by Lisa M Airey
“The alpha wolf takes any woman he pleases from the pack.”
“Gray and I aren’t pack.”
Hayden snorted. “All lycanthropes belong to me.” He shook her roughly then set her back down.
She shuddered under his hostile stare. “You are taking me away? From my husband?”
“Gray, of course, will fight for you,” Hayden acknowledged.
Julie nodded dumbly.
“I’ll kill him.”
She shook her head in defiance. “No. You won’t.”
“Trust me, Julie. I will. You could save his life by simply accepting me as your mate.”
“Trust me, Hayden. When Gray gets through with you, they won’t be able to identify you by dental records.”
“You think he can defeat me?”
“I know he can.”
Hayden chuckled, but his eyes were dark. “You are willing to risk him? You are so sure?” He paused. “What if you are wrong?”
Julie said nothing.
“I’ll make you a deal. Sleep with me, and when the battle comes, I promise not to kill him. I’ll let him live.”
“No.”
“No what?”
“No sleeping with you.”
He locked eyes with hers. It was a dominance contest. He tried to cow her with his power. He tried to cow her with his might. She held his gaze unblinkingly.
“Have you any idea what it takes to defeat the alpha male?”
Julie’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “If there is a way to defeat you, I’ll find it,” she avowed.
Hayden nodded slowly, sincerely afraid that she just might do that very thing.
Gray arrived at his building site looking more like a natural disaster than a human being. Tom Running Deer sat in wait for him, hunched, worried and frustrated at not being able to lift a hand. Gray stepped from his SUV like a disembodied spirit.
“What do you know, Tom?” asked Gray, his voice tight.
He grimaced and met Gray’s gaze full-on. “Someone has taken her, Gray. We don’t know who, but she is suffering by his hand. We all heard her scream. There were wolf prints all over your sub-floor in what we assume to be her blood. Dan has issued an order to kill any wolf on sight.”
Gray changed on the spot. He just dropped to all fours and went wolf. Tom Running Deer had never seen such a thing, as close as the two of them were.
“The police will shoot any wolf on sight, Gray,” Tom repeated. “Dan’s orders. And, you will have to run right through them.”
Gray growled ferociously in response and bolted for the hills. Dan Keating was the least of his worries.
Hayden snared a pheasant mid-morning and roasted it over an open fire for lunch. Julie ate ravenously, holding her belly with both arms when she had finished, knowing well where the food was going.
Hayden handed her the last drumstick. “Eat,” he commanded. Although full, she took it and ate it anyway. She didn’t say thank you.
“I will untie you tonight,” he said, watching her stiffen with surprise, “If you share my blanket.”
“No,” she said quietly.
“You are putting undue strain and stress on your body and upon your child.”
“We are very strong,” she said, hugging her abdomen.
His cheek twitched. “As you wish.”
He set a ruthless pace and walked her until dusk. That night, he staked her hands again to the earth. She dug her fingers in and held on tight. She held on for all that she was worth.
The next day, Julie found it hard to get to her feet. Fortunately, Hayden seemed reluctant to start out again. He watched her collect herself, her motions slow and deliberate as she tried to compartmentalize the pain.
“You are tough, Julie Walker.”
She just stared at him. “Would Gray have chosen otherwise?”
He turned his head away. “Do you know why I am the alpha male?”
She shook her head to the negative.
“I am the son of a lycanthrope, but my mother was the daughter of a lycanthrope. I possess two lycanthrope genes.”
He assessed her silently. “Your true father passed on a lycanthrope gene to you. I smell it in you. Gray found you irresistible, no doubt, and Lync couldn’t resist at all. You are a doctor, a healer. Makes sense, no?”
She stared at him blank-faced and he watched her carefully. “You are rather quick to accept what I am telling you.” He paused. “Why?”
“Gray told me as much.”
He was watching her carefully. “Oh, you trust him, for sure. But, I doubt you would willingly accept such a pronouncement if you didn’t have some kind of inkling of your own.”
Julie said not a word.
“I want to know,” demanded Hayden.
In her mind’s eye, Julie was re-living the incident while interning at her local zoo. She struggled to find her voice. “How closely are we linked to true wolves? Do they recognize us by scent?”
He assessed her silently for a moment. We. She’d used the word ‘we’. He nodded slowly. “You would never need to fear a wolf in the wild. They always protect our kind.”
She nodded absently and looked at her left hand as if it belonged to someone else. “I thought they would rip me to shreds, but they didn’t.”
“Tell me.”
She did. He was quiet a long time after she finished speaking.
“I may be wrong, Julie.” She looked at him warily. “Perhaps you have more than one lycanthrope gene in you.”
His words unsettled her for a reason she couldn’t explain. He approached her and crouched down on his haunches in front of her. She was instantly on her guard.
“I am torn, Julie,” he said. “We are a dying race. If you and I were to have children we could strengthen the bloodline.”
She shot to her feet. “Listen to me, Hayden. Please.” Her chest heaved with her emotion. “Gray told me that most of your kind take their mates by force. What if that was not the case? What if the men were taught from early on to court their mates?”
He listened silently.
“Lycanthropes would start to rebound population-wise with the establishment of healthy relationships. Taught by example.”
“Share my blanket tonight.”
“I’m pregnant, Hayden.”
“I just want to hold you.”
“No.”
He walked her all day long. Then, once again, come nightfall, he staked her hands into the hard earth. Julie closed her eyes, trying to get comfortable. She failed. A wave of emotion washed over her as she thought of the baby within her.
“Be tough for me, little man,” she told him silently and curled into a fetal position. She tried to calm her upset by keeping her mind busy. Buffalos symbolize endurance. Beavers are builders. Bears symbolize power and strength.
Her eyes flew open. Bear. She was going to name her son Bear. The rightness of it filled her chest with a warmth that expanded through her whole being. Bear Walker. And he would be strong and he would be powerful. He, too, would possess two lycanthrope genes. She smiled into the darkness. And she was going to raise him right.
Gray could smell her on the forest floor. She smelled of blood and terror, but there was that tangy essence too, faint though it was. She was a sweet and spicy accent to the earthy undertones that filled his nostrils. Ah, she was a survivor. He smelled her fight.
Mine, he thought. He tracked her as a man possessed and his bead was sure and swift.
Too swift.
Finn met him halfway up the mountain slope. Gray could tell from the white wolf’s body language that he was uncomfortable with his role as interceptor. It was obvious, eye-to-eye, that they both respected each other. There was no growling, no hostile positioning, no war between them. It was nothing personal. Finn did as Finn was told. Gray could only respond in kind.
They fought like warriors. Finn fought because Hayden commanded it. Gray fought for his mate. They both fought to kill.
Gray’s chocolate eyes turn
ed obsidian black as he lunged for Finn’s jugular with purpose and intent. The white wolf tried to dodge the attack but failed. He had underestimated Gray, underestimated the power of his devotion.
Gray savaged him ruthlessly. Finn feigned defeat, but Gray only clamped down tighter on his jugular. There would be no games today. Finn, surprised that his ruse had gained him nothing, flailed helplessly, scrabbling the barren soil for a toe hold, for some kind of purchase with which to push back. His paws connected with a boulder and he shoved. He shoved with every ounce of strength within him.
He flipped Gray, then jumped on him to keep him down, but Gray quickly wriggled free. The two of them were up and on their paws as if they had springs and attacked each other with a ferociousness that silenced the entire forest. They were a rolling tangle of white and black fur.
A rifle shot stilled them both.
The next morning, Julie awoke to find Hayden watching her. She bolted upright only to be tugged earthward again by her bindings. She fell heavily, ungracefully. He approached her slowly and unsheathed his knife.
“I will free your hands, if you promise to stay with me without trying to escape.”
She nodded.
“Your word?”
“Yes.”
He cut the plastic zip-tie that held her with a pocketknife and she cradled her raw wrists to her chest. The synthetic rope was crusted black with dried blood and her lower arms were awash in purple bruises.
“I would like for you to consider a proposal.”
She waited.
“If something happens to Gray, you will marry me.”
She stiffened and a silence fell between them. “Hayden,” she said, her voice flat. “I want to be perfectly clear. If something happens to Gray, I’ll kill you myself. I’ll hunt you to the ends of this earth. You will never ever be able to sleep again with both eyes closed. Even if it means that I die too, I’ll get you. And I’ll be sure that you die first.”
“Such talk! I could snap your neck right now, Julie Walker.”
It was her turn to chuckle. “And I would torment you for the rest of your life.”
Hayden paled.
“Gray tells me that I can calm the spirit with the music within me,” she paused. “But, it is within my power to wreak havoc as well. I’ll make your life a living hell.”
“I would rather keep my inner peace,” said Hayden cautiously.
“And I,” said Julie, “would like to keep my marriage vows.”
They marched most of the rest of the day in silence. Hayden was suddenly on his best behavior, as jailors go. He herded her over the rough spots of their forced march with a hand on her elbow. He was attentive to her every need. Water? Bathroom break? Rest pause?
“You would like for me to free you?” said Hayden.
“Of course,” she snapped.
“One night. I’m not asking for sex. Give me one night to hold you and I will release you, next morning.”
“I’m not giving you anything.”
“A kiss, then Julie, one sweet, chaste kiss and I will release you.”
She stared into his ice blue eyes. They were like mirrors, so perfect in their reflection. And what was reflected was her heartfelt conviction. For days on end, Hayden had accepted her forceful repetition of ‘no’ while continuously bargaining for ‘yes’. Was that it? To defeat him all she had to do was keep saying ‘no’?
“I’m sorry, Hayden, not even a kiss, chaste or no.” She paused. “Why don’t you act like the leader you are supposed to be and return me to my husband, earning the respect and honor of the lycanthrope and the Sioux nations both? How about showing a little of your mettle as a man instead of preying upon someone weaker than you?”
Hayden’s jaw fell slack.
“You were amazed at my relationship with Gray. Lync was amazed at my relationship with Gray.” She eyed him with disdain. “Neither one of you get it. Sometimes by giving, you get a lot more back in return. And as for giving, I will give you nothing, Hayden. You haven’t earned my trust or my respect. And listen to me good. I am not putting my husband at risk by saying so because he is a better man than you. If there were to be a contest of strength, he’s got you beat. To capitulate at this point would be to deny him, and I won’t do that. Ever!”
Hayden’s nostrils flared. “What has Gray told you?”
“What has Gray told me about what?”
“You know something!”
“I don’t know anything about anything anymore.” Hot, angry tears leaked from her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks.
Hayden took a deep breath, trying to control his temper. “Gray told you about the rights, didn’t he?”
“What rights?” asked Julie, genuinely nonplussed.
“The rights of refusal.”
Julie shook her head numbly.
“I am within my rights to choose any woman within my pack.”
“I want to hear about the refusal part.”
He glared at her. “I could opt to fight your mate in a contest of strength, or I could opt to challenge you, as his woman, in an attempt to win you.”
Julie choked on a sob. “You call this,” she held up her bruised and bloody wrists, “trying to win me over?” She fairly screeched the question at him and her body quaked with borderline hysteria.
“I didn’t say court you, Julie. I’m not talking about seduction.”
“Well, what are you talking about then?”
“I am talking about winning.”
Julie shook her head stupidly. “Win how?”
“It’s a test to see how much a woman trusts the one to whom she’s bound. You believe Gray will save you.”
“Of course.”
“I’ve tried to get you to bargain for your release. Five times over you’ve refused me. So, by law, I must let you go if—”
“If what?”
“If Gray has not told you how to defeat me in advance. If he has forewarned you, then you are mine.”
“How will you know if I am telling the truth?”
“Your eyes will tell me everything I need to know.”
“And what if you willfully disbelieve the truth?”
Hayden released such a deep and angry growl that Julie bolted backwards. He caught her before she had taken the second step.
“Did Gray speak to you about the rights of refusal?”
She met his eyes with every ounce of strength she had left within her.
“He did not.”
Hayden released the death grip he had on her wrist. He had reopened the wound. Blood flowed freely again. It pooled in the palm of her hand as she cradled it to her chest.
“Then I am compelled to let you go.”
Julie was dumbfounded. “After after all this, you are just going to let me go?”
“Not after all this, Julie.” Hayden’s hand swept down the mountainside and the trek they had just climbed. “It’s because of all this.”
She wasn’t about to argue with him. He was angry and frustrated. Not a good combination for human or wolf. She looked away, and as she did so, a gentle calm washed over her. It came in the form of a wind that carried her scent down the mountain.
Find me, Gray, she thought, her eyes following the breeze as it moved through the trees and on down the slope. Find me.
She stood there a long time, almost frozen in time, her focus so intent that she forgot about Hayden. She didn’t realize he was so close until he touched her.
She nearly jumped out of her own skin.
“I had hoped to steal you, Julie.” Hayden ran two rough and calloused hands along her upper arms. “I’m not proud of that, especially where Gray is concerned, but you must understand the power of my desire. It’s genetic. With your chemistry, I’m like a moth to a flame.”
She just stared at him.
“I don’t know you Hayden, but I do know Gray. He was very pulled to me also, but he never ever attempted to steal me. In the beginning, I hurt him often with my fear and my dist
rust.” Her voice broke. “He worked patiently to win my love and my loyalty.”
“He succeeded.”
“Yes. He could have taken my body at any point. Date-rape, as they say. But he would have never won my soul that way.”
She looked at him warily. He was distracted, looking skyward.
“The moon will be full tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be in a mood for just conversation at that time.” She followed his eyes.
“Your bloodline makes you special, Julie. What I want, what I wanted,” he corrected, “I wanted for all the right reasons, please understand.”
“But that doesn’t make it right,” she finished.
He gave her a tight nod of acknowledgement.
“You are truly letting me go?”
He saw the disbelief in her face, the uncertainty and nodded again.
“I could carry you off, but I’d never win more than your loathing. That’s not what I want… especially now that I know you. Your words have given me much to think about.”
A wave of dizziness washed over her. “Hayden, I’m not feeling very well.”
The physical demands were taking their toll and the chance of freedom made her positively light-headed.
“If you mean what you say, could we start back? Now?”
“Give me a moment,” he said, and walked away. She stared after him in confusion, trying to focus her thoughts. Although the forest was quiet, all she could hear was ringing in her ears.
She nearly jumped a foot when a huge white wolf emerged from the underbrush and trotted toward her. He dipped his head and started to move slowly down the trail they had just climbed. She followed numbly, her footfall heavy and slow.
He returned to her periodically, checking on her progress. When she fell too far behind, he’d find her, tug her to the forest floor, and sit beside her while she rested.
“You know,” she said, “you are much nicer as a wolf than as a human being. I don’t like you as a man at all.”
He whined sadly.
“Truth hurts, huh?”
Hayden lay flat and rested his head on his front paws.
“Gray has always been so protective of me. Both as wolf and man.” A tear slid down her dirt-streaked face. She swallowed a sob. “Hayden, you lycanthropes are tough to take. You are so very demanding, but from this mate’s perspective, I feel that your needs are less intrusive when I know that the arms that wrestle me to bed are the same ones that hold me warm and safe and sacred.”