Her Wanted Wolf (13 page)

Sabine let go of her human form and skipped over the rocky terrain to
disappear over a pile of boulders.

When was she going to learn to wait for his directions? Drew grumbled as
he shifted and took off after her. He followed her by the thin scent trail she
left for him. It was barely enough for him to track her.

Drew caught up with Sabine a short time later. Shoulder to shoulder, they
wove through the trees, nimbly racing down the rocky terrain.

At the base of the hill, Sabine slowed down and took a sharp left. She
paused and checked the air, but it blew past them laden with fresh spoor.
Undaunted, she moved to enter the gorge before him.

Drew nipped her on the haunch to pull her to a stop. He stepped in front
of her and ignored her grunt of irritation.

He wasn’t about to let her walk into enemy territory ahead of him. He
skulked between the boulders, embedded into the gully with Sabine by his side.

The air was heavy with musk exuded by the weres. The strong odor was
evidence that a large group of wolves occupied the cave. Drew hunkered down
behind a rock formation and surveyed the area. At the entrance of the cave, two
enormous wolves basked in the sun.

Drew studied them closely, taking careful note of their size. He’d
watched Justice fight one of their kind, but his chances of snapping the neck
of two battle-bred wolves were slim to none.

Shit, he needed to get a look inside that cave.

Sabine nudged him aside, pointed to the mouth of the cave with her
muzzle, and then sprang up on top of a boulder. Her pale fur shone silver
bright like a beacon in the early morning sunlight. She shot the astonished
wolves a shit-eating smirk, before she took off down the dry creek bed in the
center of the gorge.

The wolves rose up on all fours, disbelief stamped on their furry lupine
faces. Their reaction time was slow. Drew empathized. He stood frozen in place
himself, shocked at Sabine’s audacity. The wolves stared at Sabine racing away
for what felt like an eternity before they took off after her.

Anger at his mate finally galvanized him into springing after the wolves
chasing Sabine at a full run. The sound of an outraged feminine snarl from the
cave, mixed in with taunting masculine laughter pulled him to a stop.

Torn, he looked in the direction Sabine had gone and back at the shadowed
entrance of the cave.

His head told him Sabine could evade the two dullards in pursuit. Still
he hesitated. The instinct to protect his mate warred with the part of him
which felt compelled to defend the vulnerable.

A shriek pulled his attention back to the cave. After he took one last
look in the direction where Sabine had gone, Drew rushed into the dark hole
carved into the side of the hill. On silent paws, he slid into the shadowed
cavern.

The strong odor of mineral-rich water seeping through the chalky
limestone walls did little to temper the reek of refuse.

He stumbled over his front paws when he saw a tiny woman holding two
weres in their man-form at bay with a pole, and a third were writhing on the
ground, cupping his groin.

“Come on you sons-of-bitches!” She swung the pole in wide sweeps. “You
want a piece of me, come and get it, you chicken shits!”

Her features were Asian, but her dusky skin hinted at her mixed heritage.
She had a split lip. Black and blue discolorations were beginning to bloom on
her bare limbs. She hadn’t been taken long ago, because she still had on hiking
boots, though her shirt and shorts were a little worse for wear.

Blood trickled from her wrists. She must have worked them out of the leather
thongs hanging from the pole.

No matter how valiant she was, the small woman was no match for the weres
ducking out of reach of the rod, which they could snap like a twig. They were
playing with her.

One of the weres rubbed his engorged shaft obscenely.

Taking bounding leaps forward, Drew started to shift and stopped his
metamorphosis mid-change. He needed the power of his human legs to propel him
upward, and his paws in mid-shift with his claws extended. As half man and half
wolf, he vaulted into the air.

Drew knew he had one chance to pull this off.

The woman froze, her mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened in horror.
The shrill scream she let out reverberated off the walls.

The two men who’d been tormenting her spun around and right into the
downward stroke of his razor sharp claws. He sliced open their carotid arteries
to cut off the blood flow to their tiny brains.

Their hands flew to their necks, but it was too late to staunch the
blood. He’d taken a clump of flesh too. Drew made sure he’d done enough damage,
so there’d be no coming back from those wounds.

Drew dropped down his feet, sinking into a crouch to face the last were.

Too late. A body slammed into him like a pile driver and plowed him into
the solid rock wall behind him. The blow knocked Drew’s breath out of him.
Muscle-bound arms wrapped around his torso and constricted around him.

The steely bands tightened even more. “You carry the stink of a Lunedare.
Want to know what I did to your alpha’s little sister, before I squeeze the
life out of you, mutt?” The raspy taunt was all talk. Drew smelled the lie.

Too caught up in his triumph, the over-confident were left Drew’s arms
free in his determination to crush his upper body. Drew managed to position his
claws just below the last rib on either side of his ribcage.

Rage rolled through Drew like thunder before a deadly storm. As a storm
could, his anger would bring death and destruction.

Drew bared his fangs and encouraged in a voice just above a hoarse deadly
whisper. “Yeah, tell me exactly what you did to my sister.” Drew sunk his claws
into his opponent’s vulnerable chest cavity from below, shredding his vital
organs on their way upward.

The were jerked in surprise and the smugness leached from his face. A
second later, shock and disbelief spread across his visage.

Released suddenly, Drew filled his lungs with the rank air. Impervious to
the frantic blows of the man in his death throes, Drew kept on shredding his
flesh.

The were collapsed, leaving his pulsing heart gripped in Drew’s hand.

Drew stared down at the carcass, panting. He really needed to exercise a
little more control. Another chance of gleaning info, lost. He tossed the organ
on the ground. When Bardo returned, he’d know who made the kill.

In his fury, spoor billowed off him in hot emanations, fouling the den
for the Redmavens. Good, let them be aware that he was in the heart of their
home. Know that they’d never be safe anywhere from the Lunedares. They’d have
to pick up stakes and move, but he’d be ready for them this time.

A sob pulled him out of his reverie and Drew glanced over at the girl,
staring at him like he was a nightmare come to life.

“What in all that is holy are you?” she whispered, backing up slowly. The
pole was still gripped in her white-knuckled hands.

He completed his change before her terror-stricken eyes. He looked down
at himself. Shit, he had gore all over his body.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Drew walked over to the small basin
hollowed out by the water seeping through the ground above them. He rinsed his
hands, sluiced water over the rest of his body, and rose to face the girl.

“No, not really.” Her voice went up an octave with each word into a high
squeak. “I think I’ll just faint now.” On her last word, her eyes rolled back
in her head and she did as she promised.

Shit, couldn’t she have waited until they were well away from the cave?
Drew bent down, picked up the unconscious girl, and slung her over his
shoulder. He jogged to the entrance of the cave and took a swift breath. No
fresh spoor, but the scent of humans was ripe on the wind. There had to be a
search party looking for the woman he saved. Heaven help them if they ran into
Bardo and his steroid-pumped weres.

Drew took off at an easy run through the ravine. There wasn’t much cover.
But the last thing he needed was for some sharp-eyed tracker to see him and
report that a nude man, carrying an unconscious woman, was in the forest.

He was just out of the rocky channel when he caught a whiff of Sabine.

“It took you long enough,” Sabine said, lounging on a flat rock above
them.

“Where are the two wolves that chased you?” He looked around,
half-expecting the pair to break through the trees to keep his streak of bad luck
running.

“They’re on a little trek downstream. I sprayed my spoor on a branch and
tossed it in. The water will carry it away, and they’ll follow it. Idiots. What
are you going to do with her? You can’t carry her to our den.” Sabine looked at
the girl with pity.

“We can’t leave her here either. She’s seen what we are. If the Redmavens
find her, they’ll kill her. Once we get her back to Colorado, Saffa can take
charge of her. She’s set up a safe house for the women Bardo took before.
She’ll get counseling, and whatever she needs.” The wind carried a recognizable
scent on the air, filled with panic. “We’ll have humans crawling up our butts
in a moment. Don’t you smell the gun oil?”

Sabine sighed and slid off the rock. “I have a place, but we have to keep
her quiet. I’ll have Ala dose her with a sleeping potion until you decide what
to do with her.”

“Good, as soon as she’s stashed in a safe place, I’ll go meet up with my
men.” He shifted the girl to balance her weight better. “Later, we’re going to
discuss this recklessness of yours.”

“Nothing to discuss. I saw a need and I took action.” Sabine rose and
jogged ahead of him.

Oh yes, there was a lot to discuss. She’d learn to accept the boundaries
he set, or she’d feel what it was to be disciplined by an alpha who was not her
indulgent father.

Two days ago, finding his sister and returning to a normal existence
appeared within his grasp. Now, he had a score of she-wolves to lead to safety
and protect. He’d acquired a mate who didn’t listen to him one damn bit. And he’d
rescued a human who now knew of his race’s existence and by all rights should
be killed. He could only hope that neither the humans searching for the girl nor
the Redmavens hunting for Sabine’s pack would locate them before the cavalry arrived.

Crap, could his life be any more fucked up?

Chapter Eleven

Drew simmered in angry silence. He ground his teeth, torn between
aggravation and admiration. Not much took him by surprise, but the small
womanly bundle of contradictions that was Sabine had him on tenterhooks,
waiting to see what she was going to throw at him next.

Sabine’s courageous, but rash action presented him with a bit of a
dilemma. His base animal fought for dominance within him, straining with
impatience to consummate their union, almost suborning the rational side of his
psyche to guarantee his reluctant mate’s compliance.

Christ, his union with Christa had been so easy. Built on passion and
mutual interests, their relationship never had him doing so much soul
searching.

His growing attraction to Sabine was a confusing and dangerous
distraction. To pull off the task ahead of him he needed to focus.

Sweat trickled down Drew’s back as he took care to find secure footing
under the weight he carried. The acute incline Sabine scaled was no gentle
meander up the hill. His balance was a little off-kilter by the girl slung over
his shoulder. One badly placed step and he’d take a tumble.

He glanced up at Sabine. A mountain goat would envy her sure-footed
scramble up the sharp slope. She finally stopped on a ledge and waited for him
to catch up with her. The amusement her blue topaz eyes didn’t help to ease his
irritation.

Sabine gestured impatiently at one of the narrow crevices cut into the
rock face. “Get her inside. We’re really exposed on this cliff.”

Drew bent and barely managed to slip through the slender opening with his
unconscious burden. He slipped the girl off his shoulder and laid her down on
the neat moss-filled pallet he found tucked up against the wall. She was out
like a light. Drew hoped she stayed that way.

Dragging his eyes away from the girl, he looked curiously around the
small cave. Sunbeams filtered through colored bottles hung around the cavern.
Diagrams of engines, pictures of lush tropical blooms, and the great cathedrals
of Europe affixed to the limestone walls took him by surprise. It was the mark
of someone with eclectic interests. Detailed botanical drawings of flowers
showed talent, but the smudged lines showed they had been drawn with rough
charcoal from a fire.

“Did you draw these? And where did all this stuff come from?”

Sabine squirmed self-consciously under his inquisitive gaze. “Yes, and I
collected them. I’ll go get Ala.” She moved to leave him with the girl.

Drew dragged Sabine back by the shoulders. “Hell no! I’ve traumatized
that girl enough. I’m the last person she needs to see when she revives. I’m
already half deaf from her screams. I’ll go get your sister. Do what you can to
reassure her that she’s safe if she wakes up.” He stepped out of the cave
before Sabine had an opportunity to protest.

Drew wanted some space. He couldn’t think straight around Sabine right
now. The plan formulating in his head needed fine-tuning.

The further he moved away from her scent, the calmer he became. He filled
his lungs with air to clear his head. It didn’t do much good, for she lingered
on his senses like a drug.

Shaking his head, he looked up to the sky to gauge the time. The sun was
nowhere near its zenith. By its position, he figured he had about four hours
before the noon deadline when his pack brothers would start to gather at the
designated rendezvous point.

Drew decided then and there to ask Ishbel and a couple of the younger
she-wolves to conceal their journey up to the Silverwolf den.