Going Wild: Wolves on the Prowl: The Complete Collection

by Michele Bardsley

  “He’s been gone for almost a year. Who knows what happened to him.” Leo shook his head. “He was the last of his line. The Celtic wolves die with him.”

  “No,” said Chris, his voice quiet. “They die with his child.”

  He wanted to hit something: the tree, the ground, the smug face of Elder Brown. He’d been the one to deliver the Tribunal’s decree. They’d been invited to the cavern, the very place where the first wolf shape-shifters slept and ate and lived, and assigned them the task of killing March Wilmont. The Tribunal still did their business in the cavern of their ancestors, though its members seemed much more concerned about politics and nonsensical dictates than the welfare of the pack. Or so it seemed to Chris.

  But not to Leo. Leo, who followed the regs every single day of his life. Chris had been drawn to him, not only because he was older, but also because he offered the kind of security Chris never had. Leo was consistent. He was steady. He was thoughtful. He planned.

  Chris… not so much.

  “The Elders forget we had human ancestors.” Chris glanced at Leo, who was staring at him and frowning. Well, he could frown all he wanted. He had doubts about this course of action, too.

  March was their friend. They’d fought beside him, laughed with him, and helped him mourn his sister, Ella. Chris felt as though a hot brick had landed on his chest and then slid onto his stomach. He’d known her, of course. She’d only been a couple years older. He hadn’t yet revealed his preference for males; in fact, he’d dated around just to give everyone the impression he liked girls.

  Leo had courted the young Ella. The Tribunal had approved their match, but Leo had admitted they were not in love. Still, they were devoted to each other, and both deeply respected their duties to the pack. She’d conceived on their wedding night, but she and the baby died during childbirth.

  Chris had been seventeen, and only just named warrior of his father’s line. He’d trained with Leo, and genuinely liked the man. He wasn’t sure when he’d started crushing on him. After Leo married Ella, Chris had requested another mentor.

  A year passed.

  The night of his eighteenth birthday, Chris got stupid drunk. He decided the only birthday present he wanted was a night with Leo. So, he stumbled up to the man’s house, knocked on the door, and when the warrior answered wearing only a pair of jeans and a pissed-off expression, Chris had kissed him.

  Leo hadn’t protested. He simply dragged Chris into the house, threw him onto the couch, and fucked him senseless. Chris knew right then and there, he was in love.

  It took Leo a little longer to come to the same realization.

  Still, here they were, a couple looking for their female mate. The Tribunal usually ignored gay relationships so long they didn’t interfered with anyone’s duties. Chris wasn’t sure about adding a female into the mix. Leo wouldn’t mind, but even though Chris had slept with women -- okay, two women -- it wasn’t the same kind of thrill as fucking a guy. He didn’t like the idea of sharing Leo. And he really didn’t like the idea of mating with a female just to please those Tribunal jerks.

  March had felt the same way. The elders told March they expected him to mate, and if he did not, they couldn’t see the point of him sticking around. Basically it was a polite way of saying he either married a girl or he should get lost.

  So, March got lost.

  And now, after giving up his friends and his status in the pack, he’d found a female he was willing to sleep with. A human, but who cared? He was gonna be a father. Chris thought about Nate’s child growing in his mate’s womb. She was nearly at term. The pack had only recently become aware of the pregnancy, and the Tribunal had acted quickly. Hybrid breeding was an intolerable sin against the purebloods. March had committed treason, which was an automatic death sentence. He would die, and so would the woman carrying his abomination.

  Chris’s stomach squeezed with dread. He didn’t want to kill his friend. And he sure as hell didn’t want to hurt a mother-to-be. “Leo… what right do we have to kill someone not of the pack?”

  “What she carries in her womb is of the pack.” Leo stood up and walked to Chris, holding out his hand. Chris took it and allowed Leo to pull him up into his embrace. “I know what this is about,” said Leo, smoothing back Chris’s shaggy blond locks. “We will find a mate we both enjoy. She will have our children. I promise we’ll be a real family.”

  “Unless the Tribunal does to us what they’re doing to March. Maybe he wouldn’t have left or hooked up with a human if they hadn’t tried to force him to mate.”

  “Stop it, Chris.” Leo sighed and though Chris was only a couple inches shorter than him, he still tucked Chris’s head under his chin and held him close. As annoyed as Chris was with his partner, he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around Leo and press close to his muscled chest. His heartbeat kicked up a notch.

  “The Tribunal must sometimes make unpopular choices for the benefit of the pack. What if others starting producing children with humans?”

  “We’d have more shape-shifters.”

  “Chris…”

  Chris knew that tone. It was Leo’s you’ll-understand-when-you’re-older Dad voice. Argh!

  “Don’t patronize me! You never fucking listen. And you know what? That pisses me off.” He pushed out of Leo’s arms and glared at him. He wanted to be heard, and he was tired of Leo ignoring his opinions. “What’s duty without honor? I don’t care how we kill March. It’s wrong.”

  Leo grabbed Chris by the forearms and slammed him against the oak. He pressed against Chris, chest to chest, thighs to thighs, cock rubbing against cock, his massive strength leashed by his ever-present patience. Chris wished he were capable of that kind of control. But he was impulsive, and he knew it. He hated to wait around, not when he could take action and get things going.

  “You think I’m more a boy than a man,” he said bitterly. His chin jutted out, an act of petulance. He knew that he was being childish, which didn’t exactly help his boy vs. man case. But he was angry, damn it.

  Leo reached between them and grabbed Chris’s cock, his gaze icy as a glacier. “I don’t fuck boys.”

  “Is that what you’re going to do?” Chris laughed derisively. “Yeah, right.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Chris thrust into Leo’s loose grip. The feel of Leo’s calloused palm against his sensitive flesh felt good. “It means you wouldn’t let sex, or love, get in the way of doing your duty.”

  “Did you ever think that I follow duty because I love you, and our pack?”

  Chris hadn’t thought about the motivations for Leo’s decisions. He’d never really considered the emotional drive the man might have to complete his tasks. He was a machine, in bed, in life. Chris knew Leo loved him; he just wasn’t exactly verbal about it. And he held his emotions in check. Chris blurted his out. He couldn’t keep shit to himself.

  “Leave March to his life,” he said. “Let’s just go home.”

  “If we don’t abide by the pack’s ruling, we won’t have a home,” responded Leo softly. He began stroking Chris’s cock in earnest. “Do you ever think before you act?”

  “Maybe I don’t think enough,” said Chris, “but you think too much.” He pressed his mouth against Leo’s, parted the seam of his lover’s lip, and thrust his tongue inside.

  Leo aggressively returned the kiss, his hand working Chris’s cock. He freed his mouth, panting, and managed to say, “You are my partner in every way. Just because we disagree about the Tribunal’s decisions --”

  “Shut up already.” Chris ran his hands down Leo’s back and grabbed his phenomenal ass.

  Leo let Chris go, and disappeared around the tree. When he returned, he had the mini-lube. Chris’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

  “Turn around.”

  Chris’s heart went thumpety-thump. Leo was gonna do him, right in the middle of a mission? What the fuck? He turned and braced himself against the tree, offering his ass to Leo. The ge
l was thick, and a little cold. Leo massaged his anus, piercing it with a finger, widening and circling.

  Chris couldn’t catch his breath. Leo turned him on. His strength. His fierceness. One look from the man and Chris was a pile of fucking goo. He felt Leo push the tip of his cock inside, and his knees nearly buckled. “More,” he rasped.

  Slowly, Leo worked his cock inside Chris’s quivering channel. For a moment he lay against Chris’s back, sucking in air. Chris felt the frantic beat of Leo’s heart, and that made him even hotter for the man. He loves me. He wants me.

  Chris reached down and fisted his shaft with a trembling hand. As Leo began to fuck him, he matched the rhythm. Stroking his cock. He wasn’t gonna last long. It had been more than a week since Leo had touched him, much less taken him.

  “Leo. Oh, God. Leo!” The orgasm blasted through him, and Chris gripped his cock as his seed splashed the tree.

  Leo fucked him harder. Flesh slapped against flesh. His thighs quivered, and then, Leo howled, shoving deep, and came.

  Chris felt a sense of satisfaction. He was happy Leo had given into impulse, and he wished like hell they could just go back to the hotel and forget about March.

  Seconds ticked by. After both men caught their breath and their heartbeats returned to normal, Leo released Chris. When Chris turned, he found Leo cleaning himself off with a tissue. Of course. That was his lover, all right. Always prepared. He gave Chris some clean tissues, and he did the same.

  When they were through, Leo backed him against the tree and kissed him stupid. Then he leaned away and said, “I love you.”

  There was something tremulous in the words, something that made foreboding stab at Chris. “I love you, too.”

  Leo’s mouth curled into a rare smile. Then his eyes went wide. A pained gasp escaped as he staggered sideways.

  What the --

  A woman stood there, silent, practically a shadow despite her height.

  She moved fast. She yanked the silver dagger from Leo’s back, and tossed the other glinting blade toward Chris’s throat.

  He caught it. “You little bitch!”

  She kicked him in the solar plexus. Hard. His lungs nearly collapsed and he bent over, dropping the second knife. She scooped it up, and plunged both blades into Leo’s kidneys as she double-kicked behind his knees.

  Leo collapsed. He was too much of a warrior to scream, but the silver was doing its job. He was shaking, obviously in excruciating pain.

  She jerked out the knives and went for Leo’s carotid artery.

  Chris snarled and dove at her.

  She whirled away, sheathing the blades. Then she turned and ran, not away into the woods where he could scent and catch her, but to the nearest tree. She grabbed the lowest branch and swung up, catching another limb with gloved hands and using it to climb further into the tree. He heard her thrashing, the scrape of her boots against the trunk, and then she jumped into a nearby oak.

  And she kept going.

  Even as fury pounded through him, he was damned impressed by her skills. She wouldn’t get away, no matter how fancy her moves. And when he caught her, she was getting a throat full of his teeth.

  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be tonight. Not with Leo injured.

  Heart hammering, both pissed and worried, Chris knelt next to his lover. “C’mon. I’ll get you to safety.”

  “Get. Her.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Chris was gonna take Leo back to the rental car. It was a clusterfuck now. The Tribunal couldn’t be mad at their failure if some crazy bitch had tried to off them first. Why had she attacked them? Was she protecting March? That didn’t make any sense. March was more than capable of kicking ass, and he’d never give the job of protecting himself and his mate to someone else.

  What the fuck was going on here?

  Leo gripped his arms and used Chris’s strength to help him sit up. “Can’t. Leave.” He struggled to take breaths and Chris felt panic well. Leo sucked in a breath. “I’m healing. Go… g-get her.”

  “I’ll kill her.”

  “No!” Leo shook his head. His teeth were chattering and his lips turning blue. It felt like a hundred degrees out here even with the storm brewing, so it was bad that Leo had taken a chill. “Just restrain her.”

  Chris wanted to argue. Instead, he zipped his lips. Leo was in pain, his body trying to heal the effects of the silver. She’d jabbed three times, deeply. The wounds on Leo’s back were blackened -- one of the results of silver touching werewolf skin.

  “I’ll stay here. Need t-to heal.”

  “Dude. You look like shit.” He didn’t want to leave Leo. What if his body didn’t detox the silver?

  “Been through this before.” He gulped in air. “Can’t let her go. Might warn March.”

  “All right, already.” Chris could give two shits about whether or not March knew they were there. Maybe he could talk some sense into Leo. But right now, he just wanted Leo to feel better because Chris was seriously freaking out.

  He helped Leo to the same tree where he’d been sitting earlier. Leo leaned against the trunk. He was taking deep breaths, and he’d stopped shaking. He really was healing. Okay, that was good.

  “You’re w-wasting time.”

  Chris grabbed Leo’s hand, turned it upright, and kissed the roughened palm. “I’ll get her.”

  “Alive,” reminded Leo. He grasped Chris’s wrist and drew him in for a quick kiss. “Got it?”

  Chris nodded. When he caught the woman, he’d keep her alive, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t punish her for what she’d done. Still breathing constituted alive, right?

  You can run, he thought as he stood up and began the change from human to wolf, but you can’t hide.

  RAVEN PAUSED AT the top of a pine tree, and sucked in steadying breaths. Her heart hammered, skipping its beats, letting her know it was gonna fail her… maybe right now.

  That so hadn’t gone well. She’d severely underestimated the werewolves. Freaking paranormals. Those dagger wounds would’ve killed a human. Not to mention she would’ve been able to deliver the killing blow.

  The other guy had moved fast. He’d snatched the dagger right out of the air and if he hadn’t been distracted by his partner’s injuries, he might’ve actually gotten her. She’d seen the animal glinting in his eyes. She’d seen her death in those eyes, too.

  Before that, though, she’d seen the two of them kissing and touching. And then fucking. She’d waited, just to see how far they would take it. Watching them together had made her hot. She told herself it was because if they had sex, they’d be relaxed and less likely to pay attention to her movements. She’d been right.

  But if she was honest, she’d been a total voyeur. Holy fuck, it had been a really long time since she’d had sex. She’d always harbored a fantasy of getting freaky between the sheets with two guys. Even now, as she contemplated her failure, her panties were getting soaked just thinking about what it would be like with those werewolves. Inappropriate as hell. They were targets. This whole thing was too jacked up.

  What to do? Complete the assignment? Or bail?

  There was no way to tell if she could get to the house, kill Theo, and get out before the wolfies caught up to her. Still…

  If Theo Lowder was into any kind of technology, it sure as hell didn’t show. Her brief immersion into the vampire court revealed a big reluctance to adapt to modern times. Most vamps dressed and acted as they had during the time period they’d lived as humans. Queen Fiona encouraged such behavior, not because she wished to honor the desires of her subjects, but as a way to control them.

  Queen Fiona had an iPhone. But she still dressed like she was freaking Marie Antoinette -- with the powdered wig and everything.

  Raven’s heartbeat was still erratic, and panic was threatening. It probably hadn’t helped to think about doing those two hotties. She took calming breaths, and imagined that the organ was steadily beating, that it was healthy and whole. After a long moment, the rat
e stabilized. It was getting harder and harder to use that technique. Her heart had stopped listening to her Jedi mind tricks.

  If she didn’t complete her assignment she was dead. Queen Fiona would send someone to finish Theo and Raven. Even if she did manage to kill Theo, Raven’s heart could fail before she could get back to the court and go through the change.

  She chewed her bottom lip as she looked at the house. Inside was death for Theo and redemption for her. Only she wasn’t sure she wanted it anymore. Squatting in a tree, listening to the thunder roar as the air thickened with rainy intent, she was just tired.

  Her father had been black ops, part of a small group of agents who were in the deepest of the deep within the CIA. He’d demonstrated how she should protect herself, trained her to kill quickly and efficiently, and helped her shape perspective not only about the job but also about her own life. He showed her that mercy wasn’t a weakness. Bradley Cull had also explained one of the most important rules in the world of assassins: know when to get out.

  “Okay, Dad,” she said, blowing out a breath. “I’m out.”

  The choice was clear now. The choice she should’ve made when the cardiologist gave her the bad news. I’m not meant to be here anymore.

  She still didn’t know how Queen Fiona had found her. New Orleans had been one of her bases of operation, and that was where she’d gotten the diagnosis. The next night, the queen herself showed up and spouted off ridiculous crap like “I’m a vampire.”

  Then she’d proven it. The queen had opened the door into a whole new world -- a world in which Raven could live. And she had badly wanted to live.

  After a month of hanging out in the court, even with its occasional atrocities, she hadn’t been turned off enough by the lifestyle to chuck it as an option. Just because other vampires acted like they owned the afterlife didn’t mean she had to do the same. There were ways to ingest blood that didn’t include killing innocents. She’d spent a good deal of her time putting bullets into skulls, but she’d chosen her jobs, and could say that most of her targets had been real dickheads.