Kin Selection (A Shifter’s Claim Book 1)

by L. B. Gilbert

  Someone whistled. “Damn, he’s fast.”

  That was an understatement. Yogi was flying. He’d already overtaken half the pack. However, there was a big gap between him and the wolves at the front edge of her screen.

  Jessup snorted. “Gus and Levi are still leading, but he’s determined, isn’t he? One has to admire that tenacity.”

  Tenacity? It was fucking insanity. Animals had run themselves to death at lower speeds. Yogi could kill himself trying to overtake the others.

  He’s doing it for you. Not only was he risking his life and health by acting like a maniac, but he was also potentially risking the safety of his brother and sister for her—no matter what Jessup said.

  A few days ago, she hadn’t even met Yogi. Less than two days ago, she would have happily brained him with a baseball bat and left him in a ditch. But things were different now.

  After more than a decade of being on her own, someone had taken care of her when she was down. He nursed her back to health, worried over her. He’d even sent that beefcake photo of himself to her douchebag ex so she could save face.

  Denise didn’t want Yogi to give up the chance to bury his family feud. Not if keeping it going would hurt him or his siblings in the long run. It was too much.

  Please let Jessup be telling the truth. The Avery patriarch had said the right things about not punishing kids for the sins of their parents, but it could just be talk.

  “Wow, he’s almost there!”

  The two halves of the screen were overlapping images now. The one on the right displayed the normal aerial view. On the left, the same area was shown in the shifting blues and greens of the infrared spectrum. She could tell which wolf was Yogi because he was glowing like a bright red coal, such was his level of exertion compared to the others.

  The two wolves in the lead were running down a ravine, only a few hundred yards away, but the path was so narrow she didn’t see how Yogi could overtake them.

  Except…he didn’t try. At a fork in the road, he ran in the other direction—not down but up.

  “Where is he going?” Even Jessup was confused.

  The glowing coal ran up the ridge to the top of the waterfall. For a second, he paced there, as if eyeing the distance from the top of the falls to other side of the gorge.

  “No way! He can’t jump that. It’s more than twenty meters!” Jessup and the others crowded around her tablet, each wearing expressions ranging from shock to disbelief.

  “Oh my God,” she squeaked, shaking her head. Don’t do it. Don’t.

  Denise held her breath, clapping her hand over her mouth to muffle her involuntary scream when Yogi backed up to get a running start. He bounded over the short space at the top of the falls—only a few meters—before launching himself into space.

  The blood in her veins ran ice cold. She shuddered as Yogi flew in a wide arc, his body an arrow shooting for the rocky outcropping on the other side of the gorge…a foothold that seemed miles away to her horrified eyes.

  It could have been the exhilarating climax of a werewolf movie, but this was real life.

  At the last second, she squeezed her eyes shut, tears stinging behind closed lids. There was no way Yogi would make it to the other side. She couldn’t watch him plunge to his death.

  “Hot damn! He did it.”

  Her eyes flew open, but she couldn’t see. The image was too blurry. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she blinked to clear them until she could see and confirm for herself that he was on the other side.

  Yogi was now well ahead of the other wolves—far enough to safely shift and scale a tree. Jessup touched the image to zoom in.

  “He’s got it. He’s got the flag.”

  Un-fucking-believable! She couldn’t believe he’d made it. That he was still alive.

  “I’m going to kill him!” The minute he crossed the finish line, she would wring his neck for scaring the crap out of her.

  Instead of backtracking as she expected, Yogi shifted back into wolf form and veered left, now leading the pack around the falls in what she presumed was another route back—one that didn’t have him trip over the contestants trailing behind him.

  “How did he even know where the flag was?” she asked, brow creased.

  “He could smell it,” one of the teens chimed. Out of the corner of her eye, Jessup glanced at her as if to gauge her reaction.

  Puzzled, she frowned at the screen. She could see a bit of cloth in Yogi’s jaws. It was bright purple. She squinted and hit the zoom button Jessup had used earlier.

  “Hey! Not okay,” she snapped, glaring at the group around her.

  Jessup had the grace to look slightly abashed.

  “We needed something with your scent so we borrowed some clothing from your bag.”

  She bit her lip to keep from bitching him out, drawing the tablet closer to her chest.

  Yogi was almost there. The path back must be much shorter than the one to the falls. With that Hail Mary leap, he’d ensured victory—taking years off her life in the process.

  Any minute now, he’d cross the finish line carrying the flag in his jaws—the purple bra she’d probably never be able to wear again. Not unless she wanted to sport the peekaboo look courtesy of fang-shaped holes.

  17

  His muscles were screaming when he finally saw Denise and the others waiting at the finish line.

  A few more steps and he was there, collapsing at her feet with her brassiere in his jaws.

  Yogi had driven a little over a mile before swearing and turning the car around. He couldn’t let anyone else claim Denise. And regardless of what Jessup claimed, that was what the ‘hosting’ was—a thinly veiled attempt to snake his mate out from under him.

  Trying to let her go had ripped his heart out. He’d nearly wrecked his Jeep getting back, then had run until every cell in his body throbbed and begged him to stop.

  Now he was shutting down.

  Denise hovered anxiously before she got on her knees and wrapped her arms around him.

  Oh, that’s nice. Shifting to his two-legged form, he took a deep breath and settled in her embrace, too spent to move.

  “He cheated,” Levi called out. Yogi cracked his lids, fixing a baleful glare on the Avery wolves just now crossing the finish line.

  “How was that cheating?” Denise’s tone was incredulous. “He caught up to you despite being like miles behind and then he flew—fucking flew—like a goddamn psycho kamikaze over that gorge!”

  Levi began to argue, but Jessup interrupted with a raised hand.

  “Enough, boys. It’s obvious she’s made her choice.”

  The Avery alpha’s tone wasn’t exactly enthusiastic, more like resigned and even slightly amused.

  Levi scoffed and shook his head. “She just doesn’t know any better. He’s the first werewolf she met. It’s classic imprinting.”

  Yogi raised a hand and flipped him off.

  Levi started for them, but Denise scowled at him. She crawled around Yogi to put herself right between the two men.

  Jessup laughed and walked over to join her. “It’s clear these two have formed a bond. While we are disappointed Denise won’t be joining our family, even temporarily, we should thank both her and Yogi for what they did for Oliver.”

  Levi and the other Were, Gus, shuffled and looked away.

  “Thank you, Denise,” Gus finally said after a beat too long. “We do owe you for that—big time.”

  He cocked his head and smiled flirtatiously. “And if you change your mind and decide to ditch this loser, we’ll be waiting.”

  Yogi was within his rights to rearrange Gus’ face for that comment, but he was still too tired.

  “Anyone would have done the same in my place. Well, anyone decent…” Denise said.

  Jessup’s tone was wry. “I really don’t think that’s true. Most people would have left a lost cub in the woods, thinking it was his rightful place. For a real wolf cub, that is true, but Weres require more care. We can surviv
e like that, orphaned so young, but we would never learn to control our dual nature without guidance.”

  Distracted, Denise tore her gaze away from the others. “Wait, what do you mean by in the woods?”

  “When you rescued him, I mean. You did do that, correct?” Jessup asked, a note of puzzled condescension creeping into his voice.

  Her lips parted. “Yes, I did, but not in the woods.” She looked down at Yogi, brow creased. “Did you think I found him in the woods, too?”

  Frowning, he nodded. “Of course,” he said, voice fraying a little in his exhaustion. “At least that’s what I assumed. Are you saying that’s not what happened?”

  “No!” She held up her hands.

  Jessup frowned. “Wait, so you didn’t save him?”

  “I did, but he wasn’t in the woods. He was in a lab—a place called Reliance Research. It does illegal animal research. That’s why I was there. I…I rescue animals from places like those.”

  “Fuck me to the seven hells,” Yogi swore as he grabbed her hand and tried to stand.

  When he looked at Denise, she was nervously glancing between him and Jessup, panic on her features.

  One minute, Jessup’s face was mildly annoyed. The next, he was a beast. His face contorted with rage, he whipped around and howled.

  Denise gripped Yogi’s hand tightly as every wolf in Lunar Springs poured out of their houses, shifting as they ran. Even the men who’d raced against him shifted back despite being nearly as tired as he was.

  Yogi held Denise close as they were surrounded—the center of a snarling mass of wolves. Only he and Jessup maintained their human forms.

  “We have a major problem,” Jessup announced to the group. “Get the chief.”

  18

  Denise’s eyes flitted nervously from werewolf to werewolf.

  When Jessup had said, ‘Get the chief,’ she’d assumed the man would come out to the Averys, but that wasn’t how things worked apparently.

  She’d been hustled into an SUV and driven to yet another cabin in the woods. Only this one was more like a log mansion.

  Now she was sitting at the wide oak table at wolf central, also known as Douglas Maitland’s house.

  It was a smaller group than the crowd of near-rabid wolves she’d left at Lunar Springs. Jessup and Levi were here, in addition to a few other members of the Avery clan.

  The chief’s daughter was also in attendance. She was an intimidatingly beautiful woman named Mara.

  “Yogi,” Mara called, holding out her hand.

  Denise ignored the little pang in her chest when Yogi and Mara hugged warmly. The two had a whispered conversation, their familiarity obvious. How close were they? Was Yogi interested in the gorgeous lady wolf?

  Of course he is, stupid. Look at her.

  Yogi had only competed in the fortitudo to help her out. She’d made it clear she didn’t want to be thrown with a stranger, so he’d raced to spare her that. It was the sort of thing the stupidly noble did.

  Except he’d almost killed himself to win. She peeked at Yogi and Mara from underneath her lashes. He wouldn’t have done that if he was interested in someone else, would he?

  Mara’s almost-luminescent green eyes turned to her and Denise looked away.

  Hoo-daddy. Despite being model sleek, Mara looked like she could take Levi and Gus with one hand tied behind her back. Denise had never met a more physically intimidating woman.

  If only she’d found someone like that for her team, then she could have left Max at home. Snorting, Denise transferred her attention to Mara’s even more intimidating father.

  And I didn’t think they made them in sizes bigger than Yogi. Good thing she hadn’t put money on that, because Douglas Maitland, the chief, was a stunning mountain of a man. She couldn’t even tell how tall he was because it hurt her neck to look all the way up at his face.

  Feeling like Gimli the dwarf surrounded by elves on steroids, she hunched down at the table. But as two final stragglers trudged into the room, Douglas turned to her.

  “Explain how this happened.”

  Even though she had been waiting for it, the order caught her off guard. Like a deer in headlights, Denise froze as every eye fixed on her. After a few blinks, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. It was as if her tongue was suddenly too big for her mouth.

  Why the hell do they all have to be so damn big? She hadn’t experienced stage fright like this since her high school debate against the nuns from St. Agnes.

  “It’s my fault,” Yogi said, coming to stand at her side.

  He put a hand on her shoulder, and she quickly reached up to take hold of his fingers, a move she could have sworn made Mara smile. The brief grin was gone too quickly for Denise to be sure.

  “I didn’t think to ask her where she found Oliver,” Yogi continued. “I assumed she’d found him in the woods, away from the body of his mother. But I was wrong.”

  He turned to her. “This is my fault. If I’d given you a chance to explain, we might not be in this mess now.”

  Denise squirmed, a little uncomfortable at having him take the blame. If she’d been thinking clearly, she would have realized they would be concerned about Oliver having exposed himself before she found him. It just hadn’t occurred to her.

  If it had, she’d have tried to use the knowledge as a bargaining chip from the start…

  She wasn’t tempted to do it now. Douglas was way too scary for those kind of hardline negotiation tactics. Plus, this mess had given her a chance to get to know Yogi.

  “I’m not sure how big of a mess it is—I mean, I don’t know if the Reliance people knew what he was.”

  Douglas stared at her. “This Reliance Research is in Wyoming?”

  She nodded.

  “And what were you doing there?”

  “I was liberating some chimpanzees with my team. We had—”

  “Why?” one of the hulking males standing against the wall asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why were you saving monkeys?”

  Denise met his eyes, but all she saw was genuine curiosity. “That’s what I do. Me and my team. We rescue animals from testing facilities.”

  “Yeah, but why?”

  No one had ever asked her that before. After floundering for an explanation for a minute, she decided to answer honestly. “Well…animals are generally nicer than people. To me, anyway. They deserve protection too. I know it’s not a popular opinion.”

  “Why do you say that?” Douglas asked, his arms crossed.

  “Well, most folks think I should be spending my time and money helping other people, but—”

  Douglas huffed. “Denise, this is the last group that’s going to judge you for preferring animals to people.”

  A few people laughed, but the chief held up a hand and asked her to continue describing that night. “Tell me about your team.”

  “Three of us went into Reliance, but more were waiting to transfer the chimps to a nature preserve I own in Africa. Most of the team is there now, but the rest went home. We always split up after a job for weeks, sometimes months. Communication is discouraged in case one of us has picked up surveillance. We had already gotten the monkeys out when I saw Oliver in a cage.”

  Douglas’ brow rose at the mention of her owning a nature preserve, but he let it pass. “Oliver was in cub form, correct?”

  “Yes. And before you ask, I don’t know if they saw him change. We broke in after midnight. Only the security guards were there.”

  Douglas tilted his head slightly. “What about cameras? Did they have any on him?”

  She looked past him, trying to remember if there had been one she’d missed. “I don’t think so, but it was dark and I didn’t turn on the lights. The parking lot had one camera at the main gate, but we didn’t go in that way, so I don’t think it got us. I didn’t see any others. When we go in, most of our faces are covered so they can’t ID us even if we stumble onto a camera.”

  “You told Yog
i this facility wasn’t supposed to house primates. How did you learn that?”

  Denise fiddled with a piece of lint. “Government records. There are lots of hoops for labs that do vertebrate research,” she explained. “The higher the animal is on the evolutionary ladder, the more paperwork is required. We compare that to a company’s purchasing records. I have a guy who hacks the biomedical supply companies for me. I get an alert when there are too many unexplained purchases.”

  She leaned forward to rest her weight on her forearms. “Reliance Research isn’t licensed for anything bigger than a rat, but they were buying supplies no rodent would need. Big cages for one, and antibiotics and other drugs specific to primates. Not to mention the food they were ordering. Very little of it was rat chow.”

  Douglas nodded as if that made sense. “We need to go back in and make sure they don’t have any evidence of Oliver’s true nature.”

  A low rumble of agreement swept across the room.

  “Should we call Connell and Logan?” someone asked.

  “They’re in the middle of something,” Douglas answered. “This is on us, but we can handle a single research facility without an Elemental’s help.”

  Denise caught Yogi’s eye. “A what?” she mouthed.

  “I’ll tell you later,” he murmured before patting her hand and standing up. “Chief, I want to volunteer to take care of this. It’s my fault we didn’t know about it sooner.”

  Douglas dismissed that with a motion of his hand. “If you hadn’t won Denise’s trust, she might not have confided in us at all.”

  Denise blushed. The chief’s tone implied there was more between them than was actually there.

  Well, maybe there was.

  “All things considered, we haven’t lost too much time,” Douglas told him. “If any harm was done, it happened before you got involved. What matters now is determining the extent of the damage, if any.”

  Several wolves nodded in approval, and she noticed Yogi’s shoulders drop a fraction as if he had been relieved of some burden.