With Her Capture

by Lorie O'Clare

  “She’s a lunewulf,” Ayden said, voicing and smelling of his surprise at the same time.

  “This is my mate, Maura,” Josie introduced, and wrapped his arm around the petite, pretty female. Josie towered over her but when Maura cuddled into him and offered Magda a small smile, the two of them looked like a perfect fit together.

  “We endure enough prejudice and hatred from other werewolves and humans on this planet. There is no room for it among our pack,” Dimitri said, drawing the attention back to him.

  Magda thought she saw Josie raise an eyebrow, as if surprised to hear the words from his pack leader. He sobered fast enough, his expression turning neutral, so that Magda wasn’t sure she saw the look, or not.

  Ayden let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around Magda’s. “Then we have run to the right pack. That is, if you’ll have us.”

  “Where are you from? Is that a Canadian accent?” Dimitri asked.

  “Yes. I’m Ayden Toubec. I’m from a pack north of Banff, which isn’t too far from the American border. My mate, Magda, lived with her litter high in the Canadian Rockies. When her den was burnt out by humans, she and her littermates were forced to run.”

  “Why didn’t your littermates run with you to our pack?” Dimitri asked, looking at Magda.

  She glanced from Dante and Moira to Josie and Maura, remembering the comment Dimitri had said about being grateful that she didn’t read minds. But as Dimitri had howled, if she lied, he’d smell it. Magda looked at the pack leader. He had eyes as black as onyx. The similarities she’d seen between this male and her sire in their fur had disappeared now that the male was in his flesh. He had harder lines on his face, and his lips were pressed in a thin line as he waited for her answer. Her sire had always looked and smelled happy, or sometimes mischievous. In spite of being in a pack filled with his own kind, for some reason, this male’s expression remained haunted.

  “My sire came from Malta, and fled to Canada when the island pack was burned. There he met my mother, who was Cariboo lunewulf, and they had three cubs. My two littermates are still in the Canadian Rockies. One has found a good mate and my other littermate is with her. They are happy and safe.”

  “What was your sire’s name?” Dante asked.

  “On the mountain he was known as Mig but his name was Miguel—Miguel Keller.”

  She watched the small group exchange looks and shifted her weight. Nerves tightened in her gut and she forced herself to relax. Magda didn’t want these werewolves smelling her squirm.

  “We are all glad to learn that another one of us made it out of Malta,” Moira offered, again offering Magda a friendly smile.

  “Not many of our pack survived,” Dimitri said, his hard lines on his face deepening. “Once the world learned of the gift some of the Malta werewolves had, all of our lives became hell.”

  Magda decided their pack leader was a grouch by nature. She looked away from him and at their queen bitch when she smiled. Rosa gave her mate’s leg a pat when she stood.

  “We have fresh kill that Heidi has prepared for us. We are ready to share our meal with you.” Rosa left her mate’s side and walked up to Magda. She extended her hands. “I’m glad the two of you made it to us, if for nothing else, then letting us know another of our original pack lived a happy life and raised a good litter.”

  Magda noticed nothing was said about accepting them into the pack. She would have to be patient. Although now that they were in the states, and in unknown territory, she and Ayden would have to do serious sniffing out if they needed to come up with an alternate plan as to where they would build their den.

  A large, long wooden table was set and Magda sat with Ayden at the end of the table. Dimitri sat at the head of the table. Dante and Moira took their places to the right of Dimitri. Josie and Maura brought large serving dishes filled with meat to the table until more food than Magda had seen in months sat before her. Rosa jumped in to help bring the food from the kitchen. Josie and Maura then took their seats opposite Dante and Moira.

  Magda caught Josie curl his lip slightly at Dante. It was an act that not everyone at the table noticed. She wouldn’t have seen it if she hadn’t been watching all of them curiously, trying to know them by scents she caught when one of them moved, or shifted. Just because arriving here seemed an answer to their problems, it shouldn’t surprise her that this pack would have drama. No werewolf was perfect.

  Instead of sitting by her mate, Rosa moved to the end of the table and took one of the remaining chairs and slid it in next to Magda.

  “Maura is an excellent cook. Thanks you two,” she said to Maura and Josie. “We appreciate you opening your den to all of us on such short notice. The kill is fresh. I can smell it and I’m starving. Everyone eat.”

  The first platter of meat was gone before it reached Magda and Ayden. Maura didn’t make eye contact but slid the second platter of meat toward Ayden. He took the hint and filled his plate. Then he put am ample portion on Magda’s plate.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” Rosa began, her smile lighting up her almost tan eyes. “Please eat your fill.”

  Magda hadn’t grown up in a pack, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know pack etiquette. This female might not be her queen bitch yet, but hopefully she would be soon. She scrambled for something to say, sure that the female had taken her seat by Magda to sniff her out.

  “We’re honored to share this kill with you,” she murmured, then made eye contact with the female and smiled.

  Rosa bit into her meat, then while chewing she reached for the empty meat platter. Instead of picking it up, her fingers lingered close to the plate. Meat juice slid on the platter when it rose into the air. Magda ducked when it floated over her head. She turned in her chair and watched the platter make its way out of the room and into the kitchen.

  “Wow,” Magda whispered, suddenly feeling as if the gift she’d relied on to survive was nothing compared to what these Malta werewolves were able to do.

  “I wasn’t showing off,” Rosa said, her voice low when the conversation picked up around the table. No one else smelled impressed over a platter flying through the air. Rosa focused on Magda. “But your reaction was necessary. And don’t worry,” she offered, lowering her tone to a whisper. “With a bit of guidance your gift will blossom nicely.”

  Magda wasn’t sure if Ayden overheard. She dared glance away from Rosa but Ayden wasn’t looking at them. He had just stabbed a decent sized slice of meat with a fork before tearing a bite of it into his mouth. Magda wanted his attention. Rosa had said with a bit of time. That meant they were being accepted into this pack.

  “Fucking tail,” Rosa grumbled.

  The profanity seemed odd coming out of the mouth of such a proper looking female.

  “Forgive my mate. He is a grumbly male on his best days.” Rosa looked in Dimitri’s direction with an expression that could only be described as love. “We accept you and your mate into our pack. First you will share our kill. Then we will focus on where your new den will be.”

  Magda wanted to jump out of her chair and howl in joy. Her happiness was strong enough to garner glances from those around her, who only smiled before returning to their conversation. This time, though, Ayden had overheard and once again reached for Magda’s hand.

  “You honor both of us,” he told Rosa, then looked in Dimitri’s direction and nodded when the male made eye contact. “We hope to hunt and fight many years by your side.”

  “But you must tell me,” Rosa continued, speaking to Magda at the same time that Dimitri said something to Ayden. “The American pack gave you grief before you ran up the mountain?”

  More like escaped, Magda thought, but didn’t want to have her new queen bitch thinking the mated couple she’d just allowed into their pack would bring trouble.

  “No,” Rosa was saying, shaking her head as if Magda had just spoken. “The American pack gives our pack and the lunewulf pack nothing but grief. It doesn’t matter who it is. If werewolves aren’t
mutts like them, those American werewolves treat them the way, honestly, they themselves should be treated,” she added, laughing and shaking her head by the time she finished speaking.

  Apparently, in spite of conversation being howled around the table, when Rosa finished speaking, everyone sounded their agreement.

  “A member of the lunewulf pack was in Valle and saw the two of you enter that American werewolf motel,” Dimitri offered. “He called his pack leader, who called me. We were already headed down the mountain when the two of you came charging up.”

  “And loudly, too,” Josie added, causing everyone at the table to laugh.

  “My mate has a fondness for trees,” Ayden announced, causing the laughter to continue.

  Then the conversation resumed, this time Ayden howling his opinion when the topic moved toward general behavior in a pack. He offered situations that had occurred in his pack. The other males asked questions and he answered. Magda watched him, thrilled how easily he fit in with werewolves he had just met. Not only had he accepted her, when it was the nature of his breed to kill her on sight, but he howled to the males around him like he’d known them forever. She was the luckiest female on the planet.

  Rosa scooped up the last piece of meat on her plate and plopped it in her mouth. “How did you and a Cariboo lunewulf meet?” she asked between bites.

  Magda thought about the cave and how Ayden had pursued her even when she’d used her gift against him. When she’d run from him, he hadn’t given up. Looking at her mate, who was howling loudly about two males who had caught their tails on fire when they’d all been young and stupid, she smiled, feeling more love for him than she’d known possible.

  “He captured me,” she said.

  “Often proof of a happy, life-long mating.”

  Magda stole herself away from her gorgeous mate and looked at Rosa. “Is that what your mate did with you?”

  Rosa shook her head. “I captured him.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Rosa walked through the small, dark cabin, holding a lantern. Her long, shiny black hair glowed against the light from it.

  “I knew after howling with you over fresh kill that you and your mate were meant to have this place as your new den,” she said, turning slowly. Her scent seemed almost melancholy. “My mother and I lived here when we first joined this pack. She stayed here alone until her death after I mated with Dimitri. But before I met him, my mom and I knew a lot of happiness here. Times hadn’t smelled good for either of us before coming to this mountain. I’m not saying this den brought us peace but it’s filled with the smells of two females who learned how to love life again while living here. Now it’s your and your mate’s turn to fill this den with smells of happiness and love.”

  Magda didn’t know what to say. She followed her new queen bitch down a hallway, with cobwebs hanging above them while Rosa opened one bedroom door, then another.

  “This is very kind of you,” Magda told her, meaning it. “Although, we were prepared to build our own den.”

  “With winter coming on?” Rosa shook her head. “I forget you and your mate are more accustomed to such harsh weather than we were when we first moved here. So much snow is still a lot for me to handle. It smells rather ironic that the American government gave us our own territory, but then ordered us to a land and a climate so opposite from what we’d always known.”

  Magda turned at the sound of Ayden and Dimitri trudging through the front door. The sound of logs being dropped near the fireplace disrupted the tranquil dark silence, and filled the place with the smell of chopped wood. The other members of the pack had all wished Ayden and Magda good hunting, promising to run with the two of them soon. The two males disappeared back outside, working in compatible silence while they continued hauling more wood inside.

  “Tomorrow my mate will check the lines and make sure they are still secure to the cabin to give you two power,” Rosa said, brushing dust from a window sill with her finger.

  “I’m sure we will be able to stay warm tonight.”

  “Newly mated?” Rosa’s laughter was contagious. “I remember those days and have no doubt.”

  Magda followed Rosa out to the pickup truck that Dimitri had driven to their new den. She held the lantern over her head, turning the wick to give maximum light while Rosa lowered the truck’s back hatch. Instead of reaching for the boxes of blankets and kitchen supplies the other werewolves had donated to help get Ayden and Magda started, Rosa simply stared at them and three boxes floated into the air.

  “You have got to teach me how to do that,” Magda said, shaking her head and stepping aside, then following the floating boxes, which were at eye level, back inside.

  “Trust me when I howl this to you. There was a time when I relied on my gift so heavily I didn’t bother to sniff out what was right under my nose.”

  Magda knew she’d relied on every sense she had to stay alive over the past months. But then, she didn’t know how to do half the things Rosa did with her gift or living might have been easier.

  “It was Dimitri, actually, who taught me how to use my gift best. Which smells amazing when you take into consideration that he never mastered the gift our pack leader on Malta taught us. And if you ask me, that shows how strong the kind of gift my mate does have actually is.”

  “I agree,” Magda thought, thinking of Ayden. She found it interesting, though, that the Malta werewolves pack leader didn’t have the gift and wondered how that came to be.

  She gave Rosa a hug when she and Dimitri were satisfied that Ayden and Magda had what they needed to start settling into their new den. Magda was thrilled to know she had a new female as a friend. Until now, only her littermates had been close enough for her to run with. The thought that there was a new female, someone Magda smelled honesty and happiness on, who might fill the void of not having Katrin and Liesa in her life, made her as happy as snuggling against Ayden once Rosa and Dimitri left.

  “This wood has been outside in that shed for a while and is fairly dry. I think we’d be best sleeping in the living room tonight near the fire.” Ayden let go of her and returned to the fireplace. He checked the flue then began stacking wood to burn. “There are tools out there, too. Dimitri said we can chop down trees. I can build you a bed and a table. With the cash I have on me, we can drive into this town, Cuchara, where Dimitri said there is a decent furniture store. I’ll have your den looking just how you want it in no time.”

  Magda pulled the first blanket out of the box and shook it open, then spread it on the floor in front of the fireplace. There were several more blankets that she did the same with until she’d created a nice sleeping area. Then taking both of their coats, she rolled them at one end to serve as pillows.

  “Did you know that Rosa’s mother died in this den?” she asked, sitting in the middle of the blankets and crossing her legs.

  Ayden’s back was to her when he crinkled up sheets from a small stack of newspaper next to the fireplace and set them on fire with matches. “Dimitri mentioned it.”

  “It seems almost wrong filling this den with our smells and taking the scent of Rosa’s mother away from her.”

  Flames began dancing around the pile of logs. It was a decent size fireplace and in minutes a good sized fire caused their shadows to dance along the bare walls around them. Ayden chose a long, narrow stick as a poker and played with the flames a moment longer without saying anything.

  She watched his muscles flex under his clothes. His broad shoulders and thick chest blocked her full view of the flames. When the fire sprang to life while he manipulated it, Ayden became a dark silhouette surrounded by light. He was a big werewolf, powerful and strong. She didn’t doubt for a moment he’d be able to turn this cabin into anything she wanted. Magda couldn’t think of a thing she wanted other than what she finally now had. It seemed dreams she hadn’t dare try and smell while awake had now all come true. In the few hours since they’d arrived on this mountain, already she felt she belonged. More so,
that she and Ayden belonged. He had been part of a pack before but this was a first for her.

  “Something tells me that Dimitri and Rosa wouldn’t have offered this den just to smell hospitable.” Ayden turned from the fire, putting his makeshift poker down and crawled across the blankets toward her. He hesitated when their noses almost touched, making a show of sniffing the air. “What is troubling my beautiful mate?” he whispered.

  “My life is better than I ever imagined it would be after losing my sire and mother.” She smiled, meaning it, and focused on his mouth before letting her gaze travel down the rest of his body. “Although I can think of a way, or two, that we can make it smell more perfect.”

  His masculine chuckle gave her chills. It wasn’t cold in the cabin anymore. If it was, she sure wasn’t noticing it. Granted the roaring fire was doing its job and warming the room, but Ayden’s presence wrapped around her. His powerful body, at peace and relaxed next to hers, heated her insides at least as well as the fire. She leaned forward and nipped at his lower lip.

  Ayden grabbed the side of her head, growling, and letting her know she’d drawn the primal side of him to the surface. She loved the sting on her scalp when he pulled her hair and pressed his lips to hers. At first he moved slow, taking his time until she opened for him. He dipped his tongue into her mouth and moaned, which made chills rush over her. His fingers pushed through her hair until he grabbed the back of her neck. She ached for his actions to grow rougher.

  Magda didn’t fight him when he yanked her head back. “Cariboo, I want you,” she whispered.

  “My black beauty, I want you too.”

  “No more French?” She smiled.

  “We’re in American now, with our new pack.” He scraped his teeth over her lip. “But you’ll always be my beaute noire,” he whispered.