Library

Chapter 2

When I woke, my time sense told me two hours had passed. Not a long nap, but enough to go on. Beside me, Rob alerted too, rolling up out of bed. "Car in the lot."

"Doesn't have to be related to us."

"Wanna bet?"

I didn't, given the zero-other-guests thing. Grabbing my jeans and shirt, I dragged them back on. The shirt didn't smell fresh, but lost-luggage beggars couldn't be choosers. There had to be somewhere to buy clothes locally. Although perhaps not within walking distance. Dammit.

Footsteps approached our door, only one set of them, hesitant, perhaps elderly.

A knock sounded.

Rob was closer, probably by design, putting himself between danger and his once-Alpha even now. "Who is it?"

An old man's voice came softly. "It's Wilde. Jefferson Wilde. Lone wolf. May I speak with the Alpha?"

Rob raised an eyebrow at me, and I nodded, thanking fate we hadn't done anything but sleep. The strange wolf wouldn't smell anything except two men who needed a shower.

Rob opened the door to admit a man who looked to be in his eighties, which for a wolf meant well over a hundred. Wilde's hair was pure white but he seemed healthy enough. He turned to me and bowed his head. "Alpha."

"Not anymore," I said.

That brought his gaze up to my face. "I don't understand. Aren't you Alpha David of—"

"I was. Not anymore."

He frowned, his lined forehead gaining a deep groove. I understood his confusion. There was usually no way out for an Alpha but death. We kept our packs till someone ripped them from our bleeding, dying bodies.

Yes. Go back. My wolf wanted to tear our pack back from Sherman, leave him bleeding out on the meeting hall floor. For a moment, the need to do that hammered me, and I took a step forward before wrestling the compulsion down. "I quit," I said, as if it had been that simple.

Rob moved closer to me, his shoulder inches from my own. "David left for the good of the pack, for everyone's safety. He walked away from an Alpha fight he would've won. It was the most impressive thing I've ever seen."

His praise was a gift, a glint of light in the echoing void inside me where I'd cut loose all the pack bonds but his. I couldn't dwell on that emptiness or on Rob, though, with a strange wolf in play. I focused on Wilde. "What do you want from me?"

"Your help, as an Alpha, or one who could be an Alpha."

"Help with what?"

"With another wolf. A stray maybe, a loner, and new to this area."

"What do you want me to do? Isn't there a local Alpha?"

Wilde shook his head. "No one claims this part of the state. There are four of us around, all lone wolves. We've always gotten on all right. Then, about three months ago, this new guy shows up in fur. And there's something not right about him. For one thing, we've never seen him in skin. We've followed him back to what might be a den, but going in after him seemed like a bad idea. He comes around humans, and he sometimes goes nuts. He killed a whole coop of chickens one time, and stood there with blood and feathers on his face while they took video, before running off. The humans are getting worried about some giant wolf with one gold eye and one white who might be rabid."

"Not if they know anything about rabies," I said absently. "Ten days from symptoms to death. A rabid wolf wouldn't last three months."

The old man waved me off. "They're not thinking with logic. But they are scared, and some of 'em are starting to lean to the supernatural. We need this guy stopped, but he's bigger than any of us and more dominant, too. Our strongest guy tried to fight him once, and he said he felt like a pack Tenth trying to stand up to a crazy Second. His wolf wanted to roll over and show his belly."

"How bad was he hurt?"

"A few slashes, couple punctures. Once he submitted, the stranger ran off."

"That's not a bad sign."

"No, but it doesn't solve our problem."

That was true. I'd sometimes wished we wolves had a national leader of some kind, or better, a government made up of several wiser and more powerful wolves, someone our packs in trouble could appeal to. Maybe one day we would. Soon would be best, with how the world was changing. This loner was far from the only risk of exposure we faced. But for now, if there was no local Alpha, we were on our own.

Well, they were. This wasn't my problem. Except Wilde had appealed to me as Alpha, and the part of me that yearned for a pack couldn't just walk away. "I'm willing to take a look at him, but I seem to be short a truck." I let a little growl flavor that word, because if he was the rep for the local loners, he probably knew who'd taken it.

Sure enough, he ducked his head again. "Apologies, Alpha. The wolf who stole it didn't know a better way to make you stick around until he could find me and arrange for me to meet you."

"Asking didn't occur to him?"

"He was afraid you'd say no. Also afraid of you."

I was about to ask why when the faintly remembered scent suddenly clicked in my head. Blake Garman. He was a few years older than me, and he and his cousin had left the pack when I was a teenager. There'd been rumors of sins against nature, and Kane had ranted about them in meet, but when his enforcer came up empty, Kane hadn't bothered to put much effort into tracking them down out of state. "I'm not going to hurt Blake. My word on it."

Wilde winced. "You remember him."

"Yes. And Phillip. And frankly don't care if the rumors were true or not." I wasn't about to mention how hypocritical it would be for me to persecute a wolf for being gay. "Now get my truck."

"Yes, of course, Alpha." He pulled out his cell phone, flipped it open, and dialed. "Blake. He's agreed and promised you safe conduct. Bring the truck. We'll head up the mountain."

Rob and I put on socks and shoes while we waited. The familiar sound of my engine was more relief than I expected. Everything I now owned, everything I'd grabbed from my home in a moment of desperate control, keeping my wolf from turning and tearing Sherman to shreds, was in that truck.

"Ah," Rob said. "Clean underwear approaches." He grinned at Wilde.

Wilde bowed his head deeply. "Sorry, Alpha, Second, he was doing his best."

"Ingenious, anyhow," I agreed noncommittally, gesturing to the door. "After you."

Rob ushered Wilde out ahead of us. I wasn't expecting an ambush, hadn't heard a lie in Wilde's voice, but we were strangers in other wolves' territory, claimed or not.

The familiar dark-haired man driving my truck parked three slots down from Wilde's old sedan and got out. Blake looked older than I remembered, of course, but the shape of his head and the way he walked rang immediate bells. I strode his way and held out my hand. "Keys."

He dropped my keyring in my outstretched palm. "You left them in the ignition." Then he added, "Alpha," as if the word was dragged from him, his head deeply bowed. I didn't correct him. My wolf was seething that this low-level brat had stolen from us, and a bit of respect helped.

Rob murmured, "I guess you did tempt the thief."

I gave him a low growl that wasn't as mean as it should've been and eyed the two locals. "Rob's with me." I tossed my keys and caught them. "Blake, you come with me as well. Give us directions and more information."

"No, I'll do that." Wilde passed Blake his car keys. "My eyes aren't great for these winding roads in poor light anymore. Blake can lead the way."

Blake flashed me a wide-eyed look, as if I might rip Wilde's throat out for contradicting me. My wolf did snarl, deep inside, having wanted half an hour of making Blake very nervous. I eyed the late-afternoon sun with dusk hours away. Wilde's making excuses. But his mild manner and Rob's laugh derailed my anger.

"Let's quit pissing around and get going." Rob opened my passenger door, tipped the seat, and slid into the back.

Having Rob looming behind Blake would've been excellent, but I waved Wilde to the truck. "You can give me more details while we drive."

As if released from bondage, Blake scurried to Wilde's car and jumped in.

I pulled out of the lot behind the sedan. The scent of a stranger on my steering wheel was a distraction I pushed aside with a growl. Blake drove away from the town, and I followed, soon leaving the main blacktop for gravel roads climbing higher into the forest. We queried Wilde on the details of this stranger, but he didn't have a lot to add— a dead half-eaten steer, a big wolf peering in windows, large paw prints in the mud of kitchen gardens. Whoever he was, he wasn't being careful or smart.

Partway up the side of a mountain, the logging road petered out. Blake pulled Wilde's car off into the brush without care for the paint job, leaving space for me to park. When we got out, I took a deep breath of the mountain air. Pine and leaf-mold, crushed needles and good black dirt came to my nose. I saw Rob lift his head to check the top of a stand of trees, saw a hawk take wing.

"Nice country," Rob said.

"We like it," Wilde agreed. "We'd like to keep it safe for wolves."

"Where now?" I asked him.

"We should shift and I'll show you." Without concern for the nearness of strangers, he began unbuttoning his shirt.

Blake ducked behind Wilde's car, but I wasn't about to be outdone by a man fifty years my senior. I tugged my sweatshirt over my head, put a hand to my belt, and froze, seeing Rob do the same. Watching as he stripped back down to those boxers and then dropped them, too, I realized that, in nineteen years leading the pack, I'd never looked at Rob's dick while naked in skin. There'd been plenty of other concerns— no, to be honest, I'd carefully never looked. I'd seen his naked dick up close and personal at seventeen.

I'd tried hard not to remember that.

He'd filled out some from our teen years, and despite the smooth chest, he was definitely hairier now down below— I yanked myself up short. This trip was sabotaging the habits of a lifetime. Even if Blake was queer, and however unconcerned Wilde seemed to be about him, there were secrets still worth keeping. I dropped my gaze to my hands and made short work of my own clothes.

Despite undressing last, I finished shifting first, the ease of it not lost with my Alpha bonds and pack. I stood guard while Rob put on his silver-gray fur, and a dark-coated Blake came around the car and shook himself, waiting until Wilde finally pushed up off the pine-needle-littered ground clothed in red-tipped fur.

Tilting my head at Wilde, I invited him to lead the way. He set off at an easy jog, moving well despite his age. I set Blake to run behind the old man, with Rob bringing up the rear. His presence behind me was so familiar, so right, that my wolf settled for the first time in a day. Yes. Run, pack, Second. This wasn't true pack, but close enough to still the clamor in my brain.

Wilde led us to a rocky opening under a tumble of giant boulders. The scent of a strange wolf intensified as we approached, and at the opening, the warning piss-marks stood clear. Territory marked and claimed, enter at your own risk. I wasn't surprised none of the lower-ranked wolves locally had challenged that statement.

We'd discussed waiting here for him. According to Wilde, the strange wolf would emerge many evenings at dusk. But not every day, and I wasn't in a patient mood. I barked into the den, a command to listen, to respond. My voice was met with silence. I tried again, then growled, my best Alpha warning rising on the still air. Get out here or I'm coming in after you.

Nothing.

Well, he could try to ignore me, but I wasn't going to allow that. I pushed past Wilde and slipped through the entrance. I heard Rob close at my back. The other two could follow or wait— their choice. As I made my way in the increasing dark, sometimes brushing the tunnel wall with my shoulder, I heard them behind us.

The tunnel wound into full darkness for perhaps two hundred feet. I'd expected a den, but light began filtering in the other end, and we emerged on a rocky ledge above a steep fifty-foot tumble of scree. Not a cliff but still not fun to fall down. I froze in place with my ass blocking the opening, keeping Rob safe inside as I scented the air. My nose picked up many traces of the wolf's passing, fresh and older, but no living scent. Slowly, I eased out of the hole. Rob crowded after me, head up and alert for danger. The other two followed more cautiously.

A narrow trail continued above the slope, heading higher up the mountain. The strange wolf wasn't hard to track. I kept the lead and, with a yip, sent Rob to take the rear, keeping the weaker members of the pack between us. A hundred yards on, the trail turned off into the trees and steepened. Pebbles rolled underfoot and dropped needles made a slick layer under the scraggly pines. A human would've found it hard going, but my wolf reveled in the difficult run.

A shift in the air brought a new scent— wolf, warm and alive. I leaped sideways off the trail just in time for the stranger's rush to miss me. He scrabbled, trying to turn on the loose ground, and bumped Wilde with his shoulder. The old wolf staggered, and a fury I'd held down inside me for days broke loose.

Our pack, ours to hold, ours to protect, ours to keep!

Flying at the stranger, I bowled him off the trail with my chest, snapping at his neck. A mouthful of fur brought a trace of blood and I growled deep in my throat. Hurt one of mine, will you? The dark wolf scrambled backward, but I rushed him, giving him no time, no space. Another slash opened a wound on his shoulder. My twisting dive left deep teeth marks in his foreleg and just failed to break the bone. He jumped sideways, but he'd signaled the move and I leaped with him, carrying him to the ground. He was strong and dominant in every line of his body, but I was stronger.

Don't you touch them. Don't you hurt them. I overwhelmed him with my weight and sank my fangs into his throat, snarling that warning. His thick fur blocked my jaws and he floundered like a fish trying to shake me, but I had my grip now. Slowly, irresistibly, I ground my bite deeper, deeper…

"David. Alpha. Stop!" Rob shouted. Human hands grabbed my ruff.

I realized the wolf beneath me lay still and opened my jaws, pulling back. Did I kill him? But over the rasp of my own breaths, I heard the strange wolf wheezing, a tight, painful sound. I blinked hard. My wolf still seethed with rage, with the need to kill someone , punish someone . I shuddered with the desire to rip that stranger's throat open and watch the blood spurt out.

No. I backed away and shifted to skin, my speed driven by the awareness that my pack was vulnerable. When my human vision had cleared, the stranger still lay flat, eyes closed, furry body limp. "Is he dead?"

"No." Rob kept his attention fixed on the stranger. "Almost. What was that about?"

"He nearly knocked Wilde off the path." That excuse sounded even more feeble out loud.

"Well, killing him would solve the problem of what to do with him in the time-honored wolf way." Rob grinned. "But maybe not as a first resort?"

I made my way over to the injured wolf, the rocks and pebbles rough under my bare feet, and squatted. Rob moved with me and set his foot on the stranger's neck. I glanced up. "What happened to ‘don't kill him'?"

"Just a precaution, Alpha, to slow a bite."

Being naked in skin against a wolf in fur was a vulnerability. It was also a show of confidence. I put as much arrogance as I could into my voice as I stared down at the stranger. "He won't attack me. Will you?"

The dark wolf opened his eyes— one amber and one pale, pale blue— and rolled them to look up at me, then whined in his bloody throat. Every muscle in his body remained limp, and I took that for surrender.

"Lift your foot, Second."

Rob did so with visible reluctance.

I set my hands on the wolf's neck, slowly enough to avoid startling him, and parted the fur. Gashes and deep punctures marked his skin. A good thing his coat was so thick. My wolf had been furious. Down inside me, he still growled, a steady rumble like a cement mixer in my chest. But I controlled my wolf, always. I checked the foreleg I'd bitten. The bone felt solid, though the wolf couldn't hide a wince.

"You, strange wolf, shift and heal, and then we'll talk." I sat back.

The wolf eyed me but didn't move.

I told him, "I can kill you in your fur now if I choose. You're not more vulnerable if you shift."

He raised his head and whined, then lay back down and closed his eyes. I expected to see the shift flow over him, but for long minutes, nothing happened.

"What's he doing?" Wilde asked at my shoulder. I'd heard him taking his human form in the background but kept my focus on the stranger.

"I don't know. He's supposed to be shifting. Hey, you!" I put my face inches from the wolf's muzzle in a show of confidence. "Skin. Now. Move it."

He blinked his eyes open and whined and sat up enough to give his head a small shake. Blood dripped from his ruff to the ground.

"You'll heal a hell of a lot faster if you shift. I won't hurt you while you do. My word on that." I didn't add "as Alpha." It was one thing to let Rob call me that, another to make the claim.

The wolf whined again and shook his head harder.

I rose to my knees, grabbed his ruff in both hands, and lifted his head and shoulders off the ground. "Don't you defy me. You've been breaking secrecy right and left. Do you want to end up dead? Shift now!"

I set him back down, but he lay there, his body shaking, his gaze locked on mine.

"Maybe he can't shift," Wilde suggested.

At that, the wolf gave a loud whimper and nodded.

"Well, fuck." I stared down at him. I'd heard legends of men trapped in fur, of the wolf slowly eating away at their humanity. Those legends didn't end well, but they'd all happened in older and crueler times. I turned to Wilde. "Any ideas?"

"I've heard of a couple of cases in my day, just whispers of lone wolves who lost their human side."

"How did they solve the problem?"

He glanced up at me, white eyebrows drawn down. "They killed the wolf."

The stranger whined softly and didn't move.

"I'm not killing him if there's any other way." That wolf's bleeding throat might be my work, but in a backward way, that marked him as mine. Mine to save, not just to destroy.

Rob said, "An Alpha can force his wolves to shift."

"I'm not his Alpha."

"Yet."

I stared up at Rob. We'd left pack behind for more than one reason. Yes, I'd been so lost in grief after losing my wife and child last year that I'd let the pack down. But the grief had been more intense because it'd echoed with Maybe I finally have a chance with Rob . Loss and misery and guilt, against forbidden need and desire, tangled with the knowledge that the pack would empathize with half my pain and want to rip my throat out for the other half.

Hope of that second chance with Rob had made it possible for me to turn away when Sherman Challenged for Alpha, had let me not claim back my pack and place from his bleeding body. Wolves were not allowed to be gay. Death was the penalty. But away from the packs, away from other wolves, we might be allowed to love.

If I took on a new pack now, we lost that hope again.

I met Rob's dark steady gaze. "You want to make that trade? We might as well have stayed home." My wolf surged at that truth, but I controlled him.

"It's that or kill him. You know it."

I couldn't deny the stark choice. We might drag him with us through that tunnel in wolf form, but I couldn't just let him go on in fur with the way he'd been acting. "I have other blood on my hands. No Alpha is clean. What's one more?" My wolf's whine came louder in my head than the stranger's. Pack.

"You can cut him loose again after, if he makes trouble." Rob flicked his gaze to Blake, waiting in fur, ready to back me up with fangs if I needed it.

That was a reminder that not every other wolf was an automatic enemy. And Rob was right. I'd cut the old pack bonds, one by one, when I walked away. The torn ends inside me still bled pain and regret, but I'd ripped loose and abandoned people who meant the world to me, for their own good. I could do it again to a near-stranger. "All right." On my knees in the rough dirt, I said, "Do you want to try, wolf? To swear to me and have me try to push you into skin? That has to be your free choice."

The wolf nodded vigorously, rubbing his face on the dirt, and thumped a rapid beat with his tail.

"Very well. You don't have a voice for the oath, but you can say it in your head." I closed my hands around his muzzle, not his front paws. Wolf mouth and human hands, the agents of chaos. Will it work? I wasn't sure if I wanted a yes or a no. I raised my gaze to Rob's one more time, and he gave me a nod, trust and belief shining in his eyes.

For Rob, then, to be the man he thinks I am.

Usually, the wolf taking the oath spoke the words, but this time, I would give them to him. "I'm David Hammersmith. I'm a stranger to you, but I bested you here on your own ground. I'm stronger than you in my standing and power. Do you, as wolf and man, swear on your life and breath to honor me as your Alpha, to give yourself over to me with all your obedience and all your trust? Will you take a place in my pack?" Such as it is. "Swear those words in your head and become mine."

For a long time, nothing happened. The wolf's breath huffed warm against my wrists. I felt his lips move as if he was trying to speak, but no sound emerged. I leaned in to put my eyes six inches from his and stared into those mismatched irises as if I could force my will down past them. "Swear to me now, with all you are and all you know, swear!"

The wolf took a long harsh breath, and turned his head in my hands, nipping down on the meat of my thumb. Rob cursed, but as a drop of my blood rolled into the wolf's mouth, I felt the bond take hold. Beside the shining gold in my head that was my link to Rob, always, rose a new thread, dark blue almost faded to black, fragile and tattered, drenched with fear, but linking me to a new wolf.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.