by Terry Spear
“You’ll be with Jake. Are you ready to play the alpha leader again?”
Jake gave him an evil smile.
“What about Carol?” Lelandi asked, her blood growing cold.
“Ask her. I’m sure she knows what’s going to happen already.” He led Lelandi toward the kitchen. “Have both Silva and Carol go with you to the bedroom. You’ll watch something on television, pretend like nothing is out of the ordinary.”
Uncle Sheridan barged into the house with Peter and Chester McKinley.
“Where’s Trevor?” Darien asked, his tone annoyed.
“He’s on his way.”
“I want to help even though I’m not one of your pack, if you’ll let me,” Chester said.
Darien glanced out the front window. Several gray wolves were positioning themselves around the estate. “All right. You stay with Jake and Tom.”
Darien amazed Lelandi at every turn. Normally, a pack leader wouldn’t want interference from a wolf he didn’t trust and know well when a serious crisis was at hand.
He kissed Lelandi’s cheek. “Go, move the women upstairs.”
“Hope the pies are done.” She hurried off to the kitchen, praying Darien knew what he was doing concerning Carol and that no one would hurt her in the impending fracas.
“The reds arrived in the drive,” Tom warned.
“Carol, Silva, how far along are the pies?” Lelandi asked, her pulse pounding.
Silva gave her a knowing look. “We brought them out to cool.”
“Super. Why don’t we go up to one of the bedrooms and watch some TV?” She motioned toward the living room.
“Sure, sugar. Sounds like a great idea.”
Carol offered a wary smile. “Love to until the pies are ready to eat. We need to make sure we get some before the guys scarf them up.”
“You’re right about that.” Lelandi waited for Silva and Carol to leave first. She tried to keep the panic from her voice, but she was sure both women noticed.
On the way to the stairs, they headed toward the men gathered in the living room.
Darien grabbed Jake’s shoulder. “Are you sure you can handle this?”
Jake’s face lit up with a sinister cast. “You bet, Darien. They won’t know what hit them.”
“All right. Uncle Sheridan?”
“All set. Go protect the little lady. You know they’ll pull something sneaky to take her out of here.”
“Chester?”
“I’m with you. Thanks for trusting in me.”
“Sam?”
Sam patted Tom on the shoulder. “We’ll take care of Jake in case anything gets out of hand.”
“Where’s Trevor?” Silva asked.
“Late. I’m sure he has a damned good excuse though,” Darien said, his words sarcastic.
Lelandi thought Silva had given up on that worthless Trevor. What now? “Is Jake going to be all right?”
“Jake will be fine. Every time I have to leave town, he takes over.” Darien looked at Peter. “Ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
A knock sounded at the front door and Darien took Lelandi’s hand and rushed her up the stairs with Silva and Carol following, and Peter bringing up the rear. “You were supposed to be upstairs already,” Darien scolded.
But as soon as Darien and Lelandi reached the landing, he shoved her against the wall, and she smelled the reds’ scents, too. “They’re here,” he whispered. “Must have slipped in before my guards were in place on the property.”
Carol’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. Silva and Lelandi breathed in deeply and listened, trying to sense where the reds were located.
Darien nodded to Peter and they both began stripping out of their clothes.
“Where do you want us to go?” Lelandi asked Darien, knowing he planned to shapeshift and soon couldn’t tell her anything.
“Where do you need to go?” Darien deferred to Carol.
She looked too stunned to answer.
Lelandi shook her hand. “Carol. Where do you see that we need to be?”
“We’re in a big blue bedroom with a sitting area.”
“Darien’s bedroom.” Lelandi led Carol down the hall with Silva trailing behind.
“A security monitor is in the room. Hit the green switch for the living room. We should be able to hear the conversation,” Silva said.
Carol glanced back at Darien—both he and Peter were now naked. Lelandi pulled her into the bedroom so she wouldn’t see them shapeshift. No smell of the reds in here. They must have broken into Jake’s or…or maybe the guest bedroom, thinking she was still staying there.
In their wolf pelts, Darien and Peter loped after them and Carol cried out.
“Good pet wolves,” Lelandi said, patting Darien on the head.
Carol hadn’t seen the men transform, but she did see their clothes lying on the floor in the hallway, and Darien and Peter had vanished. She knew.
Lelandi closed the door and Peter sat next to it, his ears perked up, listening.
Silva motioned to one of the two chairs. “I’ll put something on. Like comedies?”
Carol nodded heartily, but her attention was glued to Lelandi who flipped on the monitor switch, then took a seat on the bed. Darien jumped up on the mattress and nuzzled her hand with his nose.
She scratched his head and smiled. “Want me to rub your belly, too?”
Peter and Silva glanced back at them.
A wolf that would bear his belly to another showed his complete trust in the other, but Darien pushed his nose into her crotch and sniffed. Smiling, Lelandi shoved his head away. Silva chuckled and turned on the television.
Peter observed Darien and Lelandi for a minute more, then when Darien laid his head on her lap, Peter concentrated on the door.
“I’m Bruin Stillwater,” the red pack leader said to Jake downstairs.
Even hearing Bruin’s dark voice sent chills streaking down Lelandi’s spine. Carol watched the monitor with rapt attention. Silva turned the TV lower.
“I’m the pack leader of Wildhaven.”
“Darien Silver of Silver Town. I understand you already know Larissa died,” Jake said, his tone conciliatory with a hint of gruffness.
“One of your people murdered her, you mean,” Bruin corrected.
“We don’t have conclusive evidence either way. It’s possible even a red murdered her for mating a gray when she was mated to your brother already. Which of these gentlemen is your brother, Crassus?”
“I’m Crassus.”
Lelandi’s skin crawled. Whispering, she said, “That’s not his voice.”
“Then he intends on coming for you,” Silva said.
“Crassus,” Carol whispered. “The one I saw in the vision.”
Lelandi had figured the bastard would come for her. Afraid someone else would fail. And, too, she assumed he wanted to show her how she couldn’t escape him. He’d find so much more satisfaction in returning her home if he did so himself.
“As I’ve already relayed to you through the sheriff, Lelandi belongs to the pack. Now that her sister is confirmed dead, Crassus will mate her. Has in fact—in absentia—as is our right.”
“When was this done?” Jake asked.
“You question my honor?”
“I mated her as soon as she arrived here,” Jake lied. “You see, we were dream mated. For months we’d made love in our dream states, and she came into her first wolf heat when we met. So you see, we’re soul mates. And we won’t be separated.”
Lelandi glanced at Darien. He had told Jake about her wolf heat? If he’d been in his human form, she would have slugged him.
“You stole Crassus’s mate from him. You will give Lelandi back or else…”
The sound of growling came from the hallway. Carol jumped from the chair she was sitting on. Lelandi and Silva rose. “They can’t open the door,” Lelandi said under her breath. Then she belatedly realized they hadn’t locked it and dashed for it.
Then all hell broke loose. Darien lunged for Carruthers and Peter went for Connors. But three red wolves dashed into the room. Carol screamed. Silva grabbed for a lamp while Lelandi searched in Darien’s sock drawer. He hadn’t put her gun back here. Damn it. Why didn’t he tell her where it was? Too late. She and Silva could shapeshift, but Lelandi wasn’t any match for a male, gray or red. She was sure Silva wouldn’t be either. She seized the other bedside table lamp.
“Get into the bathroom and stay there!” Lelandi shouted at Carol.
But Darien had one of the wolves by the throat, pinning Carol into a corner.
Then Crassus stalked into the room like he owned the place, his strawberry blond hair unbound, his dark eyes challenging her. For an instant, she felt an inkling of terror. He could snap her neck in two and end her life easily. But even worse, he could claim her for his own if he could kill Darien.
Lelandi moved in Carol’s direction, her lamp readied, her eyes challenging him back. Cowering before the son of a bitch was not an option. But her heated blood ran cold now. He was bigger, stronger, and meaner than she could ever be. He wouldn’t hesitate to take her.
Like most of the reds in his pack, he wasn’t tall, but he was bulky, like a football player in his prime and was always itching for a fight. His older brother, Bruin, was the only one stronger, more deadly.
The sound of fighting was going on downstairs, and she hoped Jake and the rest would win against Bruin and his men. More than six reds had come into town.
As if he had no worries, Crassus folded his arms, and his lips rose in a gloating sneer. “Your father wouldn’t give you to me. I suspected it had to do with your temper. Would have made our mating much more—challenging. Or it might have been because you hadn’t come into a wolf’s heat yet, and he was afraid you wouldn’t be worth having.” His eyes as cold as ash, he added, “But Larissa is dead and you will now be mine.”
His words cut through her like an icy blade, but she tried to act nonchalant and waved a hand at Darien who was tackling another wolf. “Meet my mate. You’re already too late, Crassus. Live with it.”
He reached out to touch Lelandi’s hair, but she slapped his hand away. He laughed from the gut, sinister, cruelly. But before she could react, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. A streak of pain slid down her spine, and she dropped the lamp. “You hoped Bruin would give you to another pack member—another subchief, even though your father insisted, but Bruin wouldn’t. Not unless I told him I didn’t want you. You can’t have a gray. You’re mated to me, albeit in absentia. But we’ll get to the good part after we rid ourselves of the grays.”
She struggled to twist free, his meaty hand tightening on her throat. Her vision darkened, she gasped for air, then Darien chomped down on Crassus’s arm.
Darien’s focus had to remain on the wolves in the room first, more deadly with their powerful bites, more of a threat than any of those in their human forms. But as soon as Crassus grabbed Lelandi’s throat, Darien had to get rid of the wolf he was fighting, then he aimed for the bastard. No contest existed between a wolf and a human, and he’d hoped the beast would have changed so he could take care of him wolf to wolf.
As soon as Darien bit Crassus’s arm, he screamed and released Lelandi. He ripped off his shirt, though his swarthy face exuded pain, and he struggled with the effort, his arm dripping with blood.
The twin cops who had entered the room initially, quickly turned wolf to deal with Peter now that the other reds were dead. Darien bit one of them while he waited for Crassus to change.
Lelandi was still clutching her throat, trying to draw air into her lungs when Carol cried out. She slid to the floor, her eyes dazed, her throat dripping with blood from a nasty gash. Lelandi skirted around the four wolves battling each other and reached Carol, her hand on her throat, stemming the blood. “Ohmigod, Carol. You’ll be…all right.” Some reassurance. It didn’t matter that Carol’s death would be the easiest solution now that she knew they were lupus garous. Lelandi desperately wanted her to live.
Silva was already on the phone. “Angelina, call Nurse Matthew right away and dispatch him to Darien’s home. We have multiple injuries.” She clicked off the phone and punched in numbers. “The new male nurse is on his way,” she said to Lelandi. She paused. “Charlotte? It’s Silva. Come right away to Darien’s house. We’ve got casualties, but the fight’s still ongoing.”
Silva hung up the phone and climbed over the bed to get to Lelandi, while Crassus ditched his trousers and shapeshifted. “Is she going to live?”
Lelandi yanked a pillowcase off one of the pillows and applied pressure to the wound. She didn’t think Carol was going to make it. The woman’s heartbeat was fading, and she was bleeding too much. “I…I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll get some of that leftover bandaging Doc gave me to use on your wounds.” Silva climbed back over the bed and raced into the bathroom.
Standing as a wolf, Crassus bared his teeth at Darien. Crassus looked so damned arrogant. Didn’t he know he was no match for a gray alpha pack leader?
The two circled each other while Peter and the remaining red stopped to watch the fight between a leader and a subchief. Silva returned with the bandaging and she and Lelandi bound Carol’s wound. Darien lunged at Crassus, but the wolf twisted away so hard to avoid Darien’s snapping jaws, he fell on his butt, then quickly retreated.
“Hell, there’s more of them!” someone shouted from downstairs.
Lelandi took her eyes off Darien and Crassus to look at Silva. She looked as worried as Lelandi felt.
“No, they’re going after the reds.”
Lelandi’s mouth dropped slightly. What reds in their right mind would fight Bruin and his pack here? Then anger welled up to volcanic proportions deep inside her—not her emotions, but her brother’s, the symbiotic reaction she had when her sister or brother’s feelings ran high. Leidolf was here.
Darien took a chunk out of Crassus’s ear, and he fell away in a panic, his ear bleeding. But Darien didn’t wait for another run. He cornered the red, bottled him between the sofa and the wall and leapt in the air.
Crassus yelped before Darien planted his teeth into his neck. It was the last sound the bastard would ever make as Darien’s canines snapped the wolf’s neck in half, then released him.
“Where are you, Lelandi, Silva?” Nurse Grey cried out from downstairs as lamps and tables crashed downstairs.
“Upstairs, end of hall, Darien’s room. Hurry!” Lelandi shouted.
Darien eyed the lone red wolf standing next to Peter, but he tucked tail and lay down on his stomach.
Nurse Grey and Matthew bolted upstairs with a medical kit. “Oh my, what’s happened?”
“Can you take care of her?” Lelandi asked, holding Carol’s hand.
“Yes, let me get in there and I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll…I’ll be right back.” Lelandi dashed out of the room and down the hall.
“Lelandi!” Silva shouted. “No, wait!”
Darien chased Lelandi down the stairs, and she was sure if he could, he would force her back into the bedroom to keep her out of harm’s way. But her brother was in the thick of it, and she couldn’t let anyone in Darien’s pack kill him, mistaking him for the enemy.
“No!” she yelled, trying to get beyond the grays to get closer to her brother, but one of the grays snapped at her, keeping her away from the reds battling each other. Her brother was fighting Bruin, and the grays were letting him? Then she saw another familiar red, her uncle, tearing into Bruin’s youngest brother, Cindon—as mean-hearted as
Crassus and Bruin. It was rumored their father was a real psycho and bullied them until they became just like him.
Her uncle turned his head in her direction briefly. He shielded bared teeth instantly, his look shifting from her to Darien standing next to her, his stance protective. Her heart lifted to see both her uncle and brother back together again. But then she cringed when Bruin knocked Leidolf on his hip.
Leidolf quickly recovered and dodged the heavier wolf’s lunge. Bruin weighed at least forty pounds more than her brother, was shorter and stockier and thicker necked. But Leidolf had a regal way of moving, swiftly, silently, dangerously. He’d taken down a stag without a sound, killed a bear that had attacked her mother when they were living in the mountains, and now he seemed even more serious, determined, deadly.
Darien watched, as if he was ruler of all the land, and the tournament was for his and his courtiers’ sport. Everyone’s tongues panted from exertion and blood tinged a fair amount of the wolves’ pelts. A couple sat down. The rest stiffly observed, wary of the fight, promising to take on the pack leader and his brother if the reds who fought them lost the game. Old Mr. Hastings, who had shouted that her brother and uncle had arrived, was the only one in human form.
Darien glanced up at Lelandi and licked her hand. She crouched down next to him, wrapped her arm around his neck, and gave him a hug. “Thanks for avenging my sister’s tormenter.” She spoke loud enough for Bruin to hear.
He jerked his head in her direction, and Leidolf slammed into him, knocking the pack leader off his pads. He crashed into a table and broke one of the legs. Leidolf growled low at Bruin, then savagely attacked his throat. Bruin bit back, but Leidolf held on for dear life, growling. After several seconds that felt like hours, Bruin sank to the floor, dead.
Uncle Hrothgar seemed to smile, then he tackled Bruin’s last living brother, biting him in the face when Cindon turned his head to protect his throat. None could be left standing if they were to oust the red pack from their lands.
Two more of the grays sat down, the fight nearly ended.
Silva came down the stairs and gave Lelandi a somber nod. But Lelandi didn’t know how to take the message. She wanted to check on Carol, but she had to see her uncle win against Bruin’s brother.
