“Wait a minute.” Anthony held up a hand.
It wasn’t surprising that he and Ayden looked so much alike. They were littermates. What was even more noticeable was how different they looked. Anthony didn’t hold himself the same. He wrinkled his brow in confusion, obviously not understanding, and looked at her with eyes that were nothing like Ayden’s. This male had never known life as the alpha.
“Why are you asking me to kill you?” he asked.
“It’s the only way to set Ayden free.”
Anthony continued staring at her. She wouldn’t look away. After a moment, he nodded once. “You would willingly give your life for his?”
“I agreed with you earlier,” she reminded him, wishing that he would just do it instead of asking questions. She buried her hands in her lap, hating how they kept shaking. Facing a willing death was terrifying. “I had howled this to Ayden repeatedly. He didn’t understand that running by my side would mean continued attacks until we are both dead.”
“So now you believe he’s trapped in a mating and is too honorable to try and escape it?”
“If he did feel he was trapped by a mating then yes, I do believe Ayden runs with enough honor that he wouldn’t try to escape it.” Magda swallowed the lump in her throat. Her mouth was so dry. “But no, I don’t think he feels trapped in this mating.”
Again he nodded once.
“But he is trapped.” Since he wanted an explanation before killing her, Magda had no choice but to give him as much. She pressed on, determined to get it out without too many interruptions so he would kill her and be done with it. “I love him. I care about him so much. You can smell how much he loves me.”
“Yes,” he muttered.
“A couple days after you and your littermate and the other Cariboo sniffed me out when the leopards had chased me up the mountain, Ayden found me hiding in a cave. Did he tell you that?”
Anthony shook his head.
“He said it was a cave where you two played as pups.”
He tilted his head, thinking. His expression changed, and so did his scent, when the memory came to him. “I didn’t know he was searching for you. That cave isn’t around good hunting ground.”
Anthony didn’t smell suspicious or angry the way he had a moment before. He was curious. When he didn’t immediately say more, she continued.
“He was so pleased that he’d found me. There was no anger. He never showed signs of wishing to kill me. I was the one who was suspicious. And when he brought clothes, hauled his kill to me, and even a tub for me to bathe, it was hard not to smell the kindness in him.”
“I smelled you on him.”
“I worried about that.” So much had happened since that cave. Magda knew staying there wouldn’t have made either of them happy in the end. It was no way for werewolves to keep living. “After two weeks, I ran. When he wasn’t there I packed what I was able to carry on my back and ran to Banff. I planned on running down to the states, to Colorado. There is a Malta werewolf pack there.”
“Why didn’t you keep running?”
“Because Ayden hunted me down.”
Anthony cursed under his breath. “He’s always been stubborn about running his way.”
“He admitted that much to you when the two of you howled at each other earlier,” Magda pointed out. “He ran after me and even hired an owl to fly over the town until he found me. Then he brought me back with him. He brought me here so I would be able to meet his littermate.” She decided not to bring up her littermates. It was best to keep any thought of them out of Anthony’s head. “Ayden didn’t want to run to the states without honoring you with a proper goodbye.”
Again he cursed. Anthony ran his hand over his face and dragged it through his hair. His straight hair was long, almost to his shoulders, and at the moment tangled. A few days growth, at least, covered his jaw. His facial hair had a red tint to it. There was more red in it than in Ayden’s. She quit comparing the two and let out a sigh. Somehow talking to Anthony had calmed her nerves.
“It’s not easy for me to ask this,” she admitted, and her stomach twisted into a cruel knot. “I like living. But I love your littermate even more. He doesn’t deserve this and I can’t bear knowing I’m the cause for him giving up so much. But I smell the way of it on him. There is so much honor running in his blood that he won’t leave my side. And I tried getting him to understand too many times.”
“So it is you who feels trapped in this mating.” Anthony lowered his hand and narrowed his gaze on her.
“No. No!” She almost cried out but remembered to lower her voice back to a whisper. Ayden would charge out of that room the moment he noticed she wasn’t in bed with him. “I’m the luckiest female in the world to have a male like him.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I know I am. I don’t want Ayden cursed with the demise of the Malta werewolf. I didn’t mean to fall in love with him. And I doubt your littermate set out to lose his heart to someone like me. But it happened. We aren’t trapped. But by asking this of you, I can set him free.”
“I see.”
Anthony looked past Magda. She lowered her attention to the floor and closed her eyes. If he would simply snap her neck, it would be over in moments. Hopefully the pain wouldn’t be terribly bad before she died. All she needed to do was prevent her instinct to survive from kicking in. If she tried using her gift on him, even in a sheer moment of panic, Anthony would possibly be hurt. Magda didn’t want that. All Anthony was guilty of was loving his littermate. She didn’t blame him for that, especially when she did too.
“Are you going to fulfill her wish?” Ayden asked.
“Fucking tail!” Magda spun around on her rear, her knees tucking in to her chest as she put her back to Anthony and stared up at Ayden.
He leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway. In loose pants, tied at the waist, no shirt and barefoot, he was sexy as hell. His gaze was cold, focused. But he didn’t smell mad.
“How long have you been standing there?” she demanded, and began standing. Slowly at first, in case her legs were definitely too wobbly to hold her. She managed.
“Long enough,” Anthony answered for his littermate.
“Are you going to kill my mate?” Ayden asked again.
“No.” Anthony didn’t hesitate. “But I wanted to hear her reasoning. She smelled of so much God damn fear I knew she meant what she asked.”
“Good to know.” Ayden walked over to Magda and wrapped his arms around her. He didn’t growl any harsh words at her but simply held her pinned against him while looking at Anthony. “I see you’ve returned to your den.”
“She was already asleep when I reached her den.” Anthony shrugged. “So I made contact with someone I know. An hour or so before dawn several owls will be here to assist in taking the two of you wherever it is that you wish to go.”
“What is this? Now you’ll help us?” There was no note of sarcasm or venomous undertones in Ayden’s voice. He obviously had his emotions very much in check. It was hard sniffing out how he felt.
“Regardless of what she howls, or how much you’ve defended what she said, I know you, Ayden. You aren’t the type of werewolf to run into anything without knowing everything you can sniff out about it first. You didn’t mate with her then realize after the fact how life would be with her.” Anthony shook his head, lowering his attention to Magda. “Female, I promise you, my littermate knew exactly what his life would be like with you. He knew what he’d give up, too. And trust me, he did all of that willingly before announcing his mating with you. You wouldn’t be setting him free by dying. You’d kill him, too.”
Ayden’s hand moved up her back. Even through the sweatshirt she’d fallen asleep in, his touch sent a surge of heat through her.
“You went out in this weather to sniff out help for us?” Something had changed in Ayden’s scent. It was riper. “In your condition?”
Anthony laughed. “I’m a very healthy male. Never has taken
me long to heal. You’re not the only one allowed to help this litter.”
Magda swore she smelled a pride and anger mixed together. She took a step backward to see Ayden’s face, expecting resistance. But he dropped his arms and squared off with his littermate.
“Do you not smell the level of danger you’ve put yourself in by helping us?” he snarled.
“I’m just as capable of sniffing a situation out and making up my mind how to handle it. It was help you, or arrange to have her killed. I can smell how you love her. Just because I wish you hadn’t fallen in love with a Malta werewolf doesn’t mean I think I can howl until you quit loving her. It’s done. She’s your mate. I accept that.”
“Now you’re in danger, too. If anyone saw you, smelled you, or even heard you talking to owls.”
Magda touched Ayden’s arm. His blue eyes were so bright when he shot his attention to her. She was right. There was pride and anger. She wasn’t the only one that Ayden loved.
“Honor him by accepting his help,” she whispered.
He stared at her a moment, his expression hard and pinched. The two males, both such tall and powerful, dangerous Cariboo lunewulf, were also equally filled with pride and determination to run the way they wished. Magda doubted there were many times when Ayden had ever let his littermate take lead. This would have to be one of the few times when he did.
“The owls will be here in about an hour.” Anthony spoke as if the matter were settled. “They have harnesses and straps to put each of you in. Then they will fly you out of here. There’s little chance of humans up in this part of the mountain range so you don’t risk being shot out of the air. They will take you where you want to go.”
“We’re visiting her litter next,” Ayden said, not yet looking at his littermate.
“No.” Magda spoke at the same time that Anthony did.
“Female, if you continue agreeing with me I’ll reluctantly be forced to like you.” Anthony’s determined expression didn’t relax. He growled as if the thought repulsed him.
Magda knew it would probably be the kindest words she ever heard howled by her mate’s littermate.
“We are seeing your litter,” Ayden stated, as if neither of them had just said no. “You know it might be the last chance you get to be with them.”
“It’s not right to risk owl’s lives along with our own by heading up the mountain range to spend time with them. The owls can take a message to Katrin and Liesa, let them know where we went and that we’re safe. And happy,” she added and took his large, calloused hand in hers and squeezed.
Before sunrise the owls showed up. Magda hated traveling without her paws on the ground. It was the worse sensation of not being in control that she’d ever experienced. The sun was bright in their eyes, the snow no longer falling, when they landed outside of Banff and she and Ayden changed into their flesh and dressed. Then, following the plan she’d initially devised for herself, they boarded the human bus and headed south.
Traveling among humans worked. Days passed. Magda was positive she’d never get the stench out of her nose and wanted to run and be among werewolves again. Slightly less than a week later, they arrived in Colorado. This is where she’d fought to come. She had been willing to lose the male she loved in order to reach the Malta werewolf pack. Magda wasn’t sure if she’d ever see her littermates again. It had been an incredible sacrifice. She stared at the Colorado Rockies, which definitely weren’t as magnificent as the Canadian Rockies and swore she smelled impending doom closing in around her.
Chapter Eighteen
It was so damned good to be off that bus. Ayden didn’t mind being surrounded by humans. He wasn’t bothered by all their chatter. He’d learned to block it out. What did bother him was that he smelled more than humans in the crowd.
Ayden pulled Magda close and whispered into her hair. “Do you smell that?”
“Yes, but I don’t see anyone,” she whispered in turn.
Ayden stared at everyone who’d come off the bus with them. None of them were werewolves. In their close proximity while traveling, he would have sniffed out another male or female.
“I think it’s coming from over there.” Magda nodded toward their left.
He lifted the straddle bags that had been bound together and hauled with the rest of the passengers’ luggage under the bus in a special compartment. Using the strap designed for that purpose, Ayden put some muscle into resting them on his shoulder. Then putting his free arm around Magda’s waist, he led them in that direction.
He wanted a secluded spot somewhere to spend a day or two, or a week, recovering from that human bus they’d endured the past week. He wanted to kiss, lick, and nibble every inch of Magda’s body until they forgot they’d ever been around so many humans. Ayden wanted to fuck his mate and listen to her adorable moans while he buried his cock deep inside her.
It might be smart to avoid any werewolves. If they were to run into their kind, he and Magda would be honor bound to enter their pack and introduce themselves. There would be time enough for that soon.
Valle, Colorado didn’t have any lunewulf, or Cariboo lunewulf packs. They’d check the list of all registered packs in the area. The Malta werewolf pack was registered with Werewolf Affairs, which was part of the American government that Magda had howled about to him. The packs, both Malta and lunewulf, were located on Wulf Peaks. Whether the mountains were named for the werewolves living up in them, or for another reason, he didn’t know. All he knew right now was that there were werewolves nearby, and not up in those mountains.
So first—whether he wanted it or not—business. Magda was right. The scent grew stronger. He was picking up on two males. One of them, at least, smelled mated. The two of them parted their way through the passengers and those who had come to pick them up. They reached the sidewalk and Ayden focused across the street. Two males, who were neither lunewulf nor Malta werewolf, stood studying Ayden and Magda, their arms crossed and expressions wary.
“This is their turf,” Ayden whispered to Magda. “Let’s go see what the mutts are up to in this part of the world.”
One of the American mutts howled at them before Ayden and Magda had crossed the street. “Odd way for a couple werewolves to travel.” The male took his time with eye contact, instead searching the crowd of humans still in the parking lot by the bus before resting his washed-out green eyes on Ayden. His straw-like hair was almost orange and the male was puckered with as many scars as he had freckles.
“It was necessary,” Ayden offered, knowing growling at the male, when this was his territory and not Ayden’s would only bring trouble he didn’t want. “My mate isn’t accepted in some areas.”
“Must be one hell of a good piece of tail for you to sacrifice so much.”
Ayden suddenly didn’t care about trouble. These two could bring on as much as they wanted. He’d send them both rolling down the sidewalk, head over tail. Pushing Magda behind him, he closed in on the asshole who dared insult her.
The male with the freckled and puckered-faced curled his lip and snarled. “Okay you over grown lunewulf.”
“Over grown lunewulf?” Ayden laughed. “You must be one of those American mutts I’ve heard howled about. Apparently having so many breeds diluted down inside you has made you limp in the brain, and likely other places, too.”
He didn’t dodge when the freckled face werewolf lunged at him. The mutt was no match for him. Ayden put his hand on the male’s chest and shoved him backward. The male stumbled before stabilizing himself.
“Enough!” The second werewolf stepped between his pack mate and Ayden.
He stood face to face with Ayden. That is, if it weren’t for the fact that Ayden stood several inches taller than both males.
“Who are you and why are you here?” the second male demanded. “Your accent is strong. Where are you from?”
This male had black hair that was straight, yet windblown and tangled around the werewolf’s square face. His skin was white, and s
hy of a few scars—nothing too severe for a male his age, which was probably somewhere around Ayden’s age—there were no other marks on his skin. He stared at Ayden, glanced at Magda, then returned opaque, blue eyes on Ayden. The male straightened and waited for answers.
“We didn’t plan on interacting with your pack.” It was best to give clear, honest answers, while revealing as little as possible about either of them. Ayden wasn’t ready to trust any werewolves in America until he’d had a hell of a lot more time to sniff out the place. Right now his nose was still too full of diesel fumes to form any opinion about these two. “Our stop here is temporary.”
“You are in our territory.”
“It was necessary,” Ayden said. “The bus stops here.”
“And so you are talking to us now.” The male took a step back and pulled out a cell phone. He sent a text and continued staring at the screen, as if he might be able to sniff out the answer before it appeared on his phone. “You will both wait until I have heard from our pack leader,” he informed them, without looking up.
“And I’ll howl to him the same thing I’m telling you,” Ayden said, aware of Magda prickling against him when she moved in by his side. She was nervous, in spite of the male in front of them seeming calm. Ayden wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. It was all he was able to do at the moment to assure her they hadn’t come this far only to run into trouble from two mutts.
The phone vibrated in the black haired werewolf’s hand. The freckled face, puckered flesh male behind his pack mate, tilted his head at the high pitch sound then leaned around him to see what it said.
“Head up this road a mile to a small inn on the left. The bitch there will give you a room. Our pack leader will visit you soon.”
He didn’t wait for an answer but left Ayden and Magda. The two males crossed the road and climbed into an old pickup truck. Neither one of them looked back to see if Ayden and Magda followed their instructions.
With Her Capture Page 20