Redemption of a Wolf

by T. S. Joyce

  “Me either,” Ethan said, yanking open the driver’s side door. “And Rike is tweedle dip-shit. You pointed at me when you said that, but you should’ve pointed at him.”

  All those years following Rike and Ethan, and Kade had been so wrong. Having brothers was the worst.

  The front door creaked open loudly. “Kade?” Trina called from the house.

  All three of them froze. The apple Rike had just tossed in the air hit the ground and rolled into Kade’s boot. Ethan had one leg hiked up into the truck already, and Kade was thinking of ten ways to kill the Blackwood Idiots.

  Kade narrowed his eyes at Ethan and mouthed, Mother fucking fucker.

  He wanted to rip that stupid smile off Ethan’s face as he formed the words, Oops.

  Great. Now there was double hell to pay.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What’s going on?” Trina asked as she padded through the yard barefoot.

  “Uuuuh,” Kade said, turning around slowly. “We were going to get you girls some donuts?”

  “Bullshit.” She held up the note he’d written her. “You wrote me a note that says, and I quote, ‘Even when I’m not here, I’ll always love you.’ You never write mushy stuff like that, and some trip to the donut store isn’t going to get you to write a goodbye letter to me. That’s what this is, right? A goodbye letter for just-in-case? And you drew a heart by my name. A heart! And why the hell would all three of you be dressed like Johnny Cash to go get some donuts?”

  “What’s happening?” Leah asked sleepily from the house.

  “Where are you guys going?” Bailey asked from beside Leah.

  Fury blasted through Trina as it all started making sense. She stomped her foot. “I’ll tell you where they’re going. They’re going to fight your dad, Bailey!”

  Bailey yawned loudly. “Darius isn’t my dad. Not anymore. He’s an asshole and probably better off dead.”

  Trina glanced behind her to see if Bailey was serious, but yep, she was leaned against the banister, white hair and pale skin practically glowing like a ghost as she chewed on her thumbnail.

  “Well, I want to go,” Leah said. “Are we still getting donuts, though?”

  Ethan was chuckling now, Trina was feeling very strongly about Kade marching off to war injured, it was way too early in the morning, the goodbye letter had scared her, and she was feeling eighty-three percent dramatic right about now. “This isn’t funny! Kade is on his death bed!”

  “Actually, I feel totally fine,” Kade said with a shrug.

  He wore a crooked smile, and he hadn’t shaved. His muscular arms were stretching the thin fabric of his black V-neck T-shirt, and why did he have to be annoying and hot at the same time? Her brain was mad, but her ovaries were panting like overheated chihuahuas.

  “What do you mean you’re totally fine?” Trina asked, stomping her way right up to him. “You were groaning all night.”

  Leah stopped beside her and murmured, “That’s what she said.”

  Now Bailey and Rike were laughing, and this was too much.

  Kade cracked a smile and then cleared his throat as though trying to cover it. “Momma Crow gave me some drugs, and now I feel fine. To…you know…go get some donuts.”

  Trina blinked slowly and counted to three, praying for patience. “Okay. Go on then.” She put her hands up in the air and backed away a few steps. “Have fun. Bring me back a chocolate-covered donut with sprinkles.”

  Kade narrowed his eyes to suspicious little silver slits. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. I’m super hungry. Maybe get a half-dozen.”

  “She looks scary,” Rike whispered. “Just go.”

  Suspicious-looking as hell, Kade made his way to the passenger’s side of the truck with Rike, and just before he got in, he said, “We’ll be back in two hours.”

  “I can’t wait to see you again,” she sang out.

  “Dude,” Rike said, “your mate is not a morning person.”

  Leah raised her hand at Ethan. “Babe, get me a glazed one and a white coconut—Ack!” she screeched as Trina dragged her by the hand to the bed of the truck.

  Bailey was already lowering the tailgate like she knew exactly what Trina had in mind, and the truck engine roared to life.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ethan demanded from where he was hanging out of the driver’s side open window.

  After the girls scrambled into the back, Trina pulled the tailgate closed. She looked through the suicide window, daring any one of those boys to say something.

  They all looked defeated, so no arguments from them. Trina crossed her arms and sat between Baily and Leah against the cab of the truck.

  As they headed up the road, Leah broke the silence. “Trina, I think this is a very bad idea.”

  “Why?”

  Leah sighed. “Because you aren’t wearing any pants.”

  Trina looked down at her long bare legs splayed out in the bed of the truck. Leah was right. No pants. “Well, that is unfortunate.”

  “Now we really can’t get donuts,” Baily muttered.

  Trina snorted at the ridiculousness of the last few minutes. She looked over at Bailey who was biting back a smile, too. When Leah cackled, Bailey lost it, and Trina cracked up, too. Everything was a mess. “Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through, but in my defense,” she punched out between her laughter, “it was a very long day and a very long night and I haven’t had my coffee and I got mad at Kade and the boys and…and…”

  “You turned into a wrecking ball?” Bailey asked.

  “Yes. But I really love how you two crawled right in the back of the truck with me.”

  “I didn’t,” Leah piped up between giggling. “You dragged me in here. I wanted to go back to bed. Clearly, one of us is a better friend than the other.” She pointed her finger at Bailey.

  The window slid open right behind Trina’s head, and Kade’s hand rested onto her shoulder comfortingly. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

  With a sigh, Trina laid her cheek against his warm hand, holding it tight.

  Through the window, Kade told her, “Darius has your dad.”

  Those four words…she couldn’t make sense of them.

  Darius.

  Has.

  Your.

  Dad.

  She just sat there, frozen like some stone statue, staring out at the road behind them illuminated by the taillights.

  “I was gonna bring him back to you before you woke up,” he murmured.

  “Is he okay?” she squeaked out.

  “They won’t hurt him,” Bailey murmured. “It’s just one of their plays. They’re weak. They’ve been making decisions that have crippled them little by little. Dad—Darius—he’s not a good Alpha anymore. He hasn’t been for a while. But if they have Cooper, and they’re letting you know? It means he’s the only chess piece they have in position.”

  Bailey frowned and sniffed the air. “It also means he’s a diversion. Look.” She pointed into the dark woods. A set of glowing eyes stared back at them.

  The truck sputtered, coughed, and eased to a stop.

  A single howl pierced the air, and Bailey whispered, “Oh, shit.”

  Ethan tried the engine again, but the truck was barely responding. Rike and Kade got out, rushed to the front and popped the hood.

  “It has to be the gas line, right?” Kade asked.

  “Feels like it,” Rike answered.

  “Look,” Leah said low from where she was standing in the bed, staring out over the top of the truck. She was pointing to something on the road ahead.

  Trina scrambled up beside her, heart pounding out of her chest.

  Just on the edge of the headlight beams, two more sets of glowing eyes appeared.

  “Kaaaade,” she warned.

  “I hear them,” her mate said solemnly. “Fuck. I bet they cut a notch in all the gas lines in the motorcycles, too. They just needed us to get out here in the middle of nowhere for an ambush. Fuckin’ wolves.
” His voice was a snarl by the end, and he slammed the hood of the truck down.

  “How many do they have?” Trina asked Bailey as the she-wolf jumped out of the bed of the truck with a snarl in her throat.

  She muttered off names. “Mick’s dead, so eight left if Darius’s shit ideas haven’t run more of the Clan off. Picking a fight with the goddamn Blackwoods. Lost his mind.”

  “There’s two wolves tied up in the woodshop,” Trina said. Why was she shaking? Oh, right. Because she’d been in a shifter war before, and her entire damn Clan got themselves killed.

  “Then six, but look,” Kade said, coming to stand beside Trina. The woods were alive with glowing eyes now. “There’s way more than six wolves hunting us.”

  “They must’ve called in more wolf Clans to boost their numbers,” Bailey murmured in an inhuman voice. “Maybe the Kill Jumpers and the Hell Bringer Clans. They both owe the Wulfe Clan blood favors.” Her eyes were glowing like the ones in the woods. Kade’s, too, and Leah’s.

  “Hey, Ramsey,” Ethan said into his phone. “The Wulfe Clan has Cooper up at their clubhouse. How fast can you—”

  A huge brown wolf slammed into Ethan, and they crashed against the side of the truck so hard the back end skidded to the side.

  A white wolf exploded out of Bailey, and Leah pitched forward and fell to all fours before a black wolf tore out of her. Ethan threw the wolf into a tree, but the others were coming now.

  “My phone,” Ethan said, searching frantically.

  But there wasn’t time to search the dark woods for where it had landed because Ethan and Rike took the full force of three wolves just as they stepped out of the glow of the headlights.

  Trina closed her eyes and searched for the mountain lion. She just felt empty, though. There was nothing there. No power, no teeth, no claws, no snarl in her throat… She felt…human.

  “Trina, Change!” Kade said, standing between her and two approaching wolves. Bailey and Leah were already in snarling, violent fights of their own. She could barely see them in the dark. Only hear them and see a flash of white fur every second or so.

  Lion, where are you? The bullet that had ripped through Kade was sitting in her pocket in his room. She imagined it, imagined holding the bloody thing that had almost taken her mate’s life. But still…no mountain lion.

  “Kade,” she said, panicking. “I can’t Change.”

  “Baby, you have to,” he murmured, backing her up against the truck as the two mottled black and brown wolves approached, their heads lowered, muzzles wrinkled, gold eyes glowing, teeth gnashing as they growled. “Right now. There’s no more time.”

  “I don’t have the lion!”

  When Kade glanced over his shoulder for just a split second, his eyes were bone-white. His face was twisted with rage and looked different, looked terrifying, as if he’d already begun his Change. Half man, half monster. Her monster.

  “There’s a shotgun under the seat.”

  Kade tensed and dove for the wolves. And right before he hit them, his own gray wolf ripped out of him.

  And for a moment, Trina was awed into stillness. He latched onto one wolf’s neck and jerked his head back and forth with such power the thing yelped and went limp in his jaws. The other wolf was attacking his back, but if Kade felt it, he showed no signs of pain. He spun and latched onto the wolf’s front leg. Snap.

  Three more sets of eyes were running at them fast from the woods.

  She’d never been so terrified. She had no weapons. No way to protect herself, no way to protect her friends. No way to help her mate.

  “Rike, get help!” Ethan yelled from under two wolves, and with a series of pops, Rike and Ethan Changed into their crows and took to the skies. The crow with a noose of white feathers around its neck returned, diving for the wolves, but the pure black one flew away and didn’t come back. God speed to the crow, because they were grossly outnumbered out here and unprepared. The woods were deafening with the sounds of a snarling, growling, ripping war.

  There’s a shotgun under the seat. “Okay,” she whispered, bolting the three steps to the door. She reached for the handle and yanked it open, but it slammed shut again as a wolf blasted against it. The thing landed on the ground and jumped at her, latched onto her arm the second she went to defend her face.

  And God, did it hurt.

  Lion!

  The wolf wouldn’t release her, shaking its head with such force she could feel the teeth grinding against her wrist bones. The wolf leaned its weight back, and Trina got pulled forward. If she toppled, her throat and belly would be vulnerable. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she splayed her feet and grabbed the scruff of the wolf’s neck to ease the tension on her arm, and then she slammed it into the truck as hard as her shifter strength would allow. She wasn’t weaponless, she realized. Not totally. She had strength and agility. So when the wolf hit the metal of the truck and released her arm, she was already moving for the door. The damn door was damaged though, dented inward and didn’t open when she tried the handle, so she dropped down in desperation and slid under the truck. She could hear the snarling wolf behind her, but it was big and had trouble getting under the truck, so she army crawled to the other side, swallowing down her fear at the breath she felt on her ankles and the snapping of teeth so close. It was all she could hear. Grunting, she pulled herself up and yanked open the driver’s side door as fast as she could, scrambled in, and screamed as she closed it on the muzzle of the wolf.

  With shaking hands, she reached under the seat. The bed of the truck groaned as something jumped into the back. Wolves were howling in the distance. Too many of them. The truck was lurching to and fro from battles hitting the sides. Panting, Trina glanced over her shoulder and swallowed a scream. A massive black wolf was right there, lips pulled back over bloody teeth. Why were his teeth bloody? “Kade!” she screamed.

  The suicide window was open, and the Wolf had shoved his head through as far as he could, gnashing his teeth, scrabbling to get to her. She pinned herself to the steering wheel, her back against the horn. Beeeeeeeep! It sounded long and high, right along with the howling wolves. The teeth were so close. God, don’t let that window break!

  She stretched her arm as far under the seat as she could. “Come on, come on, come on!”

  Her fingertips touched metal just as the window made a terrifying cracking sound, like walking on a frozen pond where the ice is too thin. No, no, no.

  The growling of the wolf filled the entire cab of the truck, drowning out everything, drowning out the horn and the war outside. All she could hear was the animal’s death-promise.

  Crack, crack, crack.

  She could see the hairline fractures in the glass moving outward. It wouldn’t hold much longer. Clenching her jaw, she stretched as far as she could, got as close to the wolf’s snapping teeth as she dared. Got it!

  Trina fell to the floor the second the wolf gave her an inch and pulled the barrel of the shotgun up. There was a box of shells under the seat, and her hands shook so bad while she rushed to crack the barrel in half and shove two shells inside. The sound of metal on metal was loud as she clicked the rifle into place and cocked it.

  In that second, the glass gave, shattering all over her, and the wolf came right at her.

  Click, click. Boom!

  Trina closed her eyes at the deafening sound of a shotgun discharged at close range.

  The wolf fell inside the cab, completely limp, gold eyes dimming as it stared back at her.

  Trina was splattered with blood, and she sucked air as she slid out from under its weight. She pushed the handle of the door, opening it to escape the dead wolf, but while on her back, she looked up and saw another one coming straight for the truck, straight for the open door, straight for her, his teeth bared, ready to end her. Trina screamed in fury as she pulled the barrel of the shotgun up, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The gun kicked hard because she hadn’t been able to put it against her shoulder. The wolf went down, skidding und
er the truck, its shoulders getting stuck right near the front tire. Trina scrambled out of the cab, yanked the box of shells across the floorboard. When she opened up the shotgun, two empty, smoking shells flipped out onto the ground. She replaced them, clicked the weapon into place, and cocked it. Click, click.

  Dad hadn’t taken her shooting for a couple years, so she had to knock the rust off a little. But with a shotgun, her aim could be a little off and still do the job. It was a forgiving weapon in a fight like this, as long as she kept her targets at close range.

  Kade was fighting a cream-colored wolf. Darius? They were just shredding each other. There were wolves piled around them, but they avoided the carnage like some war dance. When another wolf came sailing through the trees, running straight for Kade, Trina aimed. Boom!

  Click, click.

  The first streaks of dawn were lightening the woods, but it was still hard to see. Even with her shifter eyesight, she had to squint to make sure she wasn’t aiming at Kade or Leah. Bailey was easy. She was pure white like the snow. No other wolf looked like her. But Leah had tar-black fur and was hard to see in the dark.

  Two wolves came barreling through the trees and crossed the road, headed for Bailey’s fight.

  Boom! Down went one, but the other changed its course and headed straight for her.

  Mother trucker, she needed to reload. Steady hands, do it right. She could hear the predator panting, almost to her. She reloaded one chamber—it’s all she had time to do—and then she cocked it. Click, click…click. Shit! The wolf was on her, sailing through the air. Click, click, boom!

  She ducked out of the way as the wolf landed right where she’d been.

  Kade was fighting three wolves now. She didn’t know where Leah and Bailey were. Ethan was diving at Kade’s fight, but her mate was locked in a battle to the death with Darius.

  Trina gasped as the edge of the woods filled with glowing eyes.

  Too many.

  Way too many.