The Alpha's Daughter (26 page)

Jazz wagged her tail and grinned. The human
Mate saw it, too. First Law. Pack comes first. Griz needed a mate
for the sake of the pack.

This pack was weak. This pack needed strong
mates to make strong pups. Strong mates, strong pups, strong pack.
Every wolf knew this. Except stupid man/wolf/bear.

Jazz looked up at the Mate. Her ears rose in
question.

"If you want him, fight for him," the Mate
said and then she looked behind her at the Alpha who now stood with
his head and tail hanging lower than they should. "Go now, before
your human comes home. I don't know how much longer he can hold the
magic tonight."

Jazz understood. The magic that transformed
her came from the Alpha's power. He would bring her home; transform
her back to human before exhaustion overtook him.

She took off at a run in the direction Griz
had taken. The pain in her foot had lessened to a dull throb. It
wasn't enough to slow her down. She felt the others running through
the woods around her, but none of them followed her. They were
enjoying their freedom and still celebrating the pack's victory
though none but two had stepped forward to fight.

Eventually, she slowed to a trot. The forest
was a different place at night, no less alive, but quieter. Does
would bed down their fawns, birds would sit snuggled in their nests
or roost in the trees and animals that spent their days hunting
grubs and other fruits of the forest would find shelter in the
dark.

There were others, however, who used the
cover of darkness to seek out those who were sleeping or resting
and were therefore less aware. Owls that soared on silent wings and
called to each other in eerie echoing voices; raccoons that looked
like easy prey, but were formidable fighters when provoked;
opossums whose hiss and light-catching beady eyes had made her jump
more than once; skunks and weasels and snakes. All these and more
were part of the forest at night.

Some, Jazz immediately recognized by sight
and smell. Others were new to her and she stopped here and there
along the way to investigate. One in particular caught her
interest. There was a slightly rancid quality to it that Jazz had
never smelled before and yet it seemed familiar. It was big and
definitely 'meat' and Jazz felt like she should know it. She
followed its trail for some time before giving up and filing the
odor away for future reference.

It delayed her search for her elusive male,
but she was curious and it was a matter of survival. A wolf
unfamiliar with her territory and the creatures who lived there was
vulnerable.

She never lost track of the trail she
followed. Away from her human counterparts, she had little sense of
time passing or distances. Time was either fast or slow; distance,
near or far. Griz travelled fast. He was far. She would find him.
It was as simple as that.

She saw him before she smelled or heard him.
With the moon floating above his nose in the star speckled sky, he
stood above her on an outcropping of rock, his majestic body a
darker outline against the blue-black of the sky. He threw back his
head even higher and howled at the clear, bright moon.

It was a long and drawn out cry that sent an
odd quiver of feeling through Jazz's body as it echoed through the
forest around her. It wasn't the self-satisfied cry of jubilation
she expected it to be and was his right as the victor. Instead, it
rang of sorrow and anguish and a brief flash of his human, pain
filled eyes filled her mind. She felt sympathy rise from her human
and shook it off.

There was no reason for sorrow. He fought and
won. It was honorable. One wolf died, another might. So be it. He
fought for his pack and his Alpha. He fought for… her. No one had
ever fought for her and yet he'd done it as a man and a wolf, two
halves of the whole. He'd fought for her as a wolver.

A wild joy filled her. She couldn't get to
him fast enough. She wanted to run, but her tail was winding in
great loops behind her and her body was moving to its erratic beat
and she ended up prancing and leaping and dancing her way up the
hill to meet him. He fought for her!

He heard her coming. How could he not? She
greeted him with yips and whines and prancing feet. He turned and
stepped toward her, chuffing at her to warn her off. Ignoring his
warning, she turned and showed him her rear, lifting her tail in
invitation to play. He took another step, lifting his head as he
took in her scent. She spun and dove and poked him playfully with
nose. He bit her ear. She yelped.

Hey!

That wasn't the reaction she expected. Sure,
he snapped at her earlier, but he was still overheated from the
battle. He'd howled his soul to the moon. He should be ready to
play.

She tried again, angling her body next to his
and bumping him side to side. Again, she felt him breathe deeply of
her scent as she took in his. Oh yeah, he wanted to play. She
laughed and danced away. He didn't laugh. He didn't follow. He
snarled.

This time, it was a clear rejection.

Jazz lowered her body to the ground, head
resting on outstretched forelegs and whined. "Why?"

The great golden brown wolf turned his back
on her question. Another rejection.

The scent of want and need rolled off him in
waves. He wanted to play as much as she did. There was no other
female in the pack that could match him for strength and power. Had
he not seen that when they came together in the kitchen? He was
strong. He was powerful. He made her body soar. She had met his
body thrust for thrust. The sheer power and force of those thrusts
thrilled her. Her human had felt it, too.

Jazz whined and stood and took another step
toward him.

This time, his deep growl came with a
gnashing of teeth.

"
He wants Angelica!
" her human
shouted inside her.

If she was in human form, she would have
spit. As it was, she could only chuff her disgust. Where was this
Angelica? Was she there to stand for him in Challenge? Did she
build him a den? Did she offer him her body? Did she fight for him?
No!

There was no Angelica. No other had come
forward to make her interest known. The human Jazz had avoided him
at the picnic, but she'd watched. Oh yes she had. His human had
showed no interest in any female. Nor had his wolf. His wolf wanted
her as much as she wanted him. The scent was something he could not
hide. It was the man who rejected her, not the wolf. Stupid man!
And his wolf allowed it. Stupid wolf!

Griz growled at her again, sounding just like
the stupid bear he was.

Stupid man/wolf/bear! Jazz growled deep in
her throat to show him what she thought of his rejection. Hurt and
angry, she lunged, caught his shoulder with her teeth, bit down and
drew blood.

"
Oh shit
," the tiny voice of her
human whispered.

Griz grunted with the pain and stared at the
wound. He raised his eyes and stared at her as shocked as she was
at what she had done. No female had the right to attack a male of
his stature over a sexual rejection. No female with any sense
would!

His lips pulled back. His mouth, filled with
those gleaming white teeth, opened.

"
Run!
" her human's voice was
screaming. "
For fuck's sake,
run!
"

Jazz ran; ran for all she was worth. If he
caught her, he would make her pay. She could fight him and she
would, but he was bigger, stronger, faster and she would lose.
Everything she admired in him would now contribute to her downfall.
As a human, Griz wasn't vindictive, but he wasn't human now. He was
wolf and she'd never met a male who would put up with such behavior
from a female, not even an Alpha's daughter.

Jazz ran for Gilead. It was the only place
she knew where she might find safety, though she doubted it. No
matter how civilized their humans seemed, when wolvers ran free as
wolves, laws as old as time came into play. In a wolf pack, the
hierarchal lines were clearly drawn. Everyone knew their place and
anyone who forgot was quickly and decisively reminded, just as Griz
had been reminded of who his Alpha was and as she was about to be
reminded now.

She veered away from her intended course when
she heard Griz running off to her side. Suddenly, she heard him on
her other side and veered again. He was still behind her, but not
far. Panic seized her and she kept looking over her shoulder to
find his position, to know from which side his attack would come,
which side she needed to defend.

She was so busy looking behind, she failed to
look ahead. She was hit first by a strong whiff of the rancid meaty
smell that had aroused her curiosity earlier. Unwilling to stop her
flight, she charged straight into a small group of…

Pigs?

Squeals of startlement turned to snorts and
snarls of aggression as Jazz was faced with an enormous boar with
frightening tusks that looked like they could do horrendous damage.
In no uncertain terms, primal instinct told Jazz she'd made a big
mistake.

These were not the pink porkers of Griz's
back yard. These pigs were feral; dark, coarse skinned and vicious.
Confronted by them, she immediately recognized the difference in
their smell. These animals ate scavenged meat and they had no fear
of one lone wolf.

Wolves were high up on the food chain and one
of the reasons they stayed that way was because they hunted as a
pack. A lone wolf was vulnerable where a pack was not. In the wild,
a lone wolf would rather eat mice than attack a sounder of wild
pigs.

The boar charged. It was young and that was
what saved her. The charge was direct and when it lowered its head
to slash at her with its curling tusks, she leapt over it. She
turned to flee only to be confronted by another, smaller, but no
less vicious sow. A third animal snorted behind her. Jazz leapt and
spun in the air, aiming for an opening she saw to the right and
felt the tingle of change sweep through her body.

The Alpha was bringing her home.

"No!" the human Jazz screamed as she fell to
the ground at the center of the circle formed by the three feral
pigs.

Jazz hit the ground hard. Breath whooshed from her lungs.
There was no time to rise, to run, to do anything to defend
herself. She saw the hardened snout aiming at her face. She saw the
beady, focused eyes. She clearly saw the curling yellowed tusks.
Her hands flew to her head and she tucked her body into a
ball.

The pig never reached her. She heard Griz's
ferocious snarl above the snorting of the pigs and felt the
movement of air as his wolf sailed over her body to crash against
the attacking boar. She saw them tumble away as Griz hit the pig
from above and rolled with it. Massive jaws clamped the boar's hind
leg crushing it under the force of close to two thousand pounds of
pressure. The pig screamed. The others fled. Griz finished the
contest. The boar was dead.

Jazz unrolled and scooted backward on her
ass, sandaled feet slipping and flailing on dead leaves and dirt.
The tattered remains of the synthetic fabric of her capris offered
little protection from the rocks and twigs tearing at her behind.
She didn't care. She couldn't turn over and take her eyes from the
glaring wolf who stalked toward her one foot at a time. Maybe she
was better off facing the pigs.

"I'm human," she sputtered, a reminder that
Pack Law forbid a wolf attack on a human and vice versa.

Griz solved the problem by flashing to
human.

"You hit me," he said as a quiet and deadly
statement of fact.

She scooted back a little further and raised
her finger. "Ah, actually, it was a bite," she corrected. "Wolf to
wolf," she added stupidly.

"What did I say would happen if you hit me
again?" He took another step and opened his hand to show her his
palm. He added a little spanking action.

It was a very large palm and the gesture
reminded her of the Tooth and Fang and her ass in the air next to
his ear. He'd threatened her then, too, except now there was no
ice.

"I couldn't hit you. I was a wolf," she
argued and held her thumb and forefinger a half inch apart. "It was
a bite, a little playful nip." She inched further back.

Griz pointed to his shoulder where a splotch
of blood stained his tee shirt. "That was no nip," he said and took
another step.

Jazz's back hit the trunk of a large tree.
She rolled to her right, gained her footing and ducked behind it.
She poked her head out to the side. "Can we talk?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I tried that, remember?
You said later and blew me off for the rest of the day. Every time
I looked your way, you jumped and ran like a scared rabbit."

"What is this with the scared rabbit shit?"
she said indignantly, "And I didn't blow you off. I just didn't
think it was a good time or place to talk." Liar, liar, pants on
fire.

"Yep, no more Hellcat," he went on as if she
hadn't spoken, "From now on, you'll be known as Bunny, Bunny with a
bright red tail."

"That's not funny."

"Wasn't meant to be."

Griz was angling to the left, so Jazz moved a
little to the left, too, keeping the tree trunk between them. Her
sandal caught on a root and she shook it free. The damn things were
useless in the woods. She slipped it off and moved a little further
around the tree. She was reaching for the second sandal when she
had an idea.

She couldn't spend the rest of the night
circling the tree. Griz was broad and weighed, well… a lot and
while his legs might be as long as hers, she didn't have the same
bulk to move. With a head start, she might be able to outrun him.
She threw the first sandal and before he could bat it aside, she
threw the second. She was off and running before he touched it.