by J. K Harper
Staying in the scant cover of the trees was fairly easy. The brutal midday sun fried him in his thick coat, but it also meant no humans walked or ran the trails that criss-crossed the hillsides just above town. Though part of him wanted to ignore all protocol completely and simply storm the town, the part that had been trained since birth to hide the existence of shifters from the human world kept his movements stealthy. Not to mention some idiot with a gun was highly likely to shoot first at a giant wolf loping the city streets, then only later gawk at the body of an animal appearing where none were supposed to roam.
Slipping from patchy little tree to patchy little tree, he came as close as he dared to the outskirts of town. Housed ranged up the hillside, stopping abruptly just outside the boundaries of a sprawling park that consisted mostly of running trails. Anyone who possibly caught a glimpse of his hide here would think he was a coyote. Maybe the biggest coyote they'd ever seen, but their minds wouldn't let them believe it was a wolf.
The main advantage of this park was that it lay just west of the company headquarters Mason worked at. Rogue scent would drift to him eventually. Sitting beneath the largest pinyon pine he could find, Caleb sniffed the heavy summer air. Each direction yielded a medley of smells that competed and clashed with one another. He sat long minutes, scenting and sniffing, searching for the particular scents of strange wolves.
There! He snapped his jaws toward the direction he caught the stink. Rogues. Two of them, still near Mason's office. After another moment of sniffing, Caleb got up and shook himself. There was no wind at the moment. But they were looking for him. His scent would carry down to them as they ranged around a little more.
He always liked it when the prey ran straight to him.
* * *
Rielle swallowed against her startlement.
“I'm looking for Caleb,” she said in a steady voice. “Have you seen him?”
Luke filled the doorway with more than just his body, although it was large and strong. His very presence walked into a room ahead of him. Rielle had sensed, the moment she first met him, that he was alpha material. She'd also been slightly put off by his arrogance and the slide of something hidden and lethal in his eyes. At the same time, though, she recognized a wounded soul. Something or someone had badly hurt Luke Rawlins in his lifetime. Most likely it had been someone from his unhealthy home pack.
Rielle was always compassionate to the wounded. Even if they didn't want her compassion.
Luke regarded her with what seemed like suspicion for another moment before he shook his head. “Not since yesterday. But I don't go out of my way to run into Caleb. That would end up causing him more grief than necessary.”
Despite her innate tenderness, Rielle's back got ruffled.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, laying a cool look on him.
Luke awarded her an equally chilly appraisal for a moment. Then his mouth seemed to relax. “I mean he's spoiling for a fight. Badly. He'll take any excuse for one right now, and I'm sure me breathing is a fairly good excuse as far as he's concerned.”
Rielle paused the words on the tip of her tongue. She had a bond with Caleb now, and she wouldn't betray him for anything. Even so, her loyalty to Pack overall held sway as well.
“You are both Pack. Even though you will be leaving soon to start your own. Caleb wouldn't hurt you.” Rielle tried to feel the truth of those words.
Luke's crystal blue eyes seemed to darken.
“I'll never truly be Pack. Not until I'm more trusted. And I can't be more trusted because I was rogue. Most of the wolves here can never forgive that. Not really.”
Rielle's sensitive hearing caught a trace of bitterness and regret in his otherwise flat tone.
“That's not—” she began, but the tinkle of her cell phone went off.
“Sorry,” she said in reflexive apology. Luke stood impassively as she checked the message.
Hey gorgeous. Have 2 run 2 town. Be right back. Wait 4 me in bed? Need 2 think about u while im gone
Rielle couldn't stop the rosy flush that swept over her face as she thought of Caleb in bed with her. She knew Luke watched her. He didn't know about Caleb, though. No one did, yet. They'd been avoiding the rest of the Pack as much as they could. She wasn't ready for it to be a big deal just yet. She still wanted Caleb all to herself. Besides, she'd just showered. His scent was not on her at the moment.
A riotous sound of clashing cymbals and drums burst from Luke's back pocket. He pulled his own phone out. As his eyes scanned the message, his face cemented into the cold, careless expression he wore most of the time. Rielle saw abrupt tension there as well, though. When he flicked his eyes up to hers, an icy wave swept down her spine at the deep foreboding she saw.
“I know where Caleb is,” he said.
Rielle's forehead creased into a confused frown. Before she could say anything, Luke held up a hand.
“Rielle.” It was the first time she'd heard him say her name, and she was almost surprised he knew it. “I don't know what there is between you and Caleb, and that is none of my business. But I have the impression you care for him. Yes?”
His oddly clipped voice and its sudden cadence of an older style of speaking reminded her his sire was very old, and crazy, and had been the major influence in Luke's formative years. Warily, she nodded.
“Then you will want to save him from being stupider than he is about to be right now. Make your own decision, as a member of this Pack, about what you will do, but know that he's gone to town to confront some strange wolves. And probably kill them.”
Rielle gasped, but Luke continued talking even as he turned to leave. “I can't let that happen. The Alpha needs to know, but I can't be the one to tell him. He will not allow me to go, and I must.”
“What are you talking about?” Rielle finally managed. Her heart galloped in her chest and her legs felt shaky. “How do you know this?”
Luke's ice-chip eyes met hers in a final steady gaze, one eyebrow raised in an elegant yet ferocious examination of her. “That message was from Caleb. He taunted me with where he's going, trying to see if I'd take the bait. I am, but not for the reasons he thinks. He doesn't know what's really going on. Your alpha does. Tell him.”
As Luke snarled out those last cryptic words, he pivoted and headed on swift, silent feet down the hallway toward the front door.
“Wait!” Rielle called after him. He didn't slow his stride.
It was only after she'd hurried down the hallway herself to find the Alpha, pulse jack-hammering under her skin, that she realized Luke hadn't said they were rogue wolves. No, he'd called them strange wolves. Yet something darkly suspicious and very frightened inside her told her Luke knew exactly who they were.
* * *
The two rogues appeared about ten minutes later. Caleb allowed a snarling grin to lift his lips and bare his sharp canines as they moved up the hillside. They'd shifted to their wolf forms, probably the second they cleared the last house below. In the oppressive heat, no humans wandered anywhere nearby, although their scents clung to everything on the houses and yards and paved streets.
One wolf, the larger one who almost rivaled Caleb in size, had a coat the color of granite splotched with white flecks. He sported a vicious look. Caleb narrowed his eyes, an unloosed growl vibrating in his throat. He recognized that one. The one he'd scented near the kill spot of the young Silver Mountain wolf. The one who'd attacked Rafe and Sara, then gotten away. He'd left behind his followers to be captured while he fled to save his own sorry ass. That was something a true leader would never do. More proof rogues were spineless, self-serving cowards.
He'd never seen the other wolf, but something familiar about him nagged at Caleb. Shrugging it off, he focused on the now. The moment the wolves would figure out exactly where he was. They knew he was here somewhere. Their shifted selves, vigilant steps, and constant scenting told him that. He'd have the drop on them, though. He'd deliberately wandered through a large area right around whe
re he now crouched beneath another tree, rubbing his coat against rough trunks and prickly branches, rolling on the ground in a few spots. His scent lingered everywhere powerful and strong, hanging over the entire area like a deadly promise.
Each step took them closer to the spot where he nestled as deeply as he could into the duff-covered ground. Each step took the cowardly creatures closer to the last day of their lives.
Alpha's orders to not harm any rogues, only to bring them to him or the Silver Mountain Alpha, flitted through his mind in distant warning. Jaw set, he ignored it. He'd take any punishment necessary. But he would no longer let these skulking bastards threaten him, his Pack, or Rielle.
An image of Ree, relaxed and confident and fully in her own power, shivering in delight from his touch, filled him, strengthening his resolve. Motionless, he readied his body to spring. Just a few steps closer, and he would able to leap toward them.
Behind him, a branch cracked like gunfire in the heavy stillness. The two wolves almost on top of him recoiled in shock, growling and snapping. Caleb reacted faster than thought, instinctively vaulting his body up and away to face whatever threat crept up behind him. He swung his head between the new threat and the rogue wolves, the feeling of being cornered setting off every fighting instinct he had.
That bastard Luke stood there, his dark form poised to attack as well, one lip curled up over his sharp teeth. But he wasn't looking at Caleb. Instead, his unwavering gaze centered on the strange wolf. The one, Caleb realized with a thunderous clap of insight, who looked very similar to Luke.
“Well, Bash,” Luke said, the snarl coating his entire tense body. “You always did like to keep ugly company.” He flicked a dismissive look at the speckled wolf, who growled at the insult. “Tell me.” He padded one careful step closer, which raised the hackles even more on each of the other three wolves. “Was this all your idea? Or is this part of the plan our sire,” and he said the word with such shaking hatred that shock whipped through Caleb, “devised so many years ago to gain control over all the North American Packs?”
Mind racing, trying to keep up with all this new information he didn't yet fully grasp, Caleb stood his ground, still ready to leap and fight at any second. Problem was, he wasn't exactly sure who the hell he was supposed to fight now.
The strange wolf, the one whose head shape and coat color so closely resembled Luke's, barked out a hard laugh. “You always were the smart one, Licas.” His words dripped venom. “Until you left. That was a stupid mistake. The second strike against you? That you attempted to start your own rogue pack. Without the sanction of the Upper North Woods Pack.”
At the mention of the Canadian pack led by the crazy alpha, Luke's old pack, both Caleb and Luke stiffened even more.
“And look at the company you keep now.” Bash sent a scornful glare at Caleb, who glared back. “You always did have a rebellious streak in you.
“I don't keep his company,” Caleb said, voice low with anger. “As far as I'm concerned, you're all enemies of my Pack. Not to mention the Silver Mountain Pack.”
Bash or whatever the hell his name was – what was up with the weird names in that pack, anyway – let a mocking grin slice his lips upward. Lolling out his tongue, the move designed to keep the others off balance with its seeming carelessness, he tilted his head at Caleb with an equally assessing look. “Yes, I know you don't care overly much for my brother.” He cast a contemptuous glance at Luke. “That was the perfect bait we employed to lure you to town. By using his name, we knew we'd get you here by yourself. You're the true lone wolf in your pack, aren't you?” His mocking tone cracked against Caleb's flattened ears. “You don't seem to mind your Alpha very much. And that disobedience has just marked your death warrant.”
Caleb's head roared with the accusation and its implications, although he kept his body perfectly still, tightly coiled and ready to explode forth at any moment.
“As for you,” the other wolf went on in an entirely conversational tone, swiveling his gaze to Luke, although the cruel grin tainted his features. “Nobody remarked on your leavetaking from the Pack. Although one certain tasty little wolf you left behind did seem to mourn your loss for a while. But she's found new ways to enjoy herself. Hasn't she?” He gave the wolfish equivalent of elbowing his speckled companion, who huffed out crude laughter while setting his eerie bright yellow gaze on Luke.
Luke's entire body abruptly seemed even bigger as every single strand of his coat stood up on end like tiny daggers. The growl he emitted came from a place Caleb knew well—one of pure, blind rage. The speckled wolf suddenly crouched to spring forward. Caleb's head snapped from side to side as he coolly assessed where the biggest danger lay.
“You forgot one thing, brother,” Luke said, staring at Bash with burning fury in his eyes, his voice little more than a primitive snarl. “You always played the hapless fool to our sire's every wish. And he always played you damn well in return, since you are little more than a pathetic puppet, Bashar.”
On the breathless tail of those words, Luke launched himself straight across the small patch of hot, dry earth toward the two rogues.
18
Rielle thought she might be sick to her stomach. Staying by the window in Alpha's office, trying to make herself small and unnoticeable, she couldn't look directly at Otsana. She and the Alpha's mate were alone in the large room after the flurry of activity that followed Rielle's revelation to the Alpha about what had happened. Not that she was entirely sure what exactly had happened, or was happening now. All she really knew was Caleb might be in danger, he had flagrantly disobeyed clear orders from the Alpha, and the crazy speed at which so many things had just changed with life-shaking force in the period of only weeks was making her dizzy.
Her wolf whined soft encouragement, pressing in a supportive way against her mind. The now constant reminder of her wolf's clear presence did manage to provide some comfort. She'd take all of it she could get right now.
Otsana, generally the picture of capable serenity, stood by the Alpha's massive desk, restlessly tapping her foot, face pinched with concern. She caught Rielle sneaking a quick, equally worried glance at her and offered a strained smile. “He is quite the hothead, isn't he?”
Rielle didn't have to ask to know she referred to Caleb. Dropping her nervous gaze back to the window mantel, she twisted her lower lip in something approximating agreement. Yes, his fuse was extremely short. It was part of him, and she'd known that her whole life.
But to defy the direct orders of his Alpha...that was unacceptably foolish behavior. Caleb himself wasn't a fool, not by a long shot. Ever since the rogues had appeared in Black Mesa territory, however, his choices had gotten less and less well thought out.
Now that she and Caleb were lovers—she shivered in remembered thrill, shocked that the last time had been only that morning, which now seemed like eons ago—his deepest protective instincts had been triggered. She'd been the one to push him over the edge into this stupid, desperate act of insubordination.
“It's my fault.” Her voice sounded low in its misery.
Otsana made a disparaging noise with her lips, causing Rielle to look up in surprise. “Nonsense, child. You may in fact be my youngest's saving grace. He'll certainly need one after Alpha deals with him.”
Rielle couldn't help the tremor of worry that rattled over her.
“Will he—Alpha won't banish him from the Pack, will he?” she dared to ask, voice a whisper, feeling even more sick with every word.
Nothing in Otsana's face soothed Rielle's distress. “I don't know what Alpha will decide,” his mate said in an austere tone. “He is Alpha, and he leads this Pack. He will do what is best for it, as always.”
Rielle swallowed hard. She remembered Kurt Tunstall's assertion that the Black Mesa Alpha was a fair man, but that he too had once been a hothead. Despite the tempering years since then, she knew Alpha was not only fair, but relentlessly just. He would be certain to mete out the perfect justice for Caleb'
s flagrant thumbing of his nose at the rules. Whatever that justice might be, she knew it would not bode well for Caleb's position in the Pack.
Heart aching for the wolf who'd touched her soul and helped set it free, mind still reeling as she considered all the possible ramifications and consequences, Rielle could only nod at the Alpha's mate as she sat and waited, powerless to do anything else to help the big, courageous wolf who had so unexpectedly captured her heart.
* * *
The thud of heavy bodies colliding reverberated through the dry landscape. A cloud of yellowish dust powdered up into the air as Luke and his brother crashed to the ground, rolling and growling and snapping for each other's throats.
A split second after they lunged at one another, the obnoxious speckled wolf looked at Caleb and curled his lip. It was the only warning before he leaped forward, but Caleb was smarter than that. Already in the air, he met the rogue halfway.
The air filled with snarls, howls, and occasional yelps at a well-landed claw or tooth. With his paws full fighting off the wolf with the bright yellow eyes, Caleb couldn't pay any attention to the vicious drama unfolding between Luke and his brother. The speckled wolf landed a solid thwack on his shoulder before Caleb feinted back to the right, then left again. He bowled over the other wolf and instantly spun, jaws seeking an unguarded jugular. But the other wolf was fast, too, despite his size. Caleb couldn't get a real grip on him, even though he pulled out every fighting move he knew and then some.
Barely aware of the other fight going on, although some calmer part of his mind filed away that whole scene under the general heading of Secrets and Lies From the Canadian Pack of Crazies, Caleb felt himself deep inside the zone he always entered when fighting. Real fighting, cage fighting, mock fighting, it didn't matter. When he relied on his lethal paws, claws, and jaws, the world shrank to a tiny sphere of violence and strength, in which there could be only one winner.