Sharon's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 10) (31 page)

A man stood several yards from her, his back to her, his flashlight dancing around a pile of rocks. “Fucking goddammit.” He ran his free hand through his hair.

Sharon winced. Everything about this situation screamed at her to be cautious. The vibe she got radiating from the tall man with the dark hair was pure evil.

Think
. She glanced around again, trying to be quiet so he wouldn’t realize she was awake.

Did she know him?

He was a shifter. She could scent that. He was not her mate. He was not a relative. She would be able to detect those things too, wouldn’t she? What was the matter with her? Did she have amnesia? She couldn’t come up with anything about herself. Who were her parents? Siblings? Did she have a mate?

She flinched when the man bent down, set his flashlight on the ground, and grabbed a large rock to toss it aside. Hastily, he grabbed another. And then another. When he stood taller and reached for a rock above his head, he started an avalanche of falling stones. They cascaded all around him, knocking him to his ass.

She screamed out, unable to stop herself.

The man twisted around to face her, climbing to his feet. “This is all your fault, you know.”

She winced. What was her fault? She had no idea what he was talking about.

He stepped closer, pointing at her. “If your people hadn’t made a mockery out of our species, we wouldn’t be here. You forced my hand.”

She pursed her lips, struggling to find anything in her brain that would fill in the holes. Her brain wouldn’t cooperate. It was one giant gaping hole.

The man paced, his hands on his hips. He glanced back at the pile of rocks and kicked one. “Fuck,” he screamed.

She looked around. Where were they? A cave? Whipping her gaze back to the pile of debris, she decided they were indeed in a cave, and the entrance was blocked.

He rambled some more. “I had a mate once too, you know. And that bitch was white, just like you. I denied it. Walked away.” He spun around again to face her, his voice rising. “It’s wrong. An abomination. We aren’t meant to mix the races. My people were here long before you pilgrims arrived. Centuries. You stole our land, raped our women, and that wasn’t enough? No. Now you have to continue to mate with our men and women.

“Well, enough is enough. I’ll teach your family to fuck with nature.” He turned back toward the pile of rocks and picked up another one to toss it aside.

Sharon tried to make sense of his weird lecture. He was Native. She could see that. And he didn’t think the races should mix. But did they have a choice? Wasn’t it Fate who determined who each wolf shifter was destined to mate?

The man was crazed.

Another pile of rocks fell when the man grabbed one and yanked it loose. Shocking her, he stumbled backward.

She gasped as more rocks tumbled from high off the ground. The noise was deafening. She scrambled back farther, shoving with her feet.

The man screamed. His anger wafted off him in waves that she could feel from yards away. With a battle cry, he launched forward, shouting obscenities at the rocks as he continued to grab them. They fell faster. He didn’t care.

Right in front of her eyes, a larger chunk fell toward him.

He screamed again as it slammed into him, and he fell backward so hard his head hit the ground with a thump, bouncing off the ground before coming to a rest.

A plume of dust rose into the air.

Sharon’s heart pounded. She didn’t dare move. She didn’t even know what to do. Was he dead? She inhaled long and slow, staring at his face. Blood trickled from his mouth and nose. His eyes were open wide, unblinking. Yeah. He was dead.

Thank God. She didn’t know why, but she was alert enough to know this was a good thing.

Now, where was she? She tried to stand and found her legs too weak and wobbly. Her head throbbed. A sense of déjà vu flooded her system. She squeezed her eyes closed and breathed. In. Out. Slow down.
Whoever he is, he’s dead. And he was evil. Don’t give him your power
.

After a few minutes, she managed to pull herself to standing. She made her way across the dirt until she stood next to the man. She had no desire to approach him, but she did want the flashlight now half buried under the rubble.

She lifted several rocks out of the way and snatched it from the ground. A quick scan of the area told her she was indeed in a cave of some sort, perhaps trapped now that rocks had fallen. And there was a duffle bag off to one side. She shuffled toward it, unzipped it, and found several bottles of water, protein bars, a jacket, and a bottle of pills.

On closer inspection of the medicine, she knew nothing more than before. The bottle contained something called diazepam. It meant nothing to her.

She shrugged into the jacket and sat back down on the floor. She needed to think. Setting her pounding forehead on her folded hands against her knees, she attempted to assess what had happened to her. She could remember nothing. Her mind was a complete fog. How had she ended up in a cave in the dark? And was that an earthquake she’d felt?

She grabbed a bottle of the water and drained it in moments.
So thirsty
…

There were five bottles left. She needed to conserve them. Who knew how long she would be trapped. She also needed to conserve the batteries in the flashlight. Reluctantly, she shut it off, leaving herself in total darkness. Exhausted, she curled up on one side, using the duffle bag as a makeshift pillow, and closed her eyes.

»»•««

The next time Sharon woke up, the earth was shaking again. At least this time she remembered waking up before and seeing the man get pummeled by the rocks. She remained still while the earthquake continued, gripping her flashlight and holding her body stiffly. Where the hell was she? And how would she ever be rescued?

A presence to her back made the hairs on her neck stand on end. She wasn’t alone? She fumbled with the flashlight in the nearly total darkness, flipped it on, and aimed it behind her as she came to a sitting position.

A short gasp escaped her lips, and then she closed her eyes for a second and took deep breaths. When she reopened them, she found the same vision in front of her. A shadowy figure. An aura. She squinted at the apparition, straining to find an explanation in the back of her mind.

She should know about this. Whatever it was, it was calming. It meant her no harm. It was a protector of sorts. She knew that with clarity, even though she fought to regain the memories that would tell her why.

More deep breaths. When she flipped off the light and turned it back on, the figure was still there. It almost seemed to sit next to her as if it would wait with her. It absorbed some of her fear. It was indeed a protector.

She closed her eyes again and tried to find a detail in her mind that would bring the rest of her life into clarity. It was as if she’d woken up the last time with no memories.

The pills… Had this man kept her drugged? She shuddered. Could a pill wipe out your memory? And would it come back now that she had no intention of taking them?

Something faint echoed in the back of her mind, as if someone was calling out to her. But who could that be? And what was her name? She glanced once more at the aura, flipped off the flashlight, and lay back down.

She sensed the shadowy figure inching closer, almost surrounding her. It calmed her racing heart more with each passing moment. She would survive this. There was no doubt. She just needed more time.

Cooper came to a halt next to Trace when Melinda and Wyatt did in front of them. The four of them stared at what appeared to be the entrance to a cave. Or was. Before it got covered with rocks and debris.

“She’s in there, isn’t she?”
He knew. He didn’t need confirmation.

Shit.

He and Trace inched closer.

“Sharon. Baby, please answer me…”

Was Sandhouse also in there? And why was she not responding? He’d called out to her thousands of times in the last hour and a half. It was growing late. The night was dark. The moon was a sliver of light often covered with clouds as they floated by.

“Yeah.”
Melinda paced in wolf form.
“Get word to Jackson. Have him send someone up the south face of this mountain. There’s an access road not far from here if I’m not mistaken. We need equipment. We need help. We need water.”

Cooper sat on his rear haunches and tried to catch his breath from the long run.
“Jackson. We think we know where she is. There’s a cave. It seems the entrance is blocked, probably from the earthquakes. We need manpower and tools. South access road behind this peak. I hope to fuck it’s still passable
.” He glanced around and winced. If a volcano erupted… He shook the thought from his mind and focused on the scene in front of him.

“On it.”

“And Jackson…”
Cooper turned around, opened his eyes, and faced north. He inhaled long and slow. If he wasn’t mistaken, enough tremors had opened up the earth for lava to flow. The pressure had probably gotten to be too much.
“…Anyone who comes up here needs to be a shifter. I can’t keep humans alive. They won’t be able to run fast enough. Plus I’m naked. How are we going to explain that?”

Jackson sighed into his head.
“Right. I’ll coordinate with Sharon’s parents. But just so you know, I’m not including me in your list of humans who can’t come to the site. Forget it.”

Cooper gave a mental nod.
“I didn’t expect you would.”

How fast was lava coming their way? How long did they have? He had no idea.

“Can you feel her?”

“No. But I think Melinda can. In any case, the spirits that led us here stopped. They’re hovering at the blocked entrance.”

When he opened his eyes again, he found Wyatt in human form working as hard and as fast as he could to remove one rock at a time.

Cooper couldn’t stand the idea of the man working alone. He rose onto all four paws and let the shift wash over him. When he stood naked in the cramped space at the entrance to the cave, Wyatt shot him a glare. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, man? You’ll freeze your ass off. Stay in wolf form until help arrives. You have no choice. I’ll work as fast as I can.”

Dammit. Cooper ran a hand through his hair and glared at the night sky that dared to mock him in this crisis. “Fine.” He shifted back. He had no choice. It was fucking cold out. He was naked. Lucky bastard, Wyatt, got to take his clothes with him? Who made him the king of the beasts anyway?

He paced.

He watched Melinda pace. He watched Trace pace.

He watched Wyatt dig with his bare hands as if his life depended on it.

“Jackson?”

“Yes?”

“We need clothes. Tell Sharon’s parents to bring clothes.”

“Right.”

»»•««

Cooper stared at Wyatt, nearly crawling out of his skin. It had been thirty minutes, and Wyatt was like a machine, lifting rocks as fast as he could and tossing them aside.

Tremors came and went. A plume of smoke probably a mile away rose into the air. Cooper didn’t need a seismologist or a volcanologist to tell him lava was flowing down the mountain.

“Sharon,”
he called again. Nothing.

If they were lucky, it was a small eruption that wouldn’t cover more than a few acres. If they were not lucky, they would all die. Cooper would never leave this location without Sharon. He’d rather die.

Jackson interrupted his horrible thoughts.
“Cooper. Stop thinking morbid thoughts. You’re killing me, and you aren’t blocking. You’re not going to die on the mountain. Besides, you said yourself the cave is sealed off. If lava flows over it, Sharon shouldn’t be harmed inside. You’ll get out of harm’s way, and we’ll return to get her as soon as it’s safe.”

“Who made you the voice of reason?”
Cooper teased.

“No one. I’m a fucking mess. I’m just trying to help screw your head on straight.”

“It’s working.”
Cooper blew out a breath.
“How far away are you?”

“Not far. Heading the rest of the way on foot now. But we need better directions.”

Cooper howled, tipping his head back and angling toward the sky.
“That work for you?”

“Yep. See you in a few.”

The two spirits who seemed to have befriended each other, as if that were a thing, hovered over the entrance to the cave. They had stopped shimmering with agitated urgency. That could be a good sign.

When the first wolf burst through the trees and landed in front of Cooper to drop a large backpack, Cooper quickly shifted alongside the other wolf. It turned out to be Adam. Trace shifted just as fast at his side.

They riffled through the duffle, grabbed jeans and shoes first, and quickly shrugged into them.

“You really believe she’s in that cave?” Adam nodded over his shoulder.

“Yeah. I’m sure of it.”

“And you can’t reach her?”

“I’ve tried hundreds of times. My voice should be rough from yelling so many times in my head.”

“And nothing?”

Cooper shook his head. “But she’s in there, and she’s alive.”

Melinda grabbed clothes out of the bag while Cooper spoke to Adam. Seconds later, she was dressed also. They didn’t have enough clothes for prolonged exposure to cold, but they would survive for quite a while without issues.

Jackson stepped through the trees. He was breathing heavily. “You wolves are going to kill me.” He turned to face Isaiah next. “And a bear. Don’t forget the grizzly bear.” He rolled his eyes as he handed out bottles of water.

Wyatt spoke from the growing pile of rocks in front of him. “You guys want to help?” His voice was gentle. Light in an intense situation.

All of them raced to the entrance as several more wolves jumped into the clearing. They each held a bag between their teeth. Cooper knew they would be Sharon’s brothers.

As they worked, Cooper listened to Jackson continuously trying to reach Sharon.
“Babe. God. Please. Answer me. Just let me know you’re okay. We’re just outside the cave. We’ll get you out. We’re working hard. We have more men now.”