Ian's Choice (Wolves' Heat)

by Lynne, Odessa

  Ian rubbed his thumb across the ridged face of his grandfather’s belt buckle. The flag on the buckle had the old fifty stars in the corner, and they made Ian think about how much hadn’t changed in the many years since his grandfather’s day. When his grandfather had been a young man, he’d fought in one of the wars between the States and its enemies, in the days when people thought world peace was just around the corner if humanity could just give itself over to rationality and tolerance. Those days had never come to pass.

  And then fifty years later, the wolves came and humanity had been forced to face the fact that not even advanced civilizations had thrown off irrationality and violence. A lot of people had finally had to accept that instinct wasn’t something you scrubbed out in a few hundred years. The wolves had had thousands more years of advancement over humans and yet they were even more tied up in their instinct and tradition than humanity.

  Craig kept watching him as he ate and Ian sat there, staring around at the woods, wondering just how far up the side of the mountain they were going to travel before they met up with the others wherever it was they were supposed to meet.

  He couldn’t place where they were exactly, because the Appalachian mountains stretched so far and deep that there were plenty of spaces still untouched by civilization. The wolves liked the area and much of the surrounding counties had become a haven for them. The last heat season had been brutal though, and the shelters had been expanded for those humans who lived and traveled in the rural areas.

  Outside of the heat season, those humans lived in peace, but once heat season started, the shelters offered the kind of protection people didn’t have on their own.

  “Why do so many of you settle here?” Ian asked, to break the silence and take his mind off the pain of his leg and the growing intensity of Craig’s gaze. Craig might be on the verge of losing his control over his body’s need to fuck but Ian was sure he wasn’t up for it. He didn’t know how this was going to turn out well for either of them, because one of them wasn’t going to get what he wanted.

  “What do you mean?” Craig asked. His hand came to rest on Ian’s knee, fingers flexing.

  “The forest. So many of you wolves are roaming the forest that it’s not even safe to walk between shelters anymore. Even those of you who settled in other parts of the country, on the west coast, in the central states, and around the world, you all chose mountain ranges and forested valleys.”

  “We spent years trapped on ships with only basic gardens and video to remind us of home and what it was like before the end came to our world. We like trees.”

  “That’s it? You like trees.”

  “Freedom. Open spaces. Running. The chase. And yes, we like trees more than you will ever appreciate.”

  “I heard a lot of you had a hard time adjusting that first year on the ground.”

  “Some of us. Some of us didn’t.” Craig shifted from his crouch to kneel before Ian and moved his other hand to Ian’s other knee.

  Ian wet his bottom lip and tasted a hint of tang and salt from the beef jerky he’d eaten.

  “Were—what are you—” Ian grabbed at the log beneath him and sucked in his breath as Craig stuck his fingers down into the front of his jeans, gripping Ian’s belt buckle.

  Before Ian could say anything else, Craig tugged him forward and stuck his other hand down his front pocket, plucking out the phone he’d been carrying since they had left the house.

  Craig released him, steadying him with a hand on his thigh.

  “Oh,” Ian said. “That’s not what it looks like, I told you.”

  Craig watched the phone as he turned it on, then raised his eyebrows.

  “Did you locate?” he read aloud from the screen.

  “The guy I was looking for. That’s all.”

  And apparently another message had come, one Ian hadn’t even had the chance to see yet.

  “Tracker activated. We’re coming,” Craig read.

  “Okay, that sounds bad, but all those phones come standard with a tracker. You have to know that.”

  Craig glanced up at Ian. Ian couldn’t say he blamed Craig for not believing him. The messages made him sound like part of the renegade force that had come gunning for the wolves.

  “I’m not one of the renegades.”

  “And yet.”

  “And nothing.”

  Ian could tell what Craig was about to do about half a second before he did it and he grabbed for Craig’s hand. “No!”

  Craig smashed the phone down on the log beside Ian and the face broke with a loud crack.

  If it hadn’t been for Craig’s hand on Ian’s thigh, he would have fallen off the log.

  Then Craig stood and used his heel to crush the phone until it was little more than broken chunks of plastic and metal.

  “Dammit, that thing cost me a fortune,” Ian said, clenching his fists. He struggled to stand.

  Craig yanked him up with a hand under his arm. “I’ll buy you another, later.”

  “I don’t want another one, by God, I want that one. It had my whole life in it.” Ian bit off a curse, but then said another one anyway, “Fuck. I had—” Ian rubbed his hands over his face. “Forget it.”

  Craig just looked at him.

  “Listen, he was a friend of mine and he went missing a week ago, okay?” Ian hopped around on one foot for a second, and then decided, fuck it. He eased his weight down on his leg and gritted his teeth and closed his eyes just long enough to get control of the stabbing pains that came from using a muscle that had been sliced into by five sharp claws.

  Craig waited. Ian saw the way Craig’s eyes followed his movements, the way he seemed ready to jump forward at any moment and grab him if Ian lost his balance, a notion Ian found both reassuring and confusing since Craig’s anger was just as clear to see.

  “Devon. He’s a dumbass that’s just as likely to get himself killed as he is to submit if he got caught by a wolf.”

  “We caught several humans in the woods after the beginning of the heat season. We were trying to keep control of the situation. Then one of your renegade groups destroyed the biggest supply of repression drugs—”

  “I know about that. I wasn’t so scared I didn’t pay attention that night you caught me.”

  “I don’t know the names of most of the ones we were protecting.” Craig’s brow furrowed and he looked down at Ian’s booted feet. “Since you paid attention, you probably also know we were wasting our efforts. Without the drugs, I had to find a way to keep the presence of the humans from setting off a blood bath. They shouldn’t have been there.”

  “Humans are the victims here. Don’t make it sound like any of this is our fault.”

  Craig’s head came up.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Craig said harshly, voice grating over every word. “But you keep destroying our drugs and trying to force us to lose control—you think those humans kept wandering into our territory by accident? You think no one sets off these horrible tragedies with the sole intent of creating strife and conflict so they can make everyone hate us, so that no one will balk when they decide they’ve had enough and they come in and try to wipe us out? You said yourself most people wish we’d never come, that we’d just go away.”

  Ian made an abortive attempt to step back, but Craig’s hold didn’t relax. Ian felt the faintest prick of claws against the underside of his arm.

  “We’re not going away. The Diviners have said this planet is the fulfillment of the prophecy. No one is going to run us off. All you’ll accomplish is to start a war you can’t win.”

  Ian swallowed past the heavy weight in his chest. He knew Craig was right. The wolves had ships and technology, much of which they’d shared with humans, but much which they hadn’t. Their ships still circled the Earth, hid behind the moon, and not a single human had yet to set foot on one of them as far as anyone knew.

  The humans who pushed, those who objected to submission the loudest, would be the first to end up as sla
ves if they weren’t careful, bringing down the entire human race along with themselves.

  Honestly, Ian didn’t even know if the wolves had practiced slavery in their past, but considering human history, he thought it likely. And wasn’t submission during the heat season a form of sexual slavery, temporary as it might be?

  Wolves didn’t die when they chose to fight instead of submit. Not most of the time. But fighting wasn’t a valid choice for humans, who healed slowly and injured easily, who couldn’t survive wounds like those Craig had inflicted on Third and Second. Ian had witnessed both. If he’d been on the receiving end of injuries like that, he would have bled out in minutes, if not sooner.

  A few claws in his leg had crippled him, and if he was lucky, the infection would stay away. If not, he would sicken and die and there wasn’t anything human medicine could do for that, because several strains of bacteria the wolves had brought with them responded only to the drugs the wolves had created for humans in those first years.

  Submit. Because if he hadn’t, he would have died at Craig’s hand. He didn’t doubt that.

  Ian looked down at his leg. Just looked at it, mind awash in thoughts and ideas, uncomfortably aware of how he had made his choice when he had stepped foot into the woods during heat season, knowing what he knew about the wolves.

  Responsible for his own actions. Some things about that night had always been out of his control, but the choice to go after Devon had not.

  He could have fought. He might have, if he hadn’t already accepted that he’d been partly to blame for wandering around in the territory everyone knew to be overrun with wolves. If he’d been accosted at a time or in a place where he hadn’t known there were risks, maybe he would have fought to the death instead of choosing to submit.

  He had put Craig into the position of saving him and then succumbing to his instincts when he might have preferred to spend his heat cycle with one of his own kind.

  Someone had once likened the wolves’ instinct to demand submission during their heat season to the instinct humans had not to breathe underwater. Uncontrollable with the rational part of the brain. Ian had no idea if the person who had initially made the comparison had known what they were talking about but at least it was something Ian could understand.

  Ian leaned into Craig and cleared his throat. “Someone dared Devon to go into the woods. Offered him a shitload of money, and being the dumbass he is sometimes, he took them up on it before I could find out and put a stop to it. He was set up. I know someone sent him in there on purpose, knowing what would probably happen.” He knew, alright. He hated knowing.

  Craig turned Ian and gripped his shoulders. “How would I recognize your friend if my pack had caught him?”

  “He has blond hair and a scar here.” Ian used his forefinger to trace a line along his chin. “It’s noticeable even when his beard grows out.”

  Craig frowned.

  “What? You recognize the scar, don’t you?”

  Craig shook his head. “No.”

  Ian didn’t believe him.

  “Come on, he’d hard to miss. Loud, brash. He can be offensive enough to make anyone crazy. And he has a snake tattoo on his dick.”

  Craig’s eyebrows rose. “He permanently marked his penis the way you marked your torso?”

  “Yeah. Wasn’t our finest moment. I could show you his picture, but you destroyed my phone.”

  Craig’s lips thinned. Ian regretted opening his mouth about the phone.

  But Craig sighed and said, “I’m sorry. Allowing that phone to travel any further with us is too risky. The lives of everyone in my pack and even the humans we take with us depend on keeping our location a secret.”

  “I’ll know your location.”

  “You won’t be leaving so it doesn’t matter.”

  “Yeah. Don’t know how I forgot that.”

  “Neither do I.” Craig watched him for a moment and Ian just waited. He could tell Craig knew something, but he was afraid if he pushed, Craig wouldn’t tell him anything.

  “I don’t know if we had him. But the one Third took for a heat mate had a scruffy beard with a streak through it.”

  The beat of Ian’s heart sped up. “What was he calling himself?”

  “I don’t remember.” Craig stayed silent for a moment. “Something happened between them. He challenged Third while he was already half out of his mind.”

  Ian could barely keep the horror out of his voice. “He’s dead?”

  “No,” Craig said quickly, and Ian felt a huge surge of relief. “Third’s heat mate didn’t die. He got some deep scratches in the back of his neck and—nothing worse. We stopped Third before he could do more harm than that.” Craig stared into Ian’s eyes. “That was just before Third came after you. I had come between him and his heat mate. We didn’t realize he’d run off toward my room until he was halfway there. You know what happened after that. The human I’m talking about might not even be your friend.”

  “It’s him. Devon’s too stupid to keep his mouth shut even when his life depends on it. I guarantee you it’s him.”

  Just knowing Devon was alive… He smiled at Craig.

  Craig dipped forward suddenly.

  Ian reared back. Craig took hold of the back of his neck and pulled him forward, giving nothing against Ian’s startled resistance, Craig’s low growl a sound of challenge and ire when Ian didn’t relax in his grip.

  As soon as his brain made the connection between his unintentional reaction and the perception of rejection, Ian went slack, letting Craig drag him as close as he wanted. He wasn’t resisting; Craig’s inability to distinguish between reflex and intent was obviously something he needed to convince Craig to work on.

  Not that he’d be around long enough for it to matter, but maybe Craig’s next human heat mate might appreciate the fix.

  Craig’s mouth came down over his, and the sound of Craig’s deep inhale just as their lips touched sent Ian’s blood flowing faster. His fascination with Craig’s inhuman traits only seemed to be getting stronger the more time he spent with him. The kiss lasted long enough to make Ian start thinking about getting Craig’s hands on his skin or his tongue somewhere besides inside Ian’s mouth.

  Then Craig leaned his forehead against Ian’s and said, “Who is he to you?”

  “Who?” Ian took a deep breath, and his thoughts came back online as the wild beat of his heart pounded in his head. “Devon. No. He’s just a friend, an old friend.”

  “Good,” Craig said. “If we find him in the new den and he smells like he wants you, I’ll probably kill him.”

  “Shit.” Ian took another shaky breath. “You can’t kill my friends.”

  “I know. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off the next heat cycle. I’m almost at my breaking point. If I wasn’t Alpha, I probably would have already had you on the ground.” Craig dropped down to his knees and buried his face against Ian’s crotch.

  Ian threaded his fingers into Craig’s hair, shocked at how much Craig’s desperation thrilled him instead of made him nervous, the way it probably should have. He was getting too comfortable with Craig. The distinct difference in how he’d felt when Second had looked at him, only half as desperately as Craig looked now, told him clearly how messed up he was where Craig was concerned.

  But he didn’t want to think about that too hard right now. Too much to deal with when his leg hurt like it did, when Craig didn’t trust him, when he was getting farther away from any place anyone would think to look for him.

  “It’s okay,” Ian said. “If I lay on my belly—”

  “No,” Craig said sharply, standing quickly, looking as if he’d just managed to bring himself back from the brink. “We’re not doing it here. You’re injured and I don’t have anything for your pain.”

  “What if you lose con—”

  Craig bent and hauled Ian over his shoulders.

  “—trol?” Ian’s breath wheezed out with the rest of his word.

  It too
k him a moment to get enough air into his lungs to speak again. “What the hell?”

  “I can gain some time if I concentrate on taking care of you for a while. Besides, we need to move faster and I’m strong enough to carry you.”

  “But—”

  The flat of Craig’s hand landed heavy on Ian’s ass, his arm wedged between Ian’s thighs. “Submit,” he said in a near growl.

  Ian grumbled. He felt the poke of claws through the fabric of his jeans right over his ass. “Fine. Fine! I submit. I submit to being treated like a fucking invalid.”

  “We’ll mate soon, so—”

  “What the hell does that even mean?”

  Craig had grabbed the bag from the ground again and started walking, and Ian wheezed on every jolting exhale. It took real effort to talk but he managed it as he continued, “Are we mated, or mating, or going to mate, or what, by God? Are you just waiting on some kind of official ceremony or something?”

  Ian scrabbled to hold on to Craig’s shoulder as he leapt over a downed tree.

  “Or something. It’s complicated. Maybe you shouldn’t talk.”

  “Yeah—that’s—” Ian coughed out his breath, gave up on talking, and just held on.

  Seemed like Craig was getting a lot more out of taking care of Ian than Ian was getting out of being taken care of.

  Chapter 13

  Craig covered ground quickly, much more so than when Ian had been holding back his traveling speed, but Ian figured it was about noon by the time they reached the backside of an old cabin that sat tucked away at the top of a steep incline. Craig shrugged Ian off his shoulders, and Ian had a moment of vertigo so strong he thought he was going to land face first in the deadfall at his feet.

  He got his bearings after a hard fight against that disorienting wave of dizziness and then started walking toward the cabin with Craig’s help.

  When they reached the crest of the hill and crossed around the building to the front, he saw a carefully tended road, a wide porch, and a wolf standing guard at the front door.