The Hunted Wolf (Crystal Lake Forest Wolf Shifters Series Book 3

by Ovidia Pike

  “Good,” I said, kissing her again. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  “But Alex—”

  “We’ll get her tomorrow. Rest,” I said. She nodded, snuggling against me, and fell asleep in a few moments. I followed her shortly after, holding her in my arms.

  Chapter 19: Gabriel

  “What do you want?” Sophie asked, arms crossed over her chest as soon as she opened the door.

  “I want you to come with me back to the caves,” I declared. She didn’t meet my eye, and hadn’t since the night I had rejected her invitation to join her in her hut.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I can’t send Jackson and I don’t want anybody else to know about the body. And I don’t want to go alone.”

  “Why me instead of Harley?”

  “Because I want to see you,” I answered. “I want to spend the day with you.”

  She did look me in the eye then.

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Yes. I knew you were upset with me—I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to uh, come here. To ask you,” I said, feeling like an idiot as soon as I said it.

  She giggled then, and the butterflies in my stomach went wild just seeing the smile on her face.

  “Let me get my things,” she said, closing the door. A moment later she reappeared and smiled at me, and we started off into the woods. I couldn’t stop looking over at her as we walked, and was so distracted that I didn’t even notice the fallen tree ahead of me before I tripped over it, stumbling forward. Sophie reached for my hand to catch me but I ended up pulling her down instead, toppling over the log and into a puddle below. ‘

  “Gabriel,” she said, and for a moment I thought she was crying.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her, taking her face in my hands, looking her over. “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she said with a laugh. “But you need to watch where you’re going.”

  “It’s hard to look away from you,” I said to her. She shifted, and I noticed only then that we were still on the ground, that she was halfway on top of me and looking down at my face, our legs intertwined.

  “Why are you being so sweet to me?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  “Because you’re my favorite thing in the world,” I replied without thinking to stop myself from telling her the truth.

  “So why did you—you said no when I invited you in. I thought...that you wanted to—”

  “I did. I really did.”

  “So why didn’t you?” she asked.

  “It’s complicated. It’s not a good idea.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “If I touch you, take you to bed—you’re mine. I won’t be able to stop, or hold back, or...keep you safe.”

  “Keep me safe?”

  “I need to keep my head with you. I need to keep my head in general,” I said. “And you just burrow in there until I can’t think of anything else no matter what is going on around me. All I think about is this. These moments. They’re what I live for.”

  “Oh,” she said, looking flustered. I tilted my face up to kiss her but she pulled away before I could, climbing to her feet and offering a hand to help me up.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t do this, then,” she said, her voice sad.

  “Do what?”

  “Be close. Kiss and...flirt. You need to stop telling me that I’m beautiful and that you like me. Or love me, or...whatever it is you’re saying.”

  “I do...like you,” I said. “And you are beautiful. So beautiful. You’re perfect.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” she said. “I don’t want to hear that if you don’t even want to be with me.”

  “I understand,” I amended. “I’ll keep it to myself.”

  “Thank you,” she said as we began to walk again.

  “Can I just say one more thing and be done?” I asked her. She glanced over at me.

  “Okay,” she replied in a tentative voice.

  “I want you to know that I’ll do anything for you whether we’re together or not. Anything.”

  “You won’t touch me,” she said. “Like I want you to.”

  “Sophie,” I nearly groaned. “I—”

  “Hold it,” came a cold voice behind me. “Stop walking.”

  I halted, instinctively reaching for Sophie’s hand.

  “Who are you?” I asked, and watched as the lions appeared from the woods, at least eight of them. I looked over my shoulder to see one of them had shifted into human form and was holding a sharp-tipped spear, pointing it at Sophie. I growled at him, turning to face him.

  “What do you want?” I asked him. “I am Gabriel Alarick, Alpha of the wolf village. We are still on my land. What are you doing here?”

  “We were sent by the divine one. She will be here to meet you soon. She wants to speak to you, wolf.”

  “Who is the divine one?”

  “You will see,” he said mysteriously.

  “Lower your spear,” I commanded when he drew closer to Sophie. He shook his head, lifting it even higher, aiming for her throat. She drew closer to me and I pressed her back with one arm, straightening my back, staring down at the man holding the spear.

  “Drop the spear,” I said in a cold voice. The man flinched when I stepped closer to him.

  “You can’t take us all,” he said. “There are nine of us and only one of you, plus a nothing human.”

  “Hey,” Sophie said indignantly. “I’m not a—”

  “I can’t take you all, but I guarantee that I could rip your face off before they get to me,” I said to him. “Now lower your weapon.”

  He paused for a moment, but I could see fear in his eyes, and he slowly lowered the spear, holding it at his side.

  “She’ll be here soon,” he said. “She can deal with you.”

  “Who are you even talking about?” Sophie asked. “The faceless one?”

  All around us I heard hissing, growling as the lions drew in closer after hearing her words.

  “Stop talking, idiot human,” the man snapped. Anger flashed through me, and before I could stop myself, I swung at him, smashing him in the face with the back of my hand. He dropped his spear and collapsed in a heap on the ground, out cold before he even landed. I turned to the other lions, pressing Sophie close to me.

  “You want to risk it?” I asked them in a firm tone. “Do any of you really want to try?”

  “I would,” came a soft voice from the trees, and princess Elina emerged wearing a fine, sapphire-colored robe. The other lions shifted and dropped to their knees on the ground in a deep bow.

  “Princess Elina,” I said in surprise.

  “You’re the—”

  “Divine one,” she said with a flip of her long, golden hair. “Yes.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “You were angry when the lions mentioned—I mean, when they were threatening to my people.”

  “I was just angry that they were being loud about it,” she said. “Idiots.”

  “So you’ve been sending people to maul the wolves?” Sophie asked in a heated voice. Elina gave her a bored look.

  “What is it with you wolves and your human mates?” she asked.

  “Sophie is not my mate,” I stated. “She has nothing to do with this. She’s just the ranger—she’s backup.”

  “So why are you so protective of her?” Elina asked.

  “She’s my responsibility,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Sure, sure,” Elina said, waving me off. “Doesn’t matter to me who a dog pairs up with anyway.”

  “Why did you keep Jackson, then?” I asked.

  “To keep him away from you. You were the target all along. Without the Alaricks, that village will fall, as it rightfully should. This land and everyone on it belong to my family, and always has.”

  “We fought for it,” I said. “The wolves won the right to that part of the park.”

  “That fight was nothing. It should have never happened. The d
ogs should have never questioned our rule,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “So what, you kill me, take over the village? You think they’ll let you do that?”

  “Yes,” she said simply. “They will be afraid enough to bow to us. Everyone but those of old blood—those with superior strength. You, your right hand, Jackson, will fight without end. I want to get this over with before you kill any more of my people. They’re dying too quickly as it is. Luckily for you, I’m going to let your natural mate go. Killing a park ranger would be a stupid idea.”

  I sighed in relief, but Sophie looked at me with a worried expression.

  “I’m not going without him,” she said, turning her eyes back to Elina, a defiant look on her face. “I’m taking him with me.”

  “No, you’re not,” Elina said. “Walk away, human.”

  “No,” Sophie replied sharply.

  “Go,” I said to her. “Go. I can fight them.”

  Elina laughed.

  “You think you can fight nine of us at once?” she asked in an amused tone. I didn’t answer her, but took Sophie’s hand and kissed her fingers.

  “Go,” I urged her.

  “Leave your gun,” Elina commanded, reaching for it. Sophie reluctantly slung the shotgun from behind her back, handing it to the princess with a look of hatred on her face. She glanced at me one last time and gave me a small nod, slightly lifting her shirt to show me the holster on her hip. She hurried off then without another word, ducking into the shadows. Elina sized me up.

  “I think I want to be the one who kills you,” she said. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kill the Alpha of your pack. I feel like it would be satisfying.”

  “Elina, I am stronger than you.”

  “Good point,” she said, gesturing at the lions around me. “Cripple him.”

  I pivoted quickly, shifting, bursting out of my clothes. I growled at the closest lion, barely hesitating before diving at him, bashing into him with my shoulder. I tore into his skull when he was on the ground, ripping his face off easily as another lion jumped on my back, sinking its massive claws into my shoulders. I managed to throw him off even as another one approached me, biting my leg, tearing at it and causing me to collapse for a moment on the ground. One of the lions jumped on top of me, lowering its face to take out my throat.

  “Don’t kill him,” Elina said, yanking the man off of me with a scowl on her face. She knelt over me and shifted, sniffing at my throat, nipping at it with her teeth. I was being held down by several other lions, claws digging into my arms and legs as Elina opened her mouth wide to tear out my throat. A shot rang out then and the lion holding my arm let go with a howl, falling to the ground. Elina moved off of me, turning around angrily. I saw Sophie aim for the princess’s chest and fire. Elina grunted but continued to move forward, leaping on Sophie. I struggled to get to her, using all my strength to fight off the lions who were still holding me, unable to move out from under their claws.

  “Sophie!” I shouted when she screamed, panic racing through me, not caring at all about the danger I was in. Suddenly, another lioness leapt on top of Elina, sinking her teeth into the back of Elina’s neck and tugging her hard away from Sophie, who was covered in blood. The lioness shifted and I saw that it was the other princess, Elina’s sister, Selene.

  “What are you doing?” Selene asked as her sister shifted in turn, collapsing on the ground. Blood poured out from where the bullet had gone into her chest, and there was blood coming from her mouth as she stared up at her sister.

  “Kill him,” Elina said to the lions on top of me.

  “No,” Selene said. “Let him go. Now. If anyone else harms him, I will have you executed.”

  “He’s—he doesn’t belong here,” Elina said, her words coming out slurred. “Take what is ours, sister. Kill him and his mate. We deserve—their land is...ours.”

  “No, Elina,” Selene said, dropping to her knees next to her sister. “It’s not.”

  “Traitor,” her sister spat, and an instant later she stopped breathing entirely, the life going out of her eyes. I stood up and hurried to Sophie, who had a bite mark on her forearm.

  “Is this it?” I asked her, looking her over. “Just the bite?”

  “Yes,” she said, looking up at me. “Are you—are you okay?”

  “I think so,” I said. “A little scratched up.”

  “What happened?” Selene asked from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see her kneeling next to her sister, tears falling silently down her cheeks.

  “They surrounded us. She wanted Gabriel dead,” Sophie said. “She said she ordered the attacks at the village. They call her ‘the divine one.’”

  “Who?”

  “Them,” Sophie said, but when we looked around, the other lions had disappeared into the forest.

  “The ones who were here?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I didn’t think—I had no idea about Elina. You must believe me. I would have stopped her a long time ago.”

  “I believe you,” I said to her. “Thank you for saving Sophie.”

  “Don’t thank me,” she said, then looked around.

  “I’m going to walk you back to your village,” she said. “Just in case.”

  “Thank you,” Sophie said.

  “Yes, thanks,” I said to her, picking up my shredded shirt and wrapping it around Sophie’s arm before we started to walk. She held my hand as we went, and the princess was silent, tears still in her eyes.

  Chapter 20: Alicia

  “Good morning, doc,” Jackson said to me as I cuddled up to him in bed. I laughed, then covered my mouth when I remembered that Alex was still asleep in her crib.

  “It’s 3 p.m.,” I said to him.

  “Feels like morning,” he said, pulling me in for a kiss. “Feels like we just went to bed.”

  “We did,” I said.

  “Good point,” he replied. He sat up and glimpsed into the crib, making sure that the baby was asleep before he shifted his body on top of mine and started to kiss my neck, making his way down my naked body. He paused when someone knocked at the door and I started to slide out from underneath him.

  “Wait, wait,” he said. “Ignore it.”

  “I can’t ignore it. I still have a job, you know. It’s a pretty important one.”

  He sighed.

  “Why does everyone keep getting injured?” he grumbled. I smiled and kissed him quickly before getting dressed. There was another knock on the door and I heard Jackson curse as he got up to answer it, throwing it open just as I came in the room. I saw Gabriel and Sophie there, both of them covered with blood, and was surprised to see the princess Selene standing behind them.

  “What happened?” I asked, stepping outside, immediately heading toward the medical hut.

  “Lions again,” Gabriel said dryly.

  “Lions?” came Jackson’s voice from the doorway. The four of us turned to see him standing there with Alex cradled in his arms.

  “What is that?” Gabriel asked, gesturing at Alex.

  “It’s a baby, Gabriel,” Sophie said, forgetting her wrapped and bloody arm as she crossed the room.

  “Sophie, let her look at your arm,” Gabriel said.

  “But just look at her,” Sophie cooed. “Oh, she’s perfect.”

  “Thank you,” I said to her. Gabriel turned his eyes to me.

  “This is your child?” he asked. I nodded.

  “I suppose that makes her yours,” Gabriel said to Jackson.

  “That’s right,” Jackson confirmed. “I’m going to go give her to Lily. I’ll be right back.”

  “Lily—how does Lily know about the baby, but I don’t?” Gabriel asked.

  “It’s...a long story,” I said. “We’ll tell you after we get this bleeding stopped.”

  “Look at Sophie’s arm first,” he said, taking Sophie by the arm and pulling her gently to me. “She’s been bitten.”

  “It’s nothing,” Sophie said, st
ill staring at the baby. “It’s no big deal.”

  “Sophie, don’t—”

  “Just let me look at it,” I said to her. “I promise you can have as much baby time as you can handle when you’re both fixed up.”

  “Fine,” she said, unwrapping the cloth from her arm. I wiped back some of the blood with a damp towel to discover several puncture wounds from where the teeth had sunk into her skin.

  “It’s not bad,” I said, relieved that the skin hadn’t ripped or torn away from the bite. “I’ll bandage you up after I look at him. He looks worse off.”

  “He is worse off,” Sophie said with a frown. “Always getting himself into trouble.”

  “I know what that’s like,” I said, glancing over at where Jackson had reappeared in the doorway.

  “Where are you hurt?” he asked, coming in and looking Gabriel over as I led him to sit on the exam table, knowing I’d have to take a closer look at his wounds. I remembered the princess only then; she approached the table to get a closer look.

  “Are you hurt, your highness?” I asked her. She shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “Just exhausted.”

  “Sit down,” I said to her, gesturing to the chair. “You look pale.”

  “I’m...just...so shocked,” she said.

  “What exactly happened?” I asked as I started to clean the blood from Gabriel’s chest, back, and arms.

  “My sister attacked them,” Selene said. “She’s been sending lions after your people. She planned to kill Mr. Alarick and take over the village.”

  “Oh,” I said. “So Elina—is she...”

  “She’s dead,” I said. “She tried to kill Sophie.”

  “Did you kill her?”

  “I did,” Sophie said. “I shot her.”

  “Does that mean it’s over? The lion attacks?”

  “I’m going to do everything in my power to make that the case,” Selene said. She looked over at Gabriel.

  “I want an alliance,” she said. “Our people should be joined against this threat, whatever is killing people off.”

  “Oh, about that,” Jackson began.

  “Zombies,” Gabriel said. “They’re digging themselves out of their graves.”

  “What?” Selene asked, clearly bewildered.