Grace didn’t wait. She burst forward knocking one wolf out of the way. It caught the rogues by surprise but not for long.
She cleared the front door before she heard them chase after her. Knowing Black Bird was too far away Grace sprinted for the woods. If she could keep a lead she might be able to lose them in the forest.
Excited howls called out, too close for comfort. Fear made Grace run faster. A branch smacked her across the fast but she kept moving.
The sound of pounding paws, labored breathing, and growls followed her as she dodged trees and wove through the woods. Her lungs burned.
A flash of fur caught in the corner of her eye. They were right on top of her. Her ankle ruined whatever head start she’d gained.
Two wolves jumped out of the bushes ahead of her. Grace slid to a stop just shy of their waiting jaws. The pair curled their lips into razor sharp smiles. Not taking her eyes off the wolves in front of her, Grace felt the other three circling her, blocking all escapes.
She was going to be torn apart by a Pack of rogue wolves right next to her family cabin. It pissed her off. This was supposed to be her new start, not the end.
The Pack as a group closed in. She bared her teeth feeling as feral as the rogues. If she was going out she was putting up one hell of a fight.
Whirling on the bastard who bit her, Grace threw her body against his. She tore into the flesh under his belly. He twisted, pulling her teeth from his flesh but not before Grace tasted blood. Someone latched onto Grace’s haunch making her yelp in pain. She turned to bite them but they jumped out of range. The instant her attention shifted something slammed into her from the side.
The world flipped as the rogues pounced. They tore into her belly. Grace tried to get up but their bodies were pressing in on her, making movement impossible. She fought and snapped at anything that came close desperate to gain some advantage but they shook out of her grasp.
The rogues were shredding her apart. Blood matted her fur getting into her eyes. She could scent it on the air. Her body was on fire.
Her back leg refused to move. She was trying desperately to get back on her feet. If she could get up she could have a better chance of defending herself. She didn’t want to die on her back.
The weight pressing Grace into the earth lifted for an instant and she sprang to her feet. The world tilted as she tried to stay upright. She spread her paws wide ready to defend.
The rogues weren’t attacking her. They were focused on a large light colored wolf who was shaking the black wolf like a ragdoll. Jack.
He dropped the black wolf diving at one of the two wolves biting his side. Seeing an opening, he wrapped his jaw around one of their bared necks biting down with a deafening crunch.
Needing to do something, Grace slid under Jack’s throat baring her teeth. Half dead, her wolf still sang at the contact. This felt right. Fighting alongside your mate was how it was supposed to be.
A russet colored wolf dove into the melee trying to tear into Jack’s stomach. Filled with renewed energy, Grace snapped at him catching the wolf on the cheek. Yipping, the wolf flinched back leaving fur and skin behind. Grace pushed his retreat, biting down on his ear. The wolf cried out, desperate to get free. Grace shook back and forth as the wolf struggled against her grip. Something landed on Grace’s injured ankle making her cry out in pain and let go of the red wolf. He took his chance and ran for the woods.
Grace whipped around to defend Jack but he was standing alone, panting. At his feet was a dead rogue. As Grace watched he shifted. His body was covered in bite marks and scratches. Under his right arm was a patch of bloody flesh. The blood dripped down his side. His face was granite as he stared down at Grace.
“Shift,” the word was barely human. It grated against her ears. There was so much command behind it that Grace’s body responded before she registered what was happening.
The transformation was agonizingly slow this time. Her bones ground together. She could tell a few ribs were broken. When it was finished she was left covered in sweat on her side. She closed her eyes trying to keep from throwing up. She had nothing left.
Jack stepped next to her. With her eyes closed Grace could feel the fury and lingering violence coming off of him in waves. Grace’s human brain was still playing catch up but in the presence of that much anger her wolf knew what to do. She flopped over and showed Jack her belly.
“Fuck,” he hissed, “what happened to you?” Jack bent down and picked Grace up. She growled softly when her wounds pinched and pulled. “Shh,” Jack cooed, “it’ll be alright.”
Unable to do much, Grace laid limp as Jack carried her back to the cabin. She was drowning in pain but she couldn’t ignore the fact that Jack had saved her life. A few more minutes and Grace would have died.
“Jack, thank you. I would have…”
“Grace, shut up. I am so mad right now I can barely keep my skin. I’m not sure if I want to wring your neck or fuck you senseless and if you open your mouth right now, I will not be responsible for my actions.”
Grace’s mouth hung open. Shutting it with a clip, she nodded settling back into his arms. The rest of the hike was silent. The tension vibrating through Jack never eased.
Jack’s skin was overheated. It felt good. Exhausted, Grace closed her eyes and relaxed into the steady gait of Jack’s path through the woods. Her body wanted to let go of consciousness but she forced her eyes open.
Jack didn’t say a word as he marched up the stairs. He paused at the sight of the entryway. The room was wrecked. A lamp lay broken in a pool of white paint. Grace didn’t remember the lamp breaking or the paint getting knocked over. Splattered across the floor, mottled with the white puddle was Grace’s blood. It was easy to see where the rogue had dragged her across the floor. Jack growled his body expanding, ready to explode into action. Grace opened her mouth to say something but he beat her to the punch.
“Not a word, Grace. Not yet.” He whispered in perfectly clipped words.
Avoiding the broken glass, paint, and blood Jack set Grace on the ratty old couch. His eyes flashed yellow when he saw her ankle. He put a pillow on the coffee table and gently lifted her leg to rest on it. Just as gently, Jack draped a blanket across her body. With a lot less care Jack stomped back out.
Grace slumped against the couch. Any lingering adrenaline left her body. She was empty. Every ounce of strength had gone to running away from the rogues and fighting. She had nothing left.
Without the adrenaline the bites and bruises that covered her body were making themselves painfully known. She tried to get settled into a more comfortable position but groaned when her ribs pulled. Yup, they were definitely broken.
Her ankle bone was still intact but the muscles surrounding it were a mess of red. She would not be walking on that for a day.
Jack walked back into the cabin wearing pants, his phone tucked under his ear. He hadn’t bothered to clean his wounds. Blood caked his chest and abs. Grace wasn’t in so much pain that she couldn’t admire Jack’s toned body.
She’d seen him without clothing a lot over the last year. It would have been hard not to since there were monthly Pack runs but she went out of her way to not stare. Blame it on the fact that her entire body was a throbbing sore, but she was staring now.
In work clothes Jack’s chest stretched the fabric impressively before tucking into narrow hips.
Shirtless, the man was a god. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. His tanned skin accented the peaks and valleys on his lean body. His pecs flexed as he reached out to touch something on the wall. The play of muscles drew Grace’s eyes down his flat stomach. Her mouth watered seeing the deeply carved muscles directing her gaze towards the waistband of his jeans.
She gasped seeing his cock push against the denim. Heat rushed to her core. Her wolf gave an appreciative groan.
“Grace,” Jack growled softly. Her cheeks heated knowing he had just caught her staring at his package. There was a playful heat simmer behind his b
lue eyes. He raised an eyebrow in a “come on” gesture. “As much as I love smelling you getting turned on, now isn’t the time.”
Embarrassed, Grace tried to shrug nonchalantly, “Human Grace isn’t driving right now, sorry.”
Jack opened his mouth to say something but Ben picked up on the other line, “Yeah?”
The playfulness burned away into rage. “Grace was attacked by a group of rogues.”
Ben cursed. “Is she alright?”
“No, she’s not fucking alright. If I had hit one more red light she would be dead.” Ice shot through Grace’s heart at Jack’s description. He said it so casually.
“I’m calling Dr. Jensen. We’ll be there in ten. Did you catch any of the rogues?”
Jack stopped in front of a splash of white paw prints. He bent down to get a closer look. “None that can talk. Four turned tail and ran for the mountains.” Jack clenched his fist.
Ben made an angry noise over the phone. “Ask Grace if she recognized any of them.”
Jack’s body froze. His hand perched over one the rogue’s footprint. The muscles along his jaw tightened until they quivered. His head turned slowly until he was staring right at Grace. Crouched low, he was at eye level with her. If he was angry before, he was furious now.
“Why would Grace recognize them?” Jack asked Ben but the question was directed at Grace. She got the impression, by his challenging tone, that the question was rhetorical.
Ben wasn’t in the room to interpret the physical aspect of the conversation. All he heard over the phone was Jack’s aggressively defiant tone. In reality he was daring Grace to lie but what Ben interpreted as insubordination. “Remember who you’re speaking to, wolf. I am you Alpha and I don’t care how pissed you are. I do not tolerate challenges from my own enforcers. If you’ve got a problem with how I run my Pack then fight me for it. Otherwise, answer the fucking question.”
Jack looked like he wanted to take Ben up on his offer. Claws lengthened from his fingers. He pulled his lip back in a silent snarl before opening his mouth to say something colossally stupid.
“No,” Grace rushed to say before Jack dug himself a bigger hole. “I didn’t recognize any of them. They haven’t been here before.” Not that she had smelled the wolf who had been watching her house the last few nights.
“Did Dane recognize them?” Ben asked, by passing Jack entirely. Jack who looked ready to split his skin at the mention of Dane.
“He’s back in South Creek today.”
“Fucking convenient,” Jack snorted.
Grace ignored him. “I think they were watching the house. Waiting for me to be alone.”
“That might be the case. I’m almost there Grace. We’ll have Dr. Jensen look you over while the enforcers and I check things out.”
“Alright,” Grace agrees as if she had a choice.
Ben hung up leaving Grace to face Jack alone. He rose from where he’d been examining the rogue’s prints. He ignored the evidence that only two minutes ago he had been studying. Jack bore down on Grace with a singular focus. She sank into the couch feeling hunted.
“Want to tell me why you would recognize a Pack of rogue wolves?” He planted his hands on either side of her head and leaned into her space. His body heated the air making Grace hyper aware that he surrounded her. Her wolf wanted her to lean forward and rest her cheek on Jack’s naked chest.
“Pl-please move,” Grace stammered her voice barely audible.
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so, Grace. It seems to me that the second I leave you alone you manage to find yourself in a heap of trouble.” He bent closer. Forcing Grace to sink further into the sagging couch just to avoid touching him. “The way I see it, you and I are about to get real close.”
Grace melted at the thought even as she rebelled against the idea. “Why?” She hated how breathless she sounded but having Jack pull the dominance card was doing terrible things to her body.
“Because until this is sorted out, I am not letting you out of my sight.”
Chapter Eight
Jack stood on the rotting porch of Grace’s cabin. Dr. Bill Jensen was looking over her injuries. Jack had stepped outside to give them some privacy. The front door was open so it was more like to give them the illusion of privacy. By the sigh Dr. Jensen had given him when he’d walked outside Jack knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.
He couldn’t help himself. He was standing less than thirty feet away from Grace. She was in his line of sight, surrounded by five enforcers, and Jack still wanted to snarl and snap at everyone. His wolf was losing its mind. Their mate had nearly died. It had come down to seconds. Too close.
After running into Grace in town Jack had decided to head over to help her paint. He wanted to earn some brownie points and maybe feel out the asshole South Creek wolf sleeping on her lawn.
He’d smelled blood before he got out of his truck. Jack wasn’t sure if his human senses registered whose blood it was. One instant he was human and the next he was a wolf running towards the woods. The race through the forest was so disjointed, so frantic that it wasn’t until he saw the rogues on Grace that Jack realized what was going on.
His wolf overrode Jack’s free will. Their mate was in danger. They defended, fought, and killed for their mate. Seeing a wolf bite down on Grace’s shoulder, Jack wholeheartedly agreed. He wanted to tear those fucking animals limb from limb. He would see the rogues torn limb from limb.
Grace winced as Dr. Jensen pressed his fingers into her ribs. Jack was halfway through the door before he could stop himself. He had to close his eyes and remember that Dr. Jensen was helping, not hurting.
The reality of what almost happened today, losing Grace, changed Jack. Grace was his mate. He understood what his wolf had been trying to tell him for months now. They needed Grace and Jack would be damned if he let anything keep him from claiming her.
Ben gestured Jack over to where he, Paul, and the Tate brothers were on the lawn. Checking on Grace one more time to make sure she didn’t need him, Jack joined them. Ben and Paul looked pissed. Ezra and Ezekiel were stone faced. That wasn’t anything new. Jack had seen them set their own bones and not flinch. The rogues could be bearing down on them that very second and the Tate brothers would still be wearing the same expression.
“What do you have?” Jack asked quietly, hoping Grace wouldn’t hear them. Whatever had put that look on Ben’s face wasn’t something he wanted Grace hearing.
“Shit. We found shit.” Paul bit, teeth flashing.
Jack cursed. He had been hoping that Ezra and Ezekiel would be able to catch up with the bastards. They were the Pack’s best trackers but that meant shit when rogues got a head start. Still, they might be able to scope the area where the brothers lost the trail. “Where did you lose the trail? We can get a group up there to canvas the area.”
Ezra looked Jack dead in the eyes with no change in his demeanor, “What trail?”
Jack looked at Ben confused. Anger rose off Ben in heated waves. “There’s no trace that there were ever any rogues.” Ben ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, if you hadn’t killed one I don’t know if I would have believed you.”
“What about Grace’s injuries?” Jack threw his hand towards the cabin not believing what Ben was saying. “How would you have explained those?”
“Have you walked through that cabin? Really looked at it from an investigative point of view and not just like a pissed off mate?”
Jack held back his first response. The truth was he was too agitated to see anything beyond his own anger. He shook his head.
Paul stepped in. “Grace said one of the rogues hit the wall jumping at her. There’s a patch of blood where something split their skin but there’s no scent. It might as well be red water.” Paul shook his head. “It makes no sense.”
“There’s a shit ton of spilled paint and blood from Grace. Could that be overriding our ability to identify the rogue’s scent?” Jack could barely smell anything over the paint fumes. Gra
ce had said something along those lines when asked why she didn’t sense a Pack of wolves right behind her.
“You saying we can’t do our jobs, Taylor?” Ezra’s widening stance left no room to doubt the question was a threat.
“Keeping insulting us like that and we’ll have a problem,” Ezekiel stepped closer to his brother backing up the threat.
Jack bristled.
“Cut the shit,” Ben ordered. He pointed at the twins. “Get back into town and let everyone know that we’re on lockdown. No one goes anywhere alone and no one leaves their houses after dark.” The brothers didn’t bother acknowledging the order. They shifted and ran towards Black Bird.
Ben rubbed his temples with barely contained frustration. “The paint wasn’t the problem. The problem is that there isn’t a scent to trace. We’ve combed the clearing where you killed the rogue and we can only smell you and Grace.”
“What are you saying?” Jack asked.
“He’s saying that if Grace weren’t alive to corroborate your story,” Paul cut in, “we would be executing you for killing her.”
Jack lunged at Paul. Ben dove between them pushing Jack back.
“Calm down,” Ben yelled keeping Jack from taking a swing at Paul. “We know you didn’t hurt Grace. We’re trying to tell you what's going on.”
Jack shoved Ben off of him straightening the shirt he had put on. “Then maybe you shouldn’t imply that I would kill my mate.”
“Look,” Paul said holding his hands up in apology, “it’s no excuse for implying what I did. This is driving me insane. My wolf doesn’t understand why I’m freaking out.”
“You can’t protect against something you can’t sense,” Ben said summing it up.
Jack nodded finally feeling his blood cool.
“This does explain what’s been going on with Grace the last few days,” Paul said getting back on topic.
Ben nodded looking back at Grace’s cabin.
“What’s been going on with Grace?” Jack never got a straight answer from Grace. Ben and the crew showed up before he could press her.
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