Ashes To Ashes (Wolf Guard Book 2)

by Roxanne Lee

  She shook her coat out at his touch, her midnight, black fur catching the sun in glimmers of crystal coal. She snapped her jaws at Duncan, an almost feral rage submerging her golden eyes until all I saw was death's reflection.

  She stretched languidly for a moment, those limbs lengthening to a wildcat’s range. Her tail flicking against the male that hovered behind her. A single moment passed from wolf to wolf, a tensing in her muscles before she released in a leap, throwing herself in some sort of joyful tantrum at the beasts just beginning to overcome their moment of prey sensing predator.

  The scene before me turned blurry, hazy in resolution with wavering edges. I caught a glimpse of the female catching heads within her jaws, beheading with a manic kind of glee like some sort of bloody, party massacre. My legs gave way beneath me, my stomach hit the floor with a slap of skin meeting solid ground. I looked at the pool of blood I lay in, confused at the source and the vast amount that was body temperature warm.

  My vision wavered once more as I found my head slumping to the side, looking across sprays of similar blood that arched across the grounds in a fountain of red.

  An Alpha stalked my way, stomping through bodies and carelessly kicking the husks to the side as he made his path towards me. My eyes flickered shut, taking pictures of the big wolf, committing his form to memory.

  A frown creased my forehead as my wolf melted away to skin and the vision only grew more difficult to keep.

  One lasting impression turned my frown to a glare.

  High up on the Alpha's thigh, wrapped around bulging muscle, in a death grip of refusing release, that one black hand - a smokey mist of claiming touch - remained clenched tightly to the Alpha's skin.

  A little bit of my empath that had, apparently, refused to return.

  Traitorous little bitch.

  Chapter 18

  I shot up with a gasp - a shock to a system that had been on shut down. I swung my eyes around the room catching hints of cinnamon coloured wood and copper fabric. The silence surrounding me was a dark void of life, as if everything had suddenly disappeared while I'd been caught out of action. No hum of low whispering voices, no cries from the grounds that had turned into our own personal battle field. A beat slow burned in my stomach. What had I awoken to?

  The smell of blood lingered in the air, like death had flung his cloak into the wind. Draping that heavy, black cloth over wolf territory, just to test our claims of immortality. A soft glow of dimming daylight turned that copper fabric to glowing amber. The window, opened to the breeze, pierced the silence with the first calls of early spring crickets. Winter was only a week or so behind and yet already, each morning the sun would break free from ashen clouds proving the Christmas season was quickly losing its hold on the weather.

  Perhaps my first conscious thought should have been Ty. Maybe even a single thought towards how the pack and one particular Alpha had fared. I found myself more selfishly caught up in the peace of gradual evening and the sense of paralyzing stillness that could only follow such deafening chaos.

  I stretched my legs out from beneath the cover, I'd been dressed in a t-shirt and my bare legs bore a thick bandage wrapped achingly tight around my thigh. My sudden weakness and subsequent fainting made a whole lot more sense when I saw the placement - that rabid animal was lucky enough to have hit a pretty important artery and I'd lost blood quicker than I could replace it. Even though my make-up usually allowed swift healing, some wounds seriously tested that ability. A claw burst from my fingertip, poking beneath the bandage and splitting it apart in one swift jerk. The bone was no longer fractured though the holes left behind by that crushing jaw still had a little way to go. I could not have been asleep for more than an hour or so.

  Quiet footsteps sank into plush carpeting. A heavy tread that whispered when it should have screamed. How many years of agonizing failure must it have taken for that bulky wolf to learn to walk so quietly that even my sensitive hearing struggled to pick it up? In fact, so soft a step, it was quite possible the only reason I felt his thunder rolling in was because some part of me would be forever attuned to every part of him.

  The thick, wooden door creaked as it swung wide, stiff on its hinges from lack of use. I lent back towards the head board, covering my thigh in quilt and the still seeping wounds from view. He looked wild and untamed as he filled the doorway. A large cat breed that had spent the day hunting prey only to find them just as barbaric as his own animal. Hair loose from its tie and tumbling to his shoulders in ragged waves. Mud and crackling blood competed for supremacy on his wide chest. Steel eyes flashed something more than frustration - somewhere between relief and anxiety - an odd expression when all I'd expected was his usual, slightly manic, stoicism.

  A flash of red caught my eye and I peered through the gap between his arm and side to focus on something moving behind him. His body flinched forward and my lip twitched as he growled at the shove to his back.

  "Move, Lane." A quiet, feminine voice drifted around his blocking frame. One quite obviously used to having her own way.

  He only grunted in response although he allowed entrance to the female behind him, one shorter than my own height with deep green eyes and a stern face. Her surrounding scent compiled some mix of masculine spice and her own sweet flavor and I shot an eyebrow up at the understanding that this tiny figure housed such a monstrous wolf.

  Her face remained rather frozen, almost expressionless but for the slight crinkling at the eyes that I hoped was the amusement I took it for. I remembered her wolf in action - she outweighed mine by a good hundred or so pounds and powered through those beasts with some mad kind of glee. It was beginning to appear like there were no relatively sane wolves left in this area, Lane certainly surrounded himself with crazy. Perhaps like attracted like and he was only comfortable with those just as unbalanced as he was. Although, what that said about my own state of mind I wasn’t entirely sure.

  "You're awake."

  Lane's rough tone snapped my eyes back to his and I raised an eyebrow, "obviously."

  His jaw tightened slightly although whether at my response or his ridiculous statement I could only guess. "Are you hungry?"

  I shrugged and dropped my eyes to my lap, his molten gaze was rather hard to keep while staying so unaffected. "Where's Ty?"

  Lane coughed and it came out in rough scratches that sounded quite painfully uncomfortable. "Sleeping...wore himself out I think."

  I forced myself to hold that shiny steel once more and took a breath,"he'll need to feed."

  To Lane's credit, only a nominal tick on his jawline became evident."Yes. Somewhere other....than here."

  I consented with a nod and looked back and fore between the two wolves. "What happened?"

  I was rewarded with a grin from the Alpha, "crazy and her...Captain happened."

  I frowned as he indicated the tiny female and she huffed a small sigh in response."Well, if you had killed him like you were supposed to, we wouldn't have had this problem."

  Lane narrowed his eyes and grunted," Fine. Next time...won't leave any for you."

  She huffed again, "wonderful. Perhaps next time it'll be more than a few days before you start killing everything around you."

  The Alpha frowned slightly, "you say that...like it's my fault."

  She raised one brow, "anarchy seems to follow you around."

  He grinned widely at her as if he was perfectly content with her observation.

  I coughed to gain their focus and both sets of glowing eyes turned my way. "So they're all dead?"

  Lane grimaced, "Duncan fled. Took the remaining...animals with him. Carver’s tracking...see if he can find the hideout. Duncan’s good though...spent almost a century...tracking around the Highlands. He’s used to...harsher terrain than this."

  "Carver?" Wanting clarification that it was the new wolf I hadn't yet seen in human form.

  Lane smiled his creepy smile, "the Captain - the big wolf...one that came with Arya." He pointed to the redhead
as he spoke.

  I turned a rather forced smile her way to introduce myself seeing as Lane seemed not to understand basic introductions. "I'm Sasha."

  She nodded back and then snorted as an awkward silence descended on the room. I'd run out of pertinent questions at the moment and apparently, the Alpha was just as bad at small talk. His eyes never once left me though, that heated flash fire that burned and seared a liquid silver pathway. In the calm after the storm, I was nothing but confused in the face of my perfect future. He was all I wanted in one awkward package and everything I hated and should revile in the same pretty gift box. What I wouldn't give to throw all my hate away and jump into those cruel and beautiful arms. I suppose in the end it would come down to choices - what am I prepared to give up?

  Arya sighed again, it seemed to be something she did quite often. "Well, this is awkward." She tapped her foot on the carpet and eyed my hands clasped together in my lap. "I'll make coffee. Maybe when you've stopped seeping blood on the sheets you can join me in the kitchen."

  She just about ran out of the room without a thought to hide her uncomfortable behavior, it was actually rather refreshing - that the female cared nothing for false manners and was so open and honest in her actions.

  Lane's growling wolf took my attention, an animal's anger that forced itself through the human's control. "Bleeding?"

  I rolled my eyes at him, "tends to happen when rabid beasts try to chew on your leg."

  More little rumbles from deep within his chest."Not healed?"

  I shook my head, "bones set nicely, just the holes to go."

  His face twisted in anger,"I tore it's...teeth out. Snapped it's jaw."

  I looked at him with quizzical eyes,"pretty sure I already killed it."

  He growled louder as his amber gaze focused on the sheet that covered my thigh. "I killed it...again."

  "Oh. Okay." Wide eyed, I froze my face in what I hope was some sort of smile.

  "Do you...need anything for it?" His face was rather worried, as if he'd offered something he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to give.

  "Not at the moment, I'll go with Ty when he wakes up."

  He nodded vaguely and turned towards the door, pausing in step with his mouth slightly open, a question on his lips. I waited patiently as he seemed to work up the courage to ask, not something I ever thought I'd see from the man. "Where do you...go?"

  "To feed?"

  He nodded in response, "If you don't use wolves...then humans?"

  It was not a conversation I was overly happy on having with him. I can only imagine how deep a pit I'm going to dig myself into. "The homeless, around here anyway. It puts them to sleep for a while but we've learned to stop before we take more then they can handle. If we get enough money together then we'll go into the city, to the red light district."

  His face just about froze in open horror. "The what?!"

  I shrugged, "brothels, easy feeding from humans already working up a sweat. They charge us heavily to sit in and draw off their girls though, slightly less if you're willing to take from the men. I'm not the biggest fan of that though - leaves you feeling dirty inside, like grease and unwashed clothes." I shuddered a little, that was most definitely my very last resort.

  I'd taken my eyes off the Alpha while I spoke, probably not the safest thing to do when the wolf was not only questionably sane but my own body betrayed me in its responses, automatically relaxing in his presence when I should have been anything but. I looked up at amber eyes. Gone was the grey steel that seemed all at once freezing cold and boiling hot to look into. His eyes had turned all wolf and filled with an uncontrolled anger.

  "No. More. Brothel!" His voice rose to a shout, the first time I'd heard him so much louder than his usual rough scratch.

  I pursed my lips at him, I suppose he'd like me to feed off the wolves here then? "How would you like me to feed?" Blinking questionably at his irritation.

  He paused for quite some time, considering the odd path his thoughts usually took him, I was not pinning my hopes particularly high. "I'll find you...someone."

  I rolled my eyes and sighed, that was just a little too much like pimping for me."I think I can find my own, thank you."

  He growled once again, loud enough to rumble the furniture and cause small ornaments to tumble off the cinnamon side table. "No. Brothel!"

  I was unimpressed with his demands. It's not like I was particularly sold on the brothel myself but being ordered not to go just quickly rubbed me the wrong way. "I don't answer to you."

  His eyes flashed a brighter light, nearly gold burning through that warm, honeyed resin."Don't test...the wolf, little witch. Want's to show you...you're his."

  I rumbled my own little annoyance back at him, I'd spent too long on my own to ever fall beneath another wolf. "Don't push me, I'm not yours yet." I warned him before he went too far to pull back from.

  The man never reacted how I thought he would. I'd dug my feet beneath me, waiting for the him to spring forward with his animal’s aggressive nature, fully prepared to fling myself out of the way and escape to the kitchen. I did not expect the sound of his buckle dropping to the floor or the trousers that fell in a heap at his feet. I worked my way up tanned, muscled calves to equally tanned and hugely proportioned thighs. Tiny silver scars dotted the skin in intricate patterns and only made the muscle that clenched, as he took a step forward, even more carved in perfection. A small black hand print wrapped around one thigh, swirled around the skin in delicate lines that sunk deeply into marble flesh. I shot my eyes to his face, flushing at the glimpse of completely exposed manhood - this wolf did not wear boxers. "What the hell are you doing?!"

  Lane's hand pointed to the black print, a little remaining gift from the empath inside that had apparently decided to rebel against me. I flicked my eyes to his and a large feral grin spread across his face.

  "Showing you. This claim says...You're already mine."

  Chapter 19

  It took him a margin too long to pull those trousers back up. I think he took his sweet time about it on purpose, like he was truly enjoying my uncomfortable frown as I tried to avoid looking at him. He certainly had nothing to be ashamed of.

  It was mildly annoying that I became so awkward in his presence. Perhaps it was just the bodies own natural forewarning - that flush that almost guaranteed a stuttering fool in place of normal, easy conversation. Natures way of cautioning just how perilous this man would be to my stead fast control, a flashing red light to an angry beast - it was a warning to ignore at my own jeopardy.

  "Get dressed...come with me."

  I huffed rather loudly at that command. "I think you're assuming a little too much too soon."

  Lane rolled his eyes to the heavens,"I'm not the one...who marked without asking."

  Well, that's slightly embarrassing. I flushed a deeper red then even his nakedness caused."It wasn't intentional."

  "Just couldn't help...yourself?"

  It's like he was trying to make me stab him. "After the whole strangling thing? I'll pass, thanks." I sounded pleasantly truthful, even to my own ears.

  Lie. Impressions that called bullshit from the wolf inside my head.

  Lane caught my stare with his own amused gaze. "Says the witch...who planned to kill her mate."

  I didn't quite cover my wince before he caught the guilty action. I was certainly less proud then I'd thought I'd be about ending this bond."How?"

  He grunted, apparently that passed for some sort of conversation to him."Enough people have attempted...to kill me to recognize...that look when I see it." If anything, he looked rather happy about my murderous tendencies. "I wonder if...your wolf would allow it." He pondered his own question for some time while I watched. "I wonder if...my wolf would let you."

  It was actually quite insightful of him. Though I'm pretty sure we both already knew the answers. We were animals beneath the skin, undomesticated and savage, wild wrapped in a lie of refinement. He was my wolf's perfect counterpart and s
he would not allow him to die. Even now she ran her eyes over his figure, thumped her heavy tail against my side, those sensitive ears twitching against my skin attempting to pick up every nuance of his rough voice that held her absolute attention. He was already her secret obsession and her feelings swam in murky waters with my own.

  "I'd apologize for...killing them, but I'm not entirely...sorry about it."

  I turned narrowed eyes on him, tried very hard to hate the grey storm that raged quietly behind such boundless slate.

  He frowned at me, "I needed to...kill them. They earned their...end."

  Yes, I suppose they did. They were not only shitty parents but they fed like they lived - without morals and a need for painful pleasure - the kind you only get from gleefully inflicting torture on others and reaping the rewards. Still, I hadn't built my life on easy forgiveness and am I just supposed to ignore the fact he sentenced me to a barren childhood? Am I supposed to forgive that, only on the basis that fate made him mine? That seemed rather weak to me and so I tried honesty. "I'm finding it difficult to put aside the need to make you suffer as much as I did. I was a child and your actions forced me into destitution. I don't deny that they weren't good people, Lane. I just don't believe I'd done anything at the age of eight to warrant that."