Embracing the Wolf - Book #2 (Anna Avery) (18 page)

Just behind her, Sage, Elle, Rachel, and Chloe stepped through the trees. Now that I was paying attention, I could hear more people coming. I guess I wasn’t hyperaware when lost in my own thoughts. I’d have to learn to juggle the two things.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re all itchy,” Rachel said, coming toward me. “Sage suggested we go for a swim, said it helps calm her down during the full moon.”

This would be Chelsea’s first full moon. I remembered how anxious I’d been during mine—feeling my wolf pushing forward, but not breaking free. It was uncomfortable at first and sensual. The brush of our beast beneath our skin amped up our already sensitive sex drives.

“How are you doing?”

Chelsea hugged her arms to her chest and then let them fall to her sides, only to cross them again. Yeah, she was anxious and revved up. Her curly brown hair blew back with the breeze.

“I’m trying to get used to it, ya know? I mean, up until two weeks ago, I didn’t even know stuff like this really existed, and now I’m living it.”

I nodded. “I felt the same way when it happened to me. I even refused to believe they were werewolves, even when Joe stripped in front of me and transformed. I was convinced it was some sort of parlor trick.”

Chelsea smiled at me. “How long did it take for you to come to terms with it?”

I snorted. “I think I’m still coming to terms with it, but I accepted it after about two months. It’s scary, I know, but it’s also pretty damn cool. The Everwood pack is great, and we’re lucky to be part of their pack. Some of the other packs aren’t as laid back.”

“Turning me into the live-in maid doesn’t seem that laid back to me.”

I laughed because I’d felt the same way when I was the live-in maid. Everyone pulled his or her weight in the pack. It just happened that newbies pulled a little more.

“I wholeheartedly agree with you on that one. It sucks, but you have Elle and me to help you out whenever you need it.”

Chelsea’s smile disappeared. “I could never ask one of my alphas for help. This thing inside of me quivers anytime we’re around one of you, like its scared or something.”

I frowned, remembering how I felt being around Adam and Eve. Our wolves respected their alphas, and now I was one. It was bizarre.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I don’t want you to be afraid of either one of us.”

“Chelsea, you wanna help me with this stuff?”

We both turned to see Elle carrying a big cooler with a radio balanced on top. Our eyes met, and she looked away. The little shun hit me in the gut. Elle was the first wolf to befriend me when I came to the mountain. I hated that I had snapped at her.

“You stay here,” I told Chelsea. “I’ll help her.”

Walking over to Elle, I grabbed the radio right before it fell off the cooler. “Hey, sorry about last night. I was a little moody.”

“A little? You were on the verge of paranoia.”

I gave her a small smile. “Yeah, sorry. Grace under fire, I am not.”

Elle’s eyes widened, and she set the cooler down, reaching for my left arm. She brought my hand up and examined my new ring.

“Holy shit, he proposed?”

I nodded, a wide smile stretching my lips. “Last night.”

Chloe came up beside us, her eyes glaring at my new, sparkly accessory. My smile grew bigger while my inner voice said,
Take that, bitch.

“Has Maggie or Donald seen this?” Chloe asked.

“Not yet, but I’m sure you’ll scurry off and tell them the good news.”

Chloe growled, her anxious wolf coming to the surface. Elle gasped, stepping in front of me. As her alpha female it was her job to protect me, but after getting a dose of Adam’s power, I was capable of ripping her head off.

I stepped around Elle and allowed my own wolf to surface. A menacing snarl ripped from my lips as I stared the jealous Chloe in the eye. It was a challenge. Whoever looked away first bowed down to the other. There was no way in hell I was backing down from this tramp.

“You have something to say to me, Chloe?”

“You bitch,” Chloe snapped. “You don’t deserve an alpha, let alone an olde blood. I was the next in line.”

That brought me up short. There was a line of mates for Adam?

“Looks like you’ll have to keep waiting.”

“What’s going on?” Adam’s voice boomed through the space. Everyone fell silent as he approached us.

“You’re marrying this mutt?” Chloe spit out. “You’re going to taint the Everwood bloodline with this whore.”

All I saw was red. My vision blurred as rage consumed not only me, but my wolf, too. My fist was sailing through the air before I realized I even lifted my arm. My knuckles connected with Chloe’s nose, a sickening crack sounding. She screeched, her hands coming up to cradle her bleeding nose.

“You bitch.” She charged me, but Adam’s arms banded around her waist. He threw her off, and she landed on her ass five feet in front of me.

“You are a guest on my mountain, Chloe,” Adam growled. “And you come here and insult my choices and mate? I want you gone by sundown. Tell my parents their plan backfired.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chloe said incredulously. “You’re really going to pick her over me, a pureblood wolf from a respectable clan? You’ve lost your fucking mind.”

One of the scariest growls I’ve ever heard traveled out of Adam’s lips. Chloe had the decency to flinch and lower her eyes.

“Say one more thing … I dare you,” Adam challenged.

Chloe shook her head with a snort, turning and running through the forest. Adam turned to face the group. His hands fisted at his side, and his chest puffed up from anger.

“If there are any other mother fuckers who have a problem with Anna, I’ll give you two choices: leave my mountain, or step up and get your ass beat. Anyone?”

Heads shook all around, people amped up from the fight and the coming full moon. A lot of orange and yellow eyes stared back at us. It was eerily beautiful.

“Good,” Adam said. “Let’s have some fun.”

* * * *

“I thought you said Chloe batted for your team?” I asked Elle. “I’ve never heard of a gay person having bad gay-dar.”

Elle splashed water in my face. “I have excellent gay-dar, thank you very much. A blind person couldn’t miss the way she eye-fucked me the night she arrived.” Elle flipped onto her back and floated. “I think she’s bi, though, and I’m sure Adam’s parents used their powers of persuasion to coerce her into going after Adam. The Everwoods are nothing if not persistent.”

I thought about that for a moment. Adam knew what his parents were up to if his words to Chloe had any truth in them. I guess it wasn’t a secret; I mean, Maggie did dote on Chloe while looking down her nose at me. It didn’t matter that she was a vile woman. Maggie only cared about the blood running through her veins. I was done listening to any plea Maggie threw my way. I would not allow her to make me feel bad about Adam’s and my relationship. Her desperate attempts to get me to run had more to do with getting me out of the picture than it did with the safety of her son. I still had my doubts and still entertained the idea of how much safer Adam would be if I weren’t here to distract him, but I couldn’t fathom leaving him either. Then the vision of his dying body popped into my head, and leaving didn’t seem so bad if it meant he would be safe.

It was a vicious game of tug-of-war inside my head, one that would only produce losers. If I left, we would be miserable, and if I stayed, I was a liability to his life. If worse came to worse, and another attack happened, Adam would put himself in the line of fire to save me, just like he had at the ceremony. I knew when the shit hit the fan Adam’s mind would be focused on my wellbeing alone. In that state of mind he couldn’t look after and direct the pack like he’s supposed to. And I knew he knew this too, because when the pack was planning to take down Eve and Anthony’s secret bunker, he’d forced me to go to California with Elle. He knew if I stayed, he couldn’t do his job, not with a clear head anyway, and having cloudy judgment in the face of danger is a one-way ticket to the grave. 

I floated in one spot, kicking my legs and swaying my arms through the cool water. The lake was full of people, all rough housing. There were a few people playing a game of chicken and a lot of flirting going on. The full moon brought out our friskiness. I watched the scene, remembering the last time I’d been here. I searched for Sawyer, but couldn’t pick him out of the crowd. Maybe he wasn’t even here. This was our lake, the spot we’d skinny-dipped at before we gave into our desire and slept together along the shoreline, and Adam had witnessed it.

I pushed the thought aside, it was a memory best left alone. My eyes flitted along the tree line. I didn’t understand how everyone could be so blissfully blind to his or her surroundings. Why wasn’t anyone else worried about the attacker from the ceremony? You’d think a pack of wolves would be ready to hunt the son of a bitch down. Then another thought occurred to me; maybe Adam didn’t want to draw attention to it. Was it because it would clarify how fragile our bond was, or because he wanted to appear strong and in control? Either way, I couldn’t see the landscape without looking for movement of a second attack. If what Wade thought was true, and we were dealing with a vampire, then we were safe during the day, right? I was getting my facts from movies and stories; maybe vampires weren’t allergic to the sun or garlic. Hell if I knew. One thing was for sure—as soon as the full moon was over, I was buckling down and figuring this shit out.

With so many wolves, we had to break people down in seven different teams. Each pack picked a designated Leader, and together they took down their meal. The Everwood pack stayed together, and now we feasted on a moose. I lay with my paws outstretched, a chunk of raw meat before me. My tongue slipped out and licked against my bloody muzzle. Adam lay beside me, busy with his own piece of the moose. We were deep in the mountains, tall pine and birch trees surrounding us. The cover of leaves and needles was so thick; the light of the full moon couldn’t penetrate the coverage. The darkness was an opaque shroud veiling us. I knew a human wouldn’t stand a chance of navigating through the inky oblivion.

In the distance, one of the packs howled. Adam was instantly on his feet, quirking his head to the side. The rest of us followed suit, tilting our heads to gauge their distance. Wolves howl to communicate with each other. Its instinctual and universal for every wolf. When another round of howling echoed through the tall snow-covered mountains, Adam’s voice filled my head.

“
Do not wander from my side, Anna. Stay close, and follow my instructions to the T, understand
?”

Whatever had the other pack riled up wasn’t good. Their calls warned of a threat, and I had a sneaking suspicion it was the same person who had shot Adam.

“
Anna!”
Adam growled when I still hadn’t answered him.

“
Understood
.”

“
Good
,” he replied and then began ordering the rest of the pack. “
I don’t know which pack that is, but it sounds like it’s coming from Trigger Lake. Joe, do you agree
?”

Just then another round of howling bounced off the mountains and trees, and then another pack joined in, singing their warning to the rest of us.

“
I can’t be sure
,” Joe said. “
It sounds like it’s coming from all around us
.”

He was right. With the way the mountains amplified their howls, we couldn’t be sure which direction the pack was.

“
We should split up
,” I added.

“
I agree with her
,” Joe said.

It took Adam a split second before he too agreed with my decision. “
Anna, you’re with me. Joe and Asher take eight wolves each. Joe head south, Asher west
.”

They got to work at picking their teams. I made sure Elle and Chelsea were with me and because Chelsea was with me, Wade was, too. It gave me peace of mind to know that he was looking out for her. Together, we ran through the mountain. I kept pace with Adam, flanking his right, while the others flanked me.

Another round of howls filtered through the trees.

“
Stop.”
Adam’s voice filled our heads, and we all halted. His head swiveled around, his body turning in a circle as he took in the landscape.

“
That one was close, but there’s something else …”
He lifted his head in the air and sniffed. A deep rumbling growl vibrated up his throat as his lips curled over sharp teeth. “
Stay close, Anna. The rest of you fan out
.”

“
What’s going on
?” I’d just asked the question when the stale scent hit my nostrils; the same scent I had smelled the night of the ceremony. There was someone or some
thing
close. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as my eyes roamed over the inky darkness. There was a small clearing, enough to allow the glow of the moon to illuminate a portion of trees. The rustling of leaves drew my attention to the left, but I couldn’t decipher if it was the breeze or something else.

“
Up ahead
.” Wade’s voice filled my head, taking me by surprise. I was still new to this alpha thing. I suspected that only my pack could talk to me while in wolf form, but now that Adam had pledged himself to me, making me an alpha, I was open to all other alphas telepathically.