by Rose, Callie
A gunshot ricochets through the basement, and my heart crashes against my ribs as I come to a stop against the workbench.
Fuck. He’s shooting at them.
The shifters are powerful, but they’re not invincible. He could kill them if he gets in a good shot.
Scrambling to my knees, I watch as Ridge’s light brown wolf latches onto Clint’s arm. Clint cries out, his fingers jolting from the pain, and the gun slips from his grasp. Archer darts in to bat it away, while Dare and Trystan lunge to take the old man down.
Clint is undeterred. He tears away from Ridge’s teeth, taking a hunk of skin out of his arm in the process, and then stumbles away. Black-furred Dare manages to grab Clint’s blue jeans and take him to the floor, but Clint draws his knife and swipes out, making all four wolves dart away.
He gets back to his feet and kicks out wildly, catching Ridge in the face. He shoves at the growling, snapping wolves one more time before rushing across the basement toward the empty room where he used to keep me for “time out.” He manages to slide into the small, narrow stone room and jam the door shut.
My wolf companions throw themselves at the door. They’re monstrous, nothing but strength and muscle, and I think if given the time, they’d crack the heavy door down like it was made of plaster.
But they aren’t given a chance.
A moment after Clint walls up inside, a siren wails in the distance, and even I can tell it’s steadily drawing closer.
“The cops are coming!” I shout, struggling against the duct tape on my wrists. “We have to get out of here. They’re all dirty and friends with Clint.”
Not to mention, any cop—dirty or not—would be likely to shoot what they’d see as feral wolves.
Archer’s golden wolf falls away from the door and lopes to my side. Magic shimmers over him until he’s human again, and he quickly rips through the duct tape to free my hands. His handsome, boy-next-door face is pained as he helps me to my feet.
“Did he hurt you?” He cups my cheeks, green eyes searching my face.
I shake my head. “No. Not like before.”
Pain flashes in his eyes, but he just leans forward and kisses me. “Let’s get out of here. Climb on my back.”
Before I can respond, he shimmers with the change once again. He gives a short, sharp bark, and the other three wolves finally leave the door behind which my uncle is hiding.
Then we run from the house, the wolves dashing up the stairs single file as I cling with all my might to Archer’s fur.
The sirens grow louder as we burst out into the cool night air, and the wolves wheel in the opposite direction of the noise, paws thundering over the ground as they run flat-out.
I don’t look back. Not once. I don’t want to see the white house that holds too many of my nightmares.
I hope to God that was the last time I ever have to see that awful place.
29
Sable
Archer moves swiftly and gracefully beneath me as we race out of town. I clutch his fur and keep my head down, though I can’t help but steal glances at our surroundings as we run.
I don’t know this place, even though I lived here my whole life. My whole world was narrowed down to the house I was kept in, where each room might as well have been its own continent and my only real connection to the outside world were the books and movies I occasionally got my hands on.
We pass a barber shop, a movie theater, and a bank, the latter of which is obviously closed for the night. The buildings are old but well kept, mostly stone and connected by alleyways, and there are planters full of flowers everywhere. Everything is so normal, like a quaint little movie set used for a romantic comedy.
How did I come to live my own personal horror in a town this cute?
I gasp as I see people coming out of a corner grocery, talking and laughing among themselves in the light pouring from the windows. A group of teens carrying soda bottles and cigarette packs. Every single one of their jaws drop at the sight of the four giant wolves racing down Main Street.
Fuck.
Burying my face in Archer’s golden fur, I focus on taking a couple of deep breaths. I’ve come this far without a panic attack; I refuse to give in now. It can’t be good that people are seeing me and the men like this. Shifters have stayed hidden for so long on purpose, to protect themselves from human fear.
But… my wolves came for me anyway.
It still doesn’t feel real. I don’t know how Clint found me in that remote cabin, but it doesn’t matter. Because all four of the shifters came to save me. Thank God I opened up to them about my life and told them about where I was raised. Regardless, I have a feeling they would have found me even if they had to tear apart the countryside piece by piece.
They came for me.
I recall standing on the edge of Ridge’s village, weighing my options after I raced away from the elder’s shack. Archer promised me that if I stayed, if I went to the cabin with them to give the mate bond a chance, I would be the safest I could possibly be.
He obviously didn’t lie either.
Because they came for me.
The thought keeps repeating over and over in my head like a mantra. I grip Archer’s fur tighter, pressing my face into his neck. I relish the power of his body beneath me, and how his scent is wild and musky. He’s panting loud enough that I can hear him over the thundering of his giant paws, but he doesn’t slow. None of the men slow down as we leave the village behind and disappear into the wilderness.
These four men will protect me no matter what.
Time passes. We run so far and so long that my legs grow tired from clenching around Archer’s ribcage, and my fingers get weak from gripping his fur. By the time we slow to a stop, the moon is high in the sky and the inky blackness above is dotted with a million pinpricks of light.
I raise my head from Archer’s neck to find the now-familiar mating cabin visible between the trees ahead of us. It looks calm and serene in the dark night, like a place of safety and solace.
God, I hope that’s what it is.
Would my uncle come back here? Would he try again to find me and drag me back home after seeing what he just saw. I have to hope his sense of self-preservation is strong enough that he won’t want to fuck with the four massive wolves who invaded his home.
And if he does come looking for me again, I hope the men kill him.
I wish they’d killed him already.
Now that we’re no longer running, a chill sets into my bones. I came so close to dying today. I had allowed myself to believe that I was free of my uncle for good. Every day I spent in that cabin with these men healed me just that little bit, and in the blink of an eye, my uncle sliced open the safety net.
Will I ever really be safe as long as he’s alive?
Wrapping my arms around myself, I focus on my breathing like Archer taught me. The shock of ending up back at Clint’s, and the trauma of facing him again, aren’t going to pass easily. I’m shaking like a leaf and colder than I should be. The adrenaline dump, I guess.
The lights are off inside the cabin as we approach, and Dare fires up the generator. He murmurs something to Ridge as we all head inside the cabin, and the amber-eyed shifter answers in a low voice.
Oh, God. Ridge.
The reminder of the last time I saw him in human form tears through me like a bomb. As soon as we’re inside the front door and Trystan turns on the light, I throw myself at Ridge with tears pooling in my eyes.
His arms wrap around me automatically, and I bury my face in his chest. I can hardly speak through the lump in my throat. “I thought you were dead.”
His voice is rough, and his thick arms tighten around me. “No, sweetheart, not dead. Just got tranqued. I can’t believe that fucker got the drop on me.”
Our companions are still close by, but I can hear them murmuring to one another in low voices—giving me and Ridge the moment we need. This man has saved my life more than once now, and I’ll be forever indeb
ted to him for that.
But more importantly…
I breathe in his pine scent and revel in the warmth of his bare skin against my own. That delicious scent eases my panic. From the first day I awoke in his bed, his scent felt like coming home, and that’s more true now than ever.
I wish I could comfort him the same way he’s comforting me. There’s still tension in his body, and it turns his muscles hard and rigid even as his hands slide soothingly over my back.
“Are you okay?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper. I pull back and tilt my head up to look into his eyes.
Ridge slides a hand around from my back to cup my face. His thumb plays across my jaw as he stares down at me, his dark eyes full of emotion. “Fuck. No, little wolf. I’m scared of losing you.”
“You didn’t lose me. You found me,” I point out with a small smile. But the look on his face has set my heart into a dizzying pace. My own fear and emotions churning inside me have been threatening to take me down since the moment Clint walked through the cabin door.
I remember the way Ridge held me in the shower as the water washed over us both. Just held me with no expectations of me, no irritation at how long it took me to learn to breathe again. He’s been caring for me since the moment he picked me up off the canyon floor, when he could have left me there.
He hasn’t had to do any of this. He’s chosen to. Again and again and again, he’s chosen to protect me. Chosen to care for me.
Chosen me.
I move my hand up his chest, my fingers tracing over the muscles of his torso. His breath hitches in his throat, and his gaze drops to my lips. With just those two small things, need rises inside me.
Heat flashes over my skin and fills the air between us. Before I can second-guess it or overthink it, I wrap my arms around him and rise up onto my tiptoes to kiss him.
It’s as if the last several hours never took place.
Or maybe it’s like this because of the last several hours. Because we both know what we almost lost.
Suddenly, we’re kissing like we did earlier in the kitchen, with barely controlled abandon.
Ridge grips my hips and pulls me against him, reminding me that he’s fully naked. As our kiss deepens, he hardens against my belly, and the sensation sends a thrill of reckless desire through me. I undulate against him and catch his surprised gasp with my lips. He moves a hand lower, grabbing my ass and tugging me against him, while his other hand slips beneath my shirt to palm my breast. His thumb lingers over my nipple, and I feel a tug between my legs as if both parts of me are somehow connected.
The flames burning through my blood rise higher and higher. I lose all sense of myself and all sense of our surroundings as Ridge thoroughly explores my mouth with his tongue. I can’t even think through the heat, through the need. My body is burning for his touch to be everywhere all at once.
I break away, gasping. I’m lightheaded, so hot there’s nothing in the world that could cool me down.
Something I’ve never felt before is rising up inside me.
Something is happening to me.
30
Dare
Jealousy burns like fire inside me as I watch Sable kiss Ridge. It’s not a sweet, chaste kiss—it’s the kind of carnal embrace that comes before a man buries himself to the hilt inside a woman and relishes the moan he elicits when he bottoms out inside her. The exact thing I’ve been imagining since the night I found Sable on the edge of the creek looking like moonlight come to life.
I clench my fists at my side and glare, my wolf growling and protesting without making a sound.
That should be me.
I wish like fuck it was me pressed against her, tasting her lips, my hands on her body. I’m half-tempted to rip Ridge away from her and take his place.
She’s mine, my beast snarls, fighting to get loose. Mine.
But I remain standing just inside the front door to the cabin, my muscles locked and rigid. I’m not here for a pissing contest. I’m here to take care of my mate—to take care of Sable—and if this is what she needs, then I won’t let anything in the world keep her from having this. Not even my own emotions or the chemical desire inside me demanding I take what’s mine and fuck everybody else.
Suddenly, she pulls away, gasping for air. Her hands clutch at Ridge’s bare chest, and she gulps in breath after breath, her eyes wild, her gaze darting around the room as if she’s disoriented. Her lips are red and swollen from Ridge’s kisses.
“I feel—” She cuts off, shoving her mass of satin blonde hair away from her shoulders. Her skin is pink and a sheen of perspiration lines her temple. She lets out a low, helpless noise, still gulping air.
I can almost feel the heat rolling off her body from across the foyer.
“I feel… strange,” she says, the words coming out breathless and raw. “I need… something.”
“What do you need?” Ridge asks in a low voice, cupping her shoulders. I’m surprised at how calm he sounds. If I were in his place, I’d be nothing but wolf, shaking with the need to complete the mating. Shit, I’m not even the one who just had my tongue down her throat, and I am shaking with that need.
“I-I don’t know.” Sable closes her eyes and leans into him, breathing deeply. Then her eyes flutter open and they’ve darkened, her pupils dilated as she focuses on Ridge’s face.
The scent of her wraps around me. It’s something so familiar that I’ve come to love and crave, even as I’ve kept my distance and respected her boundaries over our time together at the cabin.
In the blink of an eye, that familiar scent changes.
It becomes darker, deeper, headier, swirling through the room like a tornado. My body reacts instantly—warmth flashes over my skin and my cock stiffens as if she’s touched it.
Fuck. She’s going into heat.
I know it as sure as I know I’d give anything to be in Ridge’s place right now.
Sable leans back into Ridge, kissing him with more wildness and abandon than before. Their desire becomes a living thing, and I grab the wall as it makes me lightheaded with need. I can’t stop watching her in his arms, the way she moves against him, the little sounds that come from within her as she grinds against his body.
She’s strung out with arousal, delirious in her quest to mate with Ridge.
To mate with him.
To complete the bond.
Goddammit.
The full realization of what that means hits me like a blow to the gut. It’s done. She’s chosen him.
The three of them all brought Sable up to this cabin to give her wolf space and time to choose. And after I scented her in the woods and my wolf made the same claim theirs had, I joined this little party, getting to know Sable as the five of us formed a strange, motley little band.
But if I’m being fucking honest, it never once occurred to me that she might not choose me in the end.
That’s how fucking sure I was of my feelings, of the truth of this bond.
I was wrong. Her wolf has chosen Ridge as her mate. And there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
I look at Archer and Trystan, both standing off to my left. They’re watching the scene with the same kind of open, bleeding pain I’m sure shows clearly on my face. They’ve come to the same conclusion I have.
Archer is the first to move, clenching his jaw as he blinks back what looks like honest to fuck tears in his eyes. He grabs Trystan’s arm and motions with his head that we should leave the cabin.
I know he’s right. Ridge has Sable pressed into the wall, one of her legs wrapped around his bare ass, and I’m not a dumbass. What comes next isn’t for the three of us to stand around and watch. Sable has made her choice. No matter how much it hurts, we have to respect that.
But God-fucking-dammit, I don’t want to.
It doesn’t matter that her wolf hasn’t chosen me. Mine has chosen her, so fully and completely that it feels like it might tear me apart. The wolf in me still howls brokenly in my soul, torn between two co
mpeting impulses—to protect Sable, and to claim her.
I can’t do both. Protecting her heart means walking away.
Even if it fucking kills me to do it.
Archer’s hand is on the door handle when Sable cries, “No! Stop!”
All three of us turn around to find her a couple feet away from Ridge, who’s collecting himself against the wall in her absence. She takes a tentative step forward, those big blue eyes wide, her long lashes blinking away a cloud of unreserved lust.
I’ve never seen her look more beautiful or powerful than she is right now. I want to bow down at her feet and fucking worship her.
“Don’t go,” she murmurs, still breathing hard. “I can’t let you go. I need you. All of you. Please.”
The crack in her voice tears through me, and I take an involuntary step toward her in response, drawn to her by a magnetic force. But I stop, hesitating for a long moment.
What she’s saying… what she’s asking for…
It never occurred to me that we could share her. Sharing isn’t something coded into us. It’s not something shifters do, and it’s definitely not something I do with much of anything in my life. I’m solitary for a reason. I’m a grouchy motherfucker who doesn’t like sharing what’s his.
Behind me, Trystan and Archer seem to be warring with the same thoughts and feelings. I don’t sense either of them moving, only the waves of confusion rolling off them as we all take in the beautiful woman before us.
“Please stay,” Sable says, her voice husky. As she continues speaking, she meets my gaze, then does the same with each of the shifters behind me. “Something is happening to me. It’s—I need you. Not just one of you. All of you.”
And that does it.
That breaks me.
Just as there isn’t a chance in hell I’d ever stand in the way of something Sable desires, I’d never deny her either. So I stride across the small expanse between us and step up to her, reaching out to touch her face. Behind her, Ridge joins me, one of his hands curling around her belly. Her need rises immediately, the scent of her desire like a drug racing across my senses.