Her Brave Wolf (Marked By The Moon Book 1)

by Kestra Pingree

  Instead of waiting around, hoping for good news about the Wolf, Blue Wolves were exploring neighboring towns and cities, listening for any rumors of other instances similar to Gwen’s. If nothing else, getting out of Moonwatch here and there was good for morale. Willow, in particular, was enjoying the newfound “freedom.” Nick figured she was taking advantage of going to every city she could just so she could look for her Fated Mate. Nick and Gwen proved Fated Mates existed. He hoped there was a Fated Mate out there for Willow. If anyone needed one, he felt like it was his sister. She wanted a mate more than anyone.

  This kind of opening up meant Moonwatch actually got outsiders visiting once in a while. It meant they had to be more careful about letting their wolves out, but it wasn’t a problem. All the change Nick was seeing was good. Really good. It meant he was often busy though. That meant his time with Gwen was too short lately. That was why he took her out to Boise for dinner. Well, a city as big as Boise wasn’t Nick’s first pick, and it was out of the way, but Gwen said it’d be good for him. He never ventured far from Moonwatch considering how he was raised. He didn’t mind where he was as long as he was with Gwen, though.

  He wasn’t much of a suit guy, but the fancy five-star restaurant Gwen wanted to go to meant he had to dress for the occasion. His beautiful mate enjoyed the sight. She couldn’t keep her eyes off him, not that he usually had a problem with her looking elsewhere. The same went for him, but he had to admit he loved seeing her in the shimmering dress she was wearing. He never got to see her in a dress. It showed off her fit figure and pushed up her small breasts, making them look bigger. Nick had to admit he didn’t quite understand why women did things like that. He thought Gwen was perfect the way she was. Naked. He preferred her naked. He didn’t bother to ask about the boobs thing. Willow picked out the dress. He would have never heard the end of it if he had asked.

  “What are you staring at?” Gwen asked as she set down her fork.

  “You. You’re beautiful,” he said.

  She smiled at him, her cheeks coloring slightly. He loved how he did that to her. She knew he thought she was beautiful, but she tended to blush a lot when he complimented her or did something she thought was “sweet.” He wondered if she’d ever stop doing it. He hoped not. It was too damn adorable. Yeah, he was definitely the luckiest wolf on earth. He didn’t think it was possible for him to love his mate any more than he did, but she was pregnant with his pup, and that made the warmth he felt whenever he looked at her intensify. It was a love that almost made him burst.

  When Gwen found out she was pregnant, she was kind of nervous about the whole thing. She got over it fast, though. Apparently, she just needed reassurance that it didn’t change anything between them. If anything, it made their bond deeper. The next day she was happy with the idea, all of her fears gone. If they ever surfaced again, he would combat them. He would do anything for his mate. It also helped that Nick met her parents soon after the news. Gwen decided her parents didn’t need to know she was pregnant just yet, but the fact that her parents approved of Nick as her “boyfriend” helped ease her mind. Gwen’s parents were the good and kind people she said they were. Nick hoped they’d be able to tell them about their wolves at some point. He knew how much Gwen loved them, but she didn’t want to throw everything at them all at once. He respected that.

  His life was moving forward one step at a time.

  Nick reached over the small round table for Gwen’s right hand, resting his left on top of hers. She smiled warmly at him. He hadn’t touched his food yet because he was too busy watching her, making sure everything was to her liking first. She was satisfied. He could sense it.

  “You should eat before your very expensive meal gets cold,” she pointed out.

  The annoying ring of Nick’s cell phone drew way more eyes to his and Gwen’s table than he would have liked. He forgot to put the damn thing on vibrate.

  “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath as he grabbed the phone, intending to silence it and go on with their date, but the caller ID said it was Willow. His sister wouldn’t be calling him right now unless it was important. Her romantic heart wouldn’t have allowed it.

  He answered the phone reluctantly, “What?”

  “I know you’re on a date and you’ll be back late for Pack Vows, but this couldn’t wait,” Willow said.

  “And what could be so damn important?”

  “Wolves have been showing up out of nowhere. Based on everything Julie and I have been digging up and based on what the news is saying right now, we think it started happening on the last Full Moon.”

  “What do you mean?” Nick asked, lowering his voice. Gwen raised an eyebrow at him but stayed quiet. He knew she could hear his conversation with Willow because of her heightened sense of hearing. He’d talk to her about this after he hung up.

  “I mean,” Willow said, exasperated, “that I turned on the news because I was chilling in my house and it’s going on about random wolves appearing in cities all over the place. So, I did some digging.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Nick hissed.

  “Nope. No one has seen anyone shift so there’s that at least. But I really doubt there are just random wolves appearing in a bunch of cities during a Full Moon. They have to be new shifters like Gwen. You know, shifters who were living a perfectly human life in a city until now. Think about it! If they did just start showing up on the last Full Moon, then that’s exactly a month after Gwen first pledged to you and the rest of the pack. She kicked this off or something, isn’t that cool? Julie is calling these new shifters Awakened Wolves, since it seems their wolf must have been dormant inside of them until now.”

  “Get some wolves ready to go out and find these Awakened Wolves,” Nick ordered. “We need to bring them to Moonwatch so we can help them out. They're probably fucking terrified. At least Gwen had us.”

  Nick glanced at his mate. Her first shift hadn’t been the easiest, but after a minute or two, she was perfectly fine and in control, like she had been shifting most of her life. Her wolf never gave her any problems, but he had a sinking feeling not all new wolf shifters would be so lucky. His Gwen was something special. She knew about her wolf before anyone. She felt her wolf inside of her. He didn’t know what to expect from these new Awakened Wolves, but he knew it’d be much better if Blue Pack got to them first. Other people, shifters, or supernatural beings he didn’t know of might not have good intentions.

  “You got it, bro,” Willow said, chipper as ever. “Sounds like it’s time for you and Gwen to come home. Sorry to ruin your date! It’s only six o’clock!”

  “Thanks, Will,” Nick said and then hung up. He wasn’t in the mood for banter. Actually, he was in a terrible mood now. At least Gwen got through most of her food. She had an appetite today, and that was definitely good. That was why he had been watching her, making sure she enjoyed her food. He hadn’t ended up even touching his. C’est la vie.

  “It’s okay, Nick. We’ll do this again some other time,” Gwen said soothingly.

  He grunted as he looked for a waiter he could call over. He spotted one and was about to do just that when a crash drew all eyes to a table on the opposite side of the room. Someone was having as bad of a night as Nick was. Dishes were, broken and expensive food was thrown all over the floor. There was an odd scent he noticed floating around too. He took a whiff, concentrating on that smell. It was the scent of a wolf he didn’t know. He hadn’t noticed it when he walked in with Gwen—probably because it wasn’t there before.

  Grabbing his wallet, Nick threw some cash on the table he hoped would cover their meal. Gwen stood up. She had picked up on the scent too. She looked at Nick and nodded. They had an Awakened Wolf to catch. Nick scanned the disaster area and caught sight of a man around their age stumbling out of the restaurant.

  Gwen started moving before Nick did. How she could walk so fast in those high heels, which she certainly didn’t need, he didn’t know. He sped up to keep up with his mate. Some
one needed her help, and Nick knew how she was when it came to someone needing her help. She had gone into protection mode and there was no stopping her when she did. That same thing was what brought them together. He’d never forget that.

  The guy had a head start, and he was running now. Realizing they’d lose him unless they picked up the pace, Gwen started running too. Nick was right behind her. They were out before the shouts in the restaurant could reach them. The guy was out of sight when they exited the building, but their keen sense of smell pointed them right to him. They found him slumped over by a dumpster at the back of the restaurant. His entire body was shaking and sweat was beading on his brow and the short bangs of his golden blond hair were sticking to it.

  “Don’t fight it,” Gwen said kindly and firmly at the same time as she walked up to the man without any fear.

  Fear for his mate and unborn pup’s safety drove Nick forward as well. He didn’t try to stop his mate as she placed her hand on the man’s shoulder, but he was ready to jump in if need be. His mate was better at this kind of thing, so if he could hang back, it’d likely work out better.

  “It burns,” the guy said through gritted teeth.

  “Stop fighting it, and it’ll pass,” Gwen assured. She proceeded to rip off his suit jacket, trying to make his shift easier on him.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, but he was too weak to fight her.

  He screamed as his body cracked and ripped with his shift. Nick grabbed Gwen and placed her behind him. The way the Awakened Wolf’s skin spread and changed shape was like tearing paper. It was the most violent shift Nick had ever seen. The poor bastard inevitably got tangled up in his clothes, and Nick decided it was time to step in. He ripped off the pricey suit because there was no saving it when there was an angry wolf growling and getting tangled in it. Once he had thrown the fabric aside, he saw a big pure white wolf with orange sunset colored eyes. Apparently, the guy was wearing a necklace too. He hadn’t seen it before because it was hidden underneath his clothes. The silver chain was long enough that it now sat comfortably around the wolf’s neck. It was a silver cross. The wolf was snarling and foaming at the mouth like he was rabid. The necklace wasn’t tight around his neck so Nick ruled it out as being a source of irritation. This wolf was just mad.

  “Be quiet,” Nick warned with a low growl of his own, asserting his power and position as an Alpha. “You’re going to draw other people back here, and then you really will be in trouble.”

  The wolf lashed out at him. He would have bitten Nick’s hands if he hadn’t pulled back so quickly. The thing was fucking crazed. Nick growled at him, holding a strong and intimidating stance as he bared his teeth in return. He turned up his aggression to the max. Most wolves would have cowered, but this one wanted to rip out Nick’s throat. He didn’t care about Nick’s status or power. Though Nick was a bit bigger, the ferocity this wolf displayed could be a problem for him. Nick held his ground, ready to fight if it came down to it. If it did, this would be a bloodbath.

  “Stop,” Gwen ordered in that authoritative human way of hers. Nick would have told her human displays of dominance weren’t going to do any good here, but her order actually gave the feral wolf pause. It was his human side fighting back. Gwen’s voice got through to that part of him.

  Nick had never seen such a mismatch of human and wolf. He could feel the war raging inside of the wolf shifter. If he had to guess, the human side was a mellow, probably easygoing, kind of guy. The wolf was anything but that. His wolf acted like a Berserker, another of Julie’s stories. Wolf shifters who rejected their wolf, the Moon’s gift by refusing to shift and accept their wolf half, split from their wolf. Almost like the two became separate entities. Julie said the wolf side would fight to take over completely. When it did, that shifter would be cursed forever as a Berserker, dangerous wolves that did nothing but destroy. Instead of blessed, they became cursed.

  What a mess. Nick would have preferred it if his hunch had been wrong. He and the rest of Blue Pack had a lot of work ahead of them.

  “Get the truck,” Nick told Gwen. “I’ll hold this guy here until you get back, and then we’ll spirit him away from this place.”

  Gwen nodded. “You sure you can handle him?”

  “Positive.”

  Whether Gwen handled the wolf better than him didn’t matter. He was not leaving his pregnant mate alone with a Berserker that could go into charge mode again at any minute. The poor thing was rolling on the ground whimpering at the moment, but who knew how long it would last. At least the human side of this shifter seemed to have a strong will. It might be the thing to save him.

  Gwen scurried off to grab the truck as Nick stayed behind to guard the white wolf in the alley. The wolf was losing the fight. His form was changing, going back to human. The shift back was more tearing and cracking sounds that were reminiscent of gunfire. If he kept shifting like this, someone was going to have to hear all the noise he was making. Nick hoped Gwen would be fast.

  “Ugh,” the man groaned as he curled up on the dirty concrete completely nude, aside from his cross necklace. He looked like he would shift back again at any minute. His body was trying to shift, picking different starting points to morph. He fought each tiny explosion to keep the wolf in.

  “What’s your name?” Nick asked. Maybe if he could keep the human side engaged, he’d be able to keep the Berserker at bay.

  “M-Max,” the guy replied with shuddering breaths. “What’s happening to me and why aren’t you and your girlfriend freaking out?”

  Nick bristled at the word girlfriend. Gwen was his mate, but Max couldn’t have known that. Neither of them were wearing rings. They weren’t married and therefore not officially mates in the eyes of humans.

  “We’re like you,” Nick replied, reminding himself that calm and collected was the best way to get through to this Awakened Wolf. “We’re going to take you to a little place called Moonwatch where you can stay until you get this wolf thing under control.”

  “Wolf!” Max tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a whimper.

  Nick walked up to him and covered him with the suit jacket Gwen had removed before he shifted. He turned his head when he heard the familiar rumble of his truck. Gwen parked right outside on the road, leaving the engine and headlights on as she got out. Nick wasted no time grabbing Max from off the dirty concrete and escorting him forward.

  Gwen opened the back door and Nick forced Max inside without much difficulty. Max was a little shorter than Nick, but he was sturdy, and now that he had a wolf, he was very strong. Nick was lucky he wasn’t fighting and that he didn’t know how to control his strength. Nick was about to shut the door, but Gwen extended her hand, holding it open.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m sitting in back with him,” she announced. “Scoot over… What’s your name?”

  “Max,” the Awakened Wolf replied. His voice was quiet and the tremble in his body was subsiding. The human side won. For now. He self-consciously touched the silver cross still hanging around his neck and then quickly used the suit coat to cover himself. “Uhh, maybe you should sit in front.”

  “Yeah, you should,” Nick agreed. “What if he freaks the hell out again?”

  “Ugh,” Max held the heel of his hand to his forehead. “I need to go back inside. My girlfriend is waiting for me. What am I even doing out here?”

  The guy was delirious. All the more reason for Gwen to drive and for Nick to sit in the back as a supervisor. God, if Max shifted and tore up his Silverado, he was going to kill him.

  “You can’t,” Gwen said soothingly. She walked away from the truck and back into the alley. She found Max’s ruined clothes, dug through them, and produced a cell phone.

  Nick was about to tell her to get into the front when she climbed into the back and shut the door in his face. He was going to drag her out, but some humans were coming out of the restaurant and drawing eyes would have been worse. He growled after he climbed
into the driver’s seat, slammed his door shut, and sped away.

  “You fucking lay a finger on my mate and I will bite your Berserker head off,” Nick threatened. He felt his wolf in his teeth and in his eyes, but he refused to shift. He was driving, damn it.

  “Seriously,” Max protested weakly. “I-I have no idea what’s going on or why I let two strangers put me in their truck almost completely naked. Am I getting shanghaied?”

  “Shhh,” Gwen hushed him sweetly. “We’re only helping. If you were in that restaurant with your girlfriend and you suddenly shifted into a wolf, you don’t think that’d go over well, do you?”

  “I can’t be a wolf!” he said hysterically. “I was passing out. I drank too much or something. I don’t know!”

  His hysteria was enough to call back the Berserker nature of his wolf. Nick kept glancing at him in his rearview mirror.

  “Gwen,” Nick warned.

  “Just drive,” she said calmly. She placed her hand on Max’s back as he was fighting the shift. “Call your girlfriend. Tell her you had a family emergency and that you’ll be away for a few days, okay?”

  Somehow, she got him to chill out again. She was good at appealing to his human side. She gently handed him his cell phone. He shook as he tapped the phone’s screen, and he continued to shake as he brought it up to his ear.

  Nick tuned out most of the conversation. He got that Max bailed for the “bathroom” before the mess he caused at someone else’s table. He also got that his girlfriend bought the family emergency story. That was all he needed to know. What he needed to spend his time thinking on now was how to solve this problem. Yeah, he and his pack would do their best to help this wild wolf out, but just how much work that entailed, he had no idea. From what Willow said on the phone, plenty more wolves like Max would be joining them soon enough. He hoped he was up for this. His mate seemed to be. Maybe that would be enough.