by Gem Frost
He didn’t dare move slowly, because Rich might wake up at any time, and the moment he discovered his keys missing, they’d know precisely where he was headed. They might block the streets, or send the town’s single police car to run him down. He moved from tree to tree, as stealthily and rapidly as he could, and at last the clinic was in sight. He had to cross a quiet road and go out in the open for thirty feet or so, but seconds later he was slipping into the Lexus, and turning the key in the ignition.
He glanced in the mirror as he sped past the small sign that read Thanks for visiting Wolf Green! No cars were behind him, and he turned off the main road quickly, taking the most wending route he could think of that led west in the hopes of discouraging immediate pursuit.
Despite the fact that he’d just committed grand larceny, he was pretty sure no one would call the human cops on him—wolves didn’t want humans involved in their business in general, and the Alpha wouldn’t take kindly to anyone involving human police in his son’s affairs. They’d probably try to hunt him down on their own.
But the national forest was a very big place, and he intended to lose himself so thoroughly that even a wolf’s scenting powers couldn’t find him.
✽✽✽
“I cannot believe you let my son escape.”
Rich knew all too well that his status as town doctor wouldn’t save him this time. Faced with the stone-cold stare of the Alpha, he cringed, lowering his head in an automatic submissive gesture.
“I’m sorry, sir. He tricked me, and then he moved so quickly—”
“You are aware he is remarkably strong and fast right now.” The Alpha’s voice was cold enough to freeze water. “You told me that in your report. Unusually high cortisol levels, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry. I thought I had him sufficiently sedated. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to inject him with the steroidogenesis inhibitor before he… left town.” Rich decided not to mention the issue of his stolen Lexus and his missing cash. He had a sneaking suspicion the Alpha wouldn’t be especially sympathetic about that particular matter.
“So my son is still ill from this cortisol problem, and in the process of life-bonding too. And you let him steal your keys and your money, and drive off to Lupus knows where.”
The fact that the Alpha already knew about the theft wasn’t promising. Rich had mentioned it to the guards when the three of them woke up, so that meant the Alpha must have grilled the guards already. Rich hoped they’d survived the encounter. None of this was their fault, and he didn’t blame them, not really. He blamed himself for not being more alert.
“Sir, we can go after him—”
“Who knows where he might have gone?” The Alpha growled, a very canine sound despite his current human form. “Last time it was Crystal City. But despite his medical problems and their effect on his mental processes, he’s probably smart enough not to return to the same hunting grounds. If he wants to prey on humans, he could go anywhere. From here it’s not a long drive to Washington DC, or Richmond, or Baltimore…”
“I don’t think he’s gone to a city,” Rich blurted, and instantly wished he hadn’t. For him to interrupt the Alpha while speaking… well, he was already in enough trouble. But the Alpha looked at him with a lifted eyebrow.
“No? Then where, precisely, do you think he’s gone?”
“His body is beginning the life-bonding process, remember? He’s probably gone to find young MacArthur. Did you tell him you’d exiled Jon?”
The Alpha hesitated, then nodded, reluctantly.
“Then he’s headed toward Jon. I can almost guarantee it. The life-bonding process isn’t easy for a wolf to set aside. It tends to take precedence over everything. Even an ill wolf, one with Caeden’s issues, couldn’t ignore those instincts. They’ll take him in search of Jon, and he knows where you send wolves when they’ve been exiled.”
“The National Forest is huge.”
“It is. But he’ll search until he finds Jon… or until he dies trying.”
The Alpha flinched as if he’d been struck. He spoke, his voice lower and more rumbling than ever.
“Then we must find him.”
Chapter 15
“Where are you going, Alaric?”
The Alpha paused in mid-stride as he stalked toward the front door of the Wolf residence. He turned his head and saw his wife standing on the staircase, studying him with her bright blue eyes. She was as slender as she had been as a young woman, but her long ebony hair had silvered with the years. But to his eyes, she was still as beautiful as ever.
Which was no surprise. Once life-bonded, a wolf could not see his mate as anything but beautiful. But he knew that it wasn’t merely bias on his part. His wife was objectively lovely.
“I am concerned about our son.” He spoke as coolly as he could, hoping she wouldn’t see through him, as she all too often did. “I thought I’d go for a walk and clear my head.”
She tilted her head on one side and observed him for a long moment.
“Or perhaps you thought you’d go find him, and bring him home.”
He blew out an annoyed sigh. “Hattie…”
“I’m not an idiot, Alaric.” She walked down the remaining stairs, then strode across the marble floor to join him. “I know how you think. Last time, you sent Jon MacArthur to find him, and that led to disaster. So now you’ve decided to trust no one with this mission, and to instead do it yourself.”
The Alpha looked down into her blue eyes, the color of the water one sometimes found in a mountain stream on a bright spring day. She understood him like no one else ever had, and for a brief moment he wondered if that was what his son had found with Jon. But he pushed the thought away. Hattie was a high-ranking beta, intelligent, forceful, and brave, and that made her eminently suitable to be an Alpha’s mate. Jon, on the other hand—
He shuddered slightly at the thought, and focused on the conversation at hand.
“I have to bring him back,” he answered, willing her to understand. “He is our son, Hattie. And furthermore, he is the only hope for this Pack. If something happens to me—”
She spoke softly. “You and I both know that there are other Wolfs out there.”
“Driven from this Pack, long ago. They are irrelevant, and you know it. I cannot allow some distant cousin to stroll into Wolf Green and take it over. No… Caeden is the only possible leader for our people. And that means we must retrieve him somehow.”
“But surely you realize that you yourself cannot go to find him.”
He stiffened. “Why not?”
“It would leave the town unprotected. Vulnerable. As I said, there are other Wolfs out there, and rogue alphas as well. The town cannot be left without a leader. And furthermore—you are not as strong as you once were, Alaric. You are still a proud and noble leader, but you cannot be expected to run miles every day, searching for your son. Let someone younger do it. In fact—” She brightened. “Why not have Dr. Bronson and the two guards perform this service for the Pack? That way, you could punish them for their failure to keep Caeden confined, and take advantage of the fact that they are all strong young men as well.”
The Alpha felt himself bristle at the suggestion that he was incapable of running long distances for days or weeks on end, and yet he knew it was no insult, but only the stark truth. He was already four years past the time he should have retired as Alpha, and every year he felt the creeping shadows of age grow closer. If a rogue alpha should try to take over the Pack, he might not have the strength to defeat them. No one felt that danger more keenly than he did.
He needed to bring Caeden back, and have Dr. Bronson find some way to correct his physical problem. And he needed it soon, before old age rendered him frail and toothless.
“All right,” he said, grudgingly. “I’ll send those young men to find our son.”
✽✽✽
Jon was sick to death of rabbit meat.
He could live on rabbits, of course, but h
e sure as hell didn’t enjoy it—though it was undeniably better than squirrel meat. In the past two weeks, he’d varied his diet with a few squirrels who didn’t race for the trees quickly enough to avoid him, but every time he’d deeply regretted it. Squirrel meat was disgusting. He thought longingly of the human food he’d loved to cook in his bungalow—steak and mashed potatoes, spaghetti, parmesan chicken—and heaved a long, mournful sigh.
He trotted along through the woods on four paws, grumbling to himself. Maybe now that his bruises and cracked ribs were healed, he thought, it was time to try to take down a deer. It wasn’t easy for a single wolf to take down a deer, even a small one—deer were stupid, but incredibly fast— but venison would taste very good about now. After two weeks of nothing but rabbit, he could really use…
His thoughts trailed off. His nose, which had been trailing a rabbit without much interest, had suddenly detected a new and much more fascinating scent. He lowered his long snout, almost pressing it to the ground, and sniffed deeply. His heart pounded in his furry chest.
Cae, he thought, bewildered. But it can’t be…
But it was. He couldn’t be mistaken about something like that. Like the rest of the Pack, he possessed the lupine ability to identify and categorize smells, and an alpha’s scent was among the strongest. At any rate, he knew his oldest friend’s warm, musky scent like he knew his own name.
Somehow, some way, Cae was right here in this forest.
Jon followed the trail eagerly, his tail held high, and twenty minutes later it became so clear that he could lift his head. The wind, he found, was blowing Cae’s scent right at him.
He wanted to charge his friend happily, tail wagging, but his native wolf caution demanded that he scout out the area first. He drifted silently through the trees like a wraith, sniffing carefully, but there were no odors here that shouldn’t be, other than his old friend’s scent. Through the tree trunks, he could see Cae’s campsite—a small tent, a full backpack, a ring of stones for the fire, and—
And Cae himself, just sitting there, staring into space.
Cae’s stubble had become a beard, and his hair was longer and wavier than ever. He looked incredibly gorgeous. But most importantly, he was alone, and that was all Jon needed to know. His animal caution evaporated, and he burst into a run. A second later he was fawning all over his friend, licking his face and whining, rolling in his lap and waving his paws in the air as if he were a golden retriever. Cae looked astounded.
“Jon!” He wrapped his arms around Jon’s shaggy ruff and held him, burying his face in his fur. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I knew you were here somewhere…”
Jon wagged his tail frantically and licked Cae’s hand, a gesture of submission as well as affection.
“I’m sorry.” Cae sounded hoarse, choked with tears. Jon remembered him crying that night they’d made love in the junkyard, remembered him longing for home. Jon knew how that felt, now. “It’s my fault—my father shouldn’t have kicked you out, not after everything you did—not after you saved me—I’m so sorry, Jon—”
All at once, Jon remembered that summer fourteen years ago, when Cae had broken his leg. He remembered his own voice saying, Don’t cry, Cae. The memory was vivid, and he licked Cae’s face, trying to comfort him again. Trying to tell him without words that it was all right, that he didn’t blame anyone but himself. Not even the Alpha.
He’d made the decisions that had led to him being exiled here, after all. He’d known precisely what he was risking, and he’d made the choice to go ahead and gamble with his life.
He’d risked everything for Cae, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Jon had been in his wolf form for two solid weeks now, and in the wilderness he found it hard to let his guard down enough to shift to human form anyway. But he wanted to greet Cae in a more human fashion, so he concentrated, and managed it.
It hadn’t occurred to him that in his human form, he’d be curled up naked in Cae’s lap. But the other man didn’t seem to mind. He laughed, a happy, unguarded sound, and held Jon closer, his arms tightening around Jon’s waist.
“I missed you,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on the stylized wolf tattoo on the side of Jon’s throat. “I left town pretty much as soon as I could stand up, and the only thing I stopped for was gear. This tent, clothes, a hunting knife. Then I came to find you. I missed you so much.”
“Yeah.” Jon’s voice sounded rusty, and he wasn’t sure if it was from disuse, or tears. “Me too. I missed you a hell of a lot, Caeden. Cae.”
Their mouths met, a hot, wet kiss that said everything words couldn’t. A long, intimate kiss that spoke of their anguished need, their longing, their craving for one another. At last Cae pulled his head away and pressed his face into Jon’s shaggy blond hair.
“Damn it,” he growled under his breath. “Damn it. I can’t—I can’t—I’m not going to go on living without you, Jon. Fuck my dad, fuck the Pack, fuck their stupid taboos. Fuck them all. You saved me. And I—I can’t—”
His voice broke, and he lowered his head, burying his face in Jon’s shoulder. Jon stroked his hair, trying to offer comfort.
“You have to go back, Cae,” he said softly. “You belong there.”
“So do you,” Cae muttered, his voice gruff.
“Not any more. The Alpha exiled me. Remember?”
Caeden lifted his head, and in his golden eyes Jon saw something flare, a hint of the madness that had consumed him in the city. Uneasiness squirmed in Jon’s gut.
“When he exiled you, he exiled me.” Cae’s voice was low, dangerous. “And I’ve been thinking about it, and how to make it right. I’ve spent the past week and a half thinking about it. What if I were the Alpha?”
Jon stared at him, bewildered. Caeden had been born an alpha, but he wasn’t the Alpha. He should have been, of course. If he’d changed successfully at twenty-one, he would have promptly attacked his father, defeated the older wolf in a ritual fight, and taken over leadership of the Pack. That was the way of things among their people. But that hadn’t happened, and it wasn’t going to unless Cae somehow managed to change.
“You’re not,” he said flatly.
“I could be.” Cae looked unsettlingly fierce. “It doesn’t take a wolf to defeat a wolf, Jon. I’m strong, I’m fast, and there’s nothing in Pack law that says I couldn’t use a knife…”
“You can’t,” Jon objected. “You’re strong as hell for a human, but you’re not as strong as a wolf. I mean, one of us in wolf form. You can’t possibly—”
“Shut up,” Cae snapped, and Jon obediently fell silent. But inside him the uneasiness intensified. It wasn’t like his friend to talk to him that way, despite the difference in their ranks. “If I can defeat the Alpha, by any means possible, then I’ll be the Alpha, and they’ll have to accept me. It doesn’t matter if I can change or not.”
Jon was pretty sure it mattered a hell of a lot, but he decided not to say so. He couldn’t quite imagine how that would play out, since it had never to his knowledge happened before. It was true that Cae was an alpha, and the scion of an unbroken line of Pack leaders, but there was no mistaking the contempt the Pack had held him in since his twenty-first birthday. By law, he wasn’t even an adult.
Even if they accepted him at first, Jon didn’t think the Pack would adjust to a leader who couldn’t shift. In the long run there would be division and rancor. And bloodshed.
“And then the two of us could stay with the Pack,” Caeden said. “Run things.”
Jon couldn’t help himself. He opened his mouth and voiced his objections. “And do what, Cae? What happens if you start wanting to hurt people again? If you go all scary and angry again? What if you take your bad temper out on the cubs or something? The Pack can’t have a leader who’s out of control, because the Alpha has too much power. It’s not safe for you to be like this, Cae.”
Caeden spoke in an ominous growl. “I’m fine.”
“Right now, you’re
okay.” Jon could still see the rage simmering in Caeden’s eyes, and he was pretty sure fine was something of an overstatement. “But we don’t know what made you go wild last time, and if it happens again…”
“You know what?” Caeden’s eyes gleamed like sunlight. “Fuck you, too, Jon. I thought you believed in me. But if you don’t—”
“I believe in you,” Jon said between his teeth, “the way you used to be. The way you ought to be. But I’m not going to stand by your side while you go around breaking people’s arms, Caeden. While you go around hurting people and enjoying it. That’s not you, damn it. Until I know for sure you’re a hundred percent, then I’m not going back to the Pack with you. I don’t care what harebrained scheme you come up with. I won’t go.”
“I could order you,” Cae said.
Jon clenched his jaw. “And I could refuse.”
“You won’t.” Caeden spoke with irritating confidence. “You can’t, not really.”
Jon knew he was right. Not only was Cae an alpha, but he was Jon’s best friend, and the man he loved. There was no possible way he could refuse Cae anything.
And yet he couldn’t let Cae start a war amongst the Pack, either.
“Look,” he said, taking a slightly different tack and doing his level best to sound reasonable, “if you try this, your father will wind up ripping your throat out. And even if you somehow manage to get the upper hand—you’ll probably have to kill him to win. Your own father, Cae. The law calls for a ritual fight, not a fight to the death. You don’t want to kill the Alpha. You know you don’t.”
“After what he’s done to you?” Cae spoke more loudly than before, his voice harsh and sharp with anger, and his eyes shone with that frightening hint of insanity. “After everything he’s done to us? Maybe I do, Jon. Maybe I do.”