Devlin Dynasty 2: Fall Fury (19 page)

The roadway was pitch black, but she’d been this way before and knew where shewas going. She pushed back the fear of walking down a deserted road in themiddle of the night, rationalizing that no one would be out in weather like this.

No one sane, anyway, she thought with a laugh. She’d be fine. No harm wouldcome to her.

She’d made it about a quarter of a mile when she heard a low rumble, looking tothe sky to see if the storm was about to break free.

The rumble turned into a growl, and she realized then that it wasn’t coming fromthe sky. It came from the line of trees along the side of the road, deep into theheavily forested bayou.

Shannon stopped, wondering what it could be that made a sound like that. Maybeit was a lost, angry dog, frightened by the storm. That had to be it. She listenedfor a full minute, and when she didn’t hear it again figured the animal hadwandered off. She started to move again, but hadn’t made it more than a few stepswhen she heard the growl behind her this time.

Panic caused her throat to go dry, her heart ramming against her chest. She turnedslowly, hoping it was a friendly but frightened dog. She loved animals. She couldhandle this.

But no dog had glowing yellow eyes, eyes that pierced the blackness of the road.

That was no dog. It was a wolf.

Wolves again. Just like the one she’d seen at her condo. Hell, they were out in themiddle of nowhere, too. It wasn’t unlikely that she’d find all kinds of strangecreatures out here, but she sure as hell had never seen a wolf before in these parts. Not even in the rural area where her parents lived.

She summoned her magic, thinking a shot of lightning or a strong hurricane forcewind would either scare it into running off or push it away.

Lightning arced down from the skies a mere foot in front of the wolf. It startedand backed up a step, then sniffed the air around it and continued to glare at her. She tried the wind, summoning up a gale force at the animal, but it seemed to digits long claws into the side of the road and held on, its fur blowing back as thegust blew hard against it.

What the hell; were these creatures impervious to nature’s elements?

She had two choices. Stand there and let it attack her, or run. If she ran down theroad, she was an easy target. If she headed into the trees, she might have a chanceat escape, or at least could double her way back to Max’s place, providing therewas a path to follow.

Deciding anything was better than allowing the wolf to tear her to pieces, sheslowly moved toward the trees. The wolf growled, but didn’t advance. As soon asshe lost sight of it, she broke into a run.

Her shoes immediately sank into the mud, her progress impeded by fallen limbsand watery muck. She heard the growls behind her and to the side, realizing thenthat there was more than one wolf out there.

Rampant fear cut off her breathing. She wanted to stop, to curl up into a ball andhide from the creatures out there. But she couldn’t, had to keep moving or they’dbe upon her. She made sure to swerve back and forth instead of running in astraight line, but frankly she had no idea where she was headed. The trees werethick, there were no paths and there sure as hell was no light.

Climb a tree. That’s what she’d do. She’d be safe up there because wolvescouldn’t climb trees. Could they? Hell, she didn’t know. She stopped at one shethought had a low enough branch, but her shoes were covered in slick mud up toher ankles and she couldn’t get a foothold. The bark was slick on one, and whenshe tried another, the trunk wasn’t stable enough to hold her. Dammit, she didn’thave time to try and climb every goddamn tree in the woods!

She fumbled in the darkness, tripping over limbs and rocks, the dense trees andbushes scraping her arms and legs as she pushed by them. She knew she bled, feltthe scratches like needle sticks in her skin, but kept moving, hoping like hell shewouldn’t run straight into a bayou.

Maybe the water would keep them away. Did wolves fear water? She didn’t

know, and wished right now that she’d spent more time watching those nature

shows on television.

A burning pain seared her chest as she struggled for breath, panic quicklyovertaking her. The wolves were gaining, although she had a gut feeling theycould have jumped her by now if they’d wanted to. Didn’t they run faster thanhumans or something? It wasn’t like she was sprinting at top speed here. Werethey toying with her? Was this some kind of game to wear her out and make heran easier target when they tired of chasing her?

Thoughts of Max entered her mind. How close was the house? She couldn’t see adamn thing in the darkness, spotted no lights to guide her way. Where was he? Did he know she was gone yet? Would he come searching for her?

Oh, God. If he did, he’d drive down the road, never thinking she’d entered theforested area. Why would she? He’d think she meant to go home. He’d figureexactly what her plan had been and would drive to the store to look for her. Howstupid was she? So desperate to escape him, she’d foolishly set out on foot in anarea unfamiliar to her. She deserved her fate.

A sick feeling of impending doom swept over her, and she fought the tears thatwelled and spilled over her cheeks. She didn’t want to die out here. Not like this. Not torn apart by these savage creatures.

Max, where are you? I need you. Help me
 
!

* * * * *

Max slipped on a pair of shorts and went in search of Shannon. Maybe she’d gonedownstairs to fix something to eat.

Knowing her, she was pissed off and pacing in the kitchen, waiting for him tocome down so she could lay into him for suggesting she move in with him.

Okay, maybe he’d blurted. Not his smoothest move, that was for sure.

He had to calm her down, make her see reason.

It was time to tell her everything, explain why she had to be with him. He ran hisfingers through his still-damp hair, damning himself for being so caveman-like intelling her how things were going to be between them, instead of discussing whoand what he was, then asking her to move in.

Me big, strong man. Me tell woman what to do.
 
Fucking Neanderthal
.

He groaned and stepped into the dark kitchen, realizing immediately thatsomething was up.

And that something was not good.

Sniffing the air, he smelled danger, knew instinctively that Shannon was nolonger on the premises. The hair on his arms and legs stood on end, and chillspopped goose bumps on his skin.

Shannon was in trouble. Big trouble.

He picked up her scent immediately. Not just hers, either, but others, and in closeproximity.

Wolves.

“Shit!” He tore out the back door and into the woods, ignoring the burning pain of his body changing as he made the dash across the lawn. By the time he reached the woods, he was fully wolf and ripping through the trees and bushes, hoping he wasn’t going to be too late.

It was easy to track Shannon. He could pick up her scent from miles away. Healso knew she was panicked, afraid, and quickly running out of energy.

Not that it mattered. They stalked her slowly, enjoying the game. He knew theirkind, toying with humans, making a game of terrorizing them, getting off on theirfear.

He also knew they wanted her because they smelled him on her, recognized whathe was and weren’t happy about a new alpha in their midst. They wanted to takeher, to put their mark on her, to claim her.

Over his dead body. No fucking way would any of them lay a paw on her.

Granted, this wasn’t the way he’d wanted to draw them out of hiding. Not using Shannon as prey. Because he knew they didn’t care what happened to her. Theonly reason they were doing this is because they knew if she was in danger he’dcome running, and they thought they could beat him down this way.

Max didn’t know who the members of this pack were, but he’d bet they’d nevermet a Devlin wolf before.

This was his territory now, and Shannon was his mate. He’d take on a dozen ofthem if need be. When he was finished, they’d know a new alpha was in town,and meant to take over.

She hadn’t gone far, thankfully. He stopped about twenty yards in front of her andlet out a howl, announcing his arrival to the others. He sensed their fury, theirblood thirst, but he felt no fear for himself, only for Shannon.

Now that he spotted her, he felt a measure of relief. She was cut and bloody, but itlooked more like branches had done the damage. The wolves hadn’t touched her. They could have torn her to pieces in seconds, but they hadn’t. He might let themlive because of that.

He’d been aching for a fight for a long time, and as he scented their locations,knew this one would be bloody.

He welcomed it. They’d crossed the line when they targeted his woman. He’deither take over the pack or kill them all. Either way, he knew who’d come out thewinner tonight.

* * * * *

Shannon stopped and leaned over, resting her hands on her knees, not caring ifthey attacked her or not. She couldn’t breathe. The run, along with fighting herever-increasing fear, had stolen every ounce of energy she possessed. Heradrenaline rush had passed and right now she just wanted to lie down.

But she couldn’t. She leaned halfway up, resting her hand against the bark of atree for support. The incessant growling grew louder, and she felt a calmpeacefulness overcome her, as if she finally accepted her fate.

There was no way she could get out of the woods. But she refused to stand thereand let them take her. She’d die, but she’d die running for freedom.

But then she heard a sound ahead of her now, as angry a growl as she’d heardbefore. Coming toward her, slowly. The sound grew louder and she stilled,praying for invisibility but knowing that it wouldn’t matter. They scented her. That much she knew. Wolves hearing and scent were heightened, much more sothan a human.

So she waited, watching its glowing eyes as it appeared before her. She met itsgaze head on, refusing to look away, refusing to show weakness.

The wolf stopped in front of her. She was sweating now, her body drenched, herheart slamming against her ribs, her legs trembling from fear and exhaustion.

She could barely stand as it stopped a mere inches from her, its teeth bared, a lowgrowl rumbling in its throat.

Lord it was a beautiful animal, though. Even though she feared it, she admired itsstrength, the gray and white fur that covered strong legs and body. And it wasmuch bigger than she’d ever known wolves to be.

Then it shocked the hell out her. It winked. She blinked, surely delusional in herpanicked state. But when it walked around her and behind her, she didn’t knowwhat to think. Why hadn’t it attacked her?

Slowly, she turned to follow it, her heart lodging in her throat as she realized thatat least six wolves were behind her in a semi-circle.

The gray one that had winked stood in front of them, snarling, saliva drippingfrom between its teeth. She backed away and stood to the side of all of them, notenough that they thought she’d run because one of the six watched her.

It seemed as if the big gray was communicating in some way to the others,because after it growled, the others did too.

She was afraid to move at all, but took small steps backward, sensing thatsomething was about to happen between the gray wolf and the other, darker ones.

The gray took a few steps forward, ignoring the warning snarls of the others, and

entered their circle. The strange thing was, she felt concern for the gray. Maybe because it hadn’t attacked her. Stupid, she knew, but she really didn’t know what to think about what was happening right now. She should take the opportunity to run, but with so many wolves around her, she was afraid if she moved, one would pounce on her. So she stayed put and watched.

They circled each other, moving counter-clockwise, their glowing golden eyes theonly thing moving in the dark woods. The six wolves advanced slowly, closingthe circle and drawing nearer to the gray.

Shannon shrieked and jumped back when the gray leaped on the center wolves.

Then they all fell on him, snarling and growling as the battle ensued.

The tangle of fur on fur made it impossible to determine what was happening. Shewished for the clouds to dissipate so she could see how the gray was faring, but itwas all she could do to hold back the fierce storm.

They were all engaged. She should turn and run, head back to the road and returnto Max’s. Anywhere but here.

But her feet were frozen to the ground. She couldn’t make them move, couldn’tturn her eyes away from the carnage in front of her. Whimpering yelps emittedfrom the center of the fray, but she didn’t know which wolf or how many of themwere injured. The growls grew louder, more fierce, splitting the air with the angrysounds of their battle. And all the while she watched. Stupidly stood there andwatched.

Suddenly, two of the dark wolves retreated, hovering outside the center of thecircle. Soon, two more retreated, and then the other two. They stayed in the circle,moving around the gray, still baring their now bloodstained teeth, still emittinglow rumbles from their throats.

They all wore marks, all of them bloody, including the gray, who looked as ifhe’d taken the brunt of the fight. His fur was torn away in spots, angrybloodstained gouges in his skin.