Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2) (16 page)

Lights hit the living room window. Several sets of headlights from large trucks that pulled up to the driveway's fountain centerpiece. Doors slammed and heavy boots hit the graveled flooring. I snapped my head up at two gruff barks, deep set in an animal's chest, loud with a growling start and ending in a rough and broad snap.

Odd.

Who brought dogs to a wolf pack?

Chapter 21

"Oh. Wow."

Arya hummed beside me, a little smile twitching on her lips at my breathy words."Uhuh, like chocolate isn't he?"

Perfect description. Eyes like warmed, rich, milk chocolate. Smooth and deliciously decadent.

We stood facing the parked trucks, outside lighting laying a soft glow across the courtyard, watching Lane talk to several of the guards that had pulled up to the pack house. Two rather large dogs ran around the yard, working off energy from their obviously long car ride. They'd bolted up towards Arya and smothered her in slobber before bounding off into the gloom. I'd awkwardly patted an inquisitive black head, shoved into my hip as he batted at me with a solid skull and managed to avoid the drool that dripped from his mouth. The tan canine had stood off to the side, eyeing me with suspicion and a stance that I instantly read as hostile. It was a warning I wouldn't have to be given twice - I was going nowhere near that one.

"What's his name?" Tessa inched towards my side, estranging herself from the other females who had grouped themselves together, as far away from us as possible without being inappropriately obvious.

It seemed the arrival of trucks had prompted even the most distraught among them to satisfy their curiosity. As Arya had decided to make a point by standing next to me, they had not been overly welcoming with her either, although the beast she housed was enough to make them wary with their overt dislike. I wasn't sure Tessa was making the best move by switching sides to our little group of outcasts.

Arya breathed out in appreciation. "That's Charlie. Pretty, isn't he?"

Tessa laughed lightly, "you both have mates."

The redhead shrugged and answered completely unaffected."Doesn't mean I'm blind."

I saw Lane move towards Charlie, grasp their hands together and pull him in for a half hug. I caught Charlie's face as he winced slightly, a little grimace to his eyes that weakened the serenity I could feel emanating from him, even at this distance. It wasn't pain, the new wolf was bigger than Lane, not by much, but enough to add inches to his height and bulk. I didn't see an open wound or smell blood that hadn't clotted, no dark patch glistening on the tight, black shirt he wore. His smile was true, an open expression to a friend he'd missed. The pain that tightened his eyes confused me, was some sort of paradox to a man plainly humming with a rich, burnished glow.

A laugh from Charlie floated across the still night air. I shivered at the silk that slid lightly over my skin. "God, he sounds like honey. Is that even possible?"

Tessa sighed dreamily before freezing in place. She started with a nudge to my side and whispered from the corner of her mouth. "A little quieter next time, the Alpha's not looking too happy right now."

I snapped my eyes to Lane and grinned, utterly unapologetic as his eyes flashed a warning at me. He bared his teeth in return and I shrugged as those pearly whites sharpened to wolf. Deep within the churning pit that was my soul, amid the glowing fusion of silvery white and black diamond, beneath the fluid connection of beast and feeder, there was an honest part of me that shone brilliantly through the moonlit darkness. A tiny crater built just for Lane, a secluded box that locked in tight all that my aching soul begged for, something to hide from prying eyes all those feelings of finally belonging. He had nothing to truly fear - even against a man that looked like chocolate Sin - he was still my perfect storm inside a wintry sun.

They moved towards us as one fluid stream, flowing over the glistening ground as Nature scattered her icy sparkle on dirt too barren to hold green. For every step that brought them nearer, a pronounced twist in my stomach grew ever harsher. As though a hand punched against my innards, pounding harder the more I ignored it. This was different to the normal incessant clawing, something had awoken the beast and it needed with a vengeance. I shifted from foot to foot, placing my weight on each leg in a repetitive movement of distraction. Arya glanced at me with frown and I managed a tight smile before the two big wolves stopped before us.

"Thanks for bringing them, Charlie." Arya's quiet voice caught the attention of the brunette and he smiled at her before grinning at the bounding dogs.

"My pleasure." His honeyed tone swayed all eyes to him and every female gaze seemed glued and waiting impatiently for more words in that silken tone.

Lane grunted beside him, stepped once to the side and put his large body in the way of my view of Charlie. I huffed a little and prodded his side. "Can't see anything back here."

He growled at me," that's the point."

Distracted by the muscular form covering my view I ran my eyes across his broad shoulders, watched the flex of muscle as he shifted the weight on his feet, breathed deeply of the fresh summer rain that surrounded him, let the scent of him fill my lungs to capacity and flood my stomach with that clean and raw fragrance. Diluting the pounding beast within and replacing that push of compulsion with something the wolf craved instead.

"Can I meet your female, Lane?" Charlie's tone reached around Lane's giant frame and found the feeder reaching for him.

Lane grunted loudly and stiffened for a while before seeming to come to a decision. "No...touching."

Charlie chuckled warmly."Alright, brother. No touching."

I was removed from shadow as Lane melted to the side, quietly and quickly as if he moved before he could change his mind. He was acting even more oddly than usual and I peered at him as he kept his eyes firmly fixed on me. Amber fought with silver in a battle for control of the human's body. A wolf that stretched inside the skin, taking up space that wasn't the animals to take. Pushing to give his claws release and allow those canines to drop fully into the tearing knives they built to emulate. I put a hand on warm tanned skin, allowed a light touch that rippled the flesh beneath my palm, before turning to Charlie and smiling at the aura almost bursting from him.

"Sasha." I introduced myself as I traced small patterns on shivering skin.

He smiled widely once more and I almost let myself become entranced in the light he emitted. "Arya tells me we have much in common."

I nodded, wincing as the feeder regained it's strength and pounded out a rhythm in my gut. I was unnerved at what had set it off so violently and would have to ensure I fed this evening to not lose control.

Charlie eyed Lane worryingly, his mouth open as if words were stuck in his throat and he could neither swallow around them nor force them out into actual speech. After a few minutes, enough time for it to become a little awkward, he finally sighed and came to some sort of decision. "I would like it if we could talk soon. I have some questions I hope you can answer."

I furrowed my brow slightly at him, wondering what the big wolf wanted with me. He smelt strongly of animal, so much so that it overpowered almost everyone else around me. He was definitely empath though, like adding alcohol to melted chocolate, that additive was woven into the very base of his scent. "Okay, sure." I agreed in my curiosity.

Thudding footsteps hailed a new arrival. A loud yawn proceeded his steps, a bang of something breaking as he walked into a table and sent whatever it held crashing to the floor. I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily, sometimes I couldn't remember why I liked him so much.

Charlie's growl thundered over the crowded females and they shuddered and bent beneath it's weight. His eyes flashed a chestnut bronze and I marveled, even as the wolf rushed to the surface, at the shimmering luminosity.

"Empath." He hissed rather violently.

I sighed again as Ty's messy bed hair came into view. "Yes, my brother actually."

Charlie's wolf dialed down the simmering violence a notch and he turned surprised eyes on me."Full?"

I shook my head, "no, half wolf. A little more empath but still wolf."

Ty eventually made it to my side and walked a wide berth around the Alpha wolf shaking in its skin. I frowned at Lane again and moved my hand in longer strokes, covering more of his forearm and trying to calm the animal that shifted restlessly.

"Oh. You're new." Ty stated the obvious in his usual moronic way.

Charlie cocked his head to the side and studied Ty, attempting to peer beneath the skin that housed such a creature. He grunted rather Lane-like in response.

Ty did his own studying and that ice I knew so well glistened over the blue of his iris. "Enjoying the imminent implosion?"

I frowned and peered at Ty. “What are you talking about?”

He shook his head and stared at Charlie. “Just something your new friend here should consider rectifying soon.” His eyebrows raised at the big wolf and he seemed get a subtle, forced nod in return.

"His name's Charlie." I replied automatically while wondering about the chaos Ty appeared to sense within a wolf so obviously serene. It made an odd kind of sense - the feeder loved Lane, wanted to roll in every emotion that poured from the blond. It was however, infinitely more interested in Charlie at this moment.

"Come on, we both need the juice, he’s messing with your feeder and apparently also your Alpha as a result.” Ty turned quizzical eyes to Lane’s shivering form.

He grabbed my hand and veered his way around the blond wolf struggling with his animal. I caught sight of Conall strolling out of the pack house as we passed the front door, the same bed hair and rumpled clothes as Ty sported. He looked well enough, better than he had bleeding all over himself anyway, and hopefully that wound was closed now that he'd slept the rest of the day away. Conall reached into his pocket and threw keys to Ty, launching them straight at his face with a tiny calculating smile.

"I'll remember that, arsehole." Ty threw back at him before we hurried onto the crumbling truck.

The trip to town took less than twenty minutes with my brother's insane driving. Apparently he was less worried about the state of Conall's truck then I had been - or perhaps he just didn't care if he broke it. He stopped at the mouth to the alley beside the bank, that towering beast looming shadows over the street lights.

"Harry will be fine for now, he can handle another feed from you."

I turned to him as I stepped down from the high seat. "What about you?"

He grinned widely, "got a female that likes my idea of foreplay."

I shuddered,"gross, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little."

He roared with laughter and I slammed the door shut as he sped off towards the more well lit side of town. I walked quietly into the alley, darkness covering my approach and looming walls hiding my path. I saw his hunched figure clearly, even in the shrouded gloom that no night light could penetrate.

"Who's there?" His tired voice swept over me and claimed the attention of that agitated beast.

"It's just me, Harry."

He chuckled and sighed quietly as I neared. "Glad you're here, need to sleep so badly."