Cold Mercy (Northern Wolves) (24 page)

“Drop it, little human.” The voice came out rough, crackling like branches snapping under the heat of fire, but she saw the healing claw marks on his face and arms. It was the same troll that had fought with Bay at his house. The same one that had nearly killed them both. “Drop it and the puppy doesn’t get hurt.”

Her gaze darted back to the wolf.

“Or maybe Bali should go after your friend.”

The wolf’s head cocked and he took a side step towards the house, his jaws opening in a mocking grin. Even if Kennedy got to one of her guns, there was no guarantee a bullet would do anything more than piss one of these creatures off. She’d seen the beating Bay had taken and then healed. Eden opened her hand and let the bar of iron fall to the ground. “Fine.” She looked back at the troll. “What do you want?”

A car honked in her driveway just as Eden heard Kennedy shout. Her heart leapt in her throat, but she never saw what happened next. A blanket of black fur covered her face, followed by pain, as teeth snapped through her shoulder and dragged her to the ground. Red blood smeared the snow.

After that, everything went black.

Chapter Seventeen

Bay circled Quinn’s car one last time. He’d definitely been alive when he’d been taken. Part of him had hoped otherwise, had hoped he was wrong, but as wolf, he felt more certain of what had happened than he had as a man. Morrigan had claimed another and he knew she’d changed this one too. Another wolf to feed her. Bay’s tail swooshed over the snow as he stared off in the direction the scent trail led, right towards the heart of Mercy Pass.

Still, he’d been thinking of this for awhile. He couldn’t be the only one who could figure out how to control this. His wolf wasn’t a monster like he’d originally thought. The woman who called them was, but the wolf was very much like the wild animals that roamed these forests. The beast thought more like a natural wolf than it did a monster.

That had to mean the rest were like him too. And if he could just show them how to escape, or find them when they turned human each morning—if they were like him in that regard—then maybe he could help them. Strip her of her power one by one. He doubted she’d let that carry on for long, but maybe he’d be able to get enough of them on his side that they could fight her.

Doreen Bast didn’t think much could kill the Fae queen, but she’d also said she hadn’t seen a wolf do what he’d been able to do. Maybe a pack of them could kill this bitch. He’d been able to hurt her troll. Why not Morrigan herself?

Still, if Quinn had been changed, there was a chance he’d wake up tomorrow morning in his own bed. The safest course of action would be to wait and see. Then try and get Quinn on his side. But safe didn’t mean right. He was just guessing here and another night might be the death of Quinn.

They couldn’t afford to play that game, but as much as Bay wanted to check Morrigan’s territory on his own, Eden would never forgive him. Not that his wolf agreed with the promise he’d made her, and the animal whined unhappily at the thought.

She was pack, but his wolf didn’t like the thought of bringing her along. Being human meant she was vulnerable where the wolf wasn’t. Too easily harmed. Bay shook his head and turned back towards Eden’s house, trotting over the snow. It didn’t matter. A promise was a promise.

Maybe Doreen Bast could find the girls more iron to carry.

A frozen tree trunk lay across the trail and Bay hurled himself over it, crunching into the deep snow as he landed. The wolf moved through the forest easily, his long stride crossing the distance without breaking a sweat. Wolves were made for traveling fast and for covering distance, and the winter wolf was even more so inclined. Despite his size and the heavy snowfall of late, Bay moved through the forest like a ghost, floating amongst the trees, not slowed by the rough terrain at all.

He crossed onto one of Eden’s more familiar trails and picked up speed, her scent strong here, along with the dogs. He could follow its looping spiral straight into her yard, or cut across the woods. Bay angled himself directly through the woods though, knowing they were all waiting on him with little patience or hope, when the musky scent of wolf touched his nose.

The same wolf that had taken Quinn.

It jarred him to a stop and he bent his head, sniffing over the frozen ground. The scent was recent and the wolf hadn’t come alone. The stench of troll burned up his nose as he breathed it in on a snarl. Then he heard the soft screams in the distance, panicked, and Bay launched into motion.

“Eden! Eden!” Kennedy was screaming and Bay dug in, galloping straight towards her house.

The dogs bellowed from their chains, furious, and Kennedy was running across the yard as he broke through the trees, a rifle slung over her shoulder. He could smell the iron in her hand as he raced toward her. She skidded to a halt, swinging the gun over her shoulder when Bay jerked to a stop, turning away and shifting as she lifted the gun to sight down the barrel.

“Kennedy!” he cried out, his arms lifted into the air as he hunkered down, his back to her.

“Oh thank God,” she said and Bay turned to see her tossing the gun back over her shoulder and running towards him. Rowan was sprinting across the snow towards him as well, her grandmother several paces behind her.

“What the hell happened?” But even as he asked the question his gaze was scouring the yard for Eden. Blood spotted the snow near the dogs and his entire body clamped down on the pain searing his heart. He spun on Kennedy with a growl, catching her as she stumbled into him. “Where is she?”

Her whole body trembled next to his. “They took her. A black wolf and a troll.”

“Bali,” Doreen panted. “The alpha of Morrigan’s pack, remember?”

Bay let Kennedy go, his wolf roaring up inside him, wanting free again. The enemy had come onto his territory, taken a member of his pack, his
mate
. And he’d be damned if he let them get away with it. “What would they need her for?”

Bay’s hands clenched into fists, only to feel a sharp nick of pain in his palms as his half-turned claws dug into his flesh.

“If she’s woken the omega, then as a sacrifice.”

Bay gave the old woman a hard look, fury burning a hole inside his heart. “They’ll kill her?”

The words came out on a hard growl and Doreen flinched. “That’s if that’s what they wanted from her.
If
Morrigan made her last wolf.
If
—”

He didn’t care to hear the last of her damned ‘ifs’. Morrigan had taken Quinn and everything inside Bay screamed that’s what she’d wanted him for. To make another wolf. Since she’d taken Eden next, Bay didn’t need to do anymore guessing than that.

“Stay here.”

“Bay—” they called out, but he was already gone. In a rush and crackle of bones, Bay moved from man to wolf, sprinting towards the forest. Fury seethed through his veins, driving him forward. He heard them shouting behind him, but Bay didn’t slow. They didn’t know where to find Morrigan and hopefully that lack of knowledge would keep them safe.

As for Eden, Bay would make damn sure she wasn’t hurt. She was his to protect, to cherish, and to hold. No one would touch her. That roar that roiled deep in his belly finally burned its way out of his throat, dark and menacing as it filled the forest. The few birds that had lingered throughout the winter scattered from their snowy perches in the trees, panicked cries bleating from their beaks.

In the end, when his roar tapered into a howl wrought with challenge, the winter wolves answered him. Some behind him, still coming in from different directions. It wasn’t quite dark enough to be nightfall, but Bay didn’t doubt that Morrigan could call her wolves even before they’d slept. They’d probably think they were just blacking out during the day, losing more and more of their time to whatever sickness they’d convinced themselves they had.

Bay was about to change all of that. His claws dug into the icy pass as he hurtled himself over rocks and falling trees. Not bothering with the trail, he scaled the mountainside, leaping onto ice slick boulders with a confidence borne of terror. He couldn’t afford to slip, so he didn’t. Desperation guided his instincts until he landed on the flat curve of a road and bolted across it, into the small grove beyond. Morrigan’s place.

He passed the lonely strip of road where he’d swerved, going too fast on too bad of a road that night, and had wrapped his car around a tree. He could see now that Morrigan hadn’t had to drag herself far to find him. And she had dragged herself. She’d said he’d woken her, and Bay no longer had any doubt there. His pain, his presence, all that blood, it had called her to him. She’d fed from him and then brought him back to life as one of her own.

The trees cleared around him as he emerged into the little grotto Morrigan used. She lounged on the stump where she always sat, her long white gown trickling down to her toes. She bobbed her feet in time with some inaudible beat only she could hear. But it wasn’t her feet Bay stared at. Eden lay on the ground before Morrigan, her arms tied behind her back. She had blood smeared across her shoulder from a bite wound and she stared up at him, eyes wide with pain.

To one side of her quivered a small white wolf, and on the other side, at Morrigan’s hip, was a black wolf even bigger than Bay. It was the black one that curled back his lips in a show of force. Dominance. The wolf took a step forward and Bay knew who he looked at. Bali. Morrigan’s little alpha pet. He felt his wolf crumple inside him, wanting to give way, but Bay wasn’t here to fucking cower.

He was here to save the one woman who meant everything to him.

Bay paused, the hair down his back lifting like spikes, and he felt his tail curl over his back, bristling. His wolf wanted to sink into his skin and whimper. The wolf was tormented by instinct, by old memories that insisted that this black wolf, Bali, ruled here. But Bay the man knew nothing of that. All he knew was that Eden lay in the snow bleeding in front of him and he’d be damned if he bent his head and submitted without a fight.

They’d have to kill him first
. The vicious noise that rumbled out of him at that thought vibrated through every inch of his body, it corded through his every muscle and fiber until it had filled him with fight. He’d stood here before and done what no other wolf of Morrigan’s had done before:
left
. Broken her hold over him.

Now, he was going to stand here and
fight.

The small wolf bent his head, a keening whine sounding from him as his jaws opened inches from Eden’s skin, and whatever restraint or control Bay still clung to snapped. He flung himself over Eden, a roar on his lips, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually bite down on the other wolf. Everything inside him screamed not too, his muscles clawing with the urge to comply with the rampaging need to protect his mate and the woman he loved, versus an instinct that demanded he couldn’t hurt this one.

Bay’s jaws clamped down on air, snarling and seething as he angled his head, just a hair above the other wolf’s. He heard Morrigan’s soft inhale, felt her surprise as surely as if it’d been his own emotion. The other wolf flinched, but his eyes still lingered on Eden with such hunger that Bay wanted to rip him apart. His wolf refused though.
Not in this body.

But before he could think about what that meant another wolf slammed into his side, white fur blurring his vision. Another nipped at his flank. Bay launched himself into the roll, landing on his feet, only to spin and lash out at his attackers. In a flurry of fur and fang they danced, writhing on the snow. Teeth scored his skin, tearing easily through his flesh, but with every attack, Bay retaliated. He launched himself into the frenzy, spinning, twisting, all the while his own fangs reached out to taste blood.

Finally, the first two wolves lunged out of range and Bay leapt back to Eden. He landed standing over her, shielding her body with his. He heard her panicked breathing, but he also knew she was doing her best to find a way out of this. She wasn’t the type of woman to lie there and expect him to rescue her. Which was good, because as six wolves circled in tight around him, he was hopelessly outnumbered and the sooner she got to her feet, the better off they’d be.

Fur touched his hip and Bay whirled to snap. But something jerked his jaws back before he could crunch down on the face of the wolf next to him. He moved to snap again, but his muscles refused to cooperate. He’d ripped open every other wolf that had come within range, but he
couldn’t
attack this one.

Bay growled, but this time the wolf made no move for Eden. Instead he stepped up alongside Bay and snarled at the pack closing in. Instantly they shuffled backwards. Nervous, the pack glanced away, their tongues snaking out over their lips in a sign of deference. They couldn’t hurt this one anymore than Bay could. And no matter how badly they wanted at Bay, with the little wolf beside him, they couldn’t bring themselves to attack. Bay wanted to laugh. Now wasn’t that just helpful.

“No,” Morrigan hissed and Bay felt something pull him back, like magical fingers wrapping around him, he was jerked backwards. He spun, teeth flashing out to catch her skin when a troll thundered behind him. Branches shook as Bay hit the ground, rolling. Sticks snapped free of the trees and skittered over the ground in the force of another roar, but this time, the troll swept aside the smaller wolf, sending him spinning out over the snow.