by Ellis Leigh
Luc tugged her against him, nuzzling into her neck. Growling softly enough so her wolf could hear him. And she definitely heard him—Cassiel’s entire body went hot, her scent deepening. This was his mate, his fated match, and he was going to do anything it took to make her aware and comfortable of the world she would end up being a part of. But slowly and carefully. No way could he rush this.
So he gave her a kiss on the neck, and he held her tight for a few moments. And he stopped growling so her wolf could resettle. The silence brought with it a sense of unease, though. A definite feeling of something wrong in the area. In the woods. His heightened senses picked up a disturbance far closer than any should have been, which meant he needed to shift and figure out what was going on.
He needed to leave Cassiel.
This was going to be harder than he’d ever have expected. “I should really get back soon. I need to figure out what that was in the woods.”
Cassiel could hardly look at him, her heartbreak clear. “Right. Yeah, okay. I can just—”
Luc grabbed her and kissed her again, deeply this time. Making his claim clear before pulling away. “I will be back, Cassiel. I need to deal with a few things at camp, then I’ll be back. I promise.”
Her sad expression faded a little. “Sure. Of course. You have biology research to do.”
A giant ball of guilt for the lies he’d told her lodged itself in his throat, so he nodded his agreement. Giving himself an extra moment to swallow it down. “Next time, we’ll finish our conversation, and I’ll tell you all about my childhood—sound fair?”
Cassiel finally smiled at him, the sorrow leaving her pretty face. “Yeah. It does. Have any idea of when you’ll be back? I can pull out some extra meat for a stew and make some bread.”
He pulled her in again, his hands on her ass. “You tempt me, woman.”
“I try.”
“You succeed.” One more kiss, one more soft growl, and then he let her go. “Tomorrow. I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”
She wove her fingers together as he backed away, looking smaller than ever in that moment. “Tomorrow is great.”
It wasn’t—it was too long. He didn’t want to leave her at all, but he needed to get back to his camp to talk to his pack, figure out what was wrong in the woods, and get the necessary supplies together to keep Cassiel thinking he was a human. Not at all a light day’s work but one he needed to dive straight into, which was why he didn’t linger. He kissed his mate one last time then headed for the woods.
“Hey, Cassiel?” he hollered before he hit the tree line.
She turned, cocking her head. “Yeah?”
“Maybe tomorrow you can take me out on that sled of yours.”
“The dogs would like that.”
“And you?”
She grinned. “I like doing anything with you.”
Luc couldn’t hold back his own smile, so he blew her a kiss before turning and running into the woods. He had found his mate. So many years alone, but he’d found her. The bond was weak, as was her wolf, but he’d feed it. He’d take such good care of it. And someday, he’d tell Cassiel about his wolf and hers, then he’d do his best to make her feel safe enough to shift. He’d take care of her through every second.
But first, he needed to deal with whatever was wrong in the forest.
He shifted once he was far enough away to feel safe doing so, racing along the path toward Bettles, and immediately felt the local pack. The sickness. The danger they posed. He raced toward his homestead, letting his senses reach out. Feeling for the boundaries. They were close, that pack. Too close. And moving toward him instead of away. He sensed no feminine energy still, but that wasn’t his top priority at the moment. The pack had made a move on the Dires’ homestead—had come close enough to be a threat. His brothers, their mates, the baby—all could have been in danger. All were under threat. And Luc wasn’t there to protect them.
The lead ball in his gut grew ten times larger.
Luc’s wolf snarled viciously and pumped his legs harder, the rage at the very idea of a pack threatening his own fueling his speed. He could sense his Dires—feel them running toward him. The entire pack, it seemed. Out in the woods and vulnerable to attack.
No fucking way. No one put his brothers and family in danger. No one got that close to them and lived to tell the tale.
If the pack had identified his home and come looking for a fight, they’d get one. And they’d lose.
14
It didn’t take long—maybe an hour at most—for Cassiel to truly miss having Luc around. Odd considering how long she’d been alone in the bush. But she couldn’t deny the longing inside her to see him, to feel him close. One night with him in her bed, and she couldn’t imagine spending another one alone.
She tried to ignore the feeling—tried to keep busy and pretend everything was fine—but eventually, the yearning grew too strong to ignore. She wasn’t a woman who sat around waiting for anything. She worked for what she wanted, and if that meant hooking up her dogs to her sled and taking a ride around the lake to make sure he’d made it home okay, that was what she would do. Even if it did possibly label her as clingy.
“I just want to make sure he’s safe,” Cassiel said to Moxie as she clipped her harness into place. “These woods are dangerous. He ran here after being chased by something—he needs to be more careful.”
Because he hadn’t been armed. Because he hadn’t even been dressed appropriately. Because he’d somehow made it to her cabin through the woods and the cold and the wild with some sort of predator chasing him.
Nothing about last night’s story fit, and yet she wasn’t as worried about that as she was about making sure it didn’t happen again. She’d figure out Luc’s truth later; right then, she just wanted to find him.
“Ready, team?” Her dogs yipped and jumped, all seeming excited to go for a run. This was what they had been bred for after all. This was their love. “Hike!”
The trip started off well enough—the dogs were excited and energetic, so she spent much of the ride simply trying to keep them all moving in the right direction and working as a team. But as they raced deeper through the woods, as they had to begin to cut a path through the ankle-deep snow that never seemed to melt, she noticed a problem. The dogs seemed anxious, nervous even. At first, she thought her lead dog was choosing not to lead, but that didn’t seem accurate. It wasn’t the lead dog at all. Bert, her usual swing dog—the one in the second spot—kept wanting to stop. Being that Bert was one of her more sensitive dogs, that shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did. They’d run through these woods a thousand times, had raced past scenes far more nerve-racking than the current one. This was not a normal ride.
Fearing Bert might end up pulling the entire sled off track, Cassiel stopped the ride and stepped off the runners.
“Let’s try to realign things, shall we?” She unhooked Bert from his spot in swing and moved him to the back, giving him Moxie’s spot and bringing her to the front. She was just clipping the smaller dog’s harness to the ganglines when she saw them. Prints. Large paw prints. Lots of them. They followed along the trail, some larger than others. Some almost dwarfing her own dogs. She knew the shape of those prints—knew how big the animal had to be that made them.
“Wolves.” She hurriedly got Moxie into position and ran back to her sled. She needed to find Luc and get them out of there. A pack of wolves—of large wolves—could take them all down, her dogs included. Thankfully, she’d brought her rifle with her. When she got to the sled, she made sure it was fully loaded and moved it to a more convenient spot. Her dogs seemed even more anxious sitting still the way they were, so she mushed them on. Racing down the trail and hoping against hope she could catch up with Luc before the wolves did.
The dogs ran better with Moxie in swing, all of them working together to fly down the trail. The sled rocked a bit at times, but Cassiel couldn’t slow down. She was risking tipping over, but that wouldn’t stop her. Luc wa
s out there—alone and in danger. Something inside her told her she needed to hurry, to get to him. To protect him. A ridiculous idea seeing as how he was so much bigger and stronger than she was, but she had her rifle and the knowledge of living in the bush for so many years. She could be of help to him for sure.
The trail dipped down into a shadowy patch of woods before rising once more on a slow incline. The dogs kept running, kept a solid pace both down and uphill, but as they slid over the crest, Cassiel pulled them to a stop, and her heart started pounding.
Wolves.
Lots of them.
Too many for her to deal with alone, but she didn’t really have a choice.
Without taking her eyes off the pack of predators, Cassiel reached and picked up her gun. Bringing it to her shoulder and eyeing down the barrel. Her dogs danced in their lines, whining and growling. Understanding the danger they were facing but not running away. She had a solid team that would wait for her instructions to a point, but eventually, instinct would take over. She knew that, understood the whys of it, too. She only had a few minutes to clear the trail or things would be taking a turn for the very, very bad.
With one hand, she slowly, carefully, reached down to grab her ganglines in case her dogs bolted. Keeping her gun sighted on the wolves before her. My god, were they huge. Way too tall and thick for your average Alaskan wolves. They incited an instinctual fear within her, reminding her of being that tiny child and seeing that massive wolf come strolling in as if it had owned the house. As if it had been normal for a beast to be inside.
She would not allow these to get that close.
“You’d better take off, or I’m going to shoot.” She had no idea why she spoke—it wasn’t as if the creatures understood the English language—but she felt the need to give them a chance to leave. To run off. They didn’t, though there was a shift in their positioning. Some of the wolves—the largest ones—stepped in front of others. As if protecting the smaller creatures. No way could she be reading that correctly—they were mindless beasts. And yet…
One wolf in particular, a massive dark animal with eyes darker than the night sky, stared right at her. Refusing to back down. She stared back, knowing this was a power move. Understanding that wolf was probably the leader. The Alpha.
If she took him down, the rest would likely scatter.
She aimed her gun and brought her head down to sight properly before disengaging the safety. One shot was all she’d need, more than likely. One kill, all that had to happen to save herself, her dogs, and likely Luc. If they hadn’t already taken him down. A thought that had her finger itching on the trigger.
But then something changed. The wolf never broke his stare, but he…changed. Switched forms right before her eyes. He went from a giant, furry beast on four legs to a man. To skin and muscle and bone.
To Luc.
A very tall, strong, and naked Luc.
“You…” She shook her head, gun still raised, hands shaking. “You’re…”
But words wouldn’t come. They couldn’t form through the confusion in her mind. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t possible. Luc was a man, not an animal. And yet, she’d just seen him change from wolf to human, had witnessed it herself. No one else was telling her she hadn’t seen what had just happened—it was only her. Her mind refusing to make sense of the situation.
Luc had been a wolf and then had shifted human. This was the stuff of horror movies.
The man in question took a single step forward, reaching out a hand in her direction. “It’s okay, Cassiel.”
“This is so far from okay.” She adjusted the gun on her shoulder, still not dropping it. Still aiming. “What the hell is going on here?”
The wolves behind Luc followed him as he inched closer. She couldn’t figure out where to focus—on Luc, on the beasts behind him, on her own dogs who seemed ready to run at any second. There was just too much to take in.
“You can put that down,” Luc said, his voice soft and soothing. Disturbingly so. “They won’t hurt you or your dogs.”
As if she could trust him now. “Lies.”
A wolf behind him growled, setting the dogs to barking and making them jump. Cassiel held the ganglines tight, stumbling slightly. Luc turned and snarled, a vicious rumble bubbling up from deep with him. The sound something from her nightmares. There was no thought to her actions, no plan or intent. Her legs shook, her weight shifted into her heels, and her finger squeezed the trigger.
Luc stumbled back, blood erupting from his chest. Nightmare intensified. Cassiel grabbed the ganglines tighter as her team all jumped in unison, almost missing the fact that most of the other wolves in the pack facing her shifted to their human forms. Eight naked humans stood before her, all rushing toward Luc, who had slumped to the ground before falling forward. The snow around him turning an angry shade of red. Two of the humans—two women—rushed her sled. Before she could fire off another shot, before she could even tear her eyes away from the heartrending sight of Luc facedown in the snow—they grabbed her and yanked her off her sled.
“Why did you fire?” one of them said, a growl in her voice. She looked…pretty. Gorgeous, even, with long blond hair and a face one might see in a magazine. She also seemed mad as hell. “Why would you shoot at him?”
“We need to move,” another woman said, this one dark and equally as gorgeous but in a different sort of way. She appeared stronger, more in control. More demanding. “Phego and Bez, get Luc on the sled. We’ll mush him back to the cabin.”
That made Cassiel’s heart drop. “You’re not taking my dogs.”
A man—hugely tall and thick and with an air of absolute magic practically oozing off him—stared right at her. His silver eyes making her shiver. “We will take what we need to care for Luc, which includes you. Now, get ready. We’ll run alongside.”
They dropped Luc into her sled, his bloody chest rising and falling, though slowly. Shallowly. The dark woman crawled in with him, frowning. Holding her hands over the wound and pushing down.
“Go,” she yelled. Cassiel reacted on instinct, cueing the dogs to run even as the rest of the humans all shifted to their wolf forms. Racing through the woods with one beast in the lead of them all.
Running with the wolves who seemed to be trying to save Luc’s life.
15
If Luc had learned one thing on his trek through Alaska, it was this—Phego’s mate was not a woman to be trifled with, especially when she lost her temper. As she had when Luc refused her advice.
“You’re going to feel that ball of metal in your lung every day for the rest of your life if you don’t let me operate to remove it.” Dr. Michaela was definitely in the house. She and Ariel were both glaring Luc’s way, as if his refusal was a personal attack on their skills. But Luc didn’t doubt they could pull him through and have him up and running as quickly as possible. He simply wasn’t prepared to be knocked out in any way. Not with Cassiel there. Not with a pack of sick shifters on the move toward them.
No, he wasn’t about to let them put any drugs in him. “Not today, Michaela.”
At his voice, a whimper sounded from across the room, and both women turned along with him to look. Cassiel sat on a chair in a ball of human flesh, shaking and looking almost ready to cry. Luc wanted nothing more than to run to her, to soothe her fears. To remind her of who he was and how much he cared about her.
But his senses wouldn’t allow him to weaken even for a moment. The pack had moved closer and was still heading directly toward them. As much as he cared for Cassiel and wanted her safe, as much as he knew his mate needed protection, she couldn’t be his only concern. He had a houseful of people to worry about… starting with baby Micah and a pregnant Amy.
There was a lot to do to keep his pack safe.
“Michaela,” he whispered, trying hard not to let the other wolves in the house hear him. “Get the baby, Ariel, and Amy upstairs. Keep them up there. Take care of them.”
Michaela eyed
him hard, never letting him escape her knowing gaze. “And your mate?”
Because of course she’d figured out what he had yet to tell them all. “Take Cassiel also. I don’t think she can shift, and her wolf is definitely weak.”
The doctor huffed. “I could have told you that with one look at her. That poor baby wolf has been starved for a lot of years.”
Luc sometimes forgot how much knowledge was held by the collective of his pack. He never doubted them; he simply assumed he knew more because he’d been alive the longest. He was willing to admit that he could be an idiot at times.
“Can that be changed?” he asked, leaning in to attempt privacy. “If she learns to accept her wolf, can the animal be strengthened?”
Michaela glanced in Cassiel’s direction before shooting him a concerned look. “I’ve seen it done, but accepting is hard for people who were brought up in the human world and never had contact with their inner beast. You’re going to have to be really patient with her.”
Luc nodded, knowing patience wasn’t his strongest trait but willing to do anything. His mate deserved his best.
Michaela sighed and threw away the gloves she’d been wearing as she’d examined him. Not looking directly at him. Lowering her voice even more. “They’re coming, aren’t they?”
The pack. The bad one. The threat. Luc nodded.
She shook her head, chancing a look in Phego’s direction. “Your brothers are going to be pissed about this. Especially Thaus and Levi.”
Because he’d allowed the women to make the decision whether to come or not, and now they were in danger. “I know.”
Michaela held out a hand, helping to pull him to his feet and making sure he was steady before collecting the baby, Ariel, and Amy to head upstairs. Every male in the room stiffened when the little troop mounted the stairs, every wolf recognizing what Luc had asked Michaela to do. Waiting for Luc to tell them what the hell was going on.
But his pack would have to wait for another minute before he addressed them—Luc had a mate to care for. Even if just for a moment.