Her Brave Wolf (Marked By The Moon Book 1)

by Kestra Pingree

  When the time limit Nick gave Ivan had almost passed, the tension ratcheted up. Hackles were rising, teeth were bared—and then he appeared. His wild red hair made him easy to pick out. He currently had the masses of curls tied back to keep them out of his face. His expression was hard. He was huge. But he only looked the part. He was no Alpha.

  “Ivan.” Nick spat. “You came to face me after all. I was just about to tear into your wolves. Seems you might care about them a little, but Moon knows you don’t deserve them. Any of them. I’m going to take your pack from you.”

  Ivan met Nick’s gaze for only a moment. He rested his eyes on someone else. The wolf at Nick’s side. Nick glanced to his left, where his Beta was standing next to him. Christopher was glaring back at the Alpha who had decided to set his sights on him. When Nick looked back at Ivan, Ivan’s attention was on Nick again. Where it should have been without distraction.

  “This has nothing to do with my Beta,” Nick informed. “This is between you and me. Two Alphas fighting for their packs. Face me honorably and the rest of your pack won’t get hurt. You can do one good thing before you die, sick fuck.”

  “Kidnapping Willow wasn’t my idea,” Ivan growled. He once again turned his gaze to Christopher.

  Nick snapped. He wasn’t going to allow Ivan to stoop to manipulation. He was an Alpha for Moon’s sake. He should have faced things head-on. Playing mind games and underhanded moves were not what a true Alpha did.

  Nick’s clothes were off in a flash, and then he was shifting in a chorus of snapping bones. His wolf form burst forward in an explosion of blue-gray fur. A feral growl rumbled from deep inside of his chest as he leaped forward. He caught Ivan mid-shift, his teeth clenched around the arm Ivan put up to protect his throat. Nick was forced to let go as Ivan’s body shifted into a red wolf. All other wolves backed up, allowing their Alphas to settle their challenge one-on-one as was tradition. Nick was glad Ivan was honoring that code instead of doing something underhanded like forcing his wolves to fight. Ivan would die tonight. Only one.

  Ivan’s foreleg bore a bloody wound inflicted by Nick’s teeth, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop him. He could still move at great speeds. He growled and circled Nick, the two of them matching each other’s movements as they watched, waiting for an opening, but there was no opening to be found. One of them would have to charge in. They both decided to charge, but Ivan did it an instant sooner. He didn’t waste his slight advantage and caught Nick’s snout in his teeth, holding him in place as he kicked at Nick with his forepaws, gouging the skin underneath Nick’s blue-gray fur.

  It stung. Nick tried to back out of Ivan’s cheap trick. He dug his back paws into the grass, catching the earth in his claws, and managed to rip himself loose. His face felt raw and burned, but the pain began to soothe almost immediately. He was healing quickly again. The sigil on his left paw was itching. Somehow the gauze he wrapped around his hand stayed on during his shift, but everyone could see how fast he was healing. He had forgotten about his bullet wound, though it stung a little now because he shifted again.

  Ivan dove in again, showing he wasn’t weak, that he might have deserved to be Alpha at some point, but Nick was younger, and he was ready for him this time. He dodged Ivan’s snapping jaws and caught the Alpha by the scruff of his neck, throwing him down onto the ground. Then Nick’s jaws were on his throat. Ivan yelped as Nick tore into his flesh, fiercely throwing his head from side to side, his jaws clenched tighter and tighter until Ivan stopped moving.

  Slowly, Nick released his death grip, leaving Ivan’s limp body to the dry grass as he stepped back. He lightly pawed at his nose. His face was still stinging from when Ivan bit him and blood coated his snout, but the wounds themselves were fading fast. The bites he had gotten the previous night had almost vanished. All that was left of them were light scars that were also beginning to fade. In a few days, he’d probably look as good as new. No wounds. No scars. Just yesterday, healing from all of this would have at least taken him a couple weeks.

  Ivan hadn’t moved. Nick knew he wasn’t going to. He couldn’t hear his heart beating anymore. He was a carcass that needed to be disposed of. Nothing more.

  Nick shifted, reopening wounds and healing wounds in record time. It was a strange paradox he didn’t think he would get used to anytime soon. He tightened the gauze around his left hand, ignoring the itch that was starting to become commonplace. Christopher handed Nick his clothes and he got dressed before addressing the wolves around him.

  “Your Alpha is dead,” he stated. “We get rid of the body after I’ve shown it off to the rest of your packmates as proof of my claim. Gather all wolves here so we can get this formality over with.” The former Storm Wolves set to work, but Nick placed his hand on the shoulder of the beta wolf he first spoke to when getting here. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Steven,” he replied with a bowed head.

  “Steven,” Nick repeated, “You’re going to assist Howard in everything that goes on with the wolves here in Eastbrook for now. You’ll need to prepare everyone to make their oaths to me on the next Full Moon so our packs will be united. I don’t plan on significantly changing your life, and I’m not making any of you relocate. When I’m not here, you take orders from Howard.”

  Nick motioned with his head for Howard Hunt to join them. He was a fair and trustworthy wolf as well as a high-level beta. Nick knew he would take good care of the wolves in Eastbrook while Nick was taking care of things in Moonwatch. It was a bit unusual, basically assigning an Alpha underneath himself and allowing a pack to be split apart by fifty-three miles worth of distance, but it was the best he could come up with for now. Moonwatch didn’t have the facilities for a bunch of new wolves. He didn’t really have an interest in claiming the pack either, but if they were united, that meant fewer problems for him. Especially if more bastard Alpha’s got it in their head they wanted Willow for their mate.

  Asking Howard to do this meant he would be separated from his mate Julie, but since Casey selfishly left the pack, Julie and Howard hadn’t even been living in the same home. Howard would probably appreciate the new responsibility to get his mind off the usually quiet town of Moonwatch—and his mate.

  “As you wish, Alpha,” Steven replied.

  “But first,” Nick interrupted, “where’s my sister?”

  “She’s safe. In the Alpha Den. I’ll take you to her.”

  Nick, Christopher, Steven, and Howard made their way back to the trucks they had parked on the edge of one of the city’s main roads. They all hopped inside of one truck and Steven drove them to the Alpha Den, located near the heart of the city. The place was a tall and skinny mansion mashed between a bunch of other buildings. Nick supposed this was his second home now, but he didn’t know if he’d ever want to stay there. The memory of Ivan disgusted him too much, and he didn’t know if that feeling would be fading anytime soon. Howard would have to deal with it since this would be his house while he was acting Alpha in Eastbrook.

  The front door was unlocked so Steven opened the door wide for his new Alpha and the others with him. When they walked inside, they were greeted by some defenders Ivan had stationed here. Though pack bonds were not as strong as old stories claimed them to be, Nick could tell by the looks on their faces that they knew their Alpha was dead. Their entire pack bond was severed with Ivan, but because Nick killed him, they would now have a new instinct, a feeling, that would drive them toward Nick for guidance. These bonds and ties weren’t so powerful that wolves couldn’t go against them though. Casey was firsthand proof of that. Nick wouldn’t have been surprised if some of the wolves in Eastbrook decided to leave rather than tie themselves to him. This was why he wanted them to see Ivan’s body for themselves. More than feelings and instinct, seeing his dead body would mean they knew without a doubt what had transpired.

  “Stand down,” Nick warned the defenders.

  But the old wolves had no desire to fight him. Their posture was already passive. T
hey moved out of the way, showing they had no aggression.

  Nick could smell his sister here, and he was done with delays. He didn’t wait for the wolves with him. He took off. He darted up the stairs and down a long hall lined with vases. He stopped when he smelled his sister’s scent strongly behind a mahogany door.

  “Willow,” he said as he slammed into the door, too anxious to wait for someone to unlock it. The action wasn’t great for his wounds. They kept trying to heal even though he kept reopening them, but he didn’t care. The door crashed open and fell off its hinges.

  Standing there in the middle of a spotless and ornate room with a huge bed stood his little sister. Her mouth was agape, her brown eyes open wide. Her long white-blond hair, drastically different from his own dark hair, cascaded around her as she stared at the door now on the floor in front of her. She must have jumped back right when he hit the door. She looked up at him. The fear in her brown eyes disappeared immediately when she saw him. Nick could smell and feel her relief and her concern. It all washed over him like a gust of wind.

  “Nick!” she shouted as she ran for him, jumping up into his tall and strong frame as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I was waiting for you, but you were taking so damn long. I was about to escape by myself, and then you wouldn’t have had the bragging rights. Good thing I didn’t, huh? As Alpha, you need all the points you can get to keep the respect of your pack.”

  She sounded like herself. Thank the Moon. Nick wrapped his arms around his little sister in return, bending down slightly so he wasn’t holding her entire body suspended in the air with his neck alone.

  “Your face looks terrible,” Willow pointed out. “What’d Ivan do? Bite your fucking face off?”

  “God, Willow. You’re such a fucking brat,” Nick replied. “This is my thanks for saving you?”

  She laughed, and then she shoved away from him to get a better look at his face. “I can clean that up for you.”

  “There’s probably no point. It’s already healing.”

  Willow raised an eyebrow. “Even so, you don’t know where Ivan’s ass-breath mouth has been.” She paused. “Did you kill him?”

  “I had to.”

  She nodded her head and seemed to rest her gaze on Nick’s shoulder, but he had the feeling she was staring through him instead.

  “Did he hurt you?” he asked quietly.

  “Nope!” Willow exclaimed. “He was an asshole who kept me locked up in this tiny room with his defenders guarding the entire mansion at all times, but that was as far as he took it.”

  “You can tell me the truth, you know.”

  “That is the truth.” Willow sighed. “Okay, and he told me he wanted me to be his mate and gross stuff like that, but he didn’t touch me. I swear. I think he was hoping I’d come around to the idea.”

  “If he knew you at all, he would have known waiting for you to change your mind would have meant him dying of old age first. And if he had touched you, I would have had to kill him all over again.”

  Willow grinned, and Nick decided to stop worrying. It seemed his sister was all right after all.

  “I am really glad you’re here though,” she said quietly.

  “You know I’ve always got your back, little sis,” he reminded.

  “And I’ve got yours, overprotective big bro. You didn’t have to bust the damn door down, you know.”

  It was Nick’s turn to grin.

  A knock on the door jamb caught his attention and he turned around to see Steven and Howard. “Sorry to interrupt,” Howard announced. “Would you like us to gather the rest of the wolves now?”

  Christopher showed himself next. “You might as well get cleaned up while they do,” he said in monotone.

  Nick nodded his head. “Go. Willow and I will meet you all in the thicket soon.”

  When they were alone again, Willow asked, “You’re taking all of these wolves?”

  “Better to do that than to leave them to another Alpha.”

  “Control freak.”

  Willow moved past him, catching his right hand as she did. “Closest bathroom’s this way. I’ll clean up your face so you don’t look like a bloody mess.”

  Nick followed his sister to a large bathroom that had a hot tub, walk in closet, and every luxury one could want. It was the complete opposite of the cramped bathroom he had been trapped in with Gwen.

  “Nick!” Willow shouted. “Are you in there?”

  “Hm?”

  “I asked you if you’re okay.”

  “Yeah. Of course.”

  He shook his head, snapping himself out of the memory that hung over his senses like a thick fog. Willow sighed and set to work, washing off his face with water first, and then digging into the disinfectant she found.

  “Wow,” she muttered. “Where did all that blood even come from? Your wounds aren’t that deep.”

  “Told you I was healing fast,” Nick replied. Her pressed his lips together tightly, debating about if he should say what he wanted to say. He gave in. “Do you think it’s possible for wolves to access Lunas anymore? Maybe the Moon has found favor in some other shifters, and that’s why the Wolf has been… disappearing.”

  Willow finished cleaning up his face and replied, “Did you hit your head or something? Because this is the first time you’ve acted interested in anything about the past since you were a kid. I’m the one who believes the history keeper’s stories. Not you. Not anymore.” She frowned. “Why do you ask?”

  Involuntarily, Nick gripped his left hand. It was tingling, almost like his hand had fallen asleep. He replied, “No reason. Forget I asked.”

  Willow hummed. “I want to believe we can still access the Moon’s power. If we can’t, how am I going to find my Fated Mate?”

  Nick rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help it. He knew Willow was holding on to the stories of Fated Mates because of what happened with Casey. She wanted to believe love was real, that someone was made for her out there, someone who would always be on her side. He felt sorry for her, but he wished she’d get over it. It wouldn’t have bothered him so much if he thought it could actually happen for her. Then again, that was before he wound up with a Lunas Sigil. That was before he got pulled in by a human. The human part was what didn’t line up. It was the part that made him more bitter. He remembered stories of Fated Mates, Willow’s favorite stories, but he didn’t remember them ever including anyone who wasn’t wolf.

  “The Moon marks two wolves with matching Lunas Sigils,” Willow said with a sigh. “Those matching sigils mean those two wolves are fated to be together forever. A promise and a contract.”

  “How would those wolves know?” Nick asked. “All sigils, whatever the contract, look the same, right?”

  “Yeah, but they don’t feel the same. Or so they say. Lunas Sigils are created based on intent. They could be made for any kind of contract.”

  Nick muttered, “You’re a hopeless romantic, and you know Julie’s stories too well.”

  “They’re true. They have to be.”

  “You only wish they were true, Willow. Get that through your head. Then you won’t get hurt again. Just look around you. The Wolf is disappearing. This is it for us. Once the Wolf is gone, our kind will be gone forever. Maybe those stories were true once, but they aren’t anymore. The Moon has fucking left us!”

  And now the Moon was mocking him by tying him into some contract with a human. It was one last “fuck you.” The Wolf was dead. Maybe it was because some wolves ran off with humans, not giving a damn about wolf purity. Maybe the Moon found favor with other shifters. He didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Knowing wouldn’t stop what was happening because it was too late. Wolves didn’t have pups anymore and when they did they were human-like, wolfless. Some tried to fight what was happening. Like Ivan. But Nick knew the possibility of him or his sister having pups was slim to none. That was why he wasn’t actively looking for a mate he wouldn’t find anyway. That was why he wasn’t looking for a mate for Wil
low along with the whole Casey fiasco.

  Nick tried to scratch the burning skin on the back of his left hand, but the gauze was in the way. He scratched harder.

  “Do you want me to look at that?” Willow asked, reaching out for his hand. Nick pulled away from her, and she drew back in surprise. “What the hell, bro?”

  “Let’s just get all this shit over with,” he said, leaving the bathroom.

  Nick led the way through the now empty mansion and found Christopher waiting for him and his sister outside. He was holding the keys to Ivan’s SUV.

  “I’m glad you’re safe Willow,” he said, nodding curtly.

  “Thanks,” she replied with a shrug.

  Then he turned his attention to Nick. “Ready to finish this?”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Nick replied.

  The trio hopped into the SUV. Christopher drove them to the thicket where a measly fifty-six wolves were gathered. Unless some wolves had already fled, this pack was even smaller than Nick’s one hundred and eight.

  All eyes were on Nick as he said, “On the next Full Moon, travel to Moonwatch and pledge to me as your Alpha.” He didn’t say he was giving them a choice, but he wasn’t going to chase down any wolves who didn’t want to be part of his pack. They could try to make it alone or find another pack, but he knew there were no other packs in Idaho. The likeliness of the few wolves that might leave would join together to form their own pack was small. Either way, his pack would be the most formidable around. He wasn’t worried.

  The new wolves bowed before Nick, a promise to pledge to him on the next Full Moon. This action slightly strengthened his claim on them. He was an Alpha, so he could have forced them to bend to his will, especially since he killed their Alpha, but he preferred not to rely on brute force alone. Forcing wolves to follow him was not the kind of Alpha he was. It wasn’t the kind of Alpha his father was.

  After every wolf there had bowed to him, showing their submission, he allowed them to disperse, to go back to their lives in Eastbrook with Howard in charge. Nick would have left Christopher, but he worked too closely with his Beta to be separated by that kind of distance. Christopher would have been the best suited, but he felt good about this arrangement. Howard could take care of things here until another arrangement was made.