Christ, forget about Summer wanting to help Leevi, Rik felt he couldn’t stand by and watch the man he loved be killed. But he had to. It was the law of the pack.
An old quote came to his head, from Kipling’s 'The Jungle Book’ he seemed to recall. “If ye fight with the wolf of a pack, fight him alone and afar, lest others take part in the quarrel and the pack be diminished by war.” Or something like that. He snorted. Of course, this was real life, and not a fictional story. And he wasn’t one of the pack as had been made very clear to him when he’d been here before, back when Leevi had turned him into a werewolf.
Rik gasped, and his reminiscences faded fast as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Jaakko’s jaws came inches away from Leevi’s throat as he charged at him. He heard the clash of Jaakko’s teeth against themselves as Leevi jerked his head to the side. Urgency thrummed through Rik’s body, and he could feel the same desperate need to join in the quarrel from the body of the woman he held. That gave him enough pause to hold back. This was the person he was mated with. And being a woman, she just wasn’t as strong as they were, and she would get hurt. He wasn’t being chauvinistic. It was the laws of nature, female wolves were smaller.
But she was fiercely struggling in his arms. Jaakko now had Leevi on the ground, his body covering the Alpha’s. Leevi howled as claws dug into his side as Jaakko clung on tenaciously despite Leevi’s frenetic movements to dislodge him.
Things seemed to stand still for a moment as Rik saw Leevi look him in the eye. Jaakko’s mouth was about to close on the neck for a killing bite, and Rik realized in that moment that he had left it too late to help his other mate. His heart lurched in pain and the look Rik gave back said, 'I will always love you.’ He pulled on his were-power for a moment just enough to let his scent change, so that Leevi would know the truth of his feelings, letting his scene carry through the air.
This seemingly gave Leevi the support for one last rush of power as he surged to his hind legs, twisting his body as he did, heaving his opponent off him.
Even Summer cried out at the strength that must have taken, and both he and Summer jerked forward to help, only to stop dead in their tracks when Jaakko’s body went flying, his grip on Leevi’s body broken, his four legs clawing the air gripping nothing.
An unearthly scream followed as Jaakko’s body was impaled by the branch of the tree behind him.
Summer screamed, and fell to her knees in horror, “Oh dear God.”
Rik felt sick. He might have hated the man, but the sight of the former Beta’s body, now turned back to its human form, skewered on the branch, twitching as he died, was not one he would have wished on anyone. An injury like that was beyond even what a werewolf could recover from. Leevi, meanwhile, raised his head and howled, the howl of the victorious Alpha.
Lethargy left Rik’s body, and he moved forward to Leevi, who stood, trembling, but alive, also back to human form now, bent forward, his chest heaving, tongue still hanging out instinctively. Rik wrapped his arms around his love and held him hard before pulling back to inspect him for wounds.
Leevi laughed hoarsely, “I’m all right. Just a few slashes and bites. Mostly just exhausted. How’s Summer?”
Rik turned on his heels, feeling torn. He had forgotten her for a few moments to see to his other love. Christ, what a mess.
Chapter Nine
It was Leevi who moved toward Summer, holding her tenderly in his arms as the realization of the events of the last hour hit them all.
She had slumped to her knees, the hard, stony ground digging into them, her hand covering her mouth as nausea threatened. She felt sick to her stomach, not only because of seeing Jaakko impaled on the branch, the sight of his body, back to its human form, twitching as he died, the piercing sound of his dying keen, but she was now recalling in vivid detail the moment she had killed a man herself.
As she had rounded the top of the spiral stairs into the room with the windows overlooking the valley, there had been a man there moving toward her, clearly intent on finding out what was happening on the floor below, a simple wooden club in his hands.
Her instinctive reactions had been fear, panic, and the need to defend herself. Without a second—human—thought she had leapt at him, her claws digging into his chest. She had known that her claws were not as sharp as a normal werewolf like Leevi, and that she had to take other action, and so, as his head jerked back when she had flown at him, her jaws had automatically closed around his throat, hot liquid and soft flesh in her mouth. He had dropped his club as his hands had come up and clenched around her head to try to force her off him, but it was over in seconds, and he had fallen to the floor dead.
Immediately a dark brown wolf had come up the stairs barking at her. It had been Rik, and suddenly there were lots of beings, men and wolves, in the room, and she had forgotten about the man she had killed, until now. Now she could taste his blood in her mouth, and she remembered her own ferocity. Now she could feel the moment his life had been extinguished, and with a cry, she shuddered in Leevi’s arms, before turning away to heave the contents of her stomach on the ground, still wet from the storm.
“Shh, it’s okay. It’s over now.” Leevi’s calming voice filtered through as he stroked her back, reassuring her, crouching by her side.
“Is she going to be all right?” She heard Rik’s concern as he too bent over, brushing her hair from her face.
“She will be. Go and get our clothes, will you? I’m going to take her down the path, away from here. There’s the old storeroom at the base of the fort, remember?” Leevi sounded in charge, and that helped. She instinctively knew she could trust him.
“Oh. Okay.”
“And while you are there, see if there is anyone alive and immobilize them if they are. We don’t want them coming after us.”
That sent Summer heaving again. Please, God, let this be a dream.
When Rik left them, Leevi gathered her in his arms, holding her head against his shoulder, his hand stroking her flank—no, her hip, she wasn’t in wolf form anymore. He then lifted her, cradling her as he started down the path, his steps slow but sure as he traversed the steep path.
As her sobs began to quiet, her hands unclenched, and she started to notice the man holding her. He was taller than Rik, but leaner, although, held closely like this she could feel his raw muscular strength. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on his body. His chest was covered with a light dusting of fair hairs. She ran her hand over his chest, and felt a tingle in her fingertips, and had a sudden urge to jump down from his arms and present her backside to him in a gesture of submission.
She shook her head. Leevi might be an Alpha, but I’m not in wolf form anymore. I’m human again. She was finding it hard to adjust back. Looking up, she could see he was staring down at her. His expression was a mixture of concern and surprise. She wondered what he was so surprised at. Summer dropped her hand and just enjoyed the feeling of being securely held as he confidently walked down the winding path, which was not the easiest to see in the dim light as the sky was still overcast. She trembled at the coolness of the late morning air, and looking around her, she took in the smell of damp earth saturating the air, the sound of forest critters flitting about, and the shadows of the imposing cliff face as it loomed over the valley.
Leevi hadn’t said a word so far. It was very peaceful—if one forgot the events which had just unfolded. She then recalled he had just been in a life and death fight himself, and was injured, and jerked in his arms.
“What?” His voice was deep, more accented than Rik’s, probably because Leevi lived in the country, unlike Rik whose apartment was in the country’s capital city. “Will you stop fidgeting?”
“You were hurt. Please put me down. I’m all right now.”
Leevi didn’t accede to her wishes, but simply said, “We’re there now.”
“Where?” She craned her neck around and saw Leevi was moving toward the door of a small camouflaged building at the base of the cl
iff as the path had taken them down to the bottom of the fort. She struggled violently. “I’m not going back inside.”
Unable to keep her in his arms, Leevi had to let her down, but he still held firmly onto her waist. “This isn’t inside the fort. It is just an external room, a kind of hunter’s lodge. There’ll be water where we can wash.”
That took the struggle out of Summer. “Oh. Yes, please. I would very much like to clean the blood off me.”
“Well, come on then.”
Leevi led the way into the small, dark room, turning on an electric light as he did. It wasn’t much, so he left the door open to provide more. She looked around her. It was about ten feet in diameter with a simple metal sink in one corner. Around the sides of the room were crates and boxes of varying sorts, and, bizarrely, some abandoned clothes lying scattered.
Following her gaze, Leevi explained, “I guess those clothes were ones that were forgotten.” When she frowned trying to comprehend how anyone could forget their clothes, even after shifting back from wolf form, Leevi grunted defensively. “Rik said that you had grown up around humans. This area is on pack lands. We are careful around humans—in fact, as this is in the National Park, we have to be extra vigilant—but there are times when the pack might go hunting here, say on full moon, and then go straight home afterwards, forgetting they had left their clothes here.”
“This is so—so alien to me.”
She felt the man, or should she call him wolf she wondered, tense and she resisted the urge to step back. She wasn’t short, but he towered over her, and that scared her slightly. She guessed it was because he was somewhat brooding and sullen.
Needing to explain what she meant, Summer continued, “I just meant it’s not what I am used to, not having been around other wolves before now.” She shivered. Clearly noticing this, Leevi wrapped his arms around her in a soothing manner, and she felt a jolt go through her body. It felt similar to the first time Rik had touched her, when he had bumped into her at the airport, and she felt that urge again to submit. Stop it. I can’t be attracted to two men. Anyhow, Leevi is gay. Then she remembered that this was the man Rik had been in love with, and Rik had clearly stated that he was bisexual. Did that mean Leevi was too? Pulling away, she made a determined effort to stay a few feet away. His closeness was unnerving her. Leevi might be attractive to her, but she wasn’t going to get involved with him. But it wasn’t easy. There was almost a coercion to touch him, stroke him, lick him. Dammit. It’s the wolf in me again.
Looking down at her hands, stained with dried blood, she reminded him, “Um. You said something about a wash.”
Leevi gestured to the sink in the corner without a word. The water was cold, probably coming from fresh groundwater, but it was incredibly refreshing, and it felt like the best thing in the world to get rid of the stench and muck. She would relax more if only she didn’t feel Leevi staring at her back.
Deciding to try conversation again, she asked, “Can you explain what you mean by 'pack’? Are there more of you, werewolves, than those we fought? I thought I was the last one of my, our, kind.”
“We have three clan areas in Finland, this is the Central clan area of which I am the clan leader, or Prime Alpha.”
Summer stopped washing to take this information in. Not only was it stupendous that there were lots more werewolves than she had initially thought, but that this man, Leevi, was even more important than she had realized. The idea that someone so high up on the wolf hierarchy would come and rescue her? It was almost like one of those romance movies where heroes are dashing and save swooning damsels in distress. “Go on.”
“Um, well, there are eight packs in our clan.”
She frowned. “But who were those men, the ones that took me? Were they one of the other packs?”
“No. It is a long story, but Jaakko, the one I fought on the cliff top, was the beta of my pack and my childhood friend in my birth pack. He also wanted to be the clan’s Prime Alpha, but I won the competition, with the Council’s unanimous approval. He has resented me ever since and has tried on many occasions to challenge my authority, usually furtively instead of out in the open, as is our proper custom. So he and his companions of like mind separated from the clan and formed a rogue pack.”
Summer shivered as she recalled the fight, and then felt Leevi come over and stroke her back. “Will there be any fallout with your Council to what happened, what we did with those men, those shifters?”
“I will talk to them.” His face looked shuttered as if he didn’t want to talk about it. “Are you cold?”
“No, not really.” She was surprised that she wasn’t. In fact, she felt like she was having a hot flash and pulled away from him. As she turned she saw the deep gashes on his chest more closely. “Christ, those look painful.” Taking hold of the cloth she tried to wash away the dirt.
“Ow.”
Looking up, startled at Leevi’s cry, she then chuckled. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I thought you were the head wolf around here. Stop being a baby, a pup, or whatever the Finnish version of a young wolf is.”
“Sudenpentu. In English, a wolf cub, I think.” He stood still a moment, and then took the cloth from her. “In my clan the females would lick their alpha clean.”
Summer stared at him shocked, her jaw dropped to the ground.
“Saliva is very good at cleansing wounds, don’t you know?”
Unsure what to do next, she suddenly noticed he was struggling to hold back a chuckle.
She gasped, infuriated, and slugged him on the arm, giggling. “You pig.”
“Stop bad-mouthing my species. I am not a member of the pig race, only of wolves.”
Smiling at him, she wasn’t quite sure if he was teasing her or not. She suspected he didn’t laugh often. Her laughter diminished as she frowned again at his wounds. “Are you sure you are all right?”
Dropping the cloth, Leevi reached out to cup her face in his hands, and she trembled. His scent was overwhelming her senses. It was intoxicating. Watching him, she could see he was caught in the grip of the sensation too and was struggling with the compulsion that was overcoming them.
He jerked away trying to regain control. “Tell me a little about you. Rik said that you are English, but your mother was from these parts? Do you have siblings?” He grinned sheepishly. “Are they going to come over here and get into trouble, too?”
Her laugh was husky. “No, just me. My mother was called Emma. I came to see if I had any family here. My grandmother, I believe, was called Annukka Salonen. Would you know anything about her?” she asked, not really expecting him to be able to answer her.
His smile this time was soft. “Oh yes. I know Annukka. She sits on the Clan Council.”
Summer’s hands went up to her mouth. “Oh my God. I hadn’t thought she would still be alive after all these years. Those men said she was, but I didn’t know if they were telling the truth or not.” Without a thought she flung herself into Leevi’s arms, hugging him tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
As his arms wrapped around her, she suddenly became aware of his erect cock prodding her stomach. The look on his face showed uncertainty. “I’m sorry, Summer. I’m not entirely sure why this is happening, but it could possibly have something to do with the adrenaline rush we’ve just experienced. I know you have bonded with Rik, but my wolf wants to mate with you too.”
She made a last ditch attempt at humor, “Only your wolf, eh? Glad to know you’re not interested in me. But, of course, you’re gay.”
Her senses were enhanced, and she noticed the second he changed, his body suddenly straighter, his demeanor dominant. Summer moved away in response to the possible threat.
“Summer.” Leevi said that quite forcefully, almost in warning, telling her to stay still. “Like Rik I am bisexual. Some shifters are because a wolf can have more than one mate, though that happens mostly with primes and pack masters alone. Mates can be either gender, so…”
Swallowing nerv
ously, she found she couldn’t retreat anymore as she was backed into the corner. “Oh.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say but lifted her chin to expose her neck to him in time-honored fashion. It was instinctive, and she felt him nip her as his hands settled on her ass to draw her to him. She couldn’t fight the pull anymore, the desire to have sex with this new mate. It was too strong. She could feel his erect cock against her stomach and rubbed her head against his, licking his shoulder, tasting the salty sweat as it dried, and her hands came around to clasp him to her. She could feel her fingertips turning into tiny claws as her body demanded she turn into wolf.
As she tried to pull back, worried by her body’s demands, Leevi held her tightly. “Don’t fight it. If your body wants to shift, then let it. You will probably find it will want to change more strongly if you struggle against it.”
Looking at him, she could see his blond fur was sprouting, but not as thick as it had been when they had been fighting. It was like a part-meld. His face was mostly human still, but she could see his fangs. Her heart racing, she ran her hand through the fur on his arms, it was softer than she expected, and she let her own body shift a fraction, feeling a sense of relief as she did. Whenever she had made love to anyone in the past she’d fought hard to stop turning and her attention had mainly been on maintaining her human form, and not on the lovemaking.
“You look so beautiful. I adore your tattoo. It’s very apt.”
Startled, she looked up at him and could see the desire for her in his eyes, which were now in their almond wolf shape, but it was Leevi’s piercing blue eyes that stared at her. She moved out of his arms then, spun around, and went down on all fours. Though she did not shift all the way, as only her vision changed, and her claws, fangs and tail popped up. She curled her tail out of the way to expose her vagina to him. She heard a growl from behind her, but wasn’t worried. In fact, she grinned to herself, knowing she had succeeded, her previous indecisions all rescinded. It was the growl of one mate to another when the male knows the female is in heat.
The Last Werewolf (The Weres of Europe) Page 12