Cole (A Wolf Shifter Romance Novel) (The Steelman Shifters Book 1)

by Ruby Brooks

  The harrowing feeling of my wolf being put to sleep inside me took me back to when Tristan did exactly the same. Was this the alpha of the York pack?

  “Cole,” I whimpered, turning back to him when the man released my chin. He was back to dragging me by my wrist, and he sighed, throwing me over his shoulder instead. I shrieked, raining more blows onto his back. “Put me down. You just injected me with something, didn’t you?”

  “Hayley,” Cole called out, managing to throw the guys off him. Blood was soaking the ground below him and I quickly noticed he had been stabbed. He kept his hand over the wound, staggering over to me. “Get the fuck off her. Hayley, please.”

  I was fighting with all I had left. Tears swam in my vision as I watched Cole fall to his knees on the ground, coughing up blood. I needed to go to him, to save him, but I was stuck over this random man’s shoulder.

  “Stop fighting me, Hayley,” he tsked. “It’ll only get worse for you if you do.”

  The daylight outside hurt my eyes and I let out a breath when I realised the people who had come to my grandmother’s funeral were gone.

  Fuck.

  I couldn’t say goodbye to my grandmother. To Cole.

  The last thing I saw was his eyes, vivid blue in the distance before they closed, and his head hit the floor.

  “No. No. No. This isn’t happening. Cole!”

  “Knock her out, Mo. I can’t deal with it anymore.” The man dumped me on the floor in front of a short woman. I scrambled to run into the church but there was a sharp prick at the back of my neck before I made it onto my feet.

  All I remembered before the world took me was those blue eyes and the screech of sirens in the distance.

  Chapter 10

  Cole

  The steady beeping of a monitor pulled me out of the fog in my brain. Snippets of memories flashed before my eyes, but I couldn’t get a solid grasp on them. All I could think about was Hayley. My stomach ached and as I tried to move, strong hands pushed me back.

  “Hayley?” I felt a presence in the room, but I couldn’t smell anything other than bleach. What the fuck?

  “Stay still, Cole. Moving will make it worse.”

  “Mike? What the hell?” Mike was the last person I expected to see. His usual long hair was gone, replaced by a military-style cut. He was wearing a t-shirt with black combat pants, similar to the guys who attacked us. “Where is Hayley?” The memories were slowly coming back.

  “Cole, calm down.”

  The beeping was increasing in line with my stress levels and it was driving me insane. “Get me the fuck out of here.”

  I couldn’t wait to rip that man to pieces for taking her. I will never forget his face.

  “Enough.” Tristan’s voice was like ice and I loathed the feeling of his influence wrapped around me. I bared my neck in submission as I gasped for air. I was in agony, but the physical pain was nothing like watching Hayley being carried away. Mike slowly released his grip on me when he realised I was calm enough.

  “Where is she?” I sighed, lying back against the bed. No one would answer me and Mike swore quietly. “I swear to fucking God, if you don’t tell me now—”

  “I don’t know,” Tristan admitted, settling down in the seat next to my bed. He looked dishevelled, as though he hadn’t slept in days. For all I knew right now, he may not have.

  Good.

  He shouldn’t be sleeping when she was out there.

  I finally managed to take in my surroundings. I was on a hospital ward, the beeping coming from the monitor attached to me in various places. Kian was pacing the ward, pulling at his hair. Mike wouldn’t look at anyone, and Tristan was looking at me, a haunted expression on his face.

  “Tell me you are looking for her,” I demanded, breaking all sorts of pack hierarchy right now.

  “Of course we are. We have been looking since we pulled you out of the church. Tell me everything that happened.”

  “There isn’t much to say,” I hissed in pain as I moved, and Kian stopped pacing to look over at me. His face was set in a grim line and I knew he was feeling Hayley’s loss like I was, through the pack bond. “When we arrived in York, Hayley told me she had a bad feeling. I shrugged her off, thinking it was nerves. For fuck’s sake,” I tensed and punched at the bed. “I should have listened to her. What has the York alpha said?”

  “Their pack was murdered,” Tristan said, rubbing at his chin. Mike muttered something about coffee and dragged Kian off the ward with him.

  Murdered? Nothing about this was making sense. If it was a targeted attack on Hayley, and I had every reason to believe it was, then why attack the pack?

  Why didn’t she stay under the pew where I had hidden her?

  “Where is she?” I let the tears that were building up fall. I was exhausted and the connection that was always there between us was gone. “I just… fucking hell, Tristan. I can’t live without her.”

  “Cole—” he reached out for me.

  “I told her she was my mate,” I continued, cutting him off; I didn’t want to feel his touch right now. “She accepted it. I was going to claim her, you know? I wanted to give her time to grieve, then I was going to tell her what happened a few years ago. I was going to claim her, if she still accepted me.”

  “You will still have that chance.”

  “I can’t feel her anymore.”

  “I can.”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me. I’m not in the mood.”

  Tristan braced himself by his elbows on my bed and looked me in the eye. “I feel every death in my pack as though it was my own. Hayley is pack, and I would have felt it if she was gone.”

  “Why can’t I feel her? I would have thought a mate trumps an alpha’s bond.”

  “Because you didn’t complete the claim. Hayley swore into this pack a few days after she arrived. You watched it, remember? That’s how I know.”

  “I need her,” I closed my eyes, squeezing them tightly shut. All I could see was her over than man’s shoulder, being taken away from me. Of course, I fucking remember her joining the pack. I also remember the absolute elation I felt and had only felt once since when we slept together for the first time. “Who attacked us?”

  “I believe it was the hunters. They have been growing in size recently, and their moves have gotten bolder.”

  “They use shifters,” I observed. “We were both struggling in the fight and I wasn’t holding back.”

  “I noticed that. There were all sorts of scents in the church, not just wolves. I will look into it, but we will find her.”

  “And when we do,” I continued Tristan’s sentence. “When we do, we will fucking end them.”

  Tristan nodded once. “I agree.” There was a shift of energy between us, but we were interrupted before I could question it. I couldn’t cope with this much longer and I was worried about the day when I would finally snap and challenge him.

  “I have gotten you some water,” Kian said, coming over to us. I struggled to lift my arms from the cables and my muscle cramps, so Kian helped pour it into my mouth for me.

  “Thank you,” I rasped. I didn’t realise how thirsty I was, and he sat with me in silence as he helped me drink the full bottle. “Is Mike a bodyguard now?” Tristan had led him over to the other side of the ward and was giving him orders.

  “Yeah. You two were promoted together. So, congratulations?”

  I snorted and winced, regretting it. “What happened to my stomach?”

  “You were stabbed. You’re lucky you survived, actually.”

  Am I? I don’t feel lucky in the slightest. “Have you been looking for her?”

  “Of course I have. I know things have been distant between us, but she is my friend too. I’d do anything for either of you.”

  “You’ll go after them with us?”

  He rubbed at his chin, a gesture similar to his dad’s. “I’ll let you lead it, if it came to that.”

  The tension picked up again in the room, but I didn’
t want to push the issue. Kian couldn’t let me lead it, not without handing over complete control of the pack. For as long as Tristan was alive, he would never let it happen.

  “It won’t come to that,” I said, eventually.

  We made small talk when the nurse came in to take my readings. She smelled like a human – a human full of desire. I guess I couldn’t blame her, as all of us in here were fighters. We were larger and more muscular than human men, something she seemed to enjoy.

  When Mike winked at the nurse, her hands started shaking as she changed my IV bag.

  “I have kept your dosage of painkiller at the same level. If you need any more, press this button.” She held up a button for me and when I nodded, she laid it down next to my hand. “Is there anything else I can get for you, Mr Anderson?” Despite her obvious nerves, the nurse had a steady voice.

  “No.”

  “He means, no thank you,” Mike added, giving me a pointed look.

  The nurse blushed and quickly left us alone again, Mike looking after her as she left.

  “Seriously, Mike?”

  “What?” He gave me an innocent look. “It has been days.”

  “You’re such a pig. Where are we?” I asked no one in particular. Mike cringed and the Steelmans glanced at each other.

  “Weymouth,” Tristan supplied.

  I shook my head. “I’m too far away from her.” I wrestled with the cables again but Mike held me back. He was stronger, but only barely. As soon I got out of this hospital, I was going to throttle him for holding me back.

  “Stop it, Cole. This is the best place for you. When Hayley comes looking for you, this will be the first place she will look. We have already put the message out that if the pack spots her, they guard her.”

  “No, I am going to go and find her. If I have to tear this country up in the process, I will.”

  “Cole, if you do that you will upset a lot of packs. You will die before you manage to do that.”

  I knew Tristan was coming from a good place, a logical one, but I was so angry for letting her go. I was supposed to have protected her, but I couldn’t even get that right.

  I don’t deserve her.

  My wolf inside was beginning to stir, angry with me. He was snapping at me, because it was my fault I hadn’t claimed her. If he had it his way, she would have been ours on the first night we met her.

  I was going to find her, even if it killed me.

  ✽✽✽

  Mike drove me back to the house after I was discharged from the hospital three days later. At that point, my accelerated wolf healing was kicking in and I had to argue with a head nurse to discharge myself. I couldn’t risk them finding out about our kind, and it was a tough argument.

  “So, we are both bodyguards now,” he commented, breaking the silence.

  “I know.”

  “Do you want to train together?”

  “No.”

  What type of question was that? I had only trained with Hayley for the past year.

  Fuck. My. Life.

  Was I ever going to look at something, or experience something, without her being all over it?

  He sighed. “Cole, you can’t live your life shutting everyone off. We are going to find her.”

  “What could you possibly know about it?”

  “Quite a lot, actually.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, the only sign he was getting wound up. “Don’t think that the party boy who made you kiss your mate is the only side of me.”

  We fell into silence before I couldn’t take it anymore. “Thank you for doing that.”

  He let out a laugh. “You’re welcome, prick.”

  When we arrived at the house and I struggled out of the car, the pack started coming up to me and telling me sorry they were, how they were helping, how they miss her. My stomach was still aching from the wound and the pain was beginning to piss me off.

  Mike caught up to me and pulled me aside. “By the way, I found this on the church floor. I know it could belong to anyone, but I took it just in case.”

  It was an emerald ring, hanging off a thin, gold chain. There was a stray piece of long, dark hair caught in the clasp, possibly from when it fell off.

  I wanted to launch myself off the cliffs on the beach.

  “I need space,” I announced, shuffling away from everyone. The speed of my walk nearly pulled the stitches from my stomach.

  Kian wanted me to meet him in his room, so we could talk about a plan to get her back. It was only going to undermine whatever his dad had planned, and I knew Kian wouldn’t have it in him to defy him.

  I decided to blow him off for the night, focussing on reigning in my temper instead. I didn’t want to be like my father, but I was getting closer to it every day.

  My stuff was in the bedroom next to Hayley’s, because Tristan moved me into his house. The family he had found for me took a healthy chunk of money to keep quiet about my disappearance, and I must admit I was glad to see the back of them. I didn’t need fake concern from humans who couldn’t handle this world today, because then I really would flip out.

  I approached the door to Hayley’s room, pausing to clear out any scents lingering in the air. When I opened it, I inhaled deeply, taking comfort that no one else had been in here. Her clothes were still strewn on the floor from when she struggling to find something for the funeral, and the hoodie I gave her a few years ago was hanging on the door to the bathroom.

  I lay on her bed, curling my arms around her pillow as I tried to cool my temper.

  ✽✽✽

  The fight club was packed which was exactly what I needed. My stomach was still sore, and I hoped someone would punch me there. I deserved the punishment for letting Hayley get away like that.

  “Hey,” Mia chirped. I settled on one of the benches next to her as she wrapped her knuckles. “You on your own tonight?”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Hayley isn’t feeling well.”

  “I don’t suppose she is, being kidnapped by hunters can do that to a woman.”

  My blood became hot as my anger rose. “How do you know about that?”

  “No one else here knows, if that is what you are asking.”

  “That isn’t what I asked,” I clipped.

  “Fine, I can’t tell you. Clan laws. Anyway, Tristan has made us all monitor movements in our lands.”

  “Right.”

  “Coming here tonight was a mistake, Cole. You aren’t going to find her here.”

  “I’m not looking for her here.” That was only a partial lie. I will be looking for Hayley until the day I died, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I’m looking for… a punishment. I should have fought harder. I’m not enough.”

  Mia looked like she was going to touch me but pulled her hand back in the last moment. “Let’s fight then. I’ll warm you up while we wait for Hector. He is itching for a repeat, and you know he won’t hold back.”

  I had to hold back against Mia. I didn’t fancy launching her out of the window with a kick. Appreciating the fact she didn’t press me anymore about my reasoning for being here, I made sure she got a decent workout in.

  I should be doing this with Hayley.

  I called time and greedily guzzled some water.

  “Christ, Cole. You have improved a lot.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered. I didn’t tell her I held back and instead tossed her a fresh bottle of water.

  “I actually think fighting Hector is a bad idea.”

  “Why?”

  “I think he is suffering with the alpha curse. Look at him.”

  I watched him as he fought against another guy. Hector was pummelling him, roaring. Mia took a step back as Hector’s victim was tossed over to where we were stood; I pushed her behind me taking up a protective stance. I didn’t need another woman being hurt under my watch.

  “Hector, that’s enough,” I ordered, the tension in the room picking up. Fuck. I really needed to learn how to control my demands. “You are go
ing to kill him if you’re not careful.”

  Hector turned his attention on me and let out a vicious snarl. My wolf rose to the surface, ready to shift at a moment’s notice.

  “You,” Hector spat. “I should have won that fight.”

  “Well, you didn’t. Leave, Hector. You are out of control and, I think I can speak on behalf of everyone, you are banned.”

  He squared up to me and I met his eyes, unflinching as I braced myself for a fight. Mia’s hand reached out for my wrist and she tugged me back.

  “Let’s get out of here, Cole. We don’t need to get involved in this.”

  “Moved on from Hayley quick,” Hector smirked. “We all thought she was the one.”

  I fucking lost it. I swung for him, but he anticipated it, dodging easily. We began fighting, but this was nothing like the last time. Hector was an animal and I noticed his eyes flashing between his bear and his body.

  Fuck this shit.

  It was clear to me he was affected by the curse. Three of us were on him now, and we couldn’t hold him back. Hector was landing blow after blow on me, and it was taking all my willpower not to subdue him myself.

  “Kill him,” my wolf growled.

  No.

  “Where is your alpha?” I snarled at him instead.

  “Right here. Get out.” A man I had never met before barged through the crowd, and I immediately let Hector go. My stomach was aching, and I was done with this shit.

  “I’ll take you home,” I said, pulling Mia away from the crowd.

  “It’s fine. I can make my own way back.”

  “Please. I need to take you home.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I failed to protect Hayley, and I can’t survive failing another woman.” I slammed my fist on my car roof, willing myself to keep my shift at bay.

  “Okay,” Mia slid into my car and didn’t argue with me any further. “I appreciate the gesture, Cole.”

  “Whatever.”

  We drove in silence, the only sounds coming from Mia when she gave me directions. I felt uncomfortable when I crossed into the cats’ land, and I didn’t get out of the car. Her clan would protect her here, and my conscience eased a bit.