16
Hit the Road
My heart was pounding as I wove my way through the crowded living room and out the blessedly open back door. I out-paced the sound of Jack’s enraged growling and streaked into the back yard, leaving the angry werewolf behind. My mind raced for an escape. I knew it wouldn’t take long for Jack to finish shifting, and as soon as he did he would be right on my—
A huge, dusty-tan werewolf erupted from the back door, snarling and snapping for my tail. He tore rents in the grassy lawn as he chased after me, murder in his eyes, and swiped his huge, razor-sharp claws across my flank. I yelped in pain and pushed myself as hard as I could. I whipped around the corner and ran as fast as I could, which fortunately, was faster than the war-form wolf was capable of. I made it to the front of the house before he could make it to the back corner, and my eyes landed on the open window of Andrei’s red pickup truck. I bolted for the truck and dove through the window, thinking myself clever for going somewhere too small for the big bad wolf to follow.
Jack came tearing around the corner before I could even catch my breath and I found out just how wrong I was. The werewolf slammed into the truck at full speed, denting the door in and swiping his claws at my side through the open window. Holy shit! I tried to climb out the other side of the truck, but the driver side window was up and my wolf-paws were useless against the door handle. So I shifted back to my human form and reached for the door, but just as I did, Jack got a good grip on the passenger-side door. Metal screamed in agony as the furious werewolf started ripping the door off.
I pulled the visor down in front of me and blessed Andrei for leaving a spare key in the truck. I snagged the key and popped it into the ignition as the truck rocked to the side as Jack pulled at the door again, trying to rip it free. I turned the key and threw the truck into reverse, going off of nothing but my observational skills and movies and television since I had never driven a car in my life, and slammed my foot down on the gas pedal. Just as I did, the door wailed one last dreadful time as Jack managed to tear it free. The tires kicked up gravel in his face as the truck took me safely out of his reach, only barely in time to save my naked, squishy, human ass from his deadly claws.
I turned in the seat to look behind me and struggled to back the truck away from the werewolf at top speed without running into anything. Since there were still plenty of house guests hanging around, there were more cars in the driveway than usual, and since the driveway was lined on both sides with trees, this was harder than it sounded. I steadied my breathing as best I could, pushing down the panic in my chest, and hoping I could gain enough ground to turn the damn truck around and drive away without the werewolf catching up to me.
Of course, then I’d probably get arrested for driving a truck without a door down the highway naked, but I had bigger things on my mind at the time.
Like a blood-frenzied werewolf running way too damn fast for me to out-pace in reverse.
Jack closed half the distance between us before I was halfway down the long drive, then he dug his feet in and leapt for the truck, landing on the hood with a crunch. I screamed, “Shit!” and slammed on the brake as hard as I could. The momentum threw Jack over the truck and off into the trees to my left. I fumbled with the gear-shifter-thingy, trying desperately to put the truck into forward-gear as Jack picked himself up and leaped right at me—
A big, dark wolf with glowing red patterns all over barreled into Jack’s side, hitting him so hard, they both flew out of my peripheral vision. I whipped my head around to see, and Andrei was standing off with Jack, war-form against wolf-form, and staring him down. Jack still looked incensed, but he wasn’t advancing. Andrei growled at him loudly and Jack snarled back. Andrei took a step forward and the motion looked like a warning. The red patterns on his skin started to glow hotly, and Jack took another step back. The tension hanging between them was so tangible I was surprised I couldn’t see it.
From the strain in his shoulders, I thought Jack was getting ready to lash out at Andrei, but instead, he growled in frustration and started to shift. In a few seconds, he was human again, and as soon as he was, Andrei shifted back too. Two naked grown men stood facing each other for a long moment before Andrei finally spoke.
“Go back to the house, Jack.” There was no asking to his tone.
Jack growled lowly. “You wouldn’ be standin’ in my way if you didn’t have those tattoos.”
Andrei shrugged. “Yeah, well I do. So maybe you should fuck off.”
Jack glared at Andrei for a second, then spat to the side. “Better watch her, Hoss. Damn pup ain’t gotta lick of sense.” He strode away toward the house and Andrei watched him, turning to face him as he walked past, and staring him down until he was most of the way back.
I opened the door beside me and started to step out, but a searing pain shot up my side as my foot hit the ground. Andrei was at my side in an instant, steadying me. “Woah, take it slowly.”
I looked down and saw that my hip was torn and bloody. My thigh was coated in red from hip to calf and there were three long gashes that went straight into the muscle. “Andrei…” My thigh looked ruined and it terrified me. I’d never seen myself hurt this badly before and it was freaking me out, and when I’m freaked out, the snark level rises exponentially.
Andrei pulled me against him to support me better, helping me take my weight off my leg. “Dakota?”
I grimaced at him directly. “I think I chipped the paint-job…”
Andrei blinked and stared at me for a few seconds then broke into a belly-laugh. “I’m more worried about you right now, kiddo.” He picked me up in his arms like a child with no visible effort. “Trucks can be fixed. Fortunately for you, so can werewolves.”
I did my best to grin through the pain. The adrenaline was wearing off and I was feeling light headed. “Gonna take me to the shop?” I laughed helplessly. “Is there a werewolf body shop around here?”
Andrei carried me back toward the house. “Okay! You’ve lost a lot of blood, I see.”
I laughed a bit more then winced again. “Ow.” I sucked air through my teeth and pressed my face against Andrei’s chest.
“It’ll be okay. I’ve seen worse.” Andrei carried me into the house and straight up the stairs to Raelya’s room. No one batted a lash at the butt-naked guy carrying a butt-naked woman into the house, though I spotted Steph and a few others peering worriedly at my bloody side from the top of the stairs. “Bring her some water.” Andrei said to no one in particular as he shoved Raelya’s door open and took me inside.
17
Consequences
I thought Andrei was going to lay me on the bed and get a first aid kit or something to bandage me up. Instead he walked past the bed into Raelya’s bathroom and set me down in the shower. “Wash the blood off and get dressed. I’ll get you some food. You’re gonna be hungry.” He turned the water on and the cold spray hit me like a slap to the face. I squeaked indignantly and jumped away from the water before realizing my thigh didn’t hurt anymore. I looked down in shock only to find that the massive, bloody wound was mostly gone. I watched in awe for a few seconds as the long slashes knitted themselves back together right before my eyes.
Andrei laughed. “Werewolves regenerate, remember? I told you you’d be fine.”
He turned to step out and I stuck my tongue out at his back. “Well, you didn’t have to freeze me to death to finish the job!”
Andrei shook his head, amused, and closed the door behind himself. I adjusted the water to a decent temperature and started washing off. I ran my hand along my newly healed thigh again and again. I grinned to myself like an idiot as I stood there under the spray, fondling my not-clawed-up thigh. “Now I’m even better at whatever Wolverine does,” I said quietly to myself.
I showered and dried off, then stepped into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around my body. Raelya was waiting for me, her face full of anxiety and her eyes brimming with tears. “Dakota!” She launched herself at
me and hugged me tightly. “What happened?”
I hugged her reassuringly. “Jack decided to threaten me over you and I might or might not have called him a misogynistic jerk and insulted his manhood.”
Raelya pulled back from me and gave me a look. “Are you crazy?”
“Maybe.” I pulled her against me again. “But I’m not going to let that asshole push you around, and if he wants to treat women like property, he’s going to have to go through me first.”
Raelya hugged me again then shook her head. “From the look of you when Andrei carried you in, I was worried he had gone through you.”
“Neh, just a little of me.” I pulled back from her and turned to find my bag. “Let me get dressed, okay?”
Raelya nodded and turned away. “Andrei went to get you some food. I brought a bottle of water for you.”
“Awesome. I’m starving.” I pulled on some khaki shorts and a plain black tank top. I turned around just in time to see the door open again as Ralof, not Andrei, brought a tray of food into the room. The expression on his face was hard to read, but the wolf in me sank down, embarrassed.
Ralof put the tray on the end table I’d left at the foot of Raelya’s bed and turned to face me. “You should eat. Your body needs fuel after regenerating.” He glanced at Raelya wordlessly and she nodded her head to him and stepped out, leaving me alone with the Alpha. I skirted to the side and sat down on the end of the bed near the food.
Ralof crossed his arms and peered down at me. “So, Andrei told me what happened, but he did not know how it started, so I want to hear it from you.”
I hunched sheepishly. “Jack and I had a disagreement and it went downhill from there?”
Ralof nodded. “Mmhmm. I gathered that much.”
I sighed. “I was heading down for breakfast when he got all in my face and told me to back off of Raelya. I was not in the best of moods, and I might have been a bit snippier in reply than was strictly necessary.”
Ralof frowned as I spoke. “Go on.”
“Then he delivered a thinly veiled threat and my mouth slung some insults of its own accord, completely without my consent?” I grinned sheepishly.
Ralof raised an eyebrow at me. “Dakota…”
I sighed. “I know. I know it wasn’t smart, but he was trying to bully me into backing off of Raelya so he could have her. He was basically saying he doesn’t respect her choices and that he has more of a right to decide who she is with than she does. I don’t stand for shit like that, Ralof. I’m sorry, but it wasn’t in me to bow down to him.” My voice had become angry again as I spoke, and I found myself clenching my fists. I suddenly realized how easily my temper had flared; I didn’t think I’d always been so touchy.
Ralof hmph’d thoughtfully. “Well, I can respect that, and I respect that you stood up for both yourself, and for Raelya.” He let an approving smile touch his eyes before narrowing them down to a serious expression again. “But how did it go from harsh words to claws and blood?”
I rubbed at my hip idly. “Yeah well, about that… I came to my senses about the time Jack slammed me into the wall in a rage and my hand started getting hot.” I fixed Ralof with a pointed stare. His eyes widened minutely and I nodded. “The Hellfire seemed to want to come out in response to his attack, and I realized how dangerous that was to everyone around me, so I tried to tell him we couldn’t fight.”
Ralof sighed and nodded. “And he took that for you trying to talk your way out of it…”
I nodded. “And he called me a coward and started shifting and it all just kinda went downhill from there.”
Ralof groaned irritatedly and paced over to the window. I told him the rest of the story as he stared out into the sunny back yard and I could practically see a headache growing on his face. As I came to the end of my account he glanced over at me. “All right. I will go and talk to Jack.”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Ralof. I didn’t mean to bring trouble to the pack. And I’ll pay for Andrei’s truck.”
Ralof softened his expression. “It happens, Dakota. We do our best to keep from in-fighting too much, but we are werewolves. Tempers flare, we fight, and property gets damaged.” He walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. “But it is good of you to offer to make it right. I approve.”
I relaxed at his touch and smiled up at him hopefully. “So you’re not going to kick me out of the pack or anything?”
Ralof laughed. “No, Dakota, you don’t get kicked out of the pack for getting into a fight.” He arched an eyebrow at me seriously. “But you can get yourself hurt if you’re not careful, and if Jack truly lost control, the price could have been far more permanent.”
I scowled toward the door. “So what is a misogynistic jerk like him doing here anyway?” I sounded more bitter than I’d intended.
“Dakota, it is a very large pack. You are going to have to understand that everyone will find someone they do not like. It is not my place to tell you another’s story. But I will say this: every wolf here is here for a reason. If Jack was a bad guy, he would not be here.” He fixed me with a serious expression that I met only briefly before nodding and tilting my head slightly to one side, showing my neck, without thinking about it.
“I’m sorry, Ralof. I’m not trying to question your judgment. I trust you.” He smiled at me. “I just… I guess it’s like you say. I found someone I don’t like and he just… really rubs me wrong.”
“Well, as fights go, you know how to pick them, eh? He is only third in all the pack. Which means he is third strongest among us all. You do realize that, do you not?”
I smiled sheepishly. “I guess that’s why he kept trying to get me to bow to his dominance, eh?”
Ralof blinked at me, then groaned with a pained expression. “You’ve been fighting his dominance as well?”
I shrank down a little. “Uh… Yes?”
Ralof pressed his lips firmly and shook his head. “That is part of the problem then. If you are pushing against him in the hierarchy, it is no wonder you came to blows.” He fixed me with a level stare. “You would do much better to accept that he is dominant to you and let that bit of tension slide away.”
I chewed at my lip for a moment as I considered that, then I shook my head, slowly at first, and then very firmly. “I can’t do that, Ralof. I just can’t. I can’t give in to him.”
“Why not?”
“Because of how he spoke about Raelya. I can not bend knee to a man who believes he has the right to control a woman without respect to her own choices. I can not. And I will not. I’m sorry. That is just something I can’t do.”
Ralof sighed. “Then it is not something I can ask you to do.” He was quiet for a moment then he squeezed my shoulder again. “It will most certainly be harder on you this way, and there is nothing I can do to solve that.”
I nodded. “I know. But it’s okay. It’s not your problem. It’s mine, and I can own that.”
Ralof snorted lightly and smiled. “You have a good heart, Dakota.” He considered for a beat then added with a grin, “Maybe not the smartest wolf in the pack… But you are one of the good ones.”
I smiled at him warmly, pride rising in my chest. “Thanks for accepting me as I am, good heart and dumb head and all.”
Ralof gave me a pointed look. “That is part of my job as Alpha. To accept my wolves and care for them, regardless of their flaws.”
I sighed exaggeratedly. “All right, I get it. Ugh.”
Ralof laughed and clapped me on the back before heading for the door. “I need to go talk to Jack.” He glanced back at me seriously. “You may have provoked him in some ways, but he still should have kept his control better than that with a younger wolf. He is well old enough to be more responsible than that, and he will hear it from me.” He put his hand on the door then paused and turned back. “As for Raelya, you do know they have a history, yes?”
I scowled at the floor. “Yes, but Raelya said she ended that a long time ago and has tried repeatedly to make i
t clear to him that it was over. Apparently, he doesn’t respect her enough to accept her decision on the matter.”
Ralof made a low rumbling sound and nodded. “I will talk to him about Raelya as well.” He sounded very serious and just a little scary when he said that, which made me smile. He opened the door and stepped out, leaving me alone in Raelya’s room. I pulled my legs up onto the bed and tucked into the food Ralof had brought. I was pretty much ravenous by now and I still felt a little light-headed, so I imagined my body really needed the fuel for regeneration.
I was halfway through the meal when Raelya tapped on the door and stuck her head in. “Dakota? Can I come in?”
I laughed through a mouthful of food. “It’s your room, silly. Of course.”
Raelya stepped in and closed the door. “Well, yes, but if you still need to be alone, I can come back later.”
I smiled at her. “You’re too good to me, you know?”
Raelya smiled back at me as she crossed the room to settle in beside me. She leaned her head carefully on my shoulder. “There is no such thing.”
I found myself rubbing my head against hers without even thinking about it. “Is that so? Where’s my hot tub and massage then?”
Raelya laughed softly, climbing onto the bed behind me. I glanced back at her curiously as she laid her hands on my shoulders. “I do not have a hot tub, but…” She started rubbing and squeezing my shoulders and I groaned in instant ecstasy.
“Oh wow, I didn’t expect you to actually…”
Raelya grinned at me and continued her massage, working at my neck and shoulders gently. “You had a rough morning. If I can do anything to make you feel better, it is the least I can do.” She bumped her head lightly against the back of mine. “Especially after the way you stood up for me.”
I glanced back at her. “I thought you thought I was crazy for that.”
Raelya poked my nose lightly. “You are. You most certainly are. But it is incredibly sweet of you all the same.” She massaged my neck quietly for a moment before continuing very lowly, “You stood up to him because you felt he was not respecting me. It is more than I even did for myself.” She laid her head against the back of mine gently and nuzzled my hair very softly. “You are very brave, Dakota.”
Hunted (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 2) Page 12