Looking over to the far side of the room, he saw the person who had spoken, Jaakko, and he was blocking the exit through which Rik and Leevi had stealthily entered. Jaakko grinned at Rik, knowing he had them cornered, his lips curling up on the right hand side of his face, making him look like he was snarling. Rik could see that a nasty, raggedy scar on his face was causing this and wondered when he had gotten it. He certainly hadn’t had it last time Rik had met him.
Jaakko was the leader of these dissident rogues, and an utter bastard. Yes, Rik knew he and Leevi had been friends since childhood, but he had never taken to the man. Jaakko was a tall man, nearly as tall as Leevi, and not far off being as strong. Rik knew that he may well have been the clan’s Prime Alpha, if he had been less inclined to rely on his followers to do his dirty work and actually work more toward being a leader, so there were few people who could have gotten close enough to give him that scar. Rik guessed that Leevi had given it to him, and wondered what had happened.
But there wasn’t time to think of that. The only other way out was up the stairs to the upper floor and the lookout post, and chances were that Jaakko had more guards up there. Rik tensed, his eyes glancing rapidly to Leevi and then around the room wondering if they could knock Jaakko down and get past to the corridor behind him which led to some storerooms, and to the lower exit. Except Leevi was restrained, and there was no way he was going to exchange one prisoner—one of his loves—for another.
“Well now, isn’t this cozy? All three of you together.”
Summer swore. At least he thought she did from the tone of her voice, although it wasn’t a word he normally associated with swearing, and he guessed it must be an English one. He automatically moved in front of her.
Jaakko wasn’t finished making snide comments. “Men, we have dirty human-born half-bloods here. Lower than omegas.”
Rik quickly responded, “Say what you like about me, but let the girl go.”
He got a rough laugh back. “You don’t know, do you? The woman is half-blood just like you.” From the glee in his voice, Jaakko clearly thought he was telling him something he wasn’t aware of.
“On the contrary, we know.” He looked back at Summer, who was staring at him stunned. She had clearly guessed the importance of this.
“You’re a werewolf too?” Her voice was trembling, but her eyes told him something else, that she wasn’t afraid of him being a werewolf, a shifter. Instead she sounded almost relieved.
“Touching. Very touching.” Jaakko snorted. “Now save your explanations for later, in afterlife.”
As Jaakko raised his hand to indicate his men were to tie Leevi with the rope they had with them, Rik glanced at Leevi, who nodded his agreement to the question in Rik’s eyes, and they both instantly changed into wolf forms. He instinctively felt, rather than saw, Summer also changing.
Rik swore inwardly as he kicked out with his legs flinging the jeans and sneakers out of his way. Someone like Leevi, who had spent his life shifting, could hold his shift long enough that any clothes he was wearing as a human would simply fall to the floor before he coalesced into a wolf, but Rik only had a few years’ experience, and even then he had rarely tried shifting after his relationship with Leevi had broken up. This meant that he had changed too quickly and his forelegs were now caught in the arms of the shirt, although the front of the shirt had ripped open in the change. Wonderful. He looked like the Incredible Hulk. Bending his head he gripped the edge with his now elongated fangs and tore the tatters free from his body.
Turning his head, he saw Summer had fared better than he. Her top was lying on the floor, and she was wagging her behind to rid herself of her trousers, her boots already off. Women and female wolves did have the problem of a wider pelvis, he noted ruefully. And then there was the problem of the tail. Looking at her he tried to smile at her beautiful fair coat with gorgeous red tones just like her hair, but smoother furred than males as was common for the female wolves, but he forgot his muzzle was a different shape. Her eyes had changed into the almond shape of wolves, her iris spreading to encompass the whole of her eye, but the color staying the same as in human form, green. He guessed his were therefore brown. He already knew that Leevi’s would be brilliantly blue. Finally she kicked free of her clothing. He growled wondering where her underwear was.
That was the least of their problems, and in the scant seconds that he had taken to glance around, Leevi was free of the men holding him as they hadn’t expected to have an angry snarling wolf in their arms in the span of a heartbeat. Rik looked at him with pride. Leevi always did look stunning in wolf form. Pure white as befitted his Prime Alpha status, his beautiful coat fluffed out, making him seem superior.
Leevi suddenly leaped at his nemesis, and the men restraining him instinctively jumped back. Jaakko cried for help, the terror clear on his face.
Seeing their chance Rik barked at Summer, nipping her behind to get her to move up the stairs. The best way out now was on the next floor.
One of the men that had held Leevi suddenly turned wolf too to help his master, and jumped at the prime wolf before he got to Jaakko, the two of them rolling on the floor. Leevi, white, the other a gray, both of them with teeth bared, snarling, each trying to get the first bite, their heads moving back and forth swiftly, swiping their paws hoping to make a disabling blow or a fatal cut with their claws.
Rik was undecided whether to follow Summer, or to stay and help Leevi. In this moment of hesitancy, Jaakko pointed in their direction and called, “Tero.” Still un-shifted, the man called Tero kicked out at him, bruising his leg, and Rik squealed, his leg going under him, still painful from the fall to the floor in the dungeon cell. Summer stopped on the stairs, but Rik’s urgent bark got her moving again as he limped to his feet.
This was not the best place for a close fight. In fact it was a damned awful place for a confrontation, not that Rik was one for a fight normally. Nor had he ever fought in wolf form before.
Reaching the bottommost stair, his nails raking on the stone, Rik saw Leevi suddenly swipe his paw and claw the chest of the wolf he was fighting. The beast went down keening. His high pitched cries caused Rik to wince. No wolf liked noises in the upper register. As Leevi leaped toward him, nudging him to go up the stairs, the last thing he saw was the other man, Tero, the one who had kicked him, morphing into a wolf to stand guard in front of Jaakko, who was similarly turning.
With Leevi hot on his heels, Rik burst out into a room. This was the lookout room he recalled from Leevi’s description. It had a wooden balcony around three sides overlooking the valley, in particular the narrow path up from the defile. The fourth side led out onto the cliff top. Although he had seen it from below as they snuck up the path into the fort’s lower entrance, it was strange to view it from this angle, but he could tell it was a good position to view the valley, although all he could see were gray storm clouds and rain battering the windows. Looking around he saw the heavy wooden doors that were the main entrance into the fort from the top of the ridge. Unfortunately they were closed, and the only way to open them was to turn back into human form. Damn. But with Jaakko and Tero behind them there wasn’t time to do that.
Summer, where was she?
He swiveled his head urgently, and nearly turned back into human at the sight. Summer was at the back of the room behind a table. He could see she was on top of another guard who was still in human form, and she was ripping his throat out, the club with which he must have attempted to strike her lying nearby. It was almost difficult to tell them apart, the red tones of her coat blending in with the green shirt of the man, wolves having problems seeing in the red-green spectrum.
Hell. She appeared to have no mercy. He choked back some spittle, wondering what the taste must be like in her throat, and had to remind himself that the woman with whom he’d had the most amazing sex, the woman who was his mate, was a wolf too. Or at least a half-wolf, like him.
All this took place in a split second, but he had to move
as Leevi was at his back, so he trotted over to Summer, his leg paining him. Just in time. One of the men guarding outside then came in through the outer doors yelling for the other, “Kimmo.”
Rik saw Leevi immediately jump on the one who shouted, pushing him into the corner of the room and slamming into a pile of chairs. The man had no chance, and his body slumped to the floor as the chairs crashed around them, the sound of splintering wood echoing around the room. Rik’s heart lurched, but he saw Leevi rise to his feet unharmed, shaking his white-as-snow fur as he took a deep breath.
As Jaakko and Tero came up the stairs, Rik turned around to place himself in front of Summer as she backed into the corner, shielding her. It was instinctive, his need to protect his mate. The remaining guard from outside, Kimmo, transformed into a wolf as Leevi jumped onto the table in the middle of the room, taking the higher ground, ready to pounce on anyone who moved in their direction.
The man Leevi had leaped on was clearly unconscious, or dead, judging by his immobility. Unless there were any more outside, it was now three against three. Better odds with three already down, Rik thought. Unfortunately, the other three blocked the entrance and, whilst Jaakko had been mocking them, he was right about one thing. He and Summer could never be full wolves, giving the others an advantage of size and strength. On the other hand, he and Summer were fast, and they had the Prime Alpha on their side.
Rik was aware of a smell permeating his nostrils, the smell of scent-marking by means of urination around the room done by Jaakko’s men to warn anyone off. He sneezed in response to the irritation and glanced up, relishing the pride he felt at Leevi, who was snarling from his superior position, his body huge, legs splayed, tail standing out vertically, hackles raising his fur as he stood center stage ready to take down anyone else who made the first move. Even Jaakko backed up a little at this display of superiority.
Two things happened at once. Kimmo, defending the entrance, leaped at Leevi, but couldn’t gain a footing on the table as Leevi refused to give any space, and he fell off. He moved instead to stalk around the table away from Jaakko, but towards Rik and Summer.
At the same time the wolf nearest Rik, Tero, moved forward menacingly in his direction. If he had been in human form Rik would have laughed. Even experienced werewolves had problems shifting while wearing clothes, and he could see the wolf still had a sock around one leg, which clearly irritated him as he kept trying to kick it off as he padded forward.
Still angry about the blow he had been given, Rik decided to lure Tero away from Summer, hoping that Leevi would keep the other two from her, so he jumped out of the window on his right that overlooked the balcony onto a rain-slicked deck. Fuck. He hadn’t thought that through, and he instinctively dug his claws into the decking. He heard a deep bark from behind him despite the thunder that roared at that moment. Jaakko clearly wanted the guard to stay near him. It didn’t work. The lure of getting Rik by himself won out, and Tero followed.
Rik swallowed in fear as he skidded on the balcony, his injured leg causing some inflexibility. Glancing over the edge, he realized he hadn’t appreciated how high up it was. Shit.
Tero came toward him, and Rik growled. The close quarters made him aware of how much bigger the other one was in wolf form than Rik, who was more humanoid, his body covered in the same dark brown fur as his human hair, but not as thick as the coats of real wolves. Tero’s fur was rising as he raised his hackles. Rik tried not to be intimidated as he backed up slowly, keeping his eyes on the other wolf, not wanting to divert his attention in case he was pounced on, but keeping his instincts open to his surroundings. He could feel the light yield of the wood of the balcony beneath him, the damp swirl of the air as it blew up the valley and swept across the balcony, almost forcing him to his stomach, the wet smell of the pine trees and hanging moss as they tossed about in the storm. It felt odd to have the railing above his head. Getting used to a viewpoint from a different height was something that had always bothered him before and upset his coordination, a dexterity he badly needed now as the light was dim in the storm.
When his back paw hit air he knew he had reached the end of this side of the balcony. He also knew it curved around as the back wall came into his peripheral vision. The minute his eyes glanced to the side to confirm this, Tero saw his moment and jumped. Rik felt the change in the air ruffle his fur, and a frisson of fear rushed through his body. He froze. Christ. This was a wolf, a wild animal coming at him, and he had to fight hard to stop his human self from turning back in that instant.
Hearing Leevi’s snarls from the other room brought him back from the brink, and he jumped forward, his right shoulder hitting the one coming against him, crashing him against the side of the building. Pain ripped through his other shoulder as he slammed it against the stone. His tail was trapped, and he yelped. But he was better off than Tero as the clash had forced him to fall the other way, and Rik could see he had fallen to the edge and was scrabbling to hold onto the wood of the balcony.
Jumping up, Rik’s first—human—instinct was to grab hold of the Tero’s arm to pull him back, but as he reached out a paw he saw he was still in wolf form. It was then too late, and Tero went over, falling down into the valley, a keening cry echoing as he fell. Rik ran to the edge and watched the body hit a tree, bouncing off one then another.
Briefly he wondered if that would have cushioned the fall at all, but he didn’t have time as he heard a higher pitched whine and had to shake his head to clear it. The enhanced hearing that often hurt his ears was even more acute in wolf form.
The sound was coming from Summer.
He intuitively knew it was a sound of someone needing help, and he wanted to shout, “Leave my woman alone,” but all that came out was a growl of warning. It was also getting harder to think in human terms. His brain hurt if he tried, so he let his human side go, drawing on the instinctiveness of his wolf.
Running along the front of the balcony he charged at the door which opened inwards on that side, and as he did he inadvertently knocked into the guard wolf, Kimmo, as he stalked around the table toward Summer.
Leevi, on the table, was almost in a panic, wanting to jump down to stop him attacking Summer, who had backed so far into the corner she was practically plastered to it, her body, ears, and tail low, submissive-like, but Rik could see Leevi didn’t dare take his eyes off Jaakko, who was still guarding the front entrance waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Kimmo had fallen, and Rik took this opportunity to get the upper hand. He leaped onto the downed wolf, intent on keeping Kimmo pinned down and giving Summer a chance to escape. Behind him he heard Summer move to join him instead, and the weight of the two of them on top of the wolf forced an injury, and Rik heard a leg bone break, followed by a whimpering cry.
Rik glanced up and caught the gaze of Leevi. Seeing that Summer was protected, Leevi turned back to Jaakko, his growl almost one of delight, glad to be one-on-one. Out of the corner of his eye, Rik saw Jaakko had turned tail and ran, taking the fight outside with Leevi following. He knew Leevi was very fast in wolf-form and would catch the usurper.
Looking around, Rik could see that there was no one else left standing in the fort apart from him and Summer, who thankfully seemed unhurt. He breathed a deep sigh, and let his wolf return back into a human.
The other werewolf in the room stared at him uncomprehendingly. “Come back to me, Summer. It’s over. There’s no one else left. They are all down. Come on, sweetheart,” he crooned soothingly. Relief hit him as her body shimmered and changed. She threw herself into his arms, shaking. He held her tightly, running his arms over her back, instinctively checking her for wounds, wanting to lick the blood from her body—the blood of the wolf she had killed.
After a moment she pulled back. “Where’s the other one?”
“Leevi? He’s outside with the leader of this misbegotten rabble.”
“Hell, we’d better help him.”
He could feel her start to change form,
and stated sharply, “No. Not this time. Stay human.” He could see she was uncertain, but she did as he requested, and they got to their feet.
She hung back, gesturing to the injured wolf on the floor. “What about him?”
Rik knelt down to check on Kimmo. “He’s unconscious and won’t be going anywhere fast, not with that leg. He’s fine.” He quickly checked on the other one by the door that was still in human form, but seeing his head was at an odd angle, indicating he was dead, Rik quickly ushered Summer out of the building.
They moved just outside the door. His leg was really hurting now, as they tentatively checked that there were no more wolves waiting in ambush and then viewed the fight taking place in front of them. Thankfully, the rain seemed to have suddenly stopped, or at least, moved away from the valley.
Jaakko had taken the high ground this time, having pounced onto a boulder twenty feet away. Rik could see Leevi tensing, unsure whether to back away or move in closer. This moment of indecision cost him as Jaakko suddenly leaped off the boulder at the Prime Alpha.
Summer instinctively lurched forward. Rik lunged, grabbing her around the waist, holding her tightly against his body. His lips against her temple spoke quietly. “No, baby. This is between them. We can’t interfere.”
Despite his own words, he winced as Jaakko’s body fell through the air towards Leevi, but thankfully Leevi dived to the side at the last moment, thwarting this move. Even Rik could see they were fairly evenly matched. Well, even only because Jaakko had held back earlier as his henchmen had attacked the three of them, knowing he had more guards on this upper level. Outnumbered as they were, Rik knew it had taken a lot of out them, Leevi more than he or Summer as Leevi was the Prime Alpha, and as the only full wolf among them, he had taken out the wolf in the room below, and then the guard at the door, not to mention the three earlier when they had arrived at the fort. Jaakko was now Leevi’s sixth confrontation, and unfortunately, as time passed and the battle dragged on, it was beginning to show. Just when Leevi needed his full strength to take down his former Beta, the next strongest wolf in the clan, he didn’t have it and the strain was beginning to take its toll on him.
The Last Werewolf (The Weres of Europe) Page 11