Chapter 49

"Only one?" Jo asked, backing up against the truck and moving Lexi with her.

The redhead sniffed the air and nodded once. "Just one, in wolf form. Not Duncan. Or Jake. I'm not sure who it is, but they're over by the lake."

Jo looked in that direction, but it was hard to make out anything clear in the darkness and shadows. A figure moved along the edge of the shore, lupine and low to the ground. Lexi's eyesight was much better than hers at night, so it made sense she could see whoever it was better than she could.

Beside her, Lexi growled. "I can chase him off."

"Not yet," Jo said, putting her hand on Lexi's wrist. Putting Lexi in danger was the last thing she wanted to do right now. "He hasn't come this way yet."

By the lake, the shadow turned and started walking around the bonfire.

Its nose made its way to the ground as it started weaving toward them. "You were saying?" Lexi asked, a low growl rumbling through her voice.

"That maybe there's a peaceful solution." At Lexi's doubtful look, Jo frowned. "You can shift if you want to be prepared, but give me a chance to talk to him first, ok?"

"And let you be in danger? Not a chance, Ryker would--"

"Ryker knows I can take care of myself," Jo interrupted steadily. "Better than you realize. Trust me, Lexi."

Lexi seemed reluctant, her eyes constantly flitting toward the prowling shadow. "Okay fine, but I'm shifting. And I'm calling Ryker too."

Jo nodded, knowing there was no point in arguing with Lexi on that one. Nor did she want to fight about it with Ryker later if he found out they hadn't called for him after spotting a strange wolf.

She could compromise.

Jo walked forward, drawing on the steady internal warmth that she was always aware of these days. At least she no longer combusted the moment she pulled it. Now she kept it just under the surface, ready when she needed it. Ryker said when she did that her eyes glowed, almost as if she was a wolf.

She heard the tearing of clothes behind her, and then a wolf padded softly beside her, almost appearing a dark russet color in the bonfire-lit dark woods. This was one of those times where Jo found herself wishing she had the werewolves' mind-communication ability. It'd be so useful right now.

In front of them the wolf had alerted to their presence, circling as it sized them up. Probably deciding how much of a threat they were? Depending on why Duncan's group had come in the first place.

"Hey!" Jo called out, not knowing how else to start since she didn't know his name. "This isn't your territory so I suggest you head back home before the pack gets back."

The wolf paused and crouched down, eyes catching the firelight for a moment. Beside Jo, Lexi let out a low rumbling growl, her stance defensive.

"Seriously," Jo said, frowning, "This isn't a great idea."

A harsh bark escaped from the wolf as it stood up straight again. It looked around, its huge head swinging one way and then the other, and even without silent communication, Jo could tell that it was indicating that they were alone. Presumably defenseless.

Lexi snarled and took a step forward, putting herself between Jo and the other wolf, but Jo moved next to her, her hands out to her side. In front of them, the wolf cocked its head to the side and crouched down, growling.

"Lexi," Jo hissed, keeping her eyes on the other wolf, "You've got to calm down." She lifted her chin. "You're really testing my patience," she said, addressing the Duncan pack wolf. "And neither of us are really people you want to mess with."

The wolf huffed and bunched its muscles up, preparing to jump. It was still close by the fire, but it wasn't a fire Jo had made. She wasn't even sure if she could control a fire that wasn't hers. Focusing, she stared past the wolf at the fire, but she couldn't get a handle on it.

Lexi barked and snapped at the air, golden eyes bright and narrowed.

Jo clenched her fingers into a fist, tapping into the heat beneath her skin. Sparks and tiny licks of flame began to dance between her knuckles.

Lexi snarled as the wolf jumped, but before she could spring forward to meet the stranger, flames shot from Jo's hands. She tried to control it as much as possible, so it looked like a series of sparks bursting through the air.

She didn't want to permanently harm the guy, she just wanted to scare him off.

Okay, and maybe singe him a little. He did jump at them even after she asked him not to, after all.

And it seemed to do the trick, as he yelped, twisting in mid-air, giving time for Lexi to run over and pin him down. The wolf howled, clawing out in anger at Lexi. If he ended up hurting her that wasn't going to help the situation at all.

He managed to throw Lexi off once to Jo's alarm, but she quickly had him pinned again; it was obvious that his injuries were affecting him. Once she was certain Lexi had him, she let her fire simmer back down--in close quarters like this she didn't trust herself to keep the fire away from Lexi, so she'd rather not use it if she didn't need to.

And amazingly, the fire did what she wanted. But Jo didn't have much time to bask in her triumph, because the wolf was still resisting Lexi, lashing out in a way that could potentially be dangerous.

"Shift!" Jo ordered, running up behind Lexi. She had no idea if he would, or if that was normal protocol, but at least he wouldn't have claws and such sharp teeth then. She also couldn't see how bad the burn was if he kept thrashing around like this.

From a distance, Jo heard several howls--hopefully that was Ryker on his way back. The Duncan pack werewolf seemed to hear the howls too because he freaked out, wildly slashing about with his claws and attempting to bite at Lexi. Twisting, he wrenched away from Lexi and unexpectedly swiped at Jo, raking his claws over her shoulder before she could dive out of the way. For a moment, she was back in the alley, but instead of the man, it was this wolf. Her fire flared across him in a flash, and he whined and howled as he stumbled backward. Gritting her teeth, Jo forced her fire to die out, and Lexi walloped him to the ground again with her huge front paws.

The wolf whined and slumped for a moment before shifting back into his human form, apparently admitting defeat finally.

"Here," Jo said, frowning at the sandy-haired man as she pulled off her now bloody sweatshirt and shoved it at him. He was just going to have to deal with the consequences of clawing her if he got blood on him. Neither she nor Lexi needed to see this guy naked. But her other concern was the large burn on both his right leg and right arm. One was actually an open wound, causing Jo's gut to twist sickeningly. Had she done it again? Hurt someone more than she needed to?

"I don't need that," the man growled, his eyes dark with anger.

"Yeah, well, you're getting it anyway, since I doubt our future Alpha will like you being naked around his sister," Jo said. And his mate, but they still weren't telling Duncan that. They also weren't going to get into the fact that Ryker probably wouldn't like another guy having Jo's clothing.

He'd have to understand it was one or the other.

The guy took the sweatshirt and wrapped it around his middle like a towel, and Jo resigned herself to never using it again. Beside her, Lexi growled at the other werewolf and then turned to walk off behind the vehicles, probably to shift and get her own clothes. Maybe they had a first aid kit somewhere, too. The guy's burns needed tending to, and her own scratch marks sort of stung.

Belatedly, Jo realized she'd just claimed the pack as her own when she said "our future Alpha." That pack mentality really crept up on you. For a long moment, they both stood there awkwardly not saying anything.

"Let me see your burns," she finally said, trying to soften her voice and sound more friendly. Or trustworthy or whatever it was that doctors tried to sound like.

He stared at her. "What, so you can claw them open and torture me?"

Lexi appeared, wearing a new set of clothes. She rolled her eyes and hurled a pair of guys' shorts at the other werewolf. "This isn't the middle ages, Blake." Her gaze darted to Jo and then her mouth fell open. "Oh my god, your shoulder, are you okay? Oh, Jo..."

"It's okay," Jo said, offering Lexi a bit of a smile so things didn't seem so dramatic. "It's not that bad."

The look on Lexi's face said that she didn't believe her. Jo bit her lip as she studied the wounds after Blake reluctantly presented his arm. Nope, she had no idea what to do, beyond the fact that burn cream would probably help. "Lexi, can you see what Brett recommends we do with someone with severe burns?"

"How about I just go instead?" Even though he was awake and snarly, Jo could tell Blake was in a lot of pain. His face was extremely pale, a thin sheet of sweat coating his skin. He might possibly be going into shock, but she didn't know enough to be sure.

"You need to get looked at by a doctor before you try to go traipsing off through the woods," Jo said firmly. "Brett isn't going to kill you, promise."

"Ryker, though..." Lexi added, "If you leave, he'll definitely kill you."

"I'm not staying," Blake said, "Do I look like..." He swayed in place, and before either Lexi or Jo could react, he fainted, collapsing to the ground. Which was maybe the best case scenario since a few seconds later, four wolves ran into the clearing and the biggest by far dashed up to Jo, circling her. Ryker was easy to recognize even in the dark, and she would've bet that the wolves with him were Charlie, Lincoln, and AJ, if she had to guess.

His nose came up, and he went rigid. Even without wolf-style telepathy, she knew what he was thinking, that he had smelled the blood from the claw marks on her arm. She lunged for him before he could attack, her arms wrapping around his neck before he could kill Blake and start a wolf pack war.