With Her Capture (22 page)

“I bet I’d be able to sniff them out, too.”
She lowered her head and her ball cap blocked his view of her face.
“You don’t know what it does to me knowing both of them are
together, happy and safe.”

Ayden needed to see her face. A fresh wash of
emotions came off of her. He didn’t smell pity but something almost
as bad. It was a bitterness and had a foul smell to it. Grabbing
her cap, he pulled it off her head. Instantly the thick ball of
hair at the back of her head began slipping. She dug her fingers
into her hair when he tried moving his hold on her to her arms.

“I don’t like how this is smelling,” he told
her.

“How do you think all of this makes me feel?”
she snarled.

“I would think it makes you happy.”

“It does, Ayden,” she said, and sighed. “Like
I told you, this news is overwhelming. I’m very grateful to Jaeger
Alger for hunting me down to howl the happenings of my litter to
me.”

“It’s more than news. This is a change of
plans.”

He was ready for it when she shot him a
pained look.

“We are not still running to Colorado.” And
if she tried growling otherwise, Ayden was ready to show her the
hierarchy of their new litter—the litter of the two of them. “Your
litter wants you with them. You are my mate. I’m going to see to it
that I build our new den close to where you can run with your
littermates as often as you wish.”

Magda pulled free of him. Ayden released her
reluctantly. When she walked over to the other side of the room
where they had initially sat and listened to Jaeger Alger howl his
news, he waited when she pulled one of the few remaining beers from
the ice bucket.

“If only it was able to happen like that,”
she mumbled, then bit the cap on the beer bottle and twisted it off
with her teeth.

“It
is
going to happen like that,” he
stressed.

Magda stared up at him a moment before
lifting the bottle to her lips. Another time he might have enjoyed
how her mouth circled around the bottle and how she held it there,
swallowing. She continued watching him when she licked the alcohol
from her lips.

“I understand that you want to run toward a
life that smells normal. It’s what you know.” She took another
drink, downing almost half the beer. “It’s what I once knew, too.
And I’ve been thinking hard of a way to have it again. But—“

“What I know is that this smells like a safe
place for us to live,” he interrupted.

“No! It’s not,” she yelled.

The bucket of ice and remaining beer bottles
began rattling on the table. Two empty bottles, the ones he and
Jaeger Alger had finished off while the male had been there, began
a wobbly dance until one crashed to the floor. Ayden got a strong
whiff of her anger right as he leapt to catch the second bottle
before it also fell and shattered.

“Magda, listen—“

This time she interrupted him. “It’s a safe
place for Katrin and Liesa. Katrin looks like you. She was able to
enter a Cariboo
lunewulf
pack and pass herself off as one of
them without suspicion. Liesa isn’t as dark as I am. Her hair has a
reddish tint to it but there are some darker streaks. She is a
mixture of me and Katrin,” she offered with a dry laugh. Magda
didn’t smell of humor though. “I do believe both of them will be
safe on the mountain. Jaeger seems honorable and I’m sure Katrin’s
mate is, too.”

“You will be safe there as well.”

“That’s what you don’t get,” she roared and
the bucket with all of its ice and beer bottles slammed against the
wall.

If she was trying for theatrics, he wasn’t
daunted. Ayden glared at her, ready to dismantle any argument she
tried howling. He’d heard exactly what Magda had heard and running
to the mountain with Jaeger Alger smelled like a much smarter plan
than the dangerous trek through the states to Colorado.

“If I run to the mountain as Jaeger wishes me
to do, I will endanger my littermates. They are happy. They are
safe. The way that male smelled when he mentioned Liesa, maybe
eventually he will mate with her. Both Katrin and Liesa will have
wonderful dens and a great life. But that life can’t be with me.
Not anymore.”

“Enough!” Ayden roared, willing to throw and
break a few things too. He slammed his fist down on the table.
Since Magda had already sent the bucket flying and two bottles to
the floor, all he was able to do was make the table rattle under
the impact. “I have heard enough of your fears over being Malta
werewolf.”

“Those fears are very real,” she yelled,
leaping toward him.

He let her clear the space and grabbed her
arms, pinning them to her sides when he caught her mid-air. “I know
the laws as well as you do,” he sneered. Rage pumped through him.
More emotions too. At the moment, with fire burning in his veins as
the change stormed to life inside him, he ignored his feelings and
simply let the words spill out. “There is nothing either of us can
do about your breeding. You are who you are, as are your
littermates. I’m sorry as fucking hell that our laws have outlawed
your species. It stinks of ignorance, but we will work our ways
around that. You and I will run to that mountain. We will agree to
live with your littermates. If, once we are there it no longer
smells safe then we will decide together our next move.”

“Kind of like the way we are deciding right
now what to do,” she said, relaxing in his grip. Her eyes radiated
from her anger, though. They were streaked with fragmented lines of
silver that accentuated her natural dark coloring. “Smells like
you’re doing all the howling and I’m supposed to submit.”

The laws all species of werewolves ran by
were antiquated at times. Other laws were downright ignorant. Ayden
and Magda were mated. It didn’t require a ceremony, or signing of
any official documents the way humans insisted it be done. Fucking
in their flesh and in their fur embedded each of their scents into
the other. In a normal functioning pack, a male would approach the
sire of the female he wanted and ask for his approval. That was
tradition more than law. In their case, Ayden and Magda had howled
the truth of their mating to Jaeger Alger. Had Magda lived with her
mated littermate, and with her sire and mother both dead, Ayden
would have requested their approval. In the end, the truth was the
same regardless of how it came to be.

The two of them were mated for life. Again
tradition put Ayden at the head of their new litter. As with many
of their traditions, Ayden knew many litters didn’t work that way.
A strong female quite often bared her claws at her mate. Magda was
definitely one of the strongest females he’d ever met.

That didn’t mean he ever planned on
submitting, especially when she was hell bent in doing something
that might prove dangerous enough to get them both killed. Not that
he had ever taken an easier path to avoid danger. Living with her
litter just smelled right to him.

“You’re the one who just howled that we were
going to Colorado.” He spoke with his teeth clenched together. More
to keep his anger in check than to make a show of displaying his
temper. “I didn’t smell anything close to it being a suggestion, or
a thought you brought up for discussion.”

“I’m the one who knows this life,” she
retorted, and shook from side to side to free herself. “You
don’t.”

“I have just about had enough of your
continually informing me that my life has been privileged, while
yours hasn’t.”

“I haven’t—“

“No. I haven’t been hunted by other
werewolves. You’re right. No one will kill me on sight because of
the blood running through my veins. But I do know what it’s like to
be hunted by humans. I have lived with the smell of fear because
someone else misunderstands who I am.” He put her down and walked
away, needing space.

In spite of her outrage, sense of betrayal,
and bittersweet happiness for her littermates, Magda’s scent also
proved she was his mate. Ayden stalked across the room, blowing out
a breath. He wasn’t opposed to tossing her over his shoulder and
hauling her up that mountain to her littermates. No one would stop
him from doing so. However, he’d rather not give her the
satisfaction of howling the unfairness over their laws and
traditions if he pulled rank on her.

“Ayden,” she said, her voice softening.
“Jaeger told us about this mountain. He said he and his littermates
had run off of it after humans burnt out so many dens. And he
agreed that all of them know the risk in returning to rebuild in
the exact spot where their previous den once stood. They have
returned to their hunting ground, to the land they know and love.
It makes sense. And hopefully it will work for them. I understand
that there is no place where we will always be free of threat. We
are hunters, predators, but there will always be those out there
willing and eager to hunt us down. But, my running to their
mountain,” she continued, but then took a breath, watching him as
if to make sure he was listening, “will add danger to all of them.
They are safer without a female living among them who by all
appearances is a pure bred Malta werewolf.”

“By your argument, there is no point in
running anywhere because you will always be who you are.”

Magda shook her head. “The Malta werewolf
pack in Colorado has created a sanctuary for themselves. The
American government helps protect them. I want the chance to run
without being in fear, to hunt without being hunted, to have a
litter and know my pups are safe.”

“We will have all of that,” he promised.
Ayden walked to her and pulled her into his arms. Her small hands
rested on his shoulders when he brushed his lips over hers. “But
tell me,
ma beaute noire
, do you not want to see your
littermates ever again?”

Ayden knew he’d made the right decision. The
cold night, mountain air lifted his fur on his back, and it was as
if his entire body was rejuvenated. He made the first leap. Magda
was right beside him, jumping from boulder to boulder as they began
climbing the mountain. No matter where their den was, he knew if
they remained in the mountains both of them would be more at
home.

His brain cleared while they continued their
ascent, leaving the town filled with its mixture of species and
humans. He would give Magda everything she wanted. Her den, pups to
raise together, safe hunting ground where they would also run and
play. And before they settled into their life as a mated couple,
they would sniff out and know each other’s litters.

The round boulder he’d just landed on shifted
under his weight. He spread his legs, balancing his large frame on
the large rock. Then watching Magda make the leap from where she
was to land next to him, the two of them then continued their trek,
both jumping in unison to the next flat surface. His beautiful
black bitch definitely knew how to rock climb.

The moon was almost whole and its light
shimmered off Magda’s long, silky black coat. She was so graceful.
Only a lifetime of living buried deep in the Canadian Rockies gave
her the skill she possessed today. Before the moon started its
descent into the sky they had neared the mountain where his pack
lived. He would take Magda to meet Anthony. Ayden kept a keen sense
on the night air. They would travel as far as he dared with the two
of them in their fur. When they neared his den, they would change
and he’d walk with her the rest of the way. It was the best way to
protect her, and give her what he knew she craved, the right to
meet his litter as his mate.

His littermate also deserved the truth, and
not delivered by a messenger. It was why he’d decided to bring her
to his den before they traveled to where her littermates’ dens
were. Ayden would introduce Magda to Anthony. Regardless of how
Anthony might feel about the mating, Ayden knew his littermate well
enough to know he wouldn’t dishonor Magda.

There was a decent chance that his littermate
might be out chasing some tail on the mountain. Ayden wouldn’t mind
it if they arrived at his den and they were the only ones there for
the night. Watching as Magda made the final leap to stand next to
him on the smooth plateau at the base of the his mountain, his
desire to have his den alone with his mate grew.

She smelled the change in his scent. Magda
circled half-way around him, then skirted to the side, curling her
lip and growling. God damn, she was so fucking hot. That lithe
little body of hers, the way her coat lay smooth over her slender
waist and hips, the glow in her almond shaped eyes, and most
especially his scent embedded in her fur, turned him on enough that
thoughts of having her before they reached his den began sounding
better.

He would fuck her now, then they would have
intense, drawn-out sex in his bed when they reached his den. They
would catch up with Anthony when they caught up with him. There was
no rush. Sex right now, in the middle of nowhere, would invigorate
both of them for the rest of their run.

Ayden took determined steps toward her. She
danced around him again, this time barking her protests. He didn’t
mind her fighting him a bit. It was all part of the foreplay. It
would take nothing to leap through the air and land on top of her.
He might force her to the ground on her side and take her that way.
Then again, playing along with her sexual game, letting her dodge
him a few times, then grabbing her from behind and mounting her as
she stood sounded good, too.

Magda let out a series of barks. She curled
her lip and bared her long, white teeth. Then turning with enticing
agility, she raced into the darkness. Ayden tore up the frozen
ground with his thick, sharp claws and raced after her at instant
high speed. He slid to a stop when she hadn’t run as far as he
thought she would.

Using his front paws, Ayden grabbed her by
the hips and shifted his weight to stand on his hind quarters. Her
aroma drew him closer and made his dick hard as steel. The moment
he slid into her velvety heat would be a level of heaven he looked
forward to repeating over and over again for the rest of their
lives.