Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) (7 page)

Aidan gave me the heat and the contact that I’d wanted, and I had to say, it was way better than
something good
.  And it was exactly what I needed.

~ AIDAN ~

My inner-wolf stirred within my chest and I woke up slowly, chasing a dream that I couldn’t quite grasp onto.  The fading sounds of wolves howling in the night drifted in and out, as the dream dissolved into a groggy, disjointed memory.

I blinked, clearing the sleepy film that layered my eyes.  The storm was still going strong, crashing against the house.  Rain beat against the windows; thunder rumbled throughout the sky.  A flash of lightening lit up my bedroom, and then faded, shrouding me once again in darkness.  The only light left was coming from the red glow of the digital alarm clock that sat on the nightstand beside me, telling me it was 1:03 in the morning.

Uneasiness unfurled in my gut and I scrubbed at my face.  That dream.  The sound of my pack, baying and chasing and tearing into flesh, shifted throughout my conscious mind, as if it had been real.  It felt real.  Sounded real.

Jade was curled up beside me, and as always, she had me right at the edge of the mattress.  Her forehead was pressed into my shoulder, and she had an arm thrown over my belly.  Her eyes were closed and her breathing was steady.  She was smiling, just a little upward tilt at the corners of her mouth.  Peaceful.  Content.

A clap of thunder rattled the windows, and I sighed as I listened to it rumble through the sky and fade into the distance.  I rubbed at my face again.  It was nothing.  Just a dream.  Probably my subconscious preparing for the inevitable fight my pack was about to embark on.  And with that thought, I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep.

A chorus of howls broke through my sleepy brain, and my eyes snapped open again.  That wasn’t a dream.  I was sure of it.  My inner-wolf shifted and stirred again within my chest.  He was agitated, urging me up, begging me to move and see what was happening.

I lay still, straining my hearing, waiting, listening … The wolves’ howls sounded again and I quickly lifted Jade’s arm from my stomach and slipped out of bed, careful not to wake her.  The muscles in the side of her cheek flexed and she rolled, flopping onto her back and throwing her arms out wide, before settling back into steady, even breathing.

I felt around the floor, searching for the pajama pants I’d tossed earlier that night.  After a moment of searching, I found them at the foot of the bed, tangled with the sheets, and tugged them on before easing out of the room.

My wolves were close.  As I crept down the staircase, avoiding the creaking third step from the top, I could smell traces of them.  With the rain pounding relentlessly, they had to be within feet of the house for me to pick up their scent.  It was watery, weak, and diluted, but it was there.  Their baying grew louder.  It was excited and frenzied and close.  Too close.

In a heartbeat, I leapt down the remaining steps and hurried to the door.  Through the small window I saw a flash of white.  The howling stopped abruptly only to be replaced by a low, menacing growl.

I yanked the door open, bolting out into the pouring rain.  Air pounded in and out of my lungs in harsh pants.  My heart ratcheted up, tripling in beats as I inhaled sharply.  Rain.  Dead leaves.  Blood.  Wolves.  Green.  Bitter.  Birch bark.  Cougar.  The scents assaulted me, and I started to breathe faster and faster as I searched the front yard for any sign of the sources.

The howling started again, coming from the side of the house, getting closer and closer.  Paws smacked against the wet ground, the sound almost inaudible over the rain, and suddenly, a mess of beasts, wolves and cougars, shot past my front deck.  My gaze zeroed in on a white wolf — Luken — as he took a leap, tackling one of the cougars.  They rolled through the sodden grass, flipping over a few times before springing free from each other again.

Shit!
  I glanced back at the house as a wave of heat pulsed from within me.  All my thoughts centered on Jade.  I had to keep her safe.  I had to keep them away from her while she slept.

I reached out and pulled the door closed.  My skin shuddered and I started to feel a little shaky from all the adrenaline that pumped through my veins.  The shift was coming quickly — quicker than normal — my inner-wolf was jerking against my skin.  He wanted out.  He needed to protect our mate.

I kicked off my pants.  Course hair layered my skin.  My bones snapped, cracked, lengthened, twisted.  I snarled and my inner-wolf sprang free.

The rain was freezing against my fur-coated skin, soaking me through.  I moved to the edge of the deck, tracking the movements of my pack, as they tangled with the feline-beasts.  With a quick scan through the downpour, I counted fifteen wolves and seven … no … six cougars.

My wolves were all over the place.  There was no center, no organization.  They looked as if they were simply reacting to each attack.  I didn’t understand it.  They were struggling, not seeming to gain any ground even with the greater numbers.  The cougars were darting around them, quick and efficient, almost as if they were taunting them.

I barked and let my scent thicken in the air, hoping to draw their focus, and I noticed the change in my wolves instantly.  Their movements went from sloppy and erratic to alert, and they began to fall into groups, protecting each other’s backs, and pushing the cougars toward the tree line.

One of the cougars broke off, stalking in my direction.  My hackles rose and the hair along my spine stood on end.  The solid, beige-colored cat was large, coming close to my height in wolf form.  He was built with sleek muscles, his shoulders packed and powerful.  His eyes, a bright green, rimmed with black, were fixed on me.

He stopped a few feet from the deck and hissed.  A flash of lightning struck through the black sky, and I caught sight of his long, razor-sharp fangs.  He pawed at the muddy ground, growling and hissing.

My lips curled and I snarled.  I wanted to jump down and tear into the monster, but I couldn’t bring myself to move, even for a second, and leave Jade unprotected and sleeping in the house.  How did they get this far into town?  We’d known that they were coming closer, circling houses on the outskirts, but not this far in.  Not with us constantly watching.

Suddenly he leapt at me, a powerful thrust from his hind-legs propelling him forward, and before I could move, his fangs struck, burying into my shoulder.  I pivoted, tossing him off balance, and just as quickly as he was on me, the cougar was back on the ground a few feet from the deck, hissing again.

My snarl was drowned out by a clap of thunder.  My shoulder felt as if it were on fire.  A streak of lightening chased through the night, and I saw the big cat push off again, launching toward me.

I shimmied back a couple steps, and as he hit the wooden planks of the deck, I leapt on him.  The animal’s knees buckled, and he fell to his belly.  My heart was pounding in my ears, drowning out the sounds of the fights breaking out around me as I stared down at the cat below me.  I bared my teeth, and went to bury them in his neck when I realized that he wasn’t fighting,
wasn’t trying to push me off.

Shit!
  He was submitting.  The beast within me wanted him to struggle, to give me a reason to end his sad little life, but he stayed still.  He made a sound that sounded a hell of a lot like a laugh, and he started to shift.

I backed up off him and he rolled up to his knees.  He was older.  Probably mid-forties, with a pot-belly and beady black eyes.  He had a full head of black hair, and a thick salt and pepper beard.  He held out his hands, showing surrender, but he never once lowered his eyes from mine.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed my pack was closing in around us.  With a quick glimpse up, I saw a lump of beige fur about ten feet away lying motionless, and the rest of the cougars were gone.

Disgust rose up around me, as I turned my focus back to the man in front of me.  His pack abandoned him without even a thought, leaving him at our mercy.

I shifted and rose up to my feet, towering over him.  He looked up, a cruel smile on his face, and he laughed.  “You should have killed me,” the man said, his voice higher than I expected.

Probably,
I thought.  He deserved death even if it was only because he came into my territory and attacked me.  My aching, bloody shoulder was proof of that.  It was enough to end his life, whether he was showing signs of submission or not.  And if he hadn’t shifted, I would have ended him, but it felt sickeningly wrong to do it while he was human.  While he had no chance of defending himself.

I gritted my teeth, glowering down at him.  “Not sure how you do this in your pack, but here, once someone submits and shifts, we don’t kill.”

“Pathetic.”  The man laughed.  “Just for the record, I would have killed you.”  He laughed again, muttering something about me being weak, and then said, “I shifted to give you a message.  The girl needs to be with her family and we will take her back.”

Growls erupted and my wolves stalked closer.  Clearly the bastard had no sense of self-preservation, because he started to shift, his face reshaping into that of a large cat.  Long fangs descended first, slowly, as if he were taunting me, and then his bones began to break.

Luken was on him as his shift finished, not giving him a chance to run.  The others were snarling and snapping around us, ready to take him down.  But they didn’t need to be.  The meaty sound of flesh tearing, ripping, pulling, filled my ears, as I watched Luken’s white coat stain crimson.  The cougar screamed, a high-pitched sound that ripped through the air, and then his body went limp.

Jeff sent his cougars in the middle of the night to
collect Jade.
  In that moment, that was the only thought I had.  The girl the cougar had been talking about was Jade.  I had no doubt about that, and the knowledge rattled me to my core.

I closed my eyes, sucking in breath after breath.  The rain felt like pebbles smacking against my bare flesh, stinging my skin.  My wolves had quieted, now that the threat was gone, but I could feel them watching me, waiting.

“Aidan, what’s going on?” Jade’s voice came from behind me, and I spun around.  “I heard howling and a scream.”  She was standing in the doorway wearing only one of my hoodies that hung mid-thigh on her, rubbing sleep from her eyes.  Her hands dropped.  She paled, as she looked past me, most likely at the wolves who were still growling.  She turned a little gray as she looked down, spotting the dead cougar on our deck, and then her eyes came up and landed on my shoulder, and her expression changed from sick to concern.  “Jesus, what happened?”

“I’m fine,” I said, my voice sounded rough and growled.  “Just a small flesh wound.”  I shook my head, and stepped toward her.  Rainwater dripped from my arms as I lifted a hand to her cheek.  The thought of telling her to go inside crossed my mind.  She’d been through hell today, and she didn’t need anymore, but I couldn’t do it.  She needed to know and there was no way I was going to start hiding things from her again.  “It looks like your dad was serious about wanting you home.  And I’m thinking he’s done with pretending to have an alliance with us.”

The sound of bones snapping and reshaping drew Jade’s attention from me.  I dropped my hand from her face and turned to find Luken, blood caked around his mouth and on his chest, rising to his feet.

He opened his mouth, but I lifted a hand to silence him.  “How the hell did they get this close?” I demanded.  “And where is the team?”

“Aidan,” Jade said softly, her tone, her scent, both urged me to calm down, and I took a deep breath, holding my fury at bay.  The other wolves backed up a few steps, dropping their muzzles to the ground.  Not one of them shifted, most likely so they wouldn’t have to answer me.

Luken cleared his throat and he looked as if he were regretting not staying in wolf form.  “The team …” he looked down to his toes, let out a breath, and whispered, “We tried to call them when we first spotted the cougars, but we couldn’t reach them.  The cougars came straight here, Aidan.  They knew where they were going.”

“I’ll call Beck,” Jade offered, and she started to shuffle back into the house.

“No,” I barked, way too harshly, and I instantly felt sick.  I turned to her.  Her eyes were wide with surprise.  “Sorry, sweetheart,” I muttered.  “Leave them for tonight.  We’ll talk to them in the morning about it.”

Her face fell.  She knew exactly what that meant.  That I hadn’t changed my mind about chatting with them.  And I thought she got that not answering a call during an attack seriously didn’t help their case.  She must have thought it, too, because she didn’t argue and nodded in agreement, looking grim but resolved.

She looked back to Luken.  “Did anyone else get hurt?” she asked.  She was making a conscious effort to keep her eyes on our faces.  I could see it in the stiffness of her neck and the stillness of her eyes.  There was a slight blush coloring her cheeks, and I thought that it was kind of cute.  Even with an animal dead on our deck, she was still acutely aware that she was standing in front of two naked men.

Luken’s nostrils flared and I was sure he was picking up the scent of Jade’s unease.  It was a tangy smell and hung thick in the air.  He shifted from foot to foot, nervously, and looked back at the wolves, gathered around us.  “A few scratches,” he said after a moment.  “Nothing that won’t heal.  There’s another dead cougar on the lawn.”