A Handful of Wolf

by Sofia Grey

  The wolf tensed and lifted its head, ears pricked. A second later, Megan heard a howl, and then another. Please no, not another one. She couldn’t fight another. The Sasha-look-alike didn’t seem worried, he just nudged her leg again and whined. She glanced down and saw Phillip lying motionless and bleeding. A crunching through the undergrowth heralded three—no, four—more wolves running into the clearing. Her heart sped up and she prepared to grab the branch again, but these paid her no attention. Two more charged up and they gathered in a group around the fallen wolf, glancing at her over their shoulders. Weird, just too fucking weird.

  Megan dropped to a crouch beside Phillip. Blood flowed thickly from a bite on his shoulder. Too much blood. She had to stop the bleeding. She clamped a hand over the wound and pressed down, hard. He needed an ambulance.

  The Sasha-look alike bumped her gently and she looked at him. The shimmer of rainbow sparks should have been a surprise, but so much crazy stuff had just happened, this was just another helping. Naked Sasha leaned over her, his breath rasping and noisy, and blood streaming down his face. Yeah, she’d definitely banged her head. This was concussion. She was dreaming. “You’re naked.”

  His smile looked awkward and she realized he was bleeding further down too. His left leg was a mess below the knee, bloodied and torn. “Did he hurt you, Cariad?” She pressed Phillip’s wound harder and tried to breathe through lungs that seemed to have forgotten how to work. “Megan? Can you run, baby?” He touched her chin with a trembling hand and she nodded. He sounded like Sasha, looked like Sasha, but she knew it was a hallucination. He couldn’t really be a…a…wolf. A vicious animal like the one that had attacked her and Phillip.

  “What are you?” It came out as a harsh cry, her throat all clogged up.

  He stared deep into her eyes for a heartbeat, and then brushed a kiss onto her forehead. “I don’t need to tell you, you already know.” His whisper was for her alone. He held her gaze and then stood. “I need you to go and get help for Phillip.” His voice louder, rougher. “These wolves will protect you, you can trust them, Cariad.”

  Trust them? She shrank back from the idea, but then he groped for her free hand and squeezed the fingers. “Do you trust me, Megan?”

  *

  Please trust me. Sasha wanted her away from the clearing, back in her house where she might be safe, surrounded by her gun toting family and with the police on their way. The rogue wolf was still here somewhere and every minute she stayed outside, she was a target.

  He searched her face, seeing the exhaustion and fear, the pain and confusion, and wanted to beat himself to a pulp. He’d caused this. If he’d kept his distance, not got involved, the rogue wolf would never have noticed her. His wolf whined. Mine. He shoved down the panic at the thought of life without his Mate and focused on Connor’s wolves.

  He took a deep breath and turned to the wolf Alpha, easily recognizable by his size. “This isn’t him. It’s one of his men. He’s here somewhere, I can smell him.”

  Connor shifted and stood before him. “I’ll send three wolves to escort your Mate to safety, the rest of us will hunt. I have the best enforcers in the country and if anyone can find him, they will. Are you staying here?”

  Much as he wanted to be the one to take the rogue wolf down, someone had to keep Phillip alive until help came. He wasn’t sure he could run much further anyway, his leg was about to give out, and Christ, his shoulders hurt. Megan stared wild-eyed at him as though cornered by a dangerous predator, oh wait, she was. He felt deathly tired. Clothes, he needed his clothes. He hobbled the few yards to his abandoned jeans and pulled them up, trying not to yelp at the pain in his leg. Digging into his pocket, he grabbed his phone, dialed 1-1-1 and demanded an ambulance for Phillip. Attacked by a wild dog in the woods, in need of urgent medical aid. He had a missed call from Jake, but that could wait.

  He stumbled back and collapsed to the ground next to Phillip’s prone body. Fuck, the man had lost a lot of blood. Megan was busy wadding her torn shirt over the wound and he took over, pressing down with all his remaining weight. She wore a skimpy camisole T-shirt underneath and he took one last, longing look at her beautiful curves. After today he’d clear out of her life.

  “Go, Cariad.” He knew he sounded exhausted, and wondered fleetingly how much blood he’d lost.

  “You’ll stay with him?” Her anxious voice cut another slice from his heart. He nodded, unable to speak. “We’ll talk later? I need to talk to you, Sasha.”

  “Yes, of course.” Fuck, he was such a good liar. His last sight of her was as she hurried away through the trees, three of Connor’s wolves surrounding her.

  *

  Did she trust him? Sasha’s words echoed in Megan’s head. He’d run to her rescue, attacked the bigger wolf and now wanted to send her for help, for the man who’d attacked him. Her brain felt like it was working at half speed as yet another dream came to life. Running through the woods, wolves bounding alongside her, keeping her safe. Safe from what? She wasn’t entirely clear on that point.

  The other naked man—shifter—had said they were hunting. Her mind shied away from what. Focus on Phillip, getting help for him. What about Sasha? He looked dead on his feet too. Could he be treated by a doctor? Would they know something was different about his body? What would happen to him?

  She tripped over a lumpy tree root and nearly fell, but one of the wolves darted to her side and she grabbed him, keeping her balance, just. He gave her a big, doggy smile, vivid blue eyes glowing in a dark face. “Thank you,” she muttered. She’d wake up in a minute.

  Rounding a corner she saw Alex, shotgun in hand. “Meggie!” He paused in his tracks and stared at the wolves, and for one horrified moment she thought he’d fire at them.

  “Don’t hurt them!”

  He closed the distance and swept her up in his arms in a big, reassuring brotherly hug. “For God’s sake, Meggie, we were scared shitless. What happened?” While she tried to process his words, she saw the three wolves melt away into the shadows as though they’d never been there. “Dad’s here, somewhere, and Phillip. Sasha said you’d been kidnapped.” What? She wriggled free and grabbed his shirtfront.

  “Phillip’s hurt, and so is Sasha. He called an ambulance, but he might not make it. He sent me to get help.” Her words tumbled out in a mad rush and she tried to draw breath, to speak more clearly. Alex looked confused and she tried again. “By my old tree house. This wild…dog…attacked me and they tried to fight it off. Phillip’s been bitten and Sasha, he’s…” He has the same eyes as the wolf that attacked me. That was a shifter too? She shrank against the security of her brother. “They’re hurt bad,” she finished, unable to say any more.

  Alex already had his phone out. What felt like seconds later, Dad was there too and she was leading them back to the tree house. They heaped questions on her, but she just shook her head. “Later,” she kept saying, “later.” When she’d had chance to think about it, to get her head around the enormity of what she knew. If she ever would. Alex fussed over her bleeding hand, but that was nothing and she refused to stop until they reached the clearing.

  What the fuck? The fallen wolf had gone. Phillip lay groaning on the floor with a strange man tending to him. Where was Sasha? She hesitated and stood still while Alex and Dad rushed to her ex. Sirens wailed in the distance. What about the other wolves? Where had they gone? Her head spun. She stepped forward, to the stranger; he must know. He turned to face her and she gasped, she recognized him.

  “You’re Jonty. I met you with Sasha.” More brilliant blue eyes and a familiar, wolfish smile. Was he one of the wolves that ran home with her?

  “I heard a cry, came to see if I could help.” He cocked his head slightly to one side. “Looks like the ambulance is coming, Miss. You don’t need me anymore.”

  “Wait.” She needed to stop him before he left. “Where’s Sasha? And the wolf that attacked me?”

  He shrugged. “Dunno anything about a wolf, but your friend left
when I arrived.”

  Chapter 25

  Sasha watched absently as a high-powered 4WD pulled up nearby and unloaded another couple of shifters. They hogtied the wolf that had been savaging Megan and tossed it into the back of the vehicle. He was still unconscious; his Mate had hit it good and hard. A tsunami of pain engulfed him. Not his Mate any more. He had to let her go. Someone snapped fingers in front of his face and he blinked, then focused on Connor. “You want to come too, Sasha? Give you a ride back to town. I’m going to interrogate this sucker, see what he can tell us.”

  Sasha licked dry lips. “I can’t leave this guy. I promised.”

  “Jonty can stay.” Connor nodded to a familiar looking shifter who came to crouch next to him. “You need stitching up, young wolf.”

  His option was to wait here until the cavalry arrived, fend off a million more questions and run the risk of seeing Megan again. “Yeah, I will. Thanks.” Once upright again, he swayed when a wave of dizziness hit him, but managed to stagger the short distance to the vehicle. As the car sped back to Wellington, he remembered his phone and tugged it out of his pocket. Jake had sent a text after he’d failed to answer.

  Tammy in hospital, prepping for appendix removal op. She’s worried about you, says something is wrong and won’t let them touch her until she speaks to you. Phone ASAP.

  He took a deep calming breath and then another, and then thumbed the keypad and dialed Jake’s number. He picked it up after one ring.

  “Sasha. Hold on, little cousin, I’ll pass you straight to Tammy.”

  “Crasher. Are you okay? I’m terrified and I don’t know why. What’s happened?”

  I watched as my Mate was nearly torn to shreds, only she’s not my Mate any more, and I need to walk away from her and pretend she never existed. He swallowed and forced himself to sound normal, and not as though his soul was being ripped apart, one excruciating inch at a time. “I’m good, Tamster, just worried about you. Now go and get fixed, okay? I’ll be home soon.” The prospect of going home appealed immensely. The mountains and snow, and the endless space to roam in. He could run for days on end and not see a single person. “I might even come home early, make sure you’re taking good care of yourself.”

  His twin sighed down the phone line thousands of miles away, but her amusement as clear as if she sat next to him. “Want to show off your Mate? I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

  Sasha closed his eyes. He still saw Megan. “She’s, ah, not. She’s not my Mate. I was, uh, mistaken.”

  “What?”

  He couldn’t have this discussion right now. He just couldn’t. “Tamster, I have to go. Please let them fix you, sis. Now give the phone back to Jake, I’ll be home soon.”

  “Sasha?” Jake sounded concerned.

  “Cuz, I need to ask you a favor. Can you please sort me out a ticket on the first possible flight home? I’ll pay you back out of my savings.”

  “Done, and don’t worry about the cost. I know you want to get back for Tammy. I’ll text you the details.”

  * * * *

  The little clearing was too crowded. Police, paramedics, Alex and Hugh tag-teaming as usual, and her father. The one person she wanted to see had vanished, leaving behind a grey T-shirt she recognized and a pair of sneakers. He was bare-chested and barefoot, wherever he was. Or in his wolf form again. No, she couldn’t think about that, it was too much to process. Instead, she tried to pay attention to the bizarre story Alex told her. They thought she’d been kidnapped? No, she’d gone for a walk. Her phone would be at home in her bag. She’d no idea where Sasha and Phillip had got that idea from.

  She let the paramedic clean the wound across her palm and then went to the hospital with Phillip; Alex and Hugh followed in another car. Phillip was awake, but confused and concussed, and in need of an urgent blood transfusion. He remembered crashing head first into a tree, and then the dog dragging him to the ground and biting. His memories of earlier were fuzzy. He couldn’t remember why he’d even been there, or if he’d been alone.

  Hours later, Megan escaped from the hospital. Her brothers refused to leave her side and together they walked slowly across the car park to Hugh’s car. “I need to go and see Sasha. Will you take me to his house please?”

  Alex waited until she’d climbed into the car. “Phillip told me it was all Sasha’s fault, that he’d got mixed up with some dodgy people and they’d come after you, to put pressure on him.” By this time they’d established her phone had gone missing, presumably stolen by the garden contractor she’d bumped into. When he brushed the supposed cicada from her back, he must have taken her phone at the same time.

  She shivered under her brother’s stern tone. “He saved me, Alex. He fought the dog and then sent me to get help.” He did some shape shifting as well, but you don’t need to know that. She tugged her brother’s fleece jacket a little tighter around her shoulders.

  “Where did those wolves come from, sis? The ones with you.”

  “Wolves? They were just big dogs.”

  “Nu-huh, they were wolves.”

  She laughed. It had a definite hysterical note to it. “What do you mean? There are no wolves in New Zealand.”

  He sighed, and then fiddled with her seatbelt, making sure it lay smooth and flat. “Gran used to have a tame wolf when she was a girl. I’ve seen pictures of it. Looked the same as those things today, even down to those freaky blue eyes.”

  “She did?” Why had Megan never known this?

  “You should ask next time you see her.” She would, but first she had to see her very own wolf. He’d been hurt too, bleeding so badly, she needed to know he was okay. And apologize, don’t forget that. Tell him you’re sorry for thinking he was insane.

  “Please take me to Thorndon, I need to see Sasha.”

  *

  Although Connor’s team managed to get the captive wolf to shift into human form, he’d said little, other than he’d been told to watch the girl. His Mate. To add to the frustration, they’d been unable to track the English rogue wolf. He must have driven away and gone to ground. Connor showed Sasha a grainy CCTV image.

  “He calls himself Rufus. No idea if that’s his real name, and this is the only picture we have. He’s smart and usually avoids security cameras. We got lucky. He’s targeting the fringe elements of the pack, trying to fire up the ones that might cause trouble. A word here, a rumor there. We can’t figure out his game plan but we’ve known about him for a while. He’s behind the wolf sightings in the hills.”

  “Why did he come looking for me? And Megan?” He stumbled over her name.

  Connor shrugged. “Like I said, we’ve no idea what he’s doing. He’s a Pom, a Brit, so it’d make more sense for him to target your packs, rather than coming all the way down here. He’s a mystery.”

  “What will you do with this one?” Sasha jerked a thumb at the captive, currently languishing butt naked in a large cage.

  Connor’s smile was pure, cold satisfaction. “We’ll get something out of him, it just might take some time. I don’t tolerate outsiders fucking with my pack. While this isn’t Rufus, it’s still a good catch.” The Alpha glanced back at Sasha. “Now the medic’s finished with you, d’you want a ride anywhere?”

  He needed to pack up his gear and get his ass to the airport. Sure enough, Jake had performed some miracle and produced a ticket home. The journey started at Wellington on a 10 p.m. flight, and that was only three hours away. Packing would be a quick job, he hadn’t brought much. He wanted to say goodbye to his friends though, and rang Dion to break the news to him, on the short drive back to Thorndon.

  Sasha ached all over. There were no broken bones, but plenty of muscle damage and his left leg hurt like a bitch. Walking was painful, but none of his injuries came even close to how his heart felt. He swore there was a cavity in his chest now, it felt so empty. If it wasn’t for Tammy, and the need to be there for his twin, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. The world felt curiously flat and grey, all the life blea
ched out of it.

  Back home, he dragged himself from room to room, collecting his things and dumping them into a single large hold-all. Carry-on luggage only. That was how he preferred it. Maybe once Tammy was better, he’d go traveling again. South America, perhaps. Or Russia. His grandmother came from Siberia and maybe it was time to check out his roots. His wolf had been grumbling all evening, whining in bewilderment and scratching at him. It didn’t understand the man’s decision. The Mating bond would continue to tighten its hold on him until he went insane with loneliness, and already he felt physically sick at the prospect of putting so many miles between them. He fumbled through a drawer for a working pen, before remembering he’d already written his note to the landlord. Jesus. He was a mess.

  When he heard the knock at the front door, he assumed it was Dion, with his lift to the airport. “Come in,” he yelled from the bedroom. “I’ve nearly finished.” His nose was playing fucking tricks on him; he swore he could smell caramel and spice.

  *

  Megan persuaded her brothers to stay by the car while she knocked on Sasha’s door. She agreed that if he was home, she’d stay no more than ten minutes. Their over-protectiveness was driven by their love for her, and it was hard to feel cross at that. He didn’t answer her knock, but she heard him shout and that was good enough. She gave a thumbs up to Alex and Hugh, and then opened the door. She longed to see Sasha, with an ache that intensified the longer they were apart. She still didn’t know what to believe, despite seeing the evidence for herself. It made no logical sense.

  The first thing she saw was a large black hold-all on the coffee table. The zip was open, clothes and toiletries seemingly dumped inside. A white phone charging cable snaked across the top, and a slim netbook and a passport sat beside it on the tabletop. The breath caught in her chest. Was he leaving?