Wolf Claimed

by Sadie Moss

  “Nils had a tattoo,” I said, blinking my eyes open and stepping over a root just before it tripped me. “Just like one Doctor Shepherd has. Same place, same design—all of it. Maybe Doctor Shepherd formed some kind of cult? Is that how he gets his lap dogs to behave so well?”

  “Huh.” West rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s an interesting theory. That kind of shit has been used to control people forever.”

  “So he told them being turned into a shifter was a ‘gift’ granted by some ‘source’ from the gods? And they bought that?” Noah snorted. “Idiots.”

  I shook my head, my brain working overtime. “Not really. I mean, think about it. What happens to us is basically a miracle. Our DNA is fundamentally altered so that we can shift into another form and back. That’s… unreal.”

  “Well, those are two questions we should answer before we try to go after Strand. What the fuck is the source? And what does that image from the tattoos mean?”

  Running a finger over my side, I felt the lumps of the makeshift bandages West has wrapped around those wounds too. The gashes weren’t deep, thanks to my quick reflexes and thick fur, but they throbbed dully.

  For the first time, I regretted killing Nils in the forest. I hadn’t had a choice. I had been losing that fight, and if I hadn’t shot him when I did, he would’ve torn out my throat. But when the bullets pierced his body, we lost our best chance at finding out everything we needed to know about Strand. Their strengths, their weaknesses, secret details of their operations—all gone.

  But still, we were closer to answers than we ever had been before.

  At least now we knew what questions to ask.

  The three of us lapsed into silence, following along behind Jackson, Rhys, Sariah, and the other shifters in our group as we made our way through the pine forest. After several hours of walking, I caught sight of bodies through the trees. The shifters who had left before us were gathered around the half-hidden semi-truck, some leaning up against the side of it while others kept a wary eye on the woods.

  It’s still here.

  Relief unwound the knot in my stomach. One hurdle down. One less obstacle to overcome.

  “Thank fucking Christ,” West muttered.

  When we’d arrived here weeks ago, Rhys had driven several miles down an abandoned, overgrown back road before veering into the forest. Semi-trucks weren’t made for off-roading, so we hadn’t gotten very far. But even if someone drove past down the narrow, neglected old road, they would’ve had to be looking hard to spot the semi, which was parked behind a cluster of trees, its black cab covered by large branches.

  We picked up our pace, joining Sariah and my other mates at the front of the group as we neared the semi. There were two more groups yet to arrive—we’d all taken circuitous routes through the forest—but as soon as they joined us, we could leave.

  My limbs practically twitched with the need to get out of here, to put as much distance as possible between us and the burning military base.

  It had occurred to me that Doctor Shepherd could be monitoring us somehow; just because I couldn’t fathom how didn’t mean he lacked the resources to do it. But it almost didn’t matter. Our only other option was to stay put, and what was a one-way ticket to capture or death.

  “Fuck. Cramming seventy people in the back of that thing is gonna be… pleasant. Good thing we’re all so fresh and clean,” Jackson joked, eyeballing his arms, which were still streaked with blood and dirt.

  Rhys snorted under his breath, slipping the heavy pack off his back and reaching inside. He tugged out the burner phone, unplugging it from the small, solar-powered charger Carl had given us.

  He switched it on and held it aloft, squinting against the sunlight that cut through the trees. He wandered a few feet away, chasing a better signal, then swiped across the surface of the screen and put the phone to his ear.

  Someone picked up on the other end, and Rhys drew a deep breath before he spoke.

  “Hey, Carl? It’s Rhys. We need one more favor…”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jackson hadn’t been wrong. The drive was miserable.

  Backing the truck out of its hiding spot put Rhys so on edge he was practically spitting fire. Semi-trucks definitely weren’t made for that kind of thing, and having a half dozen back seat drivers probably didn’t help his mood. Once the final two groups of shifters arrived, several of us positioned ourselves at various points alongside the truck, using hand signals to help guide him out.

  It worked decently well until his annoyance got the better of him and he just gunned the engine hard, taking down a small sapling and scratching the fuck out of the right side of the cargo container. But he made it back onto the road.

  Then we all packed in like sardines and just… drove. I opted to stay in the back with the rest of the pack—I didn’t want them suffering while I sat up front in the comfy, air conditioned cab—so I didn’t know what route Rhys took, only that it was twisty and long. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit, and those of us who stood jostled against each other with every change in the truck’s speed or direction.

  Val stationed herself near the door with Elijah and the shifter she had assigned to watch him. The old alpha’s cut lip was swollen under his beard, and he looked vaguely nauseated. Whether it was due to the rocking of the truck or the reality of what we were doing, I didn’t know.

  We ended up on the outskirts of Meridian, a small city in Idaho. It was big enough that our presence wouldn’t stand out, but small enough to be generally off anyone’s radar.

  As soon as Carl had responded to Rhys’s greeting, a high-pitched noise had filtered through the receiver, which I was pretty sure meant Molly was happy to hear from us. I wasn’t positive Carl had felt the same, but he’d done what Rhys asked, using money from an account the guys had set up years ago to book blocks of rooms in a hotel just outside Meridian under several different names.

  When we finally arrived, Rhys parked in an abandoned lot a quarter of a mile away, and we headed toward the hotel in waves.

  There was no way we looked anything close to normal, but we kept the more disheveled pack members away from the check-in desk—a group that, unfortunately, included me.

  Rhys and Jackson hustled me through the lobby while Noah and Sariah spoke to the desk clerk, a bored looking woman who kept one eye on the TV beside her the entire time.

  It was cheaper and easier to cram as many people into a room as possible than to spread out, so Sariah would stay with Val and a few of the Elders, and my mates and I would all share a room next door. Elijah, his guard, and several more shifters took the room on our other side.

  This wasn’t a permanent solution by any means. We had booked up all the rooms on the top—third—floor and half the rooms on the second. It was a cheap motel in a forgotten part of the city, but in these numbers, it would eat through the mens’ emergency savings before too long.

  But for now, we’re here. And we’re alive.

  I sank down on the bed, feeling suddenly exhausted, tired of repeating that mantra over and over again.

  “Hey, Scrubs. You okay?” West stopped in front of me, tilting my chin up with one large hand, his fingers caressing my cheek.

  I smiled wanly, drawing strength from the love in his eyes. “Yeah. Just ready for a shower and a nap.”

  “That’s a good plan. Be careful of your ear, okay? And your side. I’ll re-bandage them both when we get back.”

  My brows pulled together. “Back?”

  “Yeah. We gotta go take care of the truck.” Jackson looked positively thrilled at the idea. “Now that we’ve used it twice, we gotta make sure Strand can’t connect it to us.”

  Rhys rolled his eyes as his pack mate rubbed his hands together gleefully. “We need to do everything we can to keep them off our tail. Especially if we’re planning to bring the fight to them. I don’t want them getting wind of any of that before we’re ready.”

  “Which means we get to make t
he truck go boom.”

  Tugging his dark locks into a ponytail, Rhys shot a quelling look at Jackson. “No, it doesn’t.”

  “But—!”

  West chuckled as they continued arguing, then stepped closer to pull me into a hug. Still sitting on the bed, I wrapped my arms around his low waist, pressing my good ear to his stomach as his fingers ran through my hair. It was a tangled mess, and they didn’t get all the way through before they hit a snag. So he palmed the back of my head instead and leaned down to kiss me.

  “I love you, Scrubs. I’m so fucking proud of you.”

  Apparently having lost the argument, Jackson punched Rhys on the arm before turning to me, his amber eyes shining. “Hell yeah, we are!”

  He stepped forward as West released me, ducking down to claim a kiss too.

  “Alpha Alexis,” he murmured against my lips, and I felt his smile even though I couldn’t see it. “That’s so fucking hot.”

  Noah and Rhys each kissed me next, and for a moment, despite all the shit we’d been through in the past twenty-four hours and all the shit before that too, I could’ve sworn everything was right and perfect in the world. Each one of them was different, but they were each so perfectly suited to me in their own ways, like four pieces of my soul that made me whole.

  “Sleep. We’ll take care of the truck, and then we’ll start making plans.”

  Rhys’s bright blue gaze zeroed in on me like a laser as my mates all started for the door, and I knew the first word had been more of a command than a suggestion. But it was one I had no qualms about following.

  I nodded sleepily, and with one more glance back at me, they left.

  My eyelids drooped, but I really didn’t want to wreck the sheets. Okay, shower first. Then nap.

  I dug one of my last sets of clothes out of a pack—we’d have to replenish our supplies now that we were back in civilization—and headed for the attached bathroom. It was small and basic, with a faux marble counter and sink basin, toilet, and a shallow tub.

  When I flipped on the light and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I blanched. Jesus. No wonder Rhys had demanded I sleep. I looked like absolute hell. The leftover dirt and blood weren’t all that bad, but my eyes had dark circles under them, and my whole face looked pale and gaunt.

  And I was supposed to be the leader of an entire pack? I was supposed to keep them safe?

  Nausea roiled in my stomach at the thought, and I swallowed hard, flipping the sink on and leaning over to splash water on my face.

  But I never got the chance.

  I barely had time to flip the faucet off and dive for the toilet before my stomach emptied itself. It’d been hours since I’d last eaten, so all that came up was bile, but that didn’t stop my stomach from clenching and spasming.

  “Oh fuck,” I groaned as the heaving finally stopped. I clutched the rim of the toilet bowl, reaching up to flush it.

  “Alexis?” A soft voice from the hall filtered into the bathroom before the metallic buzz and click of an electronic keycard sounded. Val knocked as she pushed the door open. “Rhys left me his key. He wanted me to—”

  She broke off as she glanced to her right and caught sight of me through the open bathroom door.

  That’s what I get for not closing it.

  I struggled to stand, but before I could get far, Val was crouching beside me, her calloused hands brushing over my forehead.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Swallowing convulsively, I shook my head. “Nothing. I just don’t feel great.”

  “So, something.” She gave me a look that suggested I should know better than to try to placate her with bullshit. Which was probably true.

  “My stomach is a little upset. It’s probably stress. And not eating enou—”

  Before I could finish the words, another round of heaves wracked my body, and I gripped the sides of the toilet.

  Val rubbed my back gently until they subsided then grabbed me a glass of water from the sink.

  “Are you feeling feverish?” Her sharp hazel eyes studied me.

  “No.” I shook my head weakly. “I’m sure it’s nothing. My stomach has been weird all week. I wake up every morning feeling a little nauseated, but then it goes away.”

  It’d been exactly a week, in fact. Ever since I’d seen Walker bury the lighter at the edge of camp and had begun to harbor suspicions about him and Marcus. The stress of their possible betrayal had stayed with me all the time, a ball of acid eating away at my stomach—and now that I’d unexpectedly been elevated to alpha status, I wasn’t sure that sick feeling would ever leave.

  I sat back slowly, leaning against the wall with my elbows braced on my knees, letting my eyes drift shut as I took deep breaths to settle my stomach.

  But when I opened them, Val was staring at me with a strange look on her face.

  “What?”

  “Every morning? You feel this way every morning?”

  Tilting my head back, I rifled through my memories. “Yeah. Pretty much. But I’m sure it’s fine, Val. I’ve been through worse. And I heal fast.”

  “Have there been… any other changes you’ve noticed?”

  I looked back at her, confusion pulling my brows together. There was something strange in her voice. She sounded… what? I couldn’t identify the emotion behind her words.

  She crouched on the balls of her feet a few feet from me, looking like a warrior even when wearing ratty clothes in a dingy bathroom. “Alexis, have there been any other changes?”

  “I—I don’t know. What are—”

  Her gaze flicked down, settling on my belly, and understanding dawned as if someone had flipped a switch in my brain.

  A wave of heat washed over me, followed by a burst of cold. Goose bumps prickled my skin, and my stomach clenched and tightened for an entirely new reason. I sat up straighter, gaze locked with Val’s.

  The last time I’d had my period was shortly after we’d arrived at Molly’s house in Vegas. I remembered blushing as I asked if I could borrow tampons from her.

  But then…

  My brain ran through the events that had followed, quickly counting up the days, weeks—

  Eight weeks.

  It had been eight weeks. With everything going on, that had been the last thing on my mind. And besides, it’d hardly seemed to matter because shifters couldn’t get pregnant. I’d heard that over and over, often enough to absorb it as a basic fact of life.

  “It’s… probably just stress,” I choked out, a hand slipping down to press against my lower belly as my heart slammed in my chest.

  “You’re late?” she asked, but her tone told me she already knew the answer.

  I nodded, my head feeling like a balloon about to float away on a breeze. “Four weeks overdue. But—but shifters can’t get pregnant.”

  Val’s legs gave out, and she sank down onto her ass, sitting heavily on the floor as she gazed at me with disbelieving eyes.

  “No. They can’t. But you’ve never been like other shifters, Alexis.”

  My mind couldn’t formulate a response to that, so we just sat there in silence, staring at each other. Val’s face was like a reflection of mine, and I watched all the emotions I was feeling pass over her features.

  Confusion. Shock.

  Terror.

  Hope.

  THANK YOU FOR READING!

  I absolutely loved writing this book, and I hope you loved reading it just as much! If you did, please leave a review (even a sentence or two makes such a huge difference!).

  And don’t worry, the wait for the conclusion won’t be long! The final book, Wolf Freed, is coming very soon.

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  In the meantime, you can dive into my complete reverse harem urban fantasy series, Magic Awakened, starting with the free prequel novella, Kissed by Shadows.

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  Also by Sadie Moss

  Magic Awakened

  Kissed by Shadows (prequel novella)

  Bound by Magic

  Game of Lies

  Consort of Rebels

  The Vampires’ Fae

  Saved by Blood

  Seduced by Blood

  Ruined by Blood

  The Last Shifter

  Wolf Hunted

  Wolf Called

  Wolf Claimed

  Wolf Freed

  Academy of Unpredictable Magic

  Spark

  Trials