by Fran Lee
Gar saw the huge black wolf that was most intent on taking Cal out, and he gathered his massive frame for a leap. But before he landed on the Lykos’ back, his brother had torn the male’s throat out, leaving him nothing but a quivering carcass to smash under his weight. Gar whirled and leaped onto another female that was trying to make a getaway, and gutted her with one swipe of flared claws before snapping her scruffy neck and tearing her head from her shoulders. The other male was already in the safety of the trees when the brothers turned to stare at the carnage.
Where is your mate?
Cal growled deep in his chest and panted as he licked the deep gouges left by the Lykos alpha’s powerful teeth. She shifted and is safe…without the fear of this bastard killing her.
Gar shifted to his human form and checked his brother’s bleeding shoulder and flanks. “You released her?”
Cal sank onto his side on the pavement and panted wearily. They were right on our heels. I couldn’t kill all of them. There was no other way for her to escape but to shift.
“You told her to shift and rejoin her pack?” Gar’s voice was incredulous.
Cal lifted his head and bared his fangs. Hell, no! I told her to shift to protect herself! They were after me. She had a better chance to escape if she shifted. A human is no match for a full-grown Lykos.
Gar’s dark-gold eyes noted his sibling’s many wounds. “Probably the smartest thing, under the circumstances. But now we need to round the rest of the pack up and force them out.” He wiped a trickle of blood from his face and drew a shuddering breath. “We need to find her and make sure she’s safe with Hallie and the boys. One of the Lykos breached the security system and almost got inside the boys’ room tonight. They have to be driven out. No more tolerance.”
Cal struggled up from the blood-smeared pavement and shook his body hard to free himself of the taint of Lykos blood and saliva. He lifted his head and sniffed the breeze. His thoughts went a little haywire as he realized that his mate’s faint scent was still human. Panic engulfed him and he bolted back toward the house, unmindful that he was weakened by injuries that needed time to heal.
Go to your family. I’ll bring Jessie there.
He heard Gar’s deep words behind him as he streaked into the trees. There are still five of them out there, brother…
My mate is out there—alone! Go to Hallie and your sons!
Chapter Ten
“The cats are too fucking powerful. We can’t risk losing any more of our pack. They never bothered us until Jock went after the humans they protect. I think we will all be dead if we stay here. I say we move to hunt in another territory and live.” The red wolf had shifted to his human form and lay panting on the floor of the den.
“And who are you to say where we hunt, Rico? You aching to claim Jock’s place?” The older male, Buck, was also in his human form, gingerly touching a bad bite on his shoulder. “Well, there are two of us who might argue with you about that.”
Rico rose slowly to his feet, his emerging fangs bared menacingly at the older brown Lykos. The only other male left, Paco, rolled on the floor in a submissive gesture and Rico ignored him, stiffening and glaring at the older male.
“Rico will make a good leader, old wolf…” Gia slipped up beside Rico and nuzzled him, pressing her thin breasts against his naked ribs. “And now that we are without an alpha female, he must choose a mate.”
Buck snarled at the impertinent bitch. “You, who couldn’t even make the half-human bitch stay in one spot?” His sarcasm was thick and harsh.
“She tricked me!” the female snapped.
“Then she would make a far better mate than you, Gia.” Rico growled at the bitch who was trying to ingratiate herself. “At least she had the guts to stand in your face as a helpless human and scare you off.” He huffed out a sound of disgust. His challenging gaze returned to Buck.
Buck sniffed the air. Then the older wolf lowered his head and backed off. “I’m too old to fight anymore. You’re younger and can still breed a bitch to gain pups for the pack. My breeding days are through. I’ll agree to your leadership so long as you use your head instead of your balls.”
Rico aimed his cock to piss on the older male and the supplicant brown wolf that had not shifted to human form. He glared at the female, then turned his eyes to the likewise thin black female who had run off the moment the huge black cat had appeared. “I doubt either of these could whelp a healthy litter. Jock only fed his own bitch.”
Gia reclined on the dirt floor and rolled onto her back in a submissive attitude and whined, “You could breed both of us. More chances to whelp a strong litter.”
Mia lifted her ears hopefully, eyeing their new alpha male. She was still in Lykos form too.
Rico bent to sniff the black wolf and replied, “I want to find the half-human bitch. With three breeding females we could regain the power of a full pack again.”
Buck rose from the floor of the den and said roughly, “That will not be easy. Jock said that the female is mated to the younger cat. You intend to take the cat’s female?”
Rico considered that for a moment, then pissed on the old one again. “Let me worry about that.”
Buck flung the piss off with a rolling shake of his head and replied with deceptive mildness, “Yes. We will let you worry about that.”
She heard the entire conversation from her hiding place outside the den, and she shuddered to think of the foul-smelling Rico fucking her. Never! She might not be worthy of Cal but she was far too good for the likes of Rico. Jessie slithered back from the cleft in the rock that allowed their words to drift up to her, and she moved stealthily back through the trees to the small, well-hidden den she had made for herself long ago, when Jock used to kick her out in the cold to forage for herself.
She did her best to cover her smell with the scent sac of a muskrat she had killed just a few days ago—days that seemed more like years now. She curled up into a small ball for warmth, wishing she could shift back again and enjoy the protection of her thick coat.
Wishing that she had not failed her mate.
Wishing he would come for her and carry her back to his bed and make love to her all night again. But she had run away. Too cowardly to stay and face him, she knew he certainly would not want her now.
As she lay huddled in the small nest of grasses and leaves she had made for herself, she closed her eyes and thought about him. Even as a cat he appealed to her, and that was just not right. But it feels right. He wants me too, doesn’t he? At least, he did…
Her belly tightened at the memory of his body moving on hers…in hers. As a human, he was able to make her body sing. A small shiver of fear for her own future went through her. She was alone now. Rico wanted her to breed up pups for a new pack but she wanted nothing to do with the smelly old bastard. She would rather live alone, facing an uncertain future, than return to the pack.
Oh, who was she trying to fool? She couldn’t live without Cal.
She knew that she could feed herself by foraging for small animals. Once she could change back, she would simply remain in her Lykos form to stay warm. But somehow, that thought held no appeal. She wanted her mate. She wanted to thrill to his touch again. To feel his mouth touching her body in all those wonderful places. And as she drifted off into a weary sleep, she knew that she must return to him and beg him to take her back. She would never shift again. She would remain in this weak human form and live the remainder of her existence as Cal’s omega…since she had lost the right to stand proudly with him as his blood mate.
As Cal neared the old house he felt unreasoning fear grip him. The only scent he could pick up besides the rangy musk of Lykos was his mate’s human spoor. She had not managed to shift—and his gut wrenched to think of her facing even one of the pack in her tiny human form. He raced into the house through the gable, calling out to her in vain. He quickly checked to see if she had managed to get inside the fruit cellar to hide, but the place was deserted and his rage at his
own stupidity flared hot inside.
He retraced the path through the woods and followed the pack’s trail to the last spot where her scent stood alone once again. No blood. No sign of a battle. He called out with his mind but there was no response. He followed her spoor for miles, until her scent simply vanished. He caught the combined scents of the remainder of the pack and he sought her wolf signature, but she was not with them. Had she somehow evaded them, then? If so, why wasn’t she at the house? His wild thoughts were disjointed. Had she decided she feared him more than the now-dead alpha? Had she bolted and run from him too? He growled ominously. Had they killed her and eaten her? No. He would have smelled her blood.
He sank into a weary heap, nosing the spot where her sweet human scent simply ended. He rumbled deep in his chest and rolled in her spoor in frustration. His open wounds still pained him. He desperately needed rest. But he wanted to find her too badly to allow himself the luxury of healing sleep.
He rose and backtracked the trail. Unmindful of possible danger to him in his weakened state, he followed her weak spoor back to where it was strongest. He sank to his haunches and panted, his long pink tongue lolling from the side of his mouth to attempt to taste her on the breeze.
He was weak from blood loss. He had to find a morsel to eat to sustain his healing. Any small creature would suffice. The scent of muskrat caught his attention. Even one of those noxious little things would fill the hole in his belly and give him some strength.
Moving slowly off the spoor trail, he allowed his nose to fill with the strong and cleansing scent of fresh earth and rotting leaves, and he froze. The scent brought his body to full alert and his thoughts to total confusion. He sneezed the confusing scent out and sniffed again. His heart hammering hard against his chest wall, he tested the breeze to find the source, then he moved on stealthy paws toward the hidden den he had just located—and his mate’s stimulating yet extremely confusing spoor.
Buck lifted his nose and drew in a deep whiff of the damp air. “Cat!”
Rico shifted instantly, as did the others.
It was not just a cat—it was him. He had found their den…and he was alone. The new alpha glanced around at the shivering little pack that remained, and he growled deep in his chest. There were five of them to one of him. And he was wounded. Jock and Helga had torn him up pretty badly when the pack had caught him just before the black shifter had intervened. He could smell blood still dripping slowly from those wounds. The cat had to rest to heal, and obviously, he hadn’t.
Whipping up the pack’s remaining courage, he slipped from the downhill entrance of the den, on the far side of the narrow highway, and as the pack followed he planned their attack.
Her body arched as her dream faded, leaving her throbbing and aching for her mate’s touch. Never had she dreamed such vivid, erotic things. The chill of her little hideaway was gone, replaced by the heat of her burning skin and the warmth of her panting breaths. She had drifted through strange, frightening things…and hot, sensual things. She had dreamed of looking into the cracked mirror over the small ancient sink in the bathroom where Cal had licked every sensitized inch of her hot skin after they had made love for hours…and seeing her face as that of a wolf that slowly contorted into the face of a cat. She had seen Cal’s face staring at her from over her shoulder as he had ridden her deep and hard, his cock filling her to perfection…watching her face shift from Lykos to human…then to Seronta. Her body throbbed from the memory of the visions. One after the other they filled her restless sleep, and the last one had been the most shocking…and erotic.
Her body throbbed with need. Her gums tingled. Her nail beds burned. She arched against the now-warm grasses and leaves and an odd rumbling noise escaped from her throat. Her own hands cupped her aching breasts, her thumbs and fingers tweaking and pinching her nipples. Dear gods, but she had never before felt so completely needy! Something was happening inside her. And it is delicious.
Her pussy ached to be filled. Her breasts ached to be devoured. Her fingers slipped down to touch her throbbing knot of nerves and she bit her lower lip as she felt her rising orgasm wash over her to claim her. What on earth is wrong with me? I feel as if I might die unless I have Cal’s hot cock inside me!
The thought of her mate pressed to her back, his engorged cock deep inside her as he rammed into her over and over, brought her to a panting, groaning climax. She imagined his rough hands crushing her breasts as he bit her shoulder and fucked her into oblivion, and those thoughts kept the amazing climax alive as she shuddered and curled into a ball in her warm little nest. Her own scent swirled around her in the little den and her senses came to roaring life as her body seemed to burst into flames.
Cal was so immersed in the strange scent that held the signature of his little mate that he had no idea he was surrounded until the first wolf jumped him from the rear, sinking wicked teeth into his neck. He gave a shriek of challenge and reared and rolled back onto the wolf, clawing at the scraggly gray female that leapt for his throat. She gave a terrified yelp and, as his hind claws gathered between their bodies and found purchase in her thin underbelly, her death gurgle was the last sound she made as he tore her open and snapped his powerful jaws shut over her thin neck to finish her.
The big male on his back had a hard hold on him, his jaws not relaxing as blood poured from the earlier neck wounds as well as the fresh ones. Another brown male danced in and bit deeply into the muscles of his flank, tearing the flesh as the last thin black female surged forward to attempt to bite his genitals and tear them from him to let him bleed out. In moments, he would be dead.
He pictured Jessie in his mind, and told her how he loved her, knowing that without Gar there to save his sorry ass, he would die here…now.
As the black wolf planted her teeth into his belly just above his genitals, he couldn’t hold back the scream of agony. He brought up his powerful hind legs, despite the grip the brown male had on his joint, and his claws sank in for one last effort to save himself. The sharp yelp of pain from the female was the last thing he heard before his thoughts grew dim and he slid into a whirling black pit that swallowed him whole.
Chapter Eleven
Her thoughts swirled as his voice filled her head…her spirit. He loved her…and he was expecting to die! The miasma of sexual need evaporated to be instantly replaced by a rage so deep she had no way to control or contain it. Her soul mate was in danger. Her body shifted without conscious thought, splintering into silver-white as she surged from the nest of grasses and leaves and burst from her hiding place almost in the middle of the battle that was taking place. Her shriek of rage held not just anger at what she saw before her, but also a challenge. The brown Lykos she recognized as Paco released his death grip on Cal’s rear leg joint and slunk back, rolling instantly into a submissive posture. The only other wolf standing stared at her as if seeing a ghost before he backed up and disappeared into the trees. Buck was never one to stand and fight, with his poor teeth and his weak foreleg.
She leapt easily from the entrance of her small den to the bloody scene a few feet away, and without hesitating for even a split second, she reached under Cal’s limp body and her powerful claws found purchase in the flesh of Rico’s scarred neck. As she dragged the newly proclaimed alpha off his senseless victim’s torn neck, the red Lykos snapped and snarled, then simply froze. His eyes widened with shock as Buck’s had, and she hissed in sibilant fury. Move, asshole, or you are dead meat.
He was panting in terror as she released her grip on his bleeding scruff, and he instantly cowered away to join Paco on the blood-smeared earth. Not taking her eyes from the trembling pair, she nosed her mate and growled softly as she licked at the deep, open tears that bled so freely.
Dear gods, Cal…don’t you go and die on me!
Turning her attention back to the terrified males, she snarled viciously and hissed, If he dies, I will find you if I have to track you to the ends of the known world. Get out of my sight. Never come back
here. If I see you, I will not hesitate to tear you to pieces.
She didn’t have to see them go. She knew they were gone as she shifted back to her human form and ran her hands shakily over her mate’s blood-matted fur and buried her face against his weakly beating heart. “You can’t die, you big fucking alley cat! I want my cubs to have a father! I swear, if you die on me, I will follow you into Hell and drag your mangy ass back here. You hear me, cat?”
“Sex with his soul mate will revive him,” Gar’s deep voice rasped close beside her, and she almost fell over in shock that he had been able to approach so silently that she hadn’t even noticed him. She scrambled back to her knees as she ran her hands over the hot blood that seeped from so many wounds. He would soon bleed out.
“Sex? And how do I manage that with this big half-dead cat?” she snapped waspishly in her panic. The sound of Gar’s deep growl didn’t scare her at all. “Dammit! Tell me!”
He had feared that he had come too late. But after what he had just witnessed, he had not a doubt in the world that Cal would survive. Gar now knew that the Lykos omega was not what she had at first appeared. It had shocked him to see the silver-white snow leopard bristling at the cringing Lykos pack. It had amazed him even more when she had hissed at them and sent them packing, tails tucked between their legs.
He’d stared in amazement as she had shifted back to her tiny human self and started threatening his unconscious sibling. With renewed hope, he rolled Cal over, placed a large palm over the golden leopard’s heart and helped his sibling to make the shift back to human form. His eyes lifted to the blood-smeared human. “Mount him,” he whispered.