Chapter Twenty-Two

Dom

The road was smooth, and a little damp from the earlier short rain shower. I had to admit, the fresh air was nice, and the drive was peaceful. But I didn't like being off pack lands and now that I had that mind link back, I wasn't ready to give that up either.

June was grinning like an idiot at her phone, savoring her last precious moments with it before her signal was gone completely. Shit, she had the cutest smile. And her short hair; I'd never considered a female's haircut to this extent before, but the way hers sat when she ran her fingers through it, sweeping it back out of her face, it was enough to drive me crazy.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter as I forced my focus back on the road. The wolf inside of me was frustratingly stir crazy. We were both anxious about something, but I didn't dare consider what that something could be.

I had plenty of shit to be anxious about, and she-wolves shouldn't be one of them.

This was just like when Naomi shifted, and she was just fine. June would be fine too; she was tough. The big difference here was that Naomi I could worry over like a little sister, so what was June to me? I couldn't afford to be this distracted. Crushes among wolves were a waste of time if you had faith about finding a mate, and this thing with June should be no different.

But, fuck, she smelled good.

I shifted in my seat, glad she was glued to her phone and hadn't noticed the hard-on I was rocking. Wolves have too many damn hormones. Fuck and fight, an endless cycle.

Snap out of it .

Being horny was no excuse to bother her. I'd put her through enough. It still killed me that we had to drag her back here, but I knew I wouldn't trust another pack with her shift. Or leave her to sort it out on her own like a lone wolf.

Moonpeak might have its problems right now, but the wolves here were good wolves. Linda, despite tiptoeing around touchy subjects, was a good mother and a gentle teacher for June. And the rest of the village, they would watch over her.

Yeah, she deserved Moonpeak. She already fit in—I could tell. For all my piss-poor decisions and the shady shit I'd done, I knew I'd done this one thing right. She already felt like she fit here.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" June asked.

"I thought you were on your phone."

I adjusted how I sat again, trying to shield the view of my pitched tent.

"Ran out of signal." She shrugged. "Are we close to the village?"

"Not really," I answered. "We're not even on pack lands yet. I didn't turn off the highway very long ago."

"Aw." She sighed and pocketed her phone. "I was hoping I was engrossed in my texts longer than that."

"When we get back to the village we need to . . ." My head snapped to the left and I slammed the breaks.

We were under attack.

Fucking cars. I can't smell anything when I'm inside of one, and I barely caught the beast in my peripheral vision as it barreled toward us. Thanks to the brief rain earlier and the dirt road, the tires squealed on the damp ground, and we slid a bit as a wolf slammed into the hood. If I hadn't stopped when I did, he would have been through the driver's side door and tearing into me and June.

My heart hit my rib cage like a wrecking ball. June was with me, and she couldn't shift yet. The wolf in me snarled, fighting to surface so we could kill the one who dared attack us.

"Stay here!" I yelled, tearing open my door and shifting, ripping my favorite shirt and kicking off the scraps of jeans that clung to my back paw.

The wolf recovered fast, and as he pushed off the hood of the SUV, I got my first good look at him.

He was a rogue, but not like I had been rogue. He was something sick and twisted that had been thrown from a pack. Real sick, he smelled like death warmed over. His eyes were wild as he snarled at me, charging again.

As the thing slammed into me, I tore at its shoulder tooth and nail, freeing a chunk of skin and tossing it aside. The thing didn't seem to notice it was missing any pieces, though, and it backed up to lunge again.

Then I smelled the second one. And the third.

Shit. We weren't on pack lands and I couldn't reach anyone for help.

I circled around the wolf I was fighting, pulling it away from the car and June. I tried to glance around as I went, looking for the other wolves, and cursed as I noticed a fourth one.

There was something giant and terrible about them. They weren't normal rogues, and my mind flashed back to the things that had been killing wolves a decade ago. The things that got Alpha Liam challenged.

Four on one. Most wolves would be dead within minutes.

I dug my claws into the soft earth underfoot. I would not be like most wolves.

Lunging forward, I took another bite at the wolf I'd been fighting, turning at the last second when another rogue attacked from my right.

Slam. I had managed to dodge the first one, but another was there and ready for me when I did.

My wolf and I cried out in pain as sharp teeth bit down on my back. I kicked hard, connecting with the wolf who'd just bitten me and shoving it away, only to be swarmed by the other two that were fighting me.

Under the weight and attack of so many rogues, I struggled and snarled. They ripped at my flesh, and it was all I could do to fend them off my throat. I flailed, and righting myself, took a nasty bite to my leg as I lunged upward and latched my teeth around the throat of one of them.

The others bit and tore at me, but in the heartbeat that I grabbed the first wolf's throat, I tore it out and that was that.

Three on one.

I kicked at the faces of the other two that I had been fighting, buying a little space while I looked at the car.

The fourth rogue was sniffing at June's side of the vehicle, but moved away and ran at me. At least June was safe. Safe-ish.

Turning my attention back to the two in front of me, I lunged again. Tearing and biting and shifting away for when the last wolf joined the fray. I swiped my claws across the face of one of my assailants, causing them to back away for a moment just as the third rogue jumped for me.

Snarling, I scraped my claws over the other wolf that had been attacking me and turned my teeth on the new fighter. I clamped my jaws down over their nose and mouth, puncturing their muzzle and dripping blood across my tongue.

Kill!

The wolf in me fought to bring down the rogues around me. Letting go of the rogue's face, I turned my head and shot forward, clamping down on the throat and finishing the job.

Two left.

But the moment I turned my attention to them, one of them rammed into my side. A few of my ribs definitely cracked, and I spat blood as I rolled across the ground from the impact.

I had to focus on the fight, but I registered the sound of the car moving away. Good, at least June could get back to the pack safely.

Snarling, I tested my weight on my legs as the last two rogues closed in. They were huge. At least warrior class when they'd been in a pack, if they were ever in a pack to begin with.

I got up, ignoring the pain and snapping at the closest wolf. But keeping him occupied meant letting up some of my focus on the other.

Crack .

My back right hip suddenly sprouted teeth as the other rogue lunged at me. I flailed and fought with everything I had, snapping and then tearing off part of an ear. I was sure the other rogue was nearly on me again as well. And that was about when I heard the squeal of tires.

I bit down hard on the wolf at my hip, managing to turn the tides and get on top of the fight. With the weight of my bigger wolf on top of him, even this brute of a rogue wasn't getting out without a fight. It bought me just enough seconds to look up at the other rogue, and watch as the SUV rammed right into it.

My heart could have burst. June was fighting. Fighting for me, and she didn't even have her wolf yet.

I raised the front half of my body up and slammed it back down on the wolf below me. Claws and fangs tore into it until it was nothing but a piece of meat under my paws. My fury at the attack and near panic at June's safety led me rip into the rogue with abandon until it was long dead.

I tried to move forward for the other wolf who was in the process of recovering from getting hit by a vehicle, and found out the hard way that I had taken some serious damage to my hip and leg.

That didn't stop me from pushing forward, though. Just a few more feet to the rogue, who still had a leg stuck under the car. With one last push and the bite of a furious wolf, I took him by the throat and tore flesh from bone.

Blood dripping, I spit the meat from my mouth and slumped over. I had given what I could in that fight, and my adrenaline left me.

A vehicle door opened and human footsteps ran my way. My eyes were closing. I needed rest.

"Dom!" June was shrieking my name. "Dom! Don't go to sleep. No, no, no, no, no. Oh god, what do I do? I don't have my kit on me, and even if I did, I'm not trained to fix wolves. There's so much blood, do you need a tourniquet? What am I saying? Let me find something I can use."

And all I could think was that she was so cute when she panicked.

"How do I get you back to Doc? Can you stand at all? Should you not move, or can you shift?" June ran her fingers over several of my worst wounds. "Shit. Dom, you've probably got some fractures and I wouldn't be surprised if you have a torn ligament. At least, I think that's what that is on a wolf. I know where that would be on a human."

I nudged her hand with my head. Her worried face turned back to me, tears in her eyes and her hands were shaking.

Shifting wasn't the best option, but there was no way June could take me to Doc in my wolf form. I closed my eyes and braced for some pain as I shifted. June backed up, giving me some space, and then came forward to support my chewed up hip and leg, the worst of my injuries.

"I thought you were training for this," I said softly. I reached up to her face and wiped a wet streak on her cheek away.

"If you're well enough to joke, you're well enough to get in the car," she said, her voice shaking. "I wouldn't normally move a patient yet, but I don't know what else to do for you out here. Are you sure you're not going to bleed out on me?"

"Yes, New Bite. I'm sure." She looked skeptical but didn't press the issue. June's arms were surprisingly strong as she helped me sit up slowly, then stand. She didn't let me put any pressure on my worst leg, not that I would have anyway. Once I was in the car, she ran to the driver's side and we took off.

I closed my eyes and laid my head back. It wasn't the introduction I wanted to give June to how werewolves fought, but at least that part was out of the way now.

I grinned.

She'd fought for me.