by Ariel Marie
He mentally focused on his human form and visualized it to initiate the shift from wolf to man. The other wolves followed and shifted back to their naked human forms. Shifters were not modest at all; nudity was just a part of their daily lives.
“What’s going on?” Brett asked as his eyes took in their surroundings.
“There was a wolf in this part of the woods,” he replied. “Dani and I were not too far from here, and I’m pretty sure that it’s the wolf whose scent was all over those dead deer.”
“Did you see him at all?” Leo inquired.
Ace shook his head. “Fuck no. I lost his scent here,” he answered, frustration lining his voice. “This was too close for comfort. Whoever this fucker is, he was too close to my mate,” he growled.
“Congratulations.” Brett nodded. “We saw your claiming mark on Dani.”
“I want this handled. Now,” he growled to his wolves. Their pack needed to be protected, and he wanted their property secured. His wolf growled again at the thought that danger had come so close to their mate. They had just claimed her, and he would be damned if he would let anything happen to her. She was his whole world.
“Kaj and I will go a little further to see if we can pick up the scent,” Leo offered. “Your mating is a cause for celebration. We will look for him. Go, be with your mate.”
Ace looked around at his wolves and they all nodded. He was being pulled into two directions. As the alpha of the pack, his top priority was the safety of the wolves that were under his protection. But, he was newly mated, and his wolf was dying to get to Dani. The mating call was pulling him to her.
“We will handle this,” Kaj vowed. “Go, Alpha. We will not let you down.”
“Come find me if you run into trouble.” He took one more look around before giving in to his wolf. He took off running, shifting, as he headed back towards the party grounds to find his mate.
~Dani~
Dani pulled her car into the Fosters’ driveway and slammed on the breaks. Her hands shook as she turned the car off and pulled the keys out of the ignition. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she didn’t like the sound of Hope’s voice on the phone.
Her wolf had whined the whole trip to their house, sensing that something was wrong. She prayed that Barbara had not taken a turn for the worse, or received bad news as she drove like a bat out of hell to get to their home.
She scurried out of the car and rushed up the front porch stairs. Her hands continued to tremble and caused her to drop her keys onto the ground. She snatched them up, and finally burst through the front door.
“Hope!” she called out, dropping her purse and keys on the table.
She walked through the house, finding it eerily quiet. The Fosters’ were a lively family; their home always full of family and friends. There was never a dull moment in their household. She headed towards the family room.
“Barb? Where is everyone—”
She came up short, finding Hope and her parents sitting on the couch in the family room with a look of terror etched on their faces. Her wolf growled immediately, sensing danger in the room.
Two large men stood in the room. She sniffed the air and scented wolf shifters, and one she recognized from the woods. Her first instinct was to shift and let her wolf free to tear them apart for terrorizing humans who were like a second family to her. But she held back her wolf, not wanting to expose her best friend and her parents to such violence in their home.
“Who are you?” she asked carefully as she stepped down into the family room. “And what do you want?”
“I guess the rumors were true,” the first shifter snarled. “Junior’s bitch did come back to town.”
Her body stiffened and she eyed the speaker. He looked slightly familiar, but she couldn’t place him. His stringy, dirty brown hair was unkempt and hung past his shoulders, and she picked up a slightly sour smell radiating from him.
“She didn’t like that,” the other barked out a short laugh, drawing her attention. His beady eyes were locked onto her as he strolled towards her. It was him; the scent from the woods that Ace had raced after.
“I still don’t see what Junior saw in her,” the first growled as he leaned towards Hope. “Now, this one right here—”
“Get away from her,” she growled as Hope whimpered and leaned into Barb. Her wolf was close to the surface, trying to break free, and she was having a hard time reining her in.
“Protective of these humans, are we?” he snapped. “Why? They don’t understand us.”
“What do you want? Money?” Hope’s father Scott interrupted. “We don’t have much.”
“We don’t want your money, human.”
“We’re here for her,” beady eyes snapped, grabbing her by the arm. “You’re coming with us.”
“Get off of me,” she screamed, struggling to get free. His grip tightened as he fought to drag her to the door.
“Let her go!” Hope shouted as she stood. “Dani, I’m so sorry—”
“Sit down,” dirty hair yelled, pushing Hope back down on the couch. “How much do you love these humans?” he taunted, pulling out a handgun from the back of his jeans. He placed the barrel of the gun against Barb’s forehead while she began to openly cry.
Dani froze, unable to take her eyes off of the gun against the head of a woman who she saw as a second mother. Barb was going through so much with her fight against breast cancer. She would beat it, Dani knew that. She couldn’t take a chance on Barb’s life. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to her.
“Okay,” she whispered, meeting the eyes of the beady eyed man. “Just don’t hurt them.”
“You humans better not move,” dirty hair barked as he stalked to the entryway of the room. “Humans getting in the way of shifters always gets messy,” he threatened, pointing the gun at the Fosters’.
“Please don’t do this!” Hope cried out as they dragged Dani through the house. “Dani!”
Chapter Eleven
Ace
The wolf in Ace wanted to break free and go search for his mate. Once he arrived back to the grounds, he had gone and found a spare set of clothing before going to look for her. He had wanted to announce their mating to the entire pack, but she was nowhere to be found.
Unable to find her, he went in search of her cousin Jessa, who told him that she had got a phone call from Hope and took off running, saying that there was an emergency with her best friend’s mother. That was where he went to find Dani, only to learn things were worse than he expected.
“Can you describe the men?” Brett asked Hope over her mother’s muffled cry.
“I’ve never seen them before, but I do know that they were shifters,” she said, wiping the tears from her face.
“Are you sure?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
His heart pounded in his chest. It had been a trap to separate them. His wolf wanted to howl at the thought of being led on a wild goose chase while his mate was lured away into danger.
“Yes. They kept calling us humans,” she sniffed. “And one of them had yellow looking eyes like Dani’s.”
He glanced at Brett. No words needed to be said. Brett walked out of their family room, tapping the screen of his cell phone.
“Don’t worry,” he soothed. “We’re going to get her back. I’m going to have someone watch over your house tonight, to make sure you are all safe.”
“Please bring her back,” Barbara begged, breaking free from her husband’s embrace.
His sensitive shifter nose picked up the slight scent of sickness that permeated from her. Only shifters would be able to smell it. He remembered that Dani had said the woman was the reason that she came back to Wakefield.
“She is like a daughter to me. Please, promise me you will bring her back to me, safe.”
“Mrs. Foster, I promise I will do everything in my power to bring her back safely. You have my word.”
He stalked out of the room, finding Brett on
the front porch speaking with Mick, the newest enforcer brought in by Leo. So far, he had been a great fit with the other enforcers.
“I want someone here to protect the Fosters’,” he demanded. “We don’t know if those fuckers will come back here. Dani considers the Fosters’ family, so we will protect them.”
“I’ll stay,” Mick volunteered. “I shall protect them with my life, Alpha.”
“Any issues, you call me,” Ace said.” Let’s roll,” he motioned for Brett.
His mind raced, thinking of all the places Dani could be. The scent of the wolves inside the Fosters’ home were the same as the ones from the deer. It confirmed that someone was targeting him and his pack. His wolf growled, ready to tear somebody apart for taking his mate.
“Where to?” Brett asked as they walked towards their SUV. The sound of Ace’s cell phone ringing filled the air. The number was blocked.
“What?” he barked into the phone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as Dani’s voice came over the line.
“Ace?” she asked, her voice trembled slightly.
“Dani, baby. Where are you?” Both he and Brett paused outside the doors of the SUV.
“I’m not sure where they are taking me,” she replied.
“Who are they?” he yelled out, sensing that his mate was in danger. His wolf was pacing, beside itself, and anxious to be let loose to go after his mate.
“Two of Junior’s wolves. They want you.”
“When and where?” He wouldn’t even think twice about meeting the wolves. There would be no hesitation in tearing them apart for threatening his pack and taking Dani. He could hear her muffled voice speaking to someone in the background.
“Alpha,” a deep male voice replaced Dani’s.
“Who is this?” he demanded, recognition starting to set in. The voice sounded slightly familiar.
“The name is Ronato.” Ace remembered the wolf only slightly. He had been one of Junior’s enforcers who Ace had expelled from the pack.
The night he killed Junior, he banned all of Junior’s loyal supporters from his pack. He knew that letting them stay would not be conducive for a pack that was in need of rebuilding. Leaving them in the pack would have meant that he would have constantly had to keep an eye on his back, never knowing when they would try to attack or challenge him for alpha.
But these wolves were not stand up wolves. They were just as dirty and vicious as Junior was. Kidnapping a female just went to show how low they were. They could have easily stepped up and challenged him without playing games or involving a woman.
“You killed the rightful alpha of the Blood Moon pack. It was our pack,” Ronato said. “You took everything from us.”
“There were no laws broken. It was a fair challenge,” Ace said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He didn’t want to give them any reason to harm Dani.
Shifter laws allowed the challenging of the alpha position. The laws had been set for hundreds of years, which allowed two wolves to fight to the death to gain leadership of a pack. Shifters were close in nature to the non-shifter wolves in the fact that the pack would be drawn to the stronger alpha wolf who they felt could provide better protection and leadership.
No one before Ace had challenged Junior or his father, leaving the pack to suffer at the hands of the Torres’.
“Fair? Who gives a shit about fair?” the wolf gave a short laugh. “I’m challenging you.”
“Where and when?” he growled. This time, he didn’t leave out the menacing threat in his voice. Challenge him? He would gladly meet this wolf in a fight. He could feel his wolf standing at attention at the mention of a challenge.
“Out on Route 2, where your territory ends,” Ronato said. Ace knew the area of which the wolf spoke. It was on the border of land that belonged to the state. Neutral ground.
“Fine,” he agreed. “And no harm better come to Dani,” he warned.
“Your mate? I can smell your stench all over her,” Ronato snapped. “But don’t worry. After I kill you, I’ll take really good care of her.”
Chapter Twelve
Dani
Dani sat fuming in the back seat of the truck that the two wolves threw her into. They even had the nerve to tie her hands behind her back. She hated this feeling of helplessness, but she would do it again in a heartbeat to keep the Fosters’ safe.
“He accepted the challenge,” the wolf named Ronato said to the other wolf, whose name she learned was Wyett.
“Good. Kill him, and we can take back our pack. That idiot Junior should have listened to us. If he had, he wouldn’t have gotten his damn throat ripped out,” Wyett’s rough voice floated through the open window.
She couldn’t help but snort at how delusional these wolves were. They honestly thought that Ronato could take on Ace? She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window as she thought of what her mate’s wolf looked like. Power radiated from the massive gray wolf. Her wolf whined, needing to get back to her mate.
“This time, we’ll do it our way,” Ronato’s voice broke through her thoughts. “He will not be walking away from this fight.” Their voices faded away as they walked away from the truck.
What. The. Fuck?
Panic began to set in. She had to warn Ace that these wolves couldn’t be trusted in a fair fight. She tugged at the ropes around her wrist, trying to loosen them. They didn’t even budge. The skin around her wrist burned as she tried to move her wrists around, but she could care less about any damage that was done to her. Shifters had the capabilities of enhanced healing. Once she shifted, the wounds would heal.
She strained to look out the window, but couldn’t see her kidnappers. The ropes still didn’t budge.
Shit!
She couldn’t allow Ace to walk into an ambush. A true challenge was done in front of witnesses from both sides to keep the fight fair, but from the sound of these wolves, they wouldn’t be fighting fair.
~Ace~
“These wolves aren’t to be trusted,” Ace stated as they pulled up to the meeting place.
“No shit,” Brett said as he pulled the truck to a stop. “The other enforcers are coming.”
“These fuckers are Junior’s wolves, and I know they will have something up their sleeves.”
“Don’t worry,” Brett looked at Ace fiercely. “You’ll win this challenge fair and square.”
“If anything should—”
“Nothing is going to happen,” Brett cut him off.
“Just in case,” Ace continued. “Get Dani. Promise me.” He was serious. If he did go down, he would want his beta to go after his mate and protect her.
“You won’t—”
“Promise me,” he growled at his best friend. His eyes narrowed as he waited for a reply. He knew he could always trust his friend with his life, but now he was entrusting the life of his mate to Brett as well.
He allowed some of his alpha power to radiate off of him. His wolf was going crazy, knowing that she was with the fucking lone wolves. There was no telling what they would do to her. Junior’s men were the worst caliber of shifters that could exist.
“Shit,” Brett breathed, looking away for second. “You know I will. But I’ll be damned if you’re killed tonight. Not happening. You’ve waited long enough to claim her, and to rightfully claim the pack. She’s not losing you tonight.”
“Thanks, brother.”
He was fairly certain that his wolf would take out Ronato’s, but in the back of his mind, he wanted to make sure that Dani would be taken care of in the event he didn’t live.
Lights filled the darkened cabin of the truck as someone pulled in and parked behind them. He tensed slightly at the sound of doors slamming from the vehicle behind them.
“It’s Leo and the others.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dani
“We wouldn’t want the big bad alpha to think that we hurt you,” Wyett smirked as he tied her to a tree. “You’ll have a perfect view of Ronato t
earing your lover apart.”
“Ronato won’t stand a chance,” she taunted, having faith that Ace would prevail.
“You keep believing that,” he growled, tugging the ropes tighter around her wrist. “When Ronato becomes alpha, you and me will be getting to know each other really well.” He sauntered off with a laugh.
“Like hell he will,” she hollered at his back.
She screamed her frustration at not being able to escape. She felt helpless, tied to a freaking tree, while her mate was about to fight to the death to keep his position as alpha, and for her.
Headlights began to appear on the outskirts of the property. She watched as a few trucks pulled up and parked. Off in the distance, she could see a few other men had joined Ronato and Wyett. A dreadful feeling rooted itself in her belly as they prepared for the challenge. She knew that Junior’s wolves were not going to fight fair, and Ace being the person he was, would follow every rule written in the shifter code book.
She lost track of time before she noted more headlights from other vehicles pulling up to the site. The first black truck looked familiar. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for her mate to step out of the truck. Several men got out of their trucks behind the black SUV.
Finally, Ace emerged from the vehicle. She wanted to shout to him to watch his back, but she didn’t want to distract him. From where she was tied up, she could see the tension rolling off of his body as he stalked towards Ronato, who stood with his wolves in the middle of the clearing. They stood toe to toe, not speaking during their intense stare off. Ace stood a few inches taller than the other wolf, and wider. She knew that her mate would defend her to the death. They may have just mated, but that’s what wolves did. When they made a commitment, it was for life. They were not so much different than their natural counterparts when it came to mates.