Chasing Seth (3 page)

“Especially because I’m white,” he said bitterly. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Don’t worry, Chessie. I’ve already had that hammered into my head by the sheriff. He came in with an emergency last night. One of his horses was having a difficult birth. The foal had turned. He almost walked out and didn’t want me to treat the horse because I’m white. Make sure you send him a bill for the emergency call.” He spun on his heel and stomped to his office. Just when he’d thought that maybe things might work out here, it turned out to be a town full of closed-minded bigots.

The rest of his day went by smoothly. Most of the appointments were for annual shots, and thankfully, none were serious enough to require him using his ability. The last appointment left at just after five, and Seth sank down in his desk chair with relief. Bullet immediately put his head in Seth’s lap, whining to be petted. Seth’s hand dropped down on the large silky head, and he idly stroked the dog behind his ears. The customers who had been in that day were, in fact, wary of him. It left him baffled at how they could all believe that he knew nothing about animals. He’d spent eight years learning about them. He might be young, but he knew his shit.

The intercom buzzed just then. “Doc, I’m going to be leaving for the day. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, but thanks, Chessie. Have a good night,” he bid her.

“You too, Doc.” He could clearly hear the concern in her voice, and maybe he should be worried as well. If all of the clients in the area refused to come into his clinic, he’d go bankrupt for sure. He’d put all of his money into this place. The thought left him more resigned than panicked. Bankruptcy would only add to the weight already on his shoulders.

Bullet whined again, bringing him from his thoughts, and then the hackles on the back of the dog’s neck stood up. He started growling, crowding close to Seth. Seth’s heart started to pound. The dog would never attack a human, and there had only been one other time that Bullet had reacted like that. Looking around wildly, he looked for a weapon, anything he could use, but there wasn’t really anything in his office. Standing, he peered out into the dim hallway while Bullet kept tugging on his pant leg to try and stop him. “Bullet,” he reprimanded quietly.

The dog let him go but stuck close to him as he walked toward the front of the clinic. Eerie silence met him in the front lobby. Chessie had locked the door behind her, but Bullet didn’t stop growling. He merely grew fiercer. Seth carefully turned the lock on the door and pulled it open, bracing himself. The parking lot sat empty except for his car. Eyes darting in every direction, he took hold of Bullet’s collar, locked the door, and started toward his vehicle. “It’s okay, Bullet,” he murmured, trying to reassure himself more than the dog.

His hand had just settled on the door handle of his car when he heard a sound behind him. A small scream lodged itself in his throat as he whirled around. Bullet let out a vicious bark, crouching low beside Seth. Blessed relief flooded Seth when he saw the sheriff. He slumped against his car, shushing Bullet. “Evenin’, Sheriff,” he said, cursing the quaver in his voice.

The man stopped, frowning. He could see fear lurking in Seth’s eyes. Was he afraid of him, or was something else going on? “Doc,” he replied stiffly. “Something wrong?”

Seth shook his head quickly, probably too quickly when he saw the dark gaze narrow at the edges. “No, it’s nothing.” Bullet’s hackles were still raised, and his eyes were trained on the sheriff. “You just scared me is all,” he hedged.

Kasey stared at the man in front of him. He’d long ago learned how to smell a lie, and the vet was lying. Kasey’s eyes scanned the area around them, but nothing stood out. Fear rolled off the other male, tangible and harsh. Kasey scowled mentally at the almost protective feeling that struck through him at the thought of someone hurting the dark-haired doctor. “You certain, Doc? You seem kinda jumpy.”

“I’m sure,” Seth stated quietly. Bullet was no longer growling, but the dog never once looked away from the sheriff. Seth started to turn but stopped, looking back at the man who’d dominated his thoughts the night before. “Good night, Sheriff.”

Bullet almost didn’t want to get in the car, and Seth had to force him. “What is wrong with you, Bullet?” he muttered as he started the car, very aware of the sheriff still watching him pull out of the parking lot. What was the sheriff doing there, anyway? It seemed strange for the man to just show up outside his clinic without a reason.

Chapter Two

Kasey
watched the car’s taillights disappearing down the road. His hands clenched at his sides. He’d unconsciously walked toward the clinic. Something about the other male drew him, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. He was angry about the clinic being taken over by a white man who couldn’t possibly understand the ways of his people, but it pissed him off even more how often Seth Davies entered his mind. Yet the way the man handled the horse the night before had been so gentle, and the horse seemed to calm almost immediately. When he’d seen those small, fragile hands trailing over the heaving sides of his horse, his mind imagined them gliding over his body and touching him. His cock responded to those images in his mind, and that left him angrier still.

With the night growing later, anxiety nipped at Kasey to head into the forest. He’d found his mate. Three nights ago, he’d been unable to resist the urge to run in his wolf form and had entered the forest at his usual place. Not long after, he’d caught the most delicious scent. A scent that called to him so powerfully his cock swelled and the nerves just underneath his skin twitched in excitement. An underlying sweet scent of cinnamon and blood brought him to a clearing where a beautiful black wolf rested under a tree, a mostly decimated hare lying nearby. He had only observed at first, but the sheer joy of finally finding his mate had sent him cautiously into the clearing.

His joy turned to dismay when the wolf picked up his scent and immediately bristled in terror. He could clearly see the lithe, muscular body and the black fur quivering nervously in the moonlight flooding the small field. His mate hadn’t recognized him and had bolted, crashing through the bushes into the dense forest. Kasey had given chase, but he had lost the wolf in the overgrown brush.

Each night since, he had returned to the forest, hoping and praying his mate would return. His heart ached that he might have missed his only opportunity to capture his mate. He tried to imagine what she would look like in human form, but the stubborn image of the new veterinarian in town kept straying into his mind. Impossible! He’d never been overly attracted to another male, and the vet did not smell like his mate. He felt certain of it. Besides, even if his mate did turn out to be a man, there was no way in hell his mate would be white.

He started back to his truck, intent on getting to the clearing and looking for the black wolf. His mother had told him that she’d taken Samantha to see the doctor, and he’d told her the dog suffered from nothing more than a mere case of upset stomach, but Kasey knew something was wrong with the dog’s heart. His powerful sense of hearing alerted him to the irregularity of her heartbeat. But when he’d smirked at the misdiagnosis on the vet’s part, which reinforced his opinion of how little white men knew about animals, he’d listened to the dog’s heart again. Only this time there was a difference. Her heartbeat sounded steady and even. The smirk had slowly faded to be replaced by disbelief and confusion. Somehow Samantha’s heart defect had disappeared.

Julian, his pack mate, claimed he was getting senile in his old age and he hadn’t really heard anything wrong with the dog’s heart. He’d promptly walloped the pup on the back of the head. He was positive the dog had a heart murmur, one that would eventually have been fatal. Pride kept him from demanding answers from the dark-haired vet, but he knew something had changed since the visit to the doctor.

It was close to midnight by the time he reached the forest, and he swiftly shifted to his wolf form, eager to find his mate. Nothing could ever compare to the joy he felt as a wolf. He’d never really questioned why he’d been lucky enough to be born wolf, but he’d spent many hours researching his people. The world’s definition of werewolves was so skewed that Kasey could hardly believe how the legends had changed from life, light, and acceptance to horror, death, and blood. Their kind didn’t mutate and reshape like it was depicted in the movies. The magic caused them to take on another form by mere thought, their clothing hidden along with their human form by the gift of their kind. There was no tearing of cloth, no painful transformation, and certainly no brutal attack on humans. Only the Created ones who lived as animals, by instinct and hunger, were likely to kill a human. His kind didn’t tolerate the Created in their territory. They were either run out of town or, if they refused to leave, tracked and put down by the pack Enforcer. 

The clearing where he’d first come across the wolf wasn’t far from where he’d parked his truck, and it only took a matter of minutes to reach it. He lifted his nose into the air, scenting the sweet cinnamon smell of her dark fur, but his hopes were dashed when he found no fresh trail. Warring with himself internally, he debated whether to stay or go, eventually choosing to wait for just a little while longer in case the black wolf did show. He settled his lean, muscular form beneath a tree to wait.

Kasey knew that other wolves existed in the world. There were other packs dotted over the United States, all of Native American descent, but another kind of wolf roamed the earth, a kind that was like a disease upon the land. They were the Created. A wolf changed, not born. From time to time one of the Created came to their town and the pack would do whatever necessary to protect themselves and their secret. The Created were an abomination and not to be trusted.

The legend of the Created ones began with their ancestors thousands of years ago. One of the first wolf shifters was mated to a human, a non-shifter who could only stand by on the full moon and watch as her mate ran with the others. Saddened by his mate’s pain at being unable to join him, the wolf prayed to their gods, seeking a way to change his mate to become one of them and grant her the ability to shift. Many moons passed before his answer came, but the winds whispered for him to be careful, for he could lose his mate to the nature of the beast inside. The first Created one was born of the life’s essence running through the true wolf’s veins and the seed from his loins exchanged on the night of a full moon.

Over time, the Created one began to show signs of the wolf’s instincts, and the human side was slowly buried beneath the cunning and agility of the beast. Her aggression toward non-shifters, lack of interest in anything more than hunting and running among the trees, and eventual attack on the human mate of another made the true wolf realize his mate’s animal nature was taking over, just as the winds had warned him. When his Alpha instructed the pack Enforcer to destroy her, his soul cried to the heavens, begging their gods to forgive him. With her blood upon his head, he took his own life, unable to bear what he’d done to his mate. A new pack law was passed forbidding the conversion of another non-shifter, and any who defied the law were put to death along with the Created one.

Kasey couldn’t help but wonder if it was possible his mate was one of the Created. His heart lurched at the thought. What if she was? What if that beautiful black wolf had originated as human? He gritted his teeth, refusing to believe it.
Never
, he thought fiercely.

The sound of something brushing past the low-hanging branches and through the shrubbery of the forest floor reached his ears. They perked forward as his shrewd gaze peered into the darkness around him. Soft, happy panting sent his heart into overdrive. He didn’t move, merely waited for the wolf to come to him. When it entered the clearing, he saw it come to a stop, scenting the air. Dark-blue eyes settled on Kasey lounging beneath the shadows of the tree. The wolf bared its teeth and started backing away.

Kasey stood slowly, trying to show he was harmless. A low whimper issued from Kasey’s throat as he lowered his head, peering up at the other wolf. The wolf didn’t seem to notice the subjugation in his actions and continued to growl while moving further from Kasey.

He wouldn’t lose her now. Some wolves never found their true mates, and he wouldn’t let her go, no matter what. He began to walk toward the black wolf that was so similar to his own form. His heart leapt when the wolf stopped, watching him carefully. But when he was within a matter of yards from the other wolf, it turned and ran.
No
, he shouted in his mind, and he gave chase.

Fear wafted off the other wolf in waves, and Kasey wanted nothing more than to comfort and soothe his mate. It broke his heart that she feared him. Kasey knew these woods like the backs of his hands, knew each and every turn, every path and canyon. So when he saw the wolf turn toward one of the cliffs that looked out over a rushing river below, horror flooded him. The black wolf didn’t seem to realize the danger. Kasey let forth a warning howl, but the other wolf ignored it or didn’t understand his call, merely pushing herself faster. Terror gripped him tightly inside when he saw the black wolf struggle to a stop a little too late and go tumbling over the edge.