Savage Moon: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 4)

by Kimber White

  Jax staggered to his feet, the heavy chain around his neck weighing him down. Pat sensed my fury and put a steadying hand on my shoulder. Jax looked from Pat to me and back again. Kane just smiled and jerked the chain hard. But Jax stayed on his feet. That simple act of defiance gave him strength.

  “And you,” Pat pointed to Kane. “You keep them in check. You hear me? You’re on my property now. You dishonor the pact, and you’re outnumbered. By wolves and bears. You hear me?”

  Kane smiled. “Who do you think brought the bears here, Pat? They fight with me.”

  “No. They. Do. Not.” Jaxson croaked.

  I took a chance. Stupid, maybe. But I couldn’t stay back another second. I went to my brother. Alec growled low behind me and snapped the air with his teeth. But, he let me go. It brought me dangerously close to Kane, but the pack stepped aside and let me pass.

  I wrapped my arms around my brother and pulled him close. He was skin and bones, but I could still feel the quiet strength of his resolve. He’d been beaten, not broken. I ran my thumbs over the sharp angles of his hollowed-out cheekbones. The muscles twitched along his square jaw. His sable eyes flashed, and I went up on my tiptoes to put a kiss on his cheek.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I knew the whole pack could likely hear, but for now it didn’t matter. “This is all my fault. If I’d have listened to you and Dad.”

  Jax shook his head. “Stop. Just, thank God you’re okay. Are you?”

  I nodded. “I am now.”

  Kane snapped the chain and Jaxson staggered sideways. I lunged forward to grab him, but he went to his knees.

  “What do you want?” My voice tore through my throat. “What in God’s name could you possibly want? Me? Is that it? If I go with you will you end this?”

  Alec growled and slowly advanced. Wade, Brandon and the rest of the pack formed a line in front of Kane.

  “Stop!” I yelled to Alec. “Everyone. Just stop!”

  I couldn’t take it. Not another second of it. The bears behind my father reared up, and I saw the bloodlust in their own eyes. Kane said they fought on his side, but they didn’t. My father had gone completely feral. All he could see were his two children in the center of a pack of murderous wolves. The bears weren’t going to make any distinctions if it came to it. They were going to rip apart every wolf they could get their paws on. And the packs would be forced to fight back.

  So it seemed we were on the brink of a civil war within the wolf packs, and an all-out massacre between the wolves and the bears. My cursed mark flared hot. As much as I wanted to turn away, I couldn’t. Kane had enough of a hold over me that from five feet away, when he wanted me to look at him, I did.

  I saw stone cold purpose in his eyes, and it chilled me to my core. He didn’t care about me. He didn’t even care about his own pack. He cared about one thing only. Total control. Total war was exactly what he wanted. Wolf against wolf and bear against bear. He’d purge Wild Lake with the blood of all the shifters so he could have it for himself.

  The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile when he realized I understood his look. He was giving me a choice. Stay here and die with the rest of them, or come with him and live.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Kane’s voice rose among all the heated growls and bared fangs. I hooked my arms under Jaxson’s to help him stand.

  “The girl is mine,” he shouted. “That’s all I came here for. I’ve claimed her under pack law.”

  “No, you haven’t!” Harold stepped forward. He might have been blind, but his aim seemed deadly accurate as he pointed the barrel straight at Kane. “You forced that mark on her. You know that goes against everything.”

  “I claimed her. Caleb, listen to me. I would never hurt her. You let us leave here in peace and you can take your son back with you.”

  The bears behind him pawed the ground and my father sniffed the air. I don’t know if he was in there. Kane might be wasting his breath. But even in wolf form, Alec knew exactly what Kane said. He lunged forward, brought his head low to the ground, and growled at Kane. Unfortunately, my father saw it as a threat. He ran forward, his paws digging into the earth.

  “Stop!” Jaxson yelled again. He seemed to be the only one able to get through to him. And thank God he’d worked out that Alec wasn’t a threat to me. Only Kane was.

  But, we’d reached a stalemate. If Alec tried to go for Kane, his pack held the line in front of him and would tear him apart. The same was true for my father. Though he had them beat by size, even the mighty Caleb Lord couldn’t win against five wolves in a bloodlust. The rest of the wolves squared off with the rest of the bears. This was going nowhere fast.

  Pat whistled again. “Looks like we do this like in the old days. Bas,” she turned to him. “As the Alpha of the largest pack in Wild Lake, can you speak for all of them?”

  Bas’s large, red wolf stood near the east edge of the yard, nose to nose with one of the grizzlies. It had been a while since I’d seen him, but I think it was Ian Corey, from up near the Canadian border. Bas backed away from Ian. He took a chance and shifted, his muscled body rising from a crouch, and walked toward the center of the yard, letting one of his pack members take his place in front of Ian.

  “For this? I can,” he said. He came to Alec’s side and put a hand on his back. Alec sidestepped and let out a high-pitched whine, but he stayed in wolf form.

  “Who speaks for the bears?” Pat called out.

  That was going to be a hell of a lot trickier. When they shift, bears are more feral on the inside than wolves. They don’t think in words. I doubted my father or any of the rest of them could even hear what Pat was saying. They just saw more wolves in one place than there had ever been and Caleb’s son and daughter at the center of the threat.

  Jaxson staggered and coughed beside me. “I can speak for the bears.”

  “Take these off him!” I shouted to Kane. “He can barely stand, let alone run or shift, Kane. If you want me to so much as consider going anywhere with you when this is all over, you let Jax go. Call it a show of good faith. You think the bears are here to fight with you, but they’re more likely to rip your arms from their sockets and beat you with them. Look around.”

  He did. And for the first time, I detected a slight wavering of Kane’s bravado. My father came down hard on his front paws, shaking the ground. He leaned his great, brown head far forward and let out a mighty roar that blew Pat’s hair back as she stood next to him. God, one swipe of his paw and he would have broken her in half. It meant he was mostly savage, but not all the way. He wouldn’t hurt her. For now.

  Kane turned toward me and tossed me a rusted key. With shaky fingers, I freed my brother from the shackles around his wrists and neck. The skin beneath it was rubbed raw from weeks and months in chains. Jaxson couldn’t straighten his spine all the way from whatever cramped quarters Kane had held him in. But, even though he couldn’t shift, I sensed his strong bear inside, fighting hard to come back out. But God, the force of the shift might tear him in half. I prayed he had the strength to keep the beast at bay until his body had a chance to heal. While there was breath left in my body I’d fight to give him that chance.

  “You can use the barn,” Harold called out, still waving his shotgun toward Kane.

  “I don’t want her near him!” Kane said, seeing Alec move even closer to me. “Not while I don’t have eyes on her.”

  “Enough,” Bas said. “Your pack is standing right here. Don’t you trust them to heed your commands?”

  Kane let out a snort but backed away. I dug my fingers into Alec’s fur to keep him still beside me. Then, I reached out and grabbed my father’s thick coarse fur just above his shoulder. So there I stood, caught between the wolf and the bear I loved, hoping for a way to get them out of this with their lives.

  Pat had the presence of mind to throw Bas a pair of jeans as he started to walk toward the barn. He stabbed his legs through them and stood beside Jaxson. I wasn’t sure Jaxson could manage p
utting one foot in front of the other. He swayed, dangerously dizzy. Bas stopped and put a hand out to him. Jax growled, mistrusting. But when he looked back at me I gave him a slow nod. He’s different. You can trust him. For now.

  So Jax took Bas’s offered hand and walked with him toward the barn. Harold stayed on his porch with the shotgun and Pat fell in step behind Bas. Kane followed close behind, leaving the rest of us in a stalemate in front of Pat and Harold’s farmhouse.

  Minutes ticked by. An hour. I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stand my ground with my hands digging into Alec’s and my father’s fur. I felt the tension vibrate through each of them. They were both coiled fury ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Kane’s pack represented the biggest threat for lighting a fuse. They stood in a line in front of me, their teeth bared, their deadly focus halfway between Alec and my father.

  The sun began to set. Bats flew overhead, darting among the trees and swooping low in front of me. Still, I waited. We heard nothing from the barn. I half expected it to burn to the ground around them.

  Finally, as the stars came out, the barn door opened and Pat came out first. I couldn’t read her expression, but her gray hair clung to her, her temples beaded in sweat. Jax came out after her, looking weaker and grayer than when he went in. Bas came out behind him, his silver wolf eyes flashing bright. Whatever happened in there had him keyed up and itching to shift. I didn’t need to bear his mark to see it. Fur sprouted around his collar and he took a deep breath to shake it off.

  Pat got to us first and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “Well, Patsy, don’t keep us in suspense. What happened?” Harold said. He’d been so quiet, I forgot he was even back here.

  Pat tucked a flyaway hair behind her ear and blew a breath out. “Well, we have a solution. You’re not going to like it, but we’ve got no other choice.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “I hate this.”

  Alec paced in front of me, bouncing on the balls of his feet with each turn he made. He’d only switched to pacing when he ran out of things to punch. Pat’s plaster walls paid the price for that.

  “It’s the only way. And I’m ready for it. I want it. More than I ever realized.”

  As soon as the sun came up, all of our lives would change one way or the other.

  “But what about what Bas said? You’re used to fighting. Not leading. They’re not the same.”

  Alec turned to me. In an instant his look went from fierce to tender. I sat on the edge of the bed in Pat’s first floor guest bedroom. Alec went to his knees and put a hand on my legs. I cupped his face and threaded my fingers through his hair.

  “And how do you know Kane’s pack will honor the deal? Even if you win, what’s to stop them from ripping you apart two seconds later?”

  The deal was simple. At sunrise, Alec would challenge Kane. One on one. Wolf against wolf. Alec had the advantage of size and was the more experienced fighter. But Kane was an Alpha. The bears agreed to stay out of it in exchange for Jaxson. I took great comfort knowing my brother would sleep among the bears tonight under a blanket of stars near my father. He was safe. He would heal.

  “I’ll have to make them honor the deal. I’ll make them submit to me. That’s what Alphas do.”

  God, I couldn’t take it. His beautiful blue eyes sparkled in the dim light of the room. A breeze through the window lifted his hair and I leaned down to kiss him. I felt Kane just outside, making my mark flare with heat.

  “But what if you can’t? I might lose you anyway.” The thought tore at me. I didn’t bear Alec’s mark, but it didn’t matter. He had my heart, and I had his.

  “It’s the way it is with wolves, Olivia. The way it has to be. I’m strong enough. I’ve known it for a long time. It’s why Bas sent me here to see what Kane was up to. We could have come as a pack, but I think he knew what was happening inside of me. Even without you, I think challenging Kane is my destiny.”

  I looked up at the ceiling. “God, I’m so sick of that word. Destiny. Fate. If I lose you tomorrow, I lose everything. Kane wins, even if you kill him. I felt them, Alec. Wade and the others. They’re not human anymore. They’ve lost themselves.”

  “And the instant Kane dies, I can break that. I’ll bring them back. Luke thinks it’s possible.”

  “But what if you get hurt? Kane may not have the battle experience you do, but he’s huge and strong. He’s going to do as much damage to you as he can. And you’re not even at your full strength right now. This is suicide, Alec!”

  He kissed my thigh and smiled. “It’s not suicide. It’s . . .”

  I put up a hand. “If you tell me it’s pack law one more time I’m going to kill you myself.”

  Alec laughed and brought himself up, sitting on the bed next to me. He hooked his fingers under my chin and tilted my face toward his. He kissed me slow and deep, making my body tingle and my mark burn. I clawed at it.

  “Take it away!” I stood up and whirled on him. “I mean it. At least do that. Take away Kane’s mark and give me your own.”

  The air hung heavy between us. Neither of us so much as breathed. Alec squeezed his eyes shut tight and when he opened them, his wolf flared to life. The urge to do just what I asked burned within him. I knew it. I could feel it. And yet, something held him back.

  “Alec, please. You said it would have to be my choice. So, I’m choosing. Right now. Mark me. Make me yours. Make me stop having to feel Kane’s touch.”

  Alec growled. His lips curled back and his fangs came out. He stood up and went to the wall, putting his hands on it, he pressed his forehead against the plaster as he struggled to keep his wolf in check. Then he turned on me.

  “After. If it’s what you still want. I swear.”

  “Why not now?”

  Agony came into his eyes, his brow furrowed. “I promise. After.”

  Anger sparked inside me. It seemed selfish of him to deny me this one thing. And I didn’t like myself for thinking it. Alec was about to put his life on the line to save me. It was selfish of me to demand something like this from him. But I wanted it so badly. I wished I’d let him mark me a thousand times before this night. And now he wouldn’t do it, and I didn’t understand why.

  “I need you,” I whispered.

  The breeze kicked up again, and when I looked toward the window, pink slashed across the horizon. We were running out of time. I heard the mournful wails of the wolves outside. Dozens of them. Bas’s pack. Derek’s. Kane’s. They smelled blood in the air and the promise of a fight. Only the Alphas and Alec had the strength to stay in human form tonight. And in Alec’s case, barely. Fur sprouted along his jaw as I reached for him.

  “It’s almost time,” he said, his voice wolfish and ragged.

  God. I could lose him. By the time the sun rose again in the morning, he could be gone forever.

  I gathered my hair and turned my neck, exposing the nape to him. “Alec. Please. Don’t let me bear this for another second.”

  He growled and upended the bedside table, making me jump. “Please don’t ask me that. Not now. Please trust me that it’s not what you need.”

  “Maybe it’s what you need!” I turned to face him. “Maybe it’ll help.”

  Alec shook his head, but I could see the torture it caused him not to bite me. His fangs were still out and his eyes flashed. But, something held him back, and he wasn’t going to tell me what it was. He crossed the distance between us and pulled me up by my wrists. My skin caught fire; my legs went weak. Lightning struck me all over again as it did every time he touched me. I didn’t need his mark. Alec was mine. I was his. No matter whose brand I bore.

  He kissed me. Savage. Deep. It was a different kind of claiming as the rooster crowed near the barn. The wolves’ howls rose along with it. It was time. Kane waited for Alec at the top of the ridge on the south end of the lake.

  “Don’t go,” I pleaded. “Not yet. I’m not ready.”

  His hands were everywhere, carving through my hair, tuggi
ng at my jeans. I fumbled with the drawstring on his pants.

  There was scratching at the door. Someone had been sent for Alec. It was time to go.

  I slid out of my jeans and he had me up against the door. A wolf growled on the other side of it. Probably Bas. But it didn’t matter. We would steal these last few moments together before Alec had to leave me, if I had to kill someone to do it.

  He entered me fast and hard, finding my passage slick and ready for him. I gasped at the pleasure and force of it. He stretched me wide and filled me deep. I clawed at his back, trying to pull him even closer.

  “Olivia.” He whispered my name against my temple as he thrust himself deep inside of me. With my pants around my ankles, I couldn’t get my legs around his waist like I wanted. I clutched his ass, drawing him deep. Hard and swift. Seconds ticked by. A slow heat rose within me, spreading out like a starburst as my orgasm tore through me. He growled when I bit his ear. Then, he went rigid, bringing himself up on the balls of his feet he impaled himself far inside of me and spent himself.

  I’d asked him to mark me, and in his own way he did. I pressed my forehead against his shoulder and took all of him as he pumped inside of me.

  As the sun stabbed through the windowpane, we were out of time. The sharp growl on the other side of the door became more insistent.

  “I love you,” I gasped as Alec pulled out of me. He took two steps back, his eyes wild as he started to shift.

  I gathered my clothes together just in time and stepped aside as the door burst open. Bas and Wade’s wolves stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway.

  It was time to go.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “You’re safe here,” Pat said. “For as long as you’re willing to stay.”

  I’d taken to pacing just like Alec had. It didn’t work. Pat poured a cup of coffee and slid it across the counter toward me.

  “No, thanks. I’m keyed up enough. And you’re telling me those are my choices? If Alec dies, I can either go off with Kane or stay here?”