by Odessa Lynne
Wolf roared again and Salvadore felt another strong pulse of semen shooting into his ass.
His t-shirt had rucked up his back as Wolf had dragged him across the leaves and a stick was poking him in the spine. Something cool and wet had stuck to the back of Salvadore’s shoulder and the earth smelled musty and damp.
He couldn’t be bothered to care. He stared up at the brightening sky and then glanced at Wolf’s head, moving against Salvadore’s chest as he did something with his tongue over Salvadore’s sternum, and Salvadore let himself go and just relaxed into the lethargic feeling overwhelming him.
He had no idea what was coming next, but he didn’t care. He had a wolf rutting into his ass at that very moment and he was still alive.
He’d done it. He’d submitted, and he hadn’t been buried under memories he’d thought he would never escape.
The sun streaked warm and bright across his skin and it felt better than it had in years.
Chapter 12
A disconcerting growl from Wolf abruptly ended Salvadore’s after-sex lull. The sound skittered across Salvadore’s nerve endings, making the hair on his arms stand up. Salvadore opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but Wolf’s hand covered his mouth and all that came out was, “Mwa—”
Wolf pulled free of Salvadore with a quiet slide out of Salvadore’s body.
Salvadore exhaled a soft grunt, a sixth sense telling him to keep his mouth shut and pay attention. Wolf’s hands slid down Salvadore’s legs and then pulled at Salvadore’s ankle until Salvadore had lowered his feet to the ground on Wolf’s right side.
He followed the direction of Wolf’s gaze, straining to see or hear anything out of place in the woods, but whatever had caught Wolf’s attention didn’t reveal itself to Salvadore. However, another quick look at Wolf showed that the glassy look in his gaze had cleared much quicker than Salvadore would’ve expected. Wolf quietly pulled up his trousers, raising the zip with excruciating slowness.
Then Wolf lowered one hand to the ground, and Salvadore glimpsed wicked sharp claws extended much farther than he’d seen before. Salvadore sat up carefully on the leaves, his bare ass soaking up the chill from the earth below him, and he tried to snag his pants from their place on the ground near his feet. He missed the first time, because he was too busy keeping his eyes fixed in the direction Wolf watched so intently, but on his second try he managed to snag the heavy fabric between his fingers.
Unease crawled along his spine, then Wolf lunged forward and took off at a dead run through the forest and Salvadore’s unease quickly morphed into fear.
Salvadore scrambled to his feet. He shoved his foot into his pant leg as fast as he could, yanked, and then thrust the other inside, hopping a good foot across the ground and slamming his shoulder into the smooth trunk of a young maple in his hurry.
Whatever happened to the days when a man could enjoy some goddamned afterglow?
Every bit of tension he’d released during his orgasm had flooded back and Salvadore snapped his pants closed, looked around, and had no fucking idea what he was supposed to do now.
Wait? Run? Hide?
The edge of a leaf tickled his big toe through his sock and he blinked down at his feet. God. He needed to get his boots back on.
Something thrashed through a thinning stand of brush near the edge of Salvadore’s range of vision in the brightening early morning light and Salvadore thought he saw a flash of color. Red.
Wolf hadn’t been wearing anything red. He’d have remembered that.
Fuck.
Was it the wolf he’d shocked earlier? No, wrong direction, he was sure of it.
Another flash of color caught his eyes. Blue this time. His boxers were still lying beside a crumbling tree branch.
He swiped them up off the ground and stuffed them into his back pocket so they wouldn’t attract wolves to his scent, and then patted down his front pocket to make sure he hadn’t lost—
Nope. Still there.
He grabbed up his boots and then yanked them on while standing against a sapling, roughly tying the laces as fast as he could.
He tried to picture which direction he’d seen Wolf dragging the body. Maybe he could get his dart back, and at least then he’d have something to defend himself with now that he knew it worked on the wolves. He turned and then turned again, studying the area but nothing looked familiar except for the twisted trunk of the huge tree he’d climbed. He turned again and then made a guess.
Just as he started easing his way through the brush, a roar shattered the quiet and Salvadore jumped, his heart thudding so hard inside his chest he felt sure anyone standing nearby could’ve heard it.
He had to force a rough exhale before he could move again. When he did, his every step crackled and crunched on the forest floor, and he had to make himself keep going when he’d rather have just stayed put and waited for Wolf to return.
He found the wolf he’d shocked, much closer to the spot where Salvadore and Wolf had fucked than Salvadore liked knowing. He was glad he hadn’t known at the time just how close the wolf was—even if the wolf was unconscious at the time.
Unfortunately, the wolf was no longer unconscious. He’d turned to his side, and when Salvadore snapped a twig underfoot stepping over a dead tree, the wolf moved with startling swiftness, rolling to his feet and snarling at Salvadore.
Salvadore fell back on his ass, plopping down on the fallen tree’s narrow trunk with an uncontrollable “oomph” as the landing jarred right up his spine. His ass wasn’t exactly ready for that kind of impact and his “oomph” turned to a sharp gasp. Salvadore surged back to his feet.
Where the fuck was Wolf? That goddamn liar had promised…
The wolf stopped snarling and stilled. “Your scent…” he said.
A limb trembled somewhere over Salvadore’s head and the sound startled him so bad that he didn’t even think about his reaction. He looked up.
But it was a mistake to take his eyes off the wolf in front of him. Leaves crackled and Salvadore jerked his attention back to the wolf. The wolf had moved closer to Salvadore.
Salvadore took a step back just as the wolf took another step in Salvadore’s direction. But Salvadore had forgotten about the dead tree behind him. He fell, tried to catch himself, but missed, and he went all the way over the narrow trunk, his back hitting the ground hard and knocking the breath right out of his body.
The limbs above Salvadore shook with the weight of a wolf coming down right on top of him and Salvadore rolled, a desperate yell stuck in the back of his throat. But it was Wolf who jumped down in front of him, landing barefoot on the trunk, his toes curling and his claws gouging deep lines into the dead bark.
Salvadore clambered to his feet, his chest rising and falling almost in time with his racing heartbeat, tension vibrating through every muscle in his body.
Wolf’s t-shirt had a gash across the back and a flap of fabric hung down. Blood smeared across the visible skin, a deep, dark red angled from shoulder to hip.
“He is mine,” Wolf said in his own language and his words carried easily over his shoulder to where Salvadore stood clenching his fists.
The other wolf’s eyes flickered toward Salvadore but he took a step back and then another. “I smell you on him. You’ve fucked him.” Or mated. Salvadore couldn’t say for sure. Everyone he knew was better than him at understanding the wolves’ language, except for maybe Tim.
“As I said, he is mine,” Wolf said, placing even more emphasis on “mine” this time. Wolf wasn’t just staking a claim; he was warning the other wolf away, something he made clear with his next words. “Now leave.”
The other wolf’s eyes again flickered toward Salvadore, his hands still loose at his sides, although his claws had come out. “Alpha didn’t want him mated.”
“Alpha Paetarikeille will understand.”
“It’s not my place to make that determination. But I won’t dispute your claim. He’s yours. But I can’t leave him either.”
>
A sense of wrongness fluttered at the edges of Salvadore’s thoughts. Something about what the wolf had said didn’t feel right. He tried to run through the words again and decided that maybe what the wolf had said meant “he belongs with you” instead of “he’s yours.” But the feeling didn’t fade.
Wolf squatted on the tree and Salvadore caught a glimpse of Wolf’s long fingers, claws still extended. No matter how calmly the wolves faced each other, it wasn’t hard to tell that Wolf was ready to attack at the least provocation.
The wolf spoke again. “I’ll travel with you. I can resist his scent if I stay far enough away.”
“You won’t be able to resist,” Wolf said, leaning forward. Wolf’s blood soaked shirt stretched across his back and he looked ready to lunge at the other wolf. “You were injured in the fall. The drugs are probably failing even now.”
The wolf’s gaze shifted toward Salvadore, and the way he looked at Salvadore made Salvadore’s palms sweat. “I have to stay with him now that I’ve found him,” the wolf said. “Alpha’s orders were clear.”
Wolf growled low in his throat and his fingers flexed. “His care is my obligation now. I claimed him and he’s mine. I’ve submitted to Alpha Paetarikeille but I won’t give up my mate for him or any Alpha.”
The other wolf’s claws came out another inch or so, just enough to catch Salvadore’s attention.
Salvadore’s instincts were screaming at him to get the fuck out of there. But as soon as he took the first step backward, Wolf’s head turned just enough so Salvadore knew Wolf was aware of his position.
“Stop,” Wolf said. “The breeze is carrying your scent.”
Salvadore stopped dead still, fists clenched at his sides. Sweat had soaked the back of his thin t-shirt and his underarms. There was no way he wasn’t stinking up the woods just by standing there.
The wolf’s fixed stare made Salvadore swallow hard.
Then Wolf roared and Salvadore’s heart wasn’t the only thing that jumped.
The other wolf dropped to a crouch. “I don’t want to take your mate from you.”
Wolf’s claws made a scraping sound on the bark under him. “You think you can resist, but you’ve never had to resist a human scent during heat. Your inexperience will get us all killed.” A pause, then, “But not if I kill you first.”
That was all the warning Salvadore had. Wolf jumped at the other wolf.
Salvadore scrambled back, trying to stay out of the way.
The wolf reacted quickly, lunging at Wolf, and although he slashed his claws at Wolf with the kind of speed no human could ever match, he wasn’t quick enough to catch Wolf.
Wolf slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, and came down on top of the wolf before he could roll away.
Something thrashed through the trees behind him. Salvadore spun around to see Egan racing toward the fight.
Salvadore’s stomach churned. Another wolf came out of the woods to the left and Salvadore ducked next to the nearest tree, the trunk too narrow to offer more than a place to rest his shoulder. He wanted to squeeze his eyes closed and pretend he was somewhere—anywhere—else, but he made himself watch despite every urge he had to do otherwise. He’d chosen his protector, made his payment, and he damn well intended to get what he’d paid for.
Wolf had better put an end to the threat that goddamn wolf posed or Salvadore was going to—to—to stick a fucking knife in Wolf’s gut at the first opportunity.
But that thought died quickly when Egan and the other wolf converged not on Wolf’s opponent, but on Wolf.
“Hey!” Salvadore yelled, surging to his feet and just resisting the urge run toward them. “What the fuck are you doing? He’s the good guy!”
Chapter 13
No one answered Salvadore. The wolves slashed and jumped and it took all three of them to take Wolf down. When Egan got in a particularly vicious slash across Wolf’s face, Salvadore flinched and couldn’t stop the sound that escaped his throat.
Wolf became enraged, roaring with a spine-tingling viciousness that made Salvadore cringe and decide he should at least put the tree between himself and the wolves.
Salvadore clutched the tree with sweaty palms and looked over his shoulder, but for once, he kept his urge to run in check. He’d never survive if the wolves followed him and attacked. And now that he had firsthand experience fucking one of the wolves, he wasn’t so convinced he’d rather die than face that again. Wolf hadn’t hurt him. Salvadore had even liked the sex—really liked it if he was honest with himself.
Still, that didn’t mean he wanted wolves fighting over him, and from the little he understood about a mating frenzy, they’d definitely fight over him if his scent triggered their heat. He would become nothing but collateral damage as the wolves tried to kill each other to get to him first.
He had a feeling that wasn’t what was going on though, although he couldn’t have said why. He just knew. Wolf had said the prisoners had a supply of the repression drugs, and none of the wolves were paying Salvadore much attention; they were entirely focused on Wolf and keeping him down.
While Salvadore was watching, Wolf somehow managed to free his leg and lash out at the wolf Salvadore had never seen before. The wicked claws on Wolf’s foot caught the other wolf in the chest. The wolf gasped loud enough that Salvadore heard it from his position. The wolf fell back and dropped to his knees, releasing Wolf’s arm.
After that, things got messy and Salvadore couldn’t keep up with the fight. Egan, however, was a much closer match for Wolf than either of the other two and although he struggled to keep up with the speed of Wolf’s attacks, he suffered far fewer injuries than either of the others.
Salvadore’s stomach was in his throat when Egan finally slammed Wolf to the ground for the second time with the help of the other two wolves. Egan removed something from his pocket, a cylinder almost exactly the same as the one Egan had used on him, what, two days ago?
No, it’d been only a day and a half—Monday night—and it was what, Wednesday now?
The last couple of days had been some of the longest of his life—only those three days it’d taken his father to die had felt longer. It’d been two and a half days since he’d been picked up by those assholes that had set this all in motion—
But no. This had all started Sunday morning, with Paul. Paul—or Matthew—had gotten Salvadore caught up in—
Or had he? Those assholes had known an awful lot about Salvadore and his family. He’d been targeted and he had to wonder just how likely it was that he’d have gotten out of the protectorate without being stopped even if he hadn’t stayed behind hours longer than he’d planned because of Paul.
Salvadore clenched his right fist and clung to the narrow trunk with his other hand and worked up the nerve to demand, “What are you doing to him?”
Egan looked up, blood thick in a set of gashes that cut across his forehead and eyebrow and the top of one cheek. His left eye was a milky white instead of the brilliant blue of his other eye, and bright dots of blood flecked the iris.
“Shit,” Salvadore said at his first good look at the damage Wolf had done.
“Your mate’s a strong fighter, but his heat was clouding his judgment. I couldn’t allow him to kill Paeisikeille.”
A name, Salvadore was sure. Unfortunately it had sounded like nearly every other wolf name he’d ever heard—incomprehensible.
Salvadore looked to Egan’s left at the wolf who’d come to help Egan. The wolf shook his head and gestured at the other wolf, the one that Salvadore had shocked. He was fumbling with another of the cylinders, his body obviously in much worse condition than the other three wolves. Bright, early morning sunlight glinted off the deep red blood that had matted his hair to the side of his face and his arms had deep, bloody slashes in multiple places from shoulder to fingertips. His t-shirt had several tears in it and the blood-soaked fabric clung to him as he moved.
“He’s one of Alpha’s favorites,” Egan continued. “His
first from his third.”
Salvadore had no idea what that meant, but he let it go in favor of stepping cautiously away from the tree and crossing his arms to hide his shaking hands.
“Did you—” He cleared his throat. “Did you hurt him?”
“Yes, but he’ll heal.”
“Why isn’t he moving? Or talking?”
“He needed a very large dose of the repression drugs.” Egan looked around again, eyeing Salvadore carefully. “He’ll come around soon. I can smell that you mated. Did he hurt you?” Salvadore cleared his throat, pulling his arms in tighter. Just what he needed—for every wolf here to be able to smell the fact that he’d been fucked recently—and then it hit him that maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. They’d know he was off-limits. Only the most determined—or lust crazed—would try anything.
“No. He didn’t hurt me.”
Egan continued to stare at him a moment longer than Salvadore liked. Egan’s hand flexed over Wolf’s chest but his claws had been pulled in and his blood smeared fingers ended in nothing but smooth dark fingernails.
Salvadore turned his head, looking toward the other wolves again. The wolf Egan had called one of the alpha’s favorites had dropped to his knees. He reached out for the ground and leaned heavy on his arm, breathing deeply and shaking his head. The other unnamed wolf watched Salvadore warily and Salvadore liked that even less than he’d liked the way Egan was looking at him, so he turned his attention back to Wolf.
Wolf’s chest rose and fell quickly under Egan’s hand and he had his eyes closed. No one talked. A breeze rustled the few leaves left in the trees and crows cawed somewhere far away. Salvadore lifted his thumb to his mouth and when he realized he’d started chewing the end of his nail he dropped his arm and shoved his hands into his pockets.
A moment later, Wolf seemed to shake off the overwhelming effects of the drugs. His eyes snapped open and his hand came up and circled Egan’s wrist so fast that it made Salvadore jump.
Salvadore jerked his hands out of his pockets and took a step back before he caught himself.