White Wolf Mate (Silverlake Shifters Book 2) Page 11

  “That was a warning shot,” Rafe said. “But I gotta say, the woman behind that window is kind of a hermit, and having this many people on her land makes her a little jumpy. So, you know, one wrong move, and—pow.”

  Emma was scrutinizing the men. Finally she said to the leader, “Beckenham, isn’t it? I thought I recognized you.” She shook her head. “Still working for Alexander Grant? Or are you swimming in some other slime-filled pond now?”

  He spit on the ground. “It just so happens this is professional and personal,” he said. “I’ve been tracking this wolf a long time. She’s a killer. Should have figured you’d be protecting her, along with the other animals.”

  He looked from Jace to Rafe and back again. “So which one of these is the dog you married?” he asked. He shook his head. “I can’t believe that a woman who used to be civilized would mate with a zoo specimen.”

  Jace started growling, but the barrel of Emma’s rifle never wavered. “I think it’s up for debate who the animals are here,” she said. She paused. “Oh, wait, it’s not. So why don’t you all crawl away on your bellies like the vermin you really are, and get the hell off this land?”

  “Fuck you,” he said. “You think I’d let a dog-whore like you order me around—”

  Emma pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Beckenham in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

  Shit, Rafe thought. We’re dead.

  But Beckenham was still breathing. He wheezed, cursing, but Rafe didn’t see any blood. Either the man had on body armor, or he was a fucking vampire. The other men shifted uneasily, but they didn’t shoot.

  Rafe said, “You heard the lady. I’d go, if I were you. We can take a lot more damage than you can.”

  One of the man helped the leader up. “You bitch!” Beckenham ground out. “You wait, we’ll come back and burn this mountain to the ground.”

  The men backed off toward their truck, keeping their guns trained on the house. They piled in, the dogs gratefully following, and peeled out.

  “I guess he was wearing Kevlar,” said Jace.

  “I knew that,” said Emma. “Really, I did.”

  “You could at least try to sound like you meant that,” Rafe told her.

  Emma shrugged. “What can I say? He pissed me off.”

  Jace was muttering something about “Danger Girl.” Rafe shook his head. He should hang out with Emma more—it was possible she was even crazier than he was.

  After making sure the men were really gone, they all trooped back into the cabin.

  Terin was in the corner, shaking. Rafe went over to put his arms around her, but she wrapped her arms around herself, keeping him away. “That man,” she said.

  “Do you know him?” Jace asked.

  Terin shook her head, not looking at anyone.

  “Terin?” Rafe asked gently. “It’s okay. They’re gone.” He started rubbing the outsides of her arms gently, as if he were trying to warm her. But he could see the cold was inside her. “You’re fine,” he said softly. “You did great.”

  “I agree,” Jace said. He was frowning at Terin. He needed to stop that. Couldn’t he see she was upset?

  Jace added, “But those men aren’t going to give up.”

  “Not if they’re working for Alexander Grant,” Emma added.

  Tern frowned. She’d stopped shaking and her eyes were more focused. “Who’s Alexander Grant?” she asked.

  “Emma’s ex,” Rafe said. “A very, very bad man, who hates us a lot.”

  “What does he want with me?” Terin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jace said.

  Emma asked, “Terin, did you know that man?”

  Terin’s eye grew unfocused again. “No,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t remember ever seeing him before, but I felt like I knew him.”

  They all looked at each other. “Someone from your past?” Rafe asked.

  “I don’t know!” She pushed his hands away.

  Rafe looked at Jace helplessly. “She can’t stay here now.”

  “You can’t make me go,” Terin said.

  “He’s right, Terin,” Emma said quietly. “Those men will be back, and probably with more firepower. I know you don’t want to leave here, but I think Rafe is right. The only place you’ll be safe right now is at Silverlake.”

  Terin looked at them all gathered around her, her eyes getting wild. Rafe could feel the panic building in her.

  He reached out to comfort her once more, but she batted his hands away. “No!” she said. “This is your fault, all of you! Nobody bothered me until you came here. Nobody even knew I was here! And now you crowd around me and want to take me away and make me go somewhere where there are people…people all the time…and I can’t get away. I can’t breathe! I can’t take this. The people, everybody telling me what to do. Why can’t you all just leave me alone?”

  “Terin,” Rafe began, but she wouldn’t listen. She shifted, flowing out of her dress, and jumped through the window out into the yard. In moments, she’d disappeared into the woods.

  Chapter 16

  Terin ran and ran, until she was exhausted. As if she could outrun the trouble, and the danger, and all the things she couldn’t remember.

  Even more, she wanted to outrun all the expectations people had of her, all her feelings, all the love that Rafe had for her that she was so frightened of.

  It was all so much. Too much for her. She was used to quiet and solitude. And now there were armed men invading her property, and all these people were there, wanting to help, wanting her to do things and react and care about them and like them.

  She just couldn’t.

  Finally she reached the mountaintop and lay spent, letting the wind ruffle her fur, until she could feel like a part of the land and the wind and the trees and the sky. She felt as if it were all passing through her, her body dissolving so she could float among the stars like the spirit wolf that some people called her.

  What did those men want? Why were they hunting her? Why now? Had she always been a monster? Had she done even more bad things than she could remember?

  She couldn’t stop thinking about Rafe. She wished desperately that she could just wrap herself in his arms and shut out the whole rest of the world. She wanted that unspoken understanding that she’d felt when they were making love, or when they were just sitting outside on the porch swing, baring their souls to each other.

  She didn’t want him to endanger himself for her. She didn’t want him to want so much from her. Why couldn’t he just let things be easy between them?

  But she had no answer to that. She didn’t think she ever would.

  The sun went down and the stars came out. Terin watched them wheel majestically through the sky. She was scared. Scared of the men, and scared of losing Rafe. She felt empty without him. Much more than she had felt when Ben died. She had missed Ben, but she’d also enjoyed the freedom to finally be herself, without hiding her wolf from him.

  But when it was just her and Rafe, she felt like maybe she could be herself. He didn’t seem to mind all the things that were strange about her. He was a shifter too, so she didn’t have to hide that from him. And he cared about her. He wanted her to be happy.

  He wanted to love her. And she loved him. She just didn’t want to let him down, and she didn’t want to be disappointed.

  Now that her panic had receded, she was wondering if there was some way she could try being with the pack. At least go to Silverlake, and see what it was like. The idea of leaving her cabin, her home, scared her. It was the only place she belonged, the only place she could remember.

  But what if those men came back? And what if they hurt Rafe, because she wouldn’t go to Silverlake and be safe there?

  It was late when she got to her feet and loped slowly down the mountain, making her way soft-footed through the woods. It was a moonlit night, and she stayed in the shadows so the light wouldn’t glint off her fur.

  As she neared the cabin, she became aware of a str
ong scent. Burning wood. Thick, oily smoke. Not like a woodstove—more like someone burning trash. Only stronger. So strong…

  Fire.

  She sped up, dashing through the woods, not wanting to believe what she knew she was going to see. She burst out of the woods at the edge of the clearing and skidded to a stop, gazing in horror.

  Her cabin was destroyed. Those men had come back while she was up the mountain, and burned her home. Flames still licked the half-collapsed walls. Her books, her paintings, her quilt, her dishes and decorations. Her herbs. All the things that meant so much to her, that made her feel secure. Everything was gone.

  She stood staring, unable to take it in. Rafe’s and Jace’s trucks were gone—they must have left just after she did. After she’d rejected their offers of help, after she’d run away from Jace and Emma’s kindness and Rafe’s love.

  And she’d been punished. The hunters had come back, and when they hadn’t been able to find her, they’d burned her home down in retaliation.

  And maybe as a warning.

  Now she had nowhere to go. Nothing she could do. Rafe wouldn’t want her now, and Jace and Emma wouldn’t take her in.

  She was alone and homeless, just like she’d been ten years ago.

  Broken.

  A howl welled up in her chest, into her throat, and she put her head up and cried to the sky. All the hurt and pain, all the loneliness, all the anger at the unfairness of it. This time she’d hurt no one. She’d only attacked to defend herself. She’d never meant harm to anyone, and people just kept getting hurt because of her.

  She howled again, backing into the woods, wanting to hide herself from the sight of her ruined home. She was so distraught that she wasn’t paying attention to anything around her, her nose filled with acrid smoke. So she didn’t sense him until he grabbed her.

  A man launched himself out of the trees and hit her in a flying tackle, imprisoning her in his arms. His momentum brought them to the ground, rolling over, and she squirmed frantically, snapping at him. He wrapped one hand around her muzzle so she couldn’t bite, and whispered in her ear.

  “Shhh. It’s okay. It’s me, Rafe.”

  Rafe? What was he doing here? Terin went limp, stunned. He held her close, still holding her muzzle closed while he murmured in her ear, his breath ruffling her fur.

  “You have to be quiet, okay?” he said. “Those guys are still out there, waiting for you. They must have figured if they burned the cabin, you wouldn’t be able to scent them in all the smoke.”

  Or they’d just done it to be vindictive.

  She dipped her head in acknowledgement of his warning. He kissed her between the ears and then loosened his grip on her.

  She changed back into human form and fell into his arms, tears rolling down her face. “My cabin,” she said, burying the words in his chest. “All my things, Rafe. Everything’s gone.”

  He stroked her back, her hair. “It’s okay,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about that now.” But it wasn’t okay. He had his pack, his home. She had nothing.

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered, pulling herself together. “Where’s your truck?”

  “I didn’t want them to know I was here,” he said. “No time to explain now. They’re coming.” He pulled back and put his hands on either side of her face, looking deeply into her eyes. She could see his eyes glittering gold in the darkness. He said, “I’m going to get you out of here, and we’re going to get these guys for good. But I need you to follow my lead, and you have to trust me completely and do what I say, no matter how crazy it seems. Can you do that?”

  She stared into his eyes, hands on his chest. Her own words came back to her: I don’t trust anyone. She never had—not even Ben, even when he was being kind to her. She’d always held part of herself back.

  But Rafe had come for her. He’d made a plan to keep her safe. He was risking his life for her.

  She nodded. “Okay,” she said.

  His face lit up with his cocky, reckless smile. “Okay, babe,” he said. “I need you to shift, and follow my cues. Whatever I tell you to do, promise—promise you’ll do it.”

  “I promise,” she said.

  He gave her a quick kiss. “Okay, then. Let’s do this, ghost wolf.” And they both shifted into their wolf shapes.

  Rafe moved slowly at first, slinking through the woods like a shadow, sniffing the air as if casting about for a scent. Terin couldn’t understand why he didn’t just run, leading her back to Silverlake, to the pack territory where they’d be safe.

  But she’d promised to trust him.

  Suddenly, Rafe’s head went up, and he turned his head as he caught a scent. A moment later, she scented it too. The men. Their dogs. And the sharp metallic smell of their guns.

  Rafe led her closer to the men—closer, closer. Surely he wasn’t going to attack them? He stopped and nosed Terin briefly, and then stepped out of the woods into the moonlight.

  A man called out softly, “There!” and she heard the crackle of radios. “We’ve got the black one.” Then, more faintly, “Hold your fire. Track it—it might lead you to the white one—or to its pack.” Rafe took a cautious step, then looked back at her.

  He wanted her to step out there? Expose herself? He had to be insane.

  But she could see her promise in his eyes. Trust me.

  Gathering all her courage, Terin stepped out of the forest. The moonlight caught her white fur, and the dying flames of the cabin turned one side of her a dull red. She heard a shout, and the radios went crazy.

  “There she is!”

  “We’ve got them both.”

  “In pursuit.”

  And then there was a cacophony of barking. They’d brought out the dogs.

  Rafe turned and ran, cutting straight across the clearing. Terin followed, plunging into the woods after him. She could hear the men and dogs behind them. The sound made her want to run flat out, as fast as she could, but Rafe was keeping a moderate pace. Was he afraid of outpacing her? Or did he have some other reason? She increased her speed, coming level with him and pulling ahead. His response was to slow down.

  So he didn’t want to go too fast—he didn’t want to lose their pursuers. This must be part of the plan, but Terin hoped to hell he knew what he was doing. The fur was standing up all down her back, anticipating the feel of a bullet.

  A tranquilizer dart buzzed through the woods and thunked into a tree near her. After that, a bullet whined by Rafe. So they wanted her alive, but they didn’t care if they killed Rafe. That made her furious. And scared.

  Rafe increased the pace, increasing their lead—but not too much. She could see now that he was trying to keep them out of range of the men’s guns without losing them completely. The men fell back, and Terin thought they would be okay.

  Until they loosed the dogs.

  The dogs could go faster than the humans, and they could follow the shifters’ scent. Terin knew enough about hunting to know that the dogs were trained to follow them, surround them, trap them until the hunters came.

  The dogs bayed, and Terin’s heart came into her throat. She was just about to forget her promise, forget everything and run for her life, when she became aware of other wolves around her in the forest. They were shadowing her and Rafe, running parallel to them, just out of sight. Silent and deadly.

  Rafe’s pack.

  Trust me.

  The dogs ran faster, barking and belling, not far behind them now. Rafe swerved suddenly, skirting a grove of trees, and Terin scrambled to follow him. The brush was getting thicker now, and the dogs followed their trail in a wide curve, spreading out.

  A thick, curved wall of brush loomed up in front of them—a dead end. Terin went to go around it, and then realized that Rafe was heading straight in.

  This was exactly what the dogs had been trained for. They’d be trapped, torn to pieces by the dogs or caught by the hunters. Terin gave a warning bark, but Rafe just glanced back over his shoulder at
her and kept going.

  You have to do what I say, no matter how crazy it seems. Promise me.

  She hesitated for a split second, and then she plunged after Rafe, straight into the trap.

  The dogs followed, penning them in. Rafe turned on them, snarling a warning, and Terin joined him. But the dogs were well-trained to trap their prey—to wait for an order from their master before tearing it apart.

  Terin waited, heart pounding. Where was the rest of the pack? Why had they left her and Rafe to fend for themselves? She heard the hunters crashing through the forest, and finally they appeared, following the dogs. The leader—Beckenham—raised his rifle and aimed it at Rafe.

  “You should have let me take the white wolf earlier today,” he said. “At least I would have let you live. But Grant’s woman gave me a cracked rib and I’m pissed off, so your girlfriend gets to watch you die, and then I’m going to finish what that little white bitch started all those years ago.”

  All those years ago? What was he talking about?

  Rafe growled. Terin gathered herself for a desperate leap at Beckenham. She couldn’t let him hurt Rafe. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion—the gun barrels being raised, the evil smile on Beckenham’s face, her own body. She was just about to launch herself when she heard a sharp command from behind her. “Now!”

  There was a rush of snapping sounds, and suddenly four of Beckenham’s men were upside down, dangling by their ankles from the trees. One was knocked to the ground by a gray and brown wolf. Beckenham whirled, trying to bring up his rifle to shoot the wolf, but there was an immediate symphony of ammo sliding into chambers, and half a dozen men and women stepped out of the forest, guns trained on him. And every one of them had a wolf by their side.

  Chapter 17