The Wilde Crew: Rory: A paranormal wolf shifter romance (The Shifters of Wilde Ranch Book 4)

by Kim Fox

  nine

  “What’s this?” Candice asked, her face lighting up with a smile.

  She took the new pencil case off the desk and laughed. It was adorable with cute little cartoon foxes on it and Rory had even stuffed it full of different color highlighters like she loved. He’s so sweet.

  “I can’t let Tony Mitchell top me,” Rory said, leaning on the reception desk.

  Candice snorted out a laugh. She couldn’t believe that he had remembered. It had been over a week since she had told him about her elementary school crush Tony Mitchell who stole her favorite pencil case and threw it in the river. Not only did he remember but he went out and found the cutest pencil case to replace it. He was a real keeper.

  “I love it,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat up. Rory was always doing that to her; making her blush. “Were you that jealous of Tony?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Maybe a little.”

  “Don’t be,” Candice said, standing up. She leaned over the desk and gave him a kiss on the lips. “He’s got nothing on you.”

  She smiled as she sat back down and looked through the pencil case, pulling out the different colored highlighters and trying them out on a scrap piece of paper.

  It had been over a week since the day that Rory’s wolf took off running. Candice had tried to get him to talk about it or to bring it up with Joan but every time that she brought it up, Rory acted weird and quickly changed the subject. He hadn’t phased into his animal since that morning and his inner wolf often kept Candice awake at night, whining and whimpering like a dog stuck in a pound.

  She had also noticed that he had been keeping his distance from Joan. He used to be so close with his alpha and now he would make conscious efforts to avoid her.

  Candice didn’t know what to do. She was happier with Rory than she’d ever been in her life but she was starting to worry about him. A shifter who never let his animal out was always headed for troubling times.

  “Rory,” she said, taking a deep breath as she tried to bring it up again. “Maybe you should talk to Joan about what’s going on with your wolf. I can come with you if you’d like.”

  “Nothing is going on,” he said quickly, turning his eyes to the side wall as he said it. “My wolf has been fine.”

  She sighed. “He was whimpering all night.”

  Rory’s shoulders curled forward as he cringed. “Again?”

  “It’s been every night this week,” she said softly. “Maybe Joan will know what to do.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about it for a few seconds. “I’m trying to help The Wilde Crew become a real crew,” he said with a sigh. “How is it going to help if my wolf doesn’t even recognize the crew’s alpha?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “But you can’t keep going on like this. Somethings got to give.”

  The rumbling of nearly two dozen motorcycles came roaring through the ranch like a vicious stampede of horsepower. Candice grabbed Bubbles’ fishbowl before it vibrated off of the desk.

  “Uh oh,” Rory whispered as he darted to the window. His face went as pale as the white curtains when he saw what was outside.

  He slowly turned to Candice, looking like he just saw the grim reaper himself. “They’re here.”

  Something was about to give alright. Candice just hoped that it didn’t bring everyone crashing down with it.

  ***

  Rory took a deep breath before stepping outside. His wolf was bouncing around inside of his trembling body like a dog whose owners just got home after a long day of work.

  Drake was back. And he brought the whole pack with him.

  Candice stood by his side as he watched twenty-one wolf shifters pull into the Wilde Ranch on motorcycles. He gulped as he recognized Laurence, Mikey, Redd, Graham. They were all there.

  Every shifter who called him a friend only to turn their back on him when he needed them the most.

  Drake was at the head of the pack as usual. He stepped off the bike with a triumphant grin on his horrifying face.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Candice said, slipping her hand into Rory’s. “We’ll just tell them that you’re not going back.”

  Rory wished it was that simple but it wasn’t. Drake would never take no for an answer, especially in front of his entire pack. Rory would be going back to the Tracker Pack with his head attached to his body or with his head strapped to the back of Drake’s motorcycle. There wasn’t really a third option.

  Rory’s inner wolf was lunging forward, trying to break free so that he could submit to his alpha and return to his birth pack.

  What hope did Rory have?

  “Candice,” he whispered, squeezing her hand. “You should get out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, squeezing his hand back. “My place is by your side.”

  That’s why Rory loved her but this was no place for a fox shifter. Drake would do whatever it took to get Rory to submit. He would even hurt the girl that Rory loved. His former alpha wasn’t above such tactics. He had seen him do it before.

  “You made me travel over here with my entire pack,” Drake said with his nostrils flaring. Rory gulped as he watched the thick vein on Drake’s neck twitching more than ever. His old alpha was pissed. “Come back now and I’ll-”

  “You’ll what?” Cole asked, popping out of the inn and taking a stand beside Rory. “Go easy on him?”

  “No,” Drake said with a deep laugh. “Me going easy on him is not one of the options. But me skinning him alive is.”

  Rory’s hands were trembling as nausea overtook him. He felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out. His wolf was desperately trying to get out to return to his pack but Rory wanted to stay with his friends, with his family. He may not have been born into the Wilde Crew but they were the only true family he had.

  Ashton and Joan were running over from the trailers and Joan looked pissed. Things were about to get ugly.

  “What the fuck did I tell you about staying off of my ranch?” she screamed as she arrived.

  Ashton stood with Rory, Cole, and Candice as Joan ran up to Drake and stopped in front of him with her arms waving in his face.

  “You picked the wrong day to roll up in here,” she yelled at him with her tiny body shaking wildly. “I’m starting my period and looking for an excuse to fuck shit up.”

  Six of the largest wolf shifters in the Tracker Pack stepped up beside Drake with violence in their eyes. Rory knew each one of them and they weren’t shifters to mess around with. They were some of the toughest wolf shifters on the west coast.

  Joan just laughed.

  “These are the only guys you brought?” she said, scrunching her face up as she looked them up and down one at a time. “Wolf shifters are like Skittles to my bear. She just eats them up like candy.”

  Rory watched, his stomach rolling with nerves. He didn’t want to see Joan get hurt. She looked so tiny compared to the large men looming over her. Rory knew what they were capable of and he didn’t want to see Joan get in the middle of a brawl because of him.

  “Joan,” Rory said, stepping forward. His wolf was going nuts inside of him. He could barely contain the crazed animal.

  “I got this Rory,” Joan snapped, still glaring at Drake. “Stay with the others.”

  Rory’s wolf growled at her, shaking Rory’s chest with the loud rumbling.

  Drake’s lip curled up over his cruel teeth. “Your wolf knows its rightful place,” he said, grinning at him. “He knows his true alpha. Me. And you know it too.”

  Rory closed his eyes, breathing heavily as he tried to fight off the pull of his old alpha’s seizing words.

  “Come,” Drake commanded. “Submit to your true alpha.”

  Rory felt hypnotized by Drake’s deep voice. He was a wolf shifter and his obedience ran deep in his DNA. He knew who his true friends were, he knew who his real family was, but he still couldn’t stop himself from wa
lking over to Drake like he was in some kind of a trance.

  “Rory,” Cole called out from behind him. “What are you doing man?”

  “Don’t do it,” Ashton said, the dismay clear in his voice. “You’re our brother, Rory.”

  Rory wished he could stop his feet from moving and tell Drake what he was really feeling but he couldn’t. He was held under Drake’s spell and completely in control of his wolf’s alpha.

  “Rory,” Joan whispered, staring at him in disbelief. His heart broke as the color drained from her face, the betrayal she was feeling clearly visible with her trembling chin and slowly shaking head.

  “Get back over there,” she commanded in a fierce tone as she pointed to Rory’s friends. “That’s an alpha order!”

  It did nothing but anger his wolf. He wanted to obey her but he just couldn’t. For some reason, his body would only follow the orders of the terrifying shifter at the head of the pack.

  “Come,” Drake said, waving him over, “and submit to your alpha.”

  Rory’s chest burned as he stopped in front of Drake, looking up at his cruel eyes with his inner wolf finally calm for the first time in a week.

  “No, Rory,” Cole shouted.

  But Rory couldn’t help it. His body was no longer under his control. It was under Drake’s.

  He dropped to a knee and tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck for his alpha.

  “Say it,” Drake grumbled. “Say I’m your alpha.”

  Rory swallowed hard.

  He wanted to scream out that Joan was his alpha. That Drake was nothing to him.

  But instead, he looked deep into Drake’s eyes and gulped.

  “You’re my alpha. I am at your service.”

  Drake grinned. “Good.” He pointed at Candice who was sobbing softly. “Now prove it. By killing her.”

  ten

  Candice could barely breathe as Rory approached her.

  His eyes were sad and wet but his jaw was clenched closed and his hands were squeezed into fists. She could never believe that he would ever hurt her but his body language was saying something different.

  “Not going to happen, Rory,” Ashton said, stepping in front of her.

  Cole stood beside him, blocking Candice like a wall. “You don’t have to listen to him, brother. This is all wrong.”

  “I’m trying to fight it,” Rory said as a tear slid down his cheek. “But I can’t.”

  “Fight harder,” Ashton said, stepping into a fighting stance as Rory approached. “I’ll put you out if you try to touch her.”

  Joan was still staring at Rory in shock, looking like she had just found out that her best friend had a terminal disease.

  Candice stared at Rory through the gap between the two muscular bear shifters. She couldn’t believe that he would hurt her. She just couldn’t.

  And if he could, well, she didn’t want to live in a world where Rory could do that to her.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, placing a hand on Ashton’s shoulder and one on Cole’s. She gently parted their bodies and walked between them, approaching the man that she loved more than anything in the world.

  Her stomach was rock hard and she had a painful tightness in her throat but she forced herself to meet him. She would die for him, and even though she would rather it not be at his hands, she was willing to risk sacrificing herself if it meant keeping her new friends and the man that she loved safe.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, starting to cry as she saw the torment in his eyes. He looked devastated as his body moved under Drake’s control.

  “These past few days have been the most beautiful days of my life,” she said in a shaky voice. “Even if I die right now, I won’t regret meeting you. There isn’t one person in this world that I want more than you. I love you, Rory.”

  They stopped in front of each other, both of their bodies as still as the calm lake that they had sat beside on their first date.

  Rory’s body shook like an invisible force had seized his soul. Candice only had a moment to wonder what was wrong before the same force gripped her as well.

  She swallowed hard as the sunny sky faded to black taking the green grass and the wall of wolf shifters with it. All that she could see was Rory in full stunning light against a black backdrop as their souls melded as one.

  The whites of Rory’s eyes were clouded with black. He was experiencing the same crushing pull that she was. The same hooks that were sunk into her were sunk into him as well.

  Her breathing stopped as heat flooded through her, glowing through her body. Burning bliss. Smoldering joy.

  The pull was single-minded and unbending in its force. Like two unstoppable magnets, their souls joined for the rest of eternity as their animals bonded together.

  She was his and he was hers.

  Candice gasped when the force released her and she could finally breathe again.

  It was the best moment of her life.

  Until Rory reached out and grabbed her.

  ***

  Candice was his mate.

  Somehow Rory had known it all along but it still didn’t lessen the shock of experiencing it. He had heard Cole and Ashton speak about how amazing it was to have a bond with a mate but no words could compare to what it was like to be living it.

  His universe had a new gravitational pull and it was named Candice.

  She was everything to him now. Everything.

  Their love and bond surpassed it all, including alpha orders. Their bond was stronger than any lingering loyalty that he felt for his old pack.

  All of that washed away like the departing ocean’s tide, replaced with a glowing love for his woman. His wolf released the hold on him, choosing to focus on his new mate and letting Rory handle the rest.

  Rory reached out and grabbed Candice’s wrists, squeezing them in his excitement.

  “I wasn’t going to hurt you,” he whispered, getting lost in her amber eyes.

  “I know,” she whispered back.

  “But I will,” Drake interrupted.

  Rory turned around with a thickness in his throat. The rest of the Tracker Pack were stepping off their motorcycles and slipping off their leather jackets, preparing for a fight.

  Nikki was among them, grinning like a madwoman as she watched.

  It can’t end now. Not like this.

  Rory had finally found the love and happiness that he always longed for and it was all in jeopardy. Could the universe be so cruel to finally let him experience true love and devotion only to end it all a moment later?

  They were outnumbered. Big time.

  Cole, Ashton, Joan, Candice, and Rory against twenty-one wolf shifters who were that much better because they knew how to fight as a pack. The Wilde Crew didn’t stand a chance.

  A dark cloud caught Rory’s eye in the distance. It was approaching quickly.

  Rhett.

  He was coming with his cloud of ravens flying overhead.

  Rory turned back to The Wilde Crew and sighed when he saw Jennifer and Lauren standing with the shifters.

  None of them were turning to run against the overwhelming odds. None of them were sacrificing Rory for the good of the crew like Drake had done to him all of those years ago.

  They were standing as one. As a real crew.

  The Wilde Crew.

  People could laugh at them and call them fuck-ups, call them screw-ups and put them down, but in that moment Rory could see it clearly. They were a real crew and Rory couldn’t have been prouder to be one of them.

  That was worth fighting for and even worth dying for.

  He turned to Joan and smiled. “What do you say, alpha? Should we get these wolves off our lawn?”

  Joan’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the men who were threatening her friends. Patches of brown fur surged from her skin in flashes as her bear clawed forward.

  “Definitely,” she said with a smile on her lips.

  It’s time to see what my alpha is really capable of.
>
  The smile on Joan’s lips was gone as fast it came.

  It was replaced with a raging monster of a bear.

  eleven

  “Holy shit!” one of the wolf shifters gasped when Joan’s enormous grizzly bear turned towards them with murder in her eyes.

  There was a collective gulp as the wall of shifters stepped back like a retreating wave.

  Even Rory’s heart stopped as the livid bear bared its vicious teeth, raised its massive head, and let out a savage roar that shook the ground. Every hair on Rory’s body raised as the bear’s booming roar exploded out of her, assaulting his ears.

  “Oh, my,” Candice whispered from behind him.

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” Cole shouted before letting his own bear rip from his skin.

  The army of wolf shifters began phasing into their animals, exploding into wolves like popcorn kernels in a hot pan.

  Ashton rushed forward, still in his human form. He loved to fight with his fists and usually did as much damage in his human skin as his bear could do.

  Drake peeled his heated eyes off of Rory to turn to the bigger threat. Joan’s bear was thundering toward him on her monstrous paws.

  The last of the wolf shifters phased into their wolves as Rhett’s police car squealed on the road, turning onto the ranch on two tires. The dark cloud of ravens came flying after him, cawing like an angry swarm of killers.

  “Kill them all!” Drake screamed as he ripped off his leather jacket and let his wolf come. His huge body shook and jerked in violent spasms as long gray hairs sprouted from his skin. His fierce eyes never left Joan’s approaching bear as his nose extended out before his body exploded into a giant snarling wolf.

  It was clear to see why Drake was the alpha of the pack. His wolf was enormous and radiated alpha energy. Normally that worked in his favor but his energy seemed to be enraging Joan’s bear even more.

  The two alphas collided in a crash of fur and claws. Joan’s bear sent the alpha flying backward and she continued forward, smashing into the wave of wolves like a bowling ball colliding into pins. She sent several yelping wolves flying into the air but they quickly recovered, moving around and attacking her as one.