The air tensed, then exploded into action.
A huge, black wolf charged Alex before he had the chance to shift. Fangs latched on to his arm as he and the wolf slammed into the ground.
Next to him, a blond bear ripped out of Hunter. On Ethan’s other side, Jesse and Lorne let their inner animals take their skin with roars loud enough to hurt his ears.
They held their own. The battle for him was with Viho.
But... Tansey.
“Ethan.”
His whispered name was accompanied by a shaking hand inching toward him. Fuck Viho. He couldn’t leave her in the middle of a fight. Too many mouths sought out flesh. He wouldn’t have her further harmed.
“Kill him.” Gold light flared in her eyes at the order.
His bear sawed through his control in desperation to get free.
Wolves dove for him. Jaws snapped and caught arms he raised to protect his face and neck.
He let his bear burst from his skin.
Ethan latched onto one wolf’s neck and shook the creature savagely until it hung limp from his jaws. The one on his back was just an annoyance, something to be forgotten in his drive to protect Tansey. He rose up on his hind legs and shook the wolf from his form, then slammed back down to all fours and bit hard on the wolf’s back foot with a sickening crunch.
Three more tried to pull him away from Tansey. He blasted huge paws into one and sent him flying through the air. The other two bit and slashed at his sides, leaving long gashes he refused to feel. They, too, joined the ones that didn’t move.
Too many. Far too many. Each one put down was replaced with another. Still more watched from the sidelines.
Jesse lumbered up to his side. Hunter took up his other side. Blood matted their fur.
Alex and Lorne tore into any wolf that came near, both digging deep into the anger they carried. Alex wore his with pride while Lorne buried his deep, but the rage served them both in a battle for their lives.
A battle they were losing.
Viho padded forward with murder in his eyes. He paced back and forth, tail lowered and ears flat against his head. His snarl was the loudest thing in the world.
Ethan wanted blood. Jesse and Hunter dug in their feet and gave him tiny glances.
Clan. Their bonds ran deeper than blood. They chose one another. They had each other’s backs. If he needed to fight, they would watch his mate.
Ethan stepped over Tansey and toward Viho. Win or lose the war, he was determined to come out against one final battle.
The roar of a lion jerked his attention from the circling wolf for a split second. There, near the burnt wreckage of his barn, Trent stood with his pride. Ethan doubted he’d ever been so glad to see the prickly man.
He roared his greeting to the reinforcements and watched the lions run straight for the fight.
* * *
Tawny paws and black manes streaked past her. The meeting of flesh shook the ground even before the whines and yelps of pain registered in her head.
Tansey wobbled as she inched her way toward the front door of Ethan’s home. She needed protection. Safety. Neither of which were in the middle of a war. And Ethan needed to fight without hovering over her. She hindered his ability to battle for his life, land, and clan.
He fought for her. She drove him away early on, but they kept circling back to one another. In the thick of it, he stayed over her and kept her safe. Those were the actions of a man who would stick around when she needed him the most.
She wouldn’t let Viho goad her into bad thoughts of abandonment and betrayal.
The fire coursing through her veins stretched painful fingers through her brain. She’d never needed anyone more than that moment. She wanted to find her feet and a gun and help take care of business. All she could manage was an inch forward at a time.
Dammit, she’d make it out alive. She’d barricade herself behind doors and let Ethan sort the rest out.
Fangs sank into her leg and ripped her screaming backward.
Pain. Pain. So much pain. Wetness covered her leg where the wolf latched on. Her weak kicks were nothing to the big beast.
Before her eyes, the wolf shimmered and a big man crouched over her. Viho snarled, her blood still coating his teeth.
Viho grabbed her by the throat and hauled her to her feet. She wheezed and clawed at the fingers holding her upright. Too tight. Too terrible.
“Ashford!” Viho yelled.
The fight still raged on around them. Lions joined with bears in tearing into any wolf they could snag with claw or fang. The stench of blood turned her stomach.
But they three existed in a bubble all on their own.
Bones snapped and his shape shimmered. Tansey blinked back the darkness and found Ethan rising to his feet.
“Let her go, asshole,” Ethan snapped.
Rage soaked him from head to toe. Silver eyes churned with it. His shoulders were tight and his chest bloody. Even his strong jaw clenched hard enough to break teeth.
Glorious. There was no other word for it. He was like some Greek god intent on waging war until the last soul on the battlefield was his to claim.
She wanted to stand at his side.
Viho shook her slightly and brought her back to painful reality where her limbs didn’t want to work and her thoughts edged into insanity.
“You want this one?” he growled. “She’s already been turned.”
The sense of other in her middle rolled through her with disgust. She didn’t belong to anyone. Certainly not the man using her for revenge.
“Let her go.”
“She’s pack, now. There’s no letting her go. Strong, too, if a little mouthy. The brother doesn’t have half her will. I’ll beat it out of her, don’t worry.”
Searing pain washed through Tansey. Spots gathered at the edges of her vision and closed in with debilitating quickness.
Coward, she wanted to call him. He wouldn’t meet Ethan in a fair fight. He had to prick open a wound and dig deep into it. There was nothing honorable about his revenge.
She chanted the word over and over in her head. Coward. Coward.
The only sounds that left her were baby snarls.
Ethan’s eyes flicked from her face to Viho’s. She pleaded with him to end it.
Viho dragged his nose to the crook of her neck. “Maybe I’ll keep her for my own.”
“No!”
Another wolf sprang forward. He didn’t go for any lion or bear. He went straight for Viho.
Tansey fell from Viho’s hold as the man twisted to meet the challenge.
Rye.
The red wolf snapped his jaws in Viho’s face. Viho slammed his fist into the wolf’s head. In the brief second where the stunned wolf shook his head, Viho slipped from one form to the other.
Viho’s lips raised in a snarl. His head lowered to the ground and his tail stiffened between his legs. Hot anger boiled off him.
From the corner of her eye, Tansey spotted a huge lion creeping closer. Murder shined in his eyes, and she knew it wouldn’t matter who got in his way.
She scrambled out of the lion’s path just as he clipped Viho’s hind legs.
She fell back into the dirt and watched a bear’s belly fly overhead. Four paws landed in the dirt on her other side.
Ethan hit Viho again when he whirled to attack the lion. Rye darted in and nipped him, then darted right back out before Viho could spin back around.
Outside the circle, lions and bears still tore into the massive wolves that attacked. Blood wet the earth beneath their paws.
Then something changed.
The lion raked a gruesome path down Viho’s side just as Ethan closed his jaws around the wolf’s tail. Viho yelped and jumped away from them both. Free for a moment, he lifted his snout and let loose a long, mournful howl.
Then ran.
The other wolves reacted almost as one. Some shifted and made their way to their motorcycles. Others faded into the darkness. Most turned tail and followe
d after Viho.
Cowards. Cowards, all of them. Tansey tried to yell the word after them, and only managed a growl.
Then Ethan was there, picking her up and dragging her into his lap. Her whole body shook with adrenaline dumping into her veins and the fire Viho put there, too. Another growl rattled in her throat, but it wasn’t her. Not her.
That other one.
Pain, so much pain. It split her head worse than any headache she’d ever experienced.
Blood and sweat clogged Ethan’s scent. He stroked her hair from her face and dragged his gaze up and down her form. “Tansey, Tansey,” he murmured. “Strong woman. Strong wolf. She’s is trying to buck his control even before she’s born.”
“Stop it,” she mouthed. Darkness crept further through her, narrowing her eyesight down to pinpricks. Her heart stuttered.
Sadness took his silver eyes straight to a mournful blue. “I don’t... I don’t know how.”
Somewhere nearby, someone clicked his tongue in disgust. Trent, she thought.
“Bite her. Can’t you see she’s going mad? She needs to know where she belongs.”
“That’s not my call to make,” Ethan snapped.
“Then say your goodbyes, because that wolf is ripping her apart. Ground her to you if you want a chance to save her.”
“Fuck.”
Silver flashed above her. His eyes, she thought.
“Tansey,” he whispered in her ear. “This isn’t how I wanted to do this. You can hate me later if you want, but know I’ll still be happy because you’ll be alive.”
She tried to nod.
That other side scrabbled to get free of the weak, dying body caging her in.
Then there was pain. So much pain. Over the same bite Viho placed on her skin, Ethan sank his teeth into her flesh.
Tansey gasped, body nearly jerking out of his lap. Her heart thundered in her chest, pounding harder than if she’d run a thousand miles without stopping. Her lungs struggled to keep up.
The wolf settled down into watchful silence. The bear was powerful. Worthy.
Theirs.
Instincts she didn’t understand slammed into her and blazed the word across her mind. She’d always wanted something special that couldn’t be torn away from her, and Ethan had just given her that.
Tansey breathed an easy sigh and let her eyes close.
Chapter 26
“What are you doing out of bed?”
Tansey jerked straight, then glowered in Ethan’s direction. Not even the sight of him fresh out of a shower after a day spent building a new barn could calm her jitters. She felt caged up and useless.
He’d waited on her hand and foot since the night of Viho’s attack, and forbade her from leaving bed. If she wanted something, she needed to call him. Water? He kept the glass by her side of the bed full. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Served on a tray only after he propped a wall of pillows behind her back.
She enjoyed the treatment for the first twelve hours, but after being chided for stepping across the room for her phone charger, she’d had enough.
“I’m getting something to drink. I can manage that.”
He stared at her flatly. “You should still be in bed. Until your wolf—”
“I know. But it’s been five days of absolute boredom and still no sign of this furry mess.”
She’d stabilized right out in the middle of a war zone. Her breath evened out and the spots in her eyes faded. She even recognized the ticklish feeling in her brain and the rumbles in her middle were from a separate entity from her original self.
That was as close as Tansey Prime and Tansey Wolf came to an understanding. She—the human half—waited for anything further from her inner wolf. That furry broad was happy to stay locked away indefinitely.
Unfortunate, that. Worry creased not just Ethan’s face, but the entire clan the longer her wolf didn’t show herself. Three days, max, from the time of a bite to the first shift and she edged closer to double that with each minute that ticked by.
What could she say? She made everything difficult.
The days of staring at the ceiling and sneaking out of bed while Ethan left to tend the ranch were filled with constant wondering of what would have happened had she never accepted Viho’s offer to track her brother. Both Rye and Viho were still thorns in her side.
Viho was still out there, somewhere. Ethan’s clan and Trent’s pride chased down the ones they could, but neither turned up the mastermind behind the attack. By the time Chief Hawkins pulled up with flashing lights and cruisers behind him, there were no living wolves to be found. The man left empty-handed and with curses on his lips about war being bad for the enclave.
Well, sure. Tell that to the asshole who started it.
Rye, too, was gone. He at least had the decency to call her before disappearing into the wind again. Ethan glared at the phone the entire conversation, which truthfully hadn’t been long.
She’d given him terse answers when he asked if she was okay. A rift had grown between them, and she wasn’t sure if she could ever forgive him for his role in turning her life upside down. At least he was free of Viho and wanted to make his own way in the world.
At least he could get a damn glass of water whenever he pleased.
Ethan took a step toward her and his scent flipped a switch inside her. Her frustrated inner rantings were replaced by a tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and a heart pounding against her breastbone.
Muscles rippled under his skin with his slow advance. Her fingers curled into her palm to keep from rushing right to him and licking a path down his stomach.
Hello, cowboy.
Ethan paused before his next step and swept his gaze up and down her body. His nostrils flared, catching her scent, too. His lips twitched with a smile he tried to keep contained.
Too bad she could smell his amused smugness.
And his lust. The towel wrapped around his waist did little to hide the tent pole growing underneath.
Sexy, sexy man. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve a man like him.
Her wolf sat up in a hurry. Ethan always pulled her beast to the forefront of her mind. The saucy little wolf wanted to rub up and down his big body.
The images—sendings, Ethan called them—weren’t the only reactions the wolf spawned around Ethan. Tansey wanted to sink her teeth in him almost constantly.
Another experience denied, much to her frustration.
“I’m fine,” she said a little breathlessly. “Better than fine.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her easily. His eyes stayed on her as he carried her from the kitchen and back into the bedroom, where he sat on the edge of the bed. Tansey dragged her lips down his jaw.
“You need to rest,” he said in a choked voice.
Victory. “I need to help get this place running. I can’t do that when you keep me confined to bed without all the fun parts.”
“You still want that?” Him, too, he left unsaid.
“I thought I made myself clear in wanting to see where this would go.”
“I know, but—” He cut himself off with a curse, then lifted her arm. The marks didn’t line up. One was much more savage and held a silvery sheen in the right light. That came from Viho.
The smaller one was more in line with a human mouth, but no less jagged from his bear’s fangs. Brushing his fingers over it spread fire through her veins.
“Neither of these were your choice,” he said solemnly.
“They’re my choice now.” She pressed her lips to his, then drew back so he could see the truth in her eyes. “I get to decide what I do from now on, and I’m picking you.”
She slid to the floor between his legs before he could object. Her fingers untucked the edge of his towel. Ethan reached for the hem of her shirt and tugged it over her head.
“Do I bite you?” The wolf in her mind whined and bounced on her feet. That sounded like a damn good idea.
“It only seems fair
.” He wrapped a hand around her wrist and held her steady. Seriousness tightened his jaw. “Tansey, don’t do this unless you want it.”
Want. She wanted him. Human side, stubborn wolf, both were in agreement.
Ethan already claimed her. She wanted to do the same. It was a white lie when she said she wanted to consider their future. Deep down, she already knew it belonged with him. The wolf said as much and Tansey felt the absolute rightness in that instinct.
She bit her bottom lip and smiled innocently up at him, crawling her fingers up his thighs. “Are you going to fight me?”
Ethan’s eyes rolled back in his head and he let off a rough breath. “Only if you keep talking.”
“No dirty talk?” she purred. The sigh of ecstasy when she wrapped her hand around his shaft spread warmth through her belly. “No telling you how much I want to taste you?”
“Bad wolf.”
She pumped his length once. Still holding his eyes with hers, she dragged her tongue from the base to the tip and slid her mouth over him.
“Very bad wolf,” he groaned.
His fingers twisted into her hair and cupped the base of her skull. His grip stayed light, more like he needed to feel her rather than guiding her movement or forcing her down.
Touch. Her wolf demanded it, too.
Tansey sucked on him, sliding up and down his cock. His breath hitched each time she rose up again and his fingers tightened in her hair on every beat down. Low growls and groans bubbled out of him. She loved hearing him, loved knowing she caused those noises to trickle out of him.
Heat whipped through her. She needed more.
She rose up on her knees without changing her pace and slid her hand between her legs. Her head swam with the need coursing through her veins. Him. He was all she wanted and holy hot damn, her body was ready for him. She couldn’t resist rocking against her hand for the tiny bit of relief it afforded her.
Ethan’s eyes churned silver when she flicked a glance upward. “Take those off. Let me see,” he said in a gravelly voice.
Tansey wiggled out of her panties and resumed her place between his thighs. She spread her legs wider, rolling her eyes upward and meeting his smoldering look. She slid her mouth up and down his shaft and matched it with touching herself. His breath quickened with more licks, more strokes, until his control slipped. He lifted his hips each time she drew him in, sliding deeper with each thrust.
Wrangled Fate: Book One: Black Claw Ranch Page 17