by K. Panikian
August drew back, frowning. “No, I want to help you. Sienna, I like you. I want you to be happy. I’m not trying to gain anything for myself.”
My heart thumped and the knot in my belly grew. I couldn’t believe him. He didn’t know me, the real me, the me that raged and thirsted for violence all of the time. So maybe he didn’t find my Beast form hideous, but I was still a monster in my soul. He needed my help, but he didn’t want the real me. No one did.
I started shaking my head, pulling farther back on the couch. I judged the distance to the door.
“Sienna, please.” August bent his head to look into my eyes. “I’m not saying this because I want to use you. I’m saying it because it’s true. You’re strong and loyal, compassionate and brave. You’re beautiful. When I’m around you, I feel alive. I remember the reasons I agreed to be an alpha in the first place—to help people, to make things better.
“From the moment we met in the spring, I’ve been drawn to you. Yes, it’s your power calling the alpha in me. But it’s also you. I want to be near you. My tiger wants to be near you. He’s obsessed.”
I drew back.
“—You know, in a good way,” August finished quickly.
My hands trembled as I hid them in my lap.
“I know you don’t trust easily.”
An involuntary laugh snorted out and we smiled at each other.
“But,” August continued, “I want to help you. I want to be with you. I’m not asking for anything in return.”
I felt tears pricking at my eyes; I so desperately wanted to believe him.
He leaned closer and his masculine, intense scent swept over me as he trailed his fingers down my arm. I closed my eyes involuntarily and felt him brush his lips over mine. I gasped.
August kissed me harder, gripping the back of my neck and tilting my head with a strong, gentle tug. His lips grazed hungrily over my face before he found my lips again, pushing mine apart to thrust his tongue inside with a growl. Our teeth clacked together and he sweetened his touch. I lost myself in the sensations rioting through my body. His scent enveloped me and I felt myself slipping, reaching for him. Want and desire pounded through my veins and I tore myself backward on the couch, staring at August as my breath rasped in and out.
I shook my head again.
“How can you walk away from this, from us?” he demanded. “Don’t you feel it?”
I trembled. “You don’t understand. I can’t—”
August grabbed my wrists as I gazed into the stark planes of his face. “The world is not a fair place, Sienna. You have to fight to make it the way you want it. You don’t think this is worth a fight?”
My heart thumped sickeningly. I’d spent my life avoiding fights, controlling my wild nature with an iron grip. Yes, I’d loosened the reins recently, but I wasn’t ready to be a part of a pack. Was I?
Then what was I doing in Yellowstone? The protective instincts I felt toward my territory and my friends told me I was already building a pack, however unknowingly it started at first. I wasn’t good at it though—I’d killed those elk calves when I tried to get them away from the fire. What if they’d been pack members?
Rubbing my wrists, I leaned away from August again. “I’m not ready for this.”
“This?”
“For us, if there’s an us, for your pack, if that’s what you're offering. We need to stop Blair and then I need to think. I’ve spent twenty years keeping my secrets. You ask for too much, too fast.”
August sat back, his posture stiff, and scrubbed his face. “I’ll stop pushing, for now,” he muttered. “But I’m not backing off. I’ve had a taste of the real you now. I’ll find a way back. You can’t run from this. You think I’m searching for love? I’m not. But I’m not a fool.”
He stood up abruptly and walked to the door. I watched with wistful eyes as he slipped outside and started to pace the porch.
Dropping my head back on the couch, I stared at the roof beams above me. I didn’t know what to do.
Chapter 17
I must have fallen asleep again because when I woke up, the cabin was dark. The coals in the fireplace smoldered dimly. Murmuring voices echoed from the porch and I slipped from under my blanket, creeping to the window.
I heard August say, “That has to be it. We’ve got to move now. I don’t know how long until the police figure it out, too, and I want Blair permanently out of the picture, not in jail somewhere.”
A woman’s voice said, “Who do you want with us?”
August said, “Paulette, Gideon, and Thomas.”
“I’ll get them to the turn off. Meet you there in an hour. Are you bringing Sienna?”
“I’m going to ask her if she wants to go, yes.”
“What are you doing, August? She’s a park shifter. She doesn’t want to be in a pack. She’s not a very good fighter either.”
“She’s never had a choice, Maren. And she’s stronger than you know.”
I heard the sound of boots scraping on the wood porch before a car started up. I hopped back onto the couch and breathlessly pulled the blanket back over my body.
When August stepped back into the cabin, I peeked through my lashes to see his tall, dark shape silhouetted by the departing headlights.
“I know you’re awake, Sienna.”
I sat up, flushing. “Are you going to tell her about me?”
August shook his head slowly. “It’s your secret. You can tell whom you want. But if you’re going to keep it a secret, don’t use your hybrid form in this fight. We can’t kill everyone who sees you.”
“Do you know where they are?” I hopped off the couch and searched in the dim light for my socks.
“Gideon tracked Soren’s signal to an old campground near Moose Road. Yvette and Stacy have clammed up, but Stacy had a receipt in her purse for a gas station near there too. So that’s our best idea right now.”
Nodding, I found my boots and pulled them on.
“Maren and a few others that I know are loyal are going to meet us at the turn off in Wilson. We’ll shift and surround the campground, listening and watching. If we find Blair, we go in and take her out.”
“If she’s trying to take over your pack, don’t you need her alive to give you names?”
“I know the names. She’s a trespassing shifter and a criminal; that’s all that matters right now,” August answered.
“What about civilians?” I asked. “What if she has people with her that don’t know about shifters? Won’t they tell the police they got jumped by a lot of wild animals?”
“If there are non-shifters there, we’ll go in as humans.”
“What if they have guns? What if Soren’s there but not Blair? What if—”
“Sienna,” August growled, “we’re going to have to play it by ear. Come on.”
I followed him into the darkness outside the cabin as the stars sparkled through the trees. The cold air prickled and raised the hair of my arms—August bumped into me, handing me a sweatshirt. I pulled it on and swayed at the alpha scent that surrounded me. August chuckled.
WE knelt in the tall grass outside of the campground—a puma, a tiger, a lioness, a bear, and two jaguars.
The jaguars, Paulette and Thomas, were a mated pair and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them. Slightly bigger than my puma, their stocky bodies and large paws looked ready for war. Their dappled rosettes blended perfectly with the night shadows and they crouched, side by side, silent and deadly-looking. They hunkered on one side of me and on the other, August waited, his tiger body almost as large as the bear, Gideon on the other side of him.
I restrained the absurd urge to giggle. We looked like zoo escapees, all lined up in a row. I couldn’t see Maren, the lioness, on the other side of August, but I could smell her. We were downwind of the camp though, so hopefully no one inside smelled us.
We’d shifted and left the cars at the fork in the road, parked in the shadows under a stand of cottonwoods.
August h
adn’t introduced me and no one had done more than wave at me. I knew he was keeping my secrets. I’d met Maren already, but I figured out everyone else through the process of elimination.
I appreciated that August made no assumptions with me and his pack, but part of me also hated it. I wanted him to push me. My wild soul thrilled to be on this chase with him, with his pack, and my Beast was in heaven. Hunting in the darkness, unsuspecting prey, and an alpha by her side—she was ready to erupt and storm the campground by herself. I reined her in forcefully.
The grass next to me quivered as August shifted to his human shape. The bodies around me did the same so I shifted, too, ignoring my shivers in the cold air.
His voice a silent breath, August said, “Surround the campsite. I smell at least two humans, plus Blair and Soren. No one leaves. Don’t kill the humans unless you have to.”
The nude forms around me melted into the shadows and I waited when August bent his head to mine. “Stay with me,” he breathed.
I nodded.
He brushed a warm hand along my shoulder and I followed him as he moved silently and swiftly from tree to tree, closer and closer to the camp. His nude body gleamed gray in the dim light. I stepped carefully with my bare feet, watching the darkness around me.
The large building, which I presumed was the former check-in building and camp store, loomed black and still. Beside it, a sad-looking empty pool gaped in the moonlight. We crept past the silvery-gray pieces of the playground equipment, their shadows long and thin in the moonlight, and moved steadily toward the fire that blazed in between two camping trailers.
Two heavy trucks sat, parked haphazardly in front of the trailers, taking up the gravel loop that wound through the empty campground.
I inhaled the woodsmoke and human scents. August tugged on my hand and I paused, crouching next to him. I resisted the temptation to run my knuckle across the muscled planes of his chest. Not the time, Sienna!
“Soren will shift to fight. I’ll take him and drag him out of sight. Blair will go for you.”
“No problem. I can take her as a human.”
August blinked at me in the shadows.
“Trust me,” I said.
He nodded, shortly.
“The two humans will run. We’ll let the betas grab them.”
I squeezed his hand. “This is nice. I like this. I’m having fun.”
August bent his head closer to mine and exhaled into my hair, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
I gave into the urge to stroke his chest, since he was so close. “Do you do this a lot? I think if you do this a lot, I might be more interested in joining your pack.”
August instantly sobered and pulled away. I missed his warmth. “No,” he promised quietly. “I don’t seek violence.”
He strode into the darkness and I sobered too. I’d been teasing him, mostly, but part of me had been serious as well. I was high as a kite on adrenaline and the violent hunger coursing through my body. I wanted to rend, to tear, to make my enemies bleed. It was only one more reminder that I didn’t belong with a pack.
I followed August to the shadowed trucks and looked at the campfire.
Soren and Blair sat side-by-side at the picnic table, her legs on his lap. Across from them two men sat in lawn chairs—bearded and scraggly, they looked like brothers fallen on hard times. The picnic table was littered with fast food bags and beer bottles.
I focused solely on Blair as memories of her hammering fists swamped me. August didn’t want me to change forms, but he didn’t know what I could do with only my hands.
I stared at the blond, preening woman and let my rage drag me under. I remembered her cackling laugh, her cloying scent, and her taunting voice. I remembered her possessiveness over August.
My wrath coalesced and I channeled it, forming my monstrous hybrid claws. I kept them behind me, out of sight of August, and waited for the signal.
In the trees an owl hooted and Blair sat up straighter on her bench. “Listen!” she hissed to Soren.
Soren, bent over his phone, looked up with bleary eyes and a full beer fell off of his lap, dumping its sudsy foam into the dirt. “Wha—”
The owl hooted again and Blair shot to her feet. She spared a moment to stare at Soren while he blinked at her stupidly, before she bolted for the trucks.
I crept closer to intercept her as August rose from the shadows and headed for Soren. I heard a low growl as August tackled the other man, dragging him out of sight behind the farther trailer. I caught a glimpse of a tiger tail and a harsh, coughing roar echoed.
The two humans started, looking around with frightened faces and muttering in confusion. I watched Maren and Gideon creep toward them before I focused all of my attention on the blond woman running toward me. I rose from my crouch and Blair flinched back. Derision filled her face when she saw me.
“Ranger Barbie,” she sneered. “What do you think you’re going to do?”
“Hi Blair,” I said calmly. I restrained all of my wild urges, looking at this woman who’d hurt so many. “What’s going on? Camping with some friends?”
She cocked her hip and curled her lip. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“Okay,” I said. “How about I try? You got kicked out your pack—”
Blair let out a low growl and her eyes sheened green as her lioness peered at me.
“And you didn’t like it. You decided you were a better alpha than August, you just needed to convince the pack to back you. To do that you had to show you were a good provider.”
Blair’s growl trailed off as she straightened.
“So you hatched a rustling scheme, roped in a handful of local guys to help out, and started raising cash. You hid the evidence here and there, sometimes with fires, and you built relationships with local businesses, showing them you could bring the meat when it counted.”
I leaned forward, my own hip popping out at a cocky angle. “How am I doing so far?”
Blair hissed, “You can’t prove any of it.”
I brought my hands from behind my back and showed her. “I don’t have to prove anything,” I said. “This is the end of the line, Blair.”
She stared at my hybrid claws with wide, horrified eyes. Her gaze shot to mine and she opened her mouth.
“Don’t beg,” I said. “It’s beneath you. You can go quietly and I’ll call Chief Palmer right now. You’ll spend some amount of time in jail, but probably not that much, in the great scheme of things.”
“Or?” she asked, her voice shaking but her eyes hard.
“Or we end this now.”
I saw the sneer begin again and I knew she’d made her decision. She could never handle a cage, this wild, evil woman. A part of me recognized her spirit, but it didn’t matter. She’d threatened my Yellowstone pack and she’d helped murder innocents. She’d made her choices.
Blair lunged for me, her fingernails sharp and I stepped back. She kicked out with a booted foot and I moved aside. Snarling, she recovered and ran at me, barreling into me with her shoulder, knocking me back into the truck. My head hit the door hard and my rage returned, blasting into my brain in a red haze. I punched her aside with my fisted claw and shook off my dizziness.
As she stumbled back, she clutched her ribs and lunged again. I met her fist with a monstrous claw, batting her away with one hand and backhanding her with the other. She hit the side of the truck hard, crumpling into the dirt. I leaned forward and dug my claws into her throat before ripping away the flesh. She made a soft, gurgling sound before falling still and I dropped the piece of her that I held in my claws.
I felt a twinging discomfort and looked down at the knife handle sticking out of my stomach. I stared at it for a long moment, my brain slowly catching up. She stabbed me? I hadn’t even seen the knife. It felt like a hot brand punching through my stomach, a grinding, aching ribbon of pain. My hands shifted back and I reached for the knife to pull it out.
“Don’t!” shouted Maren by my side.
She knocked my hands away from the handle. “You’ll make it worse. Don’t touch it!”
I blinked at her as the wave of pain began to crest. It surged from my belly and up, with radiating fingers, to find my nerve endings in my arms and chest. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I resisted the compulsion to pull out the blade.
Maren bent to look at the knife. I heard her call my name from a great distance but only focused when she pinched my arm.
“You can’t pull it out. I know it hurts. But if you pull it out, you’ll lose a lot more blood. You need to stay still.”
I looked down at the crimson streams dripping down my stomach and thighs and wondered if it really made that much difference to lose more.
A roaring noise began to echo in my ears and I looked up, trying to find August, but it was my own blood surging in my skull that made the roaring sound. My vision tunneled and my breath started coming in pants. I felt lost and afraid, and cold. So cold.
Suddenly August knelt at my side. He stared up at me where I stood, swaying, and barked out, “Maren! Leave us.”
She shook her head at him. “We need to wrap it so the knife handle doesn’t move. Then she needs a hospital. Right now!”
August turned glowing alpha eyes at her. “Leave us,” he growled again. “Take the others. Get rid of the bodies.”
Maren nodded shortly and moved away, shouting into the darkness. I focused on the fiery amber eyes that stared up at me where August knelt.
“Didn’t see the knife,” I croaked out and looked down at my human hands. Jeez, I’d been arrogant, thinking my Beast claws would keep me safe.
“Sienna,” August urged quietly. “Primals can heal themselves from most injuries in their hybrid forms. Do you think you can shift?”
I dropped my hand onto his hair and wavered on my feet. “Sorry,” I whispered. “Should have kissed you more.” My brain felt foggy and slow. My stomach really, really hurt.
“Sienna!” August barked out again. “Focus! Can you shift to your hybrid form?”
My hybrid form, I mused. I looked and saw my Beast below the surface, uncertain and hurting. “She’s hurt.”