Claiming His Fate (8 page)

“What happened in there?”

Numbers shook his head. “Like I said, I heard Pup scream so I searched him out. When I tracked him to the freezer, all hell broke loose. That bartender went all Tasmanian devil on my ass. Fucker was faster than I thought. I don’t know what made him stop, but one second he’s all berserker, trying to knock the shelves down on top of me, and the next, he’s out the door.”

“Where’d he go?” Gates asked.

“No clue. I didn’t track him. There’s no handle inside the freezer, so I had no way to get Pup out. I figured you’d be around as soon as you realized we were gone.” He shrugged, his eyes drawn to our fallen brother. “The shift back to his human form didn’t help with the bleeding. I did what I could to keep the kid alive.” 

I looked from Numbers to Gates. “You think the bartender’s the man-eater?”

Gates raised his chin. “Most definitely. He’s got that crazy nomad vibe about him. And he’s definitely more dominant than Morris. It wouldn’t surprise me if the bartender is the one running the show while Morris is the face of the operation.”

I nodded and watched the prone shifter, looking for any sign of life as a lead weight settled into my gut. 

“This is my fault.”

Numbers didn’t respond, but Gates’ head jerked up. I didn’t give him a chance to question me.

“I left Pup to take care of my mate, but I never checked in with him to see why he’d left her alone. I was too caught up in”—I waved my hand around, searching for the right words—“lust. I fucking failed him.”

Gates snorted and shook his head. “The mating pull is more than lust, Rebel. It’s a connection not easily ignored or severed. If you want to place blame, you should look right at me. I knew he failed his assignment, and I had the opportunity to look for him, but I didn’t. I chose to clear the club instead. I put the humans in front of my own club brother.”

“I’m just glad you two pulled your heads out of your asses and came looking for us.” Numbers frowned, but his eyes glinted with mischief. “I was starting to feel like a fucking Popsicle in there.”

I chuckled. “We’re a couple of sorry fucks, you know that, Gates?”

“I do.” Gates nodded and straightened the tubing a bit. “But at least your sorry ass found his mate. I’ve waited near four hundred years and still haven’t found mine.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Scab and Shadow came bursting into the kitchen. 

“The basement’s empty, boss.”

“Good. As soon as Pup is well enough to travel, we’re taking him and the girl to the Fields. Blaze’s Cleaners can come back and deal with whatever the fuck is going on here.”

“The girl’s gone,” Shadow said.

My blood ran cold as I turned to face him. 

“The basement's empty, Reb. No humans, no wolves. Nada.”

I heard Gates curse before my wolf exploded in my mind, leaving little of the man behind. I was a roaring, slobbering beast as my body transformed from one being to another. There would be no slow shift, no easing into my wolf form. Hatred fueled my change, and that shit burned deep and fast. Bones and limbs reformed almost instantly until I stood on four paws.

“Rebel.” Scab blocked the door. The only way out. The only way to my mate. My growl deepened and the hair over my shoulders stood on end as I answered his challenge. 

“I'll stay human until we get outside, and then we'll search as a group, brother. We need to find her and get Pup the fuck out of here.”

He moved out from in front of the door and I took off. My paws padded across the floor, my claws clicking on the tiles. I kept my nose to the ground as I followed Charlotte's trail through the back hallway. When I reached the door to the changing room, I charged through it. The resulting crash echoed in the tiled space as pieces of wood flew in every direction.

There. Her scent was concentrated near a particular locker. It must be hers. But on the air I also smelled her fear and the scent of another wolf. One I recognized. The brawny motherfucker with the blood on his hands. His scent mixed with Charlotte's and moved across the room to a fire door along the back wall of the building. Scab opened the door for me before I attempted to break through the steel slab. I darted across the parking lot. Scab and Shadow soon followed, the three of us racing through the night in wolf form. 

Heading straight for the woods behind the club. 

Heading straight for my mate and the man who’d stolen her from me.

NINE

Cherry

Stay calm, think fast, and don't let them take you anywhere.

The words from the vast number of self-defense classes I'd taken ran through my mind. I knew I was breaking the third rule by not fighting harder to stay in the club, but there wasn’t much I could do when I’d been thrown over his shoulder like a sack of vegetables. Once on my feet, I still didn’t run away. I figured as long as we didn't get in a car, I was relatively easy to find. I stomped my way through the trees, leaving as much of a path as possible. All anyone had to do was pay attention, realize I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, and follow the haphazard trail through the woods. Sounded easy enough.

But then we broke through the tree line and came upon a junked-out sedan parked deep in the shadow of the forest. There was no way anyone could see the car from the road. It had to be Caleb’s getaway car. Time to panic.

“Oh, hell no.”

I pulled against Caleb’s hold, punching and biting as he grappled with me. Screaming until my throat felt raw, I continued to fight against the hulking man, but Caleb kept pushing me forward. Each slide of my feet on fallen leaves brought me closer to the car, to the vehicle I knew would lead to my death. There was no way I was getting into that piece of shit alive.

On a particularly strong pull from Caleb, I used his momentum to leap forward and head-butt him in the chin. He stumbled and released his grip on my arm. I took the opportunity and ran the way we'd come, screaming as loud as I could. But Caleb caught up with me. He grabbed me by my hair and threw me to the ground with a roar. The force of the hit knocked the wind out of me and made my eyes water. But I wasn’t done yet. I clawed at the ground, inching my way across the forest floor, trying to breathe as Caleb started to…change.

His face lengthened into more of a snout than a nose, and dark hair sprouted all over his body. Bones and muscles shifted under skin in a grotesque way, making me gag even as I stared. 

“What the hell are you?” I backed away, crab walking until my shoulders hit a tree. Caleb kept changing, taking a full minute to go from human to not.

To wolf.

“Oh, fuck me running, this can't be happening.”

The wolf stalked closer, his eyes intent on mine, his head lowered. Hunting. I didn't know how I knew, or why his posture made me feel like prey, but I was sure that's exactly how he saw me. 

“Easy, buddy. I'm not going to hurt you.” 

He made a sound in his chest as if he was laughing, which didn’t make me feel any better about the possibility of what the wolfman had in mind. His eyes nearly glowed as they met mine, that creepy watery green color fitting in his gray wolf face better than his human one.

All at once, the Caleb wolf stopped, his head rising and his ears pricked. He sniffed, then growled and turned toward the path we'd come down. 

Another wolf, this one a bit smaller and lighter in color, rushed through the brush and ran straight at the Caleb wolf. The two met in the middle of the clearing, teeth bared and growls sounding through the dark. The two animals were a blur of flesh and fur and teeth, rolling and biting and growling as each one tried to get the upper hand—or paw—on the other. 

Lighter wolf was thinner, smaller in size, but fast. He whipped and spun, jumping over Caleb multiple times to avoid being bit. Caleb was the larger, heavier of the two. He used brute strength to knock the lighter wolf down whenever he could track the faster animal’s movements. It seemed a well-matched fight, though; each wolf bringing a different set of skills to the battle. Not that I’d seen many wolves fighting outside of high school biology.

It didn’t take long until the blood began to drip, but it was too dark and the animals were moving too fast to determine which wolf was the injured party. 

Hoping the wolves were too busy with each other to pay attention to me, I edged back and began sliding toward the path leading to the bar. I couldn't sit there and watch two dogs fight. I needed to get back to the club to find my keys and get the hell out of there. I stayed down, my butt on the ground, as I continued to leave the battleground. When I figured I was far enough away that I wouldn’t be noticed, I turned over to crawl down the path. Icy blue eyes and brown fur stopped me in my tracks. I was surrounded by more wolves. Large, furry, scary wolves. 

“I am so gonna die.”

The wolf closest to me made a noise like a laugh, similar to what the Caleb wolf had done. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the overgrown dog. 

“You don't have to laugh, you mangy mutt.” 

The wolf stepped closer and sat next to me. I froze, my back completely straight. The animal radiated heat and seemed friendly enough, but I doubted it would stay that way if I tried to run. The wold nudged me, his tail wagging in the dirt. Trying not to make any sudden movements, I settled on my butt and carefully leaned into the wolf at my side. Far away from the huge teeth I’d noticed. Then I watched the two wolves in the clearing draw more blood. 

When I pressed my hands into the dirt to adjust my position, something sharp stabbed my palm. “Ouch!”

Two things happened simultaneously—my hand dripped blood from where I'd pressed it into a piece of glass, and the lighter wolf turned my way, his blue eyes boring into mine. I knew those eyes, had seen that look earlier in the night.

“Abraham?” It was a whisper, barely a breath, but it was enough to distract him from the darker wolf. Caleb took two leaping steps toward Rebel and gripped his throat in his teeth. Rebel made a strangled sound as I screamed. A third wolf, this one mottled gray and black, jumped onto Caleb's back. The one sitting next to me streaked into the fray along with a fourth wolf who came barreling around me.

Within seconds, the fight moved farther toward the waiting car as two wolves battled with Caleb. Once the threat was pushed off to the side and obviously losing the fight, the wolf that had been by my side shifted into human form, sans the clothes he’d been wearing earlier in the club, and raced toward Rebel.

“No!” My scream stopped everything. Wolf and human alike froze as I scrambled my way to Rebel’s side. I turned to face the naked man I saw as a threat. “I won't let you hurt him.”

The man put his hands in the air. “I'm not here to hurt him; I'm here to help him. I'm Shadow, and I'm the medic of this group. Can you let me near him so I can check him over?”

I shook my head and backed up until I had Rebel nearly wrapped around my hips, my hands in the fur of his neck.

“Honey, I know you're scared. But Reb there is like a brother to me. I would never harm him. I just need to make sure he doesn't bleed to death.”

I glanced between the two, ready to protect the wolf I knew to be Rebel if need be. But the man crouching in front of me held my gaze and seemed forthright. I would have to trust someone because there was no way I could figure out what to do with Rebel’s injuries without a little help. After a moment of deliberation, I slid out of the way and signaled to the medic to move in. I quickly crawled to the other side of Rebel’s prone body.

“I swear, if you hurt him, I'll kill you with my bare hands.” I glared at Shadow in warning.

Shadow chuckled as he inspected Rebel’s wounds. “Threatening a defenseless, naked man. Looks like boss man found himself the perfect mate.” He glanced up and winked. “That would be you.”

“What do you mean, mate?”

He paused, his face going blank as he stared at me. When he finally spoke, his voice was a little softer.

“I think I'll let Reb explain that one to you.” He finished checking Rebel’s injuries and once again met my gaze. “Are you hurt anywhere? I can smell your blood but it doesn't seem to be much.”

I waved him off. “I'm fine; I just cut my hand.”

He nodded. “Okay. Well, Reb should be able to shift in a few minutes. He needs a little time to heal up first. Scab, wanna make a run back to the club for my clothes and to check on Gates and Pup? I think we’re covered here for now.” Shadow backed away slowly as one of the other wolves took off for the club, leaving Rebel and me in a relative amount of privacy.

“So that's what you meant by mine, huh? It's some kind of animal equivalent of love at first sight?” I wrapped myself around the wolf at my side, hoping to offer him the warmth of my body as he healed. “Good luck with that; I’m not really a fairy tale kind of girl.”

I scratched my nails through his fur and hummed a hymn I remembered my grandmother singing. And I waited for the man who believed he was my mate to come back.

TEN

Rebel

I floated in the clouds, an angel’s song playing in my ears. The words wrapped around me in the warmest embrace—so soft, so sweet. Even the strongest dose of The Draught couldn’t have brought about that level of calm. I had to be dead. And though I hated the thought of leaving everything behind, at least the Heaven I’d found was one of peace. I hadn’t experienced that sensation since my turning in seventeen ninety-two.

Gentle fingers ran through my fur, offering comfort where once there was only irritation. For the first time, I felt completely at home in my wolf body. There was no inner battle between man and beast, no power play between the two aspects of my being. Each side settled in the presence of our personal angel. 

I took a deep breath, tasting the sweet smell of my angel on the air. My wolf wanted to roll in the scent, carry it around in our fur. But as I attempted to curl onto my back, a sharp pain in my neck stopped me. My peace evaporated, the clouds floating away. Apparently I wasn’t dead after all.