by Maia Starr
“You mean when you tripped me? Cheater!” Ash shouted.
Returning to Ginny, who held herself around the stomach and shifted her weight between her feet, Zander continued on. “And yes, we all do come out as clean as when we were born when we turn back to our human forms.”
“Doesn’t that get...breezy?” Ginny said.
“Depends. Since most of the people on Silverwood Island are shifters, it’s a pretty commonplace thing, but when outsiders like you are involved, we do our best to be self-conscious.” Leaning in even closer, close enough to whisper, Zander made sure his breath brushed her ear. “Though I’m sure you wouldn’t mind it if I came home naked every once in a while.” Leaning back, Zander spied the red-faced reaction he was looking for and clapped Ginny on the back to let her know it was all in good fun.
Callie came up to Ginny moments later, gently touching the latter’s arm. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine! Sooner or later Oliver will be safely back in your arms...this Danny guy doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Maybe we should do a better job of background checking everyone that comes onto the island,” Ash said.
“Probably be a good idea,” Zander reiterated. “How about you call up May Silver while we’re gone and let her know we should be more careful.”
“Gladly!” Ash said.
“Alright, maybe we should hurry up and get going,” Zander said, stepping away from Ginny. Nodding, Zander motioned for Callie, Ash, and Grace to wander inside the cottage. With a flickering of her sparkling green eyes, Ginny glanced between her daughter and her watchers, and Zander, her expecting gaze causing a cool shiver to run up Zander’s back. With the wind howling at his back, Zander grinned at Ginny. “Ready to witness a bit of magic, my dear Ginny?”
Gulping, Ginny nodded, taking a few steps back as the door to the cottage closed shut with a thud, leaving only the two of them standing upon the rippling grass.
Not wanting to tear off his clothes when he shifted, Zander began to tug his shirt over his head, unbuckling his belt and shoving down his jeans. Ginny watched him the entire time, biting her nails: under different circumstances, this little show would have both their blood pumping and send the thrilling spice of lust into their heads, yet of course, both of their minds were focused on rescuing Oliver. Lust needed to take a back burner...for now.
When Zander finally slipped off his boxers, revealing his whole form for the world to see, he stared down Ginny’s fixed gaze. Throwing up his arms, he couldn’t stop himself from winking. “And here’s how it happens. Be warned, I won’t be able to speak to you once I change, but I’ll still be able to understand you, got it?” Nodding, Ginny stopped biting her fingernails.
All at once, Zander pulled the trigger, letting his inner wolf break from its cages, roaring and stomping with all its might as dark brown hair pillowed out from every nook and cranny of his skin. Letting himself go, Zander’s limbs grew and angled as they took on the shape of a wolf, his body elongating and his snout and maw curling to that of a wolfen grin. Within seconds, the man Zander was had vanished and in his place stood a snarling, heavy-set wolf. Her mouth agape and her hand all but forgotten as it hung in the air, Ginny clearly couldn’t believe her eyes.
Zander wondered what it felt like to believe that shapeshifters were nothing but myths and fairytales until seeing one transform. Granted, Ginny had seen Zander in his wolf form, but maybe it had felt a little more disconnected earlier in the day for her.
From the window, Zander spied Ash and Callie staring at him and Ginny, trying their best to keep Grace unafraid of the big bad wolf that stood outside her home now. Sighing, which in wolf form sounded more like a chuff than anything human-like, Zander supposed it wouldn’t be easy to win over the kids with his true nature.
“So...what now?” Ginny suddenly asked, bravely stepping towards him. She waited until she stood right next to him to speak again. “I mean, I clearly cannot run as fast as you.” Reaching out with one of her thin-boned hands, Ginny touched Zander’s coat of fur just above the shoulder. He watched her with big eyes, silent as the touch of her silky smooth skin drifted up and down his back; he liked the feel of her touch, he realized, whether it was on his human skin or on his fur. Before he got lost in the beauty that was Ginny Whitlock once again, Zander shook himself, startling Ginny back and lowering himself to the ground. He growled, trying to paw at the ground for her to understand.
Blinking, Ginny’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, as if she couldn’t believe what she was about to suggest. “You want me to ride you? Like I would a horse?”
To say yes, Zander grunted, pawing at the ground again, waiting for Ginny to take that final step and climb onto his back. Rubbing her forehead, Ginny finally did come forward, awkwardly latching one hand around a tuft of Zander’s fur and then swinging herself up onto Zander’s back. Cackling in laughter at her attempts to keep herself from sliding right off of him, Zander waited until his mate had a perfect hold. Once he felt her hug him tight with her legs and fingers, he rose up quickly, causing Ginny to gasp in surprise.
Glancing back at her, he saw her face reddening, and her frowning eyes snapping to his.
“I swear, this is not as easy as it looks. And I’m going to have to hold onto you like this the entire time?” Trying his best to nod so she’d understand, Zander watched as Ginny sighed heavily. “Well, this is really only because it's an emergency anyway...”
Glancing at the cottage, Zander retrieved the nods of approval from Ash and Callie, and the flash of fear from Grace’s pure expression, and moments later he took off, with Ginny squealing bloody murder on his back, latching onto his fur for dear life. Soon the sand grass faded and the winds died as Zander and Ginny broke into the forest on Silverwood Island.
First, Zander thought he’d try sniffing around the river he’d lost the kidnapper at, and then eventually spread out from there if he hadn’t caught any kind of scent.
While Ginny screamed, Zander huffed and chuffed with growing pride and anger, vowing to no one in particular that Oliver would be saved, and that Danny Krisher would get his dues paid.↡¶
Chapter Eighteen
Ginny
More than once, Ginny was almost thrown off of Zander’s back.
This was insane! Absolutely mad! Never did she ever expect that her new lover would not only take her virginity, woo her within a matter of days, help her forge a new life, and then transform into a giant wolf. And nowhere, in those events, did Ginny ever think that she would ride on Zander’s back while he was in his wolf form or whatever he called it.
As charming and funny as Zander was, just like Danny, he had withheld a secret from her. Well, actually not even close to being like Danny Krisher; Zander had told her from the start, though she had refused to believe it until today when he sailed over her and Grace’s head to save them from Danny’s lackeys. But that was mere hours ago, and now she was riding him as if he were some oversized pet.
The first two men in her life that she tried to have a long relationship with had gone down strange paths: the first had turned out to be truly unloving and abusive, while the second could transform into a beast. Ginny supposed that if this new relationship didn’t quite work out with Zander, she’d have to rethink how she picked men.
But there was enough time to think later since Ginny was only barely hanging on for dear life now. As Zander ran and zigzagged through the open forest, Ginny was tossed to one side or the other, the pressure building in her head while her fists burned white as she tried to hang on to his thick, dark fur. Every once in a while, Zander slowed, to pace around and ram his nose to the ground and into the air, probably to gain his bearings, but then he’d take off as soon as he had slowed, throwing Ginny into a bout of vertigo. A few times a low branch came swinging at her, and every time she barely ducked to avoid being skewered in the head. Her mind screamed that if she took any more of this incredibly fast pace, she would pass out...but then thoughts of what her son mu
st have been going through under Danny’s watch put her back on the brave path. Learning to hunker down low to Zander’s back made the ride much easier, though it didn’t stop the vertigo for good.
Instead of a growing worry for herself, Ginny began to grow restless, even urging on Zander to keep pace. Thinking about Oliver’s situation made her wonder how Danny might have been taking out his anger on the boy, just like he always did. Just picturing Oliver’s potentially crying face made her maternal instincts go into overdrive mode.
Lucky for her, though, it didn’t take long to track down their first big lead.
Soon enough, the duo reached a river; its currents were shallow enough for Zander to cross without getting Ginny’s feet wet. On the other side, Ginny spotted footprints...human footprints, pointing them out to Zander as he hurried over to sniff them.
“Well?” Ginny asked, rocking on his back, biting her lip in anticipation. “Is this—”
Before she could finish her thought, Zander growled and howled into the sky, startling Ginny to the point of nearly toppling off his hide. Licking his lips and snarling, Zander threw her a strange look as he darted them off in the direction of the boot tracks.
For a while, nothing came from the tracks, but soon enough Zander’s ears pricked and his running became more erratic.
Zander was onto something, that something having something to do with Danny, she hoped.
It was then that the idea of meeting Danny face to face again finally hit her, sending a cold fear to ice her back and a barrage of angry butterflies to attack her stomach. The man she had vowed never to see again would soon be right before her very eyes. How would she react? Would she be speechless, like she had been months prior? Or would her heart be brave now that Zander was by her side? Surely the three men who had come to her cottage were not the only ones on the island under Danny’s command, and so she wondered what she would do if the two of them came face to face with a dozen armed men.
Just like earlier, her thought was cut short as Zander slowed to a halt behind a stretch of dense fir trees, peering through the tiny peepholes between the leaves and branches. Steadying her breathing, Ginny listened like Zander did, turning her head to angle her ear towards the clearing beyond. What she heard made her heart thump like a rabbit on the run from a cunning fox.
“Time and time again, you fail to produce results for me!” a hard, unforgiving voice shouted through the trees. Her stomach flipped when she recognized it as Danny’s. “All you had to do was rip these tiny-ass children from their dainty mother’s arms. Surely all three of you dunces could overpower a woman like Ginny.”
“We got the boy,” said another voice, which Ginny recognized as the man who had swiped Oliver while the two other lackeys had jumped on her and Grace. “We’ll grab the girl too.”
Groaning, Danny continued to rumble. “Where the hell are those other two, anyway? Don’t tell me they ran away with Grace...”
Shifting their position silently, Ginny finally was able to get a good look at the clearing. Pitched tents surrounded three sides of a small campfire, where meat was being roasted over a small fire. Danny, still clad in his clean business suit, sat and leaned forward on a leveled log, his crossed arms and scrunched up face souring the cheery mood most campsites went for. His dark, tiny black eyes darted at the red-haired man sitting next to him. “Some men like children...” the latter said wickedly. “Though I’m sure they won’t mess her up too badly before bringing her here.”
“If they touch her, then we make them suffer in the worst way possible!” Danny nearly yelled. Looking up and around, Danny eyed each of the rest of his dozen or so men that surrounded the camp. “That goes for all of you! Just because Maric is dead doesn’t mean you all can do whatever you please. My children are off limits to the trafficking, you hear?”
Zander snarled low, causing some of the men the glance in their direction, though Ginny and Zander remained hidden enough.
Peering around desperately for any sign of Oliver, Ginny tightened her grip on Zander’s fur. “Damn it...I don’t see him,” she whispered.
“What was that?” one of the men closest to them said, jerking around to stare at their line of trees.
“God, Maloney, if you hear something then check it out! Don’t just stand there,” Danny said with a heavily annoyed voice. “It’s like I have to do all of your jobs for you!”
As the man gulped and cautiously moved towards the treeline, Zander threw a look back at Ginny. With his eyes wide and his teeth barred, Ginny understood immediately what he intended. Just like she had always planned, they would confront Danny directly, though she couldn’t fathom what would happen to them if they both failed.
With Zander crouching low behind the trees, his growling growing louder and louder with every step Danny’s lackey took towards him, Ginny braced herself for a flashy entrance. Once the lackey had stepped within a dozen feet of the treeline, Zander burst from the trees howling with all his might, Ginny matching his howl with her own shrieks of adrenaline. Sudden fear crossed the man’s face as Zander swiped at him, his inescapable fate causing his mouth to open but for no sound to ever leave it as Zander swiped him deep into the forest. Bones cracked as the man’s body crashed somewhere off in the distance, the sounds signaling Zander to roar in anger at the remaining, scurrying men as they all jumped to their feet and whipped out knives or pistols.
Calming herself as Zander padded forward, baring his teeth, Ginny forced herself to glance at Danny, who surprisingly remained seated on his bench, though he had gone still as a statue as he stared down Ginny. What surprised her even more was the smile that crept into his lips.
“Ah, so you’re our special guest today, huh?” Danny said, cocking his head. “Well, I would say it’s good to see you again, Ginny, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say this is definitely not pleasant.”
Feeling a surge of anger swell in her throat, Ginny slid down off of Zander’s back. “Where the hell is Oliver, Danny?” Taking a few steps forward with Zander loping by her side, remaining ever vigilant of the men closing around them, they approached the fire.
Wrinkling his nose, Danny waved her question away. “Oh please, did you honestly expect to me to answer that?”
“I did when you saw Zander here.” Pointing to her lover, Ginny’s frown deepened as Zander opened his jaw just enough to let saliva ooze out, enough to scare Danny...or so she hoped.
Still stoically remaining upon his log, Danny sighed, rubbing his forehead. “You know, I did like you at first...but then you got all protective of the kids like they really came from your womb...and yet you had never had sex before!” Danny’s comment got a rise of chuckles from some of the braver of his men; Ginny scowled at them all. “And now you leap into the fray, without checking to see what you’re up against.” While Ginny stayed silent, he threw up a hand around at his men. “Do you see all these guys? As dumb as some of them are, they at least all know how to fight. I didn’t hire them all simply for this campfire.”
Stunned at his confidence, Ginny bared her teeth. Even if Danny was putting on a show now, he couldn’t stop them. “It’s over, Danny, just give me Oliver, and I’ll try and have the court go easy on you for all the shit you’ve pulled.”
Wagging a finger at Ginny while he clicked his tongue, Danny smiled once again. “As if it would be that easy. You know, as disgusted as I am with you, you couldn’t have picked a better place for me to come to find you.”
Feeling a cold fear begin to reach up her thighs, Ginny shivered. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Danny began dramatically, “that this island is where many of my best associates have come from, meaning it was easy to get a few of them on my side. These shapeshifters are scary, for sure, but not so much when you’re paying them to fight on your side.” With two fingers, Danny motioned two men forward; the first was the man who had kidnapped Oliver, and the second had come out from hiding behind one of the tents. Shock tore through Ginny a
s the men tore through their clothing as they shifted into massive, grumbling wolves. Neither was big as Zander, but it still threw a wrench in Ginny and Zander’s plan.
“I do say,” Danny said, “that your simple plan of forcing your way to Oliver is no longer a good option for you, is it?”
In response, Zander howled one final, threatening roar that shook the forest around them. Danny gulped, but remained leaning forward, his eyes now flicking between Zander and Ginny. Nodding at someone else, Ginny caught her breath as Oliver, bound with rope and gagged, was led out from one of the tents. Carefully, Danny rose from his seat and sidestepped to Oliver, grabbing him from his lackey and grinning at Ginny. “This brat is what you’re looking for, right? Well, you aren’t getting him, and you aren’t getting me. Boys, get them!”↡¶
Chapter Nineteen
Ginny
Everything happened in a whirl, with a myriad of voices shouting as Zander rushed past her to meet the two wolves head on. As Ginny rocketed forward, hoping beyond hope to reach Oliver in time, she witnessed Danny snatch her son by the collar and drag him off into the woods, and then two thin men leaped into her path, each wielding a baseball bat or knife.
They two didn’t get to take a step towards her, though, as within a matter of a few seconds, Zander’s tail whipped by, smacking into their chests and sending them flying backward. One of the bodies even almost hit Danny as he scampered away with Oliver in his grasp, her son squirming and doing his best to wrench himself free from his father’s grip.
Startled, Ginny didn’t even have time to throw Zander a look of thanks as she started back on the run, dodging a myriad of arms reaching for her, and managing to punch one man in his throat as he loomed over her. The ground shook thanks to the battle between Zander and the two other wolves, who all wrestled and swiped at each other with their massive paws and heavy growls. Blood flowed onto the dirt forest floor, causing many of the men to slip and fail to back away as the wolves kicked out at them.