Wolf Tales VI (19 page)

Then the animal turned, raised his muzzle and looked directly into Mei’s eyes. The beast shimmered and Anton stood there, his tall, beautifully strong body pale in the moonlight, his face a study of concern and amazement, of curiosity and unimaginable intelligence.

“Come down, Mei. Please. It’s time to go back.”

I don’t want to. I want to run, to hunt. I want to kill.

Anton shook his head. “As I feared. I don’t understand you in this form. Do you know what you are, Mei? How special you are?”

She snarled, sat up on her haunches and swept the air with one broad paw, claws extended. Anton merely laughed. She should have been angry that he showed her so little respect, but when she thought about it, it really was funny. She leapt down and landed neatly beside Anton. Then she shifted.

“This was not what I expected.” She stood there, hands on her hips and glared at him.

“Oh, Mei.” He laughed harder. “You’re not what any of us expected! Poor Oliver is beside himself. Come back. Let us try and figure out how one little Chanku among many decided to become a snow leopard. I certainly didn’t see this one coming.”

She flashed a sideways glance at him and shook her head. “What the hell is a snow leopard?”

“Shift and you’ll know. C’mon. It’s a long way back and faster on four legs. Follow me.” Anton shifted and the black wolf waited patiently at the edge of the trail.

She had a moment’s fear. What if she turned into something entirely different this time? She reached for the beast and was suddenly standing behind the wolf on four big paws. She snarled, he growled and they headed back to the house.

Adam called to Eve and veered off the trail. The others were heading back now that Anton had Mei. Adam had other things on his mind, chief among them the rich, musky scent of the female he wanted to take as his mate. Eve nipped his flank and then trotted along beside him. Her pale coat glistened in the silver light, and he felt a sense of destiny too powerful to ignore.

It was their time, tonight. Here, deep in the forest with the moon glinting through the branches and Eve running beside him, her wolven aroma the most powerful aphrodisiac he’d ever experienced. His body tightened, his balls pulled up hard and close between his legs and he knew he must have her. Now. But was Eve ready?

Would she accept him, knowing the depth of the mating bond? The lack of self, the subjugation of will? Everything either of them had ever experienced, every hurt or embarrassment, every achievement, every worry and joy—all of it shared. Was she willing to give up that much of herself?

She’d been terrified of commitment, afraid of losing herself in Adam, and she’d run clear across the country to avoid bonding with him. Now, though, she said she was ready. Willing to give herself completely to another person. In many ways, willing to subjugate her own will to his.

Was he willing to do the same?

He thought of his life, of the successes and failures he’d experienced. The years of loneliness, the years his only true contact with another soul had been the terrifying link to his sister, a woman who was more nightmarish fantasy than reality until just weeks ago. Manda had finally found love. She’d told Adam that Baylor Quinn was the best part of her.

His sister’s words stayed with him. When he thought of Eve, Adam knew she was the best of him. The most important thing in his world. He needed her. Wanted her on a level that went deeper than any desire he’d ever known.

Eve paused, one paw lifted. She raised her nose to the gentle breezes and sniffed, then turned and stared at him. Challenged him with her beautiful gray eyes. He felt her thrill of excitement, her need to hunt. Her challenge. She would always challenge him.

He wanted to shout for joy when, like a silent wraith, she slipped off the trail and melted into the shadows. Adam followed, his nose twitching with the smell of game, his cock twitching with need for his bitch.

His heart pounded in his wolven chest and his instincts kept him as silent as Eve, but his human mind rejoiced. They’d ran together as wolves, but never hunted together.

Never made love as wolves. The hunt would raise her desire. The blood of a successful kill would give them something powerful tonight. He followed Eve’s lead. Watched the way she carefully placed one paw in front of the other. He copied the low, crouching glide that disguised her profile and allowed both of them to slip through dry brush without sound. They’d moved high on the mountain now, close to the tree line where the air was thin and wind whistled through the dry, midsummer grasses. She moved more quickly than he and the image she showed him, of a large buck feeding in tall grass, urged Adam forward.

Eve circled to the left. Adam took the tack to the right. The buck raised his head, aware of something, unsure what he sensed. He was an animal in his prime, shoulders heavily muscled, antlers spreading wide and sharp above a broad head. Eve exploded out of the thick brush. She caught the big animal’s lower jaw in her powerful fangs and used the weight of her body to take him down.

Adam dove for the animal’s throat, avoiding the dangerous antlers, clamping down on both windpipe and jugular. Sharp hooves scored his flank but his powerful jaws quickly ended the animal’s fight. Panting, Adam scrambled to his feet. Eve snarled and paced beside the warm body. Her narrowed eyes glinted feverishly and he knew her blood ran hot with the thrill of a fresh kill and her own burgeoning desire.

Adam backed away, deferring to his alpha bitch. Somewhat appeased, she ripped into the animal’s soft belly, tearing at skin and muscle with sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

She was terrible and deadly. Vicious and overwhelmingly beautiful. Everything he could possibly want in a mate and more. Adam’s body trembled with need for her. Shivered with desire. Hunger gnawed at Adam’s gut, but he paced just beyond the body. He’d not challenge her for the kill. Instead, he waited impatiently until Eve had fed, growling and scratching at the blood-soaked dirt beside the body. When he finally moved in to feed, she snarled, but she didn’t attack.

The rich scent of fresh blood filled his nostrils. Adam tore at the carcass, gulping great chunks of muscle and tearing flesh from the bones of one haunch. Eve wandered back over to the deer and ate more, but she watched Adam warily. The human part of their minds accepted the nature of the beast. When the kill was fresh, when their blood was hot, both of them knew their wolven instincts could overpower whatever humanity existed.

As it did now.

They’d run far tonight and the area was unfamiliar. Adam’s thigh ached where the buck’s hoof had slashed him, and the moon was sinking in the sky. It was time. He wanted her. Needed her. If they mated now, she would be his forever, bonded on a level beyond any link either of them had ever known. Linked deeply into his psyche, whether human or wolf. No matter…she was Chanku.

She was his.

Eve wandered around behind him and licked his wound. Blood seeped from the tear in his flesh, but the harsh rasp of her tongue over his injury felt good. He lifted his head to watch her.

Just in time to see the flash of silver and hear the loud thud of heavy paws racing toward them. Grizzly! Adam spun around as the bear reached the carcass. The animal took a powerful swipe at Adam. He ducked and avoided the blow, but Eve rushed in to protect him, snarling and growling, her jaws wide.

No! Get away! She was no match for the bear. Neither was Adam, but instinct ruled the wolf, and love ruled the man. The bear lunged at Eve. Adam went for the beast’s throat. The big male reared up on its haunches and swatted Adam, hard. He rolled away across the grass, scrambling for purchase but unable to regain his footing. Before he could return to attack, Eve charged once again. The bear’s paw caught her solidly along one shoulder. He batted her away as if she were nothing but a toy. Eve yipped once before she landed hard against a rocky outcropping almost six feet from the carcass.

She lay there, unmoving, her body sprawled in the rocks like a child’s stuffed toy. The bear eyed her for a moment, beady eyes dark and dangerous. Then the smell of fresh blood and the bounty of meat forced his huge head around. Snuffling and growling, the grizzly tore at the dead deer.

Adam crawled to his feet and crept around behind the bear. He sniffed Eve. She was unconscious. Blood seeped from three long slash marks on her shoulder. It appeared her thick coat had protected her though, and the cuts weren’t deep. He couldn’t tell how badly she’d been hurt, but he couldn’t shift, not until he got her away from the grizzly. A wolf, at least, could fight back. A naked human was powerless against eight hundred pounds of angry bear.

Unable to move her, Adam sent out a call for the pack. In less than a heartbeat, they answered.

Anton caught Adam’s message and passed it on to Oliver. He stopped on the trail with Mei beside him and shifted. She did the same, and they waited there for Oliver to return. “Eve’s been hurt,” he said, as soon as Mei stood before him. “Grizzly attack. Adam’s with her. She’s unconscious and can’t shift. I’m going back. Can you find your way home?”

Mei shook her head. “I’m going with you.”

Anton really didn’t need a bossy female right now. If it weren’t for Mei, he’d be running beside Keisha, not herding this youngster back home. “No,” he said. “You need to go back. Oliver’s coming to help me.”

“I can’t understand you,” she said. And then she shifted and the snow leopard prowled, pacing back and forth on the narrow trail.

“Oh fuck.” Anton sensed Oliver growing closer. He shifted and the wolf waited when Oliver rounded the curve.

Oliver saw Mei and came to a complete stop, but his question was for Anton. Do you know where they are?

They’re in the west meadow, just at the tree line. Follow me. He took off at a ground-eating lope, one he knew the snow cat couldn’t stick with.

But Mei fooled him, and her long stride kept her in pace with both Anton and Oliver. They drew closer, all of them with tongues hanging and sides billowing, until the stench of the grizzly was in their nostrils and their hackles rose. Anton stopped their headlong rush and had them approach downwind.

The bear was lying down, his massive head buried in the deer’s innards, twisting this way and that as he stuffed himself on the bloody carcass.

Adam was off to one side, not nearly far enough from the grizzly, but he covered Eve with his body. His relief, when he saw them, was unmistakable, a tangible thing. He raised his head, ears pricked forward, and watched as they worked themselves closer to the spot where he and Eve lay.

Anton and Oliver were almost beside him when the grizzly raised its shaggy head. The bear turned and charged, running faster than anything that size should be able to move. Mei streaked in between Adam and the bear.

Paws flashing, mouth wide, she left a bleeding gash across the bear’s muzzle. Surprised by her attack, he spun around and turned his back on the wolves. Adam and Oliver shifted and carefully lifted Eve’s inert wolven body and carried her toward the tree line. Anton remained in wolf form in case Mei needed help, but she was amazing, twisting and turning like lightning, slashing and biting, her powerful jaws and razor-sharp claws doing more damage than the bear obviously expected.

Growling, he shook his head and blood flew from his torn snout. He stared out of beady little eyes, watching the leopard as it paced back and forth in front of him. Finally it must have registered with the grizzly that his belly was already full and there was no reason to put up with such a nuisance. He turned and lumbered off, away from the carcass, away from the wolf and the humans and the snarling leopard. Once he was gone, Mei shifted and ran to Eve. “Is she okay? Why hasn’t she shifted?”

Oliver wrapped his arms around her. “She’s unconscious. She can’t shift until she comes around. Are you okay? Goddess, Mei. You were amazing!”

She looked down at the ground and her face flushed, visible even in the fading moonlight. “I’m fine. Oliver? I…”

He hugged her close. “Later. When we get home, we’ll sort all of this out.”

She nodded and turned to look at Anton. He wished he had answers. For now, there were none. “Thank you, Mei. Oliver’s right. You are truly amazing. I should have known better than to ask you to stay behind.” He touched her shoulder and felt her shaking, and he pulled her into a tight embrace. “You are a very, very brave young woman.”

She suffered Anton’s hug, but only for a moment before slipping away. “Thank you,” she mumbled, glancing back at him only once before going to stand beside Oliver. He took her hand and pulled her close.

Adam squatted down and picked the injured wolf up off the ground. He cradled her in his long arms and held her close to his chest. Oliver and Anton resumed their wolven form. Mei shifted, and the leopard paced alongside the small group, practically invisible with her patterned coat. They formed a small phalanx, better suited to protecting Adam and his burden as creatures of the night.

It was a long walk home. Dawn was breaking when they finally stumbled across the meadow.

Anton touched the sides of Eve’s broad wolven head and let his thoughts slide gently into her mind. The spark of life remained, but he sensed it growing dim. Adam paced at the foot of the bed. The others ringed the room, waiting.

He withdrew from Eve’s brain and focused on Adam. “She needs medical care. This is beyond me.”

Adam whirled around and glared at him. His eyes glittered with the tears he’d not allowed to fall. “What? Do we take her to a fucking vet? She has to shift. No one can treat her like this.”

“You can.” Anton folded his hands across his chest. “You fix things, Adam.”

“I fix cars. I fix machines. I fix mechanical crap where I can just screw in a new part. I can’t…”

“You fixed me.” Oliver stepped forward. As far as Anton knew, only he and Adam, possibly Mei, were aware of Oliver’s life as a eunuch. Oliver looked at the others in the room, then turned his attention to Eve. “I was castrated when I was a child.” There was an audible gasp from some of the others.

“What the fuck?” Stefan’s harsh whisper brought a smile to Oliver’s face.