Wulfric blew out a loud breath. “It’s probably better if I go first and show you.”
“Before you do,” Algar cut in, “I suggest you go wolf, and save the other until she has gotten over the first. I made that mistake with Kamryn, remember? And since we have to start the search for her friend, we really don’t have the time to calm Cydney down.”
The sound of her heart pounding with unease filled her ears. The way Wulfric and the others looked at her, as if they were prepared for her to react badly, had her a little scared about what Wulfric was going to do. Go wolf? What did Algar mean by telling Wulfric to go wolf?
Cydney soon found her gaze locked on Wulfric, and she was unable to move or say anything. In the bright lights of the parking lot, she watched as his eyes seemed to change, the iris taking up most of the white. His body blurred, and from one blink to the next, he’d shifted from a man to a wolf who stood staring up at her. His fur was a very light brown verging on a blond shade, a bit darker than the color of his hair.
“Holy fucking shit,” she all but yelled.
She backed away only to slam against a hard body. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Brand behind her. He wrapped his hands around her upper arms, preventing her from going anywhere.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s still Wulfric. Touch him.”
Not giving her a chance to protest, Brand slid one hand down her arm to her wrist and forced her to place her palm on top of Wulfric’s lupine head. His fur felt soft against her skin. He turned his head and rubbed it against her hand. She looked into his wolf’s eyes and saw intelligence and understanding. This was all so surreal. If she hadn’t seen Wulfric change, she wouldn’t have believed him if he’d just straight out told her.
Brand let go of her wrist. Cydney kept her hand on Wulfric’s head, stroking his fur. She didn’t feel as if she wanted to run screaming in terror. But that didn’t mean she felt any less unsure about what he could do.
But then his body blurred again, he grew bigger, taller and took on another completely different form. This one had her heart trying to beat out of her chest, and a trickle of fear ran down her spine. Wulfric stood seven feet tall. His body was completely covered in the same fur as the wolf had. He looked to be a cross between a wolf and a man with his large lupine head, pointed ears on top of his head, bushy tail and clawed fingers and toes.
“It’s still me,” Wulfric said, his voice deeper and gravelly sounding compared to his normal one.
Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs as if she were about to hyperventilate.
Hearing Wulfric’s voice come out of a wolf-looking mouth had her about ready to balk.
As if he sensed she was about to run, he reached out and pulled her to his furred chest.
She heard the wild thud of his heart under her ear, almost matching the rate of hers.
“It’s all right, Cydney. You don’t have to be afraid. I won’t hurt you. Just relax.
You’ll get used to seeing me like this.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The scent that filled her nose was the one she’d come to associate with Wulfric—masculine with a hint of the aftershave he always seemed to wear. His hands stroked her back and he rested his chin on top of her head. When all he did was just hold her, by slow degrees, her fear abated enough for her to calm down slightly and slow her breathing, so she wouldn’t pass out.
Putting her hands on Wulfric’s chest, she pushed back in his embrace and looked at him. It was hard to think of this half man and half wolf as being the man she’d slept with. But looking into his wolf’s eyes, she saw something that let her see into the soul of the man inside.
“What are you?” she asked shakily. “Are you a werewolf?”
“For now that’s the best explanation. We don’t have time to get into it. We need to see if we can pick up the trail of the werewolf that was here with Maggie.”
“You think one of your kind has her?”
Wulfric let out a low growl. “This one isn’t like us. This werewolf was sired by Fenris the wolf, one of the creatures me and my fellow warriors have been charged to put down. They’re bloodthirsty and prey upon mortals for sport.”
Cydney felt her heart race again. “Oh god. Are you telling me one of those things has Maggie?”
“We’re going to do everything we can to find her, Cydney,” Raed said. He then turned all business as he addressed the men around her. “Dolf, you’ll search with Wulfric. Garrick and Brand you team up while Algar and I will as well. One from each pairing will stay wolf while the other stays in human form.”
Cydney stepped out of Wulfric’s arms and watched as Raed shifted to his wolf form and sniffed the keys on the ground. Once he changed back, he said, “There are too many scents on it to pinpoint Maggie’s.” He stooped to look inside the car. “Cydney, can you tell me if the jacket on the backseat is your friends?”
She walked over to where Raed stood and peered into the back-side window.
“Yeah, that is Maggie’s.”
He picked up the keys, used one to unlock the driver’s door and reached inside to pull out the jacket. Raed held it to his face and took a deep breath. “I’ve got it.” He held it out. “Everyone take a sniff.”
“And be sure to check out the werewolf scent high up on the car door,” Wulfric added.
One by one, the others went wolf, checking out the two scents. As each one shifted, Cydney found it less jarring, and that she could accept it better. Dolf went last.
He buried his wolf’s nose into the jacket and his whole body visibly stiffened. A low growl rumbled out of his throat as he snatched the garment out of Raed’s hand with his teeth. He dropped it at his paws, threw back his head and let out a loud howl. In a blink of an eye, he shifted to his human form, picked up the jacket and held it to his face.
Cydney couldn’t help but notice how Dolf desperately clutched at what he held.
“Are those claws I see on the tips of his fingers?” she asked uncertainly.
“Aw, fuck,” Garrick said in a loud voice. “She’s his mate. It figures Wulfric and Dolf would find theirs practically at the same time.”
Wulfric punched Garrick in the arm. “Shut the fuck up, big mouth.”
Garrick rubbed where he’d been hit as he shot her a glance before looking back at Wulfric. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
What Garrick had said about Wulfric and Dolf slowly sank in. She gasped. “I’m your mate?” she asked Wulfric.
“Yes, just as Lexi is Raed’s, Kamryn is Algar’s and Nika is Garrick’s. But again, this is something we’ll discuss later.” He turned toward Dolf. “You have to pull it together, my man. If you go all wolf you’re not going to keep yourself thinking straight enough to find your mate.”
Dolf lowered Maggie’s jacket and clutched it in a tight fist. “He’s mine. No one takes him down but me. I haven’t waited a thousand years to find my mate to have one of Fenris’ werewolves take her from me before we’ve even met.”
Cydney swallowed. A thousand years? She turned a gaze that had to be filled with the shock she felt toward Wulfric. He didn’t notice as his full attention was centered on his best friend.
“He’s yours,” Wulfric reassured Dolf. “We’ll get her back. Just keep it together.
I’ll be the one to go wolf.”
“No,” Dolf snarled. “I’ll be the one who does that.”
“No, you won’t,” Raed said sternly. “You’ll stay in human form, Dolf. You go wolf and you won’t be able to control yourself. Wulfric will be the one to shift while you stay at his mate’s side to keep watch over her.”
Dolf let out a loud wolf growl that Cydney had heard Wulfric make before. “Is that an order from my leader?”
“Yes, that’s an order. Now pair off and look for that scent trail.”
Algar and Garrick shifted to wolves, then they, along with Raed and Brand, began their search, leaving Dolf and Wulfric with her in the parking lot.
Cydney sta
yed where she was as Wulfric came to her and lightly kissed her. She shivered at his touch. Her mind was too jumbled with all that had been revealed to think straight.
“I’m going to go wolf now. You and Dolf will follow me. Stay with him.”
At her nod, his body blurred and he was once again a wolf. Walking at Dolf’s side, she followed Wulfric as instructed. He had his nose to the ground as he searched for Maggie’s scent.
After they’d walked for a bit, Dolf asked, “What’s she like?”
“You mean Maggie?” At his nod, she continued. “She’s smart, funny, a bit on the shy side at times. I’ve known her for four years now, ever since we shared our first dorm room at university in Toronto. She just finished her BA in journalism.”
“What does she look like?”
“She’s a little taller than I am. Has long, black hair, green eyes. She’s cute, but doesn’t think she is.” Not knowing how else to describe her friend, Cydney added, “When it comes to men, Maggie can be overcautious, at least I think so. She’s only dated a few guys since I’ve known her. She also isn’t seeing anyone right now.”
Dolf grunted. “Good. Then I won’t have to steal her away from another man.”
Seeing how grim he looked, his anxiousness practically rolling off him in waves, Cydney asked, “You want to know something funny? After I met you, I told Maggie about you. I told her I thought you’d be perfect for her.”
His gaze shot to her face. “You did? What did she say?”
“That I could introduce you to her at any time. I actually tried to use you as a bribe to get her to come help me with Wulfric’s room today. She hates painting or anything that entails decorating. I should have pushed harder to get her to come with me.” Her voice caught on the last sentence.
“You didn’t know this would happen,” Dolf said through gritted teeth. “Don’t blame yourself.”
Before she could say any more, a loud wolf’s howl sounded off in the distance.
Dolf came to a standstill as did Wulfric. “What was that?” she asked.
“Garrick has found something.”
Dolf turned and headed back in the direction they’d come. Wulfric came to her side and licked her hand. He then maneuvered himself so it rested on his neck. A little more comfortable with him in this form than the other, she threaded her fingers through his fur and allowed him to walk her in Dolf’s wake.
Chapter Nine
Once they met up with the others, minus Garrick, Wulfric shifted to his human form, willing his clothes back on at the same time. He shot Cydney a quick look to find her watching him. He had no idea what she thought of what he’d revealed to her. She kept her face guarded. At least she wasn’t looking at him in absolute horror. It was a start, though he thought most of her not appearing so fearful of him stemmed from the worry she must feel for her friend.
Wulfric brought his attention to the matter at hand when Brand said, “Garrick picked up the scent of another werewolf. Not the one we hunted. He has him cornered behind this building in a dead end alley.”
As a group, they all rushed to where Garrick had the werewolf contained. His fellow warrior was in his werewolf form, using his sharp claws and teeth to keep the creature he’d cornered right where he wanted him.
Without taking his gaze off his prey, Garrick said, “I’ve tried to convince him to shift, so he can tell us where to find his den, but so far he isn’t cooperating.”
“Let me have a go,” Dolf said with a growl.
Dolf passed Maggie’s jacket to Cydney, then as he walked toward Garrick and Fenri’s get, he shifted into his werewolf form. Brushing Garrick aside, he snatched the creature around the throat and slammed him against the brick wall, his head hitting it with a loud thump.
“Shift,” Dolf said menacingly, “or I’ll call Tiw to force the change on you. You do know who Tiw is, right?”
Wulfric knew Tiw couldn’t do any such thing, but the creature Dolf held didn’t.
The werewolf’s response to the demand was to snarl and growl as he tried to break Dolf’s hold on his neck with his claws. Dolf just slammed his head harder against the wall until the creature gave up.
“All right, since you aren’t going to play nice, maybe it’s time you got a taste of Tiw’s god-fire. “ Dolf looked up into the night sky. “Tiw, I have a need of your fire, but just a little. Only enough to show this piece of shit what will happen to him if he doesn’t do as we ask.”
The werewolf howled in pain as a streak of Tiw’s blue god-fire licked across his upper arm. It took one more kiss of flame to have him shifting into his human form. As soon as he did, Dolf yanked him up into his face and curled his upper lip in a snarl.
“Now, asshole, tell me where we can find your den.”
“Why the hell should I tell you? I know all about Tiw’s immortal warriors who hunt my kind. You’ll kill me anyway.”
Still in werewolf form, Dolf’s sword appeared in his hand. “But there are many ways to die. It can be easy or hard. Your choice. I’ve heard silver poisoning is a slow and painful way to go.” To back up his threat, Dolf brought the tip of his sword to rest between the werewolf’s eyes. The silver in the steel flashed in the bright light of the almost full moon that hung in the sky.
He swallowed. “Okay, I’ll show you where it is. I’ll do even better and lead you right into it.”
“And why should we believe you would do that?” Raed asked.
“Because now that I think about it we can scratch each other’s backs.”
“What could we possibly do for you?”
The werewolf smiled. “Recently we’ve had a change in pack leaders. Stephen, who took Nathan’s place, thinks nothing of us who are under him. He’s making changes not all of us agree on. One of them is bringing mortal women into the den to play with. Nathan had it right when he decreed no females should be involved in the pack. They’re too distracting. You promise to do away with Stephen, and I’ll lead you right to him. And in exchange, you let me live to see another day. I’ll promise to lay low.”
Dolf withdrew his sword just before he willed it away and shifted to his human form. “Deal, but if you fuck us over, I’ll make you wish you never existed.”
Wulfric took Cydney’s hand and pulled her to his side as Dolf grabbed the werewolf by the back of the neck and force-marched him out of the alley. The look on his best friend’s face as he passed him said Dolf would do anything and everything he needed to get his mate back. The werewolves had no idea what was about to sweep down on them.
* * *
“Cydney, would you just listen to reason,” Wulfric pleaded. “The werewolf den is no place for a mortal.”
“Tough,” she said. “I’m going. Maggie will need someone she knows. Unlike me, she probably hasn’t gotten the nonviolent introduction to your world. She’ll see you guys shift and think you’re one of the ones who have taken her.”
“Cydney is right,” Raed interjected. “We don’t know,” he paused to glance in Dolf’s direction who stood in the werewolf’s face, pumping him for information, “what condition we’ll find Maggie in.”
Wulfric sighed. “All right, but you won’t leave my side for anything, Cydney.
Even if I’m in my wolf or werewolf form, you don’t go anywhere. Got it?”
“Does she have the mark yet?” Algar asked. “Because if she does, that will be one less thing you have to worry about.”
Cydney’s brow furrowed. “What mark?”
He said to Algar, “Yes, at least she had the start of it. It’s very faint.” To Cydney he added, “Tiw, who is an Anglo-Saxon god, is the one who granted us immortality and the ability to shift and to hunt what you would call the ‘bad werewolves.’ All of his warriors carry his mark on the cap of our left shoulders.”
“You mean that isn’t a tattoo?”
“Correct, it isn’t. When each of us finds our mates, Tiw also places his mark on the woman, high up on her back near her right shoulder. It’s the same but o
nly smaller.
When a mate is found, the mark first shows as a dark bruise. Once she’s grown to accept the warrior who is the one for her, it fully appears.”
Cydney shook her head. “Slow down a bit. I feel as if I’m drowning in information overload. This mark, besides being from an Anglo-Saxon god, does it mean something else? The way Algar asked about it, I’m assuming it does.”
“Correct again. Once you carry Tiw’s mark, you are no longer susceptible to a bite from a werewolf sired by Fenris the wolf. One bite from their kind turns a mortal into a werewolf who thirsts for flesh and blood.”
Wulfric heard Cydney audibly swallow. “What about Maggie? She’s Dolf’s mate? Would she have the start of the mark?”
“More than likely not. She and Dolf haven’t met yet. The mark doesn’t begin to appear until after two mates have done so.”
“Oh god. What if she ends up being bitten?”
His voice grim, Wulfric said, “She’ll have to be put down like others of Fenris’ get.”
Cydney’s face went white. “Then what the fuck are we waiting for? We need to get her out of that den before that can happen.”
Raed turned toward Dolf and asked loudly, “Are you ready to go, Dolf?”
The warrior eased away from the werewolf. “Yes. Let’s do this.”
Their leader nodded. “We’re ready as well. Dolf, you, Garrick and our captive over there will go with Brand in his car. The rest of us will follow in mine.”
Once they all piled into the cars, Wulfric shifted closer to Cydney in the backseat.
He smelled her fear. He didn’t think it was because of what he and his fellow warriors were, but he had to make sure. “Cyd, talk to me. Please tell me you’re able to handle the truth of what I am.”
She turned her head to look at him. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m thrilled to hear you’re a werewolf.”
“We don’t think of ourselves as that. We’re immortal warriors.”
“Whatever. To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about all of it, and me being your mate. Right now, all I can think about is Maggie and what she must be going through.”
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