Wild Nights (15 page)

fucking pissed-off wolf who burned his amber gaze into him.

Nox pulled back his jowls in a silent growl. He hopped over the

low-lying brush and onto the rocky terrain of the wide bank. Riley

came out behind him, keeping his distance except for the thick disdain

running rapidly between them.

“We need to straighten shit out between us, Riley. Our

estrangement shouldn’t make her feel this way,”
Nox said. He slipped

between the grass curtain and paused. He’d never seen such a

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beautiful sight. Aya, in all her pure white fur and peaceful calm,

wrenched at his heart. She was fire and wit beneath her fragile

exterior. She was raw and fearless. Everything he had ever searched

for in a woman lay at his paws.

He lowered his head, brushing his nose over the velvety fur of her

snout. Her tiny whiskers tickled his nostrils, nearly making him

sneeze.

“I enjoy our estrangement. It spices things up between us when it

comes to bedding her.”

Nox pulled away from Aya. He wouldn’t doubt she was still upset

with them. Hell, he’d be pissed if he was exposed to such vile

behavior.

Determined to settle the differences that set him and Riley astray a

quarter century earlier, he began the fluid transformation from wolf to

man. The supple fur retracted and disappeared beneath his skin. His

legs remolded and reformed, bones and joints stretching and

realigning. His arms filled out, muscle replacing sinewy front legs. At

last, his head reshaped, leaving his dark hair to blow across his face.

“Turn, Riley.”

The tawny wolf grumbled his displeasure, but within a matter of

moments, Riley took up position on the opposite side of the rocks

protecting their sleeping mate. He leaned against the rough structure,

braced on his elbows, his eyes burning into Nox.

“What makes you think I care to reconcile our differences? Just

because you think we’re mated to a white, brothers in paws so to

speak, doesn’t mean I’m an instant ally,” Riley sneered. Nox crossed

his arms over his chest and lifted a brow, not in the least intimidated

by the dangerous glow in the other man’s eyes. “I told you before not

to misconstrue my earlier intervention as a truce.”

“If you’d put aside your fucking front and listen to anything I’ve

told you, you’d understand your feelings a little more.”

Riley bit out a sharp laugh. “Give me a fucking break. You’re no

head doctor, Nox. All your high and mighty perceptions of the world

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and situations handed to you seem to blind you to the obvious. I don’t

feel a damned thing for her, or you. I’m a wolf, a wild, carefree wolf.

Your scheme to get my vote on Team White isn’t gonna work.”

Nox bristled at the crass insinuation toward Aya. She deserved

more than Riley’s bitter tongue.

“Think it’s a scheme? You were never one to accept your faults,

even when they’re blatantly laid out for you,” Nox snapped. “I

wouldn’t let you near her if you didn’t belong with her. If I didn’t rip

your hide from your body when you had her trapped against that tree,

it’s because you are her other mate. Spiritually appointed. Don’t

believe me? Call up the pair in Hood River who just found their

white. Coal and Jacy were both there the night the spirits appointed

mates to the whites.”

“I don’t give a shit about the spirits. I don’t give a shit about the

whites. What I
do
care about is exacting revenge for the murder of my

father.”

“Then you’re a blind fool, Riley.” Nox gritted his teeth as his

frustration swelled in waves of heat. His muscles stiffened. The fight

not to throttle the idiot was quickly turning into a full-out war. “I’m

not gonna tell you again that you’ve been led astray by Laela’s sister.

She’s leading your pack, and you’re her pet dog.”

“Eliza is not related—”

“Damnit, Riley! When the hell are you gonna pull your thick head

out of your ass?” Nox barked. He slammed his fist into the rock,

cracking the solid object. A dull pain webbed up his arm, but his

mounting anger extinguished it. Riley straightened up, the menacing

bitterness dripping away until the fierce nature of his being hardened

his face. Lowering his voice to a rumbling growl, Nox added, “I saw

the change she procured in you. I knew the instant you realized she
fit

with you. The moment you came to terms with the fact that all your

outlandish plans to destroy her would never come to pass because you

can’t
hurt
her.”

“How’d you like watching me claim her?”

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“I wasn’t positive you wouldn’t have hurt her when she chased

after you,” Nox grunted. He glanced down at Aya’s sleeping figure.

When he returned his attention to Riley, he caught the man’s inner

battle before it was shoved back into his mind. “I wasn’t there as a

spectator.”

“Were you able to make her scream like I did?”

“I’m not here to talk about the skills of seduction and pleasure.”

“No, of course not.” Riley raked his fingers through his hair and

groaned. “You’re here to be a thorn in my ass.”

“Trust me, I’m nothing compared to what you’ve been the past

twenty-five years.” Nox briefly noticed the defensive walls around

Riley slipping, and stepped up the pressure. “You know, she needs us

both. This rift between us was built on lies and deceit. I didn’t lie to

you about the evening the legacy came to pass. Charles protected Aya

from being killed by your father. He kept her safe and alive. For us.

That woman can forgive you for murdering her uncle under false

pretenses, forgive your father for murdering her parents, and come to

terms with what the spirits have fated her. If she couldn’t, she

would’ve let me tear open your throat and leave you to bleed out.

Rather, she stood up for you.”

“Scolding me like a pup isn’t what I consider standing up for me.”

Riley waved his hand toward the sky. “This is all shit. Even if what

you say is true, I’d never be fated to a white.” Riley jutted his chin

toward Aya. “To
her
.”

“Well, then, go ahead and kill her like you planned all along.”

Nox stepped away from the rocks, leaving Aya unprotected from

attack. Riley’s lips twitched. His fingers furled and unfurled. Turmoil

flashed in his eyes. The muscles in his shoulders flexed and relaxed.

Nox waited patiently, holding on to the muffled telepathic line while

his wolf reached out for any threats within Riley.

After many tenuous moments, Riley turned his back to Nox and

strode briskly to another boulder closer to the river. He perched on

top, shutting himself out from the world.

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103

Nox sighed. At least he got Riley thinking. That was an

accomplishment. As it was, time was short. He had to keep Riley

close to Aya and himself if he had any hope of redeeming the warm

man he recalled from the days of their friendship.

* * * *

Eliza tore her bared claws through the last standing table and

shrieked. Wood splintered, stabbing her fingers. Beads of blood

seeped out of the pads. She felt no pain. Her rage, her frustration, and

her uncontained disgust flooded all of her senses.

Why was Riley teaming up with them? A year and a half of

working him, twisting his thoughts, making him believe the whites

were evil, all for what? To have him defend one! That damned wolf

belonged to her.
To her!

Spittle sieved through her teeth with each harsh breath. Her

muscles were wound so tight, her body trembled beneath the pressure

of her fury. Somewhere beyond the red-hazed perimeter of her vision,

she caught a shift in space and spun around.

Her pack remained frozen in place, standing in the motel’s

doorway. Pairs of eyes flashed with worrisome thoughts and

suppressed fear. Fear of her.
Good
.
You should fear me
. She couldn’t

afford to lose another wolf of Riley’s strength and cunning.

That
cunning
bastard played me.

Lava singed her nerves. He’d played her, all right. A quick survey

of the destroyed motel room was all the evidence anyone needed to

weigh Riley’s place in her life. She had shredded curtains and

bedspreads. Smashed electronics and torn light fixtures out of the

walls. Not a single piece of wooden furniture had been spared her

wrath. Neither had been the curious attendant who happened by her

room as she lusted for a kill. She’d taken to his body like a rabid wolf,

ripping flesh from his bones and drenching a good portion of the

room in crimson. The acrid scent of death pulsed like a beating heart,

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though the man’s heart ceased to beat.

Riley.

He was a pawn in her game to kill the white. That’s all he was

supposed to be. At some point, he became more. Now he was spoiled

meat and she wanted him dead. She wanted all of them
dead
.

Her claws retracted, and she flipped her wild, mussed hair behind

her shoulder with a quivering hand. She tipped her chin skyward and

dried it of spittle and blood. As her composure returned and the

tremors eased, the storm in her mind began to settle. Tearing apart

rooms, killing and maiming stupid humans, it wasted time and energy

she wanted to reserve for her grand prize.

“Did you dispose of all the bodies?” Eliza asked. She didn’t care

to answer to authorities about a bunch of dead wolves or naked men

because her pack couldn’t dispose of them properly.

“Maddock escaped, but we found his trail,” Kyle responded. He

cleared his throat with a small cough. “He’s good as dead though.”

“Good as dead?” she growled. Her fingers fisted. She slammed it

into the only untouched object in the room. The mirror over the ruined

dresser shattered in a piercing shower of shimmering glass. She spun

back to her pack and stalked up to Kyle. “Good as dead isn’t dead.

He’s probably trying to get to Riley. If he warns Riley about what we

did here, do you know what kind of complications that’ll cause us?”

She smacked Kyle across the face, snapping his head to the side.

He yipped.

“I don’t want any more complications! I just want that white dead!

Good
and
dead!” She jabbed a finger toward the unidentifiable mess

of human remains on the bed. “That degree of dead! Do you all

understand me?”

“Yes,” the group of men mumbled.

The power of rage fizzled from her muscles on a shudder. She

released a short breath.

“Very well then.” Eliza’s gaze raked over the six men beneath her

tight-leashed command. She folded her arms over her chest. Blood

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105

from her shirt streaked her skin. She closed her eyes for a brief

moment, soothing the vicious rumbling of her wolf.

“What do you suggest we do about Maddock?” Jared asked.

Eliza pulled back her eyelids. A small grin tugged on her mouth.

“We’ll use him as bait.” She snickered. A dark heaviness filled the

small room, and it wasn’t emanating from the massive forms of her

six males. “Carter stepped up the game. I say we get our hands on

some of those tranqs he used on Riley and see how they like the

effects of the drug.”

* * * *

Ice froze in his veins. A sense of bleakness filled a newly

discovered void in his spirit. He reflected on Lenox’s words. It had

been so long since the man who he’d once give his life for evoked any

sense of passion in his spirit. For a brief second, he actually thought

he missed the kinship he and Lenox once shared. Life had been easier

before Laela and her entourage tore up the packs and destroyed the

whites. That much he’d admit.

But to accept that all these years had been nothing more than a

misunderstanding? A twisted lie? His pack stood behind him, strong

and true, determined to wipe out the whites who had survived the

Blood Moon Massacre. They supported his cause, vowing revenge

upon those who had destroyed his father. His hatred toward Lenox

and his mighty pack the night he learned his closest friend had been

appointed mate to a white led him to rebel. Anger forged his path of

life. Loathing cut away any obstacle that came up.

Riley gazed out over the rippling waters that shimmered beneath

the cold moonlight. Full moons always comforted him, sang a song to

his spirit, his wolf.

Not tonight.

Everything changed on this full moon. His surrounds had become

more clear and crisp. The smells of the night, the wilderness, struck

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him with such clarity they nearly sent him reeling to regain mental

footing. He could distinguish the succulent differences between strong

redwoods and piney spruces. The musk of dead leaves and the damp

dirt beneath soothed him. The methodical cascade of river water