Lucas set my paw down on his leg and tilted back his head, showing Declan his throat. Carefully, Lucas raised his hands. “I need to clean her wound and wrap her paw in fresh bandages, Deck.”
Declan retreated, climbing back over me, and landing in a huff at my side. For a second, I thought it was because Lucas backed down, but then I felt Jasper.
The alpha wolf wasn’t directing his dominance at me, but I felt it ghosting over my skin nonetheless. His presence ignited the forest around us. He wasn’t a werewolf, he was a damn force of nature. Jasper’s wolf was twice my size, pound for pound, but Declan was as large as both of us combined. Still, Jasper dominated the massive wolf without so much as a snarl. The alpha rounded our group and settled down on his rear haunches, nodding to Lucas.
“That happened fast.” Lucas turned back to me, and his gray eyes shone with interest. He scooped up my paw from his lap and met my eyes. “Declan is protecting you like you’re his wounded mate.”
Declan chuffed behind me and laid his head over my side, watching Lucas with concentrated attention I could feel from here. When I nuzzled his face, he licked my muzzle before turning back to Lucas. Declan was indeed treating me like his wounded mate, but the big wolf’s behavior was no doubt due to the fact I was an omega. My nature tended to bring out the basest instincts in wolves.
Lucas flushed out my paw and wrapped it in gauze. He taped the end of my bandage and met my eyes. “This is loose on purpose, so if you try to walk with it, it might fall off. I did it that way so if you have to change without warning, it should come apart easily.”
I nuzzled his thigh in thanks.
Lucas shouldered his jacket off one arm, but he froze and shook his head. “Sorry, Teagan. Do you mind if I join you guys?”
I shook my head.
His head rocked back. “You do mind?”
I shook my head, again and chuffed.
Lucas rubbed a hand over his beard and chuckled. “That’s probably the worst question I could have asked a wolf. Is it okay if I join you?”
I nodded. Of the three wolves here, Lucas was the least likely to dominate me, and somehow, I wasn’t feeling vulnerable at this moment with Declan or Jasper either. I felt safe, which was so strange, but there it was.
Lucas grabbed the hem of his shirt, clearly planning to undress right there, inches away from all three of us. I watched his lean muscle ripple as he pulled off his shirt. Dark hair covered his chest and trailed down, disappearing into his jeans.
He flicked open his fly, and I closed my eyes, giving him the privacy I probably should have been giving him all along. A few minutes later, Lucas flopped down on my other side and leaned into me. I now had werewolves lying up the length of both of my sides, and an alpha sitting over us. I had completely failed at staying away from the Grayhaven pack, but it was hard to care as the sweet warmth lulled me to sleep.
“Little wolf. Sweet, docile wolf,” a high-pitched voice whispered in my ear. “Come dance with us, Omega.”
My eyes opened to the sight of a glowing blue globe. Around me, the pine forest was completely dark, save for the trees lit by the illumination of the light. At some point, I turned back to human, and I stood there, completely naked. Mud and leaves coated my feet, meaning I had been walking without even being aware of it.
The glowing orb darted around me. “Come to our party, pretty wolf. Come dance with me, and I’ll make you forget. Forget with me, sweet child of the earth. We can hide you. We can take you where he’ll never find you again.”
“Teagan,” the low male yell came from somewhere behind me in the forest, but I reached out toward the glowing light.
“How would you hide me?” I asked.
The glow brightened. “In the deepest places, my sweet docile wolf. You’ll be mine, and I will protect you from the monsters that chase you. Follow me…”
The light darted away, and I stepped into the glowing path as the sound of feet trampling underbrush crashed behind me.
“Come quick,” the light whispered as it darted between the trees.
I fell into a run, following the streaming light as hope flared to life in my chest. Finally, I’d be hidden in a place that Kane could never find me. This was my chance—maybe my only chance.
The footfalls behind me grew louder, and though I hastened my pace, within minutes, Jasper appeared beside me.
“Teagan,” he growled. “This is a fae trap,” he said.
The ball of light sped up, darting through the trees, and I continued to run while I kept Jasper in the corner of my eye. If he grabbed for me, I’d dodge and keep running. But he didn’t reach for me, he just kept an even gait beside me.
“I’ve suspected that their queen, Mab, has been trying to trap a wolf for a while now. Do you want to exchange one collar for another?” Jasper asked, and his words woke me like a bucket of ice water poured on my head.
What the fuck was I doing? I slowed to a stop and watched as the glowing ball of light darted into the forest.
“Shit.” I rubbed my fingers over my eyes. “Thank you, Jasper. I don’t even know what I was thinking.” The full scope of what I had been about to do hit me, and I staggered a step. Fuck. I was about to give myself over to a fae for protection and willingly go with her to a deep place where I’d never be found again. I peered back the way I came. Declan had said the fae lured us out to their parties like the fucking Pied Piper. He’d shown me that there was so much more magic around me than I could even perceive and that only fae were safe from other fae. He’d fucking spelled it out for me in thick red letters, and I’d disregarded his every warning. “Are Declan and Lucas okay?”
“They’re sleeping soundly,” Jasper said. “I would have been too, but…” his blue eyes met mine, “I heard you.”
“Running?” I asked.
“No.” He lifted a finger to his temple. “I heard you in here, calling my name. I felt the danger you were in.”
I blinked at him. “That’s not one of my powers.”
“Yeah,” Jasper said, with a nod, but he didn’t sound surprised. “We should get back.”
A shiver passed through me, and I remembered that I was standing here, naked for the world to see. Suddenly, I felt hyperaware of every inch of my body and how close I was to Jasper.
The only interaction we had before this was me holding a broken bottle to his throat and him tracking me through the streets, and now we were standing here in the woods, alone, and naked.
“Are you okay?” he asked, ducking down his head to make eye contact with me. Moonlight caressed his features, the break in his nose, the dark stubble on his chin, the muscular set of his shoulders that were at eye level with me. I could feel his warmth and his presence, and it felt at the same time strange and familiar.
“Kicking myself, but otherwise I’m fine.” I did my best to sound casual. Nudity wasn’t supposed to be taboo between shifters. It was a very different thing for shifters than it was for humans. We were undressing around each other too often for it to be a big deal.
However, spending all this time naked around Jasper and Declan didn’t feel whatsoever like I used to feel undressing in front of my pack before a hunt. We were just standing here, not quite touching, but my body was reacting to his presence, nonetheless. My nipples tightened and skin prickled as awareness tingled through my belly. Every inch of my body felt awake and aware.
“How did you know my name back at the bar?” I asked him, maybe to wake myself up from this sudden stirring inside me, or maybe because the question had been rattling around in my head.
Jasper didn’t respond at first. He crossed his arms over his chest, and his expression morphed from concern to something colder. His full mouth twitched, and then he said, “Of course I know who you are, Teagan. I would have recognized you right away, but Grayhaven fucks with my ability to sense you. I was beginning to feel your presence in the bar when you tried to slit my throat. Then, I gave you an order and it muddled my mind with that strange sensation
I got from dominating you. What I want to know is if you’ve figured out who I am?”
I grimaced. “No, sorry, Jasper. I’ve never heard of you. To be fair, though, I know almost nothing about the supernatural world. Is there something I should know about you?”
“Yeah, there is. You should know that I was the werewolf who challenged Kane on the basis that you were my mate.” Instead of waiting for me to sputter some kind of response to that, Jasper simply turned away and walked into the forest.
Chapter Seven
The whole world spun on its axis as I watched Jasper walk away into the forest.
Jasper’s words echoed through my mind. I was the werewolf who challenged Kane on the basis that you were my mate. It was impossible. I had never, not once, got wind of anything about someone challenging Kane. He’d never received a challenge, let alone one on the basis that I was another werewolf’s mate.
“That never happened,” I called as I followed after Jasper.
He crouched down, and fur rippled across his skin. The transformation from man to a large gray wolf took only seconds, and seeing it, stole my breath. I had only ever seen Kane transition so smoothly, and he was centuries old. It took me a few minutes to transform and days to recover before I had the energy to do it again. Jasper changed like it was as easy as breathing to him.
“You can’t just say that and then go turn into a wolf,” I said. “I deserve more of an explanation.”
Jasper looked back and nodded on toward the forest, and I got his message loud and clear. The alpha werewolf had every intention of dropping that world-shattering truth bomb on me and not saying a word more about it.
“Do you think you’re my mate?” I asked.
Jasper chuffed and started walking. He was walking at a pace a toddler could keep up with, but he was definitely leaving me and my questions behind. Annoyance surged in my chest. The fact that I was naked and human while Jasper was in his fur suddenly pissed me off but if I tried to change, I’d more than likely make myself pass out and stay human.
Even though I wasn’t trying to keep up with the alpha werewolf, I kept falling into step beside him. “I’m not calling you a liar, Jasper, but I was under the impression Kane had never been challenged. He told me that all the time. I’m sure there’s a story there, and you clearly don’t want me to know it, so I’m guessing the challenge was about your relationship with Kane and not about me, right? Mate challenges are one of the only ways you can challenge another alpha without starting a war, so it makes sense. And, Kane won? No one ever told me.”
The werewolf only walked on, not reacting to anything I said. It was like trying to have a conversation with a brick wall, and I sighed and gave up. When we reached the two sleeping wolves, I hopped up and knocked my backpack off the branch. Dragging it around the tree, I redressed quickly and threw it on my back. A low burning sensation churned in my stomach. I could eat a whole deer right now and probably still be hungry.
Low voices rose from where I left the guys, and before I was finished lacing up my shoes, Declan rounded the tree.
“Wait, please don’t leave, Teagan,” he said as he adjusted his pants and pulled up his fly. He grabbed his shirt from a low-hanging branch and pulled it over his head. “I mean… will you please not leave?”
“Don’t worry, Declan, it wasn’t an order. You have to tell me to do something explicitly for it to count.” I pulled my jeans over the tongue of my shoes and straightened. “And, you guys convinced me—and my stomach convinced me—to come to your packhouse. That is… if you still want me to.”
The grin that spread over the massive werewolf’s face was so big it threatened to run off his cheeks entirely. He rubbed a hand over his buzzed hair and said, “Fuck yeah, Cherry on Top, we want you to come to our packhouse.”
I laughed. “Wait, what? No, cherry on top is not a thing.”
“You know, it just came out, but it fits.” His brows lifted. “Like the cherry on top of a malt. The best part of a good thing.”
“Cherry on Top. It sounds like dirty—like one-hundred percent dirty, and every single person who hears that will take it that way.” I shook my head, but I was chuckling, and I couldn’t help it. “Please tell me that’s not something that you’re planning on calling me.”
His eyes twinkled with mirth. “How about I just call you Cherry, so only you and I know what it really means?”
“This is a very bad idea.” What the hell was I signing myself up for by going with them to their packhouse? I honestly didn’t know, but damn, the sweet fluttering feeling in my gut felt wonderful.
Lucas rounded the tree and leaned against it. “What’s a bad idea? If it’s one of Declan’s schemes, please just don’t hurt yourself any further.” Lucas looked half asleep. His dark hair was tousled and eyes half-lidded. His button-up shirt had one button off, and the collar was askew. “I feel like a broken record, but if your bandage is off, I should probably check your hand.” He pulled out his penlight again and clicked his tongue. His nostrils flared as his gray eyes came up to meet mine, fully awake now. “Do I want to know how you managed to get so much dirt in your wound in your sleep?”
My gaze slid over to where Jasper was deeper in the forest, pulling on a shirt. He clearly hadn’t told Lucas that the faerie queen had lured me off.
“Special talent,” I said as I looked back into the good vet’s concerned gaze. “I’m sorry that I’m such a pain in the ass patient.”
“Well, since you haven’t tried to bite, burn, or stab me, you’re one of my better patients. I’m just worried about your healing, and I don’t have the supplies to properly flush this out here, so we’re going to have to head back to the clinic.”
“Teagan is planning on coming home with us,” Jasper said as he emerged from behind the tree. He’d pulled on his jacket and motorcycle boots, and his dark hair was swept to the side.
Lucas’ head rocked back. “You are?”
“For right now, yeah. Can I fix your buttons?” I reached toward his shirt, and when he nodded, I undid the top button and put it in the right hole, then I worked my way down.
A flash of memory pushed its way into my mind of me insisting on buttoning up the imposter Kane’s shirt. It was on the night of our rehearsal dinner, and the man who I believed was my future husband had a button out of place. As I fixed his shirt, I remembered thinking that this was love. This was what intimacy with my husband felt like, wanting to fix his buttons and having him smile down at me. It felt like such a naive and pathetic fantasy now.
My memory brought up another image. A button-up shirt with crimson staining down the front. Slashed flesh. A half-eaten corpse.
“Happy Anniversary, Teagan. Now you can finally be free of your hate…”
Acid surged up my throat, and I swallowed it down. I wouldn’t think about that. Not ever.
Lucas’ hand closed over mine. “Teagan, are you okay?”
“Fine.” I pushed the memories down into the darkest parts of my mind and stepped away from Lucas. “Sorry about the shirt. I can be a little anal sometimes.”
“No. I’m grateful.” He grinned, showing that glimpse of his dimple again. “I’m sure I look like a rumpled mess.”
“Not at all,” I lied, and from the smile he gave me, he knew it. “You’ve got an absent-minded professor thing going for you, and I mean that in the best way.”
“We’re not safe here. Let’s go.” Jasper headed through the woods without looking back.
I began to follow when a big muscular arm slung over my shoulders, and Declan leaned in and said, “You don’t even know how excited I am to show you our house—and by our, I mean yours too.”
“Wow. That’s really generous of you to say, Declan,” I said as we trampled over the underbrush. I reached up and patted the big guy’s hand. “Will you tell me about your pack, so I’m prepared? Are there any women in your pack?”
“You’re the only female werewolf in Grayhaven so far,” Declan said with a wince, tho
ugh it wasn’t surprising. There were fewer female werewolves in the wolf world, and unmated women tended to choose packs with female alphas. Declan was still grimacing when he added, “There are usually women in our packhouse, though.”
“Which is ninety percent because of our last pack member, Chad,” Lucas said from my other side as he picked his way through the underbrush.
My stomach flipped at the name.
“Yeah, Chad. I don’t think you’ve met him yet,” Declan said. “He was on stage when we saw you at the bar. He’s a singer.”
“Yeah, we met,” I felt my face flushing, and I was suddenly very glad that it was still dark outside. “Did you say his name is Chad?”
“Yeah. He was in a band a while back. Rockknot or something,” Declan said. “They got famous for a time before Chad was bitten. That’s what he’s always telling us, anyway.”
“Chad Jameson from Rockknot was very famous. There wasn’t a dry eye in my high school when he died—or, didn’t die, I guess.”
Declan slowed to a stop and rubbed the back of his head. “Damn it. Are you a fan?”
The big guy actually seemed distressed over it.
“Of the band. I met Chad in the farmer’s market and, let’s just say that things didn’t go well. But Chad Jameson is a great musician. Why? Is that a bad thing?”
Declan made a disgusted sound. “Chad’s like a brother, but he’s a sex-crazed egomaniac who burns hearts like they’re made of paper. Can you do me a favor and pretend like you’ve never heard of him before?”
“That honestly might be best,” Lucas said with a smile.
“Sorry…” I gritted my teeth, “I’m not that good of an actor to pretend I don’t like his music, but I’m sure he already knows that I’m not a huge fan of his ego.”
“Fuck. He’s going to be strutting around for you like a fucking rooster,” Declan said under his breath. “Well, you know us three, and you’ve met Ace. So, that’s all five of us.”
“Five wolves?” It wasn’t even half the size of my old pack, and we were smaller than most. Kane just had aggressive, dominant enforcers and me. The more wolves, the more chance that someone would get it in their mind to dominate me, so as far as I was concerned, the less I had to contend with, the safer I was.
Escaping Monsters: A Reverse Harem Wolf Shifter Romance (Grayhaven Book 1) Page 7
