by Odessa Lynne
“Not by choice. I didn’t want it.”
Lies always were easier when they weren’t really lies at all.
“You take me away from him and that’ll piss him off. It would serve him right for not protecting what was his, huh?” He skimmed his eyes over her. “I’ve never mated with a female wolf before. That’d be something to try.”
Her eyes flickered over him. She sniffed again, then startled him by thrusting her face against his collar. When she raised her head the next time and spoke, the quality of her voice had changed with the first stirrings of lust. “You tempt me, human, but I have a purpose here, and it isn’t to collect another mate.”
He thought about Rick and how it had felt when Rick had held him down for their mating. He deliberately flooded his thoughts with every dirty thing he’d thought about doing to Rick since he’d first realized he wanted Rick to fuck him. He wanted to suck that alien cock until Rick was panting with the need to fuck Cam’s mouth. He wanted Rick to hold him down and give him a rim job with that alien tongue, eat him out like he was the best thing Rick had tasted since coming to Earth. He wanted to climb on top of Rick and ride that thick cock like a damn cowboy from an old veo—
The wolf’s eyes widened and her nostrils flared. She growled low in her chest and leaned forward, her breasts pressing hard against his belly. Her clawed hand slipped upward and she wrapped her fingers around Cam’s throat.
Another wolf dropped down from the tree behind her.
She turned and roared at him, making Cam jump. Her grip on his throat tightened with her movement, but she didn’t release him. His heart thudded with electric speed and his mouth went dry.
His cock had stiffened, not a lot, but enough that when her hand dropped down to cup him, he sucked in his breath at the contact.
He might’ve sold that lie a little too well.
She curled her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and dragged him closer and then straddled him in one swift, unexpected move.
He grabbed her hips.
The wolf behind her grabbed her shoulder.
She lunged around, already slashing with a powerful sweep of her arm.
The other wolf stumbled back. Even Cam was starting to have trouble making out the more distant shapes in the dark. The clouds hid the moon and the night’s shadows had deepened from gray to black.
“Submit!” she demanded in the wolves’ language, her voice darkly compelling.
The command wasn’t meant for him, but pressure throbbed in Cam’s chest and he had to fight to desire to just let go and let her have whatever she wanted from him.
The sensation was both disturbing and intense. Scary.
He had felt something similar out in the woods with Rick. He hadn’t been scared then; he couldn’t say the same now.
Her companion seemed to struggle with the urge to submit. He lost. He slashed his claws in her direction, a fraction of a second too late as she lunged toward him.
Her foot dug into Cam’s thigh and he couldn’t stop his yell as claws ripped through his jeans and tore into his flesh. He grabbed his thigh and rolled to his side, fighting his body’s visceral reaction to either puke or pass out. Cold sweat beaded his skin; he couldn’t take more than a shallow breath.
He groaned and buried his forehead against the cold ground. One . . . two . . . three . . . He clenched his teeth. The pain started to fade.
He sucked in air, then pushed to his knees, still feeling like he might be sick at any moment. One more deep breath, and then he hobbled his way to his feet and limped for the protection of the closest tree.
He fell on his ass as soon as he had bark under his hands. He used the strength in his arms to swing himself under the tree’s bent trunk, coming around the other side just as one of the wolves slammed into the trunk behind him.
Leaves rattled wildly and a few rained down on Cam’s head. He turned and shoved with his uninjured leg as hard as he could against the base of the trunk. With the growling wolves so close, he didn’t give a damn where he went as long as it was away from their vicious fight.
He skidded backward across the leaves under him, tumbling several feet down the steep slope before he could stop his slide with a handful of whip thin vines.
Briars ripped through his palm.
“Shit!”
His slide stopped just as the vines snapped out of his hand. He shoved upright again, gritted his teeth and yanked his weapon out of the sheath on his thigh.
He was half buried in the damn brush and vines and he had to thrash his way out before he could take aim.
A scrabbling sound from below caught his attention. Cam squinted.
The wolf who’d gone after Brendan was dragging him up the slope by the twisted collar of his shirt.
Brendan had his arms raised above his head trying to get a grip on the wolf’s forearm. His boots kept snagging in the vines that covered the ground where the wolf had started up the ridge.
Cam took a calming breath, pushed aside the fading burn in his thigh, and took aim.
Don’t shoot a human unless you want him dead, Devon had said when he stopped to gather the weapons for himself, Cam, Ava, Matthew, and Brendan. Can’t use regular guns and bullets when so many wolves are still trying to make their way to the den for the heat season.
What a fuck up. If he missed, no one was going to believe he hadn’t done it on purpose.
Hell, maybe he wouldn’t even believe it.
He fired.
Not bullets. Tranquilizers. Something the wolves had developed just recently to give their human pack mates a weapon to use against them in an emergency situation that wouldn’t kill innocents caught up in the rage of the heat.
Devon had said they weren’t that effective, but it was all they had. Then he’d added—with a glare straight at Cam—that since the incident with Gerald, the wolves’ weapons technologies had been locked up or they’d have something a whole goddamn lot better than glorified tranquilizers that might not work.
Cam hadn’t argued, although he had been tempted to ask who the hell Gerald was and what that had to do with him.
He hadn’t, because it hadn’t mattered. He didn’t plan to kill some wolf he didn’t even know just because of the heat. That was exactly the kind of shit he’d been fighting against for the last six years.
The tranq missed Brendan.
It also missed its mark.
“Shit!”
The wolf growled and released Brendan, his eyes zeroing in on Cam.
Cam fired again.
The tranq hit the wolf in the chest. Not the best place, according to Devon, but Cam wasn’t wasting another chance to at least get the damn drug into the wolf this time.
Cam didn’t know what he was supposed to be waiting for, but nothing happened except that the wolf yanked Brendan forward and slammed him into the side of the ridge where the bare rock face started.
Brendan yelled.
Cam shoved his weapon into its sheath and searched for the quickest way to get to Brendan and the wolf.
There. A ledge jutted out about ten feet away, and it led straight to the top of the rock face. He could shoot from—
Someone grabbed the back of his shirt. His thigh wasn’t ready for his full weight as he tried to jerk away and the sudden shift made pain shoot straight through to the bone.
His leg gave under him. Fabric tore as the wolf slung him around. Cam felt himself falling and he slammed to a teeth-knocking, ear-ringing stop against the side of a tree.
His gasp came out broken and harsh as the impact paralyzed his lungs for what felt like an eternity.
His knees wouldn’t hold him up and he slid down the tree. His fingers curled and his ass hit the ground.
Claws were dark shadows at the tips of the alpha’s fingers. She grabbed his ankle and dragged him away from the tree.
His imagination had never been that good. He could visualize damn near anything if he’d seen it, but he’d never seen a female wolf claiming a mate
. He had no idea how she excepted to get what she wanted from him—he wasn’t a wolf and if this shit was supposed to make him hard, well—
The only thing he could say with absolute certainty right then was that his dick had no interest at all in what was about to happen, and while that might’ve still worked out just fine for a male wolf, it wasn’t going to work for this one.
Maybe she just wanted to kill him.
Might be better for both of them if she did.
She ripped through the front of his shirt with her claws, just nicking his skin.
He grappled with her hands, but even though she was a female, she was still more powerful than him with her remarkably strong muscle and heavy bones. She pushed his arms to the ground and straddled him.
“Submit,” she said, the demand almost lost in a growl. She scraped her teeth along his shoulder, her hot breath puffing against his skin. “You’ll be mine to rule as I please . . . Or you will die.”
He winced as she nipped his collarbone, then bowed his back, trying to get some of the pressure off his spine.
She held tight to his biceps just above his elbows, her claws piercing painfully deep. “Make your choice, human.”
“I’m thinking about it. It’s a big commit—”
Her roar cut him off. His ears rang, but suddenly he had one arm free and a set of claws coming right at him. He jerked his head to the side and threw his forearm up to block her, knowing as he did it that it wouldn’t be enough.
She toppled forward over him, a dead weight crushing him into the leaves and rock beneath.
He blew out the breath he’d been holding in anticipation of her blow and shoved her off him.
Her head thudded against the ground.
Brendan was already grabbing Cam’s arm.
“Fuck,” Cam said. “That was close.”
“Thought you were as good as dead there for a minute.”
“Me too.” Cam closed his eyes for the count of two, then reopened them and grabbed the arm Brendan was offering him. With his fingers wrapped around Brendan’s wrist, he leveraged himself to his feet.
His right thigh immediately gave out on him. He staggered sideways on the slope.
Brendan jerked forward and shoved his shoulder under Cam’s arm. “You injured?”
“Fuck,” Cam said through gritted teeth.
“I take it that’s a yes.” Brendan clamped his hand around Cam’s wrist and adjusted Cam’s arm over his shoulders.
Cam pursed his mouth and took a slow breath. “My thigh.”
Brendan looked down. “Can’t see much. I’d need the flashlight and fuck if I know where it is right now.”
Cam looked down at the female wolf. He pulled his weapon free awkwardly with his left hand, grimacing with pain when the movement caused the strap holding the sheath in place to drag across his injuries.
“What are you—”
Cam fired a shot directly into her back. Her body twitched, but otherwise didn’t move. “Your buddy Devon’s going to hear about the shit job he did filling us in on what these things are supposed to do. Do you have any fucking idea how much time this is going to give us?”
“Not one goddamned clue. Let’s move.”
“The other one—”
“Got him in the neck with two more after he fell, and the third looks dead so I didn’t bother. Even if he heals, it’ll take him a while.”
Brendan started leading him down the ridge slowly, staying away from the rocky areas where it would be easier for Cam to lose his footing.
“I didn’t think that shot I took was going to do anything.”
“It did. It just took a minute. Trust me, I’m grateful it worked at all. He was getting worked up. I think his repression drugs failed.”
Cam tried to get a look at Brendan’s face, but the shadows made it hard to see anything but the outline of his features and a few dark spots that were probably blood.
The climb down was painful and took too damn long as far as Cam was concerned. “Where’s this magical pain relief you were talking about? I’d like some of it right about now.”
He had to stop too many times to catch his breath and ease the hot ache that started every time he put weight on his leg. Sure, the pain faded between steps, but it was a lot like getting his thigh shredded all over again every time he tried to use his muscle.
Not more than ten feet from the bottom, his foot slipped into a hole buried under the thick cover of dead leaves and still green vines. His other foot slid out from under him and he fell flat on his back on the steep slope, half burying himself in the thick cluster of vines they were trying to make their way through.
He gritted his teeth and stared up at the bright moon just coming out from behind the scudding clouds. “This bites a dick,” he said.
Brendan let out a bark of laughter and dropped down on the vine covered ridge beside Cam. “Now that’s one I haven’t heard in a while.”
Chapter 30
“You’re one heavy son of a bitch, Lujan.”
“Go to hell, Greer. I didn’t ask for your help.”
“I didn’t ask you not to shoot me, but you didn’t and I figure I owe you for that on top of everything else now. You’ve got to be the slowest healer I’ve met. Alan’s gonna find you fascinating.”
“Who’s Alan?”
“Our only human doctor. One of the packs found him wandering too close to their den last heat season. He’s a good guy, but he can be a fucking pain in the—” Brendan stumbled, almost taking both him and Cam down. “Fuck!”
Cam sucked his breath in through his teeth and tightened his arm around Brendan’s shoulders. “You’re making too much noise.”
Brendan staggered but kept them both upright. “Think I give a fuck at this particular moment? As loud as we’ve been kicking through all these fucking leaves, if there are more wolves waiting on us out here, we’re screwed anyway.”
The trees were close together and the walk around the ridge was taking a hell of a lot longer than crossing it would have. But Cam remembered the trip up the other side. He couldn’t have done it in the shape he was in, and Brendan probably knew that.
Cam eased his weight off Brendan. “You could go on ahead, get help. Lead them back to me.”
“Yeah. I could. Might be an easy way to get rid of an asshole I’m sure is going to end up being nothing but a pain in my ass in the long run.”
“Go to hell, Greer.”
“Oh, fuck you, Lujan.”
Cam tried not to laugh. “I think I’m in shock or something. Ethan was right. This shit is funny.”
Brendan muttered under his breath.
Cam laughed softly and stumbled along beside Brendan through the dark woods.
A few minutes later, he remembered what the hell they’d been talking about. “I take it they let the doctor stick around?”
Brendan grunted his way under a long, low limb that blocked their path, taking Cam with him. “You could say that.”
“What else could I say? Is he being held against his will or something?”
“Or something’s the best answer I know how to give. He seems to like it here, but he’s said more than once he’d leave if he could. Trey won’t let him.”
“Trey. Your mate. First Alpha. Why won’t he let Alan leave?”
“Sometimes there are things he knows I won’t understand, and we decided a few years ago that sometimes . . . it’s better if I don’t know what the hell’s going on in those cases because I probably wouldn’t like it.”
“Like when your mate keeps humans prisoner for reasons he won’t tell you.”
“Shut up, fucker.” Said with more aggravation than true anger, but Cam had to wonder just how much of the keeping secrets thing Brendan was actually okay with and how much of it bugged the shit out of him.
Cam wouldn’t like it. Then again Cam also hadn’t been drugged and manipulated, or brainwashed, as Lane had suggested might have happened to Greer.
Just how much h
ad Greer changed in the last seven or eight years? What kind of man had he really been before the wolves got hold of him three years ago? He’d probably been eighteen, maybe nineteen when he’d recruited Ricco. At that age, could he have understand the kind of man Ricco was?
Cam couldn’t answer any of those questions, but the very idea that he was asking them rattled him. He shouldn’t care. He’d been nineteen when he’d come into contact with Ricco. That wasn’t much older and he’d had to learn the hard way just what kind of man Ricco Swanger had been.
“If I knew what the hell was going on, I might decide I needed to do something about it. Trey doesn’t like my track record when it comes to doing what I think needs to be done. Hell, I don’t blame him. I used to be a fucked up mess.” Brendan pulled up short, panting hard. “I need a break.”
“We don’t have time for a—”
“Bullshit. If I don’t have a break, I’m not going to make it the five goddamned miles we have left to get around this fucking ridge. Like I said, you’re one heavy son of a bitch.”
Cam removed his arm from Brendan’s shoulders and waved his arm. “Take a fucking break then. You be sure you’re the one who offers up his ass when one of those damn rogue wolves of yours catches up to us.”
“That might be a problem, because they’re probably going to be looking for the biggest asshole and that ain’t me.”
Cam clenched his fist, thought about punching Brendan, then thought about how Brendan was probably right about him being the biggest asshole here, and then—
“Dammit.” He hobbled toward the nearest tree and eased down in front of it.
“That was a good one. Admit it.”
“Go to hell.”
Brendan exhaled with gusto and stretched his arms over his head. “This is turning out to be one long evening. I hope Trey or Rick or somebody shows up soon. I’m ready to get some rest. I thought I was prepared for the heat, but swear to God, I’m already walking bowlegged and we’re not even halfway through it yet.”
“Jesus. I don’t care about how often your mate’s been fucking you, Greer. That’s between you and your asshole.”
