Between a Wolf and a Hard Place

by Terry Spear

  She was glad the wolf was no longer chasing her brother, but she did hate that she’d had to shoot him. With their shifter ability to heal faster than humans, though, she knew he would be fine in no time.

  As soon as the cabin came into view, she hurried to the front door, unlocked it, and called out to her brother. He didn’t respond. She stalked to the back bedroom, but he wasn’t there. Why wouldn’t he have come here? Unless he was afraid of bringing the big, bad wolf to their doorstep.

  For now, she had other business to take care of. She left a message for her brother, telling him to call her at once, that she was working with some jaguar shifters. And that Douglas was in dire straits after someone attacked him. She would be staying at the red wolf pack’s ranch part of the time. She considered trying to track down her brother as a wolf, but with the other wolf wounded and leaving the area, she figured Miles would be okay for now.

  Teaming up with jaguars was something totally new for her. Never in a million years would she have believed she’d be working with a combined force of jaguar shifters and a wolf—and with another, if they could solicit his help. On the way over to her cabin, Leidolf had informed her about a hardcore Navy SEAL, turned PI, who was in the area and was also investigating the attack on Douglas. From what she’d read in his profile, he was a loner in his investigative work—and single, though she just happened to notice that information by chance. A photo Leidolf had sent to the team showed he was one hot-looking specimen of a wolf. And he looked a hell of a lot like the guy she’d seen at the Kitty Cat Club in San Diego. The Good Samaritan. That meant he had been a wolf all along. She should have known.

  She quickly packed a bag and left to join the shifters at the cabin nearby to meet up with the SEAL wolf, hoping she’d hear from her brother soon. She also put in a call to Leidolf for an update on Douglas’s condition.

  * * *

  Vaughn bobbed up and down in the icy water, thankful his wolf’s double coat protected him from the chilling cold. He had to take care of his wound first, hoping it wasn’t too bad; he would heal quickly enough. He was certain the gray wolf couldn’t have suddenly armed himself with a rifle, so he was still running as a wolf, and that meant Vaughn could try to find his scent again.

  What if he had an accomplice? Maybe that’s why he howled. To get help from a wolf shifter friend or pack member who would shoot Vaughn instead of coming to his aid as a wolf. The shooter wouldn’t have been some random hunter then. A marksman lying in wait while Vaughn tried to take down the wolf seemed too damned convenient to be mere coincidence.

  Because of the numbing effect of the cold water and the shock from the impact of the round on his shoulder, he wasn’t feeling any pain. Thankfully. He’d make it to shore close to where his cabin was and slip into the place, take care of this bloody mess, rest a while, eat, and take off again.

  Lupus garous healed faster than humans, but they didn’t heal instantaneously. He couldn’t wear a bandage on his shoulder as a wolf either. He would need to rest his shoulder for a time before he could shift again. Chasing the wolf as a human, Vaughn would never be able to catch up. Not until the wolf settled somewhere.

  Vaughn recognized the trees and shrubs near the water’s edge, and the telltale marker he’d run past before that marked where his cabin was situated, just north of Douglas’s—three stacked boulders, the result of an avalanche centuries ago. He fought the swift flow of the currents so he could scramble onto the rocky shore. He could tell his strength was already dwindling.

  He needed to get an update from Leidolf on Douglas’s condition and let his pack leaders know about it too.

  He was trying to keep on his feet, stumbling over rocks and branches, stumbling when there were none. He was a little north of his cabin, not too much farther to go. He was sticking to the woods and avoiding the river view in front of the cabin, just in case. The next couple of cabins were about half a mile away, including the one where Vaughn had found Douglas’s blood. Vaughn was nearly in view of his cabin when he heard a woman’s voice as she spoke to someone else.

  “We’ll just wait for him. You’re so impatient, Everett.”

  “We should have tracked him down.”

  Staying low and prowling closer, to his surprise and irritation, Vaughn saw two men and a woman standing on his front deck, drinking bottled water.

  What the hell? He didn’t need this aggravation. Why did they want to see him? He didn’t know them from Adam.

  The woman was a brunette, hair tied back in a ponytail, and her eyes were dark brown. A man with shaggier dark hair and green eyes looked like he was with the woman. From the man’s protective stance, Vaughn was certain they were together. Another man was occupying his own space on the other side of the deck, watching the river, his short-cropped hair black and his eyes blue, a square jaw that looked like it could take a fist. His eyes narrowed, his expression was ominous.

  All of them were dressed in jeans, rain jackets, and hiking boots. The men looked hardcore, like they could dish out some real punishment. The three were in great shape; regular hikers in the woods, Vaughn guessed. Something about their postures and appearances suggested they were former military or police. They just had that official look about them. Leidolf’s people? Nah. He didn’t recognize any of them.

  All of them could be wearing shoulder-holstered weapons. He couldn’t tell from the lay of their jackets.

  Furious with them for intruding, he remained hidden in the woods, standing perfectly still. What the hell were they doing here?

  He couldn’t just walk up to them as a wolf. A wounded wolf. They’d shoot him for sure if they were armed. He couldn’t sneak around to the back and get into his cabin that way, as Leidolf’s cabin rental manager had to have locked all the windows.

  Then again, his bags were still in his vehicle parked nearby, courtesy of Leidolf.

  If Vaughn could have sneaked inside somehow, he could have grabbed a towel and pretended to have taken a shower—except hiding the gunshot wound still would have been problematic. If he shifted and headed for the cabin naked as could be, he would be sporting a bullet hole in his shoulder, bleeding all over the place, with no way to explain how he got shot.

  Screw ’em. He didn’t have time for this.

  He had to stop the bleeding, and he assumed they weren’t leaving. If anyone asked, he’d tell them some damn hunter shot him accidentally. Why was he running around naked in the woods as chilly as it was? He was conducting survival training. He was sure they wouldn’t believe him, but he didn’t owe them an explanation anyway. He just hoped none of them called the police to report the gunshot wound. He’d heal faster than normal, and because of it, he couldn’t see a human doctor.

  The pain was just beginning to hit, and he growled low with annoyance.

  All three people glanced in his direction, as if they’d heard his low wolf’s growl. Which would have been impossible. Unless he hadn’t growled as low as he thought he had, as angry as he was. Or unless they were wolves. What if they were members of the pack the wolf he’d been chasing belonged to? Because of the way the breeze was blowing away from all of them, he couldn’t smell them any more than they could smell him. What if one of these people had shot him? Terrific.

  Not having much of a choice, he shifted and headed out of the woods in the raw, the chilly air bracing. With a narrow-eyed look that meant he would shift again and take them all on, he said, “What the hell are you doing trespassing on private property?”

  For more Terry Spear

  check out the SEAL Wolf series

  SEAL Wolf Undercover

  On sale August 2017

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks so much to Donna Fournier for all the time she takes to brainstorm with me before, during, and after the process of writing the book. And to Dottie Jones, Sarah Fisher, and Donna Fournier, who were invaluable in catching my mistakes. I couldn’t do it wi
thout you. Thanks to Deb Werksman, Amelia Narigon, and the cover artists who made the book shine.

  About the Author

  Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Spring, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, continuing with her Highland medieval romances, and having fun with her young adult novels. When she’s not writing, she’s photographing everything that catches her eye, making teddy bears, and playing with her Havanese puppies. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at Terry Spear’s Shifters: http://terryspear.wordpress.com.

  WOLF HUNT

  SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team delivers sizzling paranormal romantic suspense

  Wolf shifter Remy Boudreaux is glad to be back in New Orleans, prowling the French Quarter with his pals from the Dallas SWAT team. NOLA’s as sultry and tantalizing as he remembers. And so is Triana Bellamy, a beautiful Creole forensic scientist who’s also back in town. Soon they are drawn together into danger—and with a hurricane bearing down from the Gulf, all hell is about to break loose…

  “SWAT is hot, hot, HOT!”

  —Kerrelyn Sparks, New York Times bestselling author for In the Company of Wolves

  For more Paige Tyler, visit:

  www.sourcebooks.com

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