by Cecilia Lane
She rounded on the other women and threw her hands in the air. “We have to help!”
Tansey was already on the move. She disappeared deep into the house and returned with a rifle. “Sloan, stay with Joss and the baby. Kill anything that comes through that door.”
Sloan nodded grimly and checked over the weapon. “On it.”
Tansey turned to her and Liv. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 25
Jesse squared off against Viho’s pack. He breathed hard, blood flowing from multiple gashes down his sides and back. Blood made the air taste like metal.
The moment was all he was given before the snarls started up again.
To his left. Then his right. The wolves worked together to yank his attention this way and that, feinting new attacks in an attempt to throw him off balance for another all-out slaughter.
They had the numbers while he had the size. He just had to hold them off a little while longer. Distract them until help arrived. Nora needed time to get back to the ranch and alert the others.
Letting them bleed him was worth the end coming for them.
One wolf stepped out from between the others. His teeth dripped with blood. Ears pinned back to his head, he snarled.
Viho.
Madness curled off him and polluted the night. The sour stench turned Jesse’s stomach. Bright, crazed eyes watched him as the wolf took one slow step closer, then closer still.
Testing the bear’s boundaries. Testing his resolve.
Fuck that. Jesse just wanted him close enough to snatch him by the scruff of the neck and shake him until he hung limp.
One more step. Come on, motherfucker.
Viho lolled his tongue out and shot a glance over his shoulder. Two wolves peeled off the pack and scrambled in the direction of Nora and the main house.
Fury whipped through Jesse. He crashed into the wolf with a roar. Viho’s pack flowed over him like a wave of death, snapping at every inch of his body. Jesse ripped them from his back and swiped at them with his paws, then continued forward, always forward, toward the fucker that hurt his mate.
They dared attack the clan a second time? Dared to make a claim against his mate? There would be no escaping their fate. No running when the tides changed. The fight was to the death. Jesse aimed to chase every last one of them to their graves to keep Nora safe.
He rose up on hind legs and roared a challenge.
Nora belonged with him. The wolves couldn’t have her. Didn’t deserve her. She’d suffered at Viho’s hand. He’d changed her and claimed her when she didn’t ask for either. He deserved death for his actions, and Jesse intended to hand down the punishment.
Justice, more like.
She chose him, not the bastard who first put his fangs in her. Viho would never get a chance to beat her down into nothing. Nora would stand tall and strong until the end of her days.
A low rumble vibrated over the air, rolling through him with the sound of thunder. Another roar followed. Louder, harsher, desperate for a fight.
You’re dead now, motherfuckers, he snarled.
His clan had arrived.
Dust kicked up into the air, making the eyes shining in the night eerier. Roars and howls, grunts and yelps of pain. Belonging to her clan or her pack? Not that it mattered. She was there to help beat the wolves back into the darkness for good.
Nora swung her head to Tansey, then to Liv. Both women stared into the mess and she knew they, too, were looking for their mates.
Jesse’s words echoed in her mind. Run? Faster into the fight. Keep safe? When their enemies were still and silent on the ground.
She lifted her snout and howled a song for her clan and a death chant for the assholes who failed to rip them apart.
The storm broke with a single wolf charging for her and the two females at her side. The beast jumped for her, sinking teeth into her shoulder. Pain laced through her, white hot and blinding, but she still lived. Still breathed. Still whipped around and snapped her own jaws at her attacker until he released her.
Nora let her wolf take control as she dove straight for the nearest wolf.
Bright eyes flashed at her. Jaws snapped in her face. Nameless tormentors who deserved her teeth. They never stood up for her, never had a kind word. They let their asshole of an alpha hurt her and chain her to a bed. They joked about making use of her while Viho wasn’t around. They didn’t know the meaning of pack or family.
They’d never learn dead.
Rage fueled her as she launched herself at another wolf, a whirlwind of teeth and fur. Her ears pinned back to her head and her fur raised along her spine as a warning to the foolish boys who thought they could control her. She wasn’t theirs to command. She wasn’t theirs to use.
Nora Morgan didn’t belong to Viho fucking Valdana.
A large body crashed at her feet. The bear twisted around a snarling wolf until the beast yelped and went still. Ethan pushed upright and immediately turned to attack two more wolves coming up behind him.
Then she spotted him. Jesse. Fighting in the very center of the pack, surrounded by wolves, he lashed out at everything that moved. Smack, a wolf went flying. Snap, a wolf lay still at his feet.
Her heart jumped into her throat when three wolves scrambled up his back at once and drove him to the ground.
Nora dodged one dappled wolf and threw herself over a solid black monster with a savage snarl. Two others appeared in front of her and she snapped her jaws at one before twisting around the other.
She had to get to Jesse.
Then another wolf blocked her path, head lowered and a growl raising his lips. Death clouded his eyes as he paced in front of her.
Viho.
Nora lifted a lip in a snarl. Tansey and Liv, both breathing hard, stepped up beside her.
As one, they surged forward.
They fought like demons. Slash. Bite. Whirl. Round and round, each taking their swing at the bastard. He whipped around and snapped at them, backing one off before charging against another.
Someone had stolen choices from each of them. Viho would be the one to pay.
Nora jumped, clawed, bit. She tore through fur down to skin. To bone. The taste of iron on her tongue, she still fought and snarled. The others in the clan battled on, kept the rest of the pack from jumping at them. Trusted her and Liv and Tansey to get the job done.
And they did.
Nora slunk below a growling Tansey, crept past Liv slamming Viho to the ground, and latched her teeth on his throat.
Golden eyes met hers for a brief second. Then she ended the monster who tried to crush her down to nothing.
Nothing. She made him nothing. Dead. Gone. No longer in existence to terrorize another soul. Her own lifted up in that moment. She felt as light as air when she stepped back, one last snarl for the man that sent her to her lowest.
She wasn’t low anymore. She’d found where she truly belonged.
Nora won back her life.
She howled. The noise started in the very bottom of her belly and crawled up her throat. It was a song for her clan and her new life. It was a warning to the rest of the wolves cowering in the night.
Her howl petered out when her bear, her Jesse, her mate, lumbered forward and nudged her with his head.
Bloodied, bruised, battered, he still made sure she was okay before seeing to himself.
Mates were precious.
Figures shimmered and shifted around her. Ethan closed in on Tansey, worried anger swirling around him even as he glared at the pairs of eyes watching from a distance. Alex, wild-eyed, crushed Liv to his chest. Lorne and Hunter kept to the bear forms and scratched the earth with their giant claws.
Nora leaned into Jesse’s leg as his fingers dug into the fur on the back of her neck. His touch felt so good. So right. She’d earned her mate with blood.
Her wolf chuffed with pride.
“Your alpha is dead and this woman is mine!” Jesse yelled to the few wolves slinking away. “Come for her again, and
you will wish death-madness claimed you before I’m finished pulling your worthless carcasses apart one bone at a time!”
There was a time for running and a time for fighting. She was done with the first and unafraid of the second. Jesse would fight for her, just like she’d fight for him.
Mates were precious, and he was hers.
Epilogue
“Nora!” Kenny poked his head through the swinging doors. “You’re needed out front.”
Confused and a little hopeful, Nora shut her work locker with her apron and order pad and extra pens inside. She slipped her sketchbook into her purse and slung it over her shoulder before making her way back to the dining room instead of out the back of the restaurant.
Tansey tapped a small envelope against the bar top with Ethan seated next to her. “There she is!” Tansey exclaimed the moment she spotted Nora.
“What are you doing here?” She glanced toward the door. “Is Jesse with you?”
Nora tried to soothe the nerves jittering inside her. He’d been gone when she woke that morning and stayed silent throughout the day. Where he’d normally text her back, everything she sent him disappeared into a black hole of no communication.
Deep, deep inside her mind, her wolf curled into an even tighter ball of dulled hurt.
“Us? Just here to deliver a message, then stuff our faces.”
“So ladylike,” Ethan snorted.
Tansey narrowed her eyes, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She slid the envelope to Nora. “For you, my dear.”
Nora tore open the envelope and scanned the contents twice before the words made any sense.
Nora,
I’m sorry I wasn’t around today. I had some errands to run and pieces to put in place. That’s no excuse, but I hope to earn your forgiveness with a little scavenger hunt.
Your first clue starts us at the beginning.
Happy anniversary,
Jesse
Happy anniversary? But it wasn’t really—
“Ooh, clever man,” she muttered. The day marked the beginning of their story. They didn’t start with a rescue or flirting in a bar. In true Nora fashion, they began with her brain and mouth not cooperating to her embarrassment.
What game was he playing at? Besides a scavenger hunt. That was obvious by the words he’d written down. But the why or what she’d find at the end?
Stupid surprises. She wanted to know right then.
Nora dug through her purse for her car keys and rushed toward the door, nearly bouncing on her toes.
“Have fun!” Tansey called after her.
Nora drummed her fingers against the steering wheel the entire drive to the farm store. She was so anxious to get inside that she left her purse behind, then remembered she needed to take the keys out of the ignition.
She gave herself five seconds to breathe and pat herself down for any other missed items before darting across the parking lot to the automatic doors. They crawled open, slowly, so slowly. Impatience riding her hard, she squeezed through the crack as soon as it was person-sized.
She spotted two more of the clan at the other end of the store, exactly where she’d face-planted against Jesse a year ago. Joss peered anxiously toward the door and even raised a hand as soon as she spotted Nora. Hunter tossed Jackson into the air, planting kisses on the laughing baby’s stomach.
Nora melted at the sight of the little family. Soon. She could picture Jesse pulling the same stunt.
He’d been incredible with Jackson. The entire clan had, in fact. The first baby in the clan was treated like a prince and Jackson didn’t lack a pair of arms pick him up or love to be doted on him.
Nora snapped herself out of her daydream of chubby-cheeked babies with dark hair and made her way toward Joss and Hunter. While there weren’t any chicks making their presence known, bags of feed stacked in tall piles.
“Gimme!” Nora she said, much too loud. The two lovebirds winced and others in the store turned to stare. She lowered her voice. “I believe you have something for me.”
“That we do!” Joss exclaimed. She reached into the diaper bag hanging off her shoulder and handed her an envelope just like the one Tansey had passed along.
This is the place we first ran into each other and the place where you first caught my eye. I didn’t have any idea what you’d become to me, but I can’t imagine my life without you now. Every day with you has been as big of a surprise as that first moment.
You once told a bunch of chicks you’d give them homes if you could. Where would you put them given the chance?
P.S. My bear thinks you smell good, too.
Nora’s cheeks flushed as she read Jesse’s note. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. All the gooey happiness she’d associated with the man over the last year filled her to the brim.
He still smelled good, too. She doubted she’d ever get enough of his scent. Dirty, clean, she didn’t care. He was intoxicating in every form.
The worry and irritation that had plagued her all day shrank down to nothing. Two clues, now, both paired by a couple in the clan. She wondered if they were all in on the game.
“Yep,” Hunter answered.
Nora startled. She hadn’t realized she’d said anything aloud.
Joss clasped her hands under her chin and continued, “We’re supposed to give a heads up to the next ones as soon as you leave. Know where you’re going next?”
They lived on a ranch. Any number of places would make a fine chicken roost.
Nora read over the note again, then raised her eyes to Joss. “He wants me back on the ranch.”
Hunter jerked his chin toward the door. “Get moving, then.”
The drive back to the ranch was a blur of slow-moving traffic along twisting roads and impatience to find out the next clue.
She parked right in front of the main house and dashed across the yard. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the shade of the barn, but she still didn’t find Jesse waiting for her. Sloan and Lorne milled around a stall at the far end of the breezeway.
“You’re next?” she asked.
“We’ve been expecting you,” Sloan answered.
Nora closed her mouth on her demand for the next clue when she heard tiny cheeps.
She stepped next to Lorne and peered over the top of the stall. Inside was a box. One side and the lid were made of wire with small links. Six tiny chicks raced back and forth under the heat lamp shining down on one side, their fluffy feathers a bright yellow.
Lorne nodded to the box. “They’ll need to stay here for a few more weeks, then we’ll build them a proper coop. Joss is excited to have fresh eggs in the morning. Tansey said she can probably up-charge the guests for organic, farm-fresh breakfasts.”
“I say we need to up our game. Baby goats. Baby everything. We can start a petting zoo while the moms and dads are out playing cowboy,” Sloan said, handing her an identical envelope to the others in her purse.
Crap. Her purse. She’d left it in the car again.
At least she held her keys in her hand. No runaway vehicle situation would ruin her scavenger hunt.
“Can we put the baby goats in pajamas?” Nora asked.
Sloan nodded solemnly. “Is there any other attire they would wear?”
“Top hats. And bowties. Dapper little coats for goats.”
Lorne passed a hand down his face and stepped away. Nora took that as her cue to open her next clue.
You have the biggest, kindest heart of anyone I know. You wanted to give tiny creatures a family and a place of their own. Now I know it’s because you were lacking that yourself. The brooder isn’t much, just like what I offer you: a small home on a ranch full of idiots. I don’t need much as long as it makes you happy.
You’re almost to the end. You’ve gone back to the beginning. There’s one more first for you to revisit.
Nora furrowed her brow as she read through the clue again. One more first. There were tons of firsts. Jesse had changed her entire world.
&nb
sp; She didn’t understand until Lorne walked a horse out of a stall and touched his fingers to the brim of his hat. “Jolie is ready for you.”
The first place they’d kissed. She’d ridden Jolie out to deliver him dinner and he’d taken her around the barrels the guys set up for practice. At the end, he’d called her gorgeous and kissed her.
“Thank you.” Nora swung into the saddle with the ease that came from a year of practice. Jesse took her out regularly, sometimes alone and sometimes with the trail rides the ranch offered tourists.
She turned Jolie away from the barnyard. She knew the exact spot she headed. At the top of the hill, she spotted two figures seated by an old fire pit. No cows grazed nearby; without any threats to the clan, the herd roamed in their summer pastures.
“Finally!” Alex grumbled as she rode up. “Thought you’d never get here.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “We were told to get into place when she left Joss and Hunter. Don’t act like you’ve been wandering through the desert for a thousand years.”
Nora dismounted and tied Jolie’s reins to a fence post. She nearly vibrated with anticipation. They were the last mated pair in the clan. Surely she’d be at the end of the scavenger hunt with whatever clue they had for her. She wanted to know what Jesse had planned as much as she wanted to share her own special news.
She played off the little touch to her stomach with wiping her hand down her thigh. Liv eyed her sharply, but didn’t say a word.
Instead, Liv handed her the envelope and fixed Alex with a blank look. “Why don’t you do something like this for me?”
“Because I’m not that clever.” He shrugged. “You’d just get dick pics and have to guess where I took them.”
“Again I ask, why don’t you do something like this for me?”
Nora tapped a finger against her lips. “You don’t even need to do dicks in the wild. Use little costumes for clues. Which would probably save a whole lot of trouble for everyone involved. Though that’d be a good story for Liv to tell. How you were busted, member in hand, and she had to bail you out for indecent exposure.”