Crystal Lake Pack: The Complete Series: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance

by Candace Wondrak

  Right now, though, I had to focus on getting out.

  I slowly turned my gaze away from Landon, meeting the stare of the other wolf on the outside of the cages. Rufus, as he was so un-aptly named, had gotten up and crept toward the cage, his head low, hiding his scar. His green eyes were vibrant, hungry, and his mouth was parted, revealing sharp teeth.

  Could I use the wolf’s instincts to override Clay’s command over him?

  As I thought about this, I was stunned as Landon leaped to his feet, hackles raising. A deep growl left his chest, rumbling like the animal he was trapped as. He acted a lot quicker than I thought he could, given his injuries. Landon moved between me and the other wolf, snarling viciously.

  He was strangely protective of the girl he’d said wasn’t that pretty. Now wasn’t the time for me to ruminate about it; I had to get us both out of here, as soon as I could.

  “He’s going to kill us all,” I said, trying to talk around the snarling and growling fest currently happening. “You, me, Landon. It doesn’t matter. Once he has what he wants, he’ll get rid of you. You’ll be lucky to have a grave like the ones outside.”

  The other wolf flicked his green eyes at me, his tail swishing back and forth, claws extended into the wooden floor, each nail digging a tiny hole. He knew I spoke the truth, but he could not go against Clay’s orders…even if he was suddenly so very curious and desiring of me.

  The wolf snapped his jaws. His anger was palpable. Whatever had happened to him, he no longer thought like a man. He thought like a wolf. And right now, his wolf wanted me, wanted to claim me.

  It was something, I knew, that was going to tick me off. If the men started acting all dominant and alpha around me? I wasn’t afraid to tell them off. I’d tell them off while tucking away the part of me, the part of my wolf, that wanted the same.

  Because, as weird as it was—and it was hella weird—I was drawn to both wolves before me. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was attracted to them, hello bestiality, but the line was near. It was just my wolf being frisky, or trying to.

  Again, now was not the time.

  I crawled around Landon, which did not make the wolf happy, but I didn’t care. I had to reach the stranger, had to talk to the person locked somewhere inside of the blonde beast. “What’s your name?” I whispered, watching as the scarred wolf slowly lowered his hackles, clamping his jaw shut. “Oh, don’t be like that. I know your name isn’t Rufus. You’re more of a…Jordan. Or a Jack.”

  At that, the wolf froze.

  I held onto the bars, holding myself as close to the metal as I could without actually being outside of it. “Jack? Is your name Jack?” Had I really gotten it right in two guesses? Darn, I was good. I was so freaking good I was on fire and smoking. “Jack, let us get out of here. Let us go. I can see you in there, I know you can hear me.” I whispered, “I know you’re not just your wolf.”

  The last sentence seemed to get to him. He looked at me through the bars, no longer growling or wearing an aggressive stance. He shook his head ever so gently, a gesture I barely noticed. He was telling me no.

  No, he couldn’t help us escape, or no, he was just his wolf?

  I had to keep going, had to keep on this. If I gave up…I couldn’t. One of my hands slipped through the bars, and I inched it closer to the scarred wolf outside. Beside me, Landon shook his head, not thinking it was a good idea.

  Well, I was out of ideas, and pleading with our captor was as good of one as any. If I got reassurance Jack wouldn’t follow or chase them, maybe I could use my newfound shifter muscles to break out of the cage.

  My wolf’s power, my wolf’s instincts. All of it was mine, except the form.

  Reaching out to touch the wolf who seemed a bit unstable was not the best idea, but I had no other options. If Jack bit me, if he hurt me…in the long run it might not matter, if Landon and I didn’t get out of here.

  “Jack,” I whispered, my voice smooth and calming. “Jack, it’s okay.” Soothing a wolf was not something I’d ever done before, but there was a first time for everything.

  The scarred wolf stood a few feet from the cage, his head down.

  “Come here.” Egging him closer was the last thing I wanted to do, but when he wasn’t puffed up and growling, flashing his fangs, he didn’t seem too frightening. Clay held the crown when it came to that.

  The wolf was tentative in meeting my hand, but he did. I spread my fingers out in his fur, its lengths much coarser and rougher than Landon’s, probably because, until he was brought here, Landon was healthy. Who knew what Clay was feeding Jack, or if it was just the result of the spell controlling him.

  “That’s it,” I reassured the wolf, watching as his eyelids lowered. He pushed against my hand, and I ran my nails through his blonde fur. “That’s it,” I said again, a strange humming moving through my body. A pulsating of energy, invisible to the naked eye. It thrummed up my arm and down my spine.

  The spell. I had to feel the spell, whatever link was between Clay and Jack. Just like when I felt the barrier—I knew it was there.

  And if I could feel it, I could break it.

  I couldn’t say how or why, but I knew I could. With my wolf as much a part of me as she could be, I felt stronger, more confident. Something I would have gawked at before now seemed within reach. Or, more apropos, already in reach.

  Finding a way out of the barrier would be my next priority. For now, I had to get Landon and I out of this cage.

  “I feel it,” I said, causing Landon’s wolfish head to cock quizzically and Jack to whimper under my hand. “I think I can do it, but I don’t know how long it’ll last. Jack, you have to help me. You have to fight him off as much as you can.” I didn’t know if fighting off Clay’s spells was possible, given how easily Landon had succumbed.

  Then again, Landon was injured and probably half-delirious, so there was that.

  Jack let out a low whine under my hand, as if telling me he couldn’t.

  “You have to try,” I said, eyes squeezed shut. The energy swirling through me were waves of undeniable power, almost strong enough to make me nervous. What if I couldn’t do it? What if Clay was alerted the instant I severed the spell?

  It didn’t matter. This was my only chance.

  I let out a steady breath, focusing on the sound of my exhale and the thrumming of energy around me, inside me. Though I never withdrew my hand from Jack’s head, never reached for the energy physically, the only way I could describe it was like plucking a harp. One thread out of dozens spun. One spell had Jack under Clay’s control, different from the one he’d used on Landon—that one was temporary.

  The one attached to Jack? Permanent, or meant to last until the wolf no longer drew breath. The only way to fully sever this particular spell would be to kill either Jack or Clay, and both were not possible right now.

  I could only do my best.

  My eyebrows furrowed, and with my mind’s eye, I plucked the string that connected Clay to Jack. Yanked on it as hard and as fast as I could. The spell loosened, but it did not break. I didn’t think I was strong enough to fully sever any spell. I was untrained, a blind girl stumbling around in a world full of magic.

  Feeling the pulsing around me, I gave it one last yank, as sharp and as strong as my mind could. I put everything I was behind it, everything I could be, everything I wanted to be. I put my all behind it, and I was rewarded with a telltale implosion of invisible energy.

  The spell weakened, and to my absolute surprise, it broke.

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Addie

  I felt a headache immediately start raging in my skull, but I pushed the pain away the moment I felt the spell snap in two. My eyes flew open, and I stared at the wide-eyed wolf outside the bars. Jack was free, no longer under Clay’s control—at least for the moment.

  Whether or not he could turn into a man again, well, that was another matter, one I didn’t think I could help.

  “It’s done,” I hurriedly told Landon, who stood,
still baring his teeth at Jack, albeit silently. I crawled around Landon, feeling the cage door, gripping the bars and shaking them once. We didn’t have much time; we had to get out now. The bars actually rattled when I shook them. Muscles sat on my arms, harder and stronger than they were before.

  Addie, new and improved. Addie, 2.0.

  If my arms were stronger, so were my legs.

  I leaned back after removing my arms from the bars, pulling back my right leg and sending my foot upon the gate. Again and again. Each time it rattled more. I could’ve opened it, maybe, if I’d concentrated like I had with Jack, but I could hardly think. Breaking that spell had nearly broke me.

  Something warm and thick oozed from my nose, and I knew what it was without touching it. I didn’t need to. I just hoped the blood wouldn’t get on my jean jacket. Any other clothing was fine, but not the jacket.

  Anything but my precious jacket.

  I gave the door one more kick, one more violent push with my foot, and the door opened, the lock breaking. “Come on,” I said, the first to crawl out. “We need to get out of here before…” I stood on my feet, swaying. “Before…”

  Okay, it seemed I was unable to say anything after that particular word.

  I lurched toward the door of the cabin, pushing it open, feeling the instant breeze of fresh, unspoiled air. It almost was enough to make me not feel like falling over and passing out, but the feeling of utter exhaustion sank into my bones. My legs and feet weighed ten tons each as I tripped, stumbling onto the grass just outside of the murder cabin.

  “We have to…” A drop of blood seeped from my upper lip, falling to the green grass. I stared at it for the longest time, unable to move. My fingers froze, tensing. My heart constricted in my chest, trembling, fighting to work. “…go.” Beside me, Landon stood on all fours, but I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t move my eyes from the bright red stain on the grass.

  On my other side, a second wolf stood—Jack. The two wolves growled at each other, and I wanted to yell at them both, because we didn’t have time for this—not to mention I didn’t have the energy—but my voice did not come.

  A strong, undeniable wave of energy pushed out from behind me, nearly knocking me over, though it hardly seemed to affect either of the wolves beside me. It took every ounce of strength still in my body to turn my neck and glance over my shoulder.

  The cabin was gone. In its place sat a green, flat field, as if the cabin had never been there in the first place. However, the cut stumps and the hand-made crosses remained, signaling it had been a reality.

  Was Clay gone? Did he leave—and if so, why? His work was not done, whatever messed-up, twisted goals he had. I knew something wasn’t right here, but I was too sick to think about it more. I retched into the grass, heaving up mostly stomach bile, yellow and disgusting.

  Both wolves ceased their growling fest, moving their heads beneath my arms, trying to get me to move, to go.

  If this was some kind of trick, it was only a matter of time before Clay showed himself. Maybe the bastard just wanted to see what I was capable of.

  I got to my feet, mostly with the help from Landon and Jack, and I made it past my puke. A sharp pounding practically brought me to my knees right after. My vision went black, and I hardly felt the ground as I collapsed, unconsciousness taking me before either of the wolves could nudge me.

  Blackness.

  A cold, barren wasteland of emptiness.

  The absolute void, numb and freezing, endless in its expanse.

  I felt so very cold, so sorrowful. How did I get here? Why was I here? Did I deserve this end? With whatever consciousness I had, I knew it wasn’t right. This wasn’t the end, but it was nothing.

  How could nothing feel so cold?

  Did I die? It wouldn’t surprise me to know this was what death felt like, an ever-expansive blackness, nothing and nothing for miles. It was depressing.

  Just as I started to let the depression swallow me whole, I was thrown back into my body, jerking awake, staring at the sunny sky as my eyes adjusted. My chest rose and fell rapidly, my blood pumping so fast it practically sprinted through my veins.

  They’d moved me to my back, and a man’s face appeared, blocking my view of the blue sky. A man’s beaten, bruised face. Scruffy brown hair, falling over a pair of sapphire eyes, a deeper blue than the sky. Landon.

  Landon had shifted back. Whatever magic Clay had used to keep him in his wolf form was long gone.

  I tried to smile, but it might’ve been a grimace. Finally, things around here could go back to normal—not that I knew what normal was for this pack—and I could tell everyone my decision.

  Sarah was going to kill me if she found out how badly I had been injured and I still wanted to stay. But now that I had accepted a part of my wolf—most of my wolf, save the form—how was I supposed to leave? I felt more connected to them all, even if they weren’t near.

  Heck. I even kind of liked Landon more now than I did before.

  Or maybe it was just because we’d escaped from near death together, and that tended to bring people together whether they liked it or not.

  Landon leaned over me, his naked body covered in cuts and wounds. And not only injuries from Clay’s hand, I realized, but also bite marks. Claw marks. If I had anything to guess, which I currently had nothing to my name, I would say Clay had set Jack on him, maybe to will him into submission.

  Not will.

  Fight.

  “Don’t worry,” Landon spoke, his voice raw and rough, dry, “you’ll be okay. The pack is coming.” He glanced up, away from me, giving me a good view of his neck and chin, of his jawline. God, he had a nice jaw…or maybe it was my deliriousness talking.

  “The pack?” I asked. The two tiny words were more difficult to speak than anything I’d ever spoken in my entire life. I sounded as bad as Landon, as weak and as tired. “No,” I started, grimacing as I spoke, “the barrier will—”

  Landon shushed me, turning his gaze back at me. “They got through.” Still leaning over me, he wiped my hair out of my face.

  They got through? The only way they’d get through was if Clay let them or if there was no barrier at all. I was too tired, too weary, too frigging exhausted to ask how. I laid on my back on the grass, and I fought to keep my eyes from shutting.

  It would be better, I thought, to let sleep take me. True, dreamless sleep. No visions, no nightmares, no black worlds of endless expanses. Just sleep. Sadly, sleep did not come. I felt like crap, and still sleep would not have me in its embrace just yet.

  Landon’s gaze on me lifted, and he shouted, “Forest! Over here.”

  I could smell the arrival of the other wolves, could hear their footsteps—which before, they’d been nearly silent. My wolf’s senses were much stronger than my human ones. Then again, my human senses weren’t so human after all, were they? Sarah had some explaining to do when it came to my father.

  “Oh, my God,” Maze spoke, strained. “What is this place?” No doubt he stared at the rows of crosses stuck in the ground, graves for his fellow shifters. “What happened? And who the hell is that?”

  “That,” Landon answered, “is a long story. One I can tell you after we get out of here.”

  I struggled to sit up, but my arms shook, and I could barely hold myself up. I watched as the rest of the wolves scoured the area, looking for any clues as to what had happened here. They would find none. Maze and Forest were at my side in an instant, and I could tell it took everything the wolves had to not focus on the dozens of crosses.

  I mean, I understood. I was alive, which was more than what could be said for the others.

  Jack, the scarred lone wolf, stood nearby, his green eyes heavy on me. He barely even glanced at the others. If he’d been helping Clay all along, if it was his bite marks on Landon’s body…the pack would not treat him nicely. I wasn’t sure what the pack would do with him, though I knew I would have to stand in his defense, since he could not do it himself. After I’d
broken the spell, he’d helped them. He deserved another chance, didn’t he?

  I felt something stir within me as Maze and Forest knelt around me. A good feeling, a warmth that spread throughout every limb and muscle, a strong yearning, an animalistic desire I didn’t have before.

  Or, maybe I did, and I just didn’t realize it. Whatever it was, it was new and almost impossible to resist.

  Throwing myself at anyone right now, well. It wasn’t the best time. Being claimed could come later.

  “Addie,” Maze spoke my name softly, “what kind of trouble did you stumble into now?” His hand went to my back, helping me to sit up. “I have a feeling we’re going to have to keep an eye on you.”

  I chuckled, no sound coming out. It was not like I wanted to get in trouble, not like I went looking specifically for it. It sort of just happened to me, almost like me and trouble were made for one another, long lost lovers, forgotten friends trying to reconnect. Me and trouble went hand in hand.

  Funny, because while I was growing up, I kept out of it—now it seemed I couldn’t stay away.

  I could not stop staring at Maze, at the blonde stubble lining his jaw, at the way his cheeks held dimples even when he wasn’t grinning boyishly. I tried to breathe in his scent, but it was masked by burnt flesh—and I finally realized his arm, the one not touching my back, was just like Dylan’s, red and burnt from a magical fire.

  “Maze,” I whispered.

  “He tried going through the barrier,” Forest said, “before I gave him the order. Twice. The second time, he was lucky the barrier was down. Although, if he hadn’t, we would never have known.” He knelt beside me, one knee propped up, an arm draped across it. He studied me strangely, as if he could sense my inner wolf, what had changed within me.

  Turning to look at him, at Forest, Crystal Lake’s alpha, I understood then why he was the alpha. It wasn’t the way he could be serious and controlling, nor how he could snap and snarl in the blink of an eye. He was alpha because he carried himself well, highly but not too high to be out of reach. There was an air about him, commanding respect from any wolf around him. Which, strangely enough, now included me, even though I did not have my wolf form yet.