by Helen Scott
The wind blew my ponytail behind me like a flag, and the forest air was cool against my skin. The dappling of light and shadow as we ran through the trees helped keep me cool as I pushed my body to keep up with them. I wasn’t sure how long we ran or how far, but eventually, we came across a small glade. Roman raced around the perimeter, and when he got back to me, Micah was there, out of breath and a little wild eyed as he play-bowed to Roman. The older wolf froze for a moment as though he’d forgotten exactly how to play, but then without giving his intentions away, he sprang into the air like a puppy and tackled Micah.
I couldn’t stop myself from worrying about Micah reinjuring himself doing that, but I also knew that he wouldn’t have instigated such behaviors if he hadn’t felt up to it. Watching them chase each other and tumble around was relaxing in a way, and for a moment, it let me forget about everything else that was going on.
It was a while later, long after I’d got my breath back and had sat on the ground with my back resting against a tree, that I heard Micah let out a soft whine. My gaze immediately darted from the shadows in the boughs of the trees to my two mates, where I found Micah holding the arm that had been cut off the ground.
The fur on his leg was parted in such a way that I could tell the stitches had pulled, or maybe a tooth or claw caught the edge of one. Whatever the cause, I saw a tiny drop of blood beading on the pale skin that lay under his shaggy coat. I pushed up from where I was sitting and walked over to examine it.
“There’s some bleeding, but you should be okay once you shift back to human.” I patted his head and peered up at the sky. “We should start heading back if we want to get to the cabin before dark.”
I wasn’t exactly sure that my statement was true, but my anxiety was kicking in and the endorphins of our initial run had long since worn off. Now, standing in a glade in the middle of the woods, I just felt exposed and unsafe. I needed the walls of the cabin to pen myself in so that I could feel secure again.
Without waiting for the guys, I start heading back in the direction we’d come from. The sleek silver fur of Roman’s wolf form darted through the trees until he was stopped in front of me. When I tried to step around him, he dodged to the side and blocked me, pushing me backward until he was practically nipping at my heels like a damned sheepdog.
“Fine, fine. I’ll go the way you want. Lead the way, oh great alpha,” I said with a snort. Male wolves with alpha energy could be so fussy.
He glared at me before trotting in the direction he wanted to go, and I followed like a good little bitch. As we made our way back, I noticed that Roman was staying in front of me and Micah behind. They were guarding me. I was touched by their caution but also surprised.
We started jogging slightly, and it was only as the cabin came into view that I sensed something was off. Without waiting for reason to kick in, I reached out and grabbed at Roman’s tail. He jerked to a halt and turned to me with his teeth ever so slightly bared.
The whole time we had been running and carrying on in the glade and even while we were making our way back to the cabin, the birds and crickets had been singing their evening songs. Now though?
Silence.
I tapped my ear, and both wolves stilled immediately, assuming I heard something they hadn’t, which was highly unlikely. When they didn’t hear whatever it was they thought I’d heard, they tilted their heads at me almost in unison. I ran my finger over my lips and mimed throwing away the key. It was the only thing I could think of that would indicate silence.
When Roman shifted back, I wasn’t surprised. Communication between a wolf and human wasn’t exactly easy. “What’s wrong?” he asked, keeping his voice low and barely audible.
“There’s no sound,” I hissed back, hardly able to hear my own voice from trying to be so quiet.
Apparently while we had been talking, Micah had padded off, and when we heard the faint whine, both Roman and I spun in that direction, only to find Micah pointing like…well, like a German Shorthair or beagle or something similar.
Roman moved stealthily over to where he was standing and took a deep breath. When he waved me over, I tried to move as quietly as he had, but failed. I just hoped I hadn’t made too much sound. As soon as I reached them though, I knew what was wrong.
They could scent other wolves.
And it was fresh.
The worst part? I knew those scents. Not those wolves specifically, but I recognized the tar-like scent that I’d come to associate with Jax. I’d never forget that scent.
“Jax’s wolves.” I barely even mouthed the words as I looked over at the older of my two mates.
Roman’s face looked like thunder clouds before a tornado. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said he wished Jax was there so he could end this once and for all. But even now, after seeing Roman fight, I wasn’t sure he could take Jax. Since I’d never seen the alphahole fight, I didn’t know how strong he was or how vicious. He’d had to win plenty of times to get to be alpha, but what if the fights were uneven? Had he waited to challenge the old alpha until he was past his prime and couldn’t put up a good fight?
There were too many questions and not enough answers, so I hoped for all our sakes that Jax wasn’t there. The two wolves I scented were going to be enough to deal with as it was.
A low growl began leaking from Micah’s lips as one of them came into our line of sight. A fight was inevitable, but at least for the moment, we had the advantage of surprise on our side.
7
Nina
The surprise didn’t last long though, as the shifter that came into our line of sight scented the air and immediately looked in our direction. We were all fairly hidden so I didn’t think he could see us, but it wasn’t worth just standing around and doing nothing while waiting for them to discover us.
Micah moved to one side, while Roman moved to the other. It left me in the middle, unsure of what to do, but that was basically the story of my life. Not that anyone really knew what they were doing, but still. A twig snapped under Roman’s foot, and the shifter’s head whipped in his direction. The wolf inside the man was peering out from his eyes, and his face was starting to elongate, as though he was having trouble holding back his shift.
If his wolf was that strong, then he would be formidable in a fight. I didn’t want to see either of my mates get hurt, but especially not Micah. He’d only just recovered, the last thing I wanted was for him to be injured once more. Plus, and I was sure this had already occurred to the guys, if Jax’s wolves had found us, then it was only a matter of time before their pack found us as well, so we needed to move on. As nice as these days of us living in the woods together had been, they were over now, and depending on how this fight went down, they might never be back.
I’d lost sight of Roman in the trees. I knew he was still there since I could feel him close by, the same with Micah, but I couldn’t see either of them. It was no surprise when they both burst from the undergrowth in their wolf forms in a two-pronged attack against what was now a massive wolf that stood in the small clearing.
There wasn’t a lot of room to fight, and the tight quarters made it an even more vicious battle than it would have been otherwise, since it was so easy for them to use their surroundings to their advantage. The three of them scrabbled with each other, and though the other wolf was bigger, it looked like they were getting the upper hand, until the second of Jax’s wolves appeared.
This one was still in human form though. I wasn’t about to let him jump in on their fight, so I stepped out of the bushes, and his attention immediately snapped away from my mates and his buddy to me. His long mahogany-brown hair would be a weakness. I could grab it, pull on it, and use it to direct his head. The same was somewhat true of the scruff that covered his chin that he probably called a goatee. My gaze moved slightly higher, though I was careful not to make eye contact, just in case. From the edges of my vision, I saw his green eyes that were almost turquoise in shade study me for a moment before he lung
ed.
I dodged to the side, thankful that he was staying in his human form. Fighting a wolf, as I’d come to learn, was a lot harder than I’d thought it would be.
When I turned to face him once more, I saw a grin on his face. I couldn’t tell whether he was smiling because he thought this would be easy or because he was so confident that he’d be the one bringing me in. Either way, I wanted to smash his nose with my fist until that grin disappeared. I wasn’t a woman, or wolf, to be taken lightly, and I’d prove that as many times as needed until other wolves started respecting me. I didn’t care how many fights it took, how many escapes, how many broken bones, I would make myself heard.
He lunged again, but this time, he expected my dodge and followed me, trying to grab me around the waist. The only reason I could think of that he’d be trying to grab me was because the idiot was trying not to hit me. It put him at a disadvantage, which I wasn’t opposed to exploiting. After all, I wasn’t afraid of being hit, nor was I afraid of being the one doing the hitting, as he quickly discovered when my fist connected with his stomach.
A cough exploded out of him at the force of the impact, and he quickly released me and backed away. His eyes raked over me, reassessing. I wanted to smile at my small victory. I couldn’t deny I got a sick kind of satisfaction when men underestimated me and I proceeded to kick their ass.
When he came at me again, it was with a different technique, one that was clearly more based in martial arts, not that I could tell which one since I’d never studied them all that much. I knew a little aikido, but when I’d been practicing, I had found the lack of viciousness unappealing. I was a wolf after all. There was an element of the feral inside me which always seemed to come out when I was fighting.
He grabbed for my wrist when we got close enough to each other again, but I avoided his reach and instead, launched a fist at his face, trying to break that Grecian nose of his. It looked like it had been broken in the past, so I wasn’t surprised when he ducked out of the way, seeing my goal clearly.
As we circled each other once more, I was surprised to notice how fluid his movements were, right down to the steps he was taking over the uneven ground. The tree roots and rocks were no gym floor or boxing ring, that was for sure.
A particularly vicious sounding snarl drew my attention from the man I was fighting to the tumble of wolves that were intent on destroying one another just a little ways over from us. My fear for their safety got the better of my attention, which in turn caused me to get a fist to the face.
My head popped back, the burst of pain realigning my focus to the fight in front of me. My admiration for the man I was fighting went up a notch. He’d taken advantage of a weak moment, something that I could understand and respect. I smiled at him, letting the split in my lip widen, and when I flicked my tongue over it, I could taste the metallic coppery tang of my blood.
The snarls and yips of pain coming from my other side were too distracting though, so to narrow my focus even more, I lunged at the man in front of me. Apparently, he hadn’t expected that, since I was able to get my arms around his waist and rush him over to one of the walls of the cabin. My mind flashed with all the times I’d pushed weights on a sled in the gym and I sent a silent wave of gratitude that I’d followed through with the exercise, because although this might not have been exactly the same, it was close enough.
He grunted as he hit the large logs that made up the wall, and I decided that while I had him pinned, I was going to try and get some information out of him. “Why does Jax want me?” I demanded.
“You think I know?” he growled out. “I just follow orders so I don’t lose my head, and orders are to get you and bring you back to the pack alive by any means necessary.”
Of fucking course Jax hadn’t shared any information with them. Just like our old alpha. He kept his cards close to his chest so no one ever knew what was coming next, and when the axe swung, no one knew whose head was going to roll. Fucking typical.
Instead of responding verbally though, I brought my knee up into his family jewels. Weakness number two, not that he could help that one, but I wasn’t about to waste an opportunity to inflict maximum damage. It did have him doubling over, which let me grab a decent chunk of his hair and yank before pushing him to the ground.
Or trying to.
I hadn’t expected him to bring me down with him. Whenever I’d kneed someone in the junk before, they’d been too preoccupied with their mashed testicles to worry about what I was doing. Apparently, this guy had balls of steel.
His hand had gripped my wrist and pulled, and when I landed, it was with a thump and a twinge of pain right on my tailbone. An oof escaped me, and I saw one of the wolves from the corner of my eye look up. Micah.
Their fight was just as challenging now as it had been when it first started from the looks of things, and though I desperately wanted to help them against the big meathead they were fighting, I couldn’t do that without knocking this asshole out first. We’d been dancing around each other too long. If I really wanted to help my mates, then I needed to end this fight so I could help them end theirs.
Leaves and pine needles crunched and snapped under me as I rolled to get away from the man I was fighting. I didn’t get far though. As I moved to stand up and put even more distance between us, he grabbed my ankle and yanked me back down. I tried to get my hands out in front of me to break my fall, but it didn’t really help as he was dragging my backward. When I face-planted in said pine needles and leaves, I was lucky that my eyes were shut, based on how many small pricks and scrapes I felt over my face.
The most intense pine smell filled my nose, and I coughed and spluttered as I came away from the ground, flipped by his hands as he dragged me ever closer. Panic started to fill my chest.
If he pinned me, it was all over.
And if he threatened to hurt me?
My mates would react one of two ways. They would launch a full out attack at him, or they’d completely stand down, afraid of me getting hurt in the process. I might not get a say, but if I did, it would be the first one. Always.
I could stand pain. Broken bones knit themselves back together, skin mended, hair, nails, and all that regrew. What wouldn’t heal was my heart if they allowed me to be taken to Jax. Physical pain and I were besties, but emotional pain? That was my weakness.
Until recently, I hadn’t even considered myself an emotional person.
My mates had definitely changed that.
It was the thought of being with them and not giving in, not allowing myself to be captured, that had me fighting like a rabid animal.
Kicking.
Clawing.
Biting.
Anything I could reach, I attacked with a fierceness that I hadn’t even known I’d possessed. The whole world had narrowed down to where this asshole had his hands on me and my struggle to get them off.
Blood slicked my hands, my face, but I didn’t let it slow me down. My nails sunk into his skin as I clawed at him again. I vaguely became aware that I was screaming bloody murder. My vision was tinged with red, and I honestly wasn’t sure if it was because I had blood in my eyes or because I was so enraged that my vision was literally going red, like I was some kind of berserker or something.
There was nothing I wanted to do more than bash this guy’s head in. I would kill him if it meant I would be the one to walk away, I had no doubt about that. I may have respected him as a fighter, but this was no longer about the fight. It was about survival.
His hands grappled with my legs as he pulled me closer. I threw pine needles and dirt and rocks at his face, grabbing anything I could from the ground and using it as a weapon. I felt his hands release me for a moment, but it was just that, a moment, not even long enough to act, because he only released me so he could launch himself farther up my body.
When he landed on top of me, pinning me to the ground, panic flared anew and I rocked and bucked, did everything I could think of to get him off me, but none of
it worked. Even the stuff I’d used in training, that had let me get Richard off me when we sparred, failed. It felt like he was a boulder sitting on my stomach and slowly squishing me in half.
My wolf, who had been mostly silent until this point, was howling in her cage, hating the way he was dominating us. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, willing her to shut up because I couldn’t think straight when she was carrying on like that. My actions must have seemed strange to the man on top of me though, because when I opened my eyes, he was looking down at me with his own wolf shining brightly out of his gaze, a curious expression on his face and a slight tilt of his head which let me know he was confused.
It was an opening I wasn’t going to waste. I lunged my head upward, cracking my forehead against his nose. The gush of blood had him sitting up, lessening the amount of him that was pinning me down to the point that I was able to reverse our positions. As soon as I was on top of him, I let my fists fly. I hadn’t punched anything in days, maybe even a week or more, and I needed the release of violence, something I couldn’t have with my mates, not really. I’d always hold back with them, always be too scared of hurting them to really let go.
But with this guy? This stranger who was trying to kidnap me?
There were no such qualms.
I wasn’t sure how long I went, raining punches down not just on his face but on his ribs as well, anywhere I could reach, until he stopped moving. When I looked up, I saw the guys were still grappling with their wolf, but the fight had decidedly turned in their favor. I pushed to my feet, still standing over the unconscious man.
“Hey, asshole!” I screamed across the clearing. The volume wasn’t necessary for him to hear me, but it sure as shit got his attention. “You want me to come over there?”
