by Kristina Lee
Losing his mate had shredded his soul.
Zane had salvaged him somehow. He was a man Cory loved throughout it all, a man he’d been willing to sacrifice his happiness for now in order to help him do what was right. Despite himself he smiled, knowing they had each other for eternity now. “Well, she’ll get us both now whether she needs us or not.”
He was still mad as hell Zane stripped his choice but nothing could have stopped him from tasting Selena’s flesh once she begged him so sweetly. He didn’t know how a double bond was possible but he recognized the sheer ecstasy thickening his blood from the mark.
Selena was his mate. Which made Zane his too. “When Linnea died, a piece of me went with her. I didn’t think I’d ever be whole again.” He twined his fingers with Zane’s, enjoying the rough tangle of fingers. “Until tonight.”
Zane’s slow smile squeezed his heart. Dark and smooth. He was a true Alpha—demanding of everyone but helping the Pack members find and receive what they needed. It just took Cory longer than most to accept his help.
“Felt that good, huh?” Zane drawled, turning onto an ill-lit back alley they’d recently tracked two other rogues to.
“Selena’s so sweet I nearly came in my pants.”
Zane’s hand slid higher, cupping Cory’s still thick shaft through his jeans. “I could fix the nearly part.”
Cory dug his nails into the leather door handle as Zane stroked his cock with the precision of a man who knew exactly how he liked it. Firm. Slow.
His head was just hitting the seat back when the perturbing odor wafted to his nose. “Stop the truck.” He growled, instantly on alert.
The truck slammed to a quick stop beside a nasty looking abandoned building, the yellow light of a single lamp giving an eerie glow to the thick shadows. “Do you smell him?” Cory asked, hyperaware of the tension radiating off Zane even though he still remained relaxed against the bench seat.
“If he’s seeking to divide the Pack, chances are he’s not alone. Even if we can’t scent the others.”
Cory nodded, adrenaline spiking his blood, leaving his skin tingling and fingers itching to end this and keep the Pack safe. Keep Selena and Zane safe.
He grabbed his wallet and cell phone from his pants pocket and shoved them in the glove compartment. “Good point. No sense in losing these during the shift.” The fact they would be letting the wolves out unquestioned.
Zane thought on that a moment as if leaving his phone wasn’t worth it before tossing it alongside Cory’s. Without another word Cory pushed from the truck and into the frosty night, eager to catch this damn rogue, return home to Selena and lose himself in mindless bliss.
Forever wouldn’t be long enough.
Chapter Eleven
Zane waited for Cory to round the truck before following Aden’s stench and not surprisingly, one of death. The putrid smell sickened his stomach no matter he’d long since adjusted to it as part of his job duties. He didn’t have to peer in the nearby dumpster to know a body rotted inside but it came as a surprise when Aden himself stepped around the other side.
The red glow of his eyes damned him as rogue. They were blood eyes. A symbol of a wolf that’s killed a human. A trait that marked him as fair game for Zane and his hunters.
“Imagine that, Zane. Aden wants to give himself in.” Cory stood a few steps behind and to his side, his cocky attitude usually a welcome distraction from the physical brutality that usually followed on a rogue hunt. Only tonight he wasn’t looking for distractions.
Aden had been organizing meetings with the wolves who were on the fringe of dissent for weeks now. Youth and adult alike who were killed for their roles in attacking innocent humans as Aden would be killed too.
The question was what had he hoped to gain? A following large enough to overthrow Zane’s hunters?
The only thing Aden succeeded at was scaring his Pack. Not a single member wanted humans to start retaliating for the kills. Enough blood had been shed over the years. A new fight was not in their interests now.
“The only thing I intend to give you queers is a quick and painful death.”
As Alpha, he picked up on the other wolves’ scents long before Cory was able to, his wolf recognizing each of them as someone he’d fail to keep safe from this blood thirst. Unable to do much in terms of positioning, he allowed themselves to be boxed in.
His fists clenched, the single outward sign of concern. “Have a problem with your Alpha’s sexual orientation?” He lifted one eyebrow, forced slow breathes into his lungs as he gave Cory time to adjust to the newcomers before the fists—more likely paws—started flying.
“It’s one of many problems I have with you, Zane. But I don’t anticipate it being an issue much longer.”
Aden’s lips curled into a sneer, his gaze flickering past his shoulder. Zane couldn’t risk a look without exposing himself to attack and only hoped Cory was taking care of it. Seconds later when Cory’s back brushed against his and he could feel his lover’s muscles straining, he knew whatever left Aden so overjoyed meant bad news for both of them.
“So tell me,” Aden drawled. “Did you give your wench a final kiss goodbye?”
The explosion knocked him off his feet and Cory landed on his back before they both rolled to the side. Taking one quick glance at his now flame engulfed truck, his rage intensified beyond control. “Can you handle them?” he grunted as he rocked to his feet, watching Cory do the same.
“Easy prey.” Cory’s face hardened as he scanned the three rogues closing in. They spent hours a day in the gym honing their bodies for these fights and though outnumbered, the rogues were no physically stronger than a normal wolf.
He sprinted off toward where Aden watched from the side, his claws breaking through the skin of his knuckles, eager to wipe the satisfied grin from the cocky bastard’s face. “You know the rules, Aden.”
Aden’s claws slashed outward in warning as Zane neared, delaying the attack for only a second. “And I’m looking forward to taking you out.”
Zane narrowed his focus to Aden alone, blocking out the growls and grunts of the fight Cory immersed himself in behind him. There was no room for distraction, no place for emotion in the hunt. He circled the dirty rogue, his wolf itching to be let loose to end this. “Then bring it on, rogue.”
Aden swiped first, not throwing a punch like expected but rather sinking his claws into the flesh of his forearm and shoving him sideways. Growling against the numbing pain shooting through his tendons, he sidestepped the next swipe, ducking beneath claws and fists and swinging his leg out to buckle his opponents.
Aden rolled before he could strike on the ground, his claws hitting concrete. Zane turned as Aden lunged having just enough time to sink his claws into the other man’s arms and roll backwards to toss him to the ground behind him. Spinning with practiced precision, he easily pinned the man’s claws with a steel-toed boot and hand and used his free hand to grip Aden’s neck.
The rogue was as good as dead.
“What the hell were you hoping to gain by killing those women, Aden?”
Aden’s eyes glowed a disgusting red as he smiled despite the pressure Zane exerted on his air pipe. Zane needed to know if it was just a personal vendetta against his sexual orientation or if it extended somehow deeper. Would the threat to his Pack’s safety die with the sick ass crushed beneath him?
Aden snarled from the ground, struggling to free his hand. “Even if you kill me, another will rise up. Mark my words the Pack is sick of following your direction.”
Zane released his pressure on Aden’s hand and the rogue rolled from beneath him. Fury over this personal grudge surged through him, and he kicked out, connecting with Aden’s side and throwing him another few feet on the ground.
“If the Pack had issues, they’d take it up with me. The torturing of innocents is unconnected.” Bending over, he grabbed Aden by the shirt collar lifting him from the ground and let his claws sink into the flesh of his chest like he so wa
rmly did him moments earlier.
“Bloody hell!”
He stiffened at Cory’s voice, unable to see the fray behind him and frustrated as hell for it. In the second it took him to override the fear gripping him, Aden tore a hand free and sunk his claws into his side.
“Looks like lover boy is about to get the punishment he deserves.”
Zane maintained his hold on the weaker wolf, the overwhelming scent of coppery blood and another string of Cory’s curses, seizing his franticly beating heart.
“I love my Pack, would fight and die to keep them safe. That includes my mates, whatever sex they happen to be. It’s time you realize, alternative lifestyle or not, I’m still this Pack’s Alpha.”
With a smooth snap of his muscles, he twisted Aden’s neck, dropping him the second the life drained from the bastard’s eyes. The fight was almost too easy.
He turned. Saw the carnage Cory had wreaked to give him a fair fight.
Then he saw his partner, his life mate and his beast came roaring to the front of his mind. Cory lay on the ground with a fully shifted wolf on top of him, blood pooling on the damp concrete around them. Zane shifted in a flash of white and charged the snarling animal. He’d hunted as wolf many times, as comfortable with his ability to strike and kill in animal form as he was snapping necks as a human. The killing bite took only seconds to deliver and a quick scan showed Cory had already disposed of the other four.
Rushing back to Cory’s side, he howled at the sight of blood pouring from his lover’s neck. The eyes that returned his gaze were dull, full of pain. Shifting back he knelt beside him, pressing his hands to stop the flow of thick, red blood. His hands shook with the shock of seeing this nightmare come to life.
“Dammit, Cory.”
He lifted Cory’s trembling, cold hand to his neck until he could apply pressure to the wound. Naked from the shift, Zane tore the cloth of Cory’s shirt, twisting it into a bandage he could tie around the wound. Accomplishing that, he found he could barely breathe as he took in Cory’s pale face and drooping eyes. Dear God, he couldn’t lose him now!
Scooping him into his arms, he took off down the alley unable to use the truck to get them back to the hospital as fast as necessary or even use his cell phone to call for help. He had failed those most important to him tonight. Had a wedge of doubt the size of Texas over his bringing peace to his Pack stuck in his side. It left him hollowed, vulnerable.
“Won’t be much fun explaining this one to our healer.”
Stroking his fingers through Cory’s hair as he carried him as carefully as possible down the garbage strewn streets, he shook his head for him to be quiet, to rest. He couldn’t be more thankful when Cory’s eyes drifted shut, preventing him from seeing the horror of his fear as it spread across his face like a virus. Quickening his steps, he prayed for Cory’s safety because he wasn’t quite sure Selena or he would survive now without it.
* * * *
The sense of dread in her chest tightened; a weight that crushed the air from her lungs. Selena fisted the receiver of the phone as she laid it back into its cradle and fought back the tears rising to her eyes. A piece of her she didn’t question—the one that was now inexplicably linked to both Cory and Zane—knew something had gone terribly wrong.
Leaving the break room, she paced the halls, frantic for fresh air. Her heart ached. Her body grew restless. With a growing horror she found herself traveling the familiar corridor to the emergency room, the buzz of fast-paced activity rising all around her. Each step lifted more hair on her arms, a fine zing of electricity covering every inch of her by the time she reached the nurse’s station.
She felt his gaze burning a hole in her back the same moment Jen greeted her by way of “multiple stab victim just in.” Turning, she found his penetrating dark eyes locked on her, his body a solid sheet of tense muscle against the far wall.
Zane was here, dressed in hospital scrubs, which meant…
Selena was rushing into a set of wide open arms on her next breath, instantly cocooned in the solid strength that was her mate—her Alpha. Crushed to his chest, she could scent the sweat, blood and dirt. They’d been fighting. Her heart squeezed tighter until she needed to pull away and press the heel of one hand into her breastbone to massage the sudden hurt. “How bad?” she breathed.
He cupped one hand over hers to quiet her frantic rubbing. “The mating bond is already letting you know the answer.”
Understanding dawned. The sense of dread. The pain in her heart. It all linked her to Cory. “I thought wolves healed faster.”
Firm hands stroked down her back, both giving and seeking comfort. She wrapped her hands around Zane’s waist, lifted them under the hem of his hospital scrubs to touch bare skin. Heard a whisper of a purr.
“Our bodies are only capable of so much. Cory lost a lot of blood, lost consciousness and continued to bleed out.”
Selena eyed the doors that went back to the operating suites. A compulsive need to see him had her pushing from Zane’s arms. The man beside her squeezed her tight, a warning he wasn’t ready to let her go. A silent confirmation that he needed to see her right now too.
“But he’ll heal.” A weak statement. One without conviction.
Zane’s breath bathed her forehead in warm heat, his words those of a man used to getting his way.
“I don’t intend to let him go anytime soon, love.”
She nodded and broke the contact, all too aware of the attention they were drawing to themselves in the waiting area. Closing one hand over his, she tugged him along, determined to ease the edgy wolf. He followed without question, and something warm and delicious bubbled inside her. Trust.
Her mate trusted her to take care of him.
As the new Pack healer she was fast learning that the job description encompassed ailments of both physical and emotional, surface wounds and scars that ran deep into the heart of them all. She turned into a private area, ushered Zane into one of the staff overnight rooms and locked the door.
“Remove the shirt.”
He lifted one eyebrow in surprise, his gaze lighting a wicked heat to burn inside her. “I want to clean your wounds,” she admonished all while gathering some quick supplies and dialing the sink faucet to hot.
“I can think of more important things you could do with those hands,” he teased.
She smiled. She would never grow tired of knowing that this man wanted her. She brought a bucket of warm soapy water and some washcloths back to the small cot he sat on. Her gaze lingered on his magnificent chest, watched the slow rise and fall of each even breath.
Wringing one cloth out, she worked it over the rough skin on his hands, gently scrubbing away the dried blood, refusing to think of the pain Cory must have endured to keep them safe. “How is it my presence heals the Pack? It’s not just my touch. It’s my person, isn’t it?”
She rinsed the cloth and repeated on his other hand, enjoying the tedious work and the calm that came from lingering in Zane’s presence. She laid a towel on his lap, placed his clean hands there to rest and began wrapping another wet cloth around his forearms, soaking the mixture of blood and dirt for easier removal.
“Part of it is the belief that a healthy Pack includes a mated Alpha. With my scent ingrained in you, you are an extension of me. Someone the members of the Pack can trust without question.”
She scrubbed away the grime on his arms. His wolf nature had already helped heal most of the minor cuts and scratches so they glistened pink with fresh tissue now that they were clean. “Helps that I’m not gruff and demanding all day long.”
Her breath caught at the sight of the swollen punctures in his shoulder, knew if he wasn’t even babying this injury that Cory’s must be ten times worse. His fingers slid across her shoulders, cupping the back of her neck to quiet her movements.
“Look at you, Selena. Your first instinct when you saw me was to soothe by both words and your undivided attention to my care. You radiate calm. Your very nature put
s my wolf at ease. As it does Cory’s. And so on throughout the Pack.”
She left his side to draw fresh water into her basin, working fast to cleanse the dirt from the nastier wound. Her throat tightened with unspoken emotion, a ball of worry lodged deep in her stomach. For Cory’s safety. For the strength to believe that this new life would last. Fate and forever and happiness and family. All things still too new and fresh in her life to trust.
Zane’s kiss on her forehead scalded, her worries charring to ash in the aftermath. Lifting her gaze to his, she studied the handsome lines of her mate’s jaw. “I would take you right now against the wall,” he murmured and Selena knew he’d sensed her darkening thoughts. “But he’s waiting for us.”
It took her a moment to understand. Who? Then she noticed the pressure in her chest subsided, the dread had lifted. “I need to see him.” She dried off Zane’s skin with care, determined to have his wound looked at after they greeted Cory and rose, her entire body thrumming with childlike eagerness.
“My thoughts exactly, little one. My thoughts exactly.”
Chapter Twelve
“This has to be enough.”
Zane stalked around the edge of their bed, unable to rest, refusing to lie around while this new doubt festered inside him. Cory watched him from the bed, his face pinched, his bare tanned chest slowly moving up and down with each measured breath.
“We are a tight knit Pack, Zane. Deep down you know you’ve done everything you can to make sure of that.” Zane stopped pacing and stared, amazed and frustrated that Cory could relax so effortlessly while he exposed himself with his self-doubt. Had his lifestyle been the cause of this ripple of discontent in the Pack? Was Selena’s presence going to be enough?
“Your work with the youth has lowered the incidence of violence between Pack and humans. We have a system in place to deal with those in need. And we have Selena now. Only a fool would miss the positive changes occurring.”