Big Wicked Wolf (Shadowpeak Wolves Book 1)

by Sadie Carter

  She slipped on some boxers, so she felt halfway decent before sprinting out of the house. Ignoring the sharp stones under her feet, she raced around to the back of the house, the sound of flesh meeting flesh making her flinch. She’d never liked violence or confrontation, but there was no way she was going to wait inside like a child while her brothers beat on her mate.

  Cooper landed a sharp uppercut to Jay’s jaw. She winced as she watched her brother take a few steps back, shaking his head as though he saw stars.

  But it didn’t matter, because Marcus was there to take his place, landing his own uppercut to Cooper’s jaw, which he tried to follow with a left-hand jab. Cooper saw it coming and blocked it. Hitting back, he landed a hard gut-punch that had Marcus bending over in pain. Cooper was holding his own, but it was three against one and Reed hadn’t even entered the fight yet.

  Reed stepped forward, coming in from the right while Jay came at Cooper from the other side. There was no way Cooper could fight them all.

  “Stop it!” she yelled, jumping forward just as Marcus stood and lunged. Obviously intending to tackle Cooper, he ended up slamming into Laney. Marcus managed to turn, taking the brunt of the impact as they landed on the ground in a heap. But she still had the wind knocked out of her. As she lay there, trying to regain her breath, hands clasped her around the waist and pulled her up against a hard chest.

  “Delaney! Are you all right? Sweetheart, talk to me.” She was clasped tightly in Cooper’s arms, her face buried in his chest.

  “Umm cmt brmth!”

  “What?”

  His grasp eased up, and she pulled back her head, gasping. “I can’t breathe!”

  “Shit!” Cursing harshly, he pulled her up against his chest, his hold gentler as he rocked her softly.

  “Is she hurt?”

  “Honey, are you okay?”

  “Baby girl, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to tackle you.” Laney turned in Cooper’s arms to glare at her brothers.

  “You! All of you!” She included Cooper in her glare. “You’re acting like juveniles, fighting in the backyard. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”

  She pushed at Cooper’s chest, trying to wiggle from his arms. “Stay still,” he growled.

  “Let me go!”

  “No.”

  “Let’s take this inside.” He walked toward the cabin, still holding her against his chest like a small child. “Either stop squirming, or I’ll throw you over my shoulder.”

  “Don’t you dare get mad at me, Cooper Brady! You’re the one acting like an imbecile. What were you thinking, fighting all my brothers at the same time? You could have been hurt.”

  “Really?” he replied sarcastically. “I was planning on hurting them.”

  “But there are three of them.” She didn’t care that the three in question had followed them into the living room. They stood, glowering at her with a mix of concern and disapproval. Cooper set her down on the couch before he stood with his hands on his hips, glaring down at her.

  “I told you to wait inside, Laney,” he growled.

  Nerves strummed through her. She hated confrontation.

  “Don’t speak to her that way, you’ll frighten her,” Reed stepped up towards him.

  Oh shit, her initial nerves faded as things heated up between the two men. Jay moved in front of her, as though to protect her.

  “She’s not afraid of me, are you, Laney?” Cooper’s drawl was thick as molasses. “As her mate, she knows I would never harm her.”

  She breathed out a deep sigh. Cooper wasn’t happy with her, but she wasn’t worried for her safety.

  “I’m not afraid of him.”

  “Obviously, she’s not afraid of much since she tried to jump into the middle of a fight.” Cooper narrowed his gaze at her. “It’s only because Marcus has such good reflexes that you weren’t seriously hurt.”

  “Jeez, it’s just a few bruises, no biggee,” she muttered to herself, unaware she was speaking aloud. Frankly, this didn’t even rate in terms of what she’d been through as a child.

  “What do you mean, she’s your mate?” Reed asked suspiciously.

  “Can’t you smell that we’re mated?” Cooper didn’t bother to look back at his lead enforcer. “And a few bruises matter, sweet. To me, they matter a lot.”

  Reed took a deep sniff before a grin came over his face. Marcus and Jay did the same, similar grins crossing their faces.

  “Well, why didn’t you just say so?” Marcus asked.

  “Because,” Cooper turned to them, “I wanted to get my hands on the three of you, and you provided the perfect opportunity. Where the hell were you three when she was being abused by her father?” He spat the last word out as if it tasted nasty on his tongue. “Where were you while he was locking her in a box?”

  Laney let out a shocked gasp, and he turned back to her. “Cooper!” she protested.

  “I have the right to ask this, Laney,” he said, his voice gentling slightly, but his face held deadly determination as he turned to the three stricken men.

  “Locked in a box?” Jay whispered.

  “You didn’t know?” Cooper asked, disbelief filling his voice as he stared at them. But they didn’t bother looking at him. Their gazes were all locked on their stricken little sister.

  Marcus came to sit beside her. Cooper sat on her other side, gently wiping away the tears from her cheeks. She hadn’t even been aware of them trickling down her face.

  Reed and Jay sat on the two armchairs, pulling them closer to the couch, so the four men were all within touching distance of her.

  “They didn’t know because they didn’t live with me when I was growing up.” Laney watched as Cooper frowned in confusion.

  “Zachary wasn’t our father,” Reed told him. “We all have the same mother. When our father died, our mother was devastated, she never wanted another mate. But when Zachary started sniffing around… Well, I don’t know what he did to convince her.” Reed just shook his head. Laney knew that he didn’t really want to know what her father had done to get their mother to move in with him. “But he moved us all into his house.”

  “Anyway, Zachary was never present much, when he was, he pretty much just ignored us. Mom never smiled much when he was around, but we never saw him hurt her, and surprisingly he never hurt us.”

  He looked around at his brothers. “Then Mom got pregnant, and things became really good. He treated her like a princess, and we were spoiled rotten until Laney was born, then everything changed.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I was a girl and he wanted a boy—a big, strong male werewolf.”

  Reed continued. “I remember the night she was born, he tore through the house, destroying everything. Our mother packed us all off to our Aunt’s, and he actually let us go. But she had to stay.”

  Laney let out a small noise of distress.

  “Honey, it wasn’t your fault. You were a baby, a beautiful, precious little girl who deserved love and affection. Zachary was psychotic. You know that.” Laney watched through a blur of tears as Reed leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

  “What happened?” he asked, dreading the answer. He looked down at his precious mate. How could anyone hate a baby, their own baby?

  Reed continued. “When Laney was five, our mother disappeared. Zachary said she’d run off, but we believe he killed her. Not that we would blame her for leaving, but I think she would have taken us with her. However, he was Alpha, and no one was strong enough to challenge him, not without risking their lives. We continued to live with our aunt, but he decided Laney had to move back with him.”

  Laney sat up. “It wasn’t your fault, Reed. You guys were just kids.”

  “We knew something was wrong, though. Although it wasn’t until we were older than we figured out what was going on. We should have protected you.” Reed’s voice broke, and Laney launched herself into her brother’s arms.

  “Please don’t,” she begged. “It wasn’t you
r fault. It wasn’t. You guys did your best. You protected me when you could. If what happened to Mom wasn’t my fault, then what happened to me can’t be yours.”

  “No one tried to help you?” Cooper asked.

  “Our uncle tried to reason with him and Zachary beat him,” Reed told him. “My aunt wanted to leave, but there was nowhere to go. We were isolated from the other packs, except for those he was friends with.”

  “He hid behind his enforcers.” She shivered. “They were almost as evil as he was.”

  “Did anyone else hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “They said nasty things to me, but no one else touched me. Well, except for Suzanne. She slapped me a couple of times.”

  “Where is she?” Cooper asked.

  “I don’t know,” Reed replied. “She left when you killed Zachary. Along with his old enforcers that were still alive.”

  “How about Leonard Paterson? Do you know anything about him?” Cooper asked suddenly. Laney frowned, wondering why he wanted to talk about the Alpha of the Silverton pack.

  “What about him?” she asked.

  “Reed said he used to visit Zachary often. Did he ever hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “No, not really, he watched me a lot, though. There was always something about him I didn’t like, something creepy.” She shuddered, memories of those predatory eyes watching her, almost stalking her. “He was so sweet, he’d bring me presents, talk nicely to me, and all the time his eyes were cold, hard, mean.”

  “It’s okay, baby,” Cooper said soothingly. “One more thing.” Cooper turned to her brothers. “I want you to explain to me why the hell you didn’t go with her when she left. The four of you together would have had a much better chance of surviving than Laney on her own— hell, she almost died!”

  Laney flinched at the accusation in his voice.

  Reed looked down at her before his gaze rose to meet his Alpha’s. “It was the price we paid. He wouldn’t go after her if we signed on as his enforcers for five years. His hold on the pack was growing tenuous the crazier he grew. We didn’t follow all his orders. We did what we could to protect the members of the pack. We weren’t to go to her, contact her or help her. We managed to keep our contact with her a secret, but we couldn’t leave. It was the best solution we could think of, and it was only supposed to be for a short time. It took us longer than we thought to find someone suitable and get a message through to your brother.”

  “What message?” Laney asked, puzzled.

  Reed looked at his brothers, and they nodded back.

  “Cooper’s brother is the Alpha of the Lian pack. We sent a message telling him that we sought a new Alpha for our pack, one who would bring the beliefs and rules of the Lian pack with them. And we explained the current situation with our Alpha.”

  Laney frowned. “But why? If you wanted Zachary gone, why not challenge him yourself, why bring in an outsider?”

  Reed sighed. “Because we couldn’t break our word, and we wanted someone who would be fair, someone who would break us from the old ways that Zachary was so fond of. Everyone knows how the Lian pack is run, and we knew that the Alpha had several strong brothers.”

  “Alex gave me their message,” Cooper told her. “I’d always known I wouldn’t stay with my pack forever.”

  “Why didn’t you wait until the five years were up?” Laney asked Reed.

  “It was too dangerous to wait that long, honey. We didn’t know how safe you were by yourself. Plus, who knew how long Zachary would stick to his word and not go after you.”

  Laney looked down at her lap, unsure what to say.

  “We better go,” Reed said. “It’s been a few days.”

  “Bye, squirt.” Jay ruffled her hair while Reed and Marcus kissed each cheek. “Love you, baby girl.”

  “Guys?” The three men stopped, turning toward her. “Thank you, all of you, for everything.”

  * * * * *

  Laney watched Cooper pace around the living room, energy pulsing off him in waves. Her wolf prowled restlessly within her, and she suddenly felt the need to run, to hunt. Cooper turned to her, his eyes a gleaming yellow. Darkness had fallen like a thick curtain, but the moon was bright, and it called to them both. He held out a hand to her.

  “Run with me? I need to burn off some energy.”

  It was all the prompting she needed. She stripped before letting the change overtake her. Racing outside, Laney felt him chasing her, heard the slight rustle behind her. He’d given her a head start, but she was as small in wolf form as she was in human and he’d easily caught up.

  A thrill of excitement rushed through her. She’d always been considered too weak, too small, to hunt with the pack. But when her brothers had managed to sneak her out she’d loved the thrill of the hunt, the chase. Now she also saw the thrill in being chased. They were pack creatures, designed to run, to hunt and kill together. Not alone, as she’d done for so long.

  When in wolf form, they became more primal, their human side remaining but pushed to the background as the animal took over. Their thinking became more simple, to hunt, to eat, to play, and to procreate. Everything was sharper, clearer. Scents were more intense, noise purer, feelings more primitive.

  Cooper was parallel to her now, although she couldn’t see him. She veered off to her right, thinking to prolong the fun, but he crashed into her side, sending them tumbling together until she landed on her tummy with him lying on top of her. A slight nip to her ear and then he jumped up, leaping in front of her, yapping excitedly. A wolfy grin crossed her lips as she yapped back before bouncing onto her feet and racing off after him.

  This time they kept pace together until he disappeared into the bush. Then suddenly a rabbit darted out in front of her, with him following close behind. They chased after the small prey together. It was a game, pure fun, and she let out a happy yip as adrenaline surged through her. She felt so alive.

  Eventually, she grew tired and sank to the ground in a heap. A snuffling in her ear had her barking softly in reply, then a warm body curled up against her, surrounding and protecting her as she fell asleep.

  Cooper changed back to human form, watching the slight, fair wolf sleeping beside him. She was as beautiful in wolf form as human, with long, thick hair only slightly paler than her human hair. But as much as he’d love to lie here sleeping beside her, it wasn’t safe to stay outside unguarded for any length of time.

  Not that he worried about his safety, but he had a mate now, and he could never risk her. Until his place as Alpha was completely secure, and all his enemies weeded out, he would have to ensure she was well protected.

  Changing back into wolf form, he nudged at her, a canine grin escaping at her snort of irritation. She turned away from him and continued to snore softly. He nudged again, harder this time, and she turned to snarl at him. He snarled back and, grabbing the skin at the ruff of her neck, pulled her up on to her feet, ignoring her growls of protest. Nipping her back legs, he pushed her forward, giving her an occasional soft nudge when she slowed, grinning as she snarled back at him.

  Just when he thought he was going to have to prod her all the way home, she took off, a yip of delight echoing back at him as he let out a surprised woof. He snuffled, allowing her a few minutes before giving chase.

  He darted off to the side, coming out ahead of her. But she must have anticipated the move because she was already racing off in another direction. She managed to elude him cleverly, but he picked up her scent again easily and charged off, adrenaline pumping through him.

  As he arrived at a clearing, he saw her standing in the moonlight, naked, in human form, her body so still and pale it could have been cut from marble. Changing quickly, he came up to stand beside her, careful to let her see him coming.

  Cooper stood staring at the building before him. It was an impressive house, easily the largest on the estate, and although it had been abandoned a few months ago, it showed no signs of wear or tear. Even the weeds seemed afraid to
grow around this house, as though fearing the wrath of the previous owner.

  “Do you want to go inside?” he asked Laney gently, aware of the fine tremor in her hands, her pale face, which had nothing to do with fatigue and everything to do with fear.

  “No,” she answered back, gulping. “Not yet, maybe not ever.”

  “If you ever do, I want your promise that you will wait for me to go with you.”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Laney.” He forced her face to him, aware of the intensity of his gaze. This was important, and he was determined to have her obedience in this. “Don’t go in there by yourself, okay?”

  She stared up at him, her face so still it was unreadable. “You think I’m a coward.”

  “I do not think you are a coward, damn it! You were traumatized in that house, Laney. Few would want to face those memories again. But I think that eventually, you will, and I don’t want you alone while you do so.”

  “Yeah, okay,” she replied irritably, turning away.

  He followed her as she turned to walk back through the forest. His gaze constantly scanned their surroundings, although it couldn’t help but linger now and then on her pert backside, which seemed to glow in the moonlight. He moved up to walk beside her.

  “Part of me is happy to be home. I missed my family. Another part of me is terrified. I keep thinking that I’m going to see him.”

  “It will take time to work through everything. I want to help you. But maybe we could use some professional help.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a counselor in my old pack. We could skype her. I think she could help.”

  She was silent for a long moment then she nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”