Saved by Wolves (Shifters Meet Their Mate Book 1) (10 page)

“Do we have a plan for our trespassing kidnappers yet?” Marcus asked.

“Kill them,” Jackson said, steel lining his voice.

M
onroe mewled and tried to jerk away from Marcus’s hold. Marcus yanked him back and forced him to his knees next to Lash. “We can’t just kill them,” Marcus said.

“I can,” Jackson said, glancing from Lash and Monroe to Kirra and back again. “Easy.”

“Okay, you could. But you shouldn’t. The treaty—”

“No one would know.”

“Vincent would probably notice if his son doesn’t report back,” Marcus said. Jackson didn’t look convinced, and Marcus glanced up at the sky, perhaps hoping inspiration would strike like a bolt of lightning.

“You can’t kill them because it’s not protocol,” Kirra blurted out.

All four men’s heads swiveled toward her in unison. 

“Protocol?” Jackson folded his arms and his brows pulled in.

Unsure how she’d once more ended up in the position of arguing to save the life of a man who’d kidnapped and threatened to kill her, Kirra nevertheless forged on. “Yes, protocol. According to your laws, any trespasser must either be taken into custody and brought before the alpha for judgment or be granted amnesty, which can be done at the discretion of the enforcer.” She was paraphrasing, but knew she was close enough when Jackson’s eyes narrowed in recognition and annoyance.

“Listen to her,” Monroe whined. “You can’t kill us. It’s not protocol. And it’d break the treaty!” He fairly screeched the last.

Lash shot him a disgusted look. “Shut up, or I’ll kill you myself.”

The sharp smell of ammonia filled the air, and Kirra covered her mouth and nose, trying not to gag.

“Damn it.” Marcus shoved Monroe to the ground beside Lash and danced backwards. “You almost pissed on my foot!”

“I couldn’t help—”

Jackson cut Monroe off. “I’m not dragging his sorry ass all the way to the alpha.”

Busy inspecting himself to make sure he was urine-free, Marcus nodded. “I agree. Kirra’s right, though. We can’t kill them. It would be in cold blood, Jackson. We don’t do that.”

Lash dusted his hands together. “Then I guess you have to let us go—grant us amnesty—the way the lady said.”

Ha. He’d gone from calling her an animal to a lady in a matter of minutes. Maybe Lash was part politician.

Grinding his teeth so hard she could hear it, Jackson jerked his head to the side. “Leave before I change my mind. And, Lash, if you cross into our land again, or come near Kirra, neither your father or the treaty will save you.” Jackson caught Lash’s gaze and held it.

Lash didn’t even blink. “Same goes.” He turned around, presenting them with his back, and strode off. Kirra wasn’t sure if his display showed guts or bravado. At the edge of the tree line, he turned back. “We’ll see you in Blue’s Hollow.” He laughed when Kirra started at the name. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out where you were headed. Our alpha will be there too, you know. It should be interesting, to say the least.”

Monroe scrambled after Lash, keeping his body angled to the side to keep an eye on them until he caught up with his partner.

Leaning close to her ear, Marcus dropped his voice. “How’d you know about the amnesty thing?” 

“Oh, uh, your gran loaned me a book—Half Moon Wolf Pack History and Laws—and I read some of it last night when I couldn’t sleep.” She’d only intended to read the section on mating, but got caught up in the fascinating history of the Wolf shifters. By the time she’d finally closed the book, hours had passed and she’d burned through two candles. There were still a few chapters she’d wanted to read, so she’d packed the book with her things. She’d return it when—

“The book!” she exclaimed. “It’s in my pack.” She clambered over the hillside, searching for any sign of her belongings. “We need to go after them and find out what they did with my stuff,” she said, jogging in the direction the Cats had taken. They’d already disappeared from sight.

“It’s okay,” Marcus soothed, resting a hand on her arm to slow her down. “We—”

“It’s not okay.” She yanked her arm away. “You don’t understand. Everything’s in there—money, ID, things that can’t be replaced!” Getting good quality fake IDs was getting harder every year. She didn’t even want to think about the nightmare of having to replace the ones in the pack, especially as she’d been carrying Francesca’s as well.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something fly through the air, heading straight for her. In reflex, she jumped back just as her pack landed at her feet with a thud.

“We found it a mile back,” Jackson said as she fell to her knees and rummaged through the pack’s contents, breathing a sigh of relief when her fingers slid over familiar pouches and papers. 

“Thank you,” she breathed, securely cinching the pack’s flap.

“Mmm hmm.” Jackson barely spared her a glance. Maybe he was still ticked off that they wouldn’t allow him to kill Lash and Monroe. She had a hard time believing that, though. He was hard as steel, sure, but she couldn’t see him killing anyone in cold blood. As Marcus had said, that’s not who he was.

Jackson met Marcus’s eyes and jerked his head to the side. “Follow them. Make sure they don’t double back on us.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Marcus protested. “Monroe’s no threat, and Lash... well, Lash is a prick, sure, but he’s always been an honest prick.”

“Make sure. And make sure no one else is out there.” There was no arguing with the tone of Jackson’s voice. “Their alpha wants Kirra. He may have sent others.”

Marcus ran a hand through his hair and shot her a worried look. “I hadn’t thought of that.” He took a few steps toward the trees, then came up short, swinging around to face them. “Where will I meet up with you guys?”

“On the trail to Blue’s Hollow. Where else?”

Kirra’s breath caught in her throat for a second. “You’ll take me there?” she said, swinging her pack over her shoulders.

“Yes,” Jackson muttered as he watched Marcus, back in Wolf form, leave. “I don’t have time to chase you down again.” He tugged on his pants and picked up two packs that were resting at his feet—she guessed one was Marcus’s—before urging her forward, up the hill. “Let’s go.”

E
ither the man knew how to hold a grudge and dish out the silent treatment or he had forgotten she was following him. Jackson hadn’t said a word to her in hours. Kirra tried not to take it personally. He hadn’t asked to be dragged into her mess, and she couldn’t expect him to understand where she was coming from. Really, she should be happy he was escorting her to the Shifter Council and not press the issue. That would be the smart thing to do.

Still, the silence weighed on her like a blanket. Maybe Jackson felt it too. Maybe he just didn’t want to be the first to speak. Maybe he thought it would signal weakness on his part or something macho like that. Would it signal weakness to him if she broke the silence?

Pressing her lips together, Kirra climbed over a deadfall and crunched through a pile of dead leaves, deliberately scrunching them underfoot. The noise earned her a brief annoyed glance and narrowed eyes. She smiled innocently in response. He grunted and turned back around, forging through the tangle of thick underbrush that blocked their trail. At least she assumed he was following some sort of trail. There was no path, and no markings of any sort on the trees, so for all she knew, they could be headed in circles. The only hint she had that they were headed roughly northeast was the occasional glimpse through the trees of the mountain range to the north.

Time and the silence dragged on. The sun was high overhead, and the heat didn’t help her mood. Even with the trees providing shade, she was sweaty in her tee shirt and jeans. Jackson should have gone after the Cats instead of Marcus. Marcus wouldn’t have held a grudge. He didn’t have it in him. And even if he was ticked off, he still would have spoken to her.

She’d never minded silence before. In fact, she could go for days without speaking to anyone other than Francesca and not even notice. No one had ever actively ignored her before, though. When she was Blackstone’s guinea pig in the lab, if there’d been any silent treatment going on, she’d been the one instigating it. It drove the researchers nuts when she wouldn’t respond to their questions and orders.

Silent treatment couldn’t break her. She could last as long as—

“How long is this going to go on?” she blurted out.

Jackson swung around and frowned. “At this rate, it will take another two and a half days to get there. Maybe three.”

“No, not that.” She waved her hand between them. “This. How long are you going to give me the cold shoulder?”

For a second, she thought he’d deny knowing what she meant, but he crossed his arms across his broad chest and met her eyes squarely. “I was thinking,” he said.

“About what?”

“Not what I should have been thinking about. I should be worried about telling the alpha we may have broken the treaty and will likely be at war with the Cats. I should be figuring out how to explain why we did this for a human and why he shouldn’t throw you to the Cats as a peace offering. And I really should be thinking about what I’m going to do when Marcus and I are kicked out of the pack.”

She’d never heard him string so many sentences together before. And his accusations weren’t fair. She stopped him from killing Lash and breaking the—

He took two steps toward her, and she backed up at the fire in his eyes, coming to a stop when her the heel of her boot hit a tree trunk. He planted a hand on the tree, right above her left shoulder, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper. “That’s what I should be thinking about.”

Kirra lifted a hand to ward him off. It ended up resting on his chest, above his heart. His heartbeat pounded against her palm. “Surely your alpha will understand once we explain the situation.”

A harsh laugh was his answer. “Explain the situation? I don’t even know what the ‘situation’ is. And right now I don’t care.”

“I understand you’re upset, Jackson, and I’m really sorry you had to fight Lash and that other Cat because of me, but—”

Jackson shook his head, cutting her off. He braced his other arm on the trunk, effectively caging her in. 

***

S
he thought he was upset because of a little tussle with the Cats? Frustration and anger roiled through Jackson, spiking when Kirra gazed up at him, acting innocent as a mouse right before it was taken down by a house cat. He took a long slow breath, trying to control his temper and slow his raging heart rate. It didn’t help.

“You ran off in the middle of the night without telling anyone where you were going. If we hadn’t followed you, you could be dead.” A crushing weight pressed down on him at the thought, leaving him lightheaded. He gritted his teeth and focused.

Frowning, Kirra tapped her fingers against his chest. “Okay, I admit it. It was stupid of me to go off on my own. But in my defense, I thought this was Wolf territory. I had no idea the Cats would track me here. And I really need to talk to the council.”

If she was trying to placate him, she wasn’t doing a very good job. He traced a finger along her throat, following the raised red welt that Lash’s claw had left. An inch deeper and...

Ducking her head, Kirra swallowed hard and her lips parted. Under his touch, her pulse picked up, and her breath came faster, deeper. He nudged her head back up and met her eyes, reading uncertainty, wariness, and desire in their depths. And trust.

The combination did him in.

She could have died. The thought was unbearable. He’d never allow such a thing to happen again.

Mine. The word reverberated in his head, crowding out all other thoughts. His Wolf howled in agreement, urging him on.

She was meant to be his. 

He crushed his mouth down on hers.

P
arting her lips at the urging of his warm, questing tongue, Kirra arched into Jackson’s touch. She attempted to wrap her arms around his neck, but pressed against the tree, with his arms and body still locking her in place, the angle was awkward. She settled for hooking a leg around the outside of one of his hard thighs and rubbing her lower body against his.

Lust rose in her, sharp and unsettling in its intensity. She was shivering and throbbing at the same time. It was the kind of overwhelming, crazy lust that she’d thought a fairy tale. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to give herself over to Jackson, let him lead her.

His lips broke from hers, and she heard a strange groaning sound of protest, realizing in shock that the sound had come from her. She opened her eyes, which had somehow closed, and met Jackson’s searching, questioning gaze.

He was waiting for her. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for her to make a decision.

Kirra didn’t want to think. She wanted to feel.

Holding his gaze, she nodded.

In seconds, her shirt was shoved above her breasts and the front clasp of her bra was undone. The shoulder straps of her pack meant she couldn’t take either off, but it didn’t matter. Jackson knelt at her feet, running his large hands over her sides, careful not to disturb the bandage, and up and around her breasts, cupping their weight. They looked small in his huge palms, and a flash of self-consciousness hit. Were they too small? She’d never cared about her breasts or lack of before, but what if he was used to ...

Warm lips captured a nipple and tugged, and she arched her back, her panicked thoughts fading away in the face of the pleasure shooting straight to her core. He moved between her breasts, licking and sucking, lavishing equal attention on each one.

Knees weak, Kirra clutched at his bicep for support. His teeth grazed her nipple, and she cried out, thrusting her hips forward. She was wet. Ready.

Jackson released her nipple and grasped her by the waist, swinging her into his arms and striding back down the trail in the direction they’d come from, not hindered at all by the fact he was carrying her and three packs.

Arms looped over his shoulders, hands clasped together behind his neck, Kirra peered over his shoulder. “You’re going backwards,” she said. What she really wanted to ask was why he’d stopped kissing her. Why wasn’t he inside her already?