Taken by the Wolf: Collection (14 page)

He looked back at Eva, his face showing nothing but absolute confidence. She was scared enough, sitting behind him covering up with the blanket they had brought; he didn't need her to lose any confidence in him.

"What is it?" she asked, no shake in her voice. Perhaps she wasn’t as worried as he’d thought she was. He enjoyed the fact Eva could take care of herself. He didn't think he could deal with a damsel in distress.

"I have no idea," he said. "Don't worry, though."

"I'm not," she said, smiling up at him.

Rowan felt a new surge of energy flow through his body. Her confidence in him was enough to make him fight to his final breath. This was his mate; he had claimed her. No man or creature would ever harm her. He would walk through hellfire to protect her, and he might have to if Satan's Angels had their way.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he sniffed the air. This wasn’t a wolf following them. No, it was something much larger: a bear.

“Get back,” he said to Eva. Her eyes grew wide, obviously shocked by the harshness in his voice. He softened his face and put his hands out to the side, almost pleading with her. “For your own good, just go to the rocks and wait.”

Eva didn’t say a word, she just nodded in understanding and grabbed her clothes, rushing back to the rock formation that led to the sacred cave. He watched her go before turning back to the clearing entrance, focusing intently on the opening.

He couldn’t kill a bear by himself, especially not a grizzly. A black bear would be an easier challenge for him, but they didn’t make the noise that he was hearing. Rowan braced himself as he saw the large shadow cast over the entrance. A pair of blood-red eyes stared at him from the darkness. The colossal creature stalked out of the forest, the sun glinting off razor-sharp ivory teeth.

At six foot four Rowan didn’t have to look up to many things, but right now he was staring up at the bear before him. At least seven feet tall on all fours, the creature would rise to ten if he stood on his back legs.

The bear snarled and let out a roar as he saw the naked man standing in the clearing—all alone and unarmed.

“I have no quarrel with you, grizzly,” Rowan said. “I am just bringing my mate to the five packs’ most sacred place. I mean no intrusion into your land.”

Even though he faced possible death, Rowan still wasn’t afraid. Nothing could ever scare him again, after he’d looked into the eyes of Abaddon, the leader of Satan’s Angels.

The bear stopped and looked at Rowan, studying the wolf intently. He took a few steps forward and Rowan clenched his entire body, ready to shift at a moment’s notice. Fortunately, he didn’t have to, as the bear’s body began to shrink and crack, forming the shape of a four-hundred-pound man without an ounce of fat on his body.

“Beorn?” Rowan asked, looking up at the man who stood before him.

He was at least seven feet tall, his shoulders wider than the hill formation they stood on. Each of his shoulders looked like a boulder sitting beside a tree trunk-like neck. His face was stoic, a stone visage studying the wolf who stood before him. His face and head looked like a large rock, helped along by the high and tight haircut he sported. Most bears let every strand of hair grow, but Beorn was different; he preferred for you to see the face of your death unobscured. However, Rowan would not die today; he counted Beorn as a friend.

“I thought another wolf had overstepped his bounds,” Beorn said, his voice more like rolling thunder than a human’s.

“I don’t follow,” Rowan said, still standing his ground.

“Of course you don’t,” Beorn said, shaking his head. “Aster’s top enforcer doesn’t know anything about his own backyard.”

“We have as much right to these hills as you do,” Rowan reminded him, starting to catch his drift.

“That’s true,” Beorn said. “But you don’t have the right to enter my domain and cause a disturbance. More and more of your kind have been hunting my food and disturbing my land. Out of respect to you and Aster I have let it slide. If they continue to enter my domain I will be forced to take action—action dictated by the old code.”

He narrowed his eyes and sneered as he said that last part, letting Rowan know he wasn’t playing around. The old code dictated death for intruders, and Beorn wouldn’t hesitate to kill any wolves.

“I am sorry if my people have overstepped their bounds,” Rowan said. “Who might they be?”

“Do I look like an expert on fucking wolf packs?” Beorn asked, shaking his head. “You’re all mangy mutts to me. I can’t tell the difference between any of you.”

“That’s fair,” Rowan said, nodding. “If I knew what pack they were from I could help you with this.”

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Beorn said.

“Did I do something to offend you?” Rowan asked, stepping forward. “Why the hostility?”

“You wolves are up to something,” Beorn said, stepping forward as well. He cast a large shadow over Rowan, completely blocking out the sun. “Sometimes at night I hear a female wolf howling—howling in pain. It’s none of my business, but soon I will make it my business. I need my sleep to hunt and forage before winter.”

“A female wolf?” Rowan asked, rubbing his chin. “When did this start?”

“Probably a week and a half ago,” Beorn said. “What’s it to you?”

“You may have saved all of Bucklin,” Rowan said, smiling.

“My lucky day,” Beorn said, rolling his eyes. “The wolves live.”

“Do you know where the howling is coming from?” Rowan asked.

“I don’t have a bloody clue,” Beorn said. “I just know I can hear it from my cabin.”

“You big lug, you’ve got it!” Rowan said, slapping his onetime friend on the elbow.

“Try that again and see if you get your hand back,” Beorn said.

“Would you allow a hunting party to visit your place at night to listen for this howling? If they can locate the source, they can make it stop and solve our problem in one fail swoop.”

“One,” Beorn said, shaking his head. “One of your damn mutts can visit me at night to get rid of this infernal racket. Only one.”

“I know just the guy,” Rowan said, with a nod.

“Very well,” Beorn said, turning his back on Rowan. “Do whatever you need to do, but only one wolf may visit my cabin.”

“I understand, old friend,” Rowan said.

“I count no wolf as my friend anymore,” Beorn said, turning his back to Rowan as he headed for the tree line. He stopped just as he reached the trees, turning back to Rowan with sadness in his eyes. “This forest isn’t the same anymore Rowan. It’s not the same place we grew up playing in.”

He let those words sink in before shifting back into bear form before Rowan’s eyes. With one last roar he bounded through the trees, heading back to his cabin.

Why does he hate us now?
Rowan wondered. He’d always been an ally. When Rowan was younger, he and Aster would enter the hills and play in the forest with a younger Beorn. Now that he was older, Beorn was cranky and anti-wolf.

Then it hit Rowan.
He’s growing more territorial the older he gets. He wants a mate and is afraid of us taking his land. He’s more animal than man now.

Unfortunately, that happened to bears more than any other shifter; their solitary nature forced them into a more animalistic state. Rowan felt a little sting, realizing he’d lost another friend to nature, but he might have figured out how where Leena was.

* * *

Eva watched a man who was somehow more rugged than Rowan transform back into bear form and lumber into the forest, in the opposite direction of where he came from.

They were too far away for her to hear their conversation, but it appeared to be tense. Luckily no blows were thrown, because she feared what would happen to Rowan in such a confrontation. She knew Rowan could take care of himself; she’d already witnessed how brutally effective he could be in a fight. However, one of the butlers had taught her a powerful lesson when she was young: no matter how tough you are, there’s always someone tougher. She had spent her life living by that saying when trouble was around and it had saved her an ass-kicking on more than one occasion.

Rowan turned back to her, a giant smile on his face.

What could he be so happy about?
she thought.
That didn’t look like a happy conversation.

Eva had managed to get dressed while she was hiding, preferring not to go out the way she had come into the world if the situation went south. Rowan apparently had no such qualms about the way he died, as he still hadn’t made a move to put his clothes on.

Of course the bear had been naked too when he shifted to human form. Eva had tried not to look at his naked body, but it was tough. He didn’t have the same hard, jagged abs Rowan and the others wolves did. There was definitely definition there, but everything about the bear was thicker. Where Rowan and the other wolves were built like Olympic sprinters and NFL linebackers, the bear was built like a strongman, carrying just enough body fat to get by. It was probably because of hibernation, but nobody would ever mistake the bear for fat or out of shape. Most women would be lining up to throw their panties at him and hop into the sack, but Eva wasn’t one of them. There was something unsettling about him, something primal that left her feeling uneasy.

She quickly pushed the bear out of her mind as Rowan made his way back over. She started to open her mouth to ask what that was all about, but his hands shot forward, roughly grabbing her shoulders and pulling her toward him. Her lips met his with force. At first, confused by Rowan’s actions, she didn’t return the kiss, but the longer he kissed her the more her body responded to him. She closed her eyes and went with it, enjoying the warmth and pressure he applied to her mouth.

Finally he pulled back and looked at her, a look of love and admiration painted across his hard features. "Everything about you has been wonderful. You've helped me figure out where she is."

"You're welcome?" Eva said, not sure what she’d done.

"You've done nothing but help this pack since I found you," he said, still gripping her shoulders tightly. "Every situation we've ended up in because of you has seemed dangerous, but it's been for the best."

Eva finally shrugged his hands off her shoulders, creating a bit of distance. "What are you going on about?"

"I'm sorry," Rowan said, his smile not changing. He put his hands up as if he was asking someone to stop, and shook his head. "I'm so happy I'm moving too fast."

"Okay," Eva said, putting a hand on his meaty bicep and rubbing it furiously in an attempt to bring some calm to the hyped-up wolf. "Please, start at the beginning."

"I brought you here to tell you about the history of the pack," he said, looking out over the wooded amphitheater. "And in doing so I stumbled onto the answer to our mystery. If I had never seen you in the bar, if you had never been attacked, then I never would have discovered why Satan's Angels were back."

"I'm glad I could constantly be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Eva said, rolling her eyes.

"No," Rowan said, turning back to her and patting her on the shoulders this time. "It's wonderful. You must have some kind of good luck charm or something."

"I'm a regular leprechaun," she said, still sarcastic.

"You're special," Rowan said, smiling and laying another kiss on her. "Very special to me and now to our pack."

Eva smiled and put her arms around Rowan's chiseled waist. "Why don't you tell me about that pack?"

Chapter 20

Rowan was torn; he needed to get back to town and inform Aster and Hawk what he’d learned, but at the same time he had brought his beautiful mate all this way to teach her his history.

He had to admit he was famished from the long hike and could use a bite.

"We have to make haste back to town," he told Eva. "But I do need to put some food in my stomach. How about I give you the CliffNotes version of things while we eat?"

"That's fine," Eva said, laying out the blanket she had previously used to cover her body.

Finding Leena was important, but Rowan's wolf didn't care. Forging a bond with his new mate was of utmost importance to the instinctual side of his being.

Together they sat down on the blanket, Eva carefully making sandwiches for the both of them.

"Lots of meat on mine," Rowan said with a smile.

"I've got you covered," she said, laughing. "I saw how much ham you ate last night."

Rowan just smiled as he began to gobble his sandwich down. Eva nibbled at hers, looking up at him as he finished.

"Another?" she asked.

"I can make it," he said, taking the bread and meat from her. "You eat."

"I'm ready to hear a story," she said.

"Okay," Rowan said, balling up a few slices of meat and shoving them into his mouth. "This should hold me for now. Where to begin?"

"I don't know," she said, cocking one eye at him. "You're the one telling the story."

"Where did you get a wit like that?" he asked.

"Probably my nanny," she said. "She grew up in 1960s Alabama during the separate-but-equal era. She developed quite a mouth. I guess you can only be asked to go the back of the bus so much before you start popping off."

"Clearly," he said, enjoying every little thing he learned about Eva. "Well our story starts in 1971. Bucklin was a tiny town occupied mostly by farmers. They always had tales and legends about werewolves living in the hills."

"Which turned out to be true," she said.

"Yes," he said with a laugh. "The packs weren't large, maybe ten to twenty wolves apiece. They constantly fought over the land in the hills."

"Did they live like cavemen?" she asked.

"They spent most of their time as wolves," he said. "Except one alpha: Talbot. He would frequently transform into human form and enter the town, trying to integrate himself amongst the humans. He saw a better way of life for the wolves. He thought together they could build a community and not fight over land and food. If they worked as humans and led human lives, then maybe, just maybe they'd survive and prosper."

"What pack was he in?" she asked.