by Alisa Woods
She shook her head. “Nope.” He could make of that what he wanted.
“Is it because…” He winced a little. “Because you’re different?”
Heat rushed to her face. “I’d make a fine mate, thank you very much.” She glared at him before turning back to stare determinedly out the window.
His voice softened. “Yes, you would. That’s not what I mean.”
She reluctantly sneaked a peek back at him—he didn’t know half the reasons why she didn’t want a mate, and she wasn’t about to tell him. But he’d gotten a rise out of her far too easily.
“I just meant… well, you’re a white wolf,” he said. “They’re rare. I know Grace Krepky is one, but I’ve never heard of another… until you. And apparently you have some kind of magical powers that are seriously impressive.”
She frowned. “No one knows I’m a white wolf, okay? My dad doesn’t know because… look, it’s a long family story.”
“And you don’t want to share.”
“It’s none of your business.” The heat was rising to her face again.
“Fair enough.” But he didn’t look too happy about it. “I told you before, Zoe, I’ll keep your secret. But you can’t fault a guy for being curious about a beautiful woman. And whether she’s mated.” He gave her a small flirtatious smile.
She like that smile way too much. “I don’t know… I think reading up on a girl online could technically be classified as stalking.”
“Stalking?” He pretended to be aghast. “Is that any way to treat the man who saved your life?”
She could barely hold back her smile, so she just shook her head and looked back out the window. “You’re right. I should be nicer to you. You know all my secrets.”
She was teasing, but when he didn’t say anything, she was forced to look back at him.
All the humor was gone from his face. “Zoe, I know you don’t know me, and all I can do is give you my word. But I’m not going to spill your secret. If I were the kind of guy who would do that, I would’ve done it already. And I’m not angling to get anything from you. Well, not angling to get anything more. You’ve already hooked me up with Daniel Wilding, for God’s sake. The guy is a legend. As far as I’m concerned, we’re even. And your secret is safely tucked into the category of things I never plan to discuss with anyone outside this car.”
She wasn’t sure she entirely believed him, but it was reassuring to hear.
“I believe you,” she said quietly. “And you should know, there are more white wolves than just me and Grace. No one knows about me, but the others have been out for a little while. Within the Wilding family at least.”
“Really?” He looked excited. “Do they all have your kind of magic?”
She didn’t know how to answer that—she honestly didn’t know what kind of magic she had, or that the others had, for that matter. “I don’t know. And I’m not planning on finding out. None of them know about me, except Grace. And I just want to get back to my research, okay?”
“Okay.” Troy gestured up ahead where Daniel’s car was pulling into an open dirt-packed parking lot in front of a large log cabin building that had to be the River family estate. She’d heard about it, but she’d never been here before. “Looks like we’re here.”
The house spilled light into the darkened forest that surrounded the rambling, two-story building. There was clearly construction going on at the outer edges. Zoe had heard there were horses on the estate, as well as several private cabins in the back and extensive land that the River family owned. But what caught her eye were flashes of light illuminating the forest behind the house. They were intermittent, almost like flashlights for a nighttime hiking party, only they were too bright.
“What’s that?” Troy asked, eyeing the lights as he parked next to Daniel’s car.
“No idea.”
Daniel quickly exited his car and waved them around to the side of the main building, toward the lights. “Troy, I thought you might want to see what we’ve got going on here,” Daniel said with a small smile. “And Zoe, I don’t think you’ve seen this in action before.”
She had no idea what he was talking about, but the excitement in his voice pushed back the fatigue that was crowding in on her. They tromped out to a field off to the side of the main building. Several people stood in the middle of the low-cut grass while brilliant balls of blue fire zipped through the air. Zoe’s mouth fell open, and Troy had a blank look of utter surprise.
As they got closer, she recognized her cousin, Noah Wilding—he was Daniel’s younger brother and the first to really display the witchy powers inherent in being a white wolf. He was tossing blue orbs of light back and forth with Kaden, her cousin Terra’s new mate—he was also a white wolf, possibly a half-brother to the Wolf Hunter just as Grace was possibly a half-sister, assuming they all had the same paternal ancestor.
Another white wolf, Owen Harding, was there—he was mated to her cousin Nova Wilding and had been through the experiments Agent Smith had conducted on shifters along with Noah. Both of them had been subjected to the many serums Agent Smith had formulated in his attempts to create a super soldier. Something about the experiments triggered the white wolf inside each of them. Most of the data Zoe had were labeled by patient number and not by name—but Zoe knew Noah and Owen were somewhere in the mix. In a way, knowing what they had gone through and that it had triggered the white wolf response inside them only doubled Zoe’s determination use the data in some positive way. But with her lab destroyed, she was substantially set back.
She suspected that was at least part of the Wolf Hunter’s intention.
A girl Zoe didn’t recognize was directing Owen and Kaden and Noah in their magical play, or she supposed it was training. Daniel pulled ahead of Zoe and Troy, waving to the group in the field to get their attention… and to keep them from sending blue magic balls blasting their way as they approached.
Troy held back a little and leaned to whisper in her ear, “Can you do this?”
“No!” she hissed. Maybe she could, maybe she couldn’t—but she certainly didn’t want to talk about it, not in front of these guys.
“Come on,” Troy said, keeping his voice low. “You should join them.”
“I said no.” She gave him a warning look.
He held up his hands. “Okay, okay.” Then he dropped them and hurried ahead to catch up with Daniel.
Noah broke from the group and strode over to give Zoe a hug. “Shit, Zoe, I’m so sorry about what’s happened.” He was younger than her—only about twenty-one—and he’d already been through so much. He pulled back to look at her. “Oh my God, what happened to you?” He was looking at the half of her head where the hair had been burned short—she had to be looking pretty ragged and weary at this point.
“I’m fine,” she said.
But his eyes hardened with a kind of anger. “We’re going to get this Wolf Hunter guy, Zo,” he assured her.
“I know. It must just be my turn to be targeted by the jerk with the daddy complex,” she said with a wry smile. “I’m pretty sure all five families have been hit by now.”
Her brain was genuinely still frazzled by the attack and a nearly hour-long ride in the presence of Troy’s hotness, but by her count, all five of the original Wilding brothers had their families attacked at one time or another.
Noah and Daniel’s father, the evil Colonel Astor Wilding was in jail for his part in the experimentation on shifters, but that hadn’t stopped the Wolf Hunter’s minions from trying to kill Noah with a car bomb while he was investigating the WildLove attacks.
Owen’s mate, Nova, had actually lost her father, Arthur Wilding, to just such a car bomb, and one of the Wolf Hunter’s hate-group members kidnapped her.
Kaden’s mate, Terra Wilding, had been targeted directly for her art depicting the citizens of the city of Seattle, both human and shifter. Her father, Donnie Wilding, was a software development tycoon, but he’d pretty much stayed a recluse while his d
aughters had been kidnapped one at a time… which made him a serious loser in Zoe’s book. She wouldn’t be surprised if he had some white-wolf-asshole DNA in him.
Even Marco Wilding, the runaway son of Frank Wilding, had been targeted by the Wolf Hunter along with his entire pack, one of the downtown shifter gangs. The Wolf Hunter had failed to kill Marco, and her cousin was turning things around down there with his new Adopt a Shifter company, which was pretty damn cool.
The only Wilding family that hadn’t been hit, so far, had been Zoe’s—and now with the firebombing of her lab, she hoped the Wolf Hunter wouldn’t be going directly after her dad. Either way, she and her father were now brought fully and publicly into the conflict.
Only Zoe had been working behind the scenes with Grace from the beginning.
Man, she was tired.
Noah didn’t press her while she was ruminating about all this. “Well,” he said, stepping back to gesture to the people gathered in the field, training with their magical arts, “the Wolf Hunter’s got some serious shit to deal with now. This is some real firepower here. We’re finally learning how to actually use it without, you know, burning down the entire forest.” He smirked.
“Glad to hear you’re not quite such a danger anymore,” Daniel called out, but he was eyeing the short girl that Zoe didn’t recognize. “Looks like you’ve been getting some help.” He stepped over to the girl with his hand extended. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Daniel Wilding.”
She had a sort of impish grin, and instead of taking his hand, she waved hers in the air and held it out to him—a blue ball of magical fire floated above it. “You might want to be careful about touching a witch, Daniel Wilding.”
He took a step back and dropped his hand. “Alrighty, then.”
She laughed, and her short black spiky hair waved back and forth a little. “It’s all right, cute stuff.” She smirked and clapped her hands together. The blue ball of fire disappeared. Then she took two steps forward and patted him on the cheek. “I’m here to help, not hurt.”
Daniel’s eyes went wide, and Zoe didn’t blame him—a witch’s touch could be deadly.
“This is Skylar Starling,” Noah said, sweeping a hand out to her. “Kaden recruited her from one of the covens downtown.”
“Recruited?” Skylar said, her voice hiking up. “I was told there were hot shifters in the mountains that I could play magical tricks with. That wasn’t exactly a hard sell.”
Zoe smiled in spite of herself. She wasn’t a huge fan of witches—no wolves were—but given that white wolves were some kind of mixture of wolf and witch to begin with, she guessed it made sense that witches might be a little more friendly toward them. Or at least some of them—Noah, Owen, and Kaden were known white wolves, but Daniel had yet to show any white wolf tendencies, in spite of sharing genetic code with his younger brother. But then Noah had been subjected to Agent Smith’s experiments, and that seemed to be the trigger for his abilities, just like with Owen. Genetics didn’t always express in a linear and logical way—tissue science wasn’t that exact. Life just had too many variables. But that didn’t mean the genes weren’t there, lying in wait, lurking until just the right trigger made them come out and find expression.
Which was exactly why she was trying to find a cure for her genetic malady—this white wolf gene. She didn’t want her genetic code going off like a bomb.
“Come on, Daniel,” Skylar said with a smile. “Why don’t you join us?” She fluttered her fingers at the other three men who were white wolves.
“Yeah, Daniel,” Noah said with a laugh. “Why don’t you let Skylar bring out your inner witch?”
“Shut up.” Daniel did not seem excited about that prospect, although Zoe could see that he was eyeing the diminutive and flirtatious Skylar with more than a little interest.
She pranced over to him with a little dance in her step, then took hold of his hand. “I promise I won’t bite.”
Daniel’s eyes were wide in the moonlight. Skylar kept his hand in hers while she slowly passed her hand over it, creating a ball of blue light in Daniel’s palm. He was quickly absorbed in her conjuring—or perhaps terrified of it—and seemed to forget about the rest of them.
Zoe’s exhaustion came flooding back. What she really needed was to talk to Grace about the superhealing research and their hunt for the Wolf Hunter’s father—but she couldn’t do that with everyone watching.
“I’m going to turn in,” she called to Daniel, but he didn’t seem to hear.
His brother, Noah, noticed. “I’ll get you settled.” He ushered her and Troy toward the main house. They exchanged introductions and shook hands. Troy made small talk with Noah about the Wolf Hunter. Zoe was fuzzing out with her attention—she barely noticed what they were saying.
It occurred to her that she might actually be in shock.
Once they reached the house, Noah turned them over to Mama River—she was apparently the matriarch of the place, the mother of Jaxson, Jace, and Jared, the three River brothers. Jared was Grace’s mate, so Zoe had met him before, briefly, and Jace was married to her cousin, Piper, so technically they were family.
Mama River seemed incredibly kind, linking her arm in Zoe’s and patting it as she escorted them up the stairs to the second level of the estate. Her long gray hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, and she wore absolutely no makeup, but somehow, she was all the more beautiful for it.
“You dears must be exhausted,” Mama River said, softly. Zoe felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders just with the older woman’s touch. “I’m so glad you decided to come up and stay with us. Whatever you need to do, you can do it from here. My boys have given us extensive security—the Wolf Hunter can’t touch you here.”
Her reassurances were like a warm blanket wrapping around Zoe’s shoulders. Mama River guided them down a long hallway and two more turns before she stopped at a pair of rooms, side-by-side.
“Make yourselves at home,” she said. “Breakfast is served at seven AM sharp in the downstairs dining room.” Then she patted Zoe’s cheek, and said, “Come find me in the morning, Zoe dear, and I’ll get my scissors out. Between Skylar and me, I think we can come up with a hairstyle that’s a little more suitable for your lovely face.”
Zoe choked up, unexpectedly and with a fierceness that felt all out of proportion to Mama River’s kind offer. “Thank you,” she managed.
She left Zoe and Troy to pick their rooms and turn in.
“I call the one on the right,” Zoe said, her voice soft. She was so damn tired.
“Zoe, wait.” Troy stopped her with a touch on her hand. It was warm and soft, but she pulled away from it—the last thing she needed was to be reminded that Troy-the-hot-fireman would be sleeping just next door.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.
“You do?” She almost didn’t have enough energy to be surprised.
“You’re thinking you’re not like those other white wolves out there,” he said softly, drawing closer to her. “You think you’re all alone in this. But you don’t have to be alone, Zoe, not anymore. You’ve got people here who care about you—people who are like you. You should tell them.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” She peered up into his gorgeous green eyes and willed him to just understand so she wouldn’t have to explain all of it. She was too tired for that.
But he just leaned in closer and touched a hand to the hair that wasn’t half burnt off. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. I’m good at keeping secrets, remember?” Then he leaned in even closer like he was going to kiss her. Zoe’s inner wolf yipped with happiness, and she nearly let it happen, but at the last second, she put up her hands to hold him off. Then she stepped back.
Jesus, the last thing she needed was to get caught up in Troy’s arms… or his bed.
“Okay, all right,” Troy said, but she could see the disappointment in his eyes. He put more distance between them and rapped a knuckle on his door. “I�
��ll be right next door if you need anything.”
He disappeared into the room and left her standing in the hallway alone.
Her wolf whined her disappointment, and Zoe wished more than ever that she could backhand her wolf into the dark recesses of her mind.
She was tired—exhausted, really—scared, and probably in shock. She needed a new plan of how to move forward. She didn’t need to be falling into the arms of a hot shifter right now. What she needed was to talk to Grace about how far this would set them back.
Did the Wolf Hunter know Zoe had the data? Was that why he attacked her at the lab? Was her dad still in danger? Maybe Grace could help her answer these questions.
Zoe’s brain was too fried.
What she really needed was a good night’s sleep.
She stumbled into her room and practically fell into the bed.
Troy was running through the forest in wolf form, and it was glorious.
He’d never had a pack growing up, so this was a completely different experience—and it satisfied him in a deep hungering way that he didn’t even know was there. His wolf was shaggy brown, and Daniel’s up ahead was Wilding-pack black, but the other three—Noah and Owen and Kaden—were white blurs through the forest in front of them.
All right, you guys! Daniel’s voice sounded in Troy’s head. Show me what you’ve got.
Troy knew telepathic communication was common among wolves in a pack, but he’d never actually done it—the words still startled him when they rang in his head, but he was quickly getting used to the idea of pushing his thoughts out to specific wolves at specific times.
Can they do magic in wolf form? he asked Daniel, careful not to distract the others by broadcasting to them.
Oh, yeah, Daniel replied. Keeping them from burning down the forest is a bit more of a trick.
Up ahead, Noah and Owen were wrestling, while Kaden stood back watching and yipping a kind of wolfish laugh. Troy didn’t know how the two of them could wrestle without killing each other, given the size of their freakish claws, more like six-inch-long daggers at the ends of their paws. They hacked and slashed at each other, their white fur quickly becoming drenched with red. They must have the same crazy superhealing as Zoe because their wounds didn’t seem to be slowing them down.