Wolf Games: Granite Lake Wolves, Book 3 (14 page)
lifeline. Craning her head back, she blew him a kiss.
“Thank you for letting me do this my way.”
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“Sure, but you’d better finish before they shift without meaning to. Jared especially is really pissed
off. You’ve got an admirer I need to worry about?”
She nudged him in the gut. “I thought you boys needed to know. Last night I shifted, and it was
glorious. There will be no troubles in the challenge with me running, but I still don’t know how I’ll feel
when faced with a bunch of strange wolves. I don’t want you to get upset if I freak out. With the mate
connection between me and Erik, I think I have the strength, but you’re my pack now too, and I’m trusting
you to help me.”
TJ grinned at Jared. “I told you so.”
“Yeah, yeah. Mr. Sniffy and his Magic Nose have spoken. Hey, congrats on the mate thing.” Jared
winked at her before breaking into a huge yawn.
She laughed. “I take it you had a good time last night with Miss Norway?”
Jared glared at TJ who shuffled off a few feet. “Well one of us had a good time.”
Laughter rumbled against her back. “TJ? You stole Jared’s woman? Again?”
Maggie choked. “TJ?”
He managed to look guilty. He shrugged. “Can I help it if the girls all love the underdog?”
A loud bell rang in the distance.
Erik squeezed her for a second before letting go. “There’s the call. Leave everything in the room.
They said they’d shuttle us back here when the event is done.”
They were all gathered at the starting line. Maggie kept Erik between her and the rest of the crowd
without even thinking about it. After so many years of avoidance, she wasn’t going to be able to change
habits overnight. She took a deliberate step forward and caught Erik grinning down at her.
“Well done, love.”
She lifted her chin a little higher and turned to listen to the Games Marshal.
“We’re starting the event here instead of in town for the sake of the humans. We’d like to thank all of
you for the restraint you showed last night while in Dawson. There were only a few comments this morning
at the local coffee shops about unusual wolf sightings, so you seem to have managed to keep yourselves
under control while in range of cell phones and other recording devices.”
Jared nudged TJ and the two of them snickered.
“What do you think that’s about?”
Maggie asked.
“I really don’t think I want to know.”
“Today’s challenge is a foot race. Cross country toward the Dempster Highway. We’ve got a loop
through the Tombstone Mountains, finishing at the Tombstone campground. All the campers are ours, and
we’ve closed the area to hunting for safety’s sake. It’s an all-out sprint for your wolves. No bonus points
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available. At the end of this event, we’ll calculate the scores and announce the current standings. Final
event will be held in two days’ time.”
All around them teams were stripping and shifting. Maggie watched in morbid fascination, wondering
when the sense of utter horror would creep up her spine and throttle her.
It never came. They were only wolves.
She walked boldly toward the nearest team, shaking off Erik’s hand. “I need to do this.”
Her opponents watched her warily as she stepped into their midst and stood there.
Nothing. They were only…wolves.
She threw back her head and laughed, joy springing up again.
“You want to come and join us, love? I think you’re freaking out our opponents and that’s not very
sportsmanlike.”
Oh shit. She bowed politely to the captain of the team, backing away with deference before leaping
into Erik’s arms. “I can do this. I really and truly can do this.”
He patted her cheek. “I knew you could. Now get naked, little wolf, and let’s go for a run.”
Stripping off her clothes was freeing. Seeing the admiration in her mate’s eyes brought even more
pleasure. But the sensation of shifting itself was almost orgasmic. Last night she’d been too worried she
wouldn’t be able to shift, she’d missed the awesome physical rush. Today she experienced it fully, moaning
with delight.
“Are you going to do that every time you shift? Because, holy shit, that was hot…”
Erik nudged her
flank and her wolf took control, teasing and rubbing against her mate.
“Whoa, sweetheart. We’re in the
middle of a contest. Remember? As much as I enjoy sex with you, now is not the time. Rein her in.”
Maggie dropped her haunches to sit on the grass. TJ and Jared sniffed her before rolling and offering
their throats in submission. If there had been time, she would have howled with delight.
The gun went off and they were away, racing shoulder by shoulder through the Yukon scrub. Brush
that was thigh high on a human was level with her head, and she trusted Erik and the others as taller wolves
to choose the most direct path through the maze of tough tangle.
Suddenly they broke out into the clear, the sky overhead bright blue, not a cloud to be seen. They ran.
Side by side, paws and legs flying, heads and torsos almost touching they were so close together.
There was something wonderful in the freedom of running with a pack again. While last night with
Erik had been amazing, today was an answer to another part of the puzzle she’d been missing forever.
Belonging. Connecting. A part of a greater whole. Maggie’s heart pounded in time with their paws on the
ground, eating up the miles. Ahead she scented the trail they followed. The more time passed, the clearer it
became, almost as if the years of being trapped fell away and musty cobwebs brushed from the corners of
her wolf’s mind.
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They tore down a hill and splashed through a stream at the widest point, spray rising and soaking their
fur. The fresh, crisp air and the bright green growth teased and inspired her senses to greater heights.
Ahead, Erik led the way.
Her mate.
Her heart.
She nuzzled his flank with her nose and thrilled at the connection between them. TJ and Jared fell
back slightly, letting her and Erik lead, and the moment became even more incredible.
“You’re running well.”
“I’m alive. Truly alive.”
It was all she had to say and it meant the world.
They must have run for an hour before the trail veered to the side, upward, forcing them to push
harder as they topped the mountainside. Now there were large boulders blocking their way and the trail
grew narrower. The teams of wolves joined together, forced by the narrowing path to fight for dominance.
Maggie stuck close to Erik, her heart beating faster as snarls and the clash of teeth rose behind her.
Erik maneuvered her to his left. TJ growled and there was a yipping cry. She glanced over her
shoulder to see four large wolves closing in. Jared and TJ had been separated from them, and a raw slash
showed on Jared’s shoulder.
“Erik?”
“It’s the cheaters from the river. Darren never was one to learn easily. Do you mind if I teach him a
lesson?”
Fear skittered across her mind, her throat tightening. Darren. The one who’d leered at her. Then
Erik’s will soothed her, strengthened her.
“It’s not a challenge to the death, but if I don’t do something,
who will?”
That was Erik to a fault. How could she not agree when his sense of fair play and justice was so much
a part of who he was? She took a centering breath and reluctantly agreed.
The power within Erik snapped like a live wire, hot and out of control. He turned in one smooth
motion and barreled into the leader of the other foursome. They rolled together, stopping with Erik pinning
the other wolf to the ground under him. He held Darren by the throat, growling in triumph.
“That was quick.”
“Bullies are usually wimps.”
A low rumble to her right brought Maggie’s attention snapping back. Two of the wolves from the
other team surrounded her, their lips curled to show their bared canines. Her knees went weak as memories
rushed over her. Growls and tearing pain, sleepless nights and nightmares. She wavered for a second.
“Maggie, fight back. You’re strong, there is nothing they can do to you.”
One of the wolves snapped at her hind leg and she whirled on him. Pulling herself to her full height,
she let her anger and frustration at being cowed rise. Too many years. She’d had too many years of being
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the one to run and hide, and she wasn’t going to do it again. A scary growling filled her ears, startling her
for a moment until she realized it was her making the racket.
She stared the wolf down, pacing forward deliberately. He retreated, swinging his head to the side,
looking for his backup. Maggie lunged at him, batting at his head with the back of her paw. She didn’t want
to draw blood, just make him stop. How dare this team turn what was supposed to be a fun event into
something fearful? Inside her, anger continued to build. It exploded out, her power flying in his face. He
dropped to his belly in an instant and cowered in submission. Turning to face the other wolf, she discovered
he’d disappeared under TJ and Jared. Erik howled once, a long low cry that filled the mountaintop with his
power. Darren sulked off as Erik rose to stride toward her. Jared licked at his shoulder and she joined him,
knocking him to the ground with her body so she could look over the wound. The scratch wasn’t too bad,
so she let him up, reassuring him with a touch of her nose to his chin.
Erik stroked her muzzle with his.
“Thank you, Beta, for helping care for our pack.”
The lump in her throat felt very strange in wolf form.
“Shit.”
He gave a wolfie chuckle.
“You just realized that now? Yup. You and me, second in command. So
what do you say we get running? No one else is going through the pass until we get started and if we sit
here too long the people at the finish area are going to wonder what’s happened.”
She remained immobile, confused by his words.
“No one else?”
He bumped her gently, turning her to face down the hillside they’d ascended before the attack. The
rest of the competitors lay huddled in groups on the rocky ground, all eyes watching them intently. Darren
and his team sat forlornly at the extreme edge of the gathering, dust covered and looking whipped.
She considered for a moment.
“Are they waiting for us to go first?”
TJ’s tail beat the ground so hard dust swirled into the air around them, and Erik nudged him to get
him to stop. Maggie threw back her head and howled with delight. Her wolf was awake, she was whole
again, and she and her team had just been honoured by an entire group of wolves.
When the echoes of the all the responding cries stopped ringing off the sheer rock cliffs around them,
she rose, Erik and the boys joining her. They turned and ran, following the trail to the finish line.
Maggie couldn’t care less about the Games. She’d already won the greatest prize imaginable, and he
ran beside her all the way.
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“I can’t believe you guys got disqualified from the final event. You were in second place headed into
it.” Keil sighed in disgust. They sat on the front porch of Tad’s house, watching Jared and TJ out on the
front lawn arguing as Jared hobbled around on crutches.
Erik laughed. “There’s something in the rules that says competitors with broken legs are not eligible,
no matter how fast we heal. When the idiot got hit by a car while gawking at the ladies en route to the
challenge, there was no way to explain to the human authorities Jared didn’t need to go to the hospital. It’s
okay, everyone was impressed we had the most clues after acing the Peter-and-wolf thing. We also got
awarded the trophy for most sportsmanlike team.”
“It’s a damn big trophy—looks great in the pack house. The old timers were thrilled to see it.”
Tad drove up and rolled down his window. “Have you guys seen Jamie? Missy wants me to bring him
to the hospital to meet the babies.”
Erik rose from his chair. “I think he’s with Maggie in the kitchen. I’ll go get them.”
He rounded the corner, following the invisible connection he had with his mate. The sensation made
him smile. He always knew where she was, but more importantly, now she knew she was right where she
was supposed to be.
With him.
They still had to figure out where they were going to live until they built their house, but the
satisfaction of making those decisions together met a great need in him.
Jamie raced past, his fat little legs pumping wildly.
“You can outrun your mama, but you can’t outrun me.” Maggie scooped up the squealing toddler,
tossing him into the air before catching him and tickling him. His laughter filled the room.
Erik leaned against the wall, soaking it all in.
She glanced at him, her eyes bright with love. “I knew you were there.”
“Unca Eri.” Jamie squealed louder. He squirmed out of her arms and attacked Erik’s leg, his pudgy
fingers grasping the cotton fabric of his pants leaving sticky smears behind. Maggie giggled behind her
hand as he picked the little tyke up and tickled him under the chin.
