by R. J. Blain
My wolf didn’t argue with me, and I headed higher up the mountain. I feared the worst; Bodwin and his wife would fight back against anyone who encroached on their territory. Those who had followed Richard had worried him enough, even with the help of another Alpha and the females. If so many couldn’t fight off the tail, what could two hope to accomplishment?
I smelled their blood long before I reached their cabin home on the peak. With it, the too sweet stench of death hung in the air and choked off my breath. Bullet holes riddled the wood, and someone had broken out all the glass in their windows.
Tossing back my head, I howled, and my grief bled into the sound—for Julie, for Bodwin, and for the bent old woman who’d wanted my pies and cookies even more than her cantankerous husband had. After they’d shot me, they had welcomed me into their home, and I’d cooked for them. Their prickly friendship had been exactly what I needed.
They hadn’t let me get too close, which made leaving again easier.
Their words had implied rejection, but their outstretched hands had welcomed me—and taken every last one of my bribes to allow me close to them.
The front door hung off one hinge, and I pushed my way through. Every step deeper inside their home, the scent of their blood intensified. I checked the entire cabin, but while I found where they’d been killed, their bodies were gone.
Red-brown paw prints marked where one—or both—of their dogs had returned and searched for the old couple. I followed the trail.
I found the first dog in the back yard, dead for long enough I suspected he’d been killed with his owners.
The second wasn’t a dog at all, but a wolf, and with a start, I realized the blood spread through the cabin belonged to her, where a bullet had torn through her shoulder. The disturbed snow revealed where someone had dug a grave, and after a closer look, I realized someone had taken the time to build a cairn over their bodies.
The wolf protected them, and her growls deepened to tooth-bared snarls when I drew too close.
I should have known Bodwin would’ve done something like keep a wolf as a pet and call her a dog. If I left her out in the cold and injured, she’d die.
I shifted, and my transformation startled a yip from the animal, and she cowered, tucking her tail and struggling to rise so she could escape me.
How had triumph turned to tragedy so fast?
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
If I had been smarter, if I hadn’t trusted in the seclusion of Bodwin’s mountain, him and his wife would still be alive. Julie would still be alive, too, because we would have gone our different ways, and I would’ve escaped from her with Lane and Anthony.
The wolf cringed and kept snarling at me, and I didn’t blame her in the slightest. I was grateful I’d kept the jacket; it’d make a good bandage for the wolf’s shoulder until I could figure out a better way to care for her—if she let me get close enough to help her.
It took me several hours to get near her, and I only succeeded in the end because she grew too weak to fight me. I inspected her shoulder to discover a bullet still lodged in her shoulder. She stared at me with dull eyes while I poked and prodded the injury. In the end, I had to return to Bodwin’s cabin to retrieve a knife and bandages, so I could cut the round out and wrap the injury.
While it took a little work, I tied the jacket around her to help keep her warm until she healed enough to hunt on her own. I carried her closer to Bodwin’s cabin, and with a heavy heart, I raided it for supplies, several prepaid credit cards, and everything I’d need to make a run for it with an injured wolf. I located enough meat in their refrigerator and freezer to feed their animals for several weeks and delayed long enough to feed her. While suspicious, she accepted my offerings.
Caring for an injured wolf would complicate my plans, but I’d make do. There was plenty of room for two far to the north. If I couldn’t return her to the wilds, I’d care for her myself.
That was the least I could do after my failure.
I found ten bodies on the way down Bodwin’s mountain, Americans if I judged from their gear and choice of weapons, probable mercenaries but possible military; I’d seen their functional, durable setup before. All of them had been mauled by wolves, even the ones who’d been shot. I left their bodies to rot and cursed them for having caused so much trouble and misery.
With an injured wolf to feed, it took far longer than I liked to work my way north and east through the Swiss Alps and crossed the border into Austria. I located a used car dealership and even felt a little guilty for stealing one of the oldest trucks I could find off the lot, an antique I could hot-wire without too much difficulty.
I had the US military to thank for that skill. At least I’d emerged with one victory: Haney hadn’t kept me long. Desmond and the other werewolves had let me go, and maybe when the guilt no longer bit so deep or hurt so much, I’d give Bob—no, Dante—a call.
At the very least, I’d apologize and make sure Anthony and Lane were safe.
I packed the wolf into the truck’s cab, hid my sniper rifle under the seat, and drove until I approached the Slovakia border. Waiting until deep at night, I ditched the vehicle in a used car lot and carried the wolf across the border through a section of forest far enough north of Bratislava to avoid detection. In Slovakia, I repeated my tactic until I reached where its borders bumped against Poland and Ukraine.
Upon my arrival, I shifted, and I herded Bodwin’s wolf along with me, matching my pace to her limp. My wolf disapproved, but I ignored his wishes. Slow or not, I wouldn’t abandon her. As though she understood why she was stuck with me, her scent seemed marred with grief, and beneath the musk marking her as a lesser cousin, I detected a faint hint of spice, something neither my wolf nor I could make sense of.
Later, I would have time to think about it.
But first, I would go north and east to the end of civilization and to the rugged fringes of Russia, where I would carve a place for myself and Bodwin’s wolf, a place I could home, where I might one day find peace.
* * *
To be continued in Wild Wolf.
About the Author
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RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.
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When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.
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In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.
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RJ also writes as Susan Copperfield and Trillian Anderson.
If you enjoy using bookbub, you can follow RJ and her alter ego Susan there.
http://thesneakykittycritic.com
Magical Romantic Comedies (with a body count)
Playing with Fire
Hoofin’ It
Hearth, Home, and Havoc
Whatever for Hire
Serial Killer Princess
Owl Be Yours
Fowl Play (Sept 2018)
No Kitten Around (Oct 2018)
Blending In (Nov 2018)
Cheetahs Never Win (Dec 2018)
Saddle Up (2019)
Grave Humor (May 2019)
Dragon Her Heels (Late 2019)
From Witch & Wolf World
Series: Witch & Wolf
Inquisitor
Winter Wolf
Blood Diamond
Silver Bullet
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Series: Wolf Hunt
Wolf Hunt
Wild Wolf (2019)
The Edge of Midnight (2020)
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Series: Nature of the Beast
Pack Justice
Dual Nature (TBD)
* * *
Series: Balancing the Scales
Karma
* * *
Standalones
Beneath a Blood Moon
Shadowed Flame
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Tales of the Winter Wolf
(Short Story/Novella Collections)
Omnibus - Volumes One-Five
Volume Six (Aftermath to Winter Wolf.)
Other Stories by RJ Blain
Jesse Alexander Novels
Water Viper
Steel Heart (late 2018)
* * *
Requiem for the Rift King (Epic Fantasy)
Storm Without End
Storm Surge
The Tides of War (TBD)
Witch & Wolf World Reading Order
The Witch & Wolf world is all over the place. I’m sorry about that—really. I’m worse than a gnat sometimes, flitting from project to project, excited to write my next story. Here’s my preferred reading order of these books. While I wrote Inquisitor first, it actually happens after Winter Wolf.
Note: You can jump in on any series with the exception of Blood Diamond, Silver Bullet, and later volumes—they are dependent on events that happen prior in the series.
Winter Wolf (W&W #2)
Tales of the Winter Wolf Vol. 6
Tales of the Winter Wolf Vol. 1-5
Inquisitor (W&W #1)
Beneath a Blood Moon (Standalone)
Blood Diamond (W&W #3)
Silver Bullet (W&W #4)
Wolf Hunt (WH #1, W&W #5)
Wild Wolf (WH #2, W&W #6)
The Edge of Midnight (WH #3, W&W #7)
* * *
The following books can be read at any time:
Nature of the Beast
Pack Justice
Dual Nature (TBD)
Balancing the Scales
Karma
License to Kill (TBD)
Standalone
Shadowed Flame