Wolver's Reward

by Jacqueline Rhoades

  His opponent roared with his freedom, turned, and continued his attack. River slid on a pile of something silky and slick, and fell heavily onto his back. He landed in a pile of kitchenware. The wolver immediately fell on him, pounding his fist into River's face. Arms crossed to shield himself from the blows, he searched for a weapon and found one a few feet beyond his reach. Ignoring the blows raining down on his body, he turned, crawled, and silently screamed when a fist of iron pounded into his lower back. He caught the handle of the iron skillet, and turning again, swung it with all of his might.

  Now it was his opponent who fell back, but falling back wasn't enough. River kept pounding until the wolver stopped moving. Only then did he look up to reassure the girl.

  She wasn't there. The open emergency window in the bedroom at the back told him she had escaped. River figured she was now in the safety and comfort of her parents' loving arms.

  "Good," he mumbled as he staggered to the door, "because if I got to her first, I'd have to kill her. This whole fucking disaster was all her fault."

  The howl of a wolf picking up the scent of prey sounded from the woods beyond. It was echoed by another. River ignored it. It wasn't his fight.

  "She-cub. Mate."

  "I figured that out, pal, and I don't care if she's the fucking Queen of Sheba. We are fucking done here. We are going to our fucking truck. We are going to get in. We are going to fucking drive away. We will never fucking stop to help another fucking soul, wolver or human, in our entire fucking lives. Got it?"

  "No!" the Mate cried softly in a fully human voice.

  Holy shit. River winced with the expectation of a lecture on his language. He'd heard them often enough from Kat. The Mate couldn't have heard him, could she? He'd been speaking in his head, the same head he reluctantly stuck out the door to see what was going on. She was speaking to her Alpha.

  His relief was short lived, however, when he saw how she clutched the pack leader's arm, and pointed across the parking lot to a figure in a white dress entering the woods beyond. Orange neon sneakers flashed beneath the white as her long legs stretched out in a run.

  The girl was as graceful as a deer and fast. He had to give her that.

  The Alpha rose painfully to his feet. "Don't fret, old girl, I'll..."

  "Drop dead before he gets there," River thought. With a dead Alpha, the shit would really hit the fan. Again. He stepped from the RV and raised his hand as he skirted the couple. "I got it," he said aloud. Another set of howls sounded from the woods. "You need to gather your people and see to your wounded." He looked around the field beside the parking lot where other wolvers were doing the same. A curling tendril of warning crept up his spine as he counted the survivors. "And then you need to run," he said.

  The Alpha looked him up and down with raised eyebrows and an incredulous look on his face. He waved his hand as if to reject River's offer and suggestion, but the Mate caught the hand in hers and brought it to her lips for a kiss.

  "Don't say it," she whispered and River saw her faint smile against the Alpha's palm. "In spite of what you see and as strange as this may sound, I think we need him, dearest. Let him go."

  River didn't wait for the Alpha's nod. He was already trotting toward the parking lot. More howls sounded behind him.

  A small compact car careened through the entrance, moving way too fast. The driver then hit the brakes way too hard, and the vehicle spun in a cloud of flying dirt and gravel. It came to a halt facing the opposite direction. The doors flew open and, like clowns from a circus, six wolvers emerged from a car built for four. River recognized the flannel shirted driver as one of the thieves. She recognized him, too. Like the Alpha and Mate, she looked him up and down and except for the addition of a derisive smirk, her look was much the same as her Alpha's. What was wrong with this pack? Had they never seen a wolver covered in the filth of battle before?

  She looked like she was about to speak, but River had no time for her bullshit. "Your Mate is injured. Your Alpha's almost dead." That wiped the smirk from her face. "Get your injured loaded and out of here before your enemies get reorganized. Meet me where you stole my truck and for fuck's sake, don't travel together and don't stop." He started moving away, but called over his shoulder as he started to run. "Gather what dead you can. Everybody's." It was important that they leave no signs behind.

  He took off in a ground covering run toward the spot where he last saw the flash of neon orange disappearing into the trees.

  The anger was filling him again only this time it had a focus. He licked his dry lips and tasted the coppery tang of blood, his own or another's. It didn't matter. This whole night was a waste of good wolver blood and for what? Money? Power? A Mate, so their packs could breed more with a thirst for the same? He wanted no part of it. He would find the girl, bring her to the rendezvous, and then he was done. It wasn't his fight.

  Overhead, the full moon shined down upon him, renewing his energy and filling him with her power. This was what he wanted. This was what he needed. He needed to run beneath the moon's healing light. He needed to be free of all the bullshit he'd just witnessed. He needed to release the anger growing inside him. He needed to go over the moon.

  ~*~

  Her father's voice had set her in motion.

  "Run. Run fast. Run hard. I go to the Mate. Run!"

  He was her father, but he was her Alpha, too, and she had no choice but to obey. She heard the chaos outside the RV, felt the terror of the females on the other side of the door and knew she'd find no escape through there.

  She backed away and was halfway down the short hall, when she heard him again.

  "Run. Escape."

  The door crashed open and a man crashed through. The sounds of the snarls and howls of those outside increased tenfold, so loud she could barely hear her father's order.

  "Run. The Mate lives. Run!"

  It was too late. The man, naked and ugly, with the snarl of a wolf still on his human face, advanced. His lips peeled back from yellowed teeth in an abhorrent rictus. He reached for her with hands spattered with gore. He wasn't one of her prospective mates, but he thought he could be.

  "I'll be the Alpha now," he said.

  Panic rendered her mind incapable of all thought, but one. "No!"

  He took a step and her body, frozen in her revulsion, broke free and moved, too. She tore at the doors to either side of her in the narrow passageway. She threw whatever her fingers grasped; canned goods, paper, pots and pans. There was nowhere to flee, no door strong enough to hold him back for the few seconds she needed to escape. She emptied another cabinet and another.

  He seemed to enjoy her fear and fight as he batted away the bombardment. She would lose this battle which was no battle at all. Her armory was empty.

  Another body entered, not as large as the first. She couldn't see who it was, friend or foe. She only saw the coppery arms wrap around the first attacker and haul him back. They grappled and her father called again.

  "Run."

  Reb ran.

  First to the tiny bedroom that her parents shared. She climbed onto the bed and released the emergency window that was there in case of fire. She pushed it free and fell to the ground.

  "Run."

  Reb hoisted the hem of her dress and ran.

  The crunch of gravel and dirt beneath her feet became the softer sound of dirt alone. Vines and brambles reached for her ankles. Trees, brush, tangles of vegetation flew past her vision. She was oblivious to it all. The blindness of panic engulfed her, leaving her with only the sound of her father's fading words.

  "We're safe. You are not. Run!"

  She might have run in circles. She didn't know. Her wolf sense was buried beneath the imperative of flight. Run. Run. Run!

  Reb ran until she leapt a fallen branch and her foot hit a hole on the other side. Her body tilted and she fell, skidding along in the dirt and weeds. The wind was knocked from her lungs and with it went the panic. Hopelessness and fear were left in its p
lace.

  Her hand felt something hard beneath it and she clawed it from the ground. She curled into a ball and clutched it to her as if it could bring her comfort. A broken sob escaped her lips.

  ~*~

  A sharp, anguished cry halted River's shift before it began. He stumbled and almost fell with the sound of the fleeing girl's pain. Hand touching ground to regain his balance, River pushed off and ran on, increasing his speed to meet the increasing ache that gripped his heart.

  He'd heard that kind of cry before. He'd heard it in the silence of the night while the rest of the world slept. He'd seen it in the eyes of a pup too frightened to make a sound. He'd felt it each and every day he'd been on the run with pups too young to fend for themselves. It wasn't the kind of cry that came from a physical wound. It couldn't be swallowed and endured. He'd tried to swallow it. He knew.

  He heard no other sound, but he was close enough to trace her whereabouts by her scent. It was fresh and clean and pure like water bubbling from a spring on the mountain he once thought to call home.

  All thoughts of vengeance were forgotten when he found her curled in a tight ball on a bank of mossy ground. Her eyes were closed and her breath came in short, sharp bursts. The knuckle of her right hand was gripped so tightly between her teeth, blood ran from the fingertip. She was trying to swallow the pain and he couldn't let her do it. She had to let it out.

  With a quietness born of long practice, River moved to stand beside the girl and gently bent to one knee. He allowed himself a moment to close his eyes and breathe deeply of her scent. He held it inside him and like that spring of pure water, felt it wash his anger away. He released that cleansing breath and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  That was when she hit him.

  Chapter 7

  Pain pierced his cheek. "Damn it to hell!"

  River grabbed her wrist before she could hit him again with the rock she held in her hand. She glared at him, bared her teeth, and tried to bite the hand that held her wrist. He held it away and squeezed until her eyes widened and she dropped the rock. It was a small rock, but it was sharp and she wielded it like an ax. His bleeding cheek stung with the proof of it.

  He eased his grip when the rock fell. "I won't hurt you," he started to say and that was his second mistake.

  Hands now free, she attacked. She punched, slapped, kicked, and bucked her body upward in a frenzied effort to get away. She tried to bite him again.

  She was a woman gone mad with terror and that was the only reason River didn't let her go. In her madness, she would run, not with purpose, but blindly and running blind in the woods would get you hurt or worse, killed. For her, running blindly could lead her to a place that would be worse than death.

  Those howls from the woods on the other side of the parking area were the howls of Alphas in search of prey and she was the prey. Word must have gone out through the mental connections with their packs that the female had escaped and was on the run. How long would it be before they realized they were hunting in the wrong direction?

  River tried to calm her, but his words had no effect, and when she struck a particularly tender spot over his ribs, he gave up nice and resorted to brute force. He grabbed her hands, crushing them in his much larger ones, and forced them up beside her head which was thrashing from side to side. One of her long legs came up, knee locked, and she kicked him in the head with one of those damned orange sneakers. It was like wrestling with a goddamned octopus.

  When the leg dropped in preparation for another upward swing, he used the lull to swing his own leg over her. He straddled her, right below on her hips where he could control both legs and torso. He didn't want to hurt her, only control her movement, so he kept most of his weight on his knees. That was his third mistake.

  She could still move and his straddling position allowed her bucking hips to drive her crotch up into his. River's body responded.

  Well, shit. Sex had been the last thing on his mind until his damn cock stood up and saluted like a soldier at attention. After that, it was hard to keep his mind off the lithe body that squirmed beneath his. Her shoulders rounded each time her hips thrust up, but when those thrusting hips returned to ground, her shoulders fell back too. In response, her back arched and River was confronted with a pair of perfect breasts. They were small and round, with tiny nipples that rose to sharp peaks. He could see their outline through the gown she wore. The gown wasn't sheer, but it was light weight and clingy and now that he was paying attention to it, looked as soft and silky as her skin.

  Realizing her bucking had stopped while his mind was wandering over the wonders of her body, he looked up and into big brown eyes darkened by fear and something else he couldn't define.

  Her face was almost heart shaped with a broad forehead and tiny pointed chin. Unlike her long, slender body, her cheeks were plump and flushed to a rosy red that reminded him of the roses Kat grew under the front windows of Hell Hall. He couldn't remember their name and suddenly felt that he should. That color needed a name since her lips shared it in a darker shade. But maybe that was because she licked the upper one with the tiny tip of her tongue before drawing the bottom one in with her upper teeth. Shiny, white teeth, he noted, that weren't quite even, but were perfect anyway. That mouth fascinated him, as did the sprinkling of freckles over the bridge of her nose. He leaned in closer, his lips and tongue torn between the choice of touching those freckles or tasting those lips.

  His cock throbbed against her belly, an instant reminder that this wasn't why he was here. He maintained his position, though, telling himself that the pleasurable sensation was secondary to keeping his erection hidden.

  His wolf snorted with laughter. River tried to ignore it.

  "Don't be afraid," he told the girl.

  "Easy for you to say," she whispered back. Her scent was tinged with a confusing mixture of fear and lust. Lust?

  His wolf wagged its tail.

  "You're not an Alpha. Mating me won't make you one," she warned.

  River reared back to a sitting position. Who said anything about mating? What did she think he was, some dumb shit pup that didn't know the facts of life? He couldn't read very well, but you didn't need to read to know the difference between an alpha male and an Alpha with a capital. This was only his body reacting to the full moon above him and the hot little piece below. Bad timing, but...

  "Alphas."

  At his wolf's warning, River was instantly on his feet pulling her with him.

  "We have to go," he said, not looking at her, but into the trees and listening for the sound that had alerted his wolf. He heard it. They were still a ways off. They had time.

  "Now." He started to move, but she resisted.

  "Wait." She bent to pick up the three brown envelopes that lay beneath her. They bulged with the cash the Alphas had paid for the Chase. "We need it," she said at his look of disgust.

  There wasn't time to argue. He tugged her hand again and started to run. His mind raced past his stupidity for playing games when they should have been moving. It got stuck on where they could run. They could move faster as wolves, but the girl couldn't shift. The Alphas behind them were running as wolves. No matter how strong or fast, his human form couldn't outdistance a wolf. There had to be another way and he had to think of it while there was still time. He stopped and turned her to him before dropping her hand.

  "Take off your dress."

  "No!" She clutched the front of it in her fist.

  River walked away from her, scanning the trees and listening. While he watched and listened, he fumed and mentally threw his hands in the air. Women! Not five minutes ago, she was ready to get naked and now she was Miss Modesty.

  "We need to lay a false trail. It isn't foolproof, but it's the best we've got."

  He heard her move behind him and then she threw the dress over his head.

  "There. Happy now?"

  "No," he said and threw it back. "Wipe yourself down with it."

  "Excuse m
e?" They were speaking in whispers, but her outrage was clear.

  "You were hot. You're still wet. We need the scent."

  He heard her quick intake of breath and then, "I think I hate you."

  "Fine. No skin off my snout." He pointed to the trees. "You're welcome to one of them. It's what you're here for, isn't it? You pay your money, you get to run. Fucking you won't make them an Alpha, but one bite'll make you a Mate. Right?" He nodded. "Good luck with that."

  He started to walk away. There was no need to say it like that. It was mean and he knew it, but her earlier insult was still biting his ass. Tit for tat. It was said and he wasn't taking it back.

  "Don't leave me," she stuttered. She sounded as if she might cry, but she sniffed it back and straightened her shoulders. "It wasn't supposed to be this way."

  "Then wipe," River ordered. He didn't know why he should be so angry. It wasn't his business. Yet here he was, trying to save her from what she'd asked for. It wasn't his fight. Unless they caught him with her. Then they'd kill him first before they went after each other. Then the winner would go after her and he wouldn't be nearly so gentlemanly when she hit him with a rock.

  "Here," she sniffed. "I wiped."

  River snatched the dress from her hand and walked off. "Stay there. Don't move," he told her when she started to follow.

  "Alone?"

  He was tempted to thunk his head against a tree trunk. "It won't be a false trail if you're on it," he said, sweetly sarcastic.

  "But what if they find me before you get back?"

  River closed his eyes and prayed for patience, not that it would do him any damn good. The girl was literally a babe in the woods. In more than ways than one. She was standing there looking sexy as hell in her silky underwear, and she was counting on him to come back. It never dawned on her that he might not.