Exiled 02 - Wolf

by Lynn Hagen

  “And if Jaycee tells him to go, we are here to make sure he leaves,” Nazaryth said a little more calmly, his anger draining and exhaustion riding his face hard. Wolf knew that it was bad for the leaders to fight amongst themselves, and from the sigh Maverick released, the alpha must have come to the same conclusion.

  “Wolf is feeling the mating heat very strongly right now. If he doesn’t claim his zaterio within the allotted time, he will go mad, Maverick.” Nazaryth’s voice was almost pleading, which shocked the hell out of Wolf. He had never heard his commander beg anyone in two thousand years.

  Nazaryth’s mate didn’t count.

  The hand that Nazaryth pushed through his hair was agitated, ruffling his long black strands. “If he goes mad, then there is no coming back. A winged beast must be killed if he goes mad or there is no describing the havoc he will bring down upon us.”

  “Well, shit,” Maverick cursed as he placed his hands on his hips, looking just as worried as Nazaryth.

  “You could have filled me in on that small detail,” Jaycee said as he yanked on Wolf’s arm. “Is that why you’re sweating?”

  Wolf nodded, wincing when he got a good look at the fire burning in Jaycee’s chocolate-brown eyes. “I didn’t want to lay any more problems on your already-filled plate, zaterio. You have enough to take in as it is.”

  “Yeah, but none of it amounts to a hill of beans if you go nutty and have to be put down.” Jaycee smacked Wolf in the arm. It didn’t hurt, and Wolf didn’t think it was meant to. But he got the message. “It’s not okay to keep this stuff from me.”

  “Zaterio, I never meant—”

  “I know what you meant!” Jaycee growled, doing a damn good impression of Wolf. “Now, you’re going to go back into that room with me”—Jaycee pointed to the resource center—“and you are going to explain every last damn thing to me. Got it?”

  Wolf’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the vehemence he could hear in Jaycee’s voice. It coincided with the even further hardening of his already-hard cock. If Jaycee kept up this assertiveness, Wolf was likely to jump the man. He was hot as hell.

  “Okay, zaterio, if that’s what you wa—” Wolf froze, a thick chill entering his bones when a loud howl filled the air. He glanced over at Maverick. “Please tell me that’s one of your wolves.”

  “Nope.” Maverick was already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket as he shook his head. “My wolves know not to do that within the town limits unless it’s an emergency.”

  “Dude, this might qualify.” Wolf quickly turned to Jaycee and grabbed both of his hands. “Zaterio, I need you to go inside the center and stay inside. Avoid the windows, and whatever you hear, do not leave the building.”

  Jaycee frowned, his eyes level under drawn brows. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

  Oh hell, no, Jaycee wasn’t going to like this one damn bit. “I think the hell dwellers have found us.”

  “Come with me,” Jaycee said as he pulled on Wolf’s hands, trying to draw him into the building. “We’ll be safe inside, together.”

  “Jaycee, I can’t.” It killed Wolf inside to pull away from his mate, but he had no choice and he knew it. Wolf and the other winged beasts were the only thing standing between Jaycee and the hell hounds, and maybe the rest of Brac Village as well. “Please, zaterio, I need you to go inside where you’ll be safe.”

  “What about you?”

  “I have to stay here.”

  “Why?” Jaycee cried out.

  “Fighting the hell dwellers is what I do, Jaycee. It’s why I was created.”

  Wolf’s heart was a heavy lump in his throat as he watched Jaycee and Taylor walk into the building, shutting the door behind them. He stared for a moment longer until Jaycee’s shadow disappeared and then turned back to the others standing there.

  Wolf wasn’t sure which way the hell dwellers were coming from or even how many there were, but one was more than enough. One hell dweller could kill more innocent people than even Wolf cared to think about in a matter of minutes.

  They were fast and they were vicious. And Wolf knew he had to stop them. His mate’s life depended on it.

  “How do you want to play this, Alpha? This is your town. You know it better than we do,” Nazaryth asked as Dog and Wolf joined their commander.

  “I’ve called my pack,” Maverick said as he glanced around. “Backup is on the way.”

  “What about the humans?” Nazaryth asked. “It’s still early in the morning, but people are going to start heading to work pretty soon. Any good ideas on how to keep them off the streets?”

  “Zombie attack?” Dog asked.

  Wolf snorted.

  “No,” Nazaryth said. “I’ve seen a zombie attack. They usually come in bigger groups than the hell dwellers. It’s more like hordes.”

  Wolf’s head snapped back in shock. “Really?”

  “Hell, no!” Nazaryth rolled his eyes. “Zombies aren’t real.”

  After the things Wolf had seen in his lifetime, he wouldn’t place any bets on that. At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised at anything he saw.

  Except that.

  “Oh shit, I think I’d rather face zombies,” Wolf whispered to Dog as he watched three hell dwellers walk around the corner. That wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t been flanking the two brimstone demons that attacked the castle earlier. All five of them looked pissed, too. At least he thought the demons looked pissed, but he wasn’t really sure. Their faces already had a natural incline.

  “Are those what I think they are?” Maverick asked in shock.

  “Oh yeah,” Nazaryth replied, “and we are so fucked!”

  Dog chuckled evilly. “And they weren’t even nice enough to bring lube, either.”

  Wolf extended his claws, ready for battle, sort of. Could someone actually ever really be ready for battle? He was scared to death. Scared that he wouldn’t be able to defeat their enemies. Scared that he couldn’t save his zaterio. Hell, he was just plain scared.

  But he stood his ground. He had to. Not only was Jaycee’s life was at stake, but Wolf didn’t run from a goddamn thing—even if two of those things were ten feet fucking tall.

  “Remember, Alpha,” Nazaryth said as he took up his battle stance, “the only way to kill a hell dweller is to stab them in the mark behind their ear and then burn the bodies.”

  “And a demon?” Maverick asked.

  “Let us handle them. You worry about your own ass.”

  As much as Wolf didn’t want to change into his winged beast form out in public, he knew he wouldn’t survive the demons’ spit if he didn’t fly.

  “Watch their spit,” Wolf warned the alpha.

  “They spit?” Maverick asked as he snapped his head toward Wolf.

  “Yeah, it’s acid based. And watch their claws. They are deadly to any species.”

  “Fucking great,” Maverick complained. “Remind me to thank the beasts properly after this is over…if we’re still standing.” He shifted into his timber wolf form right there on the street.

  Wolf saw half a dozen trucks pull up, Maverick’s pack climbing out. He sure as shit hoped it was Maverick’s pack. Some men joined the fight, some blocked the street off. Wolf wasn’t sure how effective that was going to be, but he prayed it worked.

  “Hand him over,” Morbius sneered at Wolf as he slowly sauntered toward him, his black hair flowing seamlessly behind him in the slight breeze. “I know you found your mate, beasty.”

  “Who sent you this time?” Nazaryth asked, pulling the long sword from the sheath running down his spine. “Boromyr is dead. Who is pulling your leash now, doggie?”

  “No one is pulling my leash. King Zephyr decreed that all of the winged beasts’ mates were to be killed when you pathetic excuses for men were exiled.” Morbius tossed his head to the side as he laughed. “I guess you didn’t know that, did you?”

  Nope. Wolf hadn’t a clue the king had done that. But fuck if any of them were getting their hand
s on his mate. Wolf would die to defend Jaycee—even if they were still on shaky ground.

  “Surprise,” Rythicam said with glee as he bounced excitedly beside Morbius. He was really tired of these two seasoned hell hounds. They were getting on Wolf’s last nerve. “You know now.”

  “Just hand him over and we’ll take the demons with us,” Morbius added, casually waving a hand behind him. “I promise.”

  “Come get him,” Wolf said as he unsheathed his sword as well. “Because you’ll have to kill me first, prick.”

  Morbius grinned gleefully. “Done.”

  Wolf backed up, moving away from the center, drawing the hell hounds further down the street. He could see Nazaryth and Dog fighting the demons, the wolves trying to help but having to run every few seconds when the demons spit in their direction.

  It was going to be a mass murder out here.

  They were fighting things that could kill them without exerting themselves. As much as the timber wolves wanted to help, Wolf wasn’t foolish enough to believe they could defeat two very large demons and three hounds with only three beasts and some wolves.

  “Need help?”

  Wolf wasn’t sure who the newcomers were, but he was glad as fuck to see them.

  “Don’t let anyone scratch you, bite you, or spit at you,” he warned before turning back to the hounds.

  “Sounds like high school prom,” the man said and then shifted into a…buffalo? Wolf shook his head, watching the others shift who had just joined them. He was shocked to see two cheetahs, a polar bear, two white Siberian tigers, a leopard, a rhino, and a coyote. What in the fuck was going on in this town? It was like a goddamn zoo.

  “More to kill, goodie,” Morbius said as he slapped his hands together and then rubbed them. “Let’s do this, beasty.”

  The three hell hounds shifted into their Rottweiler forms, snapping and snarling as they tried their best to circle around Wolf and get closer to the resource center. The dogs were the biggest damn Rottweilers around, and weren’t afraid to try and bite the shit out of someone with their larger-than-normal canines.

  Wolf just prayed none of the timber wolves, or the zoo behind him, were bitten. He knew that everyone was a shifter, but that only meant that they had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving a bite, and zero if the demons did any damage.

  Those odds weren’t good enough for him.

  Wolf flew up from the ground, ready to circle around the hounds when he felt like his entire lower half was on fire. He shouted, and glanced down at his leg to see his thigh muscle smoking. The pain was so excruciating that he nearly fell back down toward the ground.

  “Wolf!” Nazaryth shouted, but Wolf waved him off. Even though he was sweating bullets and gritting his teeth from the demon’s acid spit, he knew he had to stop the hounds from harming the shifters.

  It wasn’t easy though. His thigh felt like it was being branded by one hundred red-hot branding irons at the same time.

  As he landed on his feet, the ground somehow came up quickly to greet him.

  Chapter Six

  “It’s the nastiest shit I’ve ever seen,” Dr. Nicholas Sheehan said as he closed the bedroom door quietly. “I think I tried everything in my arsenal to stop the demon spit from eating away his thigh muscle. After living among the paranormal for so long, I thought I had seen it all.”

  “And?” Nazaryth asked, feeling his patience wearing thin. He wanted to hear how Wolf was doing, not about the doctor’s newest discovery.

  Dr. Sheehan scratched at his jaw, looking totally baffled. This was not a good sign. Nazaryth had sent Dog back to the castle to grab the healing plants, and he knew Wolf wouldn’t die from the venom in the spit, but it was some nasty-ass business. There was definitely going to be some scarring and possibly some muscle damage. The damage part was what worried him the most. Nazaryth had never seen one of his warriors take a hit like that before. None of them had ever gone down. If Wolf was permanently damaged, Nazaryth wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

  “And I’ve managed to stop the goop from eating any more of his skin. But there isn’t anything I can do about the destroyed muscle without taking him to the hospital for surgery.”

  “You can’t do that.” Nazaryth sighed.

  “No, I can’t.” Dr. Sheehan placed his hand on Nazaryth’s arm, offering him a warm smile. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”

  Nazaryth could see the sincerity in the doctor’s hazel eyes, but sincerity wasn’t going to get Wolf up and walking again. He gave a nod to the doctor and then walked into the bedroom to see Wolf laid out on the bed with his upper thigh encased in gauze. Jaycee was sitting by the bed, his elbows resting on his thighs, his hands cupped together as if he were praying. The small human’s eyes were glued to Wolf as he sat there silently.

  Gods, how the roles were reversed now.

  “When is he going to wake up?” Jaycee asked without looking away from Wolf.

  Nazaryth wished he had an answer. He had never dealt with the venomous spit except dodging the vile goo. None of his warriors had ever been this badly damaged.

  Until now.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Jaycee dropped his hands, his head turning slowly as he glared hatefully toward Nazaryth. “I never asked to be in this world,” he spat as he stood, his fists clenched at his sides. “But I’m here now. The only thing I had was Wolf, and now he may not recover?”

  “You left him!” Nazaryth shouted before he could pull his anger under wraps. He couldn’t believe Jaycee was basically accusing Nazaryth of getting Wolf hurt. He would do whatever he had to in order to ensure the safety of his beasts.

  They had all been by his side in Zanthar and stuck together when exiled. There wasn’t one damn thing Nazaryth wouldn’t do for any of them, including taking Wolf’s place right now. “Don’t hold a mighty tongue with me, human. He was fighting to keep you safe.”

  Jaycee gasped and turned around, his shoulders slumping as he stared down at the bed. “I’m sorry.”

  Nazaryth wasn’t sure if Jaycee was speaking to him or Wolf. He walked further into the room, standing on the opposite side of the bed as Wolf’s mate. He ran a hand over his face, feeling sick to his stomach at the bandages covering the beast’s upper leg. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. King Zephyr wasn’t supposed to win.

  They were the good guys.

  Good guys didn’t lose.

  “I didn’t mean to yell at you,” Jaycee said as he turned around, wiping at his eyes. “But Wolf is the first guy to ever take interest in me. And to be honest, it scared me, along with all the crazy monsters coming after me.”

  Shit. What was Nazaryth supposed to say to that?

  “Knock, knock,” Dog said as he walked into the bedroom, a small container with a lid in his hand. “I have what you wanted.”

  “Who are you?” Jaycee asked as he moved closer to Wolf, as if protecting the man. Nazaryth may have had hard feelings for the human when he left Wolf high and dry, but he could see that Jaycee was coming around. Wolf, along with the other beasts, deserved to find their zaterios, just like Nazaryth had. If Wolf’s took a little longer acclimating to their world, Nazaryth wouldn’t hold it against the human.

  “I’m Dog,” Dog said as he handed the paste over to Nazaryth. “And who are you?”

  Jaycee stood a little straighter, jutting his chin out as he laid his hand on Wolf’s, as if gaining some small measure of comfort by touching his mate. “I’m Jaycee, Wolf’s Cheerio.”

  Nazaryth cocked his head at Jaycee as Dog began to laugh. “Cheerio, I like that.”

  “What do you have?” Jaycee asked as he nodded toward the container in Nazaryth’s hand.

  “It’s a healing paste made of natural plants we grow,” Nazaryth answered him. “And you are about to learn how to apply it.”

  “Me?” Jaycee asked, his voice wobbling as his brows shot straight up.

  “Yes, you,” Dog said this time. “If you are going to stick around and be Wolf�
��s Cheerio”—Dog chuckled the word—“then you have to learn about winged beasts.”

  “Kind of like Wolf 101?”

  “Something like that,” Dog answered as Nazaryth handed Jaycee the bowl and showed the human how to spread the paste onto Wolf’s leg. Nazaryth gagged and his stomach lurched when he removed the bandage. The wound had already been cleaned by the doctor, but it was still a very nasty mess. The skin looked as though it had been put through a meat grinder, and there were black spots that looked as if they had been burnt to a crisp. He wasn’t sure if Wolf would even have full use of his leg after this.

  Nazaryth was extremely impressed when Jaycee didn’t even wince, but listened to everything Nazaryth told him, nodded, and then grabbed the paste and applied it until the container was empty.

  “Now what?” Jaycee asked as he set the container down. He glanced up at Nazaryth, waiting.

  “Rebandage his leg, Jaycee.” Nazaryth grinned as he handed the human the fresh bandages. “Be careful not to—” Nazaryth winced when Jaycee bumped Wolf’s leg and Wolf’s eyes flew open.

  “Fuck!” Wolf screamed as he grabbed his leg and then yelled again.

  “Let go of your leg!” Jaycee shouted as he struggled to get Wolf’s fingers from being curled around the paste.

  “Wolf!” Nazaryth snapped the one word loudly and the beast immediately let go. He was the winged beasts’ commander. The very first beast created. All other beasts listened to his commands. They were built that way. He normally didn’t use the commanding tone to get what he wanted, but Wolf had been trying to claw the skin from his leg.

  “Lay back while I bandage you!” Jaycee said in a no-nonsense tone as he knocked Wolf’s hand away. Dog snickered as Nazaryth curled his lips in, hiding his smile.

  “Just don’t smack my leg again,” Wolf gritted out.

  “Sorry, that was an accident. I’m new at this, okay?” Jaycee’s voice had turned soothing as he rubbed his hand over Wolf’s arm. “Lay back so I can get this done.”