Claimed: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Novel (Crescent City Wolves Series Book 1)

by Bella Night

  Through Derik’s torture, Grey had stared at the tree line tattooed to his bloody chest and drew strength from it. He’d gotten it inked the day before he swore his oath to the hunt. He wanted to have something to hold on to—to remind him of home, and why he was forcing himself to pay his brother’s debt. He vowed to protect his little brother, the way he wished his older brother had thought to protect him.

  After Derik was satisfied that he’d punished Grey accordingly, he ordered the pack to split into pairs and lay low for the night. Before departing, Derik had stopped to whisper in Grey’s ear. “Don’t worry, I’ll be sending someone to check on your bitch. After all, you claimed her and that makes her one of us. And I’d hate for anything to happen to one of our own.”

  A feral terror had gripped Grey’s heart. He’d seen the sadistic hate shining in Derik’s eyes as he threatened Etti. He planned to kill her, Grey was sure of it. He had to find a way to get to Etti and warn her to run while she could. She wouldn’t be safe if she stayed in Covington. Derik would hire other rogues in the area to check on her, scenting her for traces of the claiming. Sooner or later they’d figure out it was a lie and then Derik would kill Etti himself. That was his way. He always followed through on his threats.

  Jake remained with Grey while the rest of the hunt broke off into the pairs and scattered. He assessed Grey’s injuries with a low whistle. “You better shift if you want any chance at healing by morning.”

  “Water,” Grey rasped, his mind racing with ways to escape and get a warning to Etti.

  “There’s a stream a few yards that way,” Jake said, jerking his chin to the east.

  Grey shifted into wolf form and limped toward the sound of gurgling water but collapsed halfway there. He heard Jake sigh in frustration. Moments later he was carrying Grey’s wolf form to the water.

  “Don’t say I never did anything for you,” Jake grumbled as he set Grey down on the bank, close enough to the stream that his paws dipped into the water. “Now lick your wounds and get some rest. I’ll guard the perimeter.”

  Once Jake was out of range Grey mustered up the strength he had left and sprinted through the woods. He didn’t think twice. He knew he’d caught a lucky break and likely wouldn’t get another chance to sneak away. He’d deal with the repercussions later.

  Some primal instinct to protect his mate took over as Grey pushed his body past its limits. He’d headed back toward the Painted Wolf and scented the air. His heart had leapt when he picked up Etti’s trail. He’d know her scent anywhere. Lilacs and water—the scent of his mate.

  And now here she was. Etti’s dark eyes stared at him in that calm, fearless way of hers. Grey tried again to get to his feet. He needed to shift back to his human form so he wouldn’t frighten her. He needed to warn her about Derik, but he had nothing left. Now that he’d found Etti, Grey’s body was giving out on him. His wolf’s shaking legs collapsed and he whined despite himself.

  He saw the scuffed helmet Etti was carrying slip from her hands and she ran. But to Grey’s surprise, she ran toward him, not away. In an instant his head was cradled in her warm lap. He heaved a sigh wondering if somehow he’d died and gone to heaven. If this was death, it wasn’t so bad.

  “Grey?”

  The slight fear in Etti’s voice as she called his name broke Grey from his daze and he looked up at her beautiful dark eyes. There was so much determination in them and suddenly, he wasn’t okay with dying. He wanted much more time with her.

  15

  Etti

  Etti had caught a familiar glimmer in the sliver-gray eyes of the wolf before he closed them and dropped to the mossy ground. She didn’t know why she did it. Again, she knew she should have run in the other direction. But instead, she found herself running toward the injured gray wolf. Something in her gut told her without a doubt that the wolf was the same shifter from her shop. The one who tried to protect her. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He couldn’t. She could see from his damp, bloody coat that he was badly injured. He needed her help.

  She skidded to a stop in front of him and dropped to her knees. Her wounded thigh barked in pain as she pulled the wolf’s bloody muzzle onto her lap. She stroked his coarse gray coat lightly, unsure where his injuries were.

  “Grey?” she called. “Grey, what happened?”

  He whined and tried to move, then whined again.

  Then, right before her eyes, he shifted. She watched his fur recede, replaced by the golden skin of a beautifully tattooed man. Make that a very naked beautifully tattooed man—Greyson West.

  “Shit,” Etti whispered as her eyes roamed over Grey’s muscular frame. His devastating beauty was cruelly disrupted by brutal gashes in his bruised and bloodied flesh—his face, the worst of it. There was almost nothing recognizable left of the handsome features she’d kissed only hours ago. Both eyes were black; one was swollen completely shut. His nose jutted to an unnatural angle and his lip was split, still bleeding down his bruised chin.

  “Who did this to you?” she managed to ask when she found her voice.

  Grey swallowed hard and raised his trembling hand to touch her face. “You need to leave town, Etti.”

  “Your Alpha did this, didn’t he?” she asked, ignoring Grey’s comment.

  “Etti. Did you hear what I said? You’re not safe. You need to leave. Right now!”

  She stared at him, defiantly. “I heard you. But this is my home. This has been my family’s home for hundreds of years. There’s no way some arrogant shifter asshole is going to chase me away. Especially after I’ve seen what he’s done to you, to my friends. If I leave, who’s gonna stop him from hurting more people I care about?”

  “Etti, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I was trying to protect you, but I made it worse. Please?” he begged. “I can’t bear for anything to happen to you because of my mistakes. Derik, my Alpha, is hunting you now and he won’t stop.”

  “Then we better get you fixed up so you can help me stop him.” Etti pulled her phone from inside her jacket pocket. She sighed when her fingers touched the intact screen. Thank God it was still in one piece. She dialed a number and held it to her ear while Grey panted his protests. She wasn’t so much listening to his words, but the weakness in the breaths between them. If she didn’t get him some help quickly . . . She couldn’t finish the thought.

  “Pick up, pick up, pick up,” She hissed. The line finally connected and words rushed from Etti. “Hey, It’s me. I’m calling in that favor . . . I’m deadly serious . . . Two miles east of Willow Ridge . . . Bring a blanket and your truck . . . Hurry.”

  Etti disconnected and slipped the phone back in her pocket hoping she’d made the right call. Her options were limited. She couldn’t bring a wolf to the hospital. There was a special vet clinic in the area that the shifters used, but she was afraid that if Derik was searching for Grey that would be the first place he’d look. That left her one option—Wes.

  The benefit of knowing someone for nearly twenty years was that you learned a lot about them. In Wes’s case, that meant a lot of incriminating things. Etti had helped him out of more troubling situations than she could count. The last one had been so bad that Wes had promised her a one-time, no-questions-asked favor. This seemed like the best time to cash it in. She knew Wes would come through and keep his mouth shut if he didn’t want Etti to spill the secrets she’d kept for him over the years. Plus, Wes had it bad for a shifter nurse that worked at the clinic. Cali . . . or Cami . . . or something like that. He volunteered there occasionally to try to get in her pants. Etti didn’t really know her, but she already liked her for not caving to Wes’s womanizing ways. Etti planned on begging Wes to ask the shifter nurse for help if it came down to it, but for now, she turned her attention back to Grey. He was slick with sweat, but cold to the touch.

  “Help’s coming,” she murmured.

  “Etti . . .” Grey started to speak only to be cut off by a gurgling sound in his throat. He coughed blood and Etti’s heart clenched. S
he racked her brain recalling her limited shifter knowledge. “Shift back to your wolf,” she urged.

  Grey looked at her with confusion.

  “It makes you heal faster, right?”

  He nodded between coughs. “I don’t think I can,” he gasped.

  “Please, Grey.” A tear slipped down her cheek and she brushed it away. “Please try for me,” she begged as she ran her fingers through his thick brown hair, kissing his forehead, the only spot free of injury.

  16

  Greyson

  Etti’s light kiss filled Grey’s heart with a longing and tenderness that reminded him of home. No one had treated him with such compassion since he’d joined the hunt. He was certain that his hideous actions as part of their pack guaranteed no one would ever show him kindness again. But here was Etti, against all odds, caring for him when she had absolutely no reason to. It gave Grey an inner strength from a reserve he didn’t know he had. He mustered the energy he had left and shifted back to his wolf form.

  Grey was barely conscious when an old white pickup truck pulled onto the shoulder of the road above them. He recognized the face of the man that came running down the bank calling Etti’s name. He’d been at the Painted Wolf. His arm was bandaged and he had a shotgun slung over his shoulder, his face full of fear when he spotted Etti—no doubt startled to see her kneeling over a large, bloody wolf.

  “What the—”

  “Shhh!” Etti hissed. “You make enough noise to raise the dead, Wes. Get over here and help me.”

  “Help you do what?”

  “Get him into the truck.”

  “The wolf?” Wes asked incredulously. “Are you insane?”

  “You owe me, Wes. No-questions-asked, remember?”

  Wes grumbled and tossed Etti the shotgun begrudgingly. “Fine. Where the hell am I taking it?” he asked looking down at the injured wolf.

  “That sounds an awful lot like a question, Wes.”

  Wes rolled his eyes. “Some direction would be helpful.”

  Etti exhaled. “I don’t know, okay. Just help me put him in your truck.”

  Wes’s shook his head but said nothing else as he knelt and lifted Grey with surprising gentleness.

  Grey winced when Etti’s gentle hands wrapped him in a blanket in the back of the truck bed. “We’re going to get you help. Just rest.” She kissed the top of his head again and disappeared from view.

  The tailgate slammed shut, then the cab doors. The engine rumbled to life and the sky rushed by in a blur of stars until the darkness and lure of sleep was too hard to resist.

  17

  Etti

  “Thank you for coming,” Etti said quietly from the warmth of Wes’s truck cab.

  “You didn’t give me much choice,” Wes replied glancing at her sideways, with one eye still on the winding road. “You gonna tell me what the hell we’re doing?”

  “I need somewhere where we can lay low for a bit, so he has time to heal.”

  “So we’re harboring shifters now?” Wes asked sarcastically

  “His name is Grey. He was at the shop tonight.” She paused. “He’s the one who bit me.”

  Wes slammed on the brakes so hard Etti had to brace herself on the dashboard. “Jesus, Etti! What the hell is wrong with you?” he shouted. “Why the hell are you helping that bastard? We should be taking him to the police. Or better yet . . .” Wes put the truck in park and picked up the shotgun, cocking it loudly. “We could put him out of his misery.”

  Etti grabbed Wes’s arm. “No!”

  “Why?”

  “Because, despite what you think, he was trying to help me. And now both of our lives are in danger. He risked his life to tell me the Alpha from his pack is hunting me. We can’t turn him in, Wes. Grey might be the only one who can help me stop the Alpha.”

  Wes released a deep breath, remaining silent for a while. Shaking his head, he finally put the gun down and shifted the truck back in gear, continuing down the dark, winding roads away from town.

  “How’s your leg?” he asked after a while.

  “Fine.” Wes had helped Etti limp to his truck after securing Grey. He’d been fussing over her injuries, but she was more worried about the shifter than herself. Nothing was broken. She’d just have a gnarly road rash scar. That is if she survived Derik.

  “So, where are we taking the wolf?” Wes asked.

  Etti bit her lip. “I think we should bring him to your house. Just until we come up with a plan,” she added, quickly.

  The muscles in Wes’s tight jaw rippled with anger, but all he said was, “I hope you know what the hell you’re doing.”

  Etti reached over and put her hand on top of Wes’s where it rested on the stick shift. “Thank you for trusting me,” she whispered, squeezing his hand.

  He sighed. “I figure I sorta owe ya for all the shit you’ve gotten me out of over the years.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  Wes gave her a wary look. “Why?”

  “I need one more favor.” Etti ignored the string of swears that came from Wes and asked. “Are you still in touch with the nurse at the shifter clinic?”

  “Cali? Yeah, why?”

  “I need you to call her.”

  “I gave him a cocktail of meds to stave off infection and amp up his recovery, plus a heavy sedative so he’ll sleep until morning. Rest is going to be the best thing for him now,” Cali said in a gentle voice.

  “But he’s going to be okay?” Etti asked.

  “His vitals are strong. He should be fine. Shifters heal fast. But call me if he’s having any trouble when he wakes up.”

  Etti sighed with relief. “Cali, I can’t thank you enough.”

  She patted Etti’s hand. “Of course. He’s a shifter. We protect our own.”

  “Not all of you,” Etti mumbled.

  “What do you mean?”

  “His pack did this to him and I’m worried they’re going to come looking for him. I hate to ask anything more of you, but do you think you can keep this to yourself?”

  Cali frowned. “His pack did this? Do you know who they are?”

  “Rogues as far as I know. I think they’re the ones responsible for all the attacks lately.”

  “I’ll have to inform my uncle. He’s head of the Lupin pack. They’re in charge of this territory and they’ll want to know about rogues in the area. And I’ll let you know if anyone comes poking around the clinic looking for this one,” she added, nodding toward Grey.

  Etti didn’t know why she did it, but she threw her arms around Cali. “Thank you,” she whispered swallowing a sob.

  Cali gave her a reassuring squeeze. “He’ll be fine, I promise. Now get some rest and take care of that leg.”

  Etti nodded as she watched Wes take Cali’s arm. When he offered to walk her out to her car Etti turned her attention back to the large gray wolf sleeping soundly on Wes’s bedroom floor. She ran her fingers through his now clean fur and watched the steady rise and fall of his breathing. He looked much better than he did a few hours ago. Cali had cleaned and treated Grey’s wounds and gave him drugs to ease his pain, saying his supernatural gifts would do the rest. Etti could already see his body working to knit together skin and bone, healing his injuries with astounding speed. She was a bit envious, wishing her own cuts and bruises would heal that fast.

  Etti knew she’d done all she could for Grey. He was safe for now and she’d have to wait until he woke up to find out more about Derik and his plans for her. But Etti was never good at waiting, so she padded to the living room to see what else she could find out. The coldness of the large room made her shiver. She closed the open windows and grabbed a blanket, grateful for the warm sweats and oversized t-shirt Wes had let her borrow after Cali treated and bandaged her leg.

  Grabbing Wes’s laptop, Etti plopped down on the black leather couch—twin to the one at the Painted Wolf. Etti had been to Wes’s place so many times over the years that she sometimes felt more comfortable in his ap
artment than she did at her parents’ house. Wes made her call them to say she’d be staying at his house for the night. She told them someone had broken a window at the shop and she and Wes had stayed late to repair it. She didn’t feel bad about the white lie. Her parents were overprotective as it was. She didn’t need them worrying more than they already did.

  While the laptop powered on, Etti stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles. She was sore as hell from her wreck. Thankfully, Cali had a few remedies for humans in her bag of tricks. She’d given Etti something to dull the pain and a salve to soothe the worst of her road rash. It looked like mayonnaise and smelled even worse, but Etti didn’t want to seem ungrateful so she sucked it up and let the petite shifter nurse dress her wounds with it.

  Making herself comfortable, Etti propped her feet up on Wes’s coffee table while trying to sort out where to start her research. One word popped into her mind and she quickly typed it in, scanning through results until she saw something that seemed promising. She clicked the link and felt her heart stop when the page opened.

  Claiming; the ancient and outlawed practice of forced mating first used by the disbanded Hunt, a defection of zealot shifters who fought for rights to hunt the human race as retribution for crimes against their wolf brethren. (Also see Hunt). Claiming was created to enhance the strength and number of rogue shifters. It is more powerful than normal shifter mating in that the two mates become magically bonded, their souls so entwined that the severing of one kills the other. Subsequently; if a claiming is forced on a nonshifter (i.e. human), it will force the shift. If the body rejects the shift, the claiming will fail and the human will die. Though the origins of claiming may be marred by unscrupulous roots it is regarded as a sacred tradition in the shifter community. The killing of a claimed mate is punishable by death.