A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas

by Terry Spear

  “As a hostage?” Holly couldn’t believe Ronald would actually stoop that low. Not after all Aidan had done for them so far. They didn’t know for sure if this was going to work, and he could still be their only hope for a cure.

  “That’s fine,” Aidan said.

  “Like hell it is,” Ted said.

  “Yeah, like Ted said,” Mike agreed.

  “If it means freeing their people, I’ll go along with it. Holly can treat the wounded, but only after the hostages are released. I want her protected at all times behind enemy lines. They’re not going to kill me if they want a cure, and they can’t take my blood, because, as far as we know, it hasn’t changed.”

  “You received some of the unchanged blood, Doc?” Harvey asked.

  “Yeah, while in a wolf fight with the leader’s brother,” Aidan said.

  “Me too, though I had already received a pint from Holly,” Mike said.

  “You have the good blood,” Harvey said to Holly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Which means, damn it, she needs to be protected at all costs.”

  “Right, Doc.”

  They pulled up a couple of hundred yards from the house. Vehicles were parked all over the yard, all the way to the trees.

  “Some of them are my pack’s vehicles, but not all of them. The others must belong to the attacking wolves,” Holly said.

  “Patch me a line to the leader of these thugs,” Aidan said.

  Harvey called someone. “Both docs are here. Aidan wants to talk to the head butcher. Thanks.” He turned to Aidan. “Call should be ringing through any second.”

  * * *

  Aidan’s cell rang, and he answered it. “I’m Dr. Aidan Denali. Who am I addressing?”

  “Oats. Step out of the Humvee, and come to the porch.”

  “Release the women and children in good faith first.” Aidan knew giving in to the guy’s demands without asking for anything in return would make the guy warier. Besides, he hoped to get the women and children out of the line of fire in case this went south in a hurry.

  “If I release them, you’ll stay in the Humvee and won’t do what I say.”

  “I’m a doctor who is looking for the cure for all our people in a civilized way. I don’t want a bloodbath. Release the women and children. I’ll come in and speak with you.”

  “We’ll send out five.”

  “All…the…women…and…children. All.”

  “Ronald said you’re a hard-nosed son of a bitch and wouldn’t tell him which of them have the untainted blood.”

  Thank God for small miracles. “That’s because I was afraid of just this kind of thing happening, even between their own people.” And Aidan had been right. “I don’t know you. I’ve been trying to reach all the packs that I can.”

  “We’re a Nevada pack. One of the former Seattle pack members, Neil Booker, joined us over a decade ago. He still keeps in touch with a friend in the Seattle pack, guy by the name of Barry, who wanted to tell him the good news. Of course, we don’t know if Neil has the good blood either.”

  “Maybe your blood is all right and could help others,” Aidan said. “I can test it and see. Just let the women and children go, and I’ll join you.”

  “Then you’ll try to storm the place.”

  “Not when you could kill everyone in there. Which would be a big mistake, because some of them might have the blood we all need for a cure.”

  “I’ll let half the women and children go.”

  Aidan hung up on him. “Tell me the situation,” he said to Harvey.

  “He’s got twenty men, at least. A few are inside; others are at sniper locations. Anyone who comes out of that house will be a target.”

  “Who’s taking out the snipers?”

  “We only have a fix on three of them. Any one of the others could take out the innocents.”

  Aidan’s phone rang.

  “Don’t hang up on me again,” Oats said.

  “Send out the women and children, and then I’ll head in.”

  The front door opened, and this time, Oats ended the call.

  Four women and six crying kids left the house.

  “That’s only a fraction of our women and children,” Holly said. “Unless they’re holed up somewhere else. But Sally called us, and she’s not with the women.”

  Aidan called the leader again. “Where are the rest of the women and children?”

  Two of Rafe’s men pulled up in an armored vehicle and provided some cover for the women and children. The men rushed them inside, then drove farther away.

  “We’ll send out more once you come inside.”

  Aidan ended the call. “What’s the intel from the women?”

  Harvey was already on his phone, checking to see what the women had to say.

  “Four men are inside. Sally was taking care of the injured, but she was wounded also. Ronald and another of his men were shot. Another man has a broken arm, and others have bad bite wounds.”

  “I need to get in there and treat them,” Holly said.

  “After we get control of the situation. You can check over the women and children for now.” Aidan wasn’t letting Holly near the house.

  “I can go with you, Doc. I was an army medic, as well you know. I can pretend to be your assistant,” Mike said.

  “They’ll know you’re one of the team.”

  “Right, but I really do know how to take care of injuries, and as long as they don’t tie me up or knock me out, I can watch your back and help take care of the wounded.”

  “All right, but if he says no, you stay.” Aidan called the leader back. “One of the men who assists me with my work is a former army medic. The women said there are several wounded men who need medical attention. I’m bringing Mike with me to treat the wounded. If you want our help, we need to keep Ronald’s people alive.” Aidan ended the call. “Imbecile.”

  “You didn’t wait to hear if the asshole would go along with the plan,” Ted said.

  “He’ll go along with it.” Aidan hugged and kissed Holly. “Stay and take care of the women. They’ll be traumatized. As soon as things are under control, I’ll try to send the wounded men out, and you can take them to the clinic to finish patching them up. All right?”

  She nodded, gave him a hug, and kissed him back. “Love you, Aidan.” Tears filled her eyes, and they about undid him.

  “I’ll be safe. I love you, honey.” Aidan got out of the Humvee with Mike, each with medical kits in hand, and headed for the front door, adrenaline charging through his blood.

  As soon as they reached the porch, two men grabbed them and hauled them inside and checked them for weapons. Looking pale, Ronald was holding his bandaged side and seated on a brown leather couch. Two other men looked just as colorless.

  Sally was lying on another leather couch, her eyes closed, head bandaged, blood seeping through. Her breathing was steady, and Aidan thought she might be playing possum. He sure as hell hoped so, but he was furious with the bastards who had orchestrated this.

  “Doc,” one of the men said, his hand over a bandage on a shoulder wound.

  “Clifford.”

  “I’ll take care of them,” Mike said, then glanced at the blond-haired man wielding a semiautomatic rifle, “with the gray’s permission.”

  “Granted. One false move and you’re dead. We only need the doc.” Oats turned his attention to Aidan. “Why don’t you come into the dining room with me, and you can tell me all about your research.”

  Kids were crying in one of the rooms down the hall, and women were trying to console them. Aidan hated bullies. Finding new packs was something he usually delighted in, but when they were bad news like this? Eliminating them was the only solution. Any pack that would harm people for their own self-fulfillment didn’t deserve to live among them.
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br />   Hell, for all Aidan knew, the Nevada pack might actually have the untainted blood, as they called it.

  “First, you can tell me who in the pack has the good blood,” Oats said.

  “My records are back at the chalet in Colorado. Why didn’t the former Seattle pack member get in touch with me to learn if his blood had issues or not?”

  “His friend didn’t tell him other wolf packs were at risk.” Oats narrowed his eyes at one of his men. “What if your blood is untainted?” He turned to Aidan. “Is his?”

  “I don’t know. We only checked for current members of the pack.” Aidan was trying to keep his tone civil and not growly like he felt.

  “Check his blood.”

  “I’d have to check it at their local clinic. I don’t have a blood-testing kit here.”

  “Tell your commandos to get it and bring it here. And anything else you need to figure it out.”

  “Let the rest of the women and children go, and the badly wounded. Both gunshot victims need to be in the clinic,” Aidan said with authority. “Since Sally’s unconscious, she does too.”

  “I won’t let the women and children go. The three wounded victims can go. Wait, do they have good blood?”

  “I told you I don’t know.” Aidan couldn’t help sounding annoyed, which was part of the act. In truth, he was angry, ready to take these men down.

  “You’d remember if the pack leader did.”

  “True. Ronald and Jared have tainted blood, which is why they finally let me work on this. You think I’m a son of a bitch? Ronald and his brother are ten times worse. Hell, you probably know that based on what your man must have told you.”

  “True. The three more critically wounded can go. Two of your men can carry them out, one at a time. No weapons.”

  “Can I call them?” Aidan about ground his teeth for having to placate the bastard at all.

  “Yeah, unless you planned to send up smoke signals.”

  Good. Just the in they needed. Aidan called Ted. “I need you and Harvey to come take the severely wounded out… Ronald, Clifford, and Sally. In the meantime, have someone pick up the blood-testing kit and the microscope. Just the two of you will pick up the wounded, one at a time… Sorry about Christmas dinner. The three of us will have to do that later. Women and children are in a backroom. Kids are crying but otherwise sound okay and will be right here until this is over with… Thanks, Ted. See you in a few.”

  Then Aidan ended the call with Ted so they could retrieve the injured. Aidan explained to Oats about how only a few people had the untainted blood in the pack, and he couldn’t just do transfusions because blood types had to be matched. And how he wasn’t even sure that it would work. “It’ll take time to see if it makes a difference. Even if it does, we won’t know for a while if it will make a permanent difference.”

  “How come some are immune to this and the rest aren’t?”

  “We still haven’t determined that.”

  “They’re here,” one of Oats’s men said.

  Ted and Harvey came inside and carried Ronald out first. They returned for Clifford after that and then Sally. Both men were trying to pretend like they weren’t assessing the situation, but they were.

  They were good men, and if anyone could help him take control of the situation, they could.

  “The two of them can bring in the medical equipment you need.”

  Mike was taking care of the other men’s injuries, including Jared’s, who was sitting in the living room scowling. Rock was looking just as peeved, but the men looked like they still had some fight in them. Which was good. As soon as the blood-testing kit got here, all hell was going to break loose.

  Chapter 31

  Holly was seeing to Ronald at the clinic now, concentrating on repairing any internal damage and stopping his bleeding. Sally was helping her, having pretended to be unconscious at Ronald’s house, and for that, Holly was grateful.

  “That man of yours is planning something. He’s not giving in to that Oats’s demands, even if he sounded like he was going to.”

  “I know,” Holly said, “and though I love him for it, I don’t like that he’ll chance getting himself killed.”

  “Aidan and the others have to stop them. These men are ruthless, and they’re not going to let Aidan go until they see results. The only reason they didn’t kill anyone yet is because they didn’t know who had the good blood, and Ronald said Aidan wouldn’t tell them.”

  “I thought Ronald was being a bastard as usual.” Holly had been furious to learn of it.

  “Not this time. He suspected Aidan could help the pack get out of this bind, if anyone could. Though he wouldn’t say it to his face, he was coming around about meeting other wolves until this happened. Anyway, it might be years before Aidan and you find a real cure. They have to do something now.”

  “I agree. I was afraid Aidan was going to let them take him somewhere else to work on the cure, but it appears Oats doesn’t want to part with your pack’s blood supply, if it turns out that’s the cure for the rest of us. If they haven’t been tested, they don’t even know if they have an issue with their blood.”

  “I heard him saying to one of his men that if it had to do with having roots that could be tied to the earliest lupus garous, that left him out. At least Aidan gave Rafe’s men the information for a full-scale rescue attempt: the kids and moms are in the room on the right side of the house, and there are three men in the room with Aidan and the others. There’s only one man with the kids and moms. The snipers are the ones we have to worry about. If Aidan and the others take out the leader and his men in the house, Rafe’s men know where three of the snipers are. Maybe they’ll locate the others before they can cause trouble.”

  “I wish all these men hadn’t stayed here to protect us. They should be out there protecting Aidan and the others.” Holly was sure no one would come looking for them here.

  “You know if Oats’s men had the chance to take you hostage and make Aidan do what they want, they would.”

  Holly knew Sally was right, but she kept feeling that every available man should be storming Ronald’s house, killing the snipers, and setting Ronald’s people free. She finished closing Ronald up. “I’m glad you’re all right. But I still need to take an X-ray of your head.”

  “After we take care of Clifford.”

  One of the men watching out for them poked his head into the room. “The fight’s going down now. Be ready for more wounded.”

  * * *

  As soon as it arrived, Ted and Harvey carried the blood-testing equipment into the house—not the portable blood-testing kit, but the one they used in the office that weighed about sixty pounds—and the microscope, some notebooks, and the supplies to take the samples.

  “Just set them on the dining room table,” Aidan said, turning his gaze toward Oats.

  As soon as their hands were free, Ted lunged for Oats and broke his neck while Jared tackled one of the men watching them in the living room. Aidan was damn glad Jared had realized they were taking out the men.

  Harvey had a dagger out and threw it at the remaining man before he could say a word. The dagger struck him in the forehead, while Mike caught him before he could drop. “That’s all we need, Ted, Harvey,” Aidan said to his men, playing out the scenario. “You can leave now.” Pretending to talk to the group’s leader, he said, “Okay, Oats, I’ll need to sample the blood of all the men who are here. One in the bedroom to the right? Okay.”

  Aidan headed down the hall with the blood-testing kit toward the bedroom while Ted and Harvey silently moved around him to wait on the other side of the doorjamb. Jared opened and closed the front door to simulate Ted and Harvey leaving the house. Thankfully, the bedroom where the women and children were being held was on the opposite side of the house. Whoever was in there guarding them wouldn’t see that no one had exited the hou
se.

  Aidan rapped at the door. “I’m Dr. Aidan Denali, and Oats wants me to take your blood.”

  The guy opened the door. “Make it quick.”

  “We will.”

  Ted and Aidan tackled the man and broke his neck before he could react. Huddled in the corner were seven children, ranging approximately from age eight to fifteen, including Joey—who quickly gave Aidan a hug—and three women, one of them Joey’s mother. “We’ve got to take care of the snipers outside. For the time being, everyone’s staying here,” Aidan said.

  The women and children looked shell-shocked.

  His phone in hand, Jared joined them. “Ronald’s got a basement. No access except for the inner door.”

  “Good, take them down there. You and your men can protect them if we don’t manage to take out all the snipers,” Aidan said.

  “Here’s Oats’s gun.” Mike handed Jared the semiautomatic weapon.

  “I never thought I’d be thanking any of you, but I am now. I texted Holly once you took out the last man. She’s just finished surgery on Clifford. He and Ronald will recover. Sally had been pretending to be unconscious, though Holly said she was getting ready to run tests on her now. I told her you and the other men were safe.”

  “Thanks.” Aidan pulled his phone out and called Holly, hoping she wasn’t in the middle of taking X-rays on Sally.

  “Hey, Aidan. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, Jared and some more of his men are going into the basement with the women and children to protect them.”

  “And you? What are you doing?”

  He smiled, loving her concern. He’d fought in many battles over the years. He hadn’t always been a doctor. “I’m staying in the house. We’ve got men trying to take out the snipers. Others are staying here to help protect those who are here. You know Ted and Mike. They’re not leaving my side.”

  “I’d prefer if you had a whole army there protecting—”

  Glass from two windows at the clinic shattered.

  “Holly!” Aidan yelled, his heart practically seizing.

  * * *