Wolver's Rescue (29 page)

Macey backed away, her eyes wide with fear,
and turned to the pups.

The boys returned. One handed her a thick
piece of wood like the one he carried. He showed her his branch,
hastily sharpened to a rough point. The other handed her a folding
knife with a wicked looking blade.

“
Bull gave them to us. You
keep this one with you.”

“
We need bags for the
stones,” the other said. He was already emptying one and casting
the contents aside.

“
Good,” she said while her
wolf said, “
Teeth
.
Bite.
” She
shook her head as her brain adjusted to thinking two things at
once. “Only one of us can be in charge here,” she muttered. The
boys were looking at her oddly and the sensation came again; of two
things happening in her head at once. “Fill your bags. Get up in a
tree and take them with you. There and there.” She pointed to trees
with good, sturdy branches. “You fight from above. If anyone comes
after you, use your spears.”

Cory stopped and cocked his head, listening.
“They’re coming,” he hissed, stuffing his bag and heading for his
tree. “They aren’t even trying to be quiet.”

It was true. Tommie could hear them, too.
They were still a good distance away, but they were coming. They
didn’t think there was a need for stealth and why should they? They
were grown men about to stage a raid on women and children.

Sounding more confident than she felt, Tommie
called softly to the cubs, who were already in position in the
trees. “Show them you’re wolvers. Show them your teeth.”

And pray that Daniel makes it to Bull in
time.

~*~

Bull’s howl of victory was joined by those
who could still raise their heads. They ran to him, tails wagging,
feet prancing, amazed they’d survived an attack by clearly capable
forces. They dropped their bodies to the ground or rolled before
him exposing their bellies and throats to his powerful jaws. He
laid his muzzle against theirs, nuzzled their ears, and pawed
playfully at their heads, but he would not accept their homage.
This was their victory, not his. They had stood together. They had
stood for each other. They didn’t need him.

Victory came with a price, however, and three
of their number had not fared well. Every wolf was torn or marked
by the battle in some way. All showed evidence of their willingness
to fight for what should be rightfully theirs. Shorty was dragging
his right hind leg, the one that had already suffered a crippling
injury when he was a cub. Louise’s neck was scored from chin to
shoulder with the deepest gouge over her carotid artery. A half
inch deeper and she would have bled out. Bogie ignored his own
wounds to tend to his mate with his tongue.

Boris was still down and the dark shadow
surrounding his body showed just how much blood he’d lost. The air
around him was ripe with it and the smell irritated Bull’s nose. He
approached the grey wolf who still refused to give way to any who
approached. It was the young wolver Bull had noticed pacing back
and forth before the raid. He was afraid, and no wonder; all his
companions were dead.

Bull drew as near as he dared without
inviting an attack. He sat on his haunches and cocked his head to
the side, hoping the frightened wolf would see his curiosity and
not his aggression. The young wolver seemed to settle, but his
hackles rose again when Cora came to sit by Bull’s side. Cora’s
chuffed response showed little patience.

Bull had no mental connection with these
wolvers. They were not his pack. There was no way to communicate
except in the way of animals and the animal before him was too
scared to listen. Primal Law said man shall not attack wolf, so
Bull called on the moon to bring himself home. Others followed him,
and when Cora pawed his leg, he nodded in understanding, and
brought the women home, too.

Louise screamed as the change hit her and
Bull realized too late that the less experienced females wouldn’t
know that the pain of a fresh wound was often re-experienced during
the shift. Males tended to talk about the healing properties of
shifting and not the pain.

“
He’ll do you no harm,
Travis. He’s not like them others,” Cora told the young
wolf.

Bull heard her through a wave of dizziness.
He’d anticipated this with the first shift of the women and had
been prepared to fight his way through it. Instead, he’d felt
energized as if sharing his power with them had strengthened his
own. He had not expected to be hit so hard in bringing them home.
Of course, he was inexperienced, too. Usually when he forced a
shift, he was forcing his prey into a permanent state with no hope
of ever coming home.

“
Listen to her, son,” Bull
told the young wolf. “I don’t think I could scratch a flea from my
ear at the moment.” He nodded to the wolf lying on the ground.
“He’s going to bleed out if we don’t treat those wounds. He’s got
to come home and so do you. I don’t know yet about Boris, but I
promise you’ll live. Beyond that I can’t say.”

It was enough. In a short burst of light, the
grey wolf became man. It was the nervously pacing wolver, the one
who stood apart from the others. Bull ignored him and focused on
the gravely injured wolf. He slapped the unscarred side of Boris’s
face.

“
Boris,” he called sharply.
“Use what you have and come home. I can help, but you have to do
the work.” He shook the wolf’s body and removed all kindness from
his voice. “You fought well. Your enemies are dead. Don’t give them
the victory of taking you with them. It isn’t your time to run in
heaven. I know this and you need to know it, too. Wake up and bring
yourself home.” He shouted the order and Boris’s eyes flickered
open.

“
Can’t
.”

The voice was barely a whisper in his mind.
This shouldn’t be happening. They weren’t pack.

“
You can and you will.” Bull
ordered. “You’re the only one who can.”

He felt it, then, the tiny surge of power all
wolvers reserved to shift back to human. He added his own and the
light appeared, so weak and slow that every shift of muscle and
bone was visible to all who watched.

Bull turned and without thinking, began
issuing orders. “Start treating the wounded, beginning with Boris,
Louise, and Shorty. Clean the wounds, sew what needs to be sewn,
bind them up with whatever you have as long as it’s clean. Everyone
needs food and plenty of water.” His earlier concern about the
missing Alpha came back. “This may not be the end of it and we need
to be ready. You’ll sleep in shifts.” He gave them a string of
orders and not one of them complained. His main concern was the
Alpha. Was he waiting to hear from his cadre? Would he mount
another attack when word of the slaughter didn’t come?

“
Daniel!”

Bull turned in time to see the cub stumble to
his knees.

“
Help,” the boy gasped,
sides heaving. “Tommie...sent me... They’re coming...coming to take
the cubs. Can’t run...need help.”

“
Stretch, Bogie, with me.
Samuel, Shorty, get everyone in the bus. Break out the guns and if
they come as men, shoot them. No talking, no games, just shoot the
fuckers. You,” he pointed to the newcomer. “What do you know about
this?”

“
N-nothing. I only knew
about the raid on the camp. I volunteered. I begged to come because
of Boris. I thought I could protect him, convince him to come back.
That’s all I know. I swear it.”

“
It’s too late to go back.
Like it or not, you’re with us now, but make no mistake. If you
betray these wolvers, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and
you will pray for death. Let’s go,” he shouted and took off,
shifting to wolf as he ran.

He knew the others were behind him, but he
didn’t wait for them to catch up. Minutes passed before he became
aware of another wolf silently running parallel to him through the
woods and thought, at first, he might be running into an ambush. He
almost lost his footing when he realized who it was that ran beside
him.

If there was an ambush ahead, the big black
wolf wasn’t a part of it. His human noted that Eli could be taken
here and now. It was his job, after all, and a feral wolf should
take priority. His wolf, however, was in charge of his legs, and
the wolf had higher priorities. Tommie and the pups were in
immediate danger. Eli posed no current threat and could be hunted
later. Relieved, Bull allowed his wolf free reign.

Both wolf and man were in full agreement as
they headed toward the shack.

The pups were all awake and crying. Macey was
still weeping, but at least she was keeping the little ones close
and out of the way. Tommie wanted to scream at them to shut up so
she could think. She didn’t, but only because it would do no good
and there was little to think about.

As she predicted, they were coming as men.
She could hear their voices and laughter clearly through the trees.
They were close and much louder than they needed to be. She was
sure they were doing it on purpose. They wanted her to panic. They
wanted the fun of seeing the little band run from the big bad
wolves. They wanted the pleasure and excitement of the chase. They
wanted to terrorize.

And they were doing a damn good job of it.
Tommie was shaking so badly she needed two hands to keep her wooden
weapon from clattering to the ground. She could only imagine what
the boys were feeling. They needed reassurance that all would be
well once Bull and the others arrived.

She took a deep breath to calm her voice and
opened the door a crack. “Don’t let their laughter get to you,” she
started to say, when the door was yanked out of her hands and Macey
ran through it, toward, not away from, the approaching men.

“
Macey, no!”

But it was too late. The girl was running and
waving her arms and shouting, “I’m here. I’m here. The others ran
off, but I’m here. Let’s go.”

“
What would I want with
you?” the voice of the Alpha sneered. “Get her off of
me.”

The sound of fist against flesh was
sickening. Macey’s cry was worse. There was another thud and
another cry and then one of the cubs was yelling, giving away their
positions and all hope of surprise.

“
Leave her alone. Leave her
alone you coward! She’s just a girl. Leave her alone.”

The cubs began their bombardment of stones.
The grunts of pain as their missiles zeroed in on the targets gave
some satisfaction, but it was much too soon for them to do real
damage.

The door to the shack flew open and Tommie
stabbed with her spear using all the strength she could find in her
trembling body. She felt flesh give way under the poorly sharpened
point. She heard the man’s grunt, half in surprise, half in pain.
She saw the strong hand that yanked the spear from the body, and
then she was dragged through the door and past the howling Cory who
rolled on the ground holding his arm to his chest. He was injured
and she tried to go to him, but she wasn’t strong enough to escape
her captor’s grasp.

“
No!” she cried both for the
cub and for herself. Cold fear was replaced by hot anger. She was
about to become a captive again and her time with Gantnor had
taught her complacency and reason wouldn’t win her
release.

Instead of resisting the hand pulling her
along, she ran forward, grabbed the wolver’s wrist and bit down on
it hard enough to draw blood. Her captor yelled and tossed her to
the ground, then raised his bloodied fist to strike.

“
Don’t,” the Alpha
commanded. He held a sobbing Macey by her hair and lifted her
toward Tommie’s captor. “If she doesn’t come quietly, snap this
one’s neck. You,” he ordered another, “Leave that one in the tree
and go help with the pups.”

Power flowed from him, sending a different
kind of shiver through Tommie. She refused to bow her head to that
power, but she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye. She
felt him move up beside her, winced as he grabbed her cheeks and
forced her to face him. He brought his nose within inches of
hers.

“
You and I are going to get
along.” He laughed as his power flooded her body with
desire.

She felt dirty and ashamed and betrayed by a
body over which she had no control. Had Gantnor done this to her,
too? Had he stripped her of all decency or moral restraint? Was she
no more than an animal physically responding to the most dominant
male available?

“
No!
” her wolf responded along with her human mind, yet her next
move proved her theory of her animalistic reversion might be right.
She wasn’t sure if the snarl began with her or the she-wolf, but
Tommie felt her eyes begin to burn and her lips pull back from her
teeth. She lunged. She bit and though his blow to her head almost
knocked her senseless, she would not let go of the Alpha’s nose. He
struck her again and this time she fell away from him, taking a
chunk of him with her.

Dazed and fighting to retain
consciousness, Tommie saw the blood spurting through the fingers of
the hand the Alpha held to his face. She heard him yell, “Kill
her!”. She tried to rise, but another voice, not her she-wolf,
yelled “
Tommie, down
!” in her head. Her face hit the dirt as the dark shadow of a
wolf passed over her to land not on the Alpha, but on the wolver
holding Macey.

Blood spurted. Macey screamed. Another wolf
sailed over her and disappeared into the flare of light as the
Alpha shifted to wolf. Babies cried. Cubs shouted. Wolves snarled,
snapped and yelped with pain. More wolves arrived, but whether they
were friend or foe, Tommie didn’t know. Macey continued to scream.
Tommie could do nothing but curl into a ball and shield her head
while wolvers battled around her.