by Helen Scott
He must have sensed something because he said, "You're outnumbered, and will be even more so once Jax's men arrive. Just sit there like a good girl and wait for them to collect you. Fighting will only get these men hurt."
What he didn't seem to grasp was that if we didn't fight then we were dead. I wouldn't let that happen. The last thing on my mind was sitting still like a good girl while waiting to go to my own doom and allow my mates to be slaughtered.
It was with that thought in mind that I jumped. I sprang into the air more like a fox than a wolf and came down on top of the wolf closest to me. I hadn't waited quite long enough to clear him and he knew it. He rolled onto his back as I landed so I got a full scraping of claws down my side as I tried to roll in the opposite direction.
I knew I wasn't the only one fighting either. The sounds of growls, snarls, and teeth snapping seemed to fill the air until it was a cacophony of sound. A roar sounded and I looked over my shoulder to find the alpha had shifted and was pacing through the fighting toward me. His wolf was a brindle color and fairly big, but I thought Roman's was bigger, which was confirmed when my dark GRAY wolf stepped in front of me.
Focusing on what my mates were doing was a recipe for disaster, I had to trust that they would survive and focus on myself and getting us an opening to run.
The wolf I was fighting clawed and scratched at me, teeth snapping inches away from my body. I spun toward the area his jaw had just closed and hit him in the head with my own. The impact dazed me for a second, but it knocked him out, which surprised me. I wasn't used to anyone going down that easily, not even humans.
I started to wonder if maybe we had changed with the bond. With the addition of Denver and the bond I had with him going into place, my small little six person pack was complete. All of my mate bonds were technically in place, even if they weren't as firm as Skuld would like. Did that make us stronger, make us faster? I wasn't sure, but I knew just from the sounds coming from the other wolves around me that we were the ones that were winning.
Grunts and whimpers filled the air, but it was the sounds coming from Roman and the alpha as they fought one another that kept distracting me. I moved on from the wolf that I had knocked unconscious to the next closest one who had been fighting with Micah. Most of my mates were fighting two wolves each, as though that was fair odds, though if I was right about how we were changing then maybe it was.
I didn't know why they just left me with one opponent. Apparently they underestimated how well a female wolf could fight, but I clearly proved to them that I was not to be underestimated because as I approached Micah and his two opponents, one of them split off to face me. He was bigger than the guy who I had just defeated by knocking him unconscious, but one thing I'd learned at the gym was that size didn't make a fighter.
The fact that he was bigger made him overly confident. What guys like him never took into consideration was that it also made him slower. I was smaller, zippier, more agile. And I used that to my advantage. I always had.
He lunged for me and I turned in time to let him get just past me so I could reach around to his side. I slid under him and kicked upward with my back paws until I gouged his belly. He yelped in pain and jumped off me before he ran away from the fight.
Just as I had thought earlier, none of these men were prepared to die in their efforts to capture us. None of these shifters were willing to give their lives for this cause that wasn't their own. I didn't blame them at all.
Micah had just defeated his other opponent and the two of us split up and went to help the others. Only I got distracted by a sound that Roman made. It was one of pain, something he was trying to keep to himself, but must have been too overwhelming for him to stay completely silent.
I spun toward it and saw the alpha pinning Roman in place on the ground, even though Román was the bigger wolf. There was something about the alpha had him pinned that meant getting up was next to impossible. In that moment I knew if I didn't do something, if I didn't help Roman, then he would be injured even worse than he already was, possibly to the point that we wouldn't be able to fix it. So I took off pushing off the ground with my back feet and galloping toward the two of them. I sped up and up and up until I was almost at my top speed as I rammed into him my head connecting with his ribs, and I was pretty sure I heard a crack.
The Alpha grunted with pain as I continued to push him off Roman using every ounce of strength that I had. I pushed him as hard and fast as I could, only stopping when we collided with a tree on his other side. The impact jarring me enough that I had to back away and shake my head to clear it. The Alpha seemed stunned as well. He leaned against the tree for longer than I expected before he stumbled toward me.
Something must have knocked his head harder than I thought because he didn't come after me as quickly as I expected. In fact, he didn't come after me at all. I let a howl rise and explode out of my chest and my mates knew that that was the signal to run to break away from whatever fight they were in and run as fast as they could.
Our target was the area where we had abandoned our gear yesterday morning. Not the small ones we had carried with us, but the ones that had all of our clothes and supplies, if we could get there, then we could at least get our stuff and then move on. The challenge was not leaving an obvious trail, but when six wolves were traveling together, it created a fairly unique trail to follow. So that was a challenge in and of itself.
The least we could do is shift into our human forms, because that would dull our scents slightly. We couldn't yet though, we were still too close to Roman and Micah's old pack. If we shifted to humans then their wolves could easily out pace us. For right now we had to run as wolves and put as much distance between the pack that had just tried to sell me off to Jax and ourselves as possible.
As I bounded through the trees, I kept checking over my shoulders to make sure that my mates were following me. And they were. I could spot the silver coat of Roman's wolf, the gray and brown dappled coat of Micah, the deep gray of Blake's wolf, the tan and honey of Tate's, and the dark brown and tan coat of Denver's wolf. They were all so handsome even in their wolf forms. It made my wolf want to preen and show off the mates we had collected. The men we loved and who loved us. We didn't have time for that though.
They were all right behind me. For a while I saw other forms following as well, but they seemed to drop off as we moved further away from pack lands. I just had to hope they returned to the pack house and didn't continue following us. I didn't want anyone to die today, but if it came down to them or us then I'd choose us every time.
19
Nina
Anger ran through the veins, wild and hot like the wind coming off a fire. I had known this was dangerous and I went into it with my eyes open, but that didn't mean that I liked seeing that I was right and that we should have avoided this from the beginning.
It had been a good idea. But if this pack was going to betray us, I wasn't sure how I felt about trying to ask the other packs that we didn't even have any connection with. Finally, we started to slow. I couldn't sense anybody following us and I desperately wanted to shift and check on my guys. I couldn't stand the idea of them running while they were injured and not being able to do anything about it. Even though my rage made me want to snarl and snap at anything nearby, I pulled back, stuffed it down deep inside me and the calm that I needed rise to the surface. It wasn't easy, but it was what my men needed and that was what gave me the motivation to do it.
We were very clearly off the pack's territory. The trees had shifted and instead of being the neatly cleared area it was before, this had more scrubby undergrowth than there had been before, which made me feel slightly better about the prospect of standing around in the woods naked after I shifted.
I pulled my human form forward, letting my wolf recede into my mind. Between one step and the next my whole body had changed from walking on four paws to walking on two feet. The feeling was indescribable.
The magic was almost l
ike a sizzle across my skin as I changed. I was just grateful that it didn't hurt anymore. Like it did that first time. Well, it wasn't the first time I had ever shifted, but the first time as an adult.
My guys slowed around me and shifted as well until six of us were standing there stark naked, breathing hard, and checking each other over for injuries. As far as I could see, there was nothing dangerous, some scratches, some bruising, probably some hairline fractures on those small, fragile bones in their hands and feet, but nothing that wouldn't heal fairly quickly thanks to our shifter magic.
"So what do we do now?" Blake asked.
I pushed out of breath, unsure how to respond. After a moment's silence where nobody said anything I decided it was up to me and said, "We can't risk this. As much as I want to ask the other packs for help, we don't know anything about most of them, and only a little about the Shadow Forest Pack. Going to this other pack feels like it would be even more dangerous than what we just did, and I don't want to risk our lives for that. Another pack might not be as kind in... detaining us. They might not give us the chance to fight or run. They could just poison us or kill you guys or any number of things. I'm just not sure that the rewards would outweigh the risks."
"We can't defeat Jax on our own, though," Tate replied, sounding more than a little disappointed in this turn of events.
"Then maybe we need to run," I answered. I could hear the defeat in my own voice and I hated it.
"We certainly can defeat Jax on our own," Blake mumbled. I knew it wasn't a direct dig at me, after all there's nothing that we could have done differently when this was clearly the alpha's idea all along, but I couldn't help feel the sting of his words.
"Let's just get back to our stash. We can get our tent and stuff and figure out what to do from there, but I don't really want to hang around in the woods naked." I tried to keep the snark from my voice but wasn't sure I succeeded. It felt like a cheap shot, an excuse to not have to make a decision in that moment. And yet it was also the truth. I didn't want to hang around in the woods naked.
We began to slowly walk back toward where we had hidden our stuff silently following the small markers we had left to guide us. The mood within our little group was startlingly different from when we had come out this way, instead of nerves and hope, it was defeat and regret. I didn't want to go quite as far as saying it was despair, but it was pretty damn close.
Either we defeated Jax or we ran, and even if we ran, I knew he would follow. I knew he would never stop hunting us. We would be his prey for the rest of our lives. We would never know who we could trust. Never know if somebody was going to turn us over to him, even if they had no idea who he was. It just seemed like he had people everywhere.
It was a conundrum. And I didn't know what to do to fix it. If we ran, we would always be running, never stopping, never settling, and what kind of life was that? But if we had to ask people for help, ask the other packs for help, then each time we did we were putting ourselves at risk. Each time we were asking them to choose us over what they considered the bigger threat. If they thought that they could use us to make themselves safe, they could easily turn us over, as we had just seen with Roman and Micah's old pack.
It was enough to drive me crazy. It felt like there wasn't a good answer to this question, that there wasn't a good solution. Everything about this problem was complicated and nothing was easy. Just for once I'd like something to be easy. Was that really so much to ask?
Denver snarling snapped me out of my thoughts. It was only when he quieted that I heard it, somebody was walking through the woods by us. Part of me wanted to shift again to be prepared for a fight in my wolf from. But I wasn't sure I could shift again so soon, I never tried to do it so quickly, not back to back like that, and I wasn't going to risk it while there was a potential threat in the trees around us.
We had no choice but to stand our ground. If we stayed still, maybe they would go around us. If we kept moving, we might attract their attention. After all, we had no idea whether this was friend or foe, human or wolf, any of the above. For all we knew, this could be a bear or a jaguar shifter or something of that nature.
What I hadn't been expecting was the petite female that came out of the trees with her hands raised high in a show of submission to let us know that she had no weapons, at least that she could easily reach, and that she was coming in peace. Her short black hair was striking and seemed to be accentuated by the stunning winged eyeliner that I'd never been able to pull off that sat atop bright blue eyes. She was in something akin to military fatigues, the pants with the cargo pockets were tucked into her boots and I'd guess she was wearing a t-shirt or tank top with the military style jacket over it. The only real difference was the coloring was black and gray, not the normal army green and brown.
"I'm not here to hurt you," she said, slowly, annunciating each word as though we needed to be treated like wild animals, which I suppose in a way we did. We were all so on edge that the slightest thing could set us off. I didn't blame her for being cautious.
"Then what are you here for?" Roman demanded.
"I'm here because you need help. Now, before you jump down my throat, realize that I know who you are. I know what you're running from. And I can offer you a safe place, a place to hide and recuperate for as long as you need."
I wish I could say that alarm bells went off in my head and that my gut told me to run away. But the truth was my gut had more of a reaction to the alpha that had just attacked us than it did to this woman. When none of us said anything she sighed and dropped her hands, and we all tensed, ready for her to attack. But the attack never came.
"You've been followed. I should know I was following you as well. But these wolves that have followed you are not from my pack. They're angry and they're trying to hunt you down. You have a limited amount of time to make this decision. You can come with me and I can keep you safe or you can stay here and let them find you. It's up to you."
"If you claim that somebody is following us, how do we know that they're not from your pack?"
She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "You'll be able to see the difference. Isn't that obvious?" She looked from me to the guys around me and I could feel this was one of those pack things that I had missed out on growing up, that my time away from the shifter world had helped me forget it. The guys didn't say anything, didn't out my ignorance or try to explain why I wasn't aware of the way different packs scented to this woman, after all, we didn't know her. Why should they justify something to her, especially something that was sensitive for me?
For that I was thankful, but it still made me wonder why I hadn't noticed any of this before. When I thought about it a second longer, I realized that the only packs had been around were Roman and Micah's old pack and Jax's pack, and I knew Jax's pack had that nasty oily, metallic sent to them. I just had never picked up on the scent that Roman and Micah's old pack had. I wasn't sure what the defining characteristic was there, and I hoped I'd never find out since I wanted to stay as far away from their alpha as possible.
Before I could debate any further about how Roman and Micah's old pack might smell, the wolves that I assumed she had been talking about launched themselves from the undergrowth. The bushes breaking apart, the small branches snapping, with the force of their attack. All the animal sounds of the forest had ceased and the only sound left was the rage that was spilling from these wolves.
They paused when they saw the other woman there and it was enough for me to get a good look at them. I recognized them as ones we'd just been fighting. As I took a deep breath I could scent their anger, their frustration, and even a little grief, all of which was tainting their scents, not only that but underneath it all, I could send something almost minty. I had assumed it was just a freshness that I wasn't used to, but smelling it now, I knew it was the scent of Roman and Micah's old pack. And I realized that my mates didn't smell like that anymore. And it wasn't just because we had been living in the woods and motels fo
r the last however long.
"You need to run," she said, looking at me directly. "We'll take care of this."
I wanted to ask about the we she was referring to but I never got a chance as snarls and growls filled the air of the small space we were standing in.
20
Nina
As soon as I noticed the scent, I couldn't notice it. The smell suddenly seemed to overpower everything and I couldn't get it out of my nose. When we still hadn't moved after her initial order, the woman looked at me again and said, "Did I stutter? Go, I'll take care of this. My pack will take care of this."
As she spoke wolves melted out from the trees, ones that I hadn't sensed, scented, or heard. The only thing I knew was that they didn't scent of mint, which meant they couldn't be with Roman and Micah's old pack. They had to be somebody else, so they had to be the female shifter's pack.
"Juan will lead you to safety and some supplies." The woman gestured toward a wolf that had colorings that were about as natural as they came. He could have blended in with any actual wolf pack and nobody would have suspected otherwise. My instinct wasn't to follow her orders, though. It was to stay and fight. These men had tracked us. They had threatened our safety. Why should I be the one to run away? And why should these wolves who didn't know me be the ones to risk their lives for me? To me, it made no sense.