I wasn’t sorry to kill Dax. In the moment, I couldn’t have been sorry. I was fully taken over by my wolf. I was all animal and all consumed with the primal urge to protect, to defend my love, my home, and my family from the monster that would harm any of them.
I only wish I could do it again.
I lick my chops, just thinking about it.
I’m not used to being this angry. I don’t necessarily like it. But right now I need this kind of anger to keep me going.
Luna nudges me and I follow her to climb a stack of crates before we crawl through a duct that drops out on the other side of the building, farther from the crowd. Dax must have brought fifty men with him from his pack. We certainly can’t fight them all. I think we could fight off maybe six to ten if we absolutely had to, and even that only with quite a bit of luck on our side.
I trot down the corridor we dropped through, looking around for exits or passageways. Luna, however, has other ideas. She comes up to me and starts licking my muzzle and my ears. I’m all caked with blood (although most of it is Dax’s) and my wolf eye is as injured as my human eye. We lick at each other, both to clean and as a gesture of affection.
Luna pauses in her little task and nuzzles me, sweetly licking at my nose. I return the gesture, and we stand like that, resting for just a moment. We don’t need to use human speech to know what the other is thinking now.
I love you too.
We’re just above ground level and there are some windows at the end of the corridor. I wonder if we could push them open. They look rather old and creaky. Except there are likely guards outside and they could be armed.
I watch Luna prop herself on the window ledge, standing on her hind legs. She’s still pretty dirty and bloody, but the light of the moon is shining on her pretty coat, and I think she’s the most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen. We’re going to get out of this. I’m positive now. All we have to do is to keep going for a little longer.
I hear a commotion outside; screaming, howling, shouting. Luna’s ears perk up and I run over. She looks down at me and grins, her little pink tongue hanging out of her mouth. I stand up on my back legs next to her, leaning on my paws despite of how horribly sore and raw they are.
There’s a bit of a riot breaking out outside. Dax’s men, some human and some wolf, are running around like it’s the end of the world. No one seems to know what to do. I wonder if they’ve found out their alpha is dead. It’s then that I see what’s causing the stir.
My brothers, three big, proud Tremblay wolves with their coats shining, are running towards them to attack. For a moment, I feel a little jolt of panic. They can’t take all of Dax’s men. But, quite clearly, I’ve been underestimating Xander. As we watch, dozens of wolves appear from over the crest near the road. Any pack anywhere near us has been called to join the assault on the Hardwidge pack. It’s like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before. There are more wolves than I’ve even seen in one place. Xander leaps at a cluster of guards and it’s all out warfare.
Next to me, Luna whimpers faintly and I look at her questioningly. I lick her face in an attempt to comfort.
Abruptly, she shifts into human form, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I’m so glad they came for you,” she whispers. “I’m so glad your brothers love you so much. This makes me so happy.”
She’s smiling, but I can’t believe she still hasn’t understood the most important part of all this and it is something I need her to understand, to see. To believe.
I shift into my human form even though it makes everything hurt about a hundred times worse and I feel much weaker. Still, I need to speak. Luna practically has to catch me in her arms and I take a second to rest my hands on her shoulders. Then, I look her in the eye the best I can since one of my eyes is almost shut.
“They are here for us,” I say, shaking with how strongly I feel what I’m telling her. “You and me. Both. Because you are my family. You are my mate and that makes you one of us, one of our pack, one of our clan. Do you hear me? You are not a lone wolf anymore, Luna.”
Luna’s breath hitches, but she whispers, “Okay.”
“Do you believe me?” I insist, almost desperately. “Baby, I need you to believe me.”
“I do,” she says, and kisses each of my cheeks. “I believe you, I do.”
“Good,” I whisper, and I wrap an arm around her waist and squeeze her tight once, just to feel her solid form in my hands. “Then let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I don’t think the battle will take very long. Eventually, word gets out that the alpha has been taken down and about half of Dax’s people run off or surrender. The other half tries to put up a fight, driven by pride or blind loyalty, but they’re vastly outnumbered.
Luna and I shift back and make it our mission to take out any Hardwidge shifters we see, stealthily sneaking up to them and attacking from each side. Somebody’s talking on a speaker phone when we attack and they’re able to put the word out. Then they’re looking for us and it’s about dodging tranq darts, and making our way outside to the thick of the battle and to my brothers and freedom as fast as we can.
I keep looking for Alice, but I don’t see her anywhere. I demand info as to where Alice might be from a few shifters but it’s not getting me anywhere. I don’t know for sure if she called Xander like I begged her to, but how else would he have found us so easily. It would’ve taken much longer for them to track our scents this far.
The sanctuary building is a labyrinth. We keep going in circles and hitting dead ends. We chase noise that sounds like it’s coming from outside, only to hit a wall again. It’s like something from a nightmare.
We’re bounding down another corridor when I smell one of my brothers. Aaron is close. I look back at Luna and try to tell her that with my eyes but non-vocal communication really only goes so far.
“Micah! Micah are you back here!” Yeah, that’s Aaron alright. Luna hears it too and her eyes get big and bright. We chase his voice, skidding around a corner, and find Aaron in human form, with his back to the wall. He’s holding his tranq gun at the ready but he must have smelled us coming. He grins when he see us and I see him slightly unclench, his downward brow relaxing. “Oh God…” He shuts his eyes for a second and his head falls back, hitting the wall. “Thank God. Oh sweet Jesus, Mikey. I really thought you were dead.”
Nobody in my family has called me Mikey since I was about ten-years-old. Aaron was the last to because he was the youngest. He kept calling me that until I begged him not to because it didn’t sound cool enough. I trot up to him and whine a little and he scratches me between the ears and nods at Luna.
“I’m so glad you guys are okay, you have no idea.” He gestures down the hall and says, “C’mon. This way. We’re almost home, guys.”
We follow Aaron through the building, taking up each side of him as he tranqs anybody he sees. I’m mad that I don’t see Alice, but I don’t know what to do about it right now. I gave her my word that I’d help her and I meant it. But I have to get Luna out of here first. I wish I’d told Alice a place where she could hide so that I could find her after Xander stormed the place.
Finally, Aaron shoves open a door and together we run outside into the blessedly fresh air. Xander’s army is just picking up the last few stubborn stragglers that make up Dax’s men. There are clusters of injured shifters, both in human and wolf form, guarded by clan wolves. They’re prisoners, I assume. I have no idea how they’ll be dealt with. I think Xander is supposed to bring them before the alphas and elders and then they might be sentenced or at least punished in some way. I can’t imagine they’ll all be ostracized just for being in Dax’s clan, but it’s hard to say. Maybe their pack will be broken up and they’ll be put on probation or something. And then there are the pups and others back home at Hardwidge to consider. They have to be taken care of too. It all sounds terribly complicated, but lucky for me I’m not an alpha. That’s for Xander to figure out. Although, if we do find Alice, I’m looking after that on
e personally.
We all run to meet Mason, who’s overseeing the other shifters and keeping the prisoners in check. The fighting is dying down. I see Xander’s huge wolf running around as if looking for something else he can kill. But it looks like we’re safe now. There’s Xander’s huge SUV at the bottom of the hill. I guess he drove up with my brothers while his extensive back-up ran up from some hiding spot.
Mason grins when he sees us running up. Since it seems safe now, I shift back. I watch his face fall and he pales.
“Shit, Micah,” Mason says. He catches me when I stumble a little. Luna wraps an arm around me. The adrenaline rush is long gone. My injuries and exhaustion are starting to catch up with me. Though I’m sure it would have been a whole lot worse if I hadn’t had Luna by my side. Nevertheless, I’m still a little mad at her for trying to give herself up for me.
“You look like hell, brother.”
“Feel like it,” I mutter. But then I glance at Luna and that’s not totally true. “Hey, listen, Mason. Did any of you see a young girl with Dax’s people? Looks super young but she’s early twenties. Her name is Alice-”
“Alice!” Mason says, perking up. “Yeah, Alice is the one who called Xander with the location. I talked to her on the phone-”
“She did call? That’s great. Have you found her?”
“No,” Mason says grimly. “A whole bunch of people ran off. I mean, maybe she was scared. But a good few of this pack has scattered into the woods. The clan alpha’s going to want to find them all though.”
“I’m not too worried about them,” Luna put in. “Without their alpha, they’re just scrambling and trying to survive. But I hope you can find this Alice person.”
“I’m going to,” Mason says sternly. “Without her, we would never have found you in time. We owe her big.”
I nod in agreement at that and then wince and lean harder on Luna. Everything hurts. I’m a walking wound.
“Let’s get him to a hospital, huh?” Luna says, sounding a bit desperate.
“Are you sure it’s… Is everything…” I mumble, but I’m starting to pass out a little bit and Mason comes around to help me on my other side as we make our way down to the SUV.
“It’s fine, man,” Mason says. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey wait, Michelle’s car should still be here,” Luna says. “We can leave Xander’s.”
We drag ass over to the car and she helps me into the backseat where she stays with me. It doesn’t seem right to leave while Xander and Aaron are still tying things up but the fighting is completely over now. Everything has gone pretty quiet. I hear Mason shout back to Xander to let them know where we’re going. I sink against Luna, feeling heavy and drained.
“It’s okay, babe,” Luna whispers in my ear.
“I left my phone in there,” I mutter, feeling slightly delirious. “I should…”
“We’ll get you a new phone,” Luna says. “We’ll get you an upgrade. In a pretty color.”
“You’re babying me,” I say, smiling against her neck as she strokes my hair.
“Hell yeah, I am. Expect a lot of that for a while.”
“And then you’ll give me shit again, right?”
“Oh, count on it.”
Luna’s phone is still in the car however and she furiously texts Michelle to let her know they’re all okay as Mason speeds back down the mountain. She keeps one arm around me, texting with the other, occasionally shushing me and telling me everything is okay because I’m half unconscious and murmuring nonsense.
I don’t remember much of the drive, except that I felt nauseous and then comfortable in turn, slumped as I was against Luna. I remember that I fell dead asleep and then woke up thinking I was back in the cell, only to realize we were out, really out, and Luna was safe by my side.
I don’t remember anything about getting to the hospital or parking or being admitted. But I wake up a little groggy in a bed. My wounds aren’t too bad, but I have a couple cracked ribs and my wrists and ankles need to be dressed. I need a few stitches. The shocks gave me some superficial burns that are looked at, and they want to keep me overnight for observation.
Wounds like this can be a problem in a hospital if somebody wants to get a cop or social services involved in shifter business. Fortunately, there are enough shifters in the world, that anywhere you go, there’s probably somebody working there who’s just as keen on keeping our shifter status from the humans as we are. The ER doc isn’t one, but our admitting nurse is and we all sniff each other out.
All she has to say is, “Don’t worry about cops or anything. I’ll take care of it.” Just like that, we’re fine. It’s pretty much a secret society.
I hear about the nurse later, after I’ve woken up in the bed. Mason is on the phone with our father by the window. Luna is sitting at my side, staring at me like I might grow tentacles or something at any second.
“How are you feeling?” Luna says.
I didn’t wake up, thinking we were in the cell again this time. I imagine they gave me some drugs that made me deeply zonk out. But I’m guessing Luna and I will both be feeling some after effects of this misadventure. I’m glad we have each other to deal with that stuff.
“I’m feeling good,” I say, smiling widely. “I got you.”
Luna actually blushes at that. It’s adorable. “We made it,” she whispers.
“We sure did, baby.”
They keep me in the hospital overnight. Mom and dad show up and there’s a lot of fussing. I’m in and out of consciousness thanks to the drugs they’ve got me on, but I’m a little wary of my dad interacting with Luna after that stuff he said about lone wolves. Then, when things have quieted down, I see Luna speaking to my father out in the hall. I can’t hear what they saying but they’re speaking quietly, standing close to each other. Nobody looks upset until Luna covers her mouth and I start to tense up, but then I see my father pat her shoulder and she wraps him in a hug.
I think somebody just got welcomed into the family.
“Xander and Aaron still out there?” I say to Mason who’s now perched by my bedside. My voice is raspy and he automatically hands me a cup of chipped ice (always the best part of any hospital stay).
“Yeah, they’re rounding up the stragglers,” Mason says, now pulling out his phone to check his texts. “They’ll be taken down to the clan headquarters. Xander’s gonna be busy for a while.”
“Oh, that’ll be a nice change for him,” I say dryly, and Mason chuckles.
“I didn’t find that Alice girl,” Mason says darkly. He seems as bothered by the thought as I am. I wonder how their conversation on the phone went for him to feel so strongly about it. “I got the impression she was forced into being somebody’s mate like Luna was going to be. Or anyway, I know she was pretty habitually mistreated. I’m worried she’s stuck with one of Dax’s guys who’s still on the run. There are a lot of places to hide up in those woods if you want to. Or maybe she took off because she thought she’d get in trouble. But I’m going to find her. She doesn’t deserve this.”
“I’m glad you’re on it,” I say. “She’s got a good man in her corner.”
Mason smiles at that and says, “So does Luna. Heard about your insane shift. You threw off a dampener? I’ve heard that’s next to impossible. Pretty badass.”
“That’s the power of love,” I say with a wink. “Huey Lewis and the News.”
“Wow, and just like that you become so much less badass.”
“My woman appreciates my 80’s pop references,” I say loftily.
“I sure do,” Luna says, appearing in the doorway. “But does it have to be Huey Lewis and the News? Can it be someone cooler like, I don’t know, anyone?”
Luna beams at me. I think she’s getting off on some meaningless banter. I point a finger gun at her. “I can’t believe you. Betrayal. That’s it, you’re not my mate anymore.”
“Oh, sorry,” she says, sitting beside me on my bed. “That won’t fly. You’re
not getting rid of me now.” She leans down to kiss me sweetly and Mason coughs and makes some noise about meeting mom and dad at the coffee cart in the hospital lobby.
“Darn, ‘cause I’m really sick of you.” I deepen the kiss, my tongue sneaking out to meet hers and she holds the back of my head as we make out like horny teenagers. I twirl a lock of her hair around my finger and we forget everything around us for a while. There’s just her and me; two who have become one.
The nurse has to shout my name three times before we hear her when she walks in.
Epilogue
One week later...
One of the advantages of being a shifter is that we can heal very quickly. Micah is looking a hundred times better as he straightens his tie, spinning on the heel of his shoe to face me. He’s clean shaven, his hair impressively coiffed. His grey eyes are bright tonight. I’m wearing a dress he bought me for the occasion of dinner at the estate. It’s blue and slinky. His eyes keep raking up and down my body. It’s making me want to call off dinner and pull him into his bedroom.
But I will be good. Because tonight is about family.
“How much did that suit cost?” I ask, laughing as Micah saunters over to me. He’s been getting ready forever. I swear he takes longer to get ready than I do. But he’s been having a good time explaining to me all his little habits and products. He pulled me into the bathroom and explained the importance of his skincare regimen in the same voice he would use to tell me how he’d like to pull off my panties with his teeth.
Then we ended up fooling around in the bathroom for a while. Which is why we’re also running late.
I check my phone again. “We’re going to miss the salad,” I say.
“They’ll wait for us,” Micah says. He wraps his arms around me and spins me around and I can’t help but giggle when he kisses my neck. “You’re the guest of honor.”
I blush at that. It’s going to take a while to believe all this is real and that it will last but I’m finally at a place where I can accept the love that’s offered to me. For that, I am very grateful.
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