Wedding the Wolf: A wolf shifter paranormal romance

by Steffanie Holmes

  37

  Irvine

  My paws splashed through dark water as I made my way along the tunnel. Even with my superior wolf vision, the place was pitch black. Which was just as well – I didn’t want to look down at what I was standing in.

  I was going to smell absolutely delightful.

  Luckily, after fifty metres of so, I ken for a fact I was in the right place. Wolf scent clung to the walls, painting a picture as clear as a neon sign. Several wolves moved through these tunnels on a regular basis, and often branched off into other junctions. I followed the main scent path, winding through a maze of tunnels and junctions so confusing I’d never hope to find my way back.

  I had no idea how much time passed before I heard the splash of other footsteps in the dank water. I stopped and listened. The footsteps came closer, and a powerful wolf scent wafted down the tunnel toward me.

  I flattened myself against a wall as two wolves rounded the corner. But of course it did no good. They sniffed the air, and called out inside my head.

  We can smell you, intruder. Show yourself now, and we may decide to spare your life.

  I stepped out into the tunnel, lowering my front paws so I was crouching in the water. Rancid stench invaded my nostrils, but I didn’t dare stand up. I needed to show them this honour, or I’d have no chance of leaving here alive.

  Identify yourself, the first wolf said. He carried a small, pale light around his neck. I squinted into it, momentarily blinded. But after a few moments, my eyes adjusted and their features came into focus. The larger of the two wolves had a beautiful grey coat, while the other was mottled grey and brown, and stood back a foot, indicating the dominance of the larger one.

  My name is Irvine Baird, I said. I have come to speak to Richard Carson. Is he part of your pack?

  Our pack? The larger wolf gave a barking laugh. We don’t subscribe to your archaic pack system down here. We have no hierarchy.

  Interesting. I glanced again at the second wolf. He shuffled up to stand beside the larger one. They were right – this wasn’t a hierarchy the way I understood it.

  But it didn’t matter either way. I dinnae care about your political structure. Bring me to Richard, now.

  You’re in no position to make demands, Baird-wolf, the second wolf snarled. What business do you have with Richard?

  I have a message from his daughter.

  The larger wolf stiffened, his whole body rigid. His eyes flashed with anger and … something else. I tensed, ready to attack if he made a move. Instead, he too lowered himself into the muck.

  From … Carol? His eyes widened. I realised they were the same dark brown as Willow’s eyes. This was him. I’m standing in front of her father, the man who’d attacked her and took her leg.

  Dinnae say her name like that, as though you have a right to it.

  Where is she? Is she okay?

  You mean, is she okay being an amputee thanks to a despicable wolf who maimed her and then left her for dead?

  The wolf flinched as though I’d hurt him. You don’t know what you’re talking about, he growled. What is your message?

  I’ve come to tell you that justice is coming. What you did to her is abhorrent, and you got away with it because shifters have no system with which to punish criminals. But that’s about to change very, very soon. When it does, I’ll be coming back for you, and there’s nae a place on God’s green earth you can hide from me.

  Take me now.

  What did he just say? Aye?

  The wolf’s eyes widened further, and the sides of his mouth downturned. He lowered himself even further into the water. He wasn’t commanding me, I realised. He was begging me. Take me to her right now. I’ll submit to whatever justice she wants.

  I dinnae understand.

  The other wolf rested a paw on his shoulder. He glared at me with steel-grey eyes. We need to show you something.

  Richard nodded. Please, come with us. I promise that when you’ve seen this, I will come with you.

  Something in his voice, so full of pain and sincerity, made me believe him. Curious now, I followed the two wolves down the tunnel, my paws splashing through the fetid water. After fifty metres or so, the wolves ascended a short ladder into another tunnel.

  This is an abandoned underground branch line, the other wolf explained. No one comes here except for the occasional urban explorer.

  I walked along a wide tunnel, large enough for the tube to pass through, although there was no track bed and the walls were rough rock. We passed groups huddled in small circles or reclining on dirty mattresses. There weren’t just wolves here, but other shifter species. They mingled in their human and animal forms. Many bore wounds or amputations of their own.

  What is this place?

  The tunnel opened out into a wide area. It was clearly going to become a tube station at one point, but it had never been completed. A half-finished platform lined the cutting for the track. Only half the floor bore the familiar grey tiles of London stations. The rest was bare concrete. A flickering fire in the middle of the platform punched light through the space, barely stretching to the far corners.

  Tents and makeshift shelters lined the back wall of the platform. Behind them, I could see the passenger entrance cut away, but it went nowhere. There was no obvious entry point for the surface, nor escalators installed. An enormous stack of firewood lined the far end of the platform, presumably to keep the blazing fire in the centre alight. I was surprised the whole tunnel wasn’t filled with poisonous smoke, until I noticed tendrils of smoke curling up toward a vent directly above the blaze. More animals and humans huddled around it, the humans talking in hushed voices while they shoved pots into the flames.

  What is this place?

  We call it The Mouth of Hell. All the shifters who come here have committed some kind of crime against our people.

  I studied the sad faces, the filthy conditions, the wasting, weak bodies, malnourished and starved of light and space. I don’t understand.

  You say there is no justice in the shifter world? Richard frowned. We agree. We have tried to make our own justice. Some come here because they have been ostracised from their packs, and have nowhere else to go. Others come because they do not trust themselves to live along among humans without causing pain. Many are here because their guilt eats them alive. We hide here so we do not hurt our loved ones. We may not have much, but we do have honour.

  His words left me speechless. I’d had no idea such a place even existed.

  Richard led me over to the fire, where he shoved his way through the animals. We have a guest, he told a fox who stood beside a small chilli bin. Do we have food for him?

  The fox grunted in reply. He used his muzzle to lift the lid of the chilli bin, and drew out a raw steak. He dumped the steak on the ground at my feet and backed away. The scent of blood and raw meat invaded my nostrils – the one delicious smell in this cesspool of filth. I bent down and took a huge bite.

  I never meant to hurt Carol, Richard said. She was a shining star in my life, which up until her birth had been a giant turd pile. I was trying to get off the drugs, so I could be a better father to her, but that meant stopping dealing, which was our only source of income. Helen wasn’t exactly supportive. With my genetics … it wasn’t easy, and the withdrawal meant I had even less control than normal. But even then I never imagined that I …

  His voice inside my head trailed off. I looked at his face and was shocked by the pain there. If wolves could cry, I ken that tears would’ve been streaming over his fur.

  What happened that night? I asked, more gently than I’d ever imagined talking to Willow’s father.

  I was home with Carol while Helen was out scoring. I was so out of it from withdrawal I didn’t realise how full the moon was. I shifted while Carol and I were playing on the floor, and I didn’t see my daughter anymore. I saw food. I saw a way to release all that rage and pain and agitation that sizzled in my veins. As soon as she screamed, I realised what I’d do
ne, and backed away. But by then it was too late. I couldn’t even ring an ambulance. Luckily, our neighbour heard Carol crying and called one, which saved her life. But not her leg.

  He hung his head. I was so horrified with what I’d done, I ran into the woods, and I never returned. I knew they’d be better off without me.

  I finished the steak in three bites, not sure what I should say. Richard broke the silence between us.

  How do you know my daughter?

  I tried to push the images of Willow’s naked body out of my mind. That wasn’t something he needed to see. She’s my mate.

  He bristled. Wow, my little girl is all grown up.

  He sounded so despondent. This wasn’t what I’d expected when I’d decided to find Willow’s father.

  So my Carol is part of the Baird pack? I’ve heard that in recent years you’ve cleaned up your act. You’re no longer in the drug trade?

  I shook my head. Like you, I wanted to get out and make a better life for us. I took over as alpha after my father was killed, and we’ve been extracting ourselves ever since, I replied. Of course, there still arenae many options open to shifters, but we’ve managed to make our way with mostly legal commerce. I’m currently working with the Lowe pack—

  At the mention of the Lowes, Richard growled. My Carol isn’t part of their scheme, is she?

  What scheme do you mean?

  Don’t fake innocence, Richard snarled. The rumours have reached us even here. The Lowes have an ancient relic filled with power. They want to reveal the existence of shifters and control the entire shifter population.

  That’s not entirely true. Yes, the Lowes have this ring, but Caleb only intends to use it to legitimise his power. He’s doing this for the good of shifters. We already have many allies who see this.

  That may be so, but you’d better be careful. While your intentions might be honourable, there are plenty of shifters who like their anonymity. He cast his paw around the blazing fire. And with that wolf changing at that wedding, and then the animal attack on a shop in Crookshollow, shifters are saying the Lowes are deliberately flouting all our unspoken rules because they have this powerful object to protect them. There are talks of stopping the Lowe pack before they can do any more harm.

  I pushed back the scene from Clara’s shop where we’d discovered the ring wasn’t powerful at all. It would do no good if Richard heard that. How do you know both of those events are connected to the Lowes?

  Because the Lowes control Crookshollow Forest, and … Richard looked sheepish. I saw them on Werewolf Watch.

  You read Helen’s site?

  It’s the only way I’d been able to see how Carol was doing, he said gruffly.

  My mind whirred with possibilities. Nothing was as black-and-white as it had seemed. A plan of my own was starting to form in my mind. It was crazier even than Caleb’s, but it might just work.

  I placed a paw on Richard’s shoulder. What would you do to have your daughter in your life again?

  His wide brown eyes looked up at me like I was his saviour. There was so much of Willow in him. It would be a miracle, and would make every miserable year I’ve spent in this place worthwhile. But she’ll never speak to me again, and I don’t blame her. I don’t deserve her forgiveness.

  Your daughter is the most amazing, forgiving person I’ve ever met, I said. I think I might be able to help you, but you’ll have to come back to Crookshollow, and do exactly as I say.

  38

  Willow

  I stumbled across my tiny apartment, my arms laden with yet more fabric napkin swatches and chair covers from the linen company. My phone buzzed in my pocket, probably Alex, demanding to know why I was late again. Ever since my secret had been revealed, Alex had become a real bridezilla. It was too late for her to find a new wedding planner, so she was stuck with me, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t find other ways to make my life even more of a complete misery.

  Or maybe it was Lachlan, letting me know about the latest updates in our campaign against the shifters. He’d been working with Mum for a couple of weeks now, and with all the new information I’d provided, the Werewolf Watch website exploded with hits. According to Lachlan, Mum was assembling a horde of her most zealous followers – a motley army ready to jump in and oppose shifters wherever they popped up.

  I longed to talk to Mum myself. She and I had been through a lot together over the years, and she was the only other person I knew who’d had her heart broken by a werewolf. But I couldn’t talk to her about any of it. I was still trying to figure out how I could continue to be Willow after the big reveal, and that meant keeping my distance. If she knew I’d received the information through sleeping with a werewolf, she’d do something drastic. I just wanted to forget the whole thing.

  I’d managed to avoid seeing Caleb or Luke or any of the other shifters since Irvine left, with the exception of Bianca’s second (and this time very real) wedding to Robbie three weeks ago. Bianca had insisted I do the planning for her for free, to make up for the hurt I’d caused within the group. I’d had to drop all my other projects in order to pull the thing off in the tight timeframe. Luckily, since it was basically a repeat of her previous wedding and I still had a ton of the decorations in boxes in my flat, there wasn’t too much to do. The wedding had gone perfectly, but I’d spent most of my night locked in the bathroom, trying to avoid any contact with them.

  Thankfully, Irvine didn’t show up. According to a frosty conversation I had with Elinor, he was too busy with arrangements down in London. She kept trying to drill me for information about the two of us and why we weren’t talking, but I didn’t give her anything. Although, he did have time to make a trip up to Aberdeen to bring Robbie’s mother down for the wedding.

  And now, because of Bianca, I was well behind on Alex’s wedding plans, and she was grilling me about it big time. I needed to get these samples over there and—

  “Willow.”

  “Argh!” My foot caught the corner of a box, and I toppled across the bed, scattering swatches everywhere.

  “You’re already falling on the bed for me. Way to stroke a broken man’s ego.”

  That deep voice drove a stake through my chest. I whipped my head up. Irvine leaned against the doorframe. His face was tight with pain. His cold grey eyes met mine, and my stomach sank to my knees. The connection hummed between us, my own body betraying me as it longed to press against his.

  You hate him, remember. He’s a murderer who intends to make the whole world subservient to his species. He’s dangerous.

  I blinked, struggling to make my face even. If I showed him the simmering anger, he might go feral. “So you’re back,” I said flatly. I scrambled to my feet, hoping he wouldn’t see just how much I was shaking.

  “I am. I missed you.”

  “Huh. Fancy that.”

  “I’m sorry I didnae call.”

  “I didn’t expect you to. Especially since I have no desire to ever hear from you again.”

  “Things got pretty crazy in London. I have so much to tell you, but first—” Irvine crossed the room in two strides. He stood close, his scent reaching up and teasing me, igniting all those parts of me that I’d tried to make forget him. He reached down and clasped my hand in his.

  “Get your hands off me,” I hissed.

  Irvine squeezed my fingers, and his face twisted into an expression of such exquisite pain. “Forgive me, Willow Summers.”

  “What?”

  He leaned in. Closer, closer. I was drowning in his eyes. “Forgive me for all the hurt I caused.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him to go away and never come back. Instead, my lips fell against his, and my pain was swallowed in the kiss.

  All the pent-up frustration of missing and hating and wanting him hit my body with full force, making my hunger for him all the worse. His wolfish scent invaded my nostrils, and the room swirled. His hands seemed to be everywhere at once – cupping the back of my head, wrapped around my neck,
stroking my thighs, clasping the curve of my back.

  What am I doing?

  I tore my body away from him, toppling over the edge of the bed again. My prosthesis slammed against the wood floor, sending a shudder of pain straight up through my thigh. I grunted and rolled over.

  “Let me help you—” Irvine reached to help me.

  “I can do it. Just get away from me.” Irvine stepped back, his face stricken. I grabbed the edge of the bed and rolled over, using my good leg to lever myself up. I stood straight up and folded my arms across my chest.

  “Do not ever touch me again. I want you to leave.”

  “I dinnae want to leave you, Willow. I want to keep you safe. Everything is changing, and I think if you gave me a chance you could see just how wonderful it would be. But right now it’s nae safe. Your own mother’s got information about us—”

  “Of course. I told her everything.”

  “You did?”

  I nodded. “The world needs to know what the Lowe family is planning. My mother has copies of Robbie’s research, too. With any luck, one of her team will steal that cursed ring from Caleb, and stop this plan of yours even getting off the ground.”

  “I convinced Caleb to nae use the ring. You were right about that. But I explained to you how important this was for the whole world—”

  “No, Irvine. You explained why it’s important for shifters. I don’t care about murderers and maimers. I care about the fact that as soon as you go public, my life and all my freedom is forfeit. The press will dig up all the old stories on me, and they’ll come after me here, and I’ll go back to being the peg-leg freak. I’ll never be able to choose who knows my secrets and I can’t … I can’t—”

  I hated how selfish I sounded. But after everything I’d been through, didn’t I deserve to think of myself for once? The idea of going back to being Carol – of seeing the whole world give me that horrible, pitying stare – turned my stomach.