Daddy Wolves: Silver Wolves MC Box Set

by Sky Winters

“Home? I don’t have one.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t have one. Where did you come from?”

  “Doesn’t matter. I was hitching my way to Florida.”

  “Why Florida?”

  “Why not?”

  “Fair enough. Well, you can’t hitch with your side in that condition.”

  “No shit,” she said sourly, easing herself up from the bed.

  “Here, let me help you. Why don’t I step out and let you get dressed. I’ll get one of the guys to bring me a car and take you to a hotel or something.”

  “Hotel? Dude, I maybe have forty bucks to my name. Shit. My bag. Did they bring a bag in with me?”

  “No. I didn’t see one near you on the road.”

  “Fuck my life. So, I have no money, no identification, no nothing. I’m completely screwed.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “What?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “What difference does it make?”

  “I’d like to know what to call you.”

  “Fine. It’s Ali. Ali Canton.”

  “Good. You are Ali Canton and I’m David Kelley, aka, Moose.”

  “Moose. Right.”

  “Look Ali. I’m no one for you to be afraid of. I don’t know what you are running from, but I’ve been around long enough to know you are running from something. You could ask to borrow my cell phone to call a friend, a family member, a priest. Instead, you look like a drowning rat trying to figure out how to stay afloat.”

  She stared at him blankly, not denying what he had to say, but not admitting it either. She didn’t need to. Girls like her popped up here in the middle of nowhere all the time, looking to get lost in a place where no one would look for them. Some, like Ali, were only passing through, but they were always on their way far away from something. Of course, Ali might not even be her name, but it gave him something to call her.

  “It’s not your problem, anyway.”

  “No. It isn’t my problem, but I’m not about to walk out of here not knowing you are going to be okay.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll find a place to hunker down, somewhere safe for a few days, and then head on out.”

  “What about your doctor’s appointment?”

  “I’m sure I can find a doctor in Florida to pull out some stitches or buy a pair of clippers to do it myself.”

  “Or you could come with me to my clubhouse and stay in one of the spare rooms until after your appointment. It will give you time to figure things out.”

  “And what’s the catch?”

  “No catch.”

  “There is always a catch.”

  “No, not always. Sometimes, there is just someone who wants to make sure you are okay.”

  “Thanks, but I couldn’t accept.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just couldn’t.”

  “Listen, Ali. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m the one that made sure you got up off that road and to the hospital. Let me finish what I started. Who knows who you will encounter on your way to Florida or what will happen to you once you get there. I’m guessing you bolted from wherever you came from without much of a plan. If nothing else, this gives you a little more time to put things together.”

  “This clubhouse. Are there other women there?”

  “Yes, tons of them. You’ll be perfectly safe there and you’ll have your own room. Your own room with a locking door.”

  Ali smiled at him and nodded for a moment as she finished slipping out of the bed to make her way slowly to the bathroom. She paused at the door and looked back at him.

  “Okay, Moose. Call the cavalry. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

  “That’s good enough,” he told her.

  “I’ll get dressed,” she said, retrieving her clothes from the stand by the bathroom door and disappearing inside.

  Moose pulled out his cell phone and made a call to the clubhouse to speak with Aspen.

  Chapter Three

  “So, tell me how you came to be on the road like that,” Aspen asked as he drove Moose and Ali back to the clubhouse.

  “Bad luck, I guess. I don’t know what happened. One minute, I was walking down the road with my thumb out, hoping for a ride. Next thing I knew, some guys pulled over on bikes and then, well things got a little strange after that.”

  “Strange how?” Aspen said, glancing at Moose in the rearview mirror.

  “I don’t know. It was just weird. I don’t even know that I’m remembering things right now,” she replied, looking out the window.

  “He turned into a wolf,” Moose said.

  Her head turned slowly back toward him as he looked over the backseat at her. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

  “You have seen one too?”

  “Yes,” he said. “They are a motorcycle club called the Dire Wolves.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. How did they do that? Why did they do it to me?”

  “How they do it is a long story. Why they did it was just your bad luck. They needed a diversion and you were in the wrong place at what was the right time for them.”

  “They hurt me and then just left me there. Everything is fuzzy after I hit my head on the pavement. I remember people showing up and talking all around me and then more wolves. There was a fight and one of them grabbed me again. Then it all went black for a while. I woke up listening to Moose snore in the chair by my bed.”

  “Yeah, he could wake the dead with that,” Aspen laughed.

  “Sorry,” Moose replied.

  “It’s okay. I’m glad you were there,” she replied softly.

  “We’ll get you settled into the clubhouse and some of us will go down to where we found you, see if we see any signs of your bag. Backpack, I assume.”

  “Yes, but you don’t have to do that. I’ll look around when I’m able.”

  “If it’s not already gone, it will be before you are well enough to go combing the sides of the road. Trust me, we can sniff it out quicker.”

  “You mean as dogs,” she said.

  “Wolves. We are not dogs,” Aspen corrected her.

  “Of course. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”

  There was silence for a moment. She continued to look out the window, lost in her own thoughts. Finally, she turned back toward them.

  “Can I see you turn into wolves?”

  “Not while I’m driving a car,” Aspen quipped.

  “Why do you want to see us change?” Moose asked.

  “I guess I need to know it is real. Everything was so fuzzy when it happened before and I’m not sure if it was just my imagination. I might just be remembering something I made up.”

  “Yet, we knew your attacker turned into a wolf before you told us,” Moose observed.

  “Yes. Yes, you did.”

  She looked down at her hands. It was obvious she knew what she saw, but just was having trouble believing it. Moose could certainly understand that. It couldn’t be simple for a human to suddenly realize there were shifters in the world around them. Especially when one of those shifters had done harm to her and now she was in the hands of two more.

  “We will make sure they don’t come near you again. Hell, there may not be any left to come after you. I think we took out all the adults that would have still been hellbent on getting even with us. The women and children left will be content to just try to exist peacefully,” Moose said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Ali asked.

  “She’s right, you know,” Aspen added. “I would have thought they would stay clear after most of their pack was wiped out in that . . . accident.”

  “Even if they did want to keep coming at us for revenge, there just aren’t enough strong ones to do any real damage,” Moose replied.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ali said, turning to look out the window again.

  “Why do you say that?” Moose asked, curious.

  “I don’t know. It’s just my experience that people that want to hu
rt you will find a way.”

  “We’re here,” Aspen said, pulling up in front of the clubhouse and parking alongside it. “Let’s get you in and find you a free room to hole up in for a while.”

  “Thank you again. I appreciate what you’ve done for me so much; all of it.”

  “It’s not a problem. You’re safe with us here,” Aspen said. “Moose, find your girl a room. I’m going to go see my babies.”

  “Babies?” Ali repeated, but Aspen had already disappeared into the clubhouse.

  “Aspen and his wife had a baby recently and his daughter had one last night. That’s where we were headed when we found you on the road.”

  “Wow. Quite a difference in age between his kids then, huh?” Ali replied, as they headed inside.

  “Yes. Elizabeth, his daughter, is adopted, so there isn’t really that big a difference in her and her father’s age.”

  “Ah, I see. A modern family.”

  “Yes. Well, even more than that. We’re all a family here.”

  “A pack, you mean.”

  “Somewhat, but not all of us are wolves. Most of the women here are human, so we are a pack, in one sense, but we are also a family.”

  “Then your wife is human?”

  “Wife? No, not me. I’m not married. Anyway, come on and let’s get you settled somewhere.”

  Moose knew he was changing the subject and he wasn’t sure why. She was attractive and the fact that she even brought up whether he was attached could be a sign of interest. He hadn’t been with anyone since his wife, Victoria, had died. One of the earliest casualties of the ongoing clashes with the Dire Wolves. As much as he had found himself admiring her in the hospital, he found the prospect of anything beyond that a bit overwhelming to even consider. Some big bad biker wolf he was.

  He made his way down the hall ahead of her and found an open room. It was the one that had been left vacant by one of the guards killed in the Dire Wolf attack on their clubhouse. No one in the pack wanted to take it, but it would be perfect for someone without memories of the person who had lived there before them.

  “Here you go. This one is empty, and it has been completely refurbished recently. I painted it myself.”

  “Even the mural?” she said, looking up at the large sea scape on one end of the room.

  “Oh, no. Sorry. I should have said I painted all the walls. You know, a fresh coat. The mural was done by Elizabeth, Aspen’s daughter.”

  “The one that just had the baby,” she filled in.

  “That would be her.”

  “She’s very talented.”

  “Yes. Alright, if you want to settle in and rest for a while, I will leave you to it. I’ll stop by and see if you feel up to eating lunch with everyone or want me to bring you something instead. That’ll not be for a couple of hours still. In the meantime, I’ll get some of the guys and we’ll go see if we can find any sign or your things. I assumed, if you were hitching, that it was a backpack?”

  “Yes. I appreciate you doing that. Do you need me to describe it?”

  “No. I wouldn’t think there are too many abandoned backpacks hanging about near the road or woods, and I’ve got your scent. Oh, do you have anything small that smells like you I can give to the others?”

  She looked at him awkwardly for a moment and then tore a strip of material from the bottom of her shirt. It had a bit of blood splattered on it from the wound on her side.

  “It’s ruined anyway. Hopefully, you will find my bag. There are some spare clothes in there.”

  “We’ll do what we can. I will send one of the women your size down with some things for you to wear for now. The bathroom to your right has a small, stand in shower. There is another bigger bath with a tub and a cabinet for anything you might need just down the hall to the right. I’ll get her to take you down there and show you around.”

  “I think I will pass on taking a bath in a group tub shared with hairy bikers,” she laughed.

  “Well, that one is dedicated to just the women, but still a group facility and so, I get your point. There is a schedule for it, if you change your mind. She can still show you where to get what you need for your personal bath. I don’t think it has been stocked yet. No soap, shampoo . . . towels.”

  “Ah, yes. I think I’ll need those, but I think I will just lay down for a while. I feel a bit woozy still from the pain meds.”

  “Okay. We’ll leave it until later. Keys to the door are on the dresser if you decide to step out and want to lock up.”

  “Sounds good. Thanks.”

  Moose nodded and closed her door. He could tell there was more to it than just being tired. She was injured, in a strange place full of shifters, and there was something else, but he wasn’t sure what it was. She was hiding something, was in way over her head, somehow. He didn’t know the details, but didn’t need to know them, really. Whatever it was had her on the run and scared, so scared that she was willing to trust her personal safety to a bunch of wolf shifters in a motorcycle club.

  “Hey, Aiden. Get Fry and Carter and meet me out front. I want to go back up to where we were attacked and look around for our guest’s things,” he called out to a few of the pack members.

  “You really think we’ll find them?” Aiden scoffed.

  “I don’t know. The Dire Wolves wouldn’t have had a use for them, as far as I know. I don’t think who she was would be of any consequence to them. They just needed a wounded woman that no one would recognize and she was unlucky enough to be where they needed her. So, unless someone happened along after the fact, there is a chance. Worth a shot anyway.”

  “Alright. Let me get my keys,” Aiden said.

  “Even better,” Moose replied.

  The three of them followed him outside and stripped down, each taking a good sniff of the ripped cloth in his hand before shifting and heading through the woods, taking a short cut down to the highway with Moose in the lead. They split up and scoured the woods, not finding anything, at first. Then he caught the faintest scent of her coming from the edge of the trees that edged one side of the forest alongside the road.

  Moose pushed his nose around through the underbrush there, turning up a pile of leaves resting beneath some broken branches. The strap of the backpack slipped out from beneath them. It was an old one, an army surplus relic. He pulled it free with his teeth and looked down at it, sniffing it again. It was hers. He howled to alert the others and gathered it up in his teeth before joining them on the highway. They crossed back over to the other side and made their way back through the trees toward the clubhouse.

  Shifting back into human form, they dressed again and went back into the clubhouse. Moose began carrying the pack down to her, but stopped at his own room. Sitting the pack on his bed, he contemplated it for a moment. He didn’t want to nose through her things, but she was a stranger, and even though he didn’t believe she had anything to do with the ambush, he needed to be sure. The fact that her backpack had been hidden was telling in some way that he couldn’t be certain about. Had they hidden it for some unknown reason or had she perhaps done so herself to hide who she was?

  He rummaged around a bit, careful not to disturb too much. Finally, he pulled free a wallet and opened up. Alison Bachman, her wallet showed. So, she had lied about her name, at least part of it. So, the question was why? Did it have anything to do with the club or was it a matter of personal preservation? Had she seen the wolves coming while she was on the road and hidden it? Maybe she had hidden it, intending to rest nearby and that was why she had felt it might still be there.

  He tucked the wallet back into her bag, perplexed. There was no way of knowing if she was any sort of threat to them. He would have to keep a close eye on her. He had brought her here and she would be his responsibility. Aspen would have his hide if he had brought an enemy to their table. The thought sparked a different contemplation. How had the Dire Wolves known they were on their way to the hospital? How had they known when and where to attack?

&
nbsp; Glancing at his watch, he pulled her bag back together and went to her room, knocking quietly on the door. There was a creak from the bed springs and then footsteps across the floor toward him. The lock clicked and then it opened. She stood there, looking more weary than she had when she had arrived. It was obvious she hadn’t rested any at all.

  “Are you okay, Ali?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. Just too tender to rest,” she replied. “You found my bag?”

  “We did. It was hidden down in the edge of the trees.”

  He noted that she didn’t seem surprised by this, which was telling. It didn’t explain why she had hidden the bag or when she had done so, but it was at least a little more information to tuck into his hat. He would figure it out. It’s what he did. Aspen depended on him to know things.

  “How about I get you what you need to take a hot shower? It might help you relax a bit.”

  “I hope so. I didn’t want to take the pain pills. I’ve never really cared for that sort of thing.”

  “The gash on your side is that painful?”

  “It aches a bit, but mostly I’m just sore all over. I’ve a lot of bruises hidden beneath my clothes.”

  “Ah, okay. How about a drink then? You don’t care for the pain pills, but perhaps a bit of booze might help you a bit?”

  “Now you’re talking!”

  “Come on. We’ll get you sorted out.”

  “Sounds good. Let me at least change shirts first.”

  Moose was surprised when she didn’t slip off to the bathroom. Instead, she pulled a rolled up t-shirt from her bag and gently shook it out. Laying it on the bed, she struggled to pull the torn one over her head, groaning as she pulled her arms upward. Moose looked awkwardly away, trying to focus anywhere but on her perfect breasts barely hidden from sight by a thin layer of lace.

  “I could stand some help,” he heard her say, but it sounded garbled.

  He turned to see her standing there with her arms over her head, her head and face enveloped in the material of her shirt. It was a bit comical, but probably not for her. He resisted the urge to laugh as he watched her struggle. Walking over, he did his best not to touch her inappropriately. He grabbed the material of the shirt and pulled at it gently, inching it over her head until it was removed. She was so tiny compared to him.