by Lori King
The other five members of his team headed off in formation, only to separate a short time later as the group of wolves they were hunting had broken their small group down by going in different directions.
Hunter circled around and came up behind the male who had been attempting to locate him. Shifting forms seamlessly, he breached the short distance between him and his would-be captor. The other male never saw him coming as Hunter suddenly placed him in a chokehold until the man’s body went lax in his arms.
Boon ran towards a large tree near the base of a cave and in mid-stride he shifted forms from wolf to man as he reached the trunk. Scaling it with ease and grace, he perched among the thickly-laden branches, easily hidden from sight. Knowing he was covered from head to toe in scent blocking agents, he was secure in the knowledge the men attempting to track him would, without a doubt, fail. Of course, he wished he wasn’t butt ass naked up a tree, but harsh times cried for harsh measures, he recited, sitting his bare backside down on the rough bark of one of the thicker branches. Closing his eyes briefly to centre his senses, they snapped open on the first deep breath he took. He was within reach of his quarry.
Eos chased down a rabbit’s burrow and claimed his prize to make it look as though he was simply out for the hunt. With supreme confidence, he trotted along a direct path back towards the hotel, successfully drawing the attention of two of the enforcers who were attempting the wrangle them back into the confines of the general population. Eos recognised it as being obvious due to the enforcers’ negligently staying in human form. He chose to use this to his own advantage by taunting them in hopes of causing enough of a distraction for the others to find the source of their concerns.
Ronin limped through the woods in wolf form; on seeing the black shadow of an enforcer, he laid it on a little thicker, adding a whimper to draw the other male closer to him. Ronin sat on his hindquarters and lifted his right paw to his muzzle as though injured. As the enforcer stepped nearer, Ronin allowed the shift to take over, and as his human form startled the other man, Ronin punched him in the face. The enforcer’s nose exploded with blood, and Ronin snatched the man’s weapon and knocked his dazed opponent unconscious with the butt of his own rifle. Self-satisfaction welled up as he again shifted before sauntering away from the downed male, knowing the guy would wake up with one hell of a headache.
Knowing it was going to take time for Draven to reach the cave where Rainah had been locked up, Axel raced in that direction, secure in the knowledge that his team would take care of the four shifters who should have been minding their own damn business in their hotel rooms. His wolf growled inside his head, furious with the current disruption to the scheme of things.
Boon spotted movement from his vantage point above the ground. A dark wolf edged closer to his position, sniffing at the fallen foliage covering the floor of the surrounding woods leading to the cavern. Boon was justifiably relieved that he hadn’t entered the cave; even wearing camouflage cologne, he would have been in an easier place of discovery. His senses on overload, he watched the tail of the wolf disappear from sight into the depth of the cave. Closing his eyes and breathing shallow breaths, he transferred his senses to his ears to increase his hearing; the muffled gasp of a female was all the indication he needed to know that something was seriously fucked up in Colorado.
Shifting mid-leap, he landed on his front paws and took the brunt of gravity to his powerful hind legs. His shoulders would be sore later, but that was irrelevant given the ominous prickles raising the hackles along his neck and back. Boon felt the protective snarl from deep within his belly tighten his stomach muscles and reverberate off his ribcage at hearing the distress in the female’s voice.
“Let me go, Axel.” Rainah pleaded, trying to avoid touching the wolf hovering over her. She’d been woken abruptly by the weight of his wolf’s heated breath on her face. She knew Axel was her father’s favourite enforcer, but then, her father was often blind to what was right in front of him. Rainah had always known there was something not quite right going on inside Axel’s head, and in her current predicament, all her alarm bells were blaring. Self-preservation was trying to warn her she was neck deep in a seriously full bucket of shit. #FML Rainah had no way to escape, and although she trembled with fear, she refused to submit to her father’s Beta. In fact, there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind that the beast breathing down her neck was the reason she was where she was. One of the reasons she’d pushed so hard to go away to college had been to get away from Axel. She knew he would never stop pursuing her. He’d constantly stalked her before she’d left, and eventually she’d opted to lie to her parents rather than return home when on break. She’d sold them on stories about wanting to stay at college to earn extra credits towards her degree. Ultimately they’d stopped asking, which was fine by her.
However, she was often turning her head to search the shadows around the campus, and she’d frequently had the distinct sensation of being watched and followed as she moved around at night. Now, defiantly meeting Axel’s depraved glare, something in her mind clicked and her biggest fear became the obvious truth. It had been him all along. She mentally grasped the information and prepared to fight for her life.
Boon witnessed the overbearing stance the male shifter had assumed above the female and deemed it threatening and unacceptable. In a rush of blinding speed, he sprang onto the back of the distracted male, clamping his jaws around the back of his opponent’s neck. In an eruption of snarls and growls, Axel attempted to throw his attacker off his back, the pair of wolves rolling across the caverns floor. Momentarily losing his grip on the other wolf, Boon moved to the open area between himself and the female and began to pace back and forth, intent on protecting her.
Rainah watched as all hell broke loose inside the cave. Tufts of fur flew into the air as a second wolf attacked Axel, but without being able to reach her inner wolf, she was confused as to who the other wolf was. There was nothing familiar about him at all. His colouring distorted within the poor light of the cave and her MIA wolf still nowhere within reach meant she couldn’t use her usually acute sense of smell to identify any familiar markers.
Boon heard the cocking of a rifle mere seconds before he felt a sting pinch his right hindquarter. He stumbled slightly and took a step backwards before going down hard beside the female. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a tear trailing down the face of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
7
Draven cursed under his breath as he entered the cave and raised the rifle to his shoulder. He fired his weapon at the unfamiliar wolf standing between his daughter and his second in charge, Axel. On hearing Rainah scream, his eyes shot in her direction; it was all the distraction Axel needed to launch himself at Draven. Momentarily confused by the way his daughter’s hand sank deep into the foreign wolf’s fur, he never saw Axel lunge at him until his beta’s wolf pushed him to the ground.
Instinct took over, and Draven lodged both his feet into the belly of his beta; kicking up and out, he threw Axel over his head, giving himself enough time to roll sideways and instantly shift into his wolf. Draven knew that he’d beaten Axel once before, but it was a long time ago, when they had both came to compete in the trials to win the mateship of Willow. Two hundred years had passed since then.
Images flooded Draven’s memory as he stalked Axel, and it was as painful to him as it would have been if his chest had been sliced open with a silver blade. The vague recollection of covetous looks in the direction of his mate, which appeared to dwindle in frequency once Willow’s body had swollen with his seed. Draven then recognised those same glances had become more than a fleeting interest in his daughter Rainah, ever since her eighteenth birthday. The motive behind Axel’s argument that she should not be permitted to go away to college was becoming very clear. It was as if all the intricate idiosyncrasies of his beta had joined together to solve a puzzle he’d been blinded to by means of smoke and mirrors, all installed and constructed b
y Axel. Rage burned through his system at the significance of his beta’s betrayal.
Rainah pulled the tranquilizer dart out of the wolf’s rump and tossed it aside. Without a clue as to who her saviour was, she lifted the head of the unconscious beast and shuffled her ass across the ground to place his head in her lap. She leant down to check his breathing and heart rate, exhaling slowly in relief that he still had both. “I wish you could hear me,” she spoke softly while stroking the pelage of the unconscious male. In the shadows of her mind, she felt her inner wolf shift, but when she tried to connect with it, she quickly evaporated into nothingness. “Who are you?” she wondered aloud, seemingly oblivious to the ongoing fight between her father and his beta which had elevated quickly to the level of a fight to the death between the two men. Rainah started to wonder how much sedative had been loaded in the dart, because the possibility of her father being killed by Axel was all too real, and it was happening right here and right now. She looked around fruitlessly for a weapon of any kind, but came up empty-handed. Her only credible way to escape this predicament was to get the wolf in her lap up and moving. She rubbed the wolf’s ear and whispered to him, “Please… Please wake up.” His ear flicked her nose, and she held her breath. When nothing else happened, she repeated the process. Rubbing the tip of the wolf’s ear, she again begged him to hear her and to wake up, “Please… I need you to wake up.” This time, his ear flicked a little harder. This time, Rainah blew warm air into his ear, then squeaked like a little bitch when the wolf flipped over and buried his muzzle in her crotch. “Hey,” she squealed, scooting back away from the nose tucked between her legs, giving the bulk of his body a shove away from her. “Wake the fuck up!” she said in a hostile tone that bode a ‘do not ignore me’ undertone in her voice.
With her focus solely on the wolf in her lap, Rainah hadn’t noticed that the sound of fighting outside the cave had abruptly ended. Seeing a shadow move across the entrance to the cavern, Rainah’s heart rate spiked and the muscles throughout her entire body seized up to the point of pain.
Hunter, Eos, and Ronin had all managed to circumnavigate the area, and the distinct noises of wolves fighting led them straight to the mouth of the isolated cave where two wolves were attacking one another. Without giving it a second thought, Hunter shifted, running at the one closest to him and tackling it to the ground, only having to wrestle with it for a few seconds before he was able to subdue the animal.
The instant Hunter nailed the wolf, he saw from the corner of his eye the other beast shift into his human form. “Who are you?” Draven asked, one hand on his knee and the other over his injured ribs.
“More to the point who is this?” Hunter nodded his head at the wolf he’d restrained beneath him.
Axel quickly shifted and cried out, “In accordance with the rules within the Book of Arianas, I hereby announce my claim on Rainah.”
“Why, you bastard! I should have killed you when I had the chance.” Draven curled his lip, knowing that Axel was well within his rights to lodge a challenge for his daughter’s mateship prior to the commencement of the trials. “And if she outright refuses you as her mate, then what?”
“Then I will uphold my interest by competing in the trials.” Even under the burden of Hunter’s strength, and lying on his back, Axel would not be disregarded. He spoke as though he were the one standing tall, speaking down to the runt of the pack.
“Rainah?” Draven called back over his shoulder in his daughter’s direction.
Rainah sat there counting from one to ten and then from ten to one, ‘Nope,’ she thought, ‘Still mad as hell.’
“Rainah!” Draven added the growl of his superior wolf to command his daughter’s response.
“What?” Rainah replied, glad that she couldn’t see her father properly where he stood. Just to be defiant, she rattled the chains before deliberately calling out, “Chained up like a dog, remember?”
Boon growled and shook his head, even though he felt like he’d head-butted a brick wall a dozen times, his body tensed at the sound of the female’s voice.
“Do you accept Axel’s outright claim to be your mate?” Draven asked, not sure of what his daughter would do.
For a minute or two, the only noises that could be heard were the crickets and the wind. Then Rainah asked, “Say again?”
“Do you accept Axel’s outright claim to be your mate?” Draven repeated.
“I thought that’s what you said.” Rainah paused only momentarily before a smile spread across her lips and she snickered, her snicker quickly turned into a very unladylike snort followed by a full blown roll around the floor laughing. She managed only a moment’s respite, long enough to chuckle to herself before another fit of laughter overtook her.
Wiping away the hysterical tears from her eyes, she finally composed herself long enough to call back, “Hell to the no!”
“You heard her words with your own ears before these witnesses. Rainah rebukes your claim as mate.” Draven crossed his thick arms over his chest. “What say you?”
“I’ll take that challenge.” Axel spat his words at Draven.
“Fine. You have an hour to prepare yourselves for the coming trials before we will all meet at the Conji-Gate. I see no reason to delay the proceedings as it is past midnight on All Hallows Eve. I suggest you come prepared for anything; once you step through the gate, you will all be on your own.” Draven instructed, folding his arms over his chest again.
Boon stayed with Rainah as the others dispersed in the direction of the hotel and Axel headed back in the direction of his place. Draven spun on his heel and walked into the depths of his daughter’s prison, to be met by a rather pissed off large male standing between him and his daughter. “Stand down, young man,” Draven commanded.
“I will not stand down. How dare you mistreat your own flesh and blood this way?” Boon reprimanded the Grand Alpha of the Colorado’s Central Custodians' Division. “I charge you with the crime of subjugation against my mate. You have hindered her own natural ability to identify her own mate by using the means of magic.”
“What?” Draven frowned, guarding his disgust in his own actions. He glanced past the young male in an attempt to check on his daughter, but was met by her back. It was both a sign of trust and distrust. It showed that his daughter trusted the male standing at her back to keep her safe where she no longer had faith in her own father. “Rainah?”
“Don’t! If you wish to speak to my mate, you will do so through me.” Boon demanded.
“For the sake of the All Hallows Eve Ceremony, I need Rainah to accept you as her mate before I will recognise you as such. It is the Law of Lupine as documented in The Book of Arianas.”
“You wish to quote laws when you have already broken several?” Boon tilted his head and growled in warning. “My wolf identifies Rainah as our true mate, to honour and protect. I will die before I let anything happen to her. It is my duty to ensure her happiness in a future that is mine and hers to make together. You did this with no regard for her health or wellbeing, and for that, she may never choose to forgive you; therefore, I demand you release her from those chains this minute.”
“Rainah?” Draven spoke softly past the lump in his throat.
“Do as he says, Father.” Rainah replied, “I trust him more than I do you. At the moment, I can’t even bear to look at you.”
Draven moved towards his daughter, and Boon stepped up to block his path, “You will give me the key and I will remove the chains.” Boon ordered.
“My blood is the key.” Draven snarled.
“Fine,” Boon bid as his fist came up and slammed into Draven’s face, connecting with his mouth. As Draven staggered backwards and hit the stone wall behind him, Boon was in front of him to collect the blood from the Grand Alpha’s split lip as he regained his senses. “Now get out!”
“Both of you will have to stand before the Conji-Gate and the pack and announce your joining as true mates. You must do this to prevent the other
s from entering through the veil and commencing the tournament.”
“We’ll be there. Leave now, so that I can take care of my mate; I don’t want her hating me for killing her father.” Boon warned.
8
Boon watched as Draven left the cave without looking back, identifying the man’s loss by the way the Grand Alpha carried his shoulders. He wore them heavily, in a slouched manner that exuded defeat and failure. On another day, Boon may have found it within himself to feel sorry for the older male, but today his only concern was for his mate, Rainah. Turning to her now, his heart almost broke at the way her body wracked with silent sobs. His arms circled her from behind and he whispered gently in her ear, “Shhh, I’ve got you.” His bloodied thumbs found the cuffs around her wrists and unlocked them by smearing her father’s blood on them. The rattle of the chains as they broke open and clattered to the floor was almost painful to his sensitive ears.
When Rainah was no longer leashed, she snarled and wriggled in his embrace, but Boon wasn’t ready to let her go. Spinning her in his arms he caged her body, wedging her back against the stone wall. Flattening his palms on the rocky surface either side of her head, he leaned in closely and sniffed at her neck. Running his nose up along the column of her throat, he nipped at her jawline before suckling on her earlobe. His body warming, hardening, aching for what it knew belonged to him and him alone, to the point of delirious pain. His heart beat profusely inside his chest, sensing the rise of Rainah’s inner wolf.
Rainah plastered her hands on the male’s naked chest and gave a warning snarl as she attempted to shove him back. He was too close, too male, and too everywhere and just too everything. She couldn’t think properly when he was close enough to share oxygen. He smelt too wild, looked too hot, and damn it to hell, her body wanted him too much. Her inner wolf recognised him as her true mate as soon as she surfaced from the spell of her father’s chains.
