Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2)

by Stephanie Rowe

  His fingers tightened around her neck, and he pressed his body into her, forcing her forward. She knew she couldn’t go into the apartment with him. She couldn’t be alone with him. Never again. “No!” She flung herself backwards, slamming the back of her head into his throat. He gagged and stumbled back, releasing her.

  “Jace! Help!” She spun around and raced past Lucius, her feet flying as she tore down the hall and hurtled down the steps toward the street. She had to get outside. She had to get to the car. She had to get where there were witnesses. She had to find Jace—

  Lucius tackled her, his lithe body shoving her down the stairs. She screamed, grabbing for the railing as she catapulted forward. Her fingers slipped off the slick wood, flailing through empty air as she lunged for it again, the scream lodged in her throat—

  Lucius leapt past her and reached the landing below a split second before she did. He caught her just before she hit, and hauled her against him. His ruthless eyes bore down at her, as he fisted her hair and yanked her head back. “Did you really think I’d let you die?” he snapped. “There’s so much to do before you get that reprieve, Abigail.”

  He raised his lips in a snarl, and she saw his face and incisors start to lengthen. She screamed and tried to slam her knee into his groin, but he was ready this time. His arms were like steel bands as he locked her against his body. He shifted partially, with the head of a wolf and the body of a man, a feat that should have been impossible. For a split second, she was too horrified to struggle, and then, too late, she saw his teeth coming for her throat.

  She had no time to react before his teeth sank into her neck.

  Chapter 5

  Abby’s scream knifed through Jace’s subconscious, jerking him awake. He lunged to his feet, then swore as he went down, his head spinning with dizziness. Swearing, he touched his head, gritting his jaw when he felt the open wound from the hit he’d taken. Someone had knocked him out with a single blow when he’d burst into the apartment. What the hell was going on? He hadn’t seen or heard anyone before being struck. He’d just come through the door and been hit from behind. How had his assailant evaded detection?

  Abby screamed again, jerking his focus off his injuries. Jace spun around, swiftly assessing the situation. He was in an alley, the same alley where he’d attacked Melissa, just outside her apartment. The air was filled with the scent of wolf, a scent he didn’t recognize, a wolf that had apparently attacked him and then dumped him. It was mingled with Abby’s scent, and it was coming from the apartment. “Abby!” He tried to take a step, but pain exploded through him, dragging him down to his knees.

  He twisted around and saw his ankle was locked in a bear trap, the rusted teeth deep in his already injured ankle, blood oozing from his boot. The moment he saw it, pain ratcheted through his whole body, a searing, burning pain that made every muscle tremble with weakness. Who the fuck had he run into in that apartment?

  Swearing, he grabbed the jaws of the trap and tried to pry them apart, but it was impossible. The sheer force of them was too great, crushing the bones in his ankle. He closed his eyes and summoned the wolf he’d fought so hard to suppress ever since he’d killed Melissa. Greedy for power, his wolf surged, ripping him from his human form with breathless ferocity. The split second his leg shifted, Jace jerked it free of the trap in the millisecond before the jaws closed on his smaller, wolf leg.

  Shedding his clothes, he lurched to his feet and broke into a three-legged sprint, hurtling down the alley he’d had so many nightmares about. He shoved aside the guilt, focusing on Abby. He raced up the fire escape and leapt through the open window of the apartment. He paused long enough to scent Abby, and then followed it out the door. He tore through the open doorway and down the hall to the exit.

  He slammed his shoulder into the stairwell door, and it flew open. The moment he entered the stairwell, the scent of fresh blood assaulted him. Abby’s blood. His wolf roared with fury, and he sprinted down the stairs, every muscle tensed as he rounded the corner of the landing. At the bottom of the stairs, a man with a wolf head was bent over Abby, his jaws wrapped around her throat.

  Jace vaulted off the top step, howling his challenge as he leapt. The wolf raised his head, his white teeth pink with her blood. The moment he saw Jace, he shoved Abby aside and whirled toward Jace, his lips curled in a menacing snarl.

  Jace twisted in midair, evading the wolf’s bite, and then sank his teeth into the soft flesh of his arm, which was still in its vulnerable human form. The wolf snarled and shifted, but it was too late. Jace’s grip was too tight, too secure, his teeth buried deep. Blood poured from the wound into Jace’s mouth, igniting a raw, primal hunger, feeding the wolf he’d contained for so long.

  Bloodlust poured through him, and his gaze shifted to a scarlet-haze. The need to kill raged through him, and he bit deeper, searching for the artery that would bleed his victim out in minutes.

  “Jace,” Abby’s desperate whisper broke through the frenzied hunger in his mind. Protectiveness surged through him, tearing his wolf’s focus from destruction to preservation. He had to break away. He had to help her. But his wolf was too focused on the kill. He wouldn’t be diverted—

  The half-man kicked Jace’s injured leg.

  Pain screamed through him, shocking his body into agonizing pain. Jace lost his grip on his victim, falling to the ground as his muscles convulsed in agony.

  “Jace!”

  Abby! He lurched to his feet and spun around. She was curled on her side, gripping the front of her neck. Her face was ashen, but her eyes were bright and alive. “Your leg,” she whispered.

  He knew about his leg. Yeah, he fucking knew about it.

  The half-wolf lunged to his feet and Jace whipped around to face him as he finished shifting into full wolf form…a massive black wolf that outweighed Jace by at least twenty pounds. Jace positioned himself in front of Abby as he raised his lips in a snarl.

  The black wolf went into the same position, its silver eyes gleaming with the thrill of the fight. His weight was evenly spread on all four legs, and the wound Jace had inflicted upon him appeared to be healing already. He was pure muscle and menace, eager to kill, ready to fight to the end.

  Jace knew he had to hide his injury, but his leg was dangling uselessly. There was literally no way he could put his foot down, and the other wolf knew it. Jace’s entire body was shaking with the effort of holding himself upright. He was losing blood fast, and the sheer magnitude of the injury was so extreme he couldn’t block the pain as well as he needed to. His body was starting to go into shock, and he knew he had to fight to stay in control.

  Ruthlessly, Jace shoved the injury aside, summoning every last shred of discipline he possessed to keep his body functioning. The other wolf began to circle around him. Jace turned with it, keeping himself between the wolf and Abby. Get to the car, he ordered her, unsure whether she would be able to hear him. He communicated with his pack telepathically when he was in wolf form, but Abby was completely human.

  But she rolled to her side, and started to crawl toward the door, as if she’d heard him.

  The wolf’s silver eyes flicked toward Abby, and Jace saw the glint of possessiveness in the animal. He knew then, without a doubt, that the wolf would not let her go. Abby was personal to him. What the hell was going on?

  Jace growled to get his attention off Abby, and the wolf looked back at him, his gaze going to Jace’s dangling leg. He turned toward Jace again and raised his lips in a silent snarl. He was going in for the kill, and they both knew that Jace, with his injured leg, had no chance against him.

  Fuck. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. He didn’t give a shit if he died, but if he died, it meant Abby had no protection against this bastard. He crouched low, protecting his belly, teeth bared as he prepared for the attack. His only chance would be to come from underneath and latch onto a soft, unprotected part. It was risky, but he had no choice. One more hit to his leg, and he’d be unable to continue. As
it was, his muscles were shaking violently, barely able to contain the pain.

  The black wolf tensed to spring and—

  Sirens suddenly screamed in the distance. Both wolves froze, listening. The black wolf snarled, then spun away. He scooped up his clothes in his teeth, then bolted out the door, disappearing from sight as his toenails clicked on the asphalt as he deserted the scene.

  Jace immediately collapsed on the hard floor, unable to hold himself up for a moment longer.

  “Jace!” Abby leapt to her feet. “We need to get out of here.”

  Her urgency pierced his veil of pain. She was right. They had to leave. Now. Swearing, he tried to stand, but his body gave out on him. Desperation raged through him as Abby hurried over, blood oozed from the bite marks in her neck. Son of a bitch. He had to get her out of there. With his history, the cops would lock him up, and there was no way he was going to leave her unprotected while he rotted behind bars. With a surge of energy, he forced himself to shift back to his human form. He bellowed with agony as the bones, muscles, and tendons in his crushed leg shifted, collapsing again as his body fought to hold itself together. Holy fuck.

  Abby crouched beside him, her face stark with pain and fear. “Are you okay?”

  The sirens were getting louder. “Fantastic.” His voice raw, he grabbed the railing and hauled himself to his feet. He was naked, covered in blood, with a woman who had wolf bites on her neck…and the police were coming. They had to bail, but if she was in danger of dying, he was going to make her stay so the paramedics could save her. “Let me see.”

  She didn’t hesitate. She just pulled her hand from her neck. “I’m okay.”

  His gut went cold when he saw the wounds. They were deep and raw, the marks of a dominant wolf trying to punish. Her fragile skin had been marked and torn…but it hadn’t been a killing bite. She was marked, but barely bleeding. Satisfied she wasn’t in danger at the moment, he nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

  She slung his arm over her shoulder, supporting his injured side. “Hurry.”

  He used her only for balance, refusing to burden her with his weight as he hopped across the floor, every movement sending shards of pain through him. Sweat trickled down his back in rivulets, the pain so great he could barely stay conscious. He knew it shouldn’t hurt that badly, but he didn’t have time to assess it. They had to get away first.

  “Lean on me, Jace.” She ordered as they slipped outside to the alley where he’d left his SUV.

  “No.” If he leaned on her, he’d impede both of their movements. She needed to be able to run, and he needed to be able to fight. But son of a bitch, he’d never felt pain like this before. It wasn’t only in his ankle. It was everywhere in his body, as if his blood was literally burning him up from the inside.

  He stumbled and she caught him. He fought for balance, but soon she was half-dragging him across the alley toward his truck. The sirens were screaming now, almost upon them.

  “Get in!” She pulled open the passenger door, and he fell onto the seat, barely able to drag his injured leg into the car.

  “My keys,” he gasped. “They’re in my pants. In the alley. Near the fire escape.”

  “Got it!” She flung the door shut and raced away.

  Jace leaned back against the seat, fighting for breath, focusing on the pain and willing it out of his body. It wasn’t only about the pain, however. He could tell that his ankle was absolutely pulverized. The bones had turned to dust, the tendons and muscles shredded. It was so far beyond what he could heal, even as a shifter. He knew it would never heal. There was no way he could be an alpha, or survive in his world on three legs. Weakness would be exploited, and he would be targeted. “Fuck!”

  Abby opened the driver’s door, and flung his clothes at him. She jammed the keys into the ignition and the engine roared to life. She hit the gas and the SUV leapt forward, the tires spinning on the dirty alley floor. Jace gritted his teeth as he slid across the seat, his ankle bumping against the side of the car.

  The car flew out of the alley, skidding as she turned right on the main road. Jace twisted around in his seat, watching the street behind them. Just as she turned the car around the next corner, the police cars came into view, screaming to a stop in front of the apartment building.

  As Abby drove, he kept watching behind them, waiting for the cops to come after them…but they didn’t. After five minutes, he realized they were safe.

  With a low groan, he finally turned around and sank into the seat. He was still naked, bloody, and broken, but he didn’t give a shit. His clothes were in a pile on his lap, and that was all the modesty she was going to get. “We’re good.” His adrenaline began to fade, leaving him with no protection against the pain. He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. His mind was spinning now, fragmenting as it tried to defend against the utter destruction of his leg.

  “You need a hospital,” she said. “They’ll have to operate.”

  “No. They’ll put in steel plates and pins. I’ll never be able to shift again.”

  “But—”

  He opened his eyes to look at her. “No.”

  She pressed her lips together. “You think being a crippled shifter is better than being a healed man?”

  “Yeah, I do.” He watched her drive through half-lidded eyes. “If I hadn’t been able to shift today, that black wolf would have you right now. So, yeah, it’s better. My world is the shifter world, not the human one.” He closed his eyes again, needing to focus all his energy on his leg. “I need time to try to heal it as best I can. We’ll go to my place. It’s safe.” He gave her his address, gritting his teeth when the car hit a bump. “Can you get us there?”

  “Of course.” She looked over at him. “You should wrap your ankle. It’s…” She grimaced. “God, Jace, it looks horrible.”

  “It’s fine.” She was right, though. He needed to stabilize it. With a groan he couldn’t suppress, he grabbed his tee shirt and tore it into strips. He leaned over to wrap his ankle, but the moment his fingers touched it, he almost doubled over from the pain. “Son of a bitch.” He’d been bitten dozens of times in his life. He’d had wounds that should have killed him, but nothing had hurt like his leg. It was as if all the broken fragments kept shifting position, igniting new shards of pain.

  Or maybe it hurt so much because he knew he wasn’t going to be able to heal it properly. The loss of his leg was as agonizing as the pain itself. It wasn’t like getting his gut ripped open. He could heal that. But his ankle? He’d seen shifters with injuries like his, and they never healed sufficiently. He’d never be able to do what he needed to do again. But he was going to try. He was damned good at healing, and he wasn’t going to give up easily. If he could regain even partial use of it, that would help. But he knew he’d never have the agility he once had. It was over, forever.

  “Do you want me to splint it?” she asked.

  “No.” Shit, no. He wasn’t that weak. With a growl of determination, he jerked the strip of his tee shirt around his ankle, wrapping it tightly. White spots swam before his eyes, but he didn’t stop. He just wrapped the fucking thing like a mummy, until his ankle was swathed in a bloodstained tourniquet that would do nothing to actually heal it, but might support it enough for him to walk if he needed to.

  He leaned back against the seat, sweat beading from every pore in his body. He closed his eyes, knowing he needed to sleep, but unwilling to leave Abby unprotected. “Who was he?” he asked. “The black wolf. He knew you. It was personal.” When she didn’t answer, he looked over at her. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

  Protectiveness surged through him, propelled by a dark sense of foreboding. Instinctively, he scanned their surroundings, making sure no one was following him…but he’d done that at the apartment, and he hadn’t sensed the black wolf. “Talk to me, Abby. What don’t I know?”

  “I thought he was dead,” she whispered. She glanced over at him, her eyes wide with the kind of fear that
made outrage pour through him. “He was supposed to be dead.”

  “Who?”

  “He….” She swallowed. “He’s my sister’s husband. Seth’s father.”

  Son of a bitch. His father?

  Taking on Grigori, who’d claimed the boy as his own kin was bad enough. But to add on a wolf protecting his own son? Jesus.

  They were fucked.

  *

  Abby looked over at Jace, who had fallen into a fitful, painful sleep while she drove. He’d put on his leather jacket, but his skin was cold and ashen, and his energy was low. His ankle looked like it was destroyed. When he’d wrapped it, it had virtually crumbled beneath the bandages. Had his bones basically turned to dust from the two injuries? How could an alpha wolf survive on three legs? How would he defeat Grigori? After Lucius’s trap and Jace’s story about his past with Grigori, she knew they were both being hunted. It was simply a matter of whether she and Jace were caught before they found Seth. Either way, they were going to meet. When they did, someone would win, and someone would die.

  She gripped the steering wheel, desperately trying to decide what to do about Jace. If she did nothing, he would be on three legs his whole life, a weakened state that would turn him into the hunted by other wolves. There was one person who might be able to help him, but he was from her past, the time when Grigori knew her.

  Would Grigori guess she would go there?

  He might.

  But if she didn’t… She touched her neck, grimacing at the torn skin. It wasn’t a deadly bite, but it was significant. She was afraid of what Lucius had done to her. So deeply afraid.

  How big was the risk if she asked for help? How significant was the impact if she didn’t?

  If she asked for help, they had a chance to survive. It was possible it would pay off.

  If she didn’t ask for help, it was guaranteed they would have no chance when Grigori or Lucius found them. What choice did she have?

  None. Because hiding wasn’t an option. Somewhere out there was Seth, four years old, in the hands of a madman that would strip him of his humanity within days. She had to seek out help, and just be very, very careful while she was there.