by Helen Scott
The five of us began to head in the direction of civilization, or at least that was what I thought we were doing. Roman was much better at guiding us than I would have been. I relied too heavily on the sun and the stars, which would get me going but only in the general direction.
We were fairly quiet for most of the walk, only exchanging a few brief conversations here and there, Micah teasing me when I tripped over a fallen branch. It had taken us a couple days to get to where we were, and I knew it would probably take just as long to get back, which made me worry for Blake. He already looked weaker, pale, and his skin had gone clammy. I was honestly starting to worry that by the time we made it to the hospital, it would be too late.
A low growl startled me out of my melancholy thoughts and had me freezing in place. The others stopped as well, even Blake, except his stop turned into a stumble on the uneven ground.
The growl sounded again, louder this time, closer. As I turned to look, the stillness of the forest was pierced by a lone wolf howl. The noise made my heart seize in my chest. That meant there were others close by. When a series of howls went up all around us, I wanted to scream in frustration.
We weren’t completely surrounded, not yet, but we would be soon unless we moved. “Can you run?” I asked as I turned to face Blake.
His eyes went wide with fear, and a flush crept up his cheeks a moment before he shook his head. I’d suspected as much, but I’d hoped that I was wrong. My gut was usually on the money though. Maybe when we got to the hospital, I’d buy a lottery ticket or something, help us win some cash. Not that I even know how they handed out lottery winnings, other than on the giant cardboard checks I saw on the news occasionally.
Another round of howls went up, and I looked at Roman. “Fight or flight?”
His eyes betrayed him as he glanced at Blake and said, “Fight.”
I nodded and dropped my pack, bracing for the oncoming storm. We were outnumbered, I knew that from the different howls I’d heard around us, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t win. We’d won before, we’d win again. We might take some knocks, maybe even a silver bullet to the stomach occasionally, but we came out on top eventually. Even if that meant running when we were given the opportunity.
This wouldn’t be any different.
We would win.
I couldn’t let myself believe anything other than that. If I let doubt creep in, then it would take over like mold on old bread. That shit was not for me. It wasn’t for us. My little family wasn’t going to lose. We’d fight until we had no more fight in us, or at least until we knew we had no choice but to run.
The first attacker leapt from the bushes without warning and latched onto Tate’s arm. My mate let out a very human howl of pain a moment before he shifted into his own wolf. Roman followed suit, shifting to fight more easily, which I completely understood, but before Micah could shift, I grabbed his arm. “I need you to help me defend Blake. Please don’t shift. I can’t do this as the lone human.”
Micah nodded and braced for the attack the same way I was. There was no way we were all walking away without injuries. Tate was just the first to be hurt. I knew in my heart that we would all be injured before long with the way the wolves began to attack us.
14
Tate
If someone had told me a week ago—hell, even twenty-four hours ago—that I’d have a mate and be poised to fight a bunch of reclusive wolves that most shifters had never even heard of, let alone seen, I would have told them that they were losing their mind. I never even paid attention to the female shifters in the pack, they were all too downtrodden, too willing to do whatever was asked, and I did mean whatever. The men were just as bad in different ways, always giving in to whatever Jax demanded. If it wasn’t for the family members I had in the pack, I would have left long ago, maybe not have even joined in the first place.
Nevertheless, I was a mated wolf now, one who was currently being attacked by a big bastard from the Shadow Pack. The group of wolves that were attacking us were vicious and relentless.
Every time one of us got the upper hand on one of them, one of their buddies would abandon their fight and help them out until we were all constantly pulling in this tug of war that consisted of teeth and claws. The guy I was fighting had a dark brown coat which was shot through with steel gray and tan. He was a beast to fight in wolf form, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like in human form.
As though he’d heard me, he shifted instantly, faster than I’d ever seen a wolf shift before, and he was fully clothed, an ability that most shifters didn’t have. I unintentionally stopped and stared for a split second, giving him an opening to attack. His fists rained down on me, hitting me in places that I wasn’t accustomed to being hit in wolf form. Each blow sent a wave of pain through me and had me stumbling backward, hugging the ground with my belly to keep my softest part protected.
My previous injuries were screaming in pain, but there was nothing I could do to protect them. After all, the biggest one covered most of my back, and if I tried to hide my back, that would just expose my stomach, which was even worse since an injury there could kill me. My shoulder wasn’t exactly feeling amazing either. The stab wound was still not fully healed, and any time I shifted the majority of my weight to that leg, it felt like it was going to give out. That was something I couldn’t afford to have happen if I wanted us to survive this. And I did.
I’d just found my mate, albeit in strange circumstances and with other mates in tow, but she was mine and I was hers, not to mention the sex was mind blowing. I didn’t want to only get that small taste and then be kicked off the mortal coil before I got to really enjoy it.
The guy shifted back to wolf form a moment later and continued the assault. Most shifters couldn’t go back and forth so quickly, at least not without getting exhausted, and he wasn’t exactly slowing down. The clothes were unusual as well. When he changed back to his wolf form, there hadn’t been any shreds of clothing on the ground, like he’d taken it all with him. And maybe he had. When he’d shifted to human, he hadn’t been naked. His clothes had just been there, which, I wasn’t going to lie, I was pretty jealous of. His human form had been just as big and intimidating as his wolf form.
“Did you see that?” Nina hissed.
I assumed she was talking to Micah, since the two of them had stayed in human form to protect Blake. It was good to know I wasn’t the only one that was surprised by it though.
I launched myself at him. There was no way I was going to beat him with brute force, so I had to fight smarter not harder. I held back, only using my teeth and claws when there was a decent opening, and then not holding back even for a second. Soon enough, he realized that I wasn’t someone to mess around with. I’d had years of fight training, had planned on being a lightweight boxer, except family came first and they’d needed me here. When I’d broached the idea with Jax, he’d shot it down completely, saying he didn’t want that kind of attention on a member of the pack.
The Shadow Wolf lashed out, all claws and snapping teeth, and I barely managed to avoid the attack. I’d backed myself into a bush or something though, because I couldn’t back up any farther and the sides were going to be challenging to get through. I rushed him, my teeth snapping at where his neck had been moments before.
He reared up, a bold move since it exposed all his soft bits, and when he came down, it was with both front paws on me, knocking me over. I landed on my side with his teeth plunging into my already injured shoulder, making me whine in pain.
“What the fuck is happening?” I heard Nina mutter between breaths.
Once I clawed and kicked the attacking wolf off me, I forced myself to my feet, trying to ignore the ache in my shoulder, one that I knew would get a lot worse when the adrenaline faded, if it had a chance to do so. For the first time since we’d started fighting, I looked past the wolf that had been attacking me and watched for a brief moment as the other Shadow Wolves shifted between human and wolf fluidly a
nd without restraint. Each of them had the ability to keep their clothes with them as they shifted, and it made me wonder if that was an ability these wolves had specifically. I’d never known anyone who could do that until I joined Jax’s pack and even then, it was only a couple of them.
I didn’t get a chance to watch much longer before my opponent was on me again, this time he was slower, more methodical, and I saw that he was bleeding freely from a wound on his belly. I’d caused that. A twisted sense of satisfaction went through me. I could win this, I saw that now.
With renewed confidence that these strange wolves weren’t almighty and more powerful than we could hope to be, I attacked. I bodychecked my attacker and knocked him to the ground, only for him to spring back up before I could complete my attack. His head came up, smashing against my jaw in a way that had me biting my own tongue hard enough that I could taste blood, something that only enraged my wolf further.
My opponent shifted though, landing a couple punches in his human form before shifting back to wolf. It was as he attacked again that I realized the wounds on his stomach were healed, or at least mostly healed. He’d been dripping blood in an almost steady stream before he shifted, and now there wasn’t a drop to be seen as he circled me.
Was that why these fuckers were shifting back and forth the whole time? It healed them? How were they so different from us and yet so similar?
“No!” Nina’s cry had me turning, just in time to see one of the Shadow Wolves going after Blake, who for all intents and purposes was unconscious on the ground next to her while she fought some guy.
I leapt from where I’d been fighting next to her and knocked myself against the wolf that was going after Blake. It was just enough to knock him off course, even though the wolf that had been attacking me grabbed hold of one of my back legs at the same time. I felt his teeth sink into my skin, pulling and ripping as they scraped along the bone of my calf.
He’d pulled me far away enough that I couldn’t stop the wolf from attacking Blake, and judging from the fight Nina was in and that Micah had been pulled away by his opponent, this was going south, and fast. A silver wolf barreled into the one going after Blake, and I knew it had to be Roman, even though I hadn’t seen his wolf before. His gray eyes flashed over me, as though checking to make sure I wasn’t dying before he planted himself as a guard over Blake.
The guy was like a mountain, like he’d just decided that he wouldn’t be moved and therefore no one could move him. The wolf he’d been fighting was darting toward him and faking him out, trying to lure him away from Blake, while the one that had been going after Blake was trying to circle behind Roman.
My ankle was a bit messed up from the bite, but I was able to turn my back on Blake, confident that Roman could handle whatever those two wolves threw at him for a moment while I tried to get my wolf down for the count. We rushed each other, teeth snapping, lips pulled back, a true dog fight as we snarled and bit at one another.
Finally, I landed a bite, just on the side of his neck, but it was something. I tasted his blood on my tongue, the metallic tang making my wolf want to go in for the kill, even though that wasn’t what I wanted to do. He wanted to put the wolf down for good, whereas I just wanted him unconscious. If I killed him, then it would definitely start a pack war. If I just knocked him out, it was a possibility, but there was at least a chance that they would turn the other cheek.
I didn’t want to be the cause of a pack war. Hell, I didn’t want any of us to be the cause of a war. It would only end up with more people getting hurt and killed, which was unnecessary, and that was why I leashed my wolf and his bloodthirsty nature. The guy shifted, clothes and all, threw a couple punches and then shifted back.
The wound on his neck was gone, just like I had expected it to be.
These wolves had stronger magic than we did. Not only could they shift back and forth at will without tiring, but they could shift with clothes, and the most important, heal themselves of injuries as they did so. We could heal small things, but big injuries? Not so much. We definitely couldn’t shift with clothes on, and we could only shift a couple times back-to-back without getting exhausted.
I’d thought earlier that I—we could win this fight, but I was wrong. We were losing, and if we didn’t get out of there, we’d lose our lives as well. It was that realization that had me shifting into my human form, even though that made me more vulnerable in some ways, especially since when I was done, I was naked.
“They heal every time they shift,” I yelled as soon as I was able to find my human voice again.
“What?” Nina screeched as she avoided a punch from her attacker.
I kicked out, trying to keep the wolf that was attacking me at bay. “Every time I hurt him and he shifts, his wounds are gone when he shifts back. Their shifts heal their wounds. If we don’t get out of here, this fight is going to go on forever, or at least until we’re too exhausted to fight anymore and they’ll still be perfectly healthy.”
In that moment when I looked over at the wolf I’d been fighting, I could swear he looked happy. When he saw me looking, he bared his teeth at me and snarled before leaping at me once more. Another kick had him back on the ground. Maybe I should have been fighting in human form this whole time, but then when he shifted into his human form and charged me, I realized why I’d picked wolf form. The bastard had a longer reach and hit range than I did, which made it harder for me to fight him in human form.
I had to duck and weave to avoid getting hit and make it into his personal space so I could do some damage. I wasn’t a small guy, which unfortunately meant that I was used to fighting people that were shorter and just generally smaller than me. I still had some tricks up my sleeve though. A quick jab to his radial nerve made his arm reboot and dangle loosely at his side.
They guy must have seen my injured shoulder, because he darted his good hand out and jabbed the wound, breaking it open once again. He must’ve put all his strength into it, because I swear the guy’s finger went in up to his knuckle. He pulled his finger down, like he was trying to make a fist as he extracted it, widening the wound and making me yell in pain. I could feel the blood running down my chest and side as all the healing the wound had done was destroyed.
“We need to run.” Nina’s breathless words came from behind me.
I was too busy fighting my attacker off to verbally agree. When I heard some pained grunts come from behind me though, I tried to turn so I could see what was going on. Roman had hoisted Blake up onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, which meant he was unable to defend himself. I was able to get away from the guy attacking me and shield Roman and Blake from the wolves that were attacking them. Of course, they were all fully clothed, while Roman and I were buck ass naked.
Somehow during all of this, Micah had grabbed our packs, or at least a couple of them, and had one on his front and another on his back, while Nina had grabbed another. The three of us began to act as a moving shield around Roman and Blake, keeping them protected from the other wolves, and taking the brunt of the blows.
I didn’t mind, pain was just something that had to be endured sometimes. What I hadn’t expected was the way Nina was handling it. She was petite and I’d expected her to be delicate, but she wasn’t. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as she took blow after blow, kick after kick, and through it all, she never faltered.
My mate wasn’t made of glass like I’d first thought. She was a diamond, sparkling and strong under pressure. I knew in that moment that I’d do anything for her, just like she’d do anything for me. After all, we were mates. If that meant giving my life so she could get away and live, then I’d do it if I had to.
15
Nina
Once Roman got up to speed with Blake, there was no stopping him. He was like a damn freight train. Though I doubted a freight train had ever been quite so sexy before. We were all running by that point, and I knew we were still being chased, but the wolves from Shadow Forest didn’t seem lik
e their hearts were in it anymore, not as long as we were leaving their territory.
We ran for so long that my legs actually started to go numb. Usually, I got that runner’s high that kicks in after a while, but nothing was kicking in this time. I didn’t know whether it was because I was too scared or too damn tired after being on the run for what felt like weeks, seeing each of us get injured, sleeping rough, and everything else that had happened.
Roman started to flag as we neared the border of the woods where I’d met Tate. I could still feel that we were being followed, but the wolves weren’t nipping at my heels the way it felt like they’d been before. They could have easily taken us down, killed us, all of that, but they didn’t. Even when we were fighting, I thought they were going easy on us. Something I now suspected even more, given that they were allowing us to walk away, or rather run away.
Micah stopped Roman with a hand on his arm once we crossed the divide of trees. “Let me carry him for a while.”
Roman nodded, clearly exhausted and, once Micah had shed the packs he’d been carrying, passed an unconscious Blake over to Micah. While we were stopped, I dropped the pack I was carrying and ferreted out some clothes for Tate and Roman, tossing sweatpants and T-shirts at them as I found them. I had no idea who they belonged to, if they even belonged to any one person, or if they would fit the two larger men, but it was the best I had to offer.
They dressed, each giving me a quiet thank you. Though Roman may have regretted his thank you when the sweatpants I’d given him rose high above his ankles.
I couldn’t help but giggle as I watched him try to pull the pants lower without exposing himself. “You hussy you, showing your ankles off like that,” I said in mock horror.
He scowled up at me before reaching into one of the other packs. Eventually, he pulled out some running shoes and socks. Once he had a pair on himself, he tossed some to Tate.