Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 5

by R. J. Blain

  The bullet popped out of my arm and bounced across the floor. I gasped, shuddering from the silver’s taint in my blood, which made it difficult for me to breathe. “Sorry.”

  Frank pulled me against him, pressing his blood-covered hand against my forehead. “Deep breaths.”

  “Oh my God,” Nicolina spluttered. I blinked at her, my vision wavering. Tears streaked her cheeks. Alex held my mate, wrapping her up in my spare bathrobe. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

  At the distress in my mate’s voice, I tried to find the strength to reach for her, but the silver kept me limp in Frank’s hold. Grunting from the effort, Frank picked me up. “I’ll put him in the pool so the silver can bleed out.”

  “Frank! Won’t he bleed out?” my brother protested.

  “Choose, Alex: death by silver poisoning or risk of circulatory collapse. Your choice. You’re his next of kin. Either way, those bullets were forged from old, pure silver. He had them made to kill him for fuck’s sake. His blood’s already black. Move it,” Frank snarled. “Get Nicolina out of here. Take her to the second floor and get Amy.”

  “Damn it, Frank!”

  “Alex, shut the fuck up and get Amy. Bring the field transfusion kits back with you. You’re his blood type—and if there’s anyone brave enough and O-Negative, get them up here, too.”

  I wondered if it would be enough.

  ~~*~~

  I drifted in my pool, my bleeding arm held under the water by Frank while his daughter cradled my head and upper back, her arms circling my shoulders. I fought to keep my eyes open, both to reassure Frank I wasn’t down and out for the count and to make certain I kept control over my wolf.

  He was frightened and didn’t like us bleeding so much.

  “Well, this has been an eventful week,” Kelly muttered, giving my chest a pinch.

  “Moral of the story,” I slurred, and careful to leave my right arm limp in my Second’s hold, I reached up with my left to pat Frank’s daughter on the cheek. “Don’t wrestle with armed women.”

  She sighed and leaned against my hand, letting go of me to take hold of my wrist. Pressing her fingertips to my veins, I listened to her murmur as she counted my pulse, her attention focused on her watch. “Up to one ten, Dad.”

  “You’re just going to have to sweat the rest out, Richard,” Frank declared, lifting my right arm out of the water. “Amy?”

  “Here,” the older woman announced, snapping on latex gloves. “Let’s get you plugged up, Mr. Murphy, before you add to your new black and red floor mosaic.”

  “Needed to redecorate anyway,” I mumbled. While Kelly kept a firm hold on my neck and head, Frank hauled me out of the pool, settling me on his daughter’s lap. “Have I told you this week your daughter sure is pretty, Frank?”

  “Flirting with my little girl isn’t going to save you from Amy’s tender care,” Frank replied, resting his knee on my right wrist to pin my arm down. “Kelly, think you can keep him from thrashing?”

  “I can try. Will I succeed? Guess we’ll find out.”

  “I’ll try to make it quick, Richard, but I think you’ve bled enough, and there’s no point in trying a transfusion if you’re still leaking.”

  While I thought Frank’s precautions were overboard, I submitted to his hold on me. Where he thought I was going to find the energy to fight him was beyond my comprehension, so I turned my attention to my brother and mate. “Alex and Nicolina.”

  “The girl is with Kelsey, as is your brother,” Amy reported.

  William’s mate, eight months pregnant with their second, would take good care of my family. Kelsey was more dominant than her mate ever would be, and I looked forward to her petition into the pack. With luck, it would happen two months after she gave birth. I sighed and relaxed. “Good. Anyone missing?”

  “All accounted for, and we know who let Simon into the house. She let him in about an hour after you left, right before the lockdown.” While Amy was a Normal without the benefit of being Fenerec-born, the woman could growl with the best. “We found her hiding behind the hot tub. They’re downstairs treating her for shock, and as soon as she’s stable, I suspect her mother is going to tan her hide. I have been given a message that you are not to interfere, Mr. Murphy, and that you will agree to whatever punishments Mom and Dad have for her. It seems to involve child labor and slavery, as well as a promise that everything damaged in your home will be repaired.”

  “I think she’s been punished enough. Who was it?” I growled. While many of the males in my pack had Normal mates, many opted to stay at home or chose to remain at the lodge to be with their mates at the start of the rut, hoping for puppies.

  I did a mental tally of those staying at my home. Of the mothers present, Kelsey stuck out to me in particular, as she had a teenage daughter.

  Holly was sixteen, one of the first puppies born under my reign as Alpha. I hadn’t spent much time with the girl; she avoided me when I checked in on William’s pregnant bitch.

  Mating with a wolf of Holly’s choice would be a perfect act of defiance, and Simon had the bad boy appeal too many teens loved. Maybe I hadn’t been paying enough attention to her, but she had genuinely seemed interested in Simon, although she hadn’t petitioned me to mate with him.

  Now she never could.

  Frank pinched me. “Not your puppy, not your call, Richard.”

  Jerked out of my thoughts, I hissed back, “My puppy, my call!”

  Holly was one of my firstborn. Maybe she didn’t realize it, but she was as much my puppy as she was her father’s and mother’s. I had been the third to hold her after she’d been born. When William had lost his job, I had been watching, making quiet arrangements so his pride wouldn’t be hurt, helping him from the shadows to find a new job so he wouldn’t lose his home and be forced to rely on me to take care of his mate and daughter.

  “You can’t just go claiming every child born to pack mates or related to them as yours.”

  “Like hell I can’t.”

  “Dad, be nice to Mr. Murphy,” Kelly chided, bending over me to kiss my forehead. “He’s a good second dad. He’s just crazy sometimes.”

  I closed my eyes and basked in her affection, not caring if it annoyed Frank.

  “Sometimes?”

  Amy jabbed me with the needle, and I yowled in protest of the surprise assault on my arm. The silver poisoning conspired with Frank and Kelly to keep me mostly motionless, shaking as my body reported the new source of pain. Amy’s no-nonsense stitching roused my entire nervous system, reminding me I had spent too long in the cold before being shot by my mate. I shuddered, clenching my teeth. Growling curses, I flexed my hands, which only made my arm hurt more.

  “Almost done,” Amy said, her tone soothing. “If only all Fenerec were so calm. This is a cakewalk, especially compared to you, Frank. You should take lessons from him.”

  “He’s mostly dead from silver poisoning, I’m astonished he isn’t suffering from hypothermia, and he has a healing neck. A strong breeze could knock him over,” Frank muttered.

  “And finished,” the old woman announced, removing the gloves and tossing them onto the floor. “Frank, get that mess showered off him and get him into something warm. Layers, and toss a bathrobe on top. I think I saw his in the girl’s changing room.”

  “Nicolina keeps stealing it,” I mumbled.

  “Well, steal it back. Get him warm, get him downstairs, and get him on a couch with his feet elevated,” she ordered.

  “Got it. Kelly, go with Amy,” Frank ordered.

  Snorting, Amy prodded Frank’s shoulder with a finger. “Kelly will stay with Richard and kick you in the shins if you try to tell her otherwise.”

  “No fighting. My house. Kelly, be a darling and have Alex punch in the emergency code for pack only, please,” I requested.

  “Second Dad wins,” Kelly declared, leaving me with her father and Amy.

  “Can I have that vodka now?” I groaned, requiring Frank’s help to get to my feet. At
least he didn’t have to carry me, although my feet didn’t like cooperating with me.

  “No. No vodka for you. You’d have a sip and die from alcohol poisoning.”

  Amy laughed, smiling at me. “Get some clothes on before you give the parents in the pack nightmares when they realize their daughters have learned just how good of a catch you are.”

  “I’ll tell your mate,” I muttered.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll tell him myself when he finds out I’m petitioning next month,” she murmured, kissing me on the cheek before heading for the staircase. “Thanks for coming, Richard.”

  Astonished by her declaration, I stumbled and would have fallen except for Frank’s hold on me. “What? Amy? Wait, Amy!”

  She waved at me without halting, punching in her code to gain access to the lower level. It wasn’t uncommon for Normal mates to refuse the ritual, instead choosing to live and die as they had been born. Phillip had been mated with Amy for as long as he had been a Fenerec, claiming her as his during his first rut, before I had become Alpha of Yellowknife.

  Amy’s first husband had died a few months before Phillip’s ritual, leaving her a prime target for a wolf in rut, and my predecessor had done nothing to protect the local women. She had been as much of a victim as her mate, who had no idea how to control his urges or his wolf.

  He had been nineteen. She had been forty-two. He no longer aged, while he watched the years whittle away at her. Phillip, like most Fenerec, wanted the puppies his mate could no longer give him.

  “Richard,” Frank said, tugging on my hand to catch my attention.

  “Amy’s petitioning?” I blurted.

  “She hasn’t told Phillip yet,” Frank warned. “Keep your mouth shut. She’s surprising him next moon.”

  “She hates what we are. I can’t, Frank. She’ll die. I can’t do that to Phillip. I can’t. Not after Simon and Luke.” It hurt thinking about losing the aging woman to the ravages of time, but I couldn’t kill her trying to force the ritual.

  Frank shocked me with his laughter. “She said you’d say something like that. I did her evaluation. I brought Alfred in for a second evaluation. Because Alfred knows you so well, he brought in an Inquisition fire witch to confirm it. She passed all of our evaluations. She’s the safest bet you’ll make next moon. We lost Simon and Luke, but Amy is worth both of them combined.”

  I slumped down on one of the benches in the changing room, gawking at Frank.

  “With one hand he giveth, with the other he taketh away,” Frank informed me.

  “Don’t you go misquoting the Bible at me,” I growled.

  “Seemed appropriate. Now, come on. Get showered so I can get you downstairs. There’s a pregnant lady downstairs, and knowing her, she’s not going to be satisfied until she confirms you’re still alive with her own eyes, seeing that Amy and Kelly went downstairs covered in your blood.”

  I groaned, adding another worry to my ever growing list of them. At three weeks until her due date, William’s mate could have her puppy at any time, and the last thing I wanted was to be a trigger for an early labor, especially with her mate hunting with the rest of the pack.

  “This day can’t get any worse.”

  “Shut up, Richard. Stop asking for trouble.”

  ~~*~~

  I gave Frank my code to get to the fourth floor so I wouldn’t have to walk up the flight of stairs. I flopped on the bench in the changing room while I waited, propping my feet up on a pile of towels to keep him happy. I considered sleeping there, but Frank returned with clean clothes and prodded me until I opened my eyes.

  “I think at least one of your cologne bottles exploded upstairs. It seems someone pulled a prank on you while you were away. Your clothing stinks,” Frank complained.

  I laughed. Nicolina had added to the bouquet, including some of her lilac perfume. I recognized the other new scent as my preferred cologne. “Stinky clothes or nudity. That’s a tough choice, Frank.”

  My Second dropped my clothes on top of my head. “Get dressed. Your upstairs phone rang six times while I was there. Caller ID says it’s from the lodge. I didn’t answer.”

  “Great. They probably heard the alarm. If I wanted them at the lodge, I wouldn’t have had Alex punch in the code.” Grumbling, I lurched up and grabbed my clothes. It took longer than I liked, but Frank didn’t sting my already wounded pride by offering to help until I tried to figure out how to get into my shirt without pulling the stitches.

  “Here’s a nice dryer-warmed bathrobe just for you,” Frank said, handing me my charcoal robe.

  The run through the dryer hadn’t been enough to erase my mate’s scent from it, and despite knowing I shouldn’t, I snuggled into it.

  “You love that thing way too much. Alright, let’s get you downstairs. The pack can deal with Simon’s body. I’d throw him out the fucking window and let him rot if I could.”

  “I’d open the window for that,” I replied, drawing a deep breath to steady myself for the hike down the stairs. “Why didn’t I have elevators installed in this house?”

  “I’m pretty sure you said something about exercise being good for you.”

  “I was wrong.”

  “I’ll go down first so you don’t fall too far down the steps unless you want me to carry you?”

  “I will roll down the steps before I let you carry me down them,” I informed him, wrinkling my nose, and reaching around my Second to punch in my access code.

  “That’s what I thought. You’ll be fine. You’re actually doing better than I expected. No transfusion needed yet. I’m impressed.”

  “You removed the bullet fast,” I reminded him. “Thanks.”

  “Any time. Don’t scare me like that again. If she had hit you in the shoulder, you’d be dead. Those bullets are nasty business. I burned my fingers and I didn’t even touch the damned thing.”

  “That’s why I gave them to Alex and Nicolina. They’re supposed to be nasty business. That’s what they were made for. They’re useless if they can’t be used to defend the house against the strongest wolves. Alex would’ve—” I choked on the words, wondering what I would have come home to if Nicolina hadn’t pumped Simon so full of silver there had been no chance of his survival.

  “Easy, Richard. Alex got roughed up, but he’s fine. Nicolina’s a tough girl; she’ll be fine, too. No more guns for her for a while, though, not without therapy first.”

  “You’re going to need a shovel and a bucket for my remains when Desmond finds out what happened,” I warned him.

  “Twenty says Desmond’s fine with it, but Wendy will lose it.”

  “You’re on,” I agreed, only because it would make him feel better.

  I had to lean on the rail to make it down the steps without falling into Frank. When I opened the door, the sitting room was packed full of people. They all stared at me in silence.

  Nicolina, who was seated between Alex and Kelsey on the largest of the couches, took one look at me and burst into tears. William’s mate, even more beautiful from her pregnancy, murmured something to my mate. Shaking her head, Nicolina hid her face in her hands.

  “Crisis number one to address,” I murmured, and knowing everyone was watching me, I crossed the room, keeping my steps as steady as possible. I shooed Alex out of his spot, dropping onto the couch with a low groan. My mate’s sobs intensified, and sighing, I slipped my arm around her, pulling her against me.

  “The waterfall’s supposed to be upstairs. Is my pool leaking?” I flicked a nail against her throat, careful to keep my hand beneath her wet hair, safe out of Frank’s view.

  My mate hiccuped, twisting to me so her face was hidden from the crowd of onlookers. While I had been bleeding out most of the silver and getting stitched up, she had showered, though her hair was a tangled mess. I don’t know whose pajamas she was wearing, but they were too big for her.

  “My pool,” my mate mumbled, so soft I doubted anyone other than me could hear her.

  I tested my luck, pu
lling her closer, until I had her tucked under my arm, grateful she was on my left side so I didn’t pull my stitches. With a little help from my brother, Kelsey situated Nicolina’s feet over her legs.

  “Sorry, Kelsey.”

  With Nicolina’s feet lifted, it was easier to shift her onto my lap, lying her down so her face was pressed to my stomach. I wiggled beneath her, covering her with my bathrobe. I couldn’t offer her more than the illusion of privacy, but at least no one could watch her cry.

  She quieted, but her tears soaked through both of my shirts.

  “No problem, Richard. You’re looking better than I was led to believe.”

  “Frank’s good with his hands,” I replied, grinning at William’s mate, earning a smattering of laughs from the older teens watching. “He’s a smart one, but don’t tell him I said that.”

  “Secret’s safe with me,” she replied.

  “Alex, are you okay?” I asked.

  “Cuts and bruises but otherwise fine,” my brother reported, perching on the arm of the couch next to me. “I’m more worried about her.”

  “Waterfalls capable of transferring themselves from my pool to the second level are concerning. However, I’ve heard rumors that chocolate can fix everything. Young ladies who have had such a shitty evening deserve an entire batch of cookies for themselves. I suppose, seeing as there are a bunch of other kids around who would happily contribute to Noah’s Flood if they didn’t get any, I shall have to make additional batches.”

  “That’s your play, Richard? Really? You’re going to bake cookies?” Frank spluttered, crossing his arms over his chest. “Could you take this seriously?”

  “Fuck you, Richard,” my mate hissed, her voice muffled by my clothes and bathrobe. Working my hands under her hair, I massaged her shoulder and neck to ease some of her stiffness.

  I was tempted to make her sleep, but it’d only delay the inevitable.

  “Richard Murphy, you are supposed to have your feet elevated,” Amy snapped, coming out from the kitchen to plant her hands on her hips.