Savage Smoke (19 page)

“Trevor, we’ll stay in wolf-form. I think the females will either take to us or chase us off. During a first wolf-shift, all appetites are on high, hunger and sexual. Either way, we can be a distraction and draw them away long enough for Dir and Damen to free Jasmine.”

Trevor stepped beside Chance, and just as they moved forward, another raging howl hit them from behind. It thundered at them as if amplified. He recognized Smoke’s cry to arms, he’d heard it enough in the past.

Olivia stood and howled a challenge. The females also stood, growling and snapping, some even howled as they tripped over each other, directionless. Chance noticed Olivia’s shaky stance and wanted nothing more than to run to her, but instead, stayed his ground between her and the approaching Smoke.

Chance turned to face the enemy as did Trevor. Dir and Damen shifted, moving to complete the line of defense between Smoke and the females.

“He’s alone, why?”
Trevor communicated.
“This smells like an ambush.”

But he wasn’t alone. Bliss in wolf-form followed behind him at a short distance. Chance wondered what her plan was or if she even had a plan. Or maybe she’d been part of Smoke’s pack from the beginning.

“What the hell is she doing with him? What’d they do with Lindsey?”
Trevor leaped forward at a dead run toward Smoke.

Chance ran after him, and Dir and Damen sprinted to cover Chance’s left and right flank. He heard the females’ howling frenzy, and their panting, growling approach from behind. Smoke’s own little army of innocents, soldiers going into battle for the first time and not understanding any of it, only the raging appetite of hunger and sex.

The fury inside Chance rose to a lethal capacity. His Alpha wolf, on instinct, took over and rushed ahead of Trevor. He caught the top of Smoke’s neck with his fangs, throwing them both into a wicked tumble.

“How does it feel to want to off your brother, brother?”
Smoke’s infected voice entered Chance’s mind.
“Pretty good, aye?”

Rage and anger exploded inside Chance, nothing could stop him. He opened his jaws to get a better grip and Smoke sprang away. In a split second, Dir, Trevor, and Damen all surrounded Smoke, until the seven females attacked them with unsettling ferocity. Chance looked around for Bliss and spotted her standing back, off to a side, watching. She saw him and gave him a head nod. For what? He turned in the direction of Olivia. She stormed at them in a crippled rush. Her limp couldn’t be missed. Chance moved to intercede, but distance wasn’t in his favor. As if in slow motion, Bliss jumped up and ran toward Olivia. She body-slammed Olivia to the ground and lay across her, as if holding her from the battle fray. Chance stopped in front of her and shifted.

“Shift, Bliss, or I attack. Olivia, my love, don’t you dare shift or move for that matter.” Chance kissed the top of Olivia’s furry head, noting the battle raged on only a mere fifteen yards behind them. Bliss shifted, but continued to sit on Olivia’s back.

“I need to know your game with Smoke. Whose allegiance do you hold?” Chance pulled her up from Olivia and held Bliss by the neck. She did nothing but stand still with his hold on her neck, Olivia’s body sprawled between Bliss’s spread feet.

“I’m with Lindsey,” Bliss choked out. Chance released her throat, but his hand remained wavering in front it. “I believe Smoke is my primal-mate. I understand what he’s done in the past, but have reason to think he’s a changed Alpha.”

“You’ve got to be shitting mad to think Smoke can be anyone’s primal-mate,” Chance snapped. “Why would you think that?”

“Because we mated and I’ve never felt the way I feel about him with anyone else, and believe me that list is long. I know he feels the same about me.” Bliss met Chance’s stare, eye to eye, as if acknowledging the truth of it. “He has yet to mark me, though. Smoke spoke of you to me before deciding to come here. His want is to make peace with you, his brother.”

“His brother!” Chance grabbed her throat again and gave her a shake. “My brother is dead.”

Bliss choked and Chance pushed her back, releasing his hold. She fell to the snowy ground behind Olivia. “He also told me he would help you round up the rogues if he could make a deal with you for amnesty,” Bliss whispered, rubbing the front of her neck.

Chance gasped, stunned at the balls of the whole Bliss-Smoke mating thing. What the hell? Primal-mates, something rare and precious and it held the Elders utmost protection, especially were/were primal-mates. This turns everything inside out. Criminals like Smoke just didn’t suddenly turn into good guys…ever. Then he noticed the heavy impact of silence and turned.

The females, tongues hanging out and panting, stumbled over to lie beside Olivia. One or two of them even licked her face as they moved to lie next to her. Smoke sat on the ground, blood dripped from his mouth and his neck appeared matted with it, so did his front legs. Trevor, jaws snapping toward Smoke, lay beneath Dir and Damen.

“Everyone, shift,” Chance directed to the men, “we have to talk. Now.”

All of the men shifted, and still Dir and Damen needed to hold Trevor back from Smoke, who looked a bloody mess. He faced the three with a lurid grin and chuckled.

“Trevor, stand down. You aren’t the only one who wishes to wipe Smoke from the face of the earth, but it isn’t our judgment to make. We would be no more than he by not allowing the Elders to enforce their rulings.”

A loud roar followed by a second pulled everyone’s attention toward where Jasmine still lay captured in the trap. Her responding snarls sounded grueling, nothing like the furious battle cries of the two huge grizzlies charging her.

“Shift, now…all of you!” They were already running when Chance gave his order, and they all shifted in mid-stride.

Bliss

Bliss watched the scene unfold and as much as she wanted to join their effort against the two grizzlies, she chose to stay with Olivia, knowing how important this woman was to Lindsey, and Bliss meant to keep her safe.

Bliss had been familiar with the Kodiak-weres in the area, and recognized the two challenging each other over the captured wolf. They didn’t run in packs like wolves, but once in a while a couple of males would hole up together with the mutual agreement of protecting each other, many times along with a female. A natural ménage seemed customary with them. She didn’t worry about these two hurting anyone. In fact, quite the opposite.

Olivia struggled to rise. Bliss in human form straddled the back of Olivia’s wolf-form, holding her to the ground, but Olivia’s determination added strength to her escape. Bliss slid off backward, landing on her ass. Olivia didn’t run, instead she stood her ground as Smoke approached. His gait seemed good, even as bloody as he looked, and a sudden urge burned through Bliss for his touch.

Olivia snapped her jaw and her hind haunches crouched as if to lunge. Bliss quickly leaped in front of her. “Don’t do this, Olivia. You would put your pack at more risk than they are already with two grizzlies to contend with.” Even though Bliss knew the two Kodiak-weres as only gentle and passionate, she’d use fear of them to tame Olivia. “Half would stay with the injured female to fight off the bears and the other half would be here, trying to fend off…him.” She pointed at Smoke, who chuckled, and then became solemn, even thoughtful, but his gaze, a brilliant amber eye and a shadowed pearly eye, sparked off a sensation like mini explosions igniting her entire insides.

“Bliss, will you stay here or join me?” Smoke waited for a moment and then added, “I could use someone like you to lead me back from the dark-side.” He reached for her hand, and his touch sizzled across the underside of her skin, carrying a pulse of heat straight to her core. She melted into him, pressing herself against his heated body.

Olivia yipped.

Bliss looked down toward the wolf and recognized the confused state Olivia must be in at that moment. Her wolf ears pointed forward, twitching, head tilted as if in question, and her rear settled into a sit position as she studied Bliss and Smoke.

Bliss turned back toward Smoke. “I will come with you, but give me a moment alone with Olivia. Please.”

Smoke kissed her forehead and broke away from her. He took a few steps away, shifting into wolf-form. The war between the bears waged on, and Bliss noticed two of Chance’s pack in human form worked to release the injured wolf from something, like maybe a trap. She never did get a good look at what was going on, if the wolf had been attacked or if she got caught in a trap. Chance and Trevor, plus the female wolves, had surrounded the bears, waiting out what appeared to be a battle…maybe to chase them off?

Bliss bent down to eye-level with Olivia. “Please stay safe Olivia. Lindsey is safely tucked away in one of the caves along this ridge, but will need food and more warmth to survive.” She looked over at Smoke, who patiently waited. “I can’t explain this feeling I have for Smoke, but I know you have it as well for Chance. You would do anything to make sure he survives and flourishes. I want Smoke to survive this and recognize the goodness still within him. Olivia, I know I would never fall in love with a man who could not redeem himself.” Bliss patted Olivia on the head. “And tell Lindsey…I love her and wish her well with Trevor. She’s as beautiful outside as she is inside.”

Bliss quickly shifted and followed after Smoke, knowing she had just made a decision that would change her life forever.

Chance

Chance watched as one of the giant grizzlies swiped a humongous claw that spanned almost the size of its head at the other, which stopped them both about ten feet from Jasmine, and their personal battle ensued. Dir and Damen rushed passed Chance, and he allowed it. Chance knew they would shift into human-form to save Dir’s mate. Trevor stood beside him watching the battle of the bears.

The bears stood, stretching close to ten feet-tall, one a bit taller than the other, and faced each other snarling and growling, claws spanning like huge razor sharp fans. Chance didn’t sense them as being hungry for food, quite the opposite, as evidenced by both of their hard-to-hide erections. He came to the realization these weren’t simply grizzlies, their size alone should have given him a clue. It reminded him of the stories he’d heard about Kodiak-weres and the battles between males to be the first to claim a female, only there wasn’t a female were-bear here to claim. What the hell?

“Holy shit on a stick, what the hell’s going on here with those two?”
Trevor’s voice erupted inside Chance’s head.
“You think they have a thing for each other and this is foreplay?”

Chance lifted his snout to get a good whiff of the air to see if he could scent a female Kodiak-were near them. The strongest arousal in the air came from Jasmine; most likely stimulation overcame her while watching her mate in battle. Then it came to him what the bears’ intention must have been. He watched all of the female newly-shifted wolves and their interest in these bears. Like a light-switch flicked on, their attack mode dropped away and their sexual appetites filled the air with their lusty need.

“Good gods, Chance, are you seeing what I’m seeing? Those females are stinking up the place with their over abundant drive for sex. Holy damn lust. Look at the boners on those bears. I’d be scared shitless if I were a female wolf. Dang, maybe I should be scared, too.”

The bears stopped, both snorted, sniffing the air.

“You’re sounding a lot like our Jase, with those ‘holy’ words.”
Chance shoved his side into Trevor.
“Not really sure how this is going to play out. I don’t scent any female bear around.”

The bears look around at the seven female wolves surrounding them. Thankfully, Jasmine got set free.

Damen trotted up beside Chance, back in wolf-form.

“Dir carried Jasmine into the forest. It won’t be hard scenting them out, as aroused as they are, like two rutting beasts,”
Damen stated.
“Where are the others? Olivia, Bliss, Smoke?”

Both he and Trevor turned back toward where they’d left them. Adrenaline shot through Chance as he noticed Smoke and Bliss gone…and so was Olivia. Then, as if a waft of fresh air slid over him like a soft blanket, he caught her scent and scanned the area.

“I’m here, Chance, resting near a tree to your south. I’m attempting to calm the sexual tension between the bears and the wolves. Trevor, I could use your help. Not sure the two of us can stop it from happening. I can feel the bears wanting to shift. They know the wolves are were-wolves.”

“Olivia, did Bliss tell you where Lindsey is?”
Trevor interrupted.

“Yes, she’s safe in one of the caves. Now hurry over here.”

Chance immediately ran in the direction Olivia indicated. He knew the others followed him.
“Whatever you do, Olivia, you must not shift out of wolf-form. Please, promise me you will not.”

She didn’t respond. He saw her lying beside a tree, way too near the bears and wolves for his liking. He recognized her in concentration mode. All her inner communications stopped and walls formed that kept him and the pack out when she became so focused. He wondered if she was even aware of the limitation she put on them when she did this.

Trevor sidled in beside her. Chance jerked his head at Damen, directing him so they’d station themselves around her. The bears noticed them, looked at each other, and shifted into human-form. He’d never seen a Kodiak-were before, only heard of them through others or reports to the LIIA. In the reports, they actually came across as more of a teddy bear type, gentle, keeping to themselves, more love and less war, unless protecting one of their own, than things could get ugly.

In human-form, they both stood well over six feet, bulging with muscle like heavy weight champions, pronounced arms, thighs, and calves, and not an ounce of fat anywhere. Dark brown hair hung to the middle of their thick-corded backs and both toted a pretty full beard. Their erect cocks, larger than any Chance had ever seen, jutted up from their swollen sacks. They stood back to back, as if on display, waiting for the aroused and curious females to be drawn in, or maybe they did this to call in a female, like a mating dance.