Craved By Her Wolf (Silverwood Island Shifters)

by Maia Starr

  “Dean’s upping the pressure,” Connor continued. “He’s pushing us now, and he was very confident yesterday, even if we managed to push him back for the moment. We stayed behind just in case he decided to come back, but we haven’t seen him or his men since.” Connor gazed knowingly at the doorway, scanning the water damage on the floorboards and the destroyed furniture. “Though I think we can all agree on why he was so angry yesterday.”

  “You’d be right,” Brendan said, chugging the rest of his small cup of cappuccino. “Dean came here yesterday after I left, tried to assault Sam and kill the two shifters we brought in. Both are safe in Sam’s hands, but...I fought Dean off, nearly destroyed half of Sam’s clinic and home.” He looked at each of his packmates individually. “We have another problem, though, one concerning Dean and Sam. Sam used to be Dean’s abused girlfriend.”

  “So our new doctor has connections to that bastard?” one male shifter said, sighing. “I’m glad she managed to find her way to us, though.”

  “And we don’t have to avoid the topic of our secret nature,” a third shifter instantly followed up.

  Nodding, Brendan crossed his arms. “She knows all about us, so it’ll make it easier when we bring her more injured.”

  “Do we need to put that much pressure on her, though?” Connor asked. “She’s just one person, and that assistant of hers—”

  “Is as green as the grass on this good-for-nothing island, yeah, I know,” Brendan said, growling. His tone shut Connor up instantly. “I don’t like it either. I’d rather she not need to be thrust into helping so many people now, but she’s strong and damn good at her job. If we already have some dead…” Brendan’s voice trailed off, his mind wandering off into the dark recesses he tried never to reach. His wrath became entangled with the caged wolf inside, the beast beating against its cell and roaring like crazy at the thought. While Brendan had enjoyed his time with Sam, members of his pack had moved on from this life against their will. He was so wrapped up in his self-loathing, he didn’t even notice his hand crush the cup, cutting up his palm, until Connor gripped his shoulder.

  Grunting at the slight pain in his hand, he held the shards in his open palm and ducked inside, gesturing for the others to follow. “If we already have dead, then we need to act now. We end Dean’s reign over our rival pack, set them free from his terror, and get revenge for everything he’s wrought. We’ll come up with a plan now, so come inside. You’ll mostly have to stand…”

  The shuffling of feet and curses under breaths must have woken Sam because as he passed by her door to throw the shattered pieces of her cup in the trash bin, it opened. With her platinum blonde hair frizzled and only a bathrobe on to cover her naked body beneath, Sam appeared as if she were still feeling the effects of the previous night.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, a slight frantic edge to her voice. “Are there people here? We need to put up the closed sign since it’s Monday…”

  “Actually, it’s Sunday,” Brendan said, doing his best to smile.

  Sam returned the smile, relieved, and then she noticed the shattered cup in his hand. “What’s that?”

  “Sam, we’re going to take down Dean,” Brendan said, quickly changing the subject. “I want you to be a part of our discussions to take him down. Can you be ready in a few minutes?”

  She nodded but continued to stare at his hand. “Sure, but why—”

  “Let’s just say, Connor and some of my pack brought some news that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. Dean’s committed some sins that simply can’t be redeemed.”

  Sam shuddered, pulling back locks of her hair. “Alright...just give me a few minutes.” Shutting her door, Sam rushed back inside, with Brendan lingering to listen to her hurriedly open her drawers and pull out clothes. After a while, Brendan moved on to the kitchen and dumped the shards in the trash bin, noticing the man awake.

  The man blinked at Brendan, a flicker of confusion behind his eyes. Brendan sighed. “Bad timing, man. Listen, you’re at the clinic and were treated by Samantha Byrd, the new doctor in town. Your daughter’s here too, and she’s doing as well as you are.”

  The man sucked in air. “Lissa’s here? Where?”

  Brendan would have stopped the man first, if not for the fact that Connor and the rest were here. “Look, you can go in, but I doubt your daughter would like to see her father completely naked. Let me grab you—”

  “No need, I’ve got a pair for you,” Sam said, unexpectedly popping in. She held a pair of baggy sweatpants in her arms, holding it out for the man to frantically reach for. He winced, standing to clothe himself, but that didn’t stop him from rushing out of the room.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “Around the corner, in the room marked with my name,” Sam replied. They both listened as he burst in, crying his daughter’s name, and hearing as the daughter shouted her thanks for her father’s survival, and then annoyance at how much he was hugging her. They both chuckled at the wholesome family moment occurring in the other side of the house, glancing at each other. “Thank god they’re both okay. Thanks to you, that is.”

  “Thanks to me?” Brendan said, chuckling. “No way! Without you, those two would have bled out and been long gone by now.”

  “But you were the one who stopped Dean from finishing them off.”

  “And you stitched up their wounds, cleaned them, stopped the flow of blood.”

  “Maybe,” Sam said, smiling. “We should go back to the living room to get this plan rolling.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Brendan said, mimicking her smile. “Lead the way, Doctor Byrd.” Sam nodded, turning to walk out, but suddenly an idea flickered in his mind, and he quickly grabbed after her, spinning her around and into his arms. “I know this might be a bad time, but I know I need to say this.” Sam’s eyes were wide as he kissed her, though the release was gentle and slow. “I think you’re beyond gorgeous, Samantha Byrd. Despite your reasons for arriving on Silverwood Island, I’d say the day you came, the whole world brightened. I need you, want you to be by my side. Right here and now, I’m claiming you as my mate.”

  Silence followed his declaration, and he gulped as Sam’s lips quivered. At first, he thought he’d made a mistake. He really did want her to be his partner forever more, but if she was suddenly having second thoughts…

  “I think my heart’s about to burst,” she said. Fanning her face, Sam breathed out, smiling deeper than Brendan had ever witnessed before. “Now that’s one way to win a girl’s heart.”

  Brendan grinned like a fool, picking her up and spinning Sam around, kissing her all the while. “That’s what I wanted to hear!”

  Laughing, Brendan set her down and grabbed her hand. “Alright, why don’t you lead the way out, Doctor Byrd?” he said. She chuckled and nodded.

  “Follow me; we’ll have time later to be with each other, right?” she asked.

  “Right,” Brendan agreed, leaving the kitchen behind.

  Within minutes, the mood grew strained. Everyone stood in an awkward ring in Sam’s living room, each looking at the ground, or out the doorway, or nervously glancing between each other. Sam herself shifted her weight beside him multiple times, unsure of what to say or do. Brendan placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, allowing her to breathe and rest. She placed her own above his, her sweet caress sending tingles up his arm.

  “Alright, so does anyone have any suggestions?” Brendan asked, startling the whole of the house it seemed. No one spoke, with even Connor stroking his chin in thought.

  “Well, Dean likes to ambush, right?” one male shifter said. “Maybe we could use that against him.”

  “How so?” Brendan inquired.

  The shifter licked his lips, glancing between him and Sam. “Well, you mentioned that he and Doctor Byrd have a history, right?” Sam’s body tightened at the mention. “What if we...bait him?”

  “Bait him?” Connor said. “You mean to suggest we use Sam as the bait? Bring h
im to her, while we hide in wait?”

  The male shifter shrugged. “More or less, I mean, as long as it’s okay with Doctor Byrd.”

  Brendan stepped forward to protest, but Sam gripped his hand hard, stopping him dead in his tracks. He watched as Sam instead stepped out, nodding. “I can do it if it means putting an end to Dean. What’s one more time staring that monster in the eyes versus a potential lifetime of peace afterward?”

  Brendan’s heart went wild, thumping and pumping blood through his veins. He couldn’t take his eyes off the brave face Sam wore while she looked to rest of his pack. It mad his inner wolf go wild with desire, and he did his best not to spin her around that moment and kiss her once again. “Are you sure, Sam? Dean could hurt you in the time that it would take us to act.”

  Nodding once again, Sam turned a grin on him. “It’s time I confront my demons, Brendan. There’s no point in putting it off. We need to stop this man now.”

  “If we’re all in agreement,” Connor began, “then I suggest we start hammering out these details. Like where Sam will be as the bait, how we trick Dean. If we just leave Sam alone, it might be too obvious for him, and he might figure out our plans immediately.”

  “We also need to guess how many men he could potentially bring with him,” another female shifter said. “He’s cunning. Maybe he’ll use most of his men as a diversion by attacking the Bedrock, while he and a few come here to kidnap Sam.”

  “Then we’ll work this out now. Once we’re done, I expect one of you to inform the rest of our people in the Bedrock. We’ll get this bastard, am I clear to everyone here?” Brendan said stoically. With a round of nods, and Sam’s tiny hand clutched in his, Brendan grunted. “Then let’s figure out these details, shall we?”↡¶

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sam

  Sam hadn’t considered how long it would take Dean to come back to try and take her away. She expected the man to rush to her as soon as the meeting to decide his fate was over. After Brendan and the others had left to get into their hiding spots, with Connor running off to inform the rest of their pack, Sam had eyed the entire forest, waiting to see Dean emerge from some undergrowth with a cadre of thugs, ready to saunter up like the demons they were and snatch her with their claws.

  The next day, she imagined giant wolves, dozens, surrounding her house on all sides, too many for Brendan and the others to handle on their own. The wolves would blow her entire clinic down, with Dean sauntering in like he were some hero liberating Sam from a castle in a forest. Her saving grace from continuing that thought was the departure of the girl, Lissa, and her father. Escorted back to the Bedrock, Sam really began to feel the pressure.

  The day after that, Sam began to shake with the idea of Dean never arriving on her doorstep. What if he really was out to simply destroy Brendan’s home, the Bedrock, now? What if Sam was the last priority, and Dean had realized Brendan and the others would think the opposite? She could see his mind work like that, outplaying everyone around him once again. He’d have a grand old time slowly taking over and killing off the rest of Brendan’s pack, with Brendan nowhere in sight.

  Or maybe Sam was simply overthinking from fatigue, or the stress of never knowing when Dean would suddenly show up outside her home with however many men and women willing to fight for him. She just hoped that this ordeal wouldn’t stretch on forever, because her nerves threatened to kill her sooner or later. Her gut became a paradise for butterflies, and her throat dried up more than once.

  On the fourth day after the meeting in her clinic, Sam sat up in bed, dark bags under her eyes and staring at her door. She waited, for nothing in particular. Even Dean’s appearance wouldn’t have fazed her anymore, if he were to suddenly walk in.

  Because of this whole ordeal, Sam had been forced to keep her clinic closed, reschedule a myriad of appointments. Barely anyone had come to see her, save for Megan, who Sam quickly turned away.

  “Stay away from the clinic until I give you the word to come back, okay?” Sam had told the confused assistant.

  “But why?” she had asked, blinking. “Is something wrong?”

  “Just leave! I’ll call you!” Sam had shouted at her, causing Megan to scamper off.

  That was two days ago now. Brendan and the others shifters of his pack were somewhere in the vicinity; he’d refused to tell her where exactly they’d hide, or else Sam could accidentally give it away to Dean when he came. If he came, she wanted to say now, growing more and more convinced she’d become an afterthought to Dean for the time being. The only companions she had now were the two male shifters standing guard outside.

  They were a ruse, meant to give Dean the impression that they all simply decided to put up some protection for Sam. But they were real shifters, so if push came to shove, they would fight just as well as act like protection. The only real interactions she had with them were when she brought food out to them, morning, noon and night. She’d walk out hesitantly, hand them each a plated meal while they chatted, take their thanks, ask if they’d seen anything out of the ordinary, and then when she received the usual negative response, she’d head back inside. Honestly, she didn’t feel like talking to them anyway. Sometimes the two played cards, though they never offered for her to join; probably because they knew the pressure she was under.

  To pass the time, Sam often imagined Brendan while she either sat and read or cooked, picturing both nights she spent with him entangled in his bed and hers, feeling each other out in ways she didn’t realize were possible. If everything went well with the rest of this plan, maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t mind settling down on Silverwood Island for good. Before now, Sam hadn’t any thought of staying on the island for good if Dean was taken down or thrown in jail, but she’d never thought her stay would be incredibly short either. As long as Brendan felt the same way

  Eventually, on the fifth day, something felt off.

  Sam awoke to absolute quiet. Normally she’d at least hear the playful banter of the two shifters guarding her residence echoing outside, or just inside the living room. But instead, she heard nothing. Birds that normally chirped and sang in the treetops remained silent, while other animals appeared completely gone. Getting up to peer out one of her windows, she saw nothing of note; even the wind had died down, leaving the trees to stand still.

  Getting dressed, Sam marched out into her hallway, peering into the living room. Neither of the men were inside, but she narrowed her eyes on their backs outside. One crouched, while the other stood, each looking a different way into the forest. Carefully, Sam made her way outside, noting how neither of the two guards indicated at all that they’d heard her come out.

  “Quiet,” the crouched shifter hissed, causing Sam to come to a stop.

  “Is something wrong?” Sam whispered, crossing her arms and glancing between the two. Looking out around her, it was as if time stood still. Like some sort of omen.

  “Not yet,” the standing shifter said. “But you might want to stay inside for today. We don’t know if Dean will even come for you, but something out there is watching us...or at least it feels like it.”

  Sam shivered uncomfortably and took the shifter’s advice, ducking back inside and heading to her kitchen. At least in there, she'd have kitchen knives to defend herself with if Dean came today.

  Another hour passed, and Sam was hard at work cooking breakfast. She listened to the curt banter between the two shifters outside. The nervous edges to their voices caused Sam to tap her foot, trying to keep her heart from imploding on the stress. Eventually, she zoned out, trying to focus on the sizzle of bacon and sausage links. She cooked scrambled eggs next, wondering whether Brendan was fond of breakfast foods. Once she was finished, she noticed the silence again from both of the shifters. Quickly and shakily plating the food, Sam picked up two plates with forks, hoping to at least give them a reason to relax a little.

  As she walked into the living room, though, she noticed empty air where the two shifters had been outside. Hesitan
t, she poked her head outside, seeing them nowhere in sight.

  Alarm bells rang in her mind as she spied a pair of dangerous, dark eyes staring at her from next to a tree. Her whole body began to mimic the odd sereneness of the forest, going still, her breathing nearly ceasing, as she locked eyes with the newcomer.

  The newcomer smiled wickedly, placing a meaty hand on the trunk of a wide oak tree. Shadows covered his body, with only pinpoints of light hitting his black clothes and tanned skin.

  Dean whistled as he cracked his neck and fingers, rolled his shoulders, descending the small hill he had been waiting on. His whistling was heavy with intent, Sam beginning to shake so hard that one of the plates in her hand toppled to the ground. She scowled, deciding to step out further and face Dean directly rather than head back inside, and she placed the other plate down gently in front of her.

  Dean mocked her with a laugh, casually strolling forward, his torso rippling with veins.

  “Looks like you’re being a good housewife, aren’t you?” Dean said, stopping just in front of the plate of food. They were only feet apart, yet his thick stench nearly caused her to gag. She threw a hand up to cover her mouth just in case.

  “What, is there something wrong? Going to vomit at the sight of me?”

  “Yes,” Sam answered curtly, acutely aware of the flicker on his grin.

  Dean cocked his head at her like he was some sort of snake. “Aren’t you happy to see me, Sam? Today’s the day we get to be together again.”

  “I want nothing to do with you,” Sam retorted, being careful not to tip Dean off. She wanted to wait to see if Dean brought any more people with, maybe even goad him into revealing the others. “You’re nothing but a beast, Dean; nobody would want to be with you.”