Wolf on the Run: Salvation Pack, Book 3

She’s run right into the arms of the big bad wolf.

Salvation Pack, Book 3

Considered an abomination for her inability to shift, Cherise Michaels has been on the run from her pack since she was a teenager. After her mother is murdered by her former packmates, Cherise is alone, grieving and out of options. Until a dream puts her on course toward her last hope—Salvation, North Carolina.

She makes it to Salvation only to be cornered by her pursuers and then rescued by the biggest, baddest werewolf she’s ever seen.

Cole Blanchard has no trouble dispatching the intruders trespassing on pack land. Convincing their skittish quarry she’s safe is another story. Cole senses she is his mate and he’ll protect her to his last breath, even it means risking everything to face her former pack.

In Cole’s arms, Cherise learns there’s something in this world more powerful than fear—desire and love. She knows loving her is a death sentence for Cole, so she plans to store up a lifetime of memories before she lets him go…

Warning: This pulse-pounding, heart-thumping story may cause shortness of breath. You are not having a heart attack. You are falling in love with a hot werewolf who will do whatever it takes to keep his chosen mate safe.

Wolf on the Run

N.J. Walters

Dedication

Thank you to all my readers. You’re the best!

Prologue

Cherise Michaels hummed the chorus of a country song she’d heard on the radio as she walked up the stairs to the second floor apartment she shared with her mama. She was just coming off a double shift at the restaurant and her feet ached. A long hot bath and about eight hours straight in bed sounded like heaven.

Just before she reached the landing, she froze. The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose and a shiver of dread skated down her spine. Something was very wrong.

She took the remaining stairs in one leap, her tiredness forgotten. She raced down the hallway, pulling her keys out of her pocket as she went. But the door wasn’t locked.

She pushed it open onto a scene out of her worst nightmare.

Blood. There was so much blood.

And lying in the center of it was her beautiful, gentle mama. She automatically shut the door behind her and then dropped to her knees beside her mama’s still form. Her hands shook as she reached out and touched cool skin, searching for a pulse.

Nothing.

She threw back her head and howled.

Cherise quickly slapped her hands over her mouth. No, she couldn’t make a sound. Needed to be quiet. Couldn’t attract attention. That had been drilled into her over and over since she was a teenager.

“Oh, Mama,” she whispered. Tears streamed down her face. Someone had ripped open her mama’s throat and left her to bleed out. Blood matted her mama’s thick black hair where it pooled around her shoulders. Long scratches had ripped her shirt, but other than that she didn’t seem to have sustained any other injuries.

She was so still. Like a broken doll.

Grief welled up inside Cherise until she thought she’d die from the pain. Tears continued to rain from her eyes, dripping onto her mama’s face.

Cherise sniffed and caught a whiff of a familiar scent. Werewolf.

She stumbled to her feet and spun around, searching for the intruders. But they were gone. They’d done their damage and left.

She started to sink back down onto the floor but stopped. She could practically hear her mama’s voice urging her to run. As much as Cherise didn’t want to leave her mama, there was nothing she could do for her now.

“I’m so sorry.” This was all her fault. It was her defect that had sent them running from their pack in Kentucky all those years ago. Their past had finally caught up with them.

With tears clouding her vision, Cherise stumbled to the bedroom. The room had been tossed. Her things were strewn around the room like garbage. It hurt her to see it. She’d never had much and appreciated what little she did have.

But what did it matter? What did any of it matter now that her mama was dead?

How had they found them here in St. Louis? She and her mama stuck to large cities where there was little chance of bumping into a werewolf. Packs much preferred living in rural areas where they could run free.

She yanked the bed frame away from the wall and ripped off the envelope that was taped to the back of the headboard. It contained pictures of her family, an alternate identification her mama had insisted they get and money.

Cherise stowed everything in her knapsack. She changed clothes quickly, pulling on jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, sweater and coat. She stuffed a change of clothes into the bag and slung it over her shoulder.

The apartment only had one bedroom. She and her mama sometimes shared the bed, other times Cherise crashed on the sofa. They wore the same sized clothing and often shared. When the police finally discovered her mama’s body, they’d probably assume only one woman lived here. That’s assuming they found her body before it decomposed. Because of their metabolism, werewolf bodies disintegrated quickly. In a matter of days, all that would be left were ashes. They’d find extra fingerprints around the apartment, but Cherise wasn’t on file anywhere. By the time they figured out another woman lived here, Cherise would be long gone, St. Louis far behind her.

Cherise made herself walk back into the living area. Her mama’s purse was thrown against the wall. She dug out her mama’s identification and money and stuffed both into her knapsack.

She swallowed hard as she neared her mama’s body. Kneeling down by her head, Cherise leaned down and kissed her mama’s forehead. “I love you.”

Sniffing back tears, Cherise left the apartment quickly and quietly, shutting the door and locking it behind her.

Cherise curled up on a hard plastic seat in the corner of the station, waiting for the bus to arrive. She’d been constantly on the move the past two days. She’d hopped on and off different buses, crisscrossing her way east and west, hoping to throw off whoever might be on her trail.

She berated herself for not getting a better scent of her mama’s attacker. But she’d been in shock and not thinking clearly. It had been familiar, and there was no doubt she knew her mama’s killers. There had been more than one.

They’d had to have come from the Pike County Pack in Kentucky. There was no one else looking for her, no one else who knew her secret shame.

She leaned her head back against the wall and shut her eyes. She’d hardly slept at all, had barely eaten and was nearing exhaustion. The sounds of the bus station became like white noise in the background until it finally faded all together. Cherise drifted off into a dream.

The bus station was gone and she was walking down a rural road. It was dark with only the moonlight to guide her. The two-lane road was quiet and her feet made little sound on the blacktop as she moved steadily toward—what? It seemed she walked forever and then a sign came into view.
WELCOME TO SALVATION, NORTH CAROLINA
.

Cherise stopped and stared at the sign. Something tugged at her heart, urging her to keep going. She walked through the small town, past the local school, the grocery store, a diner and other small businesses. She saw houses, some well-kept and others rundown. Finally, she neared the city limits. She passed a church and then hit the open road.

She was getting closer to something…

“Bus to Chicago leaving in five minutes.” The announcement jerked her out of sleep and Cherise bolted upright. A quick glance at the clock on the wall told her she’d only been asleep a few minutes.

The dream or vision or whatever it had been was still fresh in her mind.

Salvation, North Carolina. As soon as she thought it, she felt the invisible tug.

Hiding in big cities hadn’t saved her mama. Maybe it was time to try a smaller place. Cherise stood and stretched before striding over to the ticket counter. The middle-aged man with the neatly trimmed beard and wire-rimmed glasses peered at her. “Where are you going?”

Cherise hesitated and then took a leap of faith. “I want to go to Salvation, North Carolina.”

The man tapped his computer screen. “No bus stop there.”

“What’s the closest you can get me?”

Chapter One

He moved like the mist, drifting across the forest floor, his huge paws making no sound as he passed over fallen leaves, moss and dirt. He was quiet as a man, but in his wolf form he was a ghost.

Dawn was close at hand, but night had not yet let go its grip on the world. Cole Blanchard loved this time of day, when everyone else was asleep and the world was his alone.

It had been months since the attack from the Louisiana Pack, but Cole was under no misconception that Pierre LaForge, his former alpha, had given up. Not when Pierre’s two sons, his nephew and two others from his pack had broken away to start a new life here in North Carolina.

Thanksgiving and Christmas had come and gone, made special by the addition of the two women—Gwen and Anny—to the mix. Cole was happy for Jacque and Armand, that they’d found their mates. He liked to sit back and watch them all interact with one another. But he always felt apart from them. Alone.

He paused and breathed the early morning air deep into his lungs, automatically sorting through the smells. The usual small game and birds were about. Nothing out of the ordinary. Winter had released its hold on the land and now spring was in the air, a time of renewal and rebirth.

It was also a good time for Pierre and his pack to attack them again.

Cole growled and swiveled his head from side-to-side, always watchful. These men and now the two women were his family, and he’d protect them with his life. The Salvation Pack was his home, and no one would hurt any of them if he could help it.

He trotted off, content that all was well. The land where he ran belonged to the pack. There was more than enough space for their wolves to run free and not feel hemmed in. He knew Gator, his best friend and housemate, didn’t like the cold weather, but Cole did. He’d always found the bayous of Louisiana to be stifling, the heat oppressive. Here he could breathe.

The first rays of light were beginning to break across the mountain, their golden and orange hues giving the forest an ethereal glow. Cole paused to admire the beauty of the moment before turning away.

Gator would be up and about and have coffee on by now. He’d probably be whipping up something for breakfast too. The man did love to cook. Although these days he had competition from Armand’s mate. Anny had discovered she enjoyed cooking, more specifically baking. It would be interesting to see which one of them reigned supreme in the kitchen this morning. Either way, it would be tasty.

Anticipation thrumming through him, Cole turned to head back toward the cabin, toward home. He’d only taken two steps when he stopped in his tracks and listened. His ears twitched as he tracked the sound.

There
.

Off to the south, someone was running through the woods.

Everything inside Cole went still. It could be nothing, but they rarely had hunters stumble onto their land. The townspeople paid attention to the no-trespassing signs they’d posted. He feared their reprieve from the Louisiana Pack was over.

Cole headed toward the sound with a speed most wolves would find impossible to match. But he was bigger than most, his legs longer and stronger, and he used that to his advantage. He kept downwind of the intruders so they couldn’t scent him. As he moved closer, he could smell them. He paused behind a short stand of alders and waited as the three strange wolves passed within twenty feet of him, never even knowing he was tracking them.

He frowned, not liking the situation at all. These wolves weren’t from the Louisiana Pack at all. They were strangers.

What were they doing on Salvation Pack land?

He continued to watch, trailing them from a distance. With each passing moment, he grew even more puzzled. They were hunting someone. It was obvious in the way they constantly sniffed the ground and studied the surrounding landscape.

They weren’t headed toward the two cabins where the pack lived, but were going deeper into the thick woods at the base of the mountain. Like a phantom, Cole followed, never losing sight of them. He also kept all his senses open in case there were more. But the more time that passed, the more convinced he became there were only the three of them.

The small wolf pack stopped in a clearing and one of the men shifted. He was just over six feet tall with dark-brown hair, brown eyes and a thick beard. “She’s around here somewhere.”

She
.

Something inside Cole flared hotter than a blast furnace, and he had to force the anger down. They were hunting a woman. Not on
Salvation
land and not on
his
watch. He’d seen too many women abused in his lifetime. The male wolves of the Louisiana Pack weren’t known for their progressive ideas when it came to females and neither, it seemed, were these wolves.

He’d been lucky. His parents loved one another, but even his mama had played at being subservient when other wolves were around. Camouflage, she’d called it. It had made Cole’s stomach turn to watch it even as he understood his parents really had no other choice. The only thing that softened his anger was the fact that his father loved and treated Cole’s mama accordingly when it was only the three of them.

He often wondered what they thought of him leaving their old pack behind. It was a question he’d never be able to ask them. He hadn’t dared contact them since he’d left. That would only put them in danger. He and his four friends had left quickly and in complete secrecy when they’d made the break.

And speaking of danger, another one of the wolves shifted to his human form to converse with the first. This man was a little shorter and stockier, but all of it muscle. “We followed her trail this far. She has to be here somewhere.”

The taller one glanced upward. “We’ll get her. She can’t hide forever.”

“She’s an abomination.” The second man spit before embracing his wolf once again. The first man nodded, shifted and raced onward with his friends behind him.

Cole wanted to know more about the woman they were chasing. What had she done to make them track her?

He kept far enough back so they wouldn’t hear or smell him, but not so far away that he’d lose them. A few minutes later, one of them let loose a howl and the sound drifted across the land. It had an edge of excitement, of anticipation.

Cole quickened his pace and hunkered down behind a large boulder not far from them. They were all staring up at a birch tree. No, not at the tree, but at the woman perched in the branches about three-quarters of the way up. She clung to the upper branches and had her legs twined around the trunk.

The three men shifted, and the one who seemed to be the leader put his hands on his hips and stared up at her. “Come down, Cherise. You know you’re trapped.”

“Go away, Keith. Leave me alone.” She was defiant, but Cole could hear the quaver in her voice. He crept closer, keeping to the shadows cast by the large trees.

“You must return to the pack.”

She shook her head. “No. My mama took me from there years ago.”

“But she’s dead now,” Keith pointed out. “You have nowhere to go. You have no one.”

The woman—Cherise—shook her head again. “I know you killed her. I recognized your smell from our apartment.”

The shorter man, the one who’d shifted earlier, stepped forward to stand beside the one called Keith. “Julia left the pack without permission and she took you with her. All these years, you’ve been living among humans in one city after another. She was judged, her sentence pronounced.”

Cole saw the woman flinch, but her expression remained defiant. “And what is my sentence, Wayne? I know what I am and I know what that means.”

Cole frowned, not understanding what they were talking about.

“Still can’t shift, can you, Cherise?” Wayne moved to the base of the tree and shoved the trunk, using his strength to rock the tree slightly. Cherise gave a small cry and tightened her precarious hold on an upper branch, wrapping her legs more securely around the trunk.

A wolf who couldn’t shift. It was virtually unheard off, a thing of myth and legend, a curse. Most packs would cull out the bad seed, not wanting to allow the male or female to procreate and possibly pass the genetic mutation along to their offspring.

The third man shifted to human form and stepped forward. “You can’t run forever.”

“I wasn’t running, Gene. I was living my life. Mama and I were both living simply and minding our own business until you came along.” Cole admired the woman, knew it couldn’t be easy for her to face them down knowing she was outnumbered. They’d already killed her mama, and she knew she was next. Yet she stood up to them.

“Go home,” she called down to them. “I renounce my place in the Pike County Pack. Tell them I’m dead. Tell them whatever you want, but leave me alone.”

“Can’t do that, Cherise. You know that.”

“Is this because I turned down your advances all those years ago? My God, Keith, we were just kids.”

The male wolf growled menacingly. “You should have been honored by my attention, bitch. It’s not like any self-respecting wolf will ever want to mate with you. I might have been able to protect you if you’d given yourself to me.” Keith strode to the base of the tree, reached up, grabbed a branch and began to climb.

Cole decided it was past time to make his presence known. He stepped out from the shadows and emitted a low, warning growl. Keith whirled and dropped back to the ground, crouching in a fighting stance. The other two rounded as well until all three were facing him.

“Shit, he’s big,” Gene muttered.

“We don’t want any trouble.” Keith held his hands out in front of him in a gesture of peace. “We only want what’s ours.”

And that was just the wrong thing to say. They wanted to take the woman so they could kill her. And from the look he’d seen in Keith’s eyes, that’s not all they wanted her for. She’d probably pray for death by the time they were done with her.

Cole released his wolf and embraced his human form. He knew he was intimidating as both a wolf and a man. He straightened to his full height of six-eight and stared at the three men until they grew restless beneath his gaze. “You’re trespassing.”

“We don’t mean any disrespect.” Keith took a step forward but stopped when Cole narrowed his eyes. “We figured we’d be in and out before you even knew we were here.” He shrugged and pointed to the woman hanging up in the tree. “Runaway female. You know how it is.”

“And how exactly is it?” Cole asked.

“She belongs to us.” Wayne stepped forward, aggression in every line of his body.

Cole kept his arms by his sides, his body relaxed. “Now that’s where you’re wrong. She’s on Salvation Pack land, so she belongs to us now. Go home while I’ve still a mind to let you.”

Wayne glanced at his buddies, but Keith’s gaze never left Cole’s face. “Afraid we can’t do that, friend.” Keith kept his tone friendly, but there was pure steel beneath it. “Just walk away and pretend you never saw us. We’ll be gone within the half hour.”

Cole slowly shook his head. “Afraid I can’t do that.”

“You’re willing to start a pack war over a bitch?” Keith asked, his tone incredulous.

“Won’t be a war if they don’t know you were ever here,” Cole calmly pointed out. He was looking at Keith but had one eye on Gene, knowing he was the one with the least control over his temper. These young males were hotheads with no discipline.

Sure enough, he’d barely finished the thought when Gene shifted and pounced in one swift motion. Ignoring the razor-sharp claws and lethal fangs that raked across his arm and side, Cole grabbed the wolf straight out of the air. Using his immense strength, Cole wrapped his forearm around the wolf’s neck and twisted. The snap echoed through the woods. He tossed the wolf’s carcass to the ground and turned his attention back to the remaining wolves, who both appeared momentarily stunned by how quickly he’d dispatched their friend. “Who’s next?”

Wayne jumped at him and Cole embraced his wolf. The fierce creature jumped to the fore and attacked Wayne with a vengeance. He slashed at his opponent, raking his claws down the other wolf’s muzzle. Wayne growled and attacked again. Cole kept one eye on Keith, expecting him to jump in and join the fight. When he didn’t, Cole turned all his attention to Wayne. It didn’t take him long to gain the upper hand. He clamped his strong jaw around Wayne’s throat and held on.

The other wolf raked Cole’s sides with his sharp claws, but Cole didn’t flinch, didn’t let go. His opponent’s struggles got weaker and weaker until the male stopped moving once and for all. Cole dropped his body and turned to face Keith, but the cowardly bastard had run, saving himself while leaving his friends to die.

He glanced up at the woman they’d called Cherise. Her face was pale and she was shaking, but she pointed off to his right. “He went that way.”

Cole dipped his head in thanks and raced off after the other wolf. He had to get to Keith before he escaped. Because if he didn’t, Cole had just started a war with another pack.

“Ohmygod. Ohmygod.” Cherise chanted over and over, her words running together, as the massive brown and blond wolf tore through the forest, racing after Keith. Her limbs were shaking. She knew she couldn’t stay here.

Tears threatened, but she blinked them back. She hadn’t cried since the night she’d returned home from her shift at the restaurant and found her mama’s throat ripped out. There’d been no time to cry, no time to mourn what she’d lost.

They’d been living under assumed names, yet again, and none of their neighbors had really known them. Her mama’s death would end up in the unsolved cases file. But she knew who was responsible. And two of the assassins had just paid with their lives.

Slowly and carefully, she worked her way down the tree to the ground, which wasn’t easy considering how badly she was shaking. The distance seemed a lot farther than when she’d climbed up only a short time ago. Her knees almost gave out when she reached the bottom, but she stiffened them and stood her ground.

She took a deep breath and shuddered. Blood and sweat, anger and fear permeated the air. She might not be able to shift into her wolf, but that didn’t mean all her other senses didn’t work as well as any other predator.