With Her Capture (2 page)

Her scent was incredibly strong. Anthony and
Georgie started snapping at each other, like God damn pups. Ayden
turned on them, biting the one closest to him and got a mouthful of
fur for his efforts. This was exactly why single females didn’t run
alone. Anthony already smelled of lust, and although it was
noticeable on Georgie, too, his cousin was focusing on chiding
Anthony for instantly wanting a female he didn’t know.

Some males might lose their morals in their
fur. Although Anthony reacted to the nearby unmated female, Ayden’s
littermate wasn’t a rapist. And Georgie would never cheat on his
mate. There were those who let go of all values they professed to
have in their skin, and ran on pure instinct in their fur. That
said, if they had the urge to fuck in their fur, they did it,
whether their partner was willing, or not.

Ayden was no saint. Nor did he wish to smell
as if he were. Her scent allured him, enticed and teased. Right now
he’d focus on finding her. They would figure out what to do with
her after he learned why she was running alone. He focused on the
smell, trying to close in on it. Already he knew she was an unmated
female. She didn’t carry the scent of a male on her. If she were
out here alone, this far from a pack, she was likely in trouble. It
wasn’t in his nature to take advantage of anyone who needed
help.

Ayden managed to maintain his dignity and not
turn into a barbarian over the smell of an unmated female. The urge
to dominate, to conquer and mount a female was one of the most
basic instincts a werewolf possessed. It wasn’t easy to ignore.

They were close enough now that Ayden smelled
the female’s different emotions. She smelled nervous, anxious, a
bit scared—and for obvious reasons if she were out here alone. But
God damn! There was something rich and sweet buried under her
pungent, more aggressive emotions. He would not allow his brain to
believe she was suddenly turned on by his presence.

That’s your dick talking to you
, he
growled to himself, keeping the rumble low in his throat.

Ayden forced himself to concentrate. The
female had to be close. The longer he searched for her, the harder
it was to keep his primal side from taking over. Her scent was so
strong he’d swear he was standing on top of her. His eyesight was
so much better in his fur, but he didn’t see her anywhere.

An icy wind blew around the trees straight
toward them. It lifted his fur from his hide. A new smell hit him
and Ayden froze. Their little female was obviously hiding, and now
he understood why. There were other males besides them hiding among
the trees. The female was definitely not safe.

This was what the three of them had picked up
on after jumping the gorge. The males not too far away but hidden
by the trees were definitely not werewolves. The female had
successfully preoccupied them. They were damn lucky for the icy
wind or they might have been so enthralled by her scent that her
pursuers would have gone undetected.

Something moved ahead of him.

Every muscle in his body primed for action.
Anthony and Georgie quit sparring with each other. In an instant,
both saddled up alongside him. Georgie’s head went low and a
vicious, low growl escaped him. Ayden’s warning was a barely
noticeable rumble. He was pissed. Not just because the female had
distracted him but that another species dared tread their mountain
without permission. Both males froze. They wouldn’t move again
until Ayden did. His message to them had been clear.

It’s time to show how Cariboo entertain
unwanted guests.

Ayden stared without blinking at the dark
shadows he’d seen move a moment ago. There were several males.
Something else became staggeringly clear. They were pissed off as
well. That made him even angrier. Males of a different species had
a hell of a lot of nerve being angry with him in his territory.

There were answers he didn’t have yet. An
unmated female running alone would easily cause a fight among
males. The intruders on his mountain weren’t werewolf, yet the
female in hiding was. Different species weren’t compatible. These
males weren’t chasing the female to fuck her.

He would find her in good time and he’d get
some answers when he did. Right now, he would deal with this matter
first. This was Cariboo
lunewulf
territory and there wasn’t
a damn soul on this planet who didn’t know that.

The spicy smell from his littermate and
Georgie grew as their anger increased. Their outrage was justified.
The males in the shadows of the trees knew where they were. They
knew they didn’t belong there. Ayden hoped they knew they were
about to get their tails kicked off the side of the nearest
cliff.

As much as Ayden wanted to find the female,
the three of them had a duty. The moment the shadows took form and
Ayden spotted leopard males, he broke into a run. Teeth bared, he
let out a vicious roar. It was all the warning he planned on
giving.

Two male leopards made eye contact and
decided wisely it was in their best interest to haul ass back the
way they came. Ayden guessed they probably came from Banff, which
was where the closest leopard pack lived. That definitely also
meant they would know whose territory they had entered, and that
they weren’t welcome.

Leopards were fast and possessed the same
skills to race down a snow covered mountain at lightning speed.
They didn’t possess the speed of Cariboo though. Ayden decided to
make that point clear.

Within less than a minute they were free of
the dense trees and into an open stretch of rock-covered snow. He
leapt through the snow with skilled agility. It didn’t take much
effort to clear the distance between them and the assholes who
thought they possessed the balls to go where they didn’t
belong.

Ayden leapt on one of them, sending him
tumbling down a good piece of mountain before the young male made
it to his paws, staggering a second before regaining his balance.
Instead of challenging Ayden, he turned, unscathed, and ran in the
opposite direction.

Anthony and Georgie weren’t to be left out of
the fun. The two of them hauled ass, roaring with anticipation of a
good fight as they kept up the chase. The leopards ran faster than
they probably ever had in their life. If Ayden were in his skin he
would have thrown his head back and laughed. He let Anthony and
Georgie enjoy the hunt, doubting seriously either of them would
head back this way anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise him if they
chased those damn leopards all the way to Banff.

Ayden gulped in a breath, watching until his
littermate and Georgie had chased the leopards out of sight and
smell. He was surprised to still smell the female. They’d covered a
good amount of land before he decided to turn back, which meant one
thing. She’d followed them when they’d taken off after the
leopards. This time Ayden didn’t need to push his senses to locate
her.

He turned, looking up the incline and taking
in the female who stood frozen, very aware she’d been discovered.
She’d obviously run after them and now stood not too far back up
the mountain.

There was no one else anywhere nearby. Even
Anthony and Georgie’s scent disappeared when a new breeze blew in
around him and the female. It was the only reason Ayden remained
standing where he was, allowing him a moment to take in the
beautiful creature staring back at him. Because he knew what she
was.

This female was a Malta werewolf.

It dawned on him that the leopards had
actually been trying to do the Cariboo
lunewulf
a favor.
They probably had no desire to run as far into Cariboo territory as
they had, but felt honor bound to do so. It was law among all
breeds of werewolves and agreed upon by all species on the planet
that any Malta werewolf was to be killed on sight.

The breed had been genetically altered by
some insane pack leader when the breed had lived on the island of
Malta. He’d never bothered to sniff out all the howlings about
Malta werewolves, nor was he even sure exactly where Malta was. He
knew about as much as anyone. The general consensus was that they
were dangerous, unstable, and he’d thought until a moment ago,
pretty much extinct.

This enticing beauty, with her silky long,
satiny-black coat, and a slender, yet incredibly fine-tuned body,
damn near had Ayden forgetting how to breathe. For someone despised
by all species on earth, the female held herself with regal
dignity, with an air of elegance about her that made his dick
harder than when he’d initially sniffed her out.

Ayden stared into her erotic looking,
almond-shaped eyes. He knew he was imagining things but swore he
saw pain there. He guessed she might be a tortured soul if her kind
was supposed to be extinct. She held her head high and didn’t move.
The breeze caused her coat to ripple like water in the middle of
night. He’d sniffed out some incredibly hot females in his time,
but none compared to the bitch staring back at him right now.

She stood taller than a
lunewulf
bitch
but didn’t have the same muscle tone a Cariboo bitch normally had.
He wouldn’t call her skinny, but she was thin. There was no telling
how long she’d been on the run, or for how long she’d remained in
her fur. Again he was sure he imagined it when it seemed she
wavered, as if exhaustion settled in and prevented her from running
any further.

The sudden sound of barking and paws bounding
through the snow startled both of them. The Malta bitch noticeably
jumped and shot her attention down the mountain. Ayden looked over
his shoulder. Anthony and Georgie were returning and they weren’t
being quiet about it. They were leaping through the snow and
barking as if they were actually capable of carrying on a
conversation in their fur.

His littermate and cousin sometimes had
terrible timing. Ayden knew the law as well as any werewolf. When
it came to Malta werewolves there were no gray areas. They would
have to kill the female. Ayden didn’t know the exact reasoning
behind the law but had heard it howled that the breed had the
ability to make things move without touching them. Staring at this
erotic creature made it all seem a bit too farfetched to smell
right.

The moment Anthony and Georgie saw the female
though, none of them would have a choice. They too would understand
why leopards had run into their territory. All three of them would
be required by law to kill her.

Ayden returned his attention to the Malta
bitch. He wasn’t given the opportunity to decide how best to handle
this situation. He stared where she’d been standing. The female was
gone.

Chapter
Two

Magda Keller stretched out in the room-sized
cave she’d found. The cold stone floor was therapeutic against her
fur. During the late hours the night before she’d blocked the
entrance with tree trunks she’d uprooted. She’d pulled large
boulders from the frozen ground using her gift and used them to
hide the cave entrance as well. Using her mind to do so much
physical labor had worn her out as it always did when she focused
on moving large objects. But her efforts had been worth it. For
now, she felt safe. And she’d gotten much needed sleep.

If her sire had only known how teaching her
the gift that the Malta werewolf were despised for having had saved
her life more than once, he might have taken time to fine-tune the
lessons. Maybe he had known that she would end up running for her
life. Possibly he had meant to take more time with his
instructions, but he hadn’t lived long enough to do so.

Magda uncurled from her slumber and rolled to
her belly. It grumbled with demands for food. Waking up with
thoughts of her sire wasn’t the best way to start her day. Nothing
changed the past. Her current problems lay in the present.

The Cariboo
lunewulf
pack was too
close for her to enjoy a good run and some hunting. After racing
nearly to the top of the mountain before escaping the leopards,
she’d thought her exhaustion would do her in before the three
Cariboo males did. It had been a stroke of luck escaping them.

It was luck she didn’t plan on pushing. She
hadn’t chanced trying to leave the safety of her cave until almost
dawn. Then it was to do some quick fishing and return to this cold,
damp solitude and enjoy her meal.

That had been almost twelve hours ago. Her
tummy growled again. Risking a run on the mountain until she
tracked down enough food to sustain her might very well mean
risking her life. They would hunt her. Magda was stuck in this damn
cave until the Cariboo were convinced she was long gone off their
mountain. Then somehow she would have to do just that. In the
meantime, she would capture fish out of the rushing mountain water
not too far away. If she made it off this mountain alive she might
never want trout again.

It sucked that it had come to this. A week
before, she and her littermate, Liesa, thought they’d be able to
take a human bus down into the states to a Malta werewolf pack in
Colorado. It had been their only hope for survival. And it had
smelled so promising. Neither one of them sensed a problem with the
plan. But with every turn they had been sniffed out.

Right before she and Liesa separated they had
been in Banff. They’d made it to the bus station where they’d
planned on buying tickets. A couple
lunewulf
bitches had
howled to their mates that they were pretty sure there were two
Malta werewolf females in a public bathroom. The two of them had
barely made it out alive. Magda snarled at Liesa until she ran the
direction opposite the tattling bitches. Magda knew in her heart it
had saved her littermate’s life. She had to believe that Liesa and
Katrin, her youngest littermate, were safe. It allowed Magda to
fight for another day.