by Roxie Noir
It wasn’t far away, maybe fifty yards. He could barely see the top of a head over tree roots, the barrel of a rifle pointed right at him, but there was something else, something that made his blood freeze.
Wolves. That unmistakable unwashed dog scent.
They were right behind the human.
Then everything happened at once. The wolves sprang at the human, growling. Kade was already running toward them when he smelled blood combined with a human’s scent and heard a whimper.
It’s a woman, he realized. Somehow that hadn’t occurred to him, but as he charged up to the wolves, he roared.
He didn’t even slow down to swat away the first wolf, standing over the woman’s prone body. It yelped as it flew backwards, landing on its side and then scrambling up.
The second wolf growled at him, all its teeth bared, but it backed away slowly. Kade growled right back, showing every last one of his own teeth, sinking his back claws into the soft earth so he could get better purchase in case he had to charge.
I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt her, he thought.
Then he thought: What? I don’t even know her.
The wolf knew better, though. While wolves were overly territorial, posturing, aggressive animals, they also weren’t stupid. Two wolves couldn’t take on a single grizzly. Four, maybe. A really even fight was more like six wolves.
Of course, they did travel in packs.
The first wolf was on its feet now, and it snorted at the second wolf. Both of them took one last, long look at Kade, still growling and ready to charge, their yellow eyes unearthly and unnatural.
Then they trotted off into the forest.
Kade looked down at the woman. Her eyelids fluttered once, and then closed. Her face was so pale it was nearly translucent, and the moss underneath her was quickly soaked with her blood.
Without thinking, he shifted back to human. He kneeled next to her frantically, and rolled her over.
Kade gasped when he saw the wounds on her back, long claw sets that wrapped around her ribcage onto her side. Those wolves had almost killed her, and the rage flared up again through him, his bear roaring murderously.
Later, he told himself. Right now you need to get her to safety.
Even though she was about to shoot you?
He looked around for something to wrap her wounds in while he carried her back to the cabin, his gaze finally falling on a pack crammed under a tree root. In seconds, he’d torn into it, yanking out a backpacking towel and a few shirts. He tied them around her as tightly as he could, thankful that she’d already passed out.
If she were conscious, she’d be in a lot of pain, and it was only going to get worse.
Once her makeshift bandages were secure, Kade lifted her to his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and started hiking cross-country as fast as he could. He needed to get her to safety before the wolves came back, because when they did, they’d have reinforcements.
He wished he could shift, but he could never hang onto her in his grizzly form. Maybe if she’d been awake she could have ridden him. Rocks and pine needles scratched at his bare feet, and stray branches scraped his limbs, but he didn’t care.
All that mattered was that this woman was okay.
Kade had no idea what he was doing. He didn’t know why this woman’s life was so important. She’d been about to shoot him, for the love of God, and now he was naked and carrying her through the woods at the possible expense of his own safety.
How many wolves did he think he could fight off for her? Seven? Eight?
He looked at her again, bloody and flopped over his shoulder, as he half-jogged through the forest, and he felt something stir in him, deep down.
I’d fight as many wolves as there were, he realized. I’d fight twenty. Fifty, if it meant saving her.
His head spun, and he adjusted her body on his shoulder. He was only a little more than a mile from the cabin, and he picked up the pace a little more, ignoring the burning in his arms and legs.
When he finally heard the wolves again, the cabin was nearly in sight, but they were closing in. He could hear their panting and almost see their tongues hanging from their mouths, almost dragging on the ground.
His bear bristled and then reared back on its hind legs, ready to fight anything that came near her.
Don’t be stupid, he thought.
Instead, Kade broke into a run.
He burst into the clearing, the wolves right behind, running as fast as he could for the cabin in the center.
“Daniel!” he shouted.
A wolf snapped at his heel, its teeth just grazing him, and Kade whirled around, ready to face all of them, his mouth opening in a roar even though he was still human.
There were six of them.
Bring it the fuck on, he thought.
Then the door to the cabin slammed open and his mate, Daniel, stood in it, his huge form nearly filling the doorway. He took one glance at Kade, covered in sweat and gasping hard, and the bloody woman slung over his shoulder. Then Daniel faced the wolves.
“Leave,” Daniel told them, his quiet voice brimming with menace.
The wolves looked at each other, tongues lolling, sides heaving.
“You’ve got five more seconds,” Daniel went on. He took a step out of the cabin, and the wolf in front lifted one paw uncertainly.
Kade bared his teeth and growled, still human.
The lead wolf snapped once, then turned and trotted off. The rest followed, and Kade and Daniel stood, watching, until the sounds of wolves running through the forest had faded completely.
At last, Daniel turned to Kade, his dark, serious eyes taking in his mate’s situation.
“What the hell is going on?” he finally asked.
Minutes later, the woman was face down on their big kitchen table and Kade was unwrapping the shirts and towels from around her, tossing the bloodied cloths aside.
“What do you need?” Daniel asked, softly.
“There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom,” Kade said.
Daniel snorted. “That’s not going to do it,” he said
“We have to do something!”
“I’ll go get it,” Daniel said, disappearing into the next room.
She was still breathing and had a pulse, and those were both good signs, even if both vital signs were weak. As Kade began to pull the clothes she’d been wearing from her wounds, she twitched and moaned a little, but thankfully stayed unconscious.
Kade had to grit his teeth together, ignoring the signs of her pain. He didn’t know why, but this girl’s small, helpless gasps cut him to the core in a way that nothing else had in a long, long time.
Daniel came back with the first aid kit and handed it to Kade, who had her shirt nearly off.
“What now?” Daniel asked. Kade knew that later, they’d talk about why, exactly, he had come home human, naked, carrying a girl and being followed by a pack of wolves, but Daniel knew how to handle himself in a crisis.
It was one of the many things Kade loved him for.
Kade handed his mate a pair of scissors.
“Get the rest of her clothes off,” he said. “Do your best to make sure that there’s nothing stuck in the wounds, or it’ll get infected.”
Kade brought over a desk lamp — the best light he could find — and went to work getting fibers and moss out of the huge claw mark on her back, washing it every so often with a saline rinse that had also been in the first aid kit. She was still bleeding, but thankfully, the blood had slowed to a trickle instead of a gush.
Still, she was in trouble. She didn’t have much more to lose.
Daniel cut a sleeve off, then gently tugged her shirt out from under her. Then, with his fingertips, he gently brushed the light brown hair off the back of her neck, carefully placing the wet, dirty strands behind her head.
In that moment, Kade looked up at his mate’s face, and he saw himself reflected there.
Neither of them knew why, but they’d both fig
ht fifty wolves for this girl. A hundred. The number didn’t matter.
“Who is she?” Daniel asked softly, his face determinedly neutral.
“I don’t know,” Kade said. He plucked a long blue strip of cloth from the wound, wincing as the girl gasped in her sleep. “She was about to shoot me.”
Daniel’s eyebrows went up.
“And?”
“And the wolves attacked her.”
Daniel went quiet again, carefully cutting up each of the girl’s pant legs. Despite his enormous size, he had fast, meticulous fingers, rough with callouses. He had no problem easily lifting each of the girl’s legs to yank her pants off. Now the girl was naked and face down on their kitchen table, still unconscious.
Kade stepped back and looked at his work. Her wounds were mostly clean now, though the table was an awful mess. If she lived, he’d probably hear about it from Daniel — he’d have to sand the table down to get the bloodstains out.
Daniel had made that table himself, years ago, when he and Kade had finally become mates. It was the place where they ate their meals, did their work, shared their lives. Daniel’s version of an engagement ring, almost, and now it was stained with a human’s blood.
Kade hoped that wasn’t a dire symbol of some kind.
Any other time, he thought, he’d have appreciated her body. Underneath the ugly, masculine clothes she’d been wearing, she was muscular but curvaceous, the sort of thing that ought to make his mouth water.
There was too much blood for that right now, and she was unconscious, besides.
“Kade,” Daniel said, his voice finally breaking through Kade’s thoughts. The other man stood at the foot of the table, his arms crossed. He looked somber.
Kade looked up at his mate.
“Her wounds are too deep,” Daniel went on. He had a powerful, low voice, but he rarely raised it. “She needs stitches.”
“I can’t give her stitches,” Kade said.
He felt the panic begin. Was this girl — this incredibly important girl, whoever she was — another person he couldn’t save?
How many are there going to be? He wondered, the adrenaline driving a spike though his heart.
He felt a big, warm hand on his shoulder, and there was Daniel, looking into his eyes.
“I’m not taking her to the hospital,” Kade said. “I’m not taking her anywhere they can get her.”
“Call your cousin Hunter,” Daniel said.
Then the girl gasped, and her eyes flew open.
3
Charlie
Everything fucking hurt. Charlie was pretty sure that her back hurt the most, followed by her side, followed by her right leg, but her whole body just felt like it was on fire, a burning, deep pain tearing through her.
For the first few moments after she woke up, she couldn’t even speak, only hold her mouth open and gasp in air, hoping that somehow, it would make the pain stop.
In front of her eyes, everything seemed to shake and wiggle. All the colors looked wrong, somehow — they were too gray, and things moved slowly, almost like she was underwater. Every time she blinked she felt a little dizzy.
I don’t think I’m dead, she thought.
She tried to move her arm, and a fresh pain roared through her body.
Maybe I wish I was, though.
Then, her vision filled with two faces. Charlie couldn’t judge the distance between herself and them, but they were close.
One said something, and she blinked slowly, suddenly feeling like her eyelids had weights on them. She was just so tired.
The other face spoke, but Charlie still couldn’t understand what they were saying.
She let her eyelids droop shut, relieved to go back to sleep.
What a ridiculous time to think that someone is handsome, she thought as she drifted off.
Charlie dreamed she was a human sacrifice. Two priests, one naked and one clothed, were tearing strips of flesh off of her. She could see the priests but not the god they were feeding her to, and every time she tried to open her mouth to ask what they were doing, one of them would stroke her hair and make soothing noises.
Everything hurt, almost to the point of numbness. When they finally got all the flesh off of her back, she suddenly felt warm. Her head buzzed.
The naked priest knelt in front of her so that his face was at her eye level.
He was very, very attractive.
Probably why he’s a priest, thought dream-Charlie. The dream-priest said something, gently moving her hair out of her face, but the blood rushing through her ears was too much for her to understand him.
The clothed one was in the background, pacing back and forth.
Maybe I’m a terrible sacrifice, dream-Charlie thought.
She woke up again when the door to the cabin opened and a third person walked in.
It’s the wolves was her first thought, but she felt like her body was out of adrenaline. All she could do was look up and just barely flex one hand.
“She’s awake,” a naked man said. He looked a lot like the priest from her dream.
“Thanks for coming,” said the clothed one. He looked like the other priest.
The new man seemed upset, and he strode over to where she was lying, looking down at her.
“You said it was a bobcat,” he said, his voice stiff with anger.
The other two men shrugged.
“Meow?” muttered Charlie. All she’d heard was cat.
“Fuck,” the new guy muttered under his breath.
“You can still stitch her up, right?” asked the naked man.
The new guy dropped a case on the floor, bent, and started going through it. It was obvious from the precise-yet-jerky way he moved that he was half worried and half furious.
“Yes,” he said, tersely. “And when I’m finished, I expect a full fucking explanation for why I’m stitching up a half-dead human on your kitchen table, Kade.”
Charlie had two thoughts at once: I hope that half-dead person is okay and Which one’s Kade?
“Bring me another table,” the man said. Charlie could see his jaw flex as he flicked a syringe full of something, tiny droplets coming off the top.
He’s also cute, Charlie thought through her haze.
The other two men brought a smaller table into the room, and the new one began laying things out on it. The clothed man knelt in front of her face, his beautiful dark brown eyes worried.
“Hunter’s going to give you some stitches,” he said. “You’re hurt pretty bad, but we’re afraid if I take you out of here, the wolves will finish the job.”
Charlie didn’t answer for a long time. Her brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and she could only think at half-speed.
“Kade?” she finally asked.
“That’s Kade,” he said, pointing at the naked man who was glowering by the fireplace. “I’m Daniel, his mate.”
He pointed at the angry man wearing latex gloves and arranging tools on a table. “That’s Hunter, Kade’s cousin, and he’s going to fix you up.”
You’re under arrest, she thought. She tried to make her mouth say it, but it was too complicated. For the murders of two wolf-shifters.
“I’m going to sedate her,” Hunter said.
“She’s pretty sedated,” Kade said, his voice gruff and angry.
“Do you want me to help or not?” Hunter snapped, and Kade’s jaw flexed. He rolled his eyes.
Hunter propped her arm up on a chair, then felt around for a vein, frowning. It took a long time before he found one, but he finally slid a big needle into the inside of Charlie’s elbow, then attached a tube to it, the syringe on the other end.
“Okay,” he said to her. Something in his manner seemed slightly uncertain, like he wasn’t used to talking to his patients. “Count back from a hundred.”
“A hundred,” Charlie began. Immediately the numbers started swirling, and she couldn’t remember what was next. “Ninety... nine? Ninety...”
Darkness cl
osed in again.
This time she didn’t dream about anything.
The next time she woke up, everything was clearer. Her back still hurt, dully, and she felt lightheaded, but she no longer felt like she was thinking in half-speed, or like her brain was stuffed with cotton.
The three men sat across the room, in wooden chairs, gathered around a huge stone fireplace, drinking something and talking quietly. She couldn’t hear them, and could only see their profiles against the firelight.
Charlie seemed to remember that the one on the left was Kade, the fire making his hair nearly glow red-gold. Across the fire from him was the man who’d said he was his mate Daniel, all dark eyes and dark hair, the sort of chiseled, square jaw that movie stars and superheroes had.
We didn’t know that Kade had a mate, she thought. Charlie didn’t move. Now that everything didn’t hurt so much, and now that she could think clearly, she wanted a moment to observe them.
I hope they don’t have a female mate, she thought, unbidden.
Then she blinked in in surprise.
I do?
It was probably the drugs talking. She could tell she was on something.
Charlie had grown up in rural Cumberland, the eastern shifter state. Of course, it hadn’t been a shifter state when she’d been born, it had just been rural Tennessee.
She’d always known about shifters, though. They made up most of the people in her county and almost all the kids at her school. She’d been twelve or thirteen before she realized it was weird for a kid to have two dads and one mom, or for someone to turn into an animal.
This was the first time she’d given a thought to being part of a triad, though. Not that it was a real thought. It was a drug-induced haze, of course, because Kade was a feral murderer — or a nearly-feral murderer, apparently — and he needed to stand trial for what he’d done.
Charlie took a deep breath, and her stomach growled. The three men turned.
“Are you awake?” Kade said, softly, but his cousin Hunter brushed him out of the way. He put two fingers on her neck, feeling for her pulse.