Lonely Alpha (12 page)

She turned her gaze to the moon. Was it
working its healing magic on her body? Maybe that was why Jack had
laid her beside the window to be chilled as the glass pressed
against her shoulder. As she stared at the silvery sliver in the
sky, the fog of shock gradually faded from her mind. She wasn’t
sure how long she’d been lying there in silence by the time she
worked up the presence of mind to ask the questions that had been
teasing her. Jack had been holding her hand the entire time, his
lips hot against her knuckles. “Weren’t you shot?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, you were.” He sounded
anything but happy about it. Mandy turned her attention to his
hair, which was sticking up off of his skull in spiky tufts like so
many porcupine quills. He must have raked his hands through it a
hundred times. Was that a nervous habit he had? She knew so little
about him, and yet, she felt so close to him, as if they were
linked in some invisible, intangible way.

“I know. But there was a second gun shot. I
thought you were dead.” Tears stung the back of her eyes and she
blinked furiously, determined to keep them at bay.

“Ronnie shot the hunter, not me.”

“Who the hell is Ronnie?”

The floorboards creaked as someone moved in
the background, and a large hand waved in the air above Jack’s
head.

“A friend of mine,” Jack said.

“The ranger is your friend?” She lowered her
voice, which rendered it almost inaudible. “He knows?”

Jack nodded. “He’s a shifter too.”

That was the only explanation that could
possibly make any sense of the shooting she’d misinterpreted, but
it didn’t match up with what Jack had told her before. “I thought
you said there were no other shifters in these mountains.”

“I said there weren’t any other wolf
shifters.”

Mandy sighed, the pain in her chest flaring
as she did so. “But the hunter – he’s dead?”

“He is. Ronnie took care of him.” He kissed
her knuckles one by one, and the heat from his lips spread
throughout her entire body. “I wish I’d had the good sense to leave
you in that den.”

She sighed again, and even as pain shot
through her chest like forked lightning, she didn’t regret that
she’d gone with Jack. Thinking of waiting alone for him in the dark
shelter hollowed from the earth was soul-crushingly depressing.
What if she’d stayed behind and that had caused things to go
differently, if even the tiniest bit? Jack could be dead somewhere,
and she still waiting anxiously for his return. “I’m healing,
right?”

“You must be. When I first carried you in, I
thought you were gone.” His eyes bored into hers, golden-hazel,
gleaming a little more than usual. “You were still in your wolf
form, and you wouldn’t shift back. The silver bullet…”

A shiver wracked Mandy’s body as she imagined
dying that way, her only earthly remains that of a wolf. Thank God
she hadn’t.

“Believe it or not, this is a huge
improvement.” He waved his hand in the air above her body.

She looked down, a jolt of shock causing her
to forget all about her other thoughts. “Jack! I’m naked!” She said
the last word through gritted teeth. She wasn’t wearing a stitch of
clothing, and he hadn’t bothered to cover her with so much as a
blanket. True, she wouldn’t have cared if she and Jack had been
alone together, but Ronnie was there, and she was lying on display
against the window. Not that there should be anyone out there to
see her, but it just felt wrong.

“The moonlight needs to hit your body – as
much of it as possible.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, pretending she
was fully clothed. “At least tell me you put on the bandage.” A
thick one was wrapped snugly around her torso, just below her
breasts. A red stain marked where the bullet had entered her.

“Actually, as a ranger, Ronnie is an expert
in first aid. I helped him.”

Oh God. Maybe she should have been more
grateful after her brush with death, but at the moment, it was
difficult to feel anything but mortification. At least Ronnie was
courteous enough to lurk at the other side of the room.

“We figure the bullet missed your heart by a
fraction of an inch,” a deep, unfamiliar voice rumbled, as if in
apology, from the vicinity of the refrigerator.

Jack nodded. “Went clean through. You were
lucky.”

She squeezed his hand back. “Yeah, I guess I
am.” Affection for Jack surged through her, making her heart swell.
The last time she’d been conscious, she’d thought they were dying
just yards apart – like the mates Jack thought they were, separated
only by death. She’d taken some solace in that fact, even as she’d
despaired.

“How do you feel? Any better than when you
woke up?”

She took a deep, cautious breath, measuring
the agony it incited. “I think I do feel somewhat better.”

Jack smiled. An hour ticked by slowly, and
still, he never quit. Mandy’s pain ebbed as he remained by her
side, and she became more alert. She devoted most of her attention
to Jack, simply absorbing the sight of the ruggedly handsome face
she’d thought she’d never see again. But when a flash of light
reflected in the windowpane caught her eye, she turned her head.
“What’s that?”

Jack rose from the chair he’d been sitting
in, peering intently out the window. To Mandy’s embarrassment,
Ronnie joined him. He seemed to only have eyes for possible danger
lurking outside though, and didn’t so much as glance at her as he
towered at Jack’s side, a mountain of bronze muscle and dark,
shaggy hair that had been tamed into some semblance of order by a
short cut. “Headlights,” he growled. “Could be a second
hunter.”

Jack nodded slowly, his eyes gleaming with
vicious suspicion.

“But we only smelled one in the woods,” Mandy
said, hoping against hope that the fact meant there wasn’t a second
gun-wielding psycho on the mountain.

“He could have contacted another hunter when
he found out there was a second wolf,” Jack said. “They’re usually
pretty stingy with their targets and hunt alone, unless there’s
more than one shifter for them to murder. He might’ve been willing
to share a second kill with a family member or good friend.”

A chill raced down Mandy’s spine, and she
shivered against the hard oak tabletop.

Jack laid a hand on her shoulder and his
warmth helped to steady her. “Don’t worry. Ronnie and I will take
care of him.”

The headlights, which had been just about to
pass the obscure turnoff into Jack’s driveway, veered suddenly.

“Damn it,” Jack growled. “He’s coming
straight for the cabin. The first hunter probably told him he’d be
waiting here.” He scooped Mandy into his arms, moving her away from
the window. “Ronnie, turn off the light.”

The room went dim, but the moonlight
filtering through the window offered modest illumination.

The sound of a rifle being readied for action
echoed through the small room as Jack eased her onto the pile of
blankets he kept on the floor. There, she’d hopefully be under the
line of fire. She swallowed the knot of anxiety that had formed in
her throat as the sound of a truck’s rumbling engine grew louder.
Seizing a blanket, she drew it over herself for cover. Eventually
the noise stopped and boots crunched quietly on grass and a few
loose leaves. Jack kicked off his jeans and shifted, becoming a
wolf standing guard in front of Mandy. She watched his muscles
tense beneath his thick fur and prayed that he’d come out of this
confrontation unscathed, as he had the last one.

“Cooper?” a male voice called from outside.
“You here?”

“That was the first hunter’s name,” Ronnie
said under his breath. “Saw it on the ID he kept in his
wallet.”

“Got your message about the bitch,” the man
called, his boots scraping as he paced in front of the house. When
she strained to peer around Jack’s legs, Mandy could make out his
silhouette passing in front of the window. Luckily, it was dark
enough inside that he shouldn’t be able to see them. “Reckon she’ll
look mighty fine mounted on the wall beside her mate.” He chuckled
at the idea.

A low growl rumbled in the pit of Jack’s
chest, and he drew his lips back to expose huge fangs that the
oblivious hunter couldn’t see. Ronnie had his rifle at the ready,
the butt pressed against his huge shoulder. The hunter didn’t stand
a chance.

The man’s laughter died abruptly as he
rounded the other side of the house. There, the ground was surely
dirty, the grass doused in the blood of his companion, and from
Mandy. From that angle, Ronnie’s truck should also be visible.

“Shit,” the hunter huffed, and then wood and
glass started flying.
Bang! Bang!
Deafening gunshots
shattered the quiet as the hunter discharged his weapon at the
cabin in apparent panic.

Jack threw himself over Mandy, his huge,
wolfy body covering her from head to toe. She couldn’t see what
Ronnie was doing, but heard him fire his rifle in response.

The bullets from outside kept coming. A feral
roar filled the cabin as Ronnie threw down his gun, and then the
front door was swinging crazily on its hinges as he charged through
it. Mandy was just able to catch sight of a hulking animal charging
out onto the front porch.

Ronnie roared. The man screamed an
unintelligible war cry, and gunshot continued to tear through the
night. “Fucking shifter!” Those words were the last thing the
hunter said before a sickening crunch of strong animal flesh
meeting a much weaker body resounded, and the gunfire ceased. One
last ferocious roar, a coordinating
whap
, and it was over. A
huge black bear appeared at the threshold, where the door was
hanging open crookedly. He shifted into an almost equally sizeable
man, minus the ranger uniform he’d been wearing when he’d exited
the cabin.

A little heat crept into Mandy’s cheeks, but
it was easy to keep her eyes above waist level as he flipped on the
light – blood was streaming down his left arm. By the looks of it,
he’d taken a bullet just below the shoulder.

Jack transformed and climbed hurriedly back
into his jeans. “Damn it if those bastards didn’t shoot every one
of us before they went out.” He scooped Mandy into his arms again
and carried her to the table, where she could bathe in the
moonlight. She snatched up a blanket, determined to maintain some
scrap of modesty this time.

“You’re gonna have to dig out the bullet,”
Ronnie said stoically, bracing himself against the cabin wall with
one beefy arm. The opposite side of the cabin was in shambles, the
floor littered with splintered wood and bits of broken glass.

“Right,” Jack said, picking up a first aid
kit that was presumably Ronnie’s.

Ronnie was motionless as Jack tended his
wound, following Ronnie’s instructions. When Jack pulled out the
bullet with a pair of forceps, Ronnie roared, and there was nothing
human about the bear-like sound. Jack didn’t even flinch. They
really must be friends.

“Silver,” Jack said, holding the large,
tapered bullet up to gleam in the moonlight.

Mandy pressed her hand over her bandage, and
her body ached in sympathy for Ronnie. Of course, Jack had felt the
bite of a silver bullet too. Thankfully, moonlight had reduced his
wound to nothing but two scars that marked the entry and exit
points. She pressed her cheek against the cool windowpane. Her
wound was healing too – with every moment that passed, her pain
faded, just a little.

Ronnie grunted and rose to his feet when Jack
finished bandaging his arm.

“Where are you goin’?” Jack asked. “Maybe you
should sit down for a while.”

“Just gettin’ a new uniform outta my truck. I
always keep a spare in there.”

He shuffled out, remarkably steady on his
feet for someone who’d just had a bullet dug out of his body.

Ronnie stayed outside for longer than
expected, and when he came back in, his features were remarkably
solemn. “I can’t stay much longer – I’ve got work to do.”

Jack nodded solemnly.

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Mandy
asked. “You were just shot.”

Ronnie tipped his head in her direction. “I
appreciate your concern, but I’ll be fine. This ain’t the first
time I’ve taken a bullet, and I doubt it’ll be the last.” He turned
to Jack, his eyes a shade darker than usual. “I put the hunters in
the back of their own truck. I’m gonna take it off this mountain,
and tomorrow, when I make my morning rounds, I reckon I’ll find a
couple of illegal hunters out in the state woodlands, if someone
else doesn’t stumble across them first. One will have been shot in
a hunting accident, and the other will have had a nasty run-in with
a bear.” He turned on his heel and strode out of the cabin. “I’ll
be back later tonight for my own truck,” he called over his
shoulder.

Mandy watched him go. “You don’t think he’s
in shock, do you?”

“Not Ronnie. He’s tougher than he looks.”

“That’s certainly saying something.”

Jack nodded. “He uses his training and
authority as a ranger to protect the shifters in these mountains.
He’s been at it for years.” His expression darkened, his eyes
clouding with some unsavory emotion. He crossed the distance
between himself and Mandy in a few long strides and helped her to
sit up. “If he hadn’t arrived, I’m afraid to think what mighta
happened to you,” he said, cupping her cheek. “I didn’t protect you
like I promised, and I’m sorry.”

She shook her head gently. “It was my fault.
I would’ve been fine if I hadn’t run out into the middle of
everything.”

“There was no way you could’ve known who
Ronnie was. Hell, I thought he was away at a rangers’ medical
certification course. Looks like he got back just in time.”

It was true – she’d had no way of knowing,
and all she’d been able to think about was Jack. It had been
impossible for her to stand still while thinking that he was about
to die. “You were all I could think about.”