Beneath a Blood Moon (46 page)

If he attacked me, I’d tear into his hide and leave as many scars as I could as an eternal reminder of his betrayal.

Instead of running, I prowled closer, voicing my growing frustration and rage at my impotency as a low snarl. My mate echoed me, lowering his head to rip at the doe’s body. He ate, swallowing without chewing. Licking his muzzle, he regarded me with interest, the yellow in his eyes burning bright.

He remained rooted in place while I approached, careful to guard my throat from him. When I came within a stride of the doe’s body, he barked, a sound my wolf recognized as a warning.

Defying him, I sank my teeth into the doe’s flank, ripping away a strip of meat. I held it in my jaws, showing my fangs as I took my share of the kill and taunted him with it. He ducked his head, his ears twisting back. Placing my paw on the body, I kept my gaze fixed on Sanders and, with a single toss of my head, swallowed.

He growled, low and deep in his chest.

I matched the way he flattened his ears back and barked at him. When he didn’t move, I jumped up onto the doe’s side, her blood soaking my red paws. Despite the added height, I couldn’t match my mate’s bulk. His snarls intensified, and he bared his bloody fangs at me.

All of my attention focused on his muzzle. I struck fast and hard, clamping my teeth on his nose and biting as hard as I could to punish him for his violence towards me. My mate howled his pain. Rage and aggression bubbled and burst through our bond before surprise welled up and washed over me. I released him and retreated to the doe I had brought down, snarling at him.

My mate’s nose bled freely from my bite. The skin knitted together in the time it took me to draw several breaths, leaving bare patches of skin. Aware I had his full attention, I snatched another mouthful of meat and swallowed it.

When I took my third bite of the deer, Sanders whined. I growled, considering him. At my wolf’s suggestion, I tossed my scrap to him. He caught the meat, swallowing it without chewing. The smothering sense of his need to hunt eased, and I stepped off the carcass, keeping the doe between me and him. I tore a larger strip from the animal’s shoulder and flung it in his direction.

Once again, he caught it, devouring my offering within moments.

My wolf seemed satisfied he no longer posed a risk, and heaving a sigh, I tried to figure out how to offer Sanders a deer larger and heavier than me. I hopped over its body, grabbed hold of one of its mangled legs, and jerked my body in an effort to pull it closer to my mate.

Aware of his gaze on me, I gave another yank, dragging the front quarters closer. I growled my frustration, released the deer, and whirled on my mate, snapping my teeth at him. Warbling in response, he lowered his chest and stretched out his paws in a bow.

Unamused by his invitation to play, I once again seized my deer’s leg and jerked my entire body in an effort to drag it to him. His tongue lolled out of his mouth in canine laughter at my feeble attempts.

I warbled a complaint and nipped his neck in rebuke.

He grabbed the deer’s leg and backed up, moving the corpse with frustrating ease. Howling my annoyance, I danced in place, pinning my ears back. After several warning snaps of my teeth, he stopped teasing me, turning his full attention to his breakfast while the rising sun painted the forest with crimson.

The days stretched and flowed into each other. When the stench of humanity grew strong and harsh in my nose, we delved deeper into the forests, skirting around the places people gathered. Sanders headed west, chasing the sun and hunting for something, although I had no idea what he sought or why.

The black expanses of highways worried him, and bemused, I was forced to nip and cajole him across when the cars came few and far between. Headlights stirred his ire, as did the rumbling sounds of engines, so similar to the growls of rival wolves.

My wolf disliked the number of roads we were forced to cross.

I learned to avoid my mate when he hunted anything larger than a rabbit. The wild beast within him was stronger when more challenging prey appeared. When I earned the kill, I abandoned it for him to savage, waiting at a respectful distance until his lust for blood and slaughter eased. Only then was it safe for me to approach and take what was mine, snarling at him until he relented and gave me my share.

When he earned the kill, I waited with the regal dignity of a queen, expecting him to lay his kill at my paws. I never ate enough to fill my belly, saving most of the meat for him.

Even then, my mate lost weight, and his coat thinned and turned ragged.

The moon was half full and shrinking each day when we reached the great river, its opposite shore hazy in the distance. I fretted. With a single dip of my paw in the water, I realized swimming would be dangerous. I warbled a complaint, turning to my mate.

He nuzzled my neck, and I leaned against him. Sighing, he headed upstream, pausing to consider something in the distance.

A bridge stretched the expanse of the river, and I cringed at the number of headlights crossing the waters in early evening gloom. I echoed his sigh and considered the river once more.

It would be cold, but so long as we didn’t drown, we would dry out. My wolf didn’t like the idea of being trapped so far above the water with so many cars and neither did I.

I warbled, snapped my teeth at the river, and dove in, swimming for the opposite shore with my head lifted as high as possible. Strong currents pulled at me, but I fought them in my effort to reach the other side.

My mate howled behind me, and moments after my haphazard entry, he splashed in behind me. Less than a quarter across, I envied his greater size, which let him cut through the water with ease. I snapped my teeth in frustration, angling downstream so the current would propel me along.

By the time I reached the halfway mark, my breath froze in my lungs and my legs refused to move quite right. The first time I submerged, my fear suffocated me more than the water. Panting and whining, I broke through the surface. Adrenaline surged through me, and I redoubled my efforts to reach the opposite shore.

If the cold and the weight of the water in his fur bothered him, my mate showed no sign of it. He grabbed me by the scruff, dragging me beside him as he plowed his way across the river. When he surged up the shore, he carried me in his jaws. I tucked my paws and tail, whining at the bite of the cold wind whipping off the river.

Up the shore where stone made way for grass, Sanders lowered me to the ground, braced his legs, and shook, sending water flying in all directions. My entire body shuddered, but I managed to rise and mimicked the way he shook the water from his coat. Draping a paw over my shoulders, my mate went to work licking my coat. I stood quietly for him, basking in his attention.

A light glared in my eyes. I lifted my head in alarm. My mate shouldered me aside, coming between me and the threat. I ducked my head to look beneath his belly.

The rumble of an engine agitated a growl out of Sanders. A car door slammed, and I whined again, huddling close to my mate. My wolf wanted nothing to do with humans.

The last humans we had met had hurt our mate.

“Well, well, well. About fucking time,” a male stated, his tone amused. I drew in a deep breath. The exhaust fumes stung my nose, but with a bit of work, my wolf identified several human scents.

Sanders snarled at the human’s approach and barked once in warning.

The man halted. “Right nasty little blighter, aren’t you?”

I growled.

“Blighters,” he said. “Hey, Doug. Were there supposed to be two of them?”

“Nah, one,” another male replied, stepping into the glare of headlights.

My mate kept still, his chest rumbling with his every exhale.

“There’s a small one with him.”

“Wolf? Dog? Small what?”

The man crouched, peering under my mate to stare at me. I recoiled, baring my fangs. “Never seen a wolf with that sort of fur before. Not a dog, either. Pale coat, dark socks, looks like it has a stripe matching his. Puppy, maybe?”

“Don’t think he’s been out long enough to have any puppies, Boss.”

Whining, I huddled next to my mate. Pressing his shoulder against me, he forced me back towards the river. When my back paw dipped into the icy water, I jumped and scrambled beneath my mate’s belly.

“My money’s on a female he picked up somewhere along the way, lookin’ at the way he’s guarding ‘er. Should make our work easier, so long as we don’t come across as a threat to ‘er,” the second man continued, crouching beside the first. “What do you think?”

“We could ask nicely and see if he decides to cooperate,” the first suggested.

“Are you fucking nuts? Were you even listening during the debriefing, Boss? He’s been a wolf for at least two weeks. I don’t think asking nicely is going to cut it, especially not if he’s picked up a wild bitch.”

I turned my ears back at the insult, and lunging forward, I snapped my teeth at the human.

My mate yipped, grabbed me by the scruff, and yanked me back. Through our bond, his growing fear and anxiety spurred me into digging at the rocks in my effort to attack the thin-skinned human. I don’t know what frightened my mate, but if he didn’t like the humans, I’d protect him. I snarled and snapped my teeth in frustration as he held me back.

“Ho, she’s a feisty little one, isn’t she?” the second asked, laughing.

“She? Did you get a look under her skirt?”

“Mating season. He’s guardin’ ‘er, sir. Really must be a little wild bitch he picked up. This’ll make things a bit awkward later, no? No wonder Alphas are almost always mated.”

I snarled at the thought of Sanders mating with anyone other than me, my souring mood tempting me to rip both humans apart for the insult.

“Bloody hell, we better call it in. I guess I should be happy he didn’t try to bite our heads off when he first saw us.” Pulling a phone out of his pocket, the first man pressed something and held it to his ear.

My mate dropped me and chose that moment to run, darting by the males. Yipping my astonishment, I gawked at his departing tail. While I had seen him sprint during our hunts, I hadn’t realized quite how fast he could move. By the time I registered he had left me behind, he was gone.

“Fuck,” the first man snarled. “Grab her!’

I scrambled to chase after my mate, my heartbeat throbbing in my throat. Following in Sanders’s wake and infuriated he had run without warning me, I angled away from the two men.

A third human stepped away from the car, holding something long and slender in my direction. I sidestepped, skidding in my effort to dodge. Something looped around my throat, cutting off my breath. I stumbled and fell hard, unable to even yip.

“Damn. Nice grab, Stephanie.”

“Shut up and watch for the Alpha. I’d rather not get eaten today,” a woman hissed, jerking on the pole she held. The band around my neck tightened. I got up but only made it several steps before my legs gave out beneath me. “Where’d he go?”

“Don’t see him,” the one named Doug replied, flashing a light into the darkness. “Unreal how fast he moves.”

The first male sighed, rising to his feet. “Get in the car before he comes back. We tracked him once, we can track him again—or use the bitch as bait. Almost had him that time, too. Damn it! Fucking elusive, that’s what he is. Two weeks with no sightings, we finally catch up to him, and he gives us the bloody slip.”

Stephanie eased her way to me. My vision darkened, but I found the strength to bare my fangs at her although I couldn’t growl. Grabbing hold of my scruff, she rolled me over. “Muzzle,” she ordered. “Smallest we’ve got.”

“Use your hand if she’s so tiny,” one of the men suggested. Through the ringing in my ears, I couldn’t tell which.

“I like my hand and would like to keep it attached to the rest of my body. Faster you hand me a silvered muzzle, the faster I can get in the car and we can get out of here before he figures out we have her.”

I blacked out from the lack of air, and when I clawed my way back to consciousness, a silver cage was strapped firmly around my head. The leather circled my muzzle and held it mostly closed, although I could force open my jaws enough to pant with effort. My throat ached, and I felt the pressure of a collar around my neck.

Someone picked me up, and while I was awake, my body refused to obey me. I did, however, manage to whine. I was placed on the backseat of the car, and they clipped my collar to the seat, preventing any movement.

The woman, her scent rich with satisfaction, sat beside me in the back. “Maybe we didn’t get our target, but damned if she ain’t a pretty little wolf.”

“Maybe the other team up the road’ll grab him,” the leader of the group replied. “Quiet while I call this in.”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“This is Howie, sir. We got a visual, but he gave us the slip. If he’s wild, he’s not bad off. Didn’t attack us and ran at the first chance.” There was another pause. “No, sir. Seems he picked himself up a bitch along the way. Pretty as a picture, though a bit on the small size. Black? No, sir. She’s white with red socks, tip of tail, ears, and muzzle. Has a dark stripe down her back a match for the Alpha’s. We caught her when she went to follow him. Stephanie nailed her with the capture pole. We decided it might be best to wait it out in the car in case he came back for her.”