On the Edge (Adirondack Pack Book 3)

by K. C. Stewart

  The desire to clean had left her. Lee had worked all of that out of her system. Putting away the cleaner and sponge, she paced a few times, checking the clock continuously.

  Getting freaked out was silly at this point. He was late but it’s not like they had a set time. He just said he was on coming over. She was working herself up for nothing, absolutely nothing and she would feel stupid when he showed up.

  If he showed up.

  *****

  Was she mad right now because he knew her secret? Vince smiled as he locked up. He hoped so. He wanted her agitated. He wanted to see that fire in her once more. Glilee had unintentionally given him all the keys to understanding Lee. All Vince had to do was get the chance to use them.

  She was going to make this difficult. No matter what angle he went in on, Lee was going to try and change the game. It was how she worked. He’d seen it numerous times and had even fallen for it himself. She was good at getting the focus off of herself and onto anyone else. It wasn’t that hard to figure out why. Growing up, Lee had to learn to defend herself against verbal attacks from threatening to the sugary sweet. Her guard was up and shields were always engaged.

  He had his work cut out for him. Vince was in for a long ride. But instead of being frightened or annoyed at the prospect, he found that he was excited. Lee was two different people and yet, only one. He saw the fantasy Lee within the reality, and vice versa. Just little hints to the other. What would she be like if she let those two halves of herself meld?

  He decided to walk to her place giving her an extra few minutes to stew. The night air would help get his own emotions together. He knew she was going to push him and he had to be ready to stand his ground and push back. That was where Vince suffered. He had a soft spot for females. There wasn’t much they could ask for that he wouldn’t do. The two female pups in his group had already figured this out and were constantly testing this flaw of his. One of these days he’d put a stop to it but for now, he found their tactics of brownies and puppy eyes endearing.

  The forest was alive that night. Cicadas sang their brazen songs while an owl hunted behind him. He really should have heard them but with his mind and body amped up with excitement, he hadn’t been paying nearly enough attention to the small circle of wolves following and closing in around him.

  It was a growl that alerted him to the danger he was walking into. Three wolves stepped out of the cover of the night and in his path. None of them were easily recognizable and all of them were on the offense. Vince stopped walking to assess his options. He could change but he wouldn’t be fast enough before they were on him. He could run back the way he came but again, they had the advantage with their speed as wolves. He could stand and fight but it was three to one.

  Scratch that. Four to one.

  He turned his head to see another wolves come from behind him. There would be no escaping this fate by way of running.

  “Canidae I presume?” he asked. “I take it you are the gentlemen responsible for all the bodies my pack has had to clean up lately. I feel I would not be doing my civic duty if I didn’t ask for you to stop killing people.”

  There was really only one way he was going to get out of this, and alive was probably asking too much. Two wolves he could take but four was out of his skill set. Vince’s only hope was to go in hard and fast and hope to wound as many as he could before they began to fight as a pack.

  He kept a utility knife in his boot. Vince dropped down slowly to grab it and flicked it open. He was outnumbered but he’d do some damage before they took him down. He stared down the one in front of him, as smile tugging at his lips, but when he moved it was for the one on his left.

  He got it a jab before the other three jumped into the fray. Hot blood sprayed onto his arm, he removed the knife with slice upward, hitting as many organs in the process as he could. One wolf latched hold of his calf, another jumped on his back but he rolled out of the way. Vince swung out with his blade and hit a body but he didn’t know where it had landed. He only knew that he hit something by the resistance his knife met.

  His leg burned hot with pain as the wolf who had a hold of him growled and shook his head, deepening his teeth. Vince sat up and stabbed him straight down through the skull. His jaw went lax enough for Vince to kick free his leg.

  Two of the wolves stayed back, circling. He had definitely killed at least one, wounded another. But his leg was out of commission. The muscle in his calf was shredded. Vince couldn’t sit there, though. He needed to be up. The motion was unsteady but he pushed himself onto his feet, being sure not to put any weight on his lame leg.

  “Well,” he told the other two. “Come on.”

  They stopped near each other, side by side, teeth bared. Vince wiped the blood off of the knife onto his pants.

  They jumped simultaneously. One went high, the other low. He did what he could but with only one leg, they took him down. One grabbed his knife hand in its mouth, the other wrapped his teeth around his neck. There would be no stabbing, no maneuvering away. Vince was going to be the next body they found with his throat torn out and piss soaking his clothes.

  A snap of a twig stilled the one at his arm. He could feel the teeth biting down to the bone.

  Vince felt himself slipping away. Too much trauma. His mind couldn’t hold on for much longer. Black vignette the edges of his vision. The two wolves hadn’t moved since the twig but at the sound of a voice, they dropped their hold on him. His head lulled to the side, no longer having the strength to hold it upright.

  “We are on our way back now. No, didn’t find him,” came a female voice.

  Vince was so distracted by the person coming that he didn’t see his attackers leave. He tried to lift his head but he couldn’t feel much of his neck. His eyes closed, which felt good. Every inch of him felt heavy and lax.

  He shot his eyes back open. He couldn’t pass out now. Sleep was death.

  His eyes drifted back down and this time, it was harder to open them.

  Help.

  He knew he couldn’t speak, knew the words were only in his head. But he asked and hoped the one being who could save his life could hear him.

  Please, I need you.

  This time, when his eyes closed he could not open them again. Vince took a shallow breath. He felt the tingle of the shift and the welcome reprieve from control. His wolf pulled energy from the pack and shifted.

  “David?” he heard a few minutes later. His breath was labored; there was a slight wheeze when he inhaled. Everything hurt but it was a dull pain. The wolf was shielding him from the brunt of it.

  “What is it? Oh. Shit, is it alive?” came a man’s voice. A hand cautiously touched the fur on his neck. Vince’s eyes drug open. A man and woman hovered over him.

  “Barely. Call the others. Get that van here now before the poor thing dies.”

  Chapter Nine

  Lee was huddled under a blanket and watched silently as the sun rose. The street she lived on was coming alive again. Lights were being turned on, coffee was being made, showers being had. Everyone was preparing to start their day when Lee hadn’t finished her last one.

  All night she waited. Inside at first and then outside so she could yell at him the moment he got there. Vince never did show, though. His online account still remained inactive too. This wasn’t like him. Standing people up wasn’t his way. He would call, if he could, and apologize for being unable to make it. It was the if he could that worried the hell out of her.

  A school bus drove slowly down the road stopping at the corner to pick up the two kids waiting there. Cars left their driveways, their owners on their way to work. And still, Lee sat with her blanket on her front porch, waiting.

  “Well fuck this,” she muttered.

  She wasn’t going to sit there any longer. Twelve hours was her limit. Lee stood with her blanket and went inside to trade it for a sweatshirt and her keys. He had stood her up for far too long. Telling her he knew her secret and then making her wait hou
rs upon hours to yell at her for lying was just rude.

  As her hands wrapped around the key ring on the counter, she hung her head and tried to quell the worry inside her. Anger she could use, worry just scared the crap out of her. Too many what ifs and not enough answers.

  Not yet anyway.

  The drive was short, as most were at this time of morning, with no traffic. His house was down the road from Sadie’s. Worst case, she’d stop in there to see if she had seen him.

  Funny how their issues didn’t seem important when the question of someone’s safety came into play.

  His truck was still in the driveway. Lee parked beside it and frowned at the massive thing. If he was inside she was not going to bother making it look like an accident when she ripped his heart out.

  She slammed her car door shut and marched up to his front door. Lee pounded on it as hard as she could. “Vince!” There was no sound. She tried the door but it was locked. Lee looked in the windows but the blinds were down and she couldn’t see much. One thing was for sure, no lights were on and the house seemed very empty.

  “Dammit! Where are you?”

  Lee walked back to her car and got inside. So he left. He left but didn’t take his truck. Was he walking or did someone show up? She took a deep breath and dropped her head onto the steering wheel.

  “Think, think, think. What would he do?”

  He’d walk. Maybe for his own benefit, maybe to give her some more time. If someone showed up, he’d still come to her unless it was an emergency.

  “Fuck. Ok. Fine. I’ll look for you.”

  Lee got back out of her car and headed towards the forest. She inhaled trying to find his path but it was his house so everything smelled like him. There was one worn trail so she took a chance on that. It was a mile in before his scent was muddled with others. Four shifters and a few humans if she wasn’t mistaken. Another quarter mile before she smelled the blood.

  Lee began to run. She felt blind, relying on scent to lead her. Everything played in her head. Everything and nothing at all. She stopped when her step landed in blood. Everywhere she looked was blood, dark and sticky, coating everything. She dropped to her knees as she took in the aftermath of a fight. Two dead wolves, one on of which had a knife sticking out of its head. She pushed herself up, made herself stand. She had to check the other wolf. She had to see if he was alive.

  He wasn’t.

  She didn’t know the wolves. Her gut told her they were Canidae, probably the ones attacking hikers for the pack to find. So they attacked. They hunted and attacked and Vince took them out. But there had been more scents, more shifters, and humans too.

  Had he gotten away or was he taken?

  But more importantly, was he alive?

  *****

  Ann had left. All of the James women were uneasy that morning. Each one lost in their own thoughts. Mr. Thomas James was a wolf. Owen planned on connecting with his old pack to see what they had to say about his death but he believed everything Ann had told them. Each pack was different. There was no one set of rules they all had to follow. There was no one alpha who ruled them all or a council who made decisions for them. Each pack was its own separate entity. Now, that’s not to say that there wasn’t a standard that they tried to keep. There were laws within a pack and sometimes adjoining packs. But there was always one to ruin it for a group.

  Owen had no doubt that he would find the Maine pack littered with Canidae. It was an unfortunate reality to the way their system was set up, or not set up, as was the case.

  “Owen,” Tyson said coming up beside him. He had stayed on the porch at their house after Ann had left.

  “How are they doing?”

  Tyson blew out a long breath. “Sadie seems fine. She’s working something. Her head is spinning. She’ll share when all the pieces are together. Mira hasn’t said a word. She’s not looking too happy, though.”

  She hadn’t spoken much since the night before when she found out. He was beginning to worry about her. He would have thought she would have been excited to possibly be one of them. He was, after all. Owen was thrilled at the prospect of Mira possibly having a wolf. That would make things much easier with the pack once he decided to move forward with their relationship. It wasn’t time, not yet, maybe not for a while. But he knew she was his mate. And knowing was enough for him right now.

  “I think we need to sit them down and get them talking,” Tyson continued.

  “I agree. We can’t figure this out until we knew where their heads are at.”

  “Together or separate?” he asked.

  Owen had to think about that one. Sadie’s situation hasn’t changed. She was still a wolf. It might be helpful to have Sadie there for Mira’s sake. As for Sadie, she didn’t seem distressed just perplexed. “Let’s go at it together.”

  Tyson nodded. “Yeah, ok.”

  They headed inside where Sadie was stress baking cinnamon rolls. She was covered in various dry ingredients but there was a smile on her face. Tyson studied her face for a moment. “You figured it out?”

  “What?” she asked.

  “All morning you’ve been working something over. I could feel how hard you were thinking. But you figured it out.”

  She laughed and grabbed his shirt to pull him closer so she could kiss him. “I did. Thanks for noticing.”

  “Always,” he said with a grin.

  “Where is Mira?” Owen asked as he dipped his finger in the icing.

  Sadie glared at him. “On the couch.” She then took the bowl out of reach.

  “Are you at a stopping point?” He truly believed that it would be better for Mira if Sadie was with him when they talked.

  “I can be. Why?”

  “It’s time to talk.”

  Mira was right where Sadie had said. The scowl she wore had been the same one from the night before but there was something a little bit more to it than there had been earlier.

  Fear.

  His Rabbit was scared.

  Owen sat down beside her and scooped her up so she sat on his lap. She slapped him halfheartedly but snuggled in afterward.

  “Brute,” she murmured under her breath.

  “Rabbit, I think it’s time we talk this out.”

  Her hands fisted his shirt but she nodded. Sadie and Tyson took a spot on the other couch. Mira tried to move off his lap but he quite liked her where she was.

  “Owen, please,” she stressed giving a sidelong glance to her sister.

  “What? Them? Oh, they don’t care.” He kissed her head. “Actually, Tyson is jealous he doesn’t have Sadie in his lap.”

  Tyson, who had been politely ignoring them turned and nodded. “I am.”

  Mira groaned.

  “Why don’t you start, Sadie, with your epiphany,” he suggested.

  She sat up a little taller, excitement bright in her eyes. Tyson held her hand in his lap and have it a squeeze.

  “Ok, yeah. Um. Well, Mom’s news was a surprise but in a different way for me than for you Mira. It doesn’t change what I am but something about it bothered me.”

  “Besides her lying to you all your life, you mean?”

  Sadie gave her a sympathetic smile. “She was doing that for our protection.”

  Mira snorted, disgruntled.

  “Anyway, it was my Gift that bothered me. It made more sense now but I couldn’t figure out why and I’m not so sure it was a Gift anyway. I’ll explain in a second,” she added when Owen frowned.

  “Sadie, just spit it out,” Owen told her. Her nervous excitement was making him jumpy.

  She smiled. “So pushy. Ok, so, what if my Gift wasn’t for me to go from human to dominant wolf. What if all this time I had a submissive wolf inside and all Gaia did was make it dominant?”

  No one spoke. Owen had to think it through but she was right. If she had a wolf inside her already, it wasn’t a Gift from Gaia. She just got an upgrade.

  “I love your mind,” Tyson said as he kissed her. “I think you m
ay be on to something, Babe.”

  “I agree,” Owen said. “It does make sense. I’m not sure if it would be a Gift then or not. I’ve never heard of this happening before but I’ll reach out and ask around.”

  “Thank you, Owen.”

  Mira had been suspiciously quiet. He looked down at her but she was staring at the couch, her eyes wide, her brow furrowed. She looked petrified.

  “Mira, are you ok?” he asked and she looked up at him.

  “No.” She shook her head. “No. This can’t be right. I don’t want…this.”

  He ran a hand up and down her back. “But Rabbit, you might have always been a wolf. So nothing has changed. If you are, you are submissive since you have never shifted. That means nothing will change for you.”

  “Nothing will change? Are you kidding me? Everything I’ve known about myself might be wrong. I like who I am, what I am. I don’t want this. I don’t want to be a magical…thing. I want to be me. The me I have always known.”

  He knew she wasn’t judging what he was, but the way she talked about his kind made his back stiffen. He looked to Tyson and Sadie and they must have felt the same way. Tyson was frowning and Sadie was worrying her lip with her teeth.

  “I think you are looking at this wrong. If you are a submissive wolf-”

  She snorted. “I am no one’s submissive.”

  Owen smirked. “Never said you were, Rabbit. But if you do have a wolf inside of you, then you are pack. You’ll be accepted easier. We’ll be accepted, as a couple.” They had a few incidents over the last few months since she moved back to town. For the most part, people either accepted her or ignored her presence, but Owen wanted more for her, for them. He wanted the pack to take them seriously, which they didn’t. Not yet anyway.

  “You don’t get it,” she said so sadly that he had to touch her. He ran a finger down her cheek. “None of you do. This is not what I want.”