by Charlie Hart
I exhale, truth is, I’ve been starved for days.
I have no freaking clue what is happening, but I find myself lowering my hands.
I’m no longer terrified, suddenly I’m mesmerized.
Chapter 4
Callum
This woman is the one we’ve been looking for. Dreaming of. Desperate to find.
We’d been on the fringe of our pack for the last few years. It started with standing up against the way the men in the pack treated women. Then when we refused to marry our chosen mates, it really pissed some members off.
Decades ago, before our current pack leader, Maxon, was in charge, our pack used to be comprised of females sharing several males. Then Maxon came into leadership and forbade us to build families this way.
We couldn’t put our finger on it—why all three of us, best friends since forever, didn’t want to listen to the pack leader—but we didn’t. We wanted to do things old school.
Because we knew we were meant for something more.
Someone more.
And within the span of one night, we know. The more we’ve been waiting for is standing in front of us.
“What the hell is happening?” she asks, moving backwards, but her eyes rake us over—intrigued. Damn, she’s gorgeous. Thick blood red hair, haunting eyes, and a mouth made to be devoured.
“Seriously, what the fuck are you? Where did you come from?” Her words are sharp, and her fire causes my lip to curl. She’s furious, all worked up. “Don’t smile at me,” she hisses. “What are you? Some sort of…” She pushes a hand through her hair, the other hand wrapped around a fork. Feet apart and ready to fight. Okay, also she isn’t some timid creature. She is a wild beast.
“We’re here to help. You look hurt,” I tell her, stepping a foot closer to her. And for a moment, she looks at me, as if she realizes the sincerity in my words. Like she wants to hold on to them but she doesn’t know how.
“No, like, a minute ago you were…” She shakes her head, the words are too ridiculous to say.
“I get the fear,” I tell her gently. “It’s not every day you see a wolf shift to man.”
“I’m not scared of anything,” she says, crossing her arms, a scowl written across her face. But I’m no fool and I think she knows it. That bear was ready to tear her apart. She was there, she felt the bear's claws rip at her skin, she looked down the tunnel and knew what was before her: death. I’m a predator and I know the look a creature gets in its eyes when it recognizes death, accepts it.
I don’t look at her with pity, but hell, there is a lot this woman doesn’t seem to understand.
“Oh, yeah? That bear, she didn’t terrify you?” River asks. “Being scared isn’t a crime you know.”
“That was a female bear?” she asks. “I didn’t see any cubs.” Her eyes dart around looking for the black bear to return any moment.
“If you see the cubs, then you’re in real trouble. Gotta know the other signs. We’ll teach you anything you want to learn,” West says. Fighting a smile, he adds, “I bet there are some things you’d like to learn about wolves, too.” He says the last part slowly and I know what he wants to teach her. Hell, I want to teach her the exact same thing.
Wolves have a primal instinct for pleasure—and we will hunt it down until we find it.
“Is that your way of avoiding the question at hand?” she asks. She must no longer see us as a threat because she pushes past us toward the ruined tent.
West, River, and I share a knowing look. Just how much do we tell this stranger?
“Okay, well, if you’re gonna be creepers about it, whatever. I’ve had a helluva night and I don’t need more bullshit.” She shakes her head and throws a backpack over her shoulder. As she does, her body reminds her of her injury. “Fuuuuck,” she shouts. “Motherfucking fuck.” She drops the bag and reaches for her arm. Blood has soaked through her light jacket and she bites her bottom lip to stifle a cry.
“Hey,” I say, moving toward her and knowing she needs help even if she doesn’t want to accept it. “Let us help.” I take the bag from her hand and sling it over my shoulder. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
She looks up at me, her eyes shimmering in the light of the moon. But she isn’t a soft glow with silver streaks—she is red fire and guns blazing. “Help me? Are you crazy? I don’t even know what you are.”
I run a hand over my jaw, the day-old stubble reminding me that it’s late. We need to get this girl out of the woods, now. The scent of blood will attract more wolves—and that’s the last thing we need right now.
“Look,” I say. “You wouldn’t believe us if we tried.”
“Try me.” She pushes her lips forward as if daring me to talk.
West shrugs and River sighs, and the truth is this woman could be eaten alive in these woods. Or worse, a member of our old pack might find her here, in the wolves’ territory, and stake claim on her before we do.
“We’re shifters,” I tell her, pulling back my shoulders and looking at her headlong. “Wolf shifters. And we come out at night and hunt. That, and save innocent women about to be mauled by wild bears.”
She cocks a brow at me. “I’ve never in my life, been called innocent.”
West snorts, and River smirks… but me? I’m turned the fuck on.
“And what is it you’re usually called?”
“Remedy. That’s my name at least.”
“What, like, you’re the cure?” I ask.
She twists her lips, an eyebrow raised, as if not buying it. “Yeah, but I think I’m usually the problem.”
“Still, tonight you need fixing,” River says, stepping toward her. “That shoulder needs to be bandaged.”
“And you know how to do that, you wolf-shifting-whatever-you-are?”
I nod. “We do.” I glance around the dark forest. “It’s getting late, it’s not safe out here for anyone, let alone you.”
“Me?” Remedy scoffs. “I’m stronger than I look.”
I shake my head, stepping closer to her. “I don’t doubt it. You look plenty strong, believe me.”
“Then why so worried?” she asks.
“Because I don’t want to lose your scent and have to start all over tomorrow.”
Her eyes narrow. “You’ve been tracking me?”
I nod. “We’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
“How long?” she asks, the timbre of her voice shaking for the first time. “How long have you been looking for me?”
“Remedy,” I tell her, my body thrumming with intensity. “Would you believe me if I said forever?
Chapter 5
Remedy
If the situation had been different—if I weren’t running from the police for killing a man or if I hadn’t already been attacked by a mama bear tonight, maybe I wouldn’t have followed their lead—but all this had happened. I was alone and lost and really fucking in over my head.
The truth is, wolf-men or not, I need them tonight. At this point, the idea of braving the wilderness alone is more than even I can handle. And after hiking for a few hours in the woods, I am grateful that they found me.
The one with a cocky face and a stubbly chin is Callum, they tell me. The one with the full beard, eyes with golden flecks, and a smile that makes me forget all about the past is East. And River has a smooth face, eyes are so blue they’re practically ice, and he walks behind me, at the back of the line, as we hike through the woods. I am not sure if he is my protector or the one who makes sure I won’t get away. Right now, I’ll take either if it means I make it through tonight alive.
“You okay?” River asks, his voice a soft hush against the stark night.
“I’m fine,” I say, though it’s a lie. My arm aches and my head spins. “No biggie, just a woman alone in the woods with a pack of wolves.”
“You can call me by my name you know,” he says, his pace quickening so he is right behind me. A chill covers my spine at his proximity. “And are you sure you’re alrig
ht? I can carry you the rest of the way.”
“Uh, thanks, River is it, but I’m good.” Truth is, though, the idea of River holding me, my face against his solid chest, sounds more than a little inviting. I’m unaccustomed to feeling safe and content. I can feel myself fighting against it already.
“You don’t have to put on a brave face for me, you know,” he says, reaching for my hand. “You can be yourself with me. With all of us.”
“Not sure you’re up for that. I’m a bit of a challenge, or so I’ve been told.”
“Hey,” he says, stopping, and forcing me to turn and face him. “Challenges don’t make me run.”
“No?” I ask, his hot breath so close to my mouth, and I wonder if the other guys even notice that we’ve stopped walking. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t scare easy. And besides, Remedy, it looks like you could use someone to watch over you.”
I don’t tell him he’s wrong, that I’ve been on my own forever, thank you very much- because there’s a hint of something gnawing at me. Something that whispers my name. Something that says maybe he is exactly right. Maybe, right now, I am against a rock and a hard place and these wolf-men are the soft landing I need.
They look at me like they could catch my fall. Hell, like they would brace themselves for whatever wreckage I might leave in my wake.
And god knows, if my life says anything, it screams disaster.
It feels good to hear River say that I don’t scare him. The idea of him watching over me causes a tingling to run up my spine. I have a compelling desire to stop walking all together and let him press his body against my back. I haven’t felt that in a long time.
Maybe in forever.
That need for someone to wrap their arms around me and not let go.
I swallow the emotions wanting to surface. I don’t do feelings. I don’t do tears. I don’t do heart-to-hearts.
But River doesn’t seem to care about what I don’t do.
“Hey,” he says, brushing back a loose strand of my hair, tucking it behind my ear, his warm hand on the curve of cheek. “I know you aren’t asking for help, but I’m giving it. Okay?” Then he leans down and lifts me off the ground. Without missing a beat, he carries me toward his friends up ahead. My body stiffens, and he notices.
“I don’t bite, you know,” he says.
I snort. “Says the wolf.”
“Touché.”
I lean against him because really, it’s impossible not to. He smells like pine trees and sandalwood and – oddly since we’re out in the woods -- a used bookstore. Like well-worn pages and favorite passages. I could dog-ear him, run a pencil under his words, and return to them time and time again. He’s a stranger but he feels familiar. And right now, after the day I’ve had, I need familiar. Even if the familiarity is a fabrication in my mind. I need to feel like I am not alone in the world.
“I got you,” he says as if understanding all my unsaid things.
“Thanks,” I say under my breath, not trusting myself to say anymore. And when we get to their cave, tucked behind thick pine trees, my eyebrows raise. River sets me to the ground, and I look around the intimate space. “This isn’t like any cave I’ve ever seen.” My eyes run over the walls carved from rock, and am relieved to see a large pallet on the ground, covered in old, Pendleton wool blankets. Against a wall there’s a shelf with some basic food items—trail mix and bottles of water, jerky. East lights a lantern sitting on a small table. While it’s a cave, it’s a cozy one.
“We come out here a lot,” East explains. “If we’re out on a hunt and need a place to rest.”
“In your wolf form or human form?” I ask.
“Both,” he answers. “When we’re human we appreciate some modern luxuries, like lighting, that our more primal side doesn’t need. Works well for us tonight, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” I murmur, trying to orientate myself to the situation. It feels impossible, yet here we are, living the impossible.
“Can I look at your arm?” East asks, stepping toward me. The space is small, and we are all so close to one another. But I don’t mind. Tonight, I don’t want to feel alone.
I nod, and he helps ease off my denim jacket. I wince as he takes it off.
“I need to take your shirt off, Remedy,” he tells me. “So, I can wash this up.”
Understanding the necessity, I use my good hand to lift the hem of my shirt. “I can’t do this by myself,” I tell them, realizing it’s near impossible to undress one-handedly.
“I’ll help,” East says. He pulls up my shirt, getting it over my head and past my arms. He looks me straight in the eyes, not glancing down at my breasts or bare skin. “You’re gonna be okay,” he promises. And I appreciate his gentleness more than he knows—more than I thought mattered. But it does. This man looking at my injury instead of the rise of my breasts. He reaches for a bottle of water, dampening a clean cloth, and running it over the dried blood on my upper arm. He isn’t soft like River. He is effortless though and his touch doesn’t make me tense. Instead, he has the opposite effect. With him, I relax.
“You know, you’re the first woman we’ve brought to the cave,” he tells me with a half-smile.
“Not even female wolves?”
“Hmmm, fair question.” He looks at River and Callum, consulting them before answering. But when he looks back at me, I’m surprised by the raw expression on his face. “No one but you, Remedy. We’ve been waiting, saving ourselves for you.”
“Saving your what?” I ask, eyebrows raised.
East wipes my wound, and I look at it, the cut now cleaned. “It’s not as bad as I expected,” East says, relief written in his voice.
“Are you avoiding my question?” I ask as he pulls off his own shirt. His muscles are taut, his abs a ladder of absolute perfection. I try not to stare as he rips the cotton into a long strip, and wrapping it around my arm. The swiftness with which he tends to me is a surprise. He’s very comfortable playing doctor.
“Kinda,” he admits with a grin. “I mean when we say we’ve been waiting… we mean… we haven’t ever been with a woman.” When I scrunch up my face he adds, “Or a female wolf.”
“You’re virgins, is that what you’re trying to tell me? Waiting for me?”
“Our Remedy,” Callum says.
At this, I laugh. “You guys are pulling my chain.” I shake my head. “Or you’re seriously tripping.”
But they just shake their heads, breathing slowly, as if this is a moment they have been anticipating.
But how?
“Why me?” I ask.
“Our pack is divine,” Callum says as if it’s the most obvious and logical thing in the world.
I cock a brow his way. “How so?”
“We don’t just mate,” East says. “We have soulmates… and you… you are ours.”
“Is this some vortex I fell into? Because guys.” I press a hand to my face trying to gain clarity. It’s like I’m in a fog or under a spell—I stepped into this forest and fell into another dimension. One where virgin-shifting wolves save women from danger. “You know how unreal this all sounds.”
“Yet here we are,” River says, still standing in front of me, now reaching for my hand. Our fingers thread together and my skin shivers.
“Tonight, we want to share,” Callum says. “It’s all we’ve ever wanted.”
“Three men sharing one woman?” I scoff. “No man asks for that.”
East brushes my wild hair away from my face, my collarbone exposed and my breastbone bare and my heart beats so hard I swear they can all see the thump-thump-thump.
I’ve never had much of my own. I’ve counted myself lucky the times I’ve had more than the clothes on my back. But my body is the one thing no one has taken from me. It’s something I’ve guarded. Whenever a man tried to get in my pants, I raised hell and somehow got them to back off.
And right now, I’m glad I put up a fight. Because this is the moment I have been waiting f
or--without even knowing it.
“I’m a virgin too,” I tell them. Then I roll my eyes, lick my lips. Defense mechanisms flaring. “I can’t believe I just told you that.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. You’re in good company,” Callum says, taking my other hand.
“I think I’m hallucinating,” I tell them. Earlier tonight, I literally killed a man and now I’m in a cave, hiding from bears and the police, with three sexy men who happen to be virgins.
“No, this isn’t a dream.” Callum smiles and adds, “But it is our fantasy.”
“And what’s your wildest fantasy, Remedy?” East asks.
I close my eyes. My deepest, truest fantasy is something these men can’t give me. I want a home. A family. A forever.
Knowing I won’t get that anytime soon considering I’m likely on a Most Wanted list, I open my eyes, seeing the next best thing.
“My fantasy?” I smirk. “Tonight, wolves, it’s that we all lose our v-cards.”
“I don’t think we’re losing anything,” East says, looking at me with a hunger I hadn’t seen before. A hunger that sparks a need in my belly. Waking something that has been dormant for all my life.
“No?” I ask, suddenly wondering if I’d read them all wrong. Silently hoping I hadn’t.
He shakes his head. “No, Remedy, tonight, we get you.”
Chapter 6
East
Her eyes rake over us, but she doesn’t pull back or step away. No. She wants this.
“You ready?” I ask, having waited for this moment for years.
“You really want to have a foursome? I mean…” Remedy runs a hand over her bandaged arm. “Look, I know I put on this brave face but…”
“But this is all new territory?”
“Yeah,” she says, pushing back the hair that’s falling in her face. With the red strands away from her eyes, I’m taken aback by her beauty. By her pink lips, the full curve of her breasts, her dark eyes. Eyes that have seen a hell of a lot. “I don’t want to fuck it up, you know; embarrass myself?”