She lifted her head to stare at her husband. It was a clear night, and there were enough gaps in the roof and walls for the moonlight to shine in. There was a numb emptiness in his face, as if something had broken inside him. “If you’re apologizing for being almost too late, I accept. If you’re apologizing for killing that scumbag Fosse, I don’t accept.” She glanced away from him, not able to bear looking at his pain. “Where are my boots? Where’s Alfie? That asshole Barry Fosse shot Paint with my gun.”
Snake silently fetched her boots and handed them to her very carefully so their fingers wouldn’t touch. A tiny part of her was hurt. She stamped her feet into her boots and faced the hurt dead on. “Now that I’ve been pawed by that filthy would-be rapist, can’t you stand to touch me?”
Snake’s mouth fell open. A drop of dark blood slid off his lower lip and fell to the floor. “What? No! I wouldn’t care no matter what he did to you! You were the one to push me away. You spat when I kissed you.”
“Hell, yes, I spat! You have blood on your mouth. It didn’t taste all that great, you know?”
Hope and hesitation mingled on his face. She heaved a breath. He was naked and covered with blood, and she ached all over, but she ignored it and hugged him.
“You saved me,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to kiss me until you’ve washed up and brushed your teeth, but once you’re done, I want you to kiss the stuffing out of me.”
He looked down at her with the gleam of tears in his eyes. “I love you,” he whispered hoarsely.
Mel felt her eyes burn. God, I am not going to cry, am I? No. She sniffed fiercely. “Don’t you cry. Don’t you dare cry! If you set me off, you’ll be sleeping somewhere besides my bed tonight, no matter how many times you brush your teeth.”
He croaked out a laugh and closed his arms more tightly around her. “You love me too.”
She was quiet for a moment, just listening to his heart beat under her cheek. “Snake,” she sighed. “I like you. Let’s not push it, okay?”
He sighed too, a comfortable, happy sigh. “I want us to talk about this some more. Right now, though, we need to get things straightened out here.”
He was right. For a few minutes she forgot everything but him, but they weren’t alone in the barn. Two more horses joined the Fosses’ mounts in the far corner. She glanced around and inwardly cringed from the sight of Barry and Curt, their dead bodies savaged by wolf teeth. And there, only a yard away, was what was left of Sam. Somehow, the shadows in the barn made the sight worse. Then she saw Stone, naked in his man form, with a great ragged hole in the side of his chest, and her horror went away. The Fosses got what they deserved. A man she’d never seen before was cleaning Stone’s wound. Sara was kneeling beside him, a saddlebag lying open at her knee. She had a small knife and was cutting slits in the hem of a shirt in preparation to tear it into strips.
“Good,” the strange man said. “Just like that. There should be another shirt in the bag. Cut that one into wider strips.”
Snow, one of the men she’d gotten to know on their trip from Ellsworth, held a belt with a holster and a gun to Mel. “These are yours?”
She took them gratefully. “Thanks.” She buckled the belt around her waist and slid Alfie into the holster. Finally feeling fully dressed, she went to check on Paint. His wound was in his upper arm and a bandage was already wrapped around it. Paint sat leaning against a sound section of the wall, looking tired but alert. His eye patch was missing, and Mel got a good look at the scars that scored through his sagging eyelid. That must have hurt like a bitch.
“Thank you, Paint,” Mel said. “If you hadn’t come when you did, things would have been so much worse.”
He smiled. “Glad you’re okay.” Then he lifted his head. “Riders coming.”
Snake caught her arm and pulled her to the center of the barn. “Please don’t go out, Mel,” he said, and though he worded it as a request, she knew an order when she heard one. She nodded and waited beside him.
Three of the men changed to wolves and headed out to investigate. They came back in only a minute, back in their human forms again.
She recognized one of them, Standing Bear. He said, “It’s Mel’s brothers.”
It wasn’t long before Marc strode into the barn. He swept one look around the barn and probably figured out everything with the one visual sweep. Then he walked to Mel, followed by Mike and Mord, each holding a lantern.
“You’re okay?”
Mel nodded. “Snake and the others came in time.”
Her brother grunted. “Looks like all three Fosses are done for. Since they have no other family, I guess it’s up to us to bury them.”
“Rick Avon is the Leaning F’s foreman. They have half a dozen men riding for them,” she reminded Marc. “Shouldn’t they be the ones to bury them?”
Marc looked around again and focused on Stone being doctored by the stranger. Stone’s eyes were open, staring icily at Mord. Her youngest brother swallowed but looked back at Stone with steady eyes.
“Yeah, I guess they should,” Marc said. “Mord, round up the Leaning F horses and take ‘em home. Snake, can a couple of your boys go with him in case there’s any trouble?”
Sand and Snow volunteered. “Put some clothes on,” Snake advised.
They went to the saddlebags by Sara and dug around inside for jeans but no shirts. All the shirts were probably being used for bandages. They dressed and helped Mord gather the horses.
As they left the barn with Mord, Mel heard Snow say hopefully, “Maybe there will be trouble.”
With Mord out of Stone’s sight, he seemed to relax. Mel noticed how he avoided looking at Sara. The teenager’s face was anxious as she helped the stranger wrap Stone’s arm and tie it over his chest. When the stranger lifted Stone to his feet, she tried to support some of his weight. Without looking at her, Stone said, “I need a little help here. White Horse?”
White Horse looked almost apologetic when he moved Sara out of the way. Sara moved back to give him room. Mel wasn’t sure if she looked hurt or not. Snake reached to draw Sara back. “We should have kept those horses,” he remarked. “Paint and Stone will need to ride back to the ranch. Mel, can you walk?”
“Yeah.” Mel looked inquiringly at Sara. “But maybe Sara should ride. The Fosses were beating her up pretty bad when Paint charged in.”
“I’m okay,” Sara protested.
Mel thought the arm Sara curled over her abdomen indicated at least one bad kick in the belly. Paint pulled himself to his feet, using the wall for balance. “I can walk.”
Snake shook his head. “You two can share a horse. We won’t go fast.”
Marc said, “You can use one of ours. Mike and I will stay here with the Fosses until Mord gets back. If we need to, we can double up to ride home.”
“Thanks.” Snake went off to collect the horses. While he was gone, Stone crooked a finger at Mel. She went quickly to where he stood leaning on White Horse and
the stranger.
“Is Sara okay?” he asked in a pained thread of a voice.
She glanced back at Sara, who was watching them, and this time Mel saw hurt on her face. “Yeah. She’s bruised a bit. Maybe a cracked rib. When Sam and his brothers started tearing my clothes off, she tried to help me, and they beat the tar out of her.”
“Okay.” Stone turned his face away and leaned more heavily on the stranger. “Take her back to your place and make sure she stays put.”
Mel stared at him. “Stays put? Where would she go?”
“To wherever she was going when the Fosses grabbed her.”
Her stare edged into a frown. “She wasn’t going anywhere. She was at the front gate, waiting for you to come back so she could talk to you.”
Stone’s face went gray, and he sagged against the stranger. Sara started forward, but Stone uttered a cold, “Don’t.”
Sara stopped, her lower lip trembling as she fought an obvious battle against tears.
Stone nodded weakly to the stranger. “This is Blue Stone. He’s a Clan healer. Blue, would you take a look at Sara? Be sure she’s okay?”
Sara gave both of them a cutting glare. “I’m fine.” She turned and stalked away to where Snake stood with the horses. “Is this one mine?” she asked coolly.
But she couldn’t quite make it up onto the Native American style saddle on her own. Her face was so utterly blank, Mel knew she was in pain. She almost told her to quit being so proud and let Blue look at her. Snake gave Sara a boost up, and Paint mounted Mike’s horse easily in spite of his gunshot arm. Blue and White Horse lifted Stone onto the third horse, and he arranged himself with great difficulty into a half-lying position along the horse’s neck. White Horse and Blue stayed on either side of him in human form. Snake directed one of his cousins to stay with Marc and Mike, and the other four men changed to wolves to go with their party to the D. With Snake and Mel leading the way on foot, their party walked back to the ranch.
It seemed like the longest three miles Mel ever walked. Her shoulder hurt from being wrenched when she fell on it with her arms tied behind her. She was pretty sure there was a bruise on her ankle where Sam grabbed it, and her mouth was sore from the gag, but her injuries were slight compared to Stone’s.
