by Dannika Dark
“So… what happens with all the alphas?”
“They form small groups—the same as packs. Some head over to other territories in the region to either check out their women or see if there’s room. Since they don’t follow the Council’s rules, they look to their elders. It’s a pretty sophisticated beehive.”
“Huh.” I pinched my tank top in front and fanned my chest as I pulled the fabric out. “Did Koi normally come out this far to fish and hunt? Seems a little out of the way.”
Lakota loosened his grip on his Appaloosa’s reins. “He died in wolf form, so it seems logical that his wolf ran out this far.”
“But the murder happened off tribal land. If the tribe marks their territory lines like we do, his wolf shouldn’t have wandered past them. Did anyone find his clothes?”
He turned his head, showing me his handsome profile. “You ask smart questions.”
“Need a partner if this boutique idea doesn’t pan out?”
Tak galloped toward us, and his horse reared. “We’re here. I don’t see any humans, but keep your eyes alert.”
I admired the quiver slung over his left shoulder, a wooden bow secured to it. I missed my bow, and the thought of it lying in pieces in the back of the Jeep made me sick to my stomach. We reached a small clearing where a hiking trail curved around a large rock.
Tak slid off his horse and tied the reins to a tree. “How much time do we have?”
Lakota held out his arm for me to take and dismount. I clutched his hand and grimaced when my feet touched the ground.
“We have until dusk. The Council doesn’t think anyone will try to come out here after dark, but don’t count on it.” Lakota leaned forward and swung his leg over the back of the horse before sliding off. “Some of the tracks belong to cops, so it’s going to be messy.”
Tak handed his weapons to Lakota. When I realized he was going to shift, I clutched Lakota’s arm and pressed myself close.
Tak smiled. “Don’t worry, little flower. I’m an alpha.”
That should have reassured me since it meant he could govern his wolf’s actions when in animal form, but it didn’t. Tak was a stranger to me, and while alphas were stereotypically protective of women, there was always an element of danger in the company of wolves.
In a fluid movement, Tak shifted into a black-and-grey wolf. Half of his face was black and the other half grey, mirroring his tattooed markings. He trotted around the area in search of a scent.
“Where did it happen?” I asked, walking in Lakota’s footsteps.
He scanned the ground, his pace sedate. Lakota’s stepfather was a talented tracker, and combined with the fact that his adoptive father was a Chitah, he had knowledge under his belt that suited him for a job like this. He crouched and plucked a blade of grass, then turned it in his hand. “Blood spatter.”
Tak’s wolf circled around a grassy area by the dirt path.
“Did you find something, Tak?” Lakota headed toward him and knelt down on one knee. “Careful where your wolf walks. I haven’t compared all the tracks yet.”
I stepped onto the dirt path and out of the way, watching them examine a flattened patch of grass.
“This is where she died,” Lakota said, wiping his mouth with one hand.
Since I hadn’t heard any details about the murder, I asked, “How did it happen? Are they saying the wolf attacked her?”
“They’re saying anything they want to imagine. Some are saying his wounds were self-defense, while others suggest a murder-suicide. There’s a lot of blood pooled here… and here. Looks like she had two major wounds.” Lakota’s eyes skated to the right, and he bent down with his face to the ground. He picked up a cigarette butt and smelled it. “It’s fresh.”
“What kind?”
He twisted his mouth. “Can’t tell, but it’s got a weird filter.”
“We’re on a hiking trail,” I pointed out. “The woods are probably littered with them.”
Lakota swung his gaze up at me. “Yesterday’s rain would have ruined the paper. Someone put this out either last night or this morning. It might have been a cop, but the killer could have also returned to the scene. Maybe he left something behind. Dammit, I wish we’d found the body before them. There are too many footprints.”
I wiped my chin and longed for a cool breeze. My jeans were too hot for outdoor recreation. Tak’s wolf sniffed the entire perimeter around the tree line while Lakota scanned the open ground for clues. I wondered if it was possible that the police had missed something. This wasn’t exactly the big city, and I would wager that their police force consisted of a sheriff and two deputies.
The sight of the bloody stains in the grass gave me chills, and whenever a leaf rustled in the woods because of a squirrel scampering up a tree, I jumped.
“Lakota?”
Wielding a stick, he rose to his feet and swaggered toward me. “Yeah?”
“If the outside Shifters think Koi was the killer, how do they explain him doing it right next to a hiking trail? Wouldn’t he have wanted to commit the murder somewhere more private? Anyone could have walked up on them.”
Lakota glowered as he stared at the path and then back at the patch of grass. “I think we have enough evidence that Koi wasn’t the killer. The pack looked him over and said he died from deep wounds to the jugular. Why would she shift and engage in a struggle only to shift back and put on her clothes? I bet Koi knew her and they were meeting here. Like you said, he wouldn’t have run off the territory in wolf form. I bet his attacker stole his clothes.”
“Why would he do that?”
He shrugged. “All the cops found was a dead girl and a wolf. Leaving clothes behind would open up a manhunt, and maybe he didn’t want the local police to initiate a search.”
Tak shifted to human form and strode toward us, completely naked and his long hair unbound. “There’s blood everywhere, but it’s not the girl’s. She didn’t run or fight. It looks like her death was quick. But someone else was here. I can’t find any tracks, but I found a few drops of blood that weren’t Koi’s.”
“You’re sure?” Lakota asked.
Tak lifted his chin. “Koi died protecting that girl. His wolf had blood in his mouth, and I guarantee it wasn’t hers.”
Lakota handed the cigarette to Tak and let him look at it. “At least we can confirm his innocence with Shikoba. The packs won’t believe it, but Koi’s mother will have peace of mind. Did you recognize any scents?”
Tak rubbed his nose. “Too many ingredients in the stew. It all smells the same. I tasted Koi’s blood and the victim’s, but there’s another flavor on my tongue I picked up near the spatter by the trees.”
“You can’t pick up the scent?”
Tak narrowed his eyes. “If I taste his blood again, I’ll know. But his scent is long gone.”
Lakota glanced up at the sky. “We should go before a nosy reporter decides to send a chopper out here.”
Tak snorted. “They don’t have the budget for gas. They’ll recycle the chopper footage since the station is too far and there are other stories in the city to report. Nobody cares what happens out here in the wild.” Tak turned to gather his clothes. “My father will be pleased. He respected Koi, even though he sometimes hung his shoes on the clothesline.”
I froze when savage growls erupted from the bush to my left. My eyes widened as four wolves emerged from a thicket of trees. Based on Tak and Lakota’s reactions, they didn’t belong to the tribe.
Lakota glanced at the horses, but they were at least thirty feet away. “You need to get out of here,” he ordered me. “We’re off the territory.”
In a fluid movement, Tak shifted to wolf form and stalked toward them, his gait heavy because of his size and power. He was trying to get them to submit—something less dominant wolves sometimes did around an alpha. Of the four wolves, not one of them appeared to be the leader. Perhaps the alpha was hiding.
“We’re not trespassing on private property, are we?” I as
“This isn’t Shifter land. They don’t have a right to be here any more than we do. Stay behind me.” Lakota curved his arm around my body and herded me out of their sight.
My mind scrambled. Oh my God, am I going to have to shift? I swallowed hard, mentally counting the steps to the horses and wondering how fast I could mount. I spotted Tak’s quiver and bow leaning against a tree. More terrifying than death was not knowing how vicious those wolves were. They might shift to human form and force me to do things that… I gripped Lakota’s shirt, my heart pounding.
Lakota slowly turned his head and locked eyes with me. “Look submissive.”
I felt a flush of insult at those words.
Submissive?
Before I could argue, I blinked and found myself holding his T-shirt. Lakota had shifted into a gorgeous silver wolf, every bit as large as Tak’s. He had the most exquisite coat—pale silver that was a rarity among Shifters because of the uniformity of coloring. His only marking was the black liner around his blue eyes.
He communicated to me with those eyes. Stay close but not too close.
The four wolves advanced, and Tak gave a warning growl. Unless defending territory or a packmate, most wolves avoided deadly conflict. At the moment, I wasn’t sure what we were defending except for our lives.
Lakota backed up against me, using his body as a shield as he bared his teeth. As instructed, I kept my eyes submissively low and never made eye contact. Their growls and snarls sent a shiver up my spine, reminding me that they had us outnumbered. I could imagine those teeth snapping at me, and I knew exactly how they would feel. The scars on my right foot served as a reminder that no one was safe from bad men—not children, not women, not innocents. That attack had been a blessing in disguise, making me less naive.
Tension mounted. The birds fluttering in the nearby trees fell silent, as if sensing an impending battle.
Without warning, a wolf lunged at Tak, viciously snapping at his neck. Lakota assailed the largest wolf and locked his jaw around its throat. When the remaining two wolves swung their gazes toward Lakota and Tak, I fled.
My feet barely touched the ground. I reached the horses in no time flat and snatched the quiver. My hands trembled as I held the bow and pulled out an arrow.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” I whispered, nocking my arrow and then pulling back the bowstring. I was panting hard and trying to steady my breath.
Tak’s horse whinnied as the wolves savagely thrashed one another about.
“Move,” I hissed.
They were like a cyclone of energy, circling and jumping so quickly that I couldn’t get a clear shot. Lakota’s wolf ruthlessly drew blood from a brown wolf caught between his massive jaws. When a third wolf whirled around and bit Lakota on his haunch, my shot was clear and my aim was true.
The arrow sliced through the air and struck the rogue in the side. The red wolf yelped and toppled over, immediately shifting to human form. He still had the arrow buried in his chest, and everyone knew that shifting with an object inside you could cause permanent damage. That was why many Natives still used archaic weapons. Heck, even my grandmother used a bow.
Tak rose up on his hind legs in an impressive display. He then collided with one of the wolves in a violent tornado. I lined up another arrow.
Lakota’s rival wriggled free and circled around him faster than a heartbeat. I held my breath and pulled the bowstring taut. Just as I let go, my target caught sight of me and turned. The arrow grazed his leg, which galvanized him into action. The whites of his eyes gleamed as he barreled after me, his fangs wet with blood.
When Lakota realized what was happening, he gave chase. There wasn’t time to pull out another arrow.
I had no alternative.
I shifted.
Lakota’s muscles burned like fire as he tore after the wolf. He had the ability to stay awake for several minutes into his shift before blacking out, so he needed to utilize every second. When Melody’s eyes widened with fear, he dug his nails into the dirt, gathering speed. Catch him. Catch him.
His heart nearly stopped when Melody shifted and fled. He barely had time to process it since his eyes were locked on the wolf. He slammed into him with brute force, and they rolled across a bed of leaves. When the wolf reared around and sank his fangs into Lakota’s shoulder, a second shot of adrenaline kicked in and gave him the energy needed to take on the large animal. Lakota used his hind legs to throw the wolf off-balance and end the fight as quickly as he could. Tak was battling two wolves, and Lakota wasn’t sure about the third, who’d gone down after Melody struck him with an arrow.
When the wolf lost his balance and fell onto his side, Lakota lunged for the exposed jugular. Blood filled his mouth as he thrashed violently until the wolf finally went still. Without a second to spare, he turned around and charged back into the fray.
Tak had one of the wolves pinned, but a second wolf had bitten his back and looked like he was attempting to tug hard enough to pull the hide off. Lakota crashed into him, and they struck a tree. He bulldozed the animal with his merciless gaze, and when he saw a flicker of fear, he knew the battle was over. With lightning speed, the wolf escaped in the opposite direction.
Lakota felt his awareness dimming, so he shifted to human form and then back to his wolf, the wounds on his shoulder and leg healing. He waited to see if Tak needed help, but the situation seemed under control. Lakota shifted back and stalked toward the wolf Melody had taken down. He had half a mind to shove that arrow right back where it belonged and finish him off, but the idiot had done enough damage by shifting while it was still in him—enough that it had knocked him unconscious from either pain or blood loss.
Tak morphed into human form when the wolf beneath him fell still.
“Do you know them?” Lakota asked, out of breath.
“Local rogues.” Tak nudged the dead wolf with his foot. “They don’t belong to a pack.”
Lakota wiped the blood from his face. “What the hell are they doing out here?”
Tak’s expression darkened like a thundercloud. “Looking for trouble, and they found it.”
“We need to get out of here. Now that the cops are done with their crime scene, it won’t take long before people in town get curious and want to check this place out, and here we are, bathed in blood.”
Tak swiped his arrow off the ground and cursed. “Those wolves are going to lie to the Council. That chickenshit who ran off was an alpha.”
Lakota raised his eyebrows in surprise. Usually he could sense an alpha, so it must have been a weak one.
“That means he saw us with the girl,” Tak continued, blood trickling down his back. “Rumors are going to fly. Two Natives hanging around a crime scene with another white girl—they’re going to call it sacrificial or some bullshit.”
Yanking up his pants, Lakota said, “The girl took off. We need to find her before she winds up on someone’s territory.”
While they were heading back to the horses, Tak reached over his shoulder to an unhealed wound that was leaking a lot of blood. “Maybe we should just let her go.”
“Yeah, nothing suspicious about that. Girl goes missing, last seen with us, and they find her Jeep on your land.”
After Tak shifted once and back again, he put on his pants and collected his weapons off the ground. His mare was rattled, so he took the reins and stroked her neck, his voice soothing and firm. “Easy, girl. I know you love me.”
But Lakota’s Appaloosa wasn’t showing him any love. It backed away when he neared it.
Tak slung his quiver over his shoulder and mounted. “Approach her like you would a woman in bed: slow and easy.”
Lakota flashed him a peevish glance before he untied the reins and mounted. “Maybe my women like to be tackled.”
“I didn’t know you liked football players.”
They clucked their tongues and headed into the woods.
Once Tak’s horse learned the direction they were heading, Tak let go of the reins and began plaiting his hair. “Women like to see your intent. You’ve got to treat her gently—ease up on her and make her feel safe. She has to trust you before you decide to lift that skirt and make her feel like a woman.”
Lakota’s horse picked up speed. “Maybe you frighten women too easily, and that’s why you have to crawl on them like a snail.”
Tak finished tying off his hair and shrugged off the comment. “I can’t deny that. Women don’t like to look at my face.”
“I didn’t think it was your face they were busy looking at.”
Two warriors, fresh from a kill, laughed like schoolboys.
They veered right, the horses huffing as they climbed a steep embankment. Once they reached the top, Lakota dismounted. Tak’s horse pranced in a circle, still full of energy.
They’d been following Melody’s tracks, but those tracks had begun turning in circles, indicating that her wolf had stopped to rest. She would be tired, and the heat was oppressive without any wind for relief. Lakota led his horse toward the sound of splashing water.
“There’s a swimming hole up ahead,” Tak said. “I bet she stopped for a drink.”
Lakota stalked through the thinning brush. He could smell the water and hear it trickling. As he ducked beneath a vine, he spotted a wolf on the edge of a flat rock just ahead. He slowed his pace when he saw the cliff, his hands up. “Easy, girl.” From his position, he couldn’t tell how steep the drop was. Lakota kept a watchful eye on her hind legs, which were precariously close to the edge.
Lakota was silenced by her beauty. Melody reminded him of a patchwork quilt with her unique coloring. She looked like a white wolf someone had painted orange and brown markings on. The contrast was mesmerizing. Usually the multicolored wolves had more mottled coats, but the white on hers stood out like freshly fallen snow.
Her green eyes were fierce, but she kept her head submissively low. A growl rumbled in her chest when she noticed Tak approaching.
“I got this,” Tak said with cool confidence. He stalked past Lakota and stopped between them. “The women may run, but their wolves always know a good alpha when they see one.”
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