Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Various Authors

  His nose twitched, but he did not detect any territory marks. If the Graypelts had come this far, they did not claim it as their own.

  Ryan’s walk was slow and stiff. Sauri looked him over, and Ryan avoided his gaze. Even though the city-wolf had not yet changed, he automatically showed deference to Sauri, a shifter with fewer years than himself. He recognized Sauri as an Alpha - or at the very least of higher status than himself - and so Ryan’s instincts must linger within him somewhere, even if he had learned to act as a human and hide them. More than hide them: Ryan agreed that they were mates, and yet he denied Sauri his right to claim Ryan for his own. Why? And why did Sauri allow him to?

  Ryan’s home was taller than many of the buildings on the other side of the road. Did this have any meaning? Did Ryan have status of his own among the humans? Was that why he would not mate with Sauri yet? Or was it a human mating ritual that he had fallen afoul of?

  Sauri’s lip curled, and he forced himself to take a breath and a moment to drop it back into place. Calm. He had to retain control.

  Ryan led him across a road and into an area with no buildings, yet it was not natural. There were small hillocks with roads too narrow for a vehicle which wound gently through them. They sauntered along one of these little roads. Sauri could see some open structure in the center of the area where a few humans were gathered, propelling themselves around on short boards with small wheels. There seemed to be no purpose to it, for they all had legs which very obviously worked as they should.

  “What is this place?”

  Ryan nodded toward a dull green board with more of the human marks on it. “It’s a skate park. People come here to skate. It’s fun.”

  Sauri doubted it, but he didn’t argue. “Are we here to skate?”

  “No. Just to relax.” Ryan stepped off the small road and onto grass. He led up one of the controlled hills and stopped by the trunk of a vast tree.

  Sauri stood by him and watched the humans as they rolled up slopes and did things with their feet which caused their boards to clatter and flip. This must have been their goal, for the other humans would clap and cheer every time. “I see,” he murmured. He looked to Ryan, instead. “Where are your parents?”

  Ryan’s head lifted, and he met Sauri’s look in surprise. “They’re the other side of 520, down by the lake. Sammamish,” he added like that would mean something.

  “You know who they are?”

  Ryan laughed briefly. “Of course I do.” He paused, and his eyebrows climbed. “Oh, I get you. Yeah. I know who they are. I still see them every other weekend.”

  “I should meet them.”

  “Maybe. It would be interesting to know whether either - or neither - of them are shifters, but not now.”

  “No,” Sauri agreed. “It would not be wise.”

  He fell quiet and watched the humans some more. They picked up their boards and walked as a pack toward the road, laughing and talking together. They seemed relaxed, so perhaps the skate they had done was enjoyable after all.

  “How long will we be here?”

  Ryan huffed. “I don’t know. Until it gets cold or we get bored; whichever comes first.”

  Sauri turned to Ryan and lifted his shoulders. “We cannot stay here all night. We are both injured and require rest, and you have a safe den.”

  The city-wolf spluttered. “You’re just gonna invite yourself to spend the night at mine?”

  Sauri didn’t answer. He kept his gaze on Ryan and waited.

  Ryan’s lips pursed, and then he sighed. “It makes sense,” he admitted.

  “Yes.” Sauri was about to suggest that they returned, but the hairs on the back of his neck lifted.

  He twisted sharply, sniffing, and swept his gaze across the park. He could detect no untoward scents in this form, and it did not seem sensible to shift in such an open location to improve that sense, but his eyesight was not so hampered and he saw two figures lope across the park. Their movements were liquid, like hunters tracking prey, yet they were in human form.

  “What is it?” Ryan whispered.

  “Shifters,” Sauri hissed. He moved toward them, intending to confront them.

  Ryan hurried after him, grunting a little in pain. “You’re joking. You’re not joking. What’re they doing here?”

  “They may be here to loot. I will ask them.” As Sauri drew closer he saw that there was one female and one male. They cut across one corner of the skate park, and their direction of travel took them toward Ryan’s den. It was unlikely that was their destination, but the route was too close for Sauri’s comfort. They had to be warned off.

  “Wait.” Ryan huffed. “Is this such a good idea? You got your ass handed to you a couple of nights back, and I’ve had a close encounter of the asphalt kind. These guys look uninjured. And if anything kicks off, I am not a shifter, and I’m guessing you guys come fully equipped with teeth and claws and I have to say getting torn to shreds is really low on my bucket list-”

  Sauri bared his teeth at Ryan’s chattering. “Stop talking.”

  Ryan’s nonsense halted, and Sauri cast him an approving nod.

  He had to adjust his pace to intercept the wolves before either party could leave the park. They had already seen his approach and had likewise slowed. This pleased Sauri: it meant that the strangers could not be Death Claw. Death Claw respected no pack but their own, and their ways were considered close to insane by the Whitepaws.

  Together they halted behind the green board Ryan had indicated to him earlier. It was not very tall, and only partially shielded them from onlooking eyes from the place where the two large roads crossed over one-another. Behind it was the park, which dipped down after a hill into some sort of bowl made from the same material as the small roads. The bowl area could potentially offer better cover, but anyone in the tall building with Ryan’s den in it could look down and see into the bowl.

  It was a terrible place for any violent confrontation.

  Sauri raised himself fully. He was not taller than the other male, but that was not the only factor in establishing dominance. He straightened his spine and adopted an easy smile, allowing his teeth to show. He hung his hands at his sides as though they would not be necessary.

  The male and female moved in harmony. They were a mated pair, then, and shared the intuitive understanding of one-another’s upcoming decisions which came with such a bond. The male and female both stood straight without the need to consult each other, and their eyes became angry. Their lips curled back, and their shoulders hunched forward.

  Sauri had to act fast before Ryan could give away his inexperience. He surged forward to the male and stopped short, snapping his teeth together in front of the male’s face.

  The male flinched. He heard the female take a breath.

  Satisfied, Sauri stepped back. “Why are you here?”

  “We are hunting,” the male said.

  “Who are you?”

  “I am Dylan Graypelt,” the male stated. His head lifted as he began to relax. “This is my mate Jean.”

  Jean, too, began to loosen her posture, and she gave Sauri a less confrontational smile. “You are not Graypelt,” she murmured. “Why are you here?”

  Dylan’s stance shifted in subtle ways: his muscles grew tense, which tugged his shoulders up and straightened his fingers against his will; the pupils of his eyes widened, as did his eyes themselves. Sauri drew himself up again, confused. Why was Dylan preparing to either fight or run?

  Had Ryan done something behind him to put Dylan on edge? Sauri did not risk turning his gaze away from the Graypelts to find out, but neither Jean nor Dylan had looked away from Sauri for very long, and Jean was not preparing in the same way. She had to know that her mate was as good as raising his hackles, yet she remained at ease.

  Dylan was preparing for Sauri’s answer, then. This was a practiced routine, something they had done before. Did this mean that they found other wolves within the city and had undergone this kind of confrontation
with them?

  “I am Sauri. I claim this territory as my own.”

  Jean frowned. “You have marked it?”

  “No. I am assessing it and will mark once I have chosen the boundaries of my land.”

  Silence enveloped them all. Dylan remained at the ready, but he waited. Jean looked Sauri over, then finally turned her gaze on Ryan. Sauri still did not dare take his attention from the Graypelts to find out what state Ryan was in.

  “Who is this?” Jean asked at last.

  “I’m Ryan.” There was a faint tremor in Ryan’s voice, and it made Sauri’s heart sink.

  Ryan was afraid.

  The change in the Graypelts was immediate. They both straightened their spines, and adopted casual, unfriendly smiles.

  “This is a bad night for confrontation,” Sauri warned. “Luna’s gaze is full, and our tempers are high.” Some part of him marveled at his ability to stay so calm, but he didn’t have the time to congratulate himself. The situation could get out of control far too quickly to allow for any pause. “Let us settle this another time. Walk away.”

  Dylan’s lips pulled back so far that Sauri saw his gums. “You have no pack. You may claim no territory. You are weak and cannot stop us.”

  Jean’s body was priming itself for battle too, and she lifted her hands to protect her mass. Her fingers curled into fists. “You dare stand in our way?”

  Sauri stepped forward, snapping at Dylan’s face again. “Leave.”

  Dylan laughed. It was not a warm sound; it bore bitterness. “We have killed lone pups for less than this.”

  That, then, was it. The Graypelts were too moon-ridden to back down, and thought they had easy targets at hand. They would fight, and Sauri would have to protect both himself and Ryan while already wounded.

  This place was not ideal. The circumstances were poor. Sauri had no situational advantage, and he did not know the territory.

  They would lose this.

  Ryan would be killed.

  Sauri lowered his chin to protect his throat, and spread his feet to be ready for the Graypelts’ attack.

  Ryan felt the hairs at the back of his neck lift when Sauri snapped at the other shifters a second time. There would be a fight; he could almost taste it in the air. Dylan and Jean had mentioned killing “cubs” so casually that they were broadcasting their intent to do so again.

  Was that what he was to them? Was he not an adult? Could they somehow sense that he hadn’t changed yet?

  He ground his teeth in frustration at his own stupidity. Sauri had sensed that he was a shifter, and said that his road rash should have healed up by now. Here he was, covered in it, with only shorts and a t-shirt over his skin to prevent clothes from rubbing and sticking to the scabs as they slowly healed themselves. To a shifter’s eyes it had to be blindingly obvious that he hadn’t changed.

  These Graypelts knew that they had the advantage, and they intended to press it. All Ryan could do was hope that they weren’t willing to turn themselves into huge wolves in the middle of town.

  Dylan threw himself at Sauri. He was taller and looked more like Ryan’s age. Ryan made some kind of wordless sound that he’d intended as a warning, but by the time he made it Sauri had stepped smartly to the side and snapped the web of his hand into Dylan’s throat.

  Ryan’s long-brewing frustration boiled over into anger. Dylan had attacked his mate.

  He snarled.

  Ryan swung one leg forward, and Jean blindsided him in the split-second while he only had one foot firm against the earth. Her little frame wrapped around his and the force of her body slam sent them both tumbling to the grass. Pain shot through him when he landed on his battered backside. He howled, and tears sprang to his eyes from the shock of it.

  There wasn’t time for him to wallow in his surprise. Jean tore his glasses off and tossed them away, then raised her fists overhead, smashing one across his left cheek and the other into the side of his temple.

  His world span. He felt as though his skull was vibrating around his brain, and what remained of his vision blossomed into darkness. He saw the outline of Jean above him and the pale lines of what he assumed were her arms when she lifted them, likely so that she could punch him again.

  He bucked and writhed in his attempt to throw her off. Her legs gripped tighter, but his constant moving made her next blows weaker, and she swore as her fists briefly grazed over his scalp.

  She was going to kill him.

  He had no idea how Sauri was coping with Dylan. He didn’t dare look away from the crazy woman rearing up to punch him in the face again. Maybe she wanted him unconscious fast so that she could help her mate, and then they’d both come back and finish him off once they’d teamed up on Sauri.

  Ryan’s muscles twitched.

  There was one sole light, bright and pure, shining down from on high. It pushed the darkness aside, and it called to him.

  It sung to him.

  The pain and anger seethed within him, and the silver light reached pristine fingers into the frothing mass of his heart. They soothed his mind and cleared his vision. Jean came into focus, her golden hair pale and washed-out by the moonlight. Color muted and stepped aside to make way for a miasma of bright, vibrant scents and pin-sharp sounds.

  His skin rippled. He felt it as the waves rushed over him, following the spasms of his muscles.

  Jean’s expression flicked from satisfaction to fear. He smelled her terror.

  Ryan reveled in it. As he grew, she seemed to shrink, and he smashed her aside with a gigantic, dark-furred forearm. When she fell onto the grass, he was on her, and his claws bit into her flesh easier than a spoon into pudding.

  He closed his teeth around her throat. Her body thrashed under him, so he bit harder. The cold fury within him urged him to finish her.

  “Ryan. Stop.”

  His body obeyed where his mind would not. He tasted blood and it drove nails into his brain, where it tried to mingle with the moon’s song and inflame his rage, but those two words from Sauri held him back.

  “Let her go.”

  Ryan bristled. The kill was his; it was well within his right!

  Jean stopped wriggling. Her uneven breath blotted out the other city sounds, and he could hear crackling within it.

  He had punctured one - or both - of her lungs.

  “Let her go,” Sauri repeated. His voice was soft and sure, and it offered to take Ryan’s rage from him.

  Ryan opened his jaws and lifted his muzzle from her flesh. He looked toward Sauri’s words and saw the sure young Alpha standing over Dylan’s prone body; the Graypelt was rasping for breath, hands at his own throat.

  His gaze locked on to Sauri’s and he raised his head, growling a challenge to him.

  Sauri merely nodded. “Do as I say.”

  Ryan’s ears flicked, and his tail sank. He tucked it between his hind legs and withdrew his claws from Jean’s chest.

  Sauri nudged Dylan with his foot. “Go, before we tire of our mercy.”

  Ryan growled, but held his ground.

  Dylan stumbled to his feet, cowed over almost in half as he still fought to breathe. He tried to help Jean stand, but she was in even worse condition than he was, and together they limped toward the street. Jean’s blood was a dark stain on the ground.

  Sauri reached for Ryan’s chest. His fingers entwined in the bright fur and he used his grip to drag Ryan down to his level.

  Ryan obeyed. He tipped his head aside, avoiding eye contact, and waited for whatever Sauri wished to do to him.

  “Listen to me. The humans might see you. You must calm yourself, Ryan. Release your anger.” Sauri kept hold of his chest, but began to pet his broad head, hand stroking between his eyes and up over his forehead. “Calm yourself and take your human shape. It will come to you, but only if you let go of your rage.”

  Ryan wanted to object. He wanted to tell Sauri that the Graypelts deserved to die for attacking him, that he had been afraid for Sauri’s life.

&n
bsp; He couldn’t, because he didn’t have the right-shaped mouth.

  Ryan whimpered. This wasn’t his body! He was something else now! Something with fur, and claws, and big teeth.

  Something massive.

  He risked a plaintive glance to Sauri, who only nodded.

  “Yes. I know. It is strange.” Sauri grinned, and his fingers dug through Ryan’s fur to scritch his skin. “But you are in danger. The humans cannot know what you are. You must take your human shape. Do this for me.”

  All his pent-up frustration, the frothing within his core, seemed mollified by Sauri’s presence. The shifter’s touch helped, but it was more than that.

  Sauri was calm. The moon was bright and unflinching overhead, yet Sauri was in control, and it was almost as if he were offering some measure of that control to Ryan.

  Ryan smiled, and his body trembled and shrank. He was no longer a giant, and his hands were his own again. His skin felt like gooseflesh, but that subsided too, until he was shaking in Sauri’s arms.

  Naked.

  “Oh, shit,” Ryan whispered.

  Sauri laughed and kissed him, and Ryan clutched at Sauri’s body as he gave himself over to his Alpha’s warm, delicious mouth.

  Chapter Seven

  The fight left Ryan drained. He didn’t know what to concentrate on first: he’d nearly killed someone; he was a shifter; there was no longer any pain from his road rash; Sauri’s mouth was hot and powerful and right; he was butt-naked in a public park.

  Sauri grinned and broke the kiss. Ryan whimpered, but Sauri placed a finger to his lips. The Alpha leaned back and pulled his t-shirt off over his head, then handed it to Ryan, pushing it into his hands. “It is against the humans’ laws for your genitals to be visible in public,” he said with a dry smile, as though such laws were ridiculous. “I would imagine if they are that frightened by a penis they would be even more so to see it stand so proud.”

  Ryan glanced down and grabbed the t-shirt. Sauri hadn’t been kidding; his cock was well and truly awake. He coughed, and bundled the cloth into his lap, trying to cover it as best as he could.