Found

That night I found myself lying on my cot face down. I ached in such a way that I had to press my fingers to my lower lips.

I pleasured myself until I tensed, and my body uncoiled with a shiver. A ripple shuddered through me, much like what I’d been building up to when Victor touched me. Even as I panted in relief from rubbing my entrance, flashes of that moment replayed in my mind.

~Ugh…~ Why couldn’t I get that image out of my head. ~Or the way it felt.~

Finally, the noises outside ceased.

***

Though I had calmed my physical ache, my wolf still paced in my soul. As unsettled as ever.

I tried to distract myself with thoughts of my family. Of that cottage.

But she could no longer stand being contained in the hut.

Though I knew better, I couldn’t help but rise. I crept to the door of my hut and rushed out.

Tossing off my clothes, I ran. My legs carried me in a flurry of motion. I didn’t bother with the cloak.

I was me, yet not me.

All the cramming myself into a tight little space had forced me into a place where I was now coming undone.

~At least for this moment.~

~I can’t take it anymore.~

My feet carried me faster and faster. I sprinted naked into the woods. My panting was masked by the rushing of the river. The woods seemed to go on forever, like the time I ran endlessly through the Free Woods. Not knowing where I was going, but so sure of what I was running from. Until I wasn’t.

I shifted.

I let my body twist and the white fur slipped from my pores and out through my skin. It took over my body until pink human feet had turned to immaculate white paws. Paws that whispered over the ground without a sound.

Darkness grew deeper as I ran. It fell over me like a comforting blanket, making me feel free.

~To run, to breathe, to feel the ground under my paws and the wind in my fur.~ All things which I had missed.

I didn’t have to learn how to shift. That came as easily as drawing a breath. And any shifting of bones or compressing of muscle that might’ve been painful was shrouded by a rush of endorphins that made me nearly high with the elation of freeing my wolf.

A freedom which felt nearly as good as all those erotic touches which had brought me to the brink of turning right then.

My brain began to settle as my wolf was taking over.

I was running so fast that I didn’t smell someone closing in when I should’ve. I had no idea someone ran with me until I felt my scruff snatched. I was jerked off my feet in a smooth motion. Stunned into immobility, my feral yellow eyes met fierce green ones.

“You’d come out here alone? In the dark? This close to the Mating Moon?” He was quivering. His lips twitched as he fought the temptation to snarl at me. His face was tight with strain.

“Do you know what your smell is going to do to every male in the camp if they catch a whiff?”

~But you’re the only one here!~ I thought defiantly.

He must’ve seen that defiance; he lowered me to my feet and crouched before me. Lowering to a knee and bracing an elbow on the other as he met my look. “Coming out here was foolish. What if you were hurt?”

My eyes narrowed on him, and an accusing growl emerged from my throat.

“You’re going to be.” A cold male voice emerged from the tight grove near the river. A silhouette strode toward us.

His smell was repugnant, tingeing my nostrils and making my skin crawl. My fur ruffled.

He wasn’t quite close enough for me to get a look at it. Suddenly I knew where I’d experienced that foul odor before.

~That cottage.~ I crouched, snarling and baring my teeth as I eased backward.

“The hell she will,” Victor rose. His body was tense, and his tone level. He gave nothing away.

“Who are you?” Another voice from further back on the path called. I spotted Chase.

He approached us, and veered around me in order to position himself next to Victor. I was behind them.

I tilted sideways and glimpsed the man’s face. Or more aptly, the hideous scar marking it.

It was that feature that was branded in my brain.

I stumbled back a step, dizzy. My head was exploding with pain. The familiar ache that meant I was remembering.

~It’s him.~

~He killed them.~

I refused to keep backing up. I forced myself forward and snarled louder.

“No, Valerie,” Huntley appeared. “Go back to camp.”

“Why would she do that, when we’ve only just been reunited?”

“Who the hell are you?” Chase demanded.

“She knows me.” His voice was cool, filled with humor masking a tinge of threat.

“Change,” Huntley whispered to me, dropping my clothes on the ground.

~He collected them on the way out here. He smelled them.~

I knew he wanted to be able to speak to me in human form. He couldn’t understand me right now.

I shifted. Staying crouched behind them, I tossed the oversized dress over my head. I worked quickly to keep my eyes on the threat.

“Give her to me,” the scarred male said. “And I’ll leave here. No one has to get hurt.”

“We don’t even know who you are.”

“We’re not worried about you hurting ~us~.” Victor’s stance widened as he prepared to fight.

~This is what he lives for.~

Victor loved to battle.

“Hmm.” The interloper chuckled. “You will be.”

“I doubt that,” Victor retorted.

“I’ll ask again,” Chase said slowly. “Who are you?”

“I am your enemy. I’m why you built this lovely wall.” He looked around, as if inspecting the grounds. “It is a fine territory. Perhaps I’ll claim it after my pack kills yours.”

“Unlikely,” Chase sneered, undeterred.

“Give her to me,” the male urged. “And you can save the rest.”

“~That~, will never happen,” Victor asserted.

The intruder charged. Four more wolves materialized behind him. They all rushed toward us from several directions.

~There’s too many.~

But as the intruder reached Victor, Victor caught him and propelled him up over his head.

The large stranger thudded brutally to the ground on the path.

Huntley and Chase rotated to keep between me and the interloper.

The others raced in around us.

The three brothers put their backs to me. Caging me into a tight triangle, they clawed and snarled, expelling their rage on the intruders.

But they were getting injured. Several claws swiped perilously close to me but they moved their shoulders to take the gouges.

~They need help.~

I threw my head back and howled. A screeching cry for help.

The first one I saw, the fastest of our pack, was the Borders alpha. He was to us in seconds, throwing himself into the fight. Others joined.

Only a few remained in the heart of camp to protect the huts.

Chaos rained down on the path.

Blood was thrown. Long blotting drops coursed over all of us. But it triggered in me some subconscious response that despite my best efforts, I couldn’t control. I fell to the ground in a ball, holding myself as I watched between their legs. It was all happening again.

~They’re all going to die.~

~I’m going to watch them die.~

~No place is safe while I’m being hunted.~

“Get her back to her hut!” Our alpha roared.

Chase and Huntley yanked me to my feet, staying on the sides of me as they led me at a run back to my hut.

Chase pushed me in and rounded to go back.

“We’ll come back,” Huntley vowed, rushing away.

***

I stayed hidden in my hut trying to combat my entire body shuddering. Even my insides felt like they quivered. Like I could fall apart and dissolve into nothingness, any second.

Over time the screams faded, growing fainter and far between.

I waited in heart-wrenching suspense. I hoped the Faber brothers and the alpha and the others would be okay.

~No one died for me.~ I willed the heavens. ~Let them all be all right.~

“Well done!” the alpha shouted. “They’re on the run! Keep after them.”

I cracked my door and peeked out. The alpha slapped Chase on the back. “Well done spotting them and knocking them back.”

“The alpha got away.” Chase looked at the ground.

“We’ll find him. He has no way out.”

“He had to have gotten in somehow,” Victor said pensively.

Our alpha shook his head. “He’s here somewhere. Find him and kill him.”

Huntley crept to the door, whispering through the crack. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Did they cut you?” His tone was soft but serious.

“No.”

“Are you afraid?”

A tiny sob escaped me. “Is it my fault?”

“How could an attack on our whole pack be your fault?” Huntley’s face pinched in concern.

“He said he wanted me.”

Huntley sighed, quiet for a long moment. “We’ll figure it out.”

Though I had no reason to, I believed him.

Huntley jogged to catch up to the other males. “Who is he?”

“He’s the alpha of the Roamers,” our alpha answered.

My gut sank.

They were the worst pack in the Free Woods. A rogue pack who hunted other wolves, slaughtering one pack after another.

~And I brought them to the Borders Territory. ~

There was some tiny sense of solace in knowing who had tormented my nightmares.

~Who killed my family. ~

But beyond that, was the mind-blowing fear.

I listened until I heard them all converging into the camp again hours later.

“We can’t find him anywhere.”

“Keep looking!” the alpha commanded. “He has to be here somewhere.”

“It’s Old Martha’s foul tea. We can’t smell anything else,” a male shouted.

“He ran this way, he can’t have gone far. Have Huntley find a damn track!” another male said.

“He’s looking. He’s circled back three times. It disappears at the edge of camp,” Chase said.

“It can’t just disappear!” our alpha said.

“It’s like he vanished,” another male supplied.

“If there was a track, Huntley would’ve found it,” Victor’s voice cut through.

The alpha growled in frustration. The air became tight with his aggravation.

But hours went by.

The males returned and met with the alpha. “He’s gone.”

“Find the break,” the alpha ordered impatiently. “We need to secure the walls. Victor!”

I heard footsteps which matched Victor’s cadence. They walked with the alpha closer to my hut for privacy.

“You know as well as I do, that ~she~ brought them to our door.”

I grimaced, covering my mouth to keep quiet as my gut sank.

~He knows.~

“We’ll take care of it,” Victor said with a confidence that I certainly couldn’t echo.

“You damn well better. Sooner rather than later. But first, you get that girl mated. If you want her, get a claim on her before someone else does. Otherwise, she’s out.”

There was silence as the alpha’s words sunk in.

~No!~

“You’re lucky our pack doesn’t kill our own, not since the plagues. Otherwise, I’d damn well put her down myself. Because of her, our whole pack was endangered.”

“We drove them off.” Victor’s tone was steady.

The alpha sighed. “That you did, that you did. I don’t undermine that effort. But my priority must be the good of the pack. Not your individual happiness.”

“Understood.”

The alpha stalked away.

But I heard no other footsteps. Victor was still there on the other side of the wall. I felt a surge of heat against my hand on the wall and knew he’d put his hand to it from the other side.

He sighed. “You heard him, Valerie. None of us have a choice. Don’t hate us for it, when all is said and done.”