Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 2 Page 10

I yawned in silence, otherwise keeping still so our hiding place wasn’t discovered. Something creaked outside of our box, and our mate groaned. It was a tired sound.

  “He’s totally disappeared. I don’t get it, Sanders. Where could he have gone? We’ve checked everywhere,” she complained.

  “And with his scent so weak, not even your father’s nose is able to find him. We know he isn’t outside, though when the pack arrives, we’ll have to make sure the little runt doesn’t make a run for it. Alex can—”

  There was a buzzing noise. I put my ears back at the sound. It didn’t alarm my human, who slumbered through the racket.

  “I’ll get it,” our mate said, and I heard the patter of her feet as she hurried away.

  “You may as well change back, Desmond. You’re not doing us any good like that, and the last thing we need is Frank trying to keep you from ripping into Richard’s wolves.”

  Desmond growled from somewhere nearby.

  “It’s not my fault Richard’s too damned smart for his own good,” Sanders replied. “Go on. I’ll keep looking for him.”

  When I heard a startled cry and Desmond’s growl, my human panicked. I lurched to my paws, forgot I was in a small space, and cracked my head against something hard and unyielding.

  The box lurched and Sanders grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, yanking me out of my hiding place. “Got you, you little devil,” he hissed at me in triumph.

  I dangled in his grip, tucked my tail and paws, and whined.

  “Okay, easy,” Sanders murmured, holding me to his chest. He cradled me in one arm and stroked my fur. “Desmond, stop terrorizing the guests.”

  My human fought me, and I delighted in his feeble attempts to overthrow my control. Without the pack bonds to guide me, I wasn’t sure which of our wolves Desmond had startled, but the cry had been familiar. I gave my human enough space to situate himself, though his efforts left him tired and weak.

  Sanders carried us out of the den with our scent in it. “Found him,” he announced.

  “Richard?”

  Our little brother sounded tired, and my human immediately worried, and his anxiety joined with my own. Desmond stalked towards our submissive, hackles raised and teeth bared.

  Desmond’s growls were answered by two other voices. I recognized the sounds and froze in Sanders’s grip. I remembered the warnings from when we had been a puppy, seeing the world for the first time, until we were old enough to take care of ourselves.

  Our father stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes narrowed to slits, wolf-gold and burning bright. Our mother stood beside him, her hand resting lightly on our father’s elbow. She stared at me, her mouth curved in the frown we remembered too well.

  My human’s anxiety made way for panic. I struggled in Sanders’s hold, but he didn’t set us free. I shoved my nose under his chin and whined.

  “He’s absolutely terrified,” Sanders said, his voice awed.

  Desmond’s head snapped around to face me, his ears twisting back.

  My mother huffed, and she stepped around Desmond without acknowledging his presence. Sanders backed up several steps until his back collided with the wall. I shuddered.

  With my human so afraid and worried, I couldn’t soothe him.

  When our mother grabbed hold of our scruff, I howled, pawing at Sanders in an effort to remain with the Alpha. He let me go, sliding away with his hands held up in a placating gesture.

  “That’s enough,” our mother snapped.

  I cowered, as did my human. Our father was the final enforcer, but our mother made the rules, and punishment for defiance was severe. She didn’t rely on him, not often. We remembered her bites. We remembered her hunting us down, and with firm order, forcing us to be human or to be wolf as she decided. Together, they had controlled us, caged us in, bound us to human and wolf ways until they had grown bored of us and had mated again. When our little brother had been born, their interest had turned to him.

  But our little brother hadn’t been born a wolf. He hadn’t lived up to their expectations. When he wasn’t what they desired, they were going to throw him away, abandoning him to the Normals.

  We needed to take our little brother away and protect him.

  In my desperation to ease my human’s terror before it broke him, I twisted around and bit down as hard as I could on our mother’s arm, growling and snarling. She cried out, her blood hot on my tongue. My human’s shock slammed through me. I shook my head, raking with my hind paws as my human so loved to do when we hunted.

  Our mate shrieked. I saw Sanders move out of the corner of my eye, and with crushing force, he grabbed the back of my neck and twisted. Something creaked and I went numb, falling limp in his grip.

  “Back the fuck off, lady,” Sanders snarled. I dangled from his grip, unable to lift my head or even tuck my tail.

  Our mother recoiled a step as the full force of Sanders’s will, backed by his pack, pulsed from him. The feel of his wolf surrounded me, crushing what little resistance I had to him. He knelt, lying me down on the slick floor. Digging his fingers into the thick fur of my neck, he touched a spot that sent me into twitching convulsions. Pain stabbed down my spine, and I was unable to shelter my human from it.

  He hurt along with me.

  “Shh,” Sanders whispered, continuing to massage my neck. “You’ll be fine. Alex, come here.”

  “What do you want with our son?” our father demanded in a snarl.

  “Unless you want Richard to die, you’ll shut up, back off, and let Alex do his job,” Sanders growled back, which was echoed by Desmond. “Desmond, don’t kill them.”

  “What do you mean by he’ll die?”

  My human heard the fear in our mate’s voice and didn't like it. Neither did I.

  Our little brother eased his way around Desmond, who shuffled aside to make room for him.

  “What do you mean by he’ll die?” Nicolina’s voice rose an octave, taking on a piercing quality.

  Alex slumped to his knees, and with shaking hands, he picked us up, holding us close to him. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I don’t know, Alex. All I can guess is when he dominated Desmond, something happened. He collapsed afterwards, and from what I can tell, the human side of him has been fading ever since. His wolf isn’t doing much better,” Sanders replied.

  Our mother backed away, holding her bleeding arm to his chest. “You didn’t say it was that serious,” she accused, her glare settling on Alex.

  Our little brother’s anger tainted his scent, and in turn, my human fed on it, his ire rising. I encouraged him, allowing him to take control of us long enough to voice a single growl.

  Alex touched us, and with a single stroke of his hand, smothered our will. “You never think anything is serious. You just go off, chasing whatever it is that catches your fancy, and you don’t care about anything else. If it’s an inconvenience, you ignore it. If you don’t get exactly what—or who—you want, you abandon it. You’ve always done that, even to me, all because I was born human instead of a wolf like Richard. I fly out to visit you in whatever hellhole you’ve picked to make certain you don’t get near Richard. Now that you’ve come skulking along with me uninvited, you act like you own the place? You don’t get it, do you? He doesn’t want you around.”

  While he didn’t raise his voice, Alex’s anger added an edge to each and every word. I delighted in our submissive little brother’s fury, an echo of my human’s.

  He’d make a fine wolf.

  The buzzing noise happened again, and my human was aware enough I recognized the sound as someone asking permission to enter the den.

  “I’ll get it,” Wendy said, coming down the stairs. She halted, her gaze settling on my bloodied muzzle before flicking to our mother. There was nothing submissive about her as she stepped forward, stood toe to toe with our mother, and snarled.

  Our mother’s mouth dropped open in astonishment as Wendy shoved by her to answer the door.

  I think
our mother forgot that submissive didn’t always mean helpless or powerless.

  “Alex,” Frank growled, his voice deepening with his rage.

  “Here, Frank,” our little brother replied without a hint of fear.

  While our Second was careful around Wendy, he took the most direct path to us. Desmond was wise enough to get out of his way.

  Our mother wasn’t, and she ended up on the floor. Desmond lowered his head and growled at her, his ears flattened to his skull.

  “Who let them in here?” Frank snarled, settling beside Alex.

  “They followed me,” Alex hissed through clenched teeth. “I tried to tell them no, but they don’t listen to anyone.”

  Frank rested his hand on top of Alex’s head. “You’re fine, Pup. Sorry we’re late. Richard’s shitty antique Cessna hates the cold, and the engine didn’t want to start. Make him buy a plane that isn’t older than he is, please.”

  My human took offense at Frank’s statement, and on his behalf, I voiced a growl. Frank reached out and placed his hand on my head. “Sasha, come here.”

  As though worried our parents might try to touch his puppy, Tully carried Sasha across the living room before setting her down. Her wolf-yellow eyes focused on me. “He’s so tiny,” she whispered.

  Sanders narrowed his eyes, looking Sasha up and down. “You’re cute.”

  Sasha squeaked, her eyes widening as she gawked at the Alpha. I could feel Sanders reaching out with his wolf, his eyes narrowed as he considered our pack’s youngest bitch.

  My human lost his feeble grip on his calm, the strength of his rage taking me off guard. He wrested control away from me long enough to yank free of our submissive’s hold and lunge for Sanders’s throat.

  The Alpha was ready for us, and with a slap of his hand, he batted me to the floor. The impact forced the air out of me, and my human’s grip on me weakened.

  “Stop it!” our mate shrieked. She stepped forward, lifted the collar we had given her, and smacked Sanders across the face with it. The Alpha recoiled as the silver chain slapped across his face.

  My human’s astonishment was a match for my own. She reached down, grabbed hold of me, and lifted me up.

  “Stop it,” she repeated, and after taking a look at each of the Fenerec in turn, she offered me to Sasha. “Can you help him?”

  Our youngest sniffled, taking us from our mate. “I don’t know what to do.”

  I don’t know if it was my human’s instinct or my own, but we needed to comfort her. It was our fault she was upset, that her scent was marred with her worry. I twisted in her arms with a whine, shoved my nose under her chin, and sought her out. When I couldn’t find her, my human’s fear spiked. He joined me in the hunt.

  When we fumbled for the bond tying us together, forged by my uniting her human spirit and her wolf, she wasn’t alone. We were smothered beneath the raging tide of fear, worry, anxiety, and need from our pack.

  I had no recollection of changing back into a human, but I shook in the wake of the transformation. My skin was raw as though someone had scoured me with a steel brush. For a while, I couldn’t tell if I was a human, a wolf, or both at once.

  My cheek was nestled on something soft and warm. When I drew a breath, I recognized Alex’s scent, human with the telltale cinnamon trace of our Fenerec parentage. When I felt my wolf’s approval, encouragement, and concern, I was baffled.

  When I couldn’t recall why my brother was with me, my wolf helped, poking and prodding at me until I realized he had come because of me. I shivered, and Alex ran his hand over my hair.

  “I think it’s a record,” Sanders whispered over my head. “Three hours and fifty minutes. It usually takes him five to ten minutes.”

  “Just be glad you weren’t the one helping him along,” Frank grumbled. My Second sounded tired. “Halfway through, he was so confused he didn’t know which way to go. I was at the point I didn’t care, so long as he went about it so he’d stop bleeding all over the place.”

  Desmond snorted. “At least he bled all over the tile this time and not on my carpet.”

  “The rest of the pack should be touching down in the next hour or two,” Frank reported. “At the rate we’re going, we’ll have someone booked in every hotel in the damned city.”

  “You’re staying here,” Desmond ordered.

  Frank grunted. “You would need a shovel and a body bag to get me out the door right now, Desmond.”

  My Second’s irritation rippled through the pack bonds, and I drew several deep breaths. “Shut up, Frank.”

  “Richard!” Frank’s hand pressed against my shoulder. “What hurts?”

  I was too tired to close down the pack bonds, which meant unless Frank was buffering the rest of the wolves, they were all getting some backlash from my change. “Ask what doesn’t. Shorter,” I grunted, trying to decide if I had the strength to get up.

  My wolf didn’t think it was wise, and I listened to him. Cracking open my eyes, I blinked, realizing the dark blue dominating my vision was my brother’s shirt, and the gray edging my peripheral vision was the blanket from my Porsche.

  Instead of my mate’s scent, it reeked of my blood.

  “Richard, talk to me,” Frank demanded.

  “I’ll throw up,” I warned, my stomach churning with the promise of more misery. Closing my eyes, I swallowed several times to suppress the nausea. “You’re noisy.”

  “I think he’s saying he has a headache and he’s nauseated,” Sanders whispered.

  Frank growled. “Thanks, Sanders. I guessed as much.”

  Someone touched my ankle. “Move your legs,” Desmond ordered.

  The thought of moving was enough to make my back and neck ache. While tempted to defy the other Alpha, I rotated both of my feet to prove to myself I could. Jolting stabs of pain lanced up my legs and spine.

  “Ouch,” I reported.

  “If you broke his neck, Sanders, it wasn’t as bad as you thought,” Desmond said, giving my ankle a pat.

  I had no idea what Desmond was talking about. There were a lot of gaps in my memory, and as I tried to work them out, the pieces I did remember alarmed me. “Sasha,” I gasped.

  Sanders had tried to take Sasha out of my pack. I growled and tensed.

  “She’s upstairs in your room with Tully,” Frank soothed. “Desmond’s puppies are also with her. Tully thought it might be wise to keep the girls together until you were thinking clearly, especially with our pack coming.”

  Frank’s reassurances weren’t enough to appease me, although my wolf thought I was overreacting. “Sanders,” I snarled.

  When Sanders touched the back of my neck, he called on his wolf, and mine submitted without a fight, leaving me easy prey for him. Under his influence, I went limp. “I wasn’t going to take your little girl, Richard. She is cute, though. No wonder you’re such a stickler for guarding her. When the rest of the packs find out you have such a beauty, they’ll be hounding you until she’s mated. My mate will be on her way over to look you over as soon as her shift finishes, which is in about twenty minutes.”

  My wolf was laughing at me, and it was then I realized Sanders had tricked me.

  “You bastard,” I grumbled. “What did you do to me?”

  “I’m pretty sure I broke something in your neck when I pulled you off your mother. They tailed Alex and showed up when he came over from the airport.”

  When I started growling at the thought of my parents, Alex echoed me, giving my ear a twist. “They’re gone, Richard. Desmond drove them off once you started changing. Said if he caught either one of them in his territory, he’d send a pack of Inquisitors after them—or deal with them himself. Frank called on the pack and was about to tear strips out of Dad when they decided maybe it wasn’t a good idea to cause trouble and left.”

  Alex didn’t sound upset about the idea at all, nor could I detect any fresh distress in his scent.

  Sanders massaged the back of my neck, and I winced at the throbbing his touch ca
used. “What Alex isn’t telling you is Frank didn’t even need to call on your pack. He took care of them right up until Desmond showed, freshly changed and angrier than I’ve ever seen him.”

  Moving hurt, but I curled my arm around my brother, burrowing against his stomach. “Mine.”

  “I’m not your property, Richard,” Alex chided.

  I meant to nip him in rebuke and ended up with a mouthful of his shirt. I grumbled a complaint, but my wolf exerted his control over me to force me to settle. Sighing, I closed my eyes and breathed in my brother’s scent. “Bullshit.”

  He laughed, and because he was content, so was I.

  Index

  Volume One

  Hunted

  Nicolina Desmond should have known that her twin’s overly friendly behavior with the eligible Fenerec males would land her in trouble, but she never expected how far young, single werewolves would go to secure a mate.

  The Scent of Guilt

  When Richard is invited to hunt Nicolina’s kidnappers with her father, he jumps at the chance. With Desmond lusting for blood and violence, Richard is forced to toe the line between mercy, justice, and revenge.

  Firecracker

  No matter how influential Charles Desmond is, it’s not enough to stop those who are determined to take Richard’s rank through force. With Nicolina Desmond out on the hunt to kill him once and for all, he’ll need a lot more than luck to survive his stay with the Desmonds.

  Glitter

  Richard Murphy has many sides, and Nicolina Desmond is dismayed to discover that he truly has the patience of a hunting wolf and his pranks are just as nefarious as hers. When the bodies of Fenerec turn up in her back yard, however, she might have to kill again, and her target is none other than Yellowknife’s injured Alpha.

  Volume Two

  Charmed