Desert Hunt

by Anna Lowe

More importantly, why? And how did Westend pack stand to benefit?

  Her mind spun through the possibilities. Maybe Roric was making a sick trade of some kind, offering her in exchange for a powerful male to come to Westend and mate with Sabrina. The alpha pair had no sons, so Westend pack would need a new alpha someday. A powerful Twin Moon male mated to Sabrina would keep Roric’s bloodline in power and the two packs united.

  It made sense, in a warped, medieval way.

  But which powerful male from Twin Moon would transfer to Nevada? Ty was destined to lead his home pack, and Zack would be deemed unacceptable. No one else matched the power of those two. Cody might, if he ever stopped playing Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up.

  Rae ran on, anger fueling her step. She hated alphas! Alphas and their power plays, manipulating individuals like pawns in a chess game. They were all the same.

  And Zack was no better. He’d tricked her. Betrayed her trust. He’d had his fun with her, and then delivered her straight to her doom.

  She saw it all in slow motion: Zack naked and hunched over her. God, she’d let him touch—taste!—her everywhere. She’d been thinking mate and forever, while he’d taken advantage of easy pickings for one hot night. Then he’d handed her over to his own friend as an arranged mate. Maybe they even had some sick sharing arrangement in mind, those two.

  Tricked. Betrayed.

  Any fool could have seen it coming. But no, she’d done it again—let her imagination take over and fill in one too many blanks. Zack didn’t love her. Zack didn’t understand her.

  And Ty was no better. She thought he was a decent man, but obviously she’d misjudged him. What kind of man would take an arranged mate who didn’t want him?

  A power-hungry man. One who would force her to submit.

  She ran faster, squinting in the dim evening light.

  She didn’t have it in her to be a ruling alpha’s mate. Couldn’t they see that? She was born to hunt. And she could never love Ty. Not when her heart was already with Zack.

  Her broken heart, she corrected herself. The one that would despise him forever. He’d even had the nerve to tell her, hand on heart, I will never be like him, meaning the manipulative old alpha. And she’d believed him.

  She ran and ran and ran—in human form because her wolf refused to come out and aid her escape. At the same time, she tried to form some kind of getaway plan. Maybe she could get to her car and get it running. Or hitchhike. Maybe she could head back East and find an enlightened pack to grant her shelter if the Twin Moon wolves came looking.

  The East? What would we do there? her wolf protested. Hunt raccoons? There’s no space! Not like here.

  She shoved the beast away. She would go where freedom beckoned, and if that meant the East Coast, so be it. She ran on, begging her wolf to come out and give her twice the speed. Her knowledge of Twin Moon territory was enough to know there were plenty of twists and curves on the northeast edge for her to step off ranch property soon enough.

  Just another couple of miles. She gritted her teeth and ran on along a rough track. Just a little farther…

  She pounded up a punishing slope and paused at the crest of a mesa. The ranch lay behind her, aglow with soft tungsten light. There was a brighter smudge where the dining hall would be, and dots surrounding it where common buildings gave way to a scattering of private homes. It always looked so welcoming at night. Even now, the deceiving effect tried to sway her resolve. But she knew better now. One of those lights came from the council house, where the old alpha had so casually announced her fate.

  Where was he now? Where were the others? She watched the headlights of a single truck speed out the ranch gate, kicking up a plume of dust. It was only a question of time before they caught up with her. There would be trucks, wolves—and hell, maybe even Zack on his motorcycle, leading the chase.

  She ran downslope in great leaping strides, making for the line of lights on the highway, a few miles distant. Everything hinged on her getting there. Everything.

  She had just readjusted her stride to the flatter valley floor when she heard the sharp pant of wolves in pursuit.

  Come out and help, you stupid wolf! she yelled at her animal side. Why did it refuse?

  A shadow flickered to her left. The wolves were closing in. She could have screamed at the irony. She should be the hunter, not the hunted. Especially when the wolves chasing her were not out to let simply let Mother Earth whisper in her ear.

  Her lungs and legs burned with effort, and every muscle straining as she sprinted away.

  An excited yip sounded from her right, answered by another immediately behind. The wolves were closing in.

  She leaped over a rock and made a clean landing, but her next step found a rut, and her ankle twisted. She tumbled and bottomed out so hard, her vision lit up with a hundred points of light. By the time she scrambled to her knees, the wolves had her surrounded.

  Five of them, big, dark, and awfully pleased with themselves, judging by the way their tongues swished over their fangs. Rae did her best to look menacing as she pulled herself to her feet—and promptly lurched as sparks of pain shot through her ankle.

  “I am not going back!” she shouted, wondering which wolf was which. None had the smoky scent of the old alpha, but she doubted he would have joined the hunt personally. None had the brownish-black hair of Ty, nor the blond pelt of his brother, Cody.

  And none was Zack. She would have spotted her lover from a mile away.

  A wolf stepped forward, but a bigger one grunted, sending the first scuttling back to the ranks. Which meant that the big one with the dull brown coat was the highest ranking of the lot.

  “I am not going back to Twin Moon Ranch!” she shouted, forcing herself to stand tall.

  The wolf’s lips curled up before he stepped forward and shifted to human form. She let out a gasp of recognition even before he spoke.

  “I don’t want you back on Twin Moon, Sunshine. I want you to come with me.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The sun was setting, and instinct urged Zack to follow Rae—north, where his inner compass was pointing most vehemently. But he walked west instead, taking jerky, mechanical steps.

  He was off to a fight to the death with his closest friend, for a woman only one of them truly wanted.

  He wanted to shake Ty, not that that would do any good. Ty’s father’s word was his command, and Ty had long since shut down the feeling part of his heart. Zack could practically hear him thinking things through. Might as well make a match that profits the pack.

  It was wrong, even if Zack knew his best friend would treat Rae right.

  We’ll fight to the death before giving her up, his coyote and wolf snarled as one.

  He could have shaken his head and said, Yes, it will be death. The outcome of this fight was a foregone conclusion. He was going to die.

  Oh, he could take on Ty, all right. That would make a close fight between two evenly matched wolves. Where Ty had the upper hand in sheer intensity, Zack’s agility put him a nose ahead. He might even be able to work around Ty’s ultimate weapon: that powerful glare that had melted many a potential opponent. Having play-wrestled Ty since he was a cub, Zack knew how to avoid those eyes.

  On a good day, he would give himself a fair chance of holding his own with Ty. Hell, he might even beat the alpha’s son. But no matter how well he fought, he’d never come out on top, because Ty had a secret weapon that Zack would always lack.

  Family.

  Everyone gathered to witness the fight knew that the minute Zack gained the upper hand, the old alpha would jump in and straighten things out.

  Zack could take the old man on, easy. Would even enjoy it. He could take Ty on, though he didn’t want to. But taking them both on? Maybe even three, what with Ty’s brother Cody waiting to pitch in? Never.

  The crazy thing was, Ty and Cody were good, honest men. But blood called to blood, and their father would do whatever it took to keep his offspring on top.


  Zack ducked between the second and third poles of a fence, heading for the hollow between the old machine shop and a toolshed that was already flooded with artificial light. The place had seen its share of deadly fights back when Tyrone was rising to power, but it hadn’t hosted any action for decades now. Zack squinted against the lights, swallowing his bitterness. It hadn’t taken the old coot more than five minutes to turn this fight into an event. And Zack, of course, was being ushered to the less favorable side of the ring, where the lights blazed directly into his eyes.

  He tried drowning out the noise of the gathering crowd. Old Tyrone was front and center, hammering him with a blazing glare. Ty’s siblings were there, too: his raven-haired sister, Tina, and couldn’t-be-more-opposite brother, Cody. They stood a conspicuously long step away from their father, eyes cast down to avoid the ugly truth. The nervous knot of Tina’s fingers told him that their futures were as closely tied to this fight as Ty’s. Today, Ty’s mate would be forced on him; tomorrow, it might be Tina. And as for Cody, well, even the swinging bachelor couldn’t be far behind.

  Family. Ty had his back to a mountain; Zack had his to an abyss.

  “Get him!” Tyrone barked at his son.

  Zack saw Ty’s eyes tighten in a wince. Family had its pluses and minuses.

  Making no move to start, he waited for Ty. This fight wasn’t about winning; it was about buying Rae time to escape, hopefully to a pack where the alpha let her choose her own mate.

  He swallowed the thought like a bitter pill. Rae with another man? She was his, and he was hers. They were destined for each other.

  Except destiny had its hiccups, just like life. He took in the scene around him—Ty’s clenched fists, the old alpha’s narrowed eyes, the spectators behind him—and knew it was not to be. He and Rae had already had all the time fate had allotted them.

  God, it hurt to consider that. And the way she’d looked at him with accusing eyes—that was even worse. Even if he won this impossible fight, Rae would never take him back.

  Ty stepped forward, looking darker and more haunted than ever. Zack circled, trying for a better angle against the glare—and not much else. He had to drag this out, which meant fighting long and hard, and possibly wounding Ty enough to keep him from pursuing Rae. The thought sickened him. Why was he even fighting his friend?

  For Rae, his wolf snarled as Ty unleashed his first blow.

  Half the crowd went into a frenzy. The other half hushed as Zack ducked and swung back, landing a glancing blow off Ty’s shoulder.

  “Come on, Ty!” a shrill voice cried. Audrey, the ranch playgirl, knew how to side with the winning team.

  They shuffled around each other, knuckles raised, chins low, looking for an opening. Ty came in with a bolo punch then followed up with a series of lackluster jabs Zack could parry with ease. The vocal part of the crowd cheered in excitement. Old Tyrone, of course, was barking for blood.

  “Get him!”

  “Why don’t they shift?” someone in the crowd cried.

  Zack knew as well as Ty why not. Fighting with their fists kept the damage to a minimum. Neither one of them had his heart in this fight. Anyone could see it in the way they traded blows any quick-witted kid could have avoided.

  Ty advanced with a quick combination that Zack had perfectly under control until his footwork brought him in a direct line with old Tyrone’s sights. The man’s laser-like glare distracted him long enough to let Ty land a punch on his chin. Zack stumbled back, and a gasp went out from the crowd.

  “Follow up, follow up!” Old Tyrone yelled.

  Ty lumbered slowly forward, giving Zack ample time to get his bearings before he came in with an easy uppercut. Zack smacked it away and followed with a very wide hook.

  That’s when he saw it: the wrinkle in the corner of Ty’s mouth. Not quite a smile, but a smile all the same.

  He’s doing it, too. Ty was pulling his punches, throwing pitty-pat blows that wouldn’t hurt a kid. Because Rae’s escape, he realized, suited Ty, too.

  He hid a smile and went back at Ty with a haymaker guaranteed to go wide.

  Perfect, his coyote snickered, trying to make the punch look good.

  Perfect except for one thing, as he realized when the fight wore on. It was impossible to put two alpha wolves in one ring and expect them to play nice. Bit by bit, he felt his wolf creeping toward the surface, in the same way that Ty’s eyes grew more intent. So much that Zack took to avoiding them altogether, just in case. With every blow, every parry, every grunt from the audience, the fight escalated.

  Showtime was over. Soon, he would be fighting for his life. Rae’s life, too. She would die before giving in to a forced mate.

  Ty’s blows came faster and in more effective combinations. Eyes stinging with the salt of his own sweat, Zack did his best to leash his inner beast. But Ty came at him harder and harder, and Zack was forced to put more power behind his own punches. When Ty got in a good uppercut, Zack responded with a heavy cross that pulled a vicious growl out of Ty. Zack stepped left, looking for an opening, while Ty went right, his shoulders blocking the floodlights. But then Ty slid farther, and a beam of light pierced Zack’s eyes. He threw a hand up against it, blotting out the blinding combination of floodlights and the old alpha’s glare.

  There was a mighty crack, and Zack had the vague feeling it might have been his jaw. At least, that’s as much as his mind registered as he flew sprawling across the hard-packed dirt. When he could process something other than the pain shooting through his jaw, it was an inky sky with tiny points of lights, soothing and soft.

  Beautiful. Like jewels in the sky.

  He focused there, trying to blink away the pain. A hulking form shifted into view above him: Ty, leaning in to assess the impact of that last blow.

  The word echoed in Zack’s mind, bringing out a crazy smile. There’d been an impact, all right. Rae. The woman had been like a meteor in his life, rocketing in and changing everything.

  He could have howled, thinking of her gone, but in that off-balance moment, his coyote got the better of him and started laughing. His gurgling chuckle turned into a throaty laugh that built until his jaw and ribs ached.

  He flopped back into the warm earth and took in the scene around him, feeling strangely removed from it all. The lights, the barn, his packmates. A tiny and strangely absurd universe. Ty frowned, and his eyes went from killer to confused.

  What the hell is so funny? Ty’s voice thundered in his mind.

  Try two friends fighting over a woman one of them doesn’t want and the other one wants too much.

  Zack laughed until tears blurred his sight. The bubbling laughter grew louder and deeper, as if a bass drum had just seen the humor in this strange scene and decided to rumble along. When he paused to suck in a breath, the sound went on, and he realized it was Ty, leaning over with his hands on his knees, either from a laughter-induced shake or the exhaustion of the fight. Maybe a little of both.

  A soft, scolding voice from the past echoed in his ears: old Aunt Jean, the former schoolteacher and surrogate mother to underdogs like him. What would she say to them now?

  Two little ragamuffins, laughing in the dirt.

  The recollection only made Zack laugh harder. They couldn’t have been more than eight when she said it, that day on the schoolhouse grounds. And that had to have been the first and last time anyone had associated the word muffin with him or Ty.

  He laughed until Ty reached a hand down to haul him to his feet—whether to restart the fight or dust his ass off and head for a bar, Zack wasn’t sure. He gripped the rough hand as if to stand, but then yanked Ty down beside him. There was a heavy moment of silence before their laughter picked up where it had left off, and for a minute, they really were a couple of ragamuffins in the dirt.

  They spent a few minutes like that, the two of them, while their mute packmates looked on, unsure how to react. Then Zack took a deep breath and threw an arm out to tap Ty.

  “Oof,” the a
lpha’s son let out, biting back a grimace. “That rib’s broken, man.”

  Zack rolled to all fours, slowly, painfully, then sat back on his haunches and gingerly touched his chin. “So’s my fucking jaw.”

  “How broken?” Ty challenged, and Zack grinned. It was another line from the past, one they’d used back in their play-fight days.

  Except this was no play-fight. This was real, and Rae was out there. He locked eyes with Ty, suddenly going quiet.

  Rae. Mate, his wolf growled. Mine.

  Ty’s eyes flared, and Zack wondered how this night might end. Would their friendship be forever ruined or renewed?

  A slow second later, Ty gave a curt nod and accepted Zack’s hand up.

  “What the hell is this?” Old Tyrone barked.

  Zack stiffened, but Ty jerked his hand northeast, in the direction Rae had gone.

  “Got a mate to catch,” Ty declared in a quiet but deadly voice. “His mate,” he added, jabbing his chin toward Zack.

  A moment later, they were both in wolf form, sprinting into the night.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Much as Rae blinked, she couldn’t change the reality confronting her. Jed was back. And this time, with reinforcements: four strapping young wolves who looked hungry for action—any kind of action they could get.

  “Sunshine, you knew I wouldn’t let that jackass take you away. Now, come home with me.” Jed’s voice went from sugar sweet to acid sharp on the final words.

  Home? She leaned toward the ranch, then forced herself ramrod straight. There was no home for her. Not with Jed, not with Zack, not with any man. She nearly barked it out but held her tongue, not wanting to set Jed off.

  He was crazy. She could see it in his eyes. Crazy and utterly convinced of himself—a dangerous combination. Forget about reasoning with him. So what if she wasn’t interested in him and never had been? So what if she had her own dream? That was all negligible in the madman’s master plan. Jed wanted a mate, a pack, and supreme rule. And he would stop at nothing to get it.

  “Sunshine, you okay?” His eyes shone in the dark. “I should never have let that asshole take you away. But I wasn’t ready to take on the whole pack, so I had to let you go. For your own sake. But you see?” He broke out in a proud grin, waiting for her approval. “I came back for you, just like I promised.”