by Aliyah Burke
The moon rose and cast a soft glow around them. The fire now consisted of a few glowing embers but nothing more. He shifted and kissed her head as she continued to sleep. She truly must have been exhausted.
As he held her, he thought about what his Alpha had said. His decision had already been made. Had it?
He loved living with Clan, loved seeing the cubs, playing with them. The affection. His mate was something completely opposite. She epitomized loner and wouldn’t do well with his Clan. Even within her Pack, her home was off at an even greater distance away from everyone else’s and blended in with the woods as if even there she was trying hard not to be seen. He knew this because he’d been up there a few times and had managed to pass it while out.
His thoughts didn’t slow for the rest of the night. In fact, they still tumbled about in his brain when the sun crept over the horizon. One moment she was out the next, she was alert and looking at him.
“Morning, canine,” he rumbled loving the way her gray eyes shone in the light.
She held his stare even as her fingers stretched along his skin, kicking his passion into high gear. There wasn’t anyway she didn’t feel his thickness against her as she lay on him.
“Are you planning on sleeping?”
“I’ll sleep in the car. Kiss me.”
“How are you sleeping in the car if you are driving your truck?” Even as she asked the question, she pushed up and brushed their mouths together.
“I’m riding with you.”
“You can’t leave your truck here.”
“Shira will come get it.”
“Okay.” She shifted and began to rise.
Keane caught her about the waist and held her to him. “Did you sleep okay?”
“I did.”
She freed herself from his grasp and made her way over to the Jimmy before climbing in the front and rooting around in the passenger side before she came back out with some breakfast bars.
Standing over him, she offered him one and his lip curled as he took it. “How the hell does this tide you over?”
Instead of sitting beside him, his cock jumped once more as she lowered her body over his lap and rubbed against his length. “Because I’m tiny. I don’t require a side of beef every day.”
“Neither do I, canine. But I do require a bit more than a bar made out of nuts, fruits, and grain.”
She opened hers and took a bite. Before he could realize how hot she made chewing, she held a piece up to his lips and he took it.
“There’s some honey in it as well and a few other things.”
It wasn’t hard but soft and damn near fell apart in his mouth. That wasn’t it. He could feel the energy rushing though him, as if he’d had a meal he would usually partake in, large and full of meat.
He swallowed and saw the satisfaction in her expression even as she tore off another part to offer him.
“Where the fuck did you get these?”
“I made them.”
He finished off his next bite and kissed her. The sweet fruit and honey taste danced from her to him and he eagerly took all he could. “You’re fucking incredible, do you know that?”
“I’m a survivor.”
He put both hands in her hair and put them nose to nose. “You’re more than that, canine. Yes, you’re a survivor but you’re so much more.” He gripped her ass. “And you’re mine.”
“We should get going. Or do we have to wait for Shira to come?”
“No, she’ll be here later. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready.”
Her gaze smoldered as she inched closer to his mouth. His breathing came faster and shallower.
“Okay,” she whispered before moving away.
Keane rose to his feet and watched his mate. Every move efficient, nothing wasted on her. He gazed down at the bar in his hand and shook his head before ingesting the full thing in three bites.
So many secrets you have, Tora.
He was ready to spend the rest of his life uncovering them all.
Chapter Ten
She didn’t speak until she pulled off the road and killed the engine. By the time she’d removed the keys from the ignition, Keane had climbed up from the back, and she wouldn’t even be able to tell he’d been sleeping until just a few moments ago, with the exception of his hair. Although, to be fair that wasn’t a sure-fire way to know, he tended to look rakishly messy.
“Where are we?”
His deep voice rippled over her, feeding her soul in a way she didn’t know anyone could. “Just on the outskirts of where they set up alarms for keeping an eye out for intruders.”
“Shira?”
“No, the other birds told me.” She climbed out and carefully closed the door.
“Are you hiding it?”
“Nope, even hiding it won’t keep the smell from them if they are looking for it. I’d rather use my time to get closer than spend it covering something up I may need to use to get out in a hurry.”
Within moments he stood beside her. “What’s the play?”
She sighed and touched his side for a moment before she retreated to the back of her vehicle and opened it. “I’m going hunting.”
“We, canine. We are going hunting.”
She wasn’t even going to argue with him. This shifter, her mate, she trusted at her back.
A flock of birds rose squawking their feelings to the forest and she lifted her head, listening sharply.
“Well?”
Closing her eyes, she tipped her head back and scented the air. So faint but she could make out fear from youngsters. Her wolf responded and her fangs pushed through her gums.
“How about we get going before you take off and try to leave me behind,” he suggested, slipping an arm around her, bringing her close to him.
“I don’t know if you can smell them but I can pick up on some youngsters. Cubs, pups, and a hint of something else I’m not sure about.”
His eyes glinted and he looked down at her. “Let’s go.”
She rooted around in her bag and pulled out a silver pendant. For a moment, she skimmed her thumb over it before dropping it back in, zipping it shut and closing the vehicle once more. Then before he could say anything, she shifted and looked to him expectantly. Keane didn’t disappoint but then he rarely did. One second the tall powerful man stood before her, watching her with pride in his gaze, the next a golden leopard was in its place, incredible eyes unblinking as it stared at her.
Her heart thundered in her chest as he moved toward her, silent on those large padded paws. A deep rumble rolled from him as he lowered his head to brush along her.
No foolish risks, canine.
It wasn’t a promise she was going to make, so instead of responding, she turned and trotted off, easily hitting that stride wolves can keep up for a long distance. Not that her companion had any issues, with his large bounds, he didn’t seem to have any problems.
They circled left to keep themselves downwind and she appreciated there wasn’t any need to tell him what or why they were doing it this way. Of course, he was a high-ranking lieutenant in his own Clan, so it made sense he knew how to handle this kind of situation.
As they moved, she listened to the calls from the birds and other animals to keep them out of any traps that had been set. They came around two thick trees and froze.
There wasn’t anyway to ignore what was before them. It wasn’t even a real structure, just a few cages.
Staging center.
She was inclined to agree. Ignoring the stench from the dirty hyenas, she inhaled deeply and tried to suss out what they had there.
I pick up on a bobcat, eagle, and fox. And something else.
There are two empty cages. Think they are expecting two more?
“I can smell you, wolf. Come out and show yourself.”
That’s what it was, the Komodo. She bared her fangs as he stepped into view, she noticed the blood on him and wondered if that was why it had been hard to make out what he was. It
shouldn’t have been, but she couldn’t explain it.
Don’t you fucking dare.
I’m going. It doesn’t sound like they know you are here.
Canine, I’m going to turn you over my knee.
She shifted back to human and stepped out of the place she’d been hiding, making sure to be a distance from Keane. His displeasure thick in her mind, she ignored it and strode up over the uneven ground to face the man she was looking forward to killing.
Even with the arrogance on his face, she noticed how he stepped back one step as she grew closer. “Let them go.”
“Or what? You’re going to kill me?”
She shrugged. “I’m going to kill you regardless. You let them go I will make it quick. You don’t, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.”
He grinned at her, showing off rotten and decaying teeth. “You going to take us all on? I’ve heard how good you are but even you can’t take us all on and I know your Pack isn’t here because they have a battle of their own to fight.
Need to protect her Alpha rushed into her with the force of a tall waterfall pounding into the rocks below it. However, her expression remained unchanged. She blinked.
“Is your statement supposed to make me panic?”
“No, just letting you know he won’t be coming to save you.”
This time she did allow a feral smile to turn up her lips. “I’m a lieutenant in his Pack, I’m not there because I’m a beta and need protection. I’m there because he trusts me to protect him.”
“What about his pregnant wife?”
She refused to even reach out to him, not wanting to lower her guard the slightest. All she could do was hope that her leopard was letting his Alpha know and it was going that way.
“Hope whoever you sent you never wanted to see alive again.” She shrugged. “Let them go.”
“No. I think instead I’m going to add you to one of the cages. I mean I know you’re a small runt of a wolf but still, you look like you’d be good to fuck and I’m sure he can get a good price for you from someone.”
No need to ask who the “he” was either. She knew exactly who this asshole worked for.
“You don’t want to lose the fucker trying to sneak up from behind me on the left, tell him to stop, get out here, and come around to where you are. I won’t give another warning.”
“Giacomo, get over here.”
The birds told her there was one more coming up from the right and she waited for this one. The hyena that moved by her, snarled showing off a bloody muzzle, she dismissed him like was wasn’t worth anything.
“Who is the other cage for if you have one for me?”
The eyes of the young were on her and she refused to look at them, her wolf would go crazy.
“You’ll see,” he said with a sinister grin.
Her wolf warned her of the imminent attack and like a flash, she dropped to her knees, whipped out her blades and gutted the hyena who flew over her where she’d just been. Even before he stopped moving, she had wiped her blades, and returned to a standing position gaze locked on the dragon.
The hyena blood on her reeked but she ignored it.
“You killed him.”
“And you talk a lot. Are you scared to face me, lizard?”
His face puffed up in his anger, as his eyes beaded. Snout elongating with those disease-ridden teeth and saliva, she put most of her focus on him. Her back was protected, she didn’t have to worry about that.
Instead of adjusting her footing and waiting for the attack, she rushed him, aware it would catch him off guard as well. Blades, extensions of her hands, she danced and whirled around the lizard. Slashing and cutting, as fast as she’d ever done before.
While he wasn’t her first lizard kill, he was definitely the largest and the last thing she wanted was to have any of his teeth find their mark into her flesh. Dodging a powerful swing of his arm, she yelped in pain as he brought his other hand around and cracked her in the ribs. Two snapped beneath the force of his strike and she thrust her hands up, blades digging and cutting through the triceps muscle in more than one place.
His cry rattled her teeth as he shifted the rest of the way. Throwing her blades at him, she was grateful that one hit before his lizard skin deflected the other.
Fuck he’s huge. Jumping back, she shifted as well, breathing hard but she knew this wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
She could hear Keane fighting but she didn’t dare take her eyes off the Komodo before her. They were wicked fast and even with three legs, she didn’t doubt he could move like lightning. His tongue flicked at her as he moved slowly, testing out his front leg that she’d injured.
Holding her ground, she waited, not willing to give him any heads up of where she’d be going. The nearer he got, the louder her warning rumble came.
The attack was swift like she’d been expecting. Lunging back, she barely escaped the heavy snapping jaws and before he could do much more for he moved to his left, his injured side and it was slower than he would have liked, she pounced. Bounding over his jaws, she landed square on his back then launched off again. Three more times until he just turned and snapped at her, eyes shooting fire. She had him where she needed him. Crouching, she sprang up, much like she did coming from the water when she was submerged.
The Komodo had been expectant of this move, his reaction told her that. He rose up jaws open, hoping to snatch her out of the air as she jumped over him. Only she didn’t go high. Mid jump, she shifted back to human and down for his exposed underbelly. Her last knife in hand, she hit him hard, his back feet coming up off the ground from the force of her hit as she buried the sharp blade hilt deep in his heart.
The creature’s claws ripped into her back, but she didn’t stop, didn’t move away as he tried to rip it free. She rode him back to the ground, putting all her weight on the handle. Eyes locked on one another; she watched his life fade.
“You’re going to die too,” he slurred.
“You first. Catch you in hell, lizard.” She twisted the blade, ignoring the spots around her own eyes. Only when he stopped breathing did she relax, and roll off him. Withdrawing the blade, she gazed around.
Keane was also again human, but his eyes weren’t on her, but something she couldn’t see on the other side of the vehicle beside a cage. Dead bodies littered the area and the ones in cages had tried to make themselves as small as possible.
A slow clapping filled the air as a man stepped into view.
“That saved me the trouble of having to kill the fucking Komodo.”
Her leopard again proved how fast he could move, and he was beside her in a flash as the speckled sunlight hit the newcomer. This, this was the scent she’d hit on earlier but couldn’t place regardless of the familiarity. And now that she knew, the contents of her stomach fought for reemergence.
Gray eyes melded into hers and a mocking grin lifted his lips, showing off a perfectly straight row of white teeth. He opened his arms and beckoned.
“What no reunion hug?”
“Who are you?” Keane demanded, the leopard present in his tone.
Those sharp eyes snapped to him briefly before moving back to her. Behind him two other men stepped into view. Although exhausted and injured, breathing hurt because of the two ribs, her wolf pushed up, more than ready to fight again.
“Who’s the pussy?” The man in the back asked. No picture-perfect smile for this shifter, his were still disgusting.
Her world zoomed into her and those three before her, kicking her back almost twenty years when they’d tried to kill her.
“I don’t want to ask again,” Keane said. “Who are you?”
She swallowed a wave of bile back down so she could speak coherently. “That’s the man who fucked my mother and got me as a result.”
αβ
The tension in the air was so thick he could have started chewing on it like a piece of jerky. Her father.
Every instinct within him, screamed for h
im to kill this man for what he put his mate through. Keane didn’t move. It didn’t take a genius to figure out if he did that, she would probably hate him for it.
Either because he was protecting her or had taken the man away from her. All he knew was along their link that allowed him to see her even when they were not together, fear more than he’d ever sensed from her pulsed. She was fucking amazing because none of it leaked through. All he could smell from her right now was blood and the stench of the lizard she’d killed.
Another thing that he’d watched as he fought the others. Her and her wolf were both fearless and tossed themselves into battle without hesitation. Not in a reckless way, but she didn’t fear death and had a singular goal of winning.
“I have to admit,” the man who sired her said as he pushed his hands into his pockets as if this was a normal everyday conversation. “I didn’t think you would have survived that fall. Perhaps I was mistaken about you being a useless runt.”
His cat roared in anger and Keane locked his jaw to keep it inside.
What’s the plan?
Get the young and get out.
Her voice in his mind was both blessing and curse. He was grateful she hadn’t ignored him, yet he hated how robotic her words were.
“The day I stopped giving a damn what you thought about me was the day you gutted my mother and siblings in front of me before allowing me to be a toy for your boys to hunt.”
Oh, fuck this. He was going to rip the asshole’s head off. Keane shifted his weight, and everyone looked at him, except Tora. Her gaze remained locked on her father. Had she not responded to him mentally, he would quite easily believe she had tunnel vision on him.
No shame in the wolf who shrugged. “You’ve proven yourself. I’d heard rumors of a small wolf who killed lizards and who had aligned herself with the Tatra Pack. Imagine my surprise and pride to find out it is my own pup. I want an audience with the Alpha.”
“Reach out like other people.”
Tora’s tone had left the disinterested one he was used to from her. It lingered on the edge of feral.
