Wild Fire (Wilding Pack Wolves 5) - New Adult Paranormal Romance (6 page)

“Glad to hear you’re not quite such a danger anymore,” Daniel called out, but he was eyeing the short girl that Zoe didn’t recognize. “Looks like you’ve been getting some help.” He stepped over to the girl with his hand extended. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Daniel Wilding.”

She had a sort of impish grin, and instead of taking his hand, she waved hers in the air and held it out to him—a blue ball of magical fire floated above it. “You might want to be careful about touching a witch, Daniel Wilding.”

He took a step back and dropped his hand. “Alrighty, then.”

She laughed, and her short black spiky hair waved back and forth a little. “It’s all right, cute stuff.” She smirked and clapped her hands together. The blue ball of fire disappeared. Then she took two steps forward and patted him on the cheek. “I’m here to help, not hurt.”

Daniel’s eyes went wide, and Zoe didn’t blame him—a witch’s touch could be deadly.

“This is Skylar Starling,” Noah said, sweeping a hand out to her. “Kaden recruited her from one of the covens downtown.”

“Recruited?” Skylar said, her voice hiking up. “I was told there were hot shifters in the mountains that I could play magical tricks with. That wasn’t exactly a hard sell.”

Zoe smiled in spite of herself. She wasn’t a huge fan of witches—no wolves were—but given that white wolves were some kind of mixture of wolf and witch to begin with, she guessed it made sense that witches might be a little more friendly toward them. Or at least some of them—Noah, Owen, and Kaden were known white wolves, but Daniel had yet to show any white wolf tendencies, in spite of sharing genetic code with his younger brother. But then Noah had been subjected to Agent Smith’s experiments, and that seemed to be the trigger for his abilities, just like with Owen. Genetics didn’t always express in a linear and logical way—tissue science wasn’t that exact. Life just had too many variables. But that didn’t mean the genes weren’t there, lying in wait, lurking until just the right trigger made them come out and find expression.

Which was exactly why she was trying to find a cure for her genetic malady—this white wolf gene. She didn’t want her genetic code going off like a bomb.

“Come on, Daniel,” Skylar said with a smile. “Why don’t you join us?” She fluttered her fingers at the other three men who were white wolves.

“Yeah,
Daniel,”
Noah said with a laugh. “Why don’t you let Skylar bring out your inner witch?”

“Shut up.” Daniel did not seem excited about that prospect, although Zoe could see that he was eyeing the diminutive and flirtatious Skylar with more than a little interest.

She pranced over to him with a little dance in her step, then took hold of his hand. “I promise I won’t bite.”

Daniel’s eyes were wide in the moonlight. Skylar kept his hand in hers while she slowly passed her hand over it, creating a ball of blue light in Daniel’s palm. He was quickly absorbed in her conjuring—or perhaps terrified of it—and seemed to forget about the rest of them.

Zoe’s exhaustion came flooding back. What she really needed was to talk to Grace about the superhealing research and their hunt for the Wolf Hunter
’s
 father—but she couldn’t do that with everyone watching.

“I’m going to turn in,” she called to Daniel, but he didn’t seem to hear.

His brother, Noah, noticed. “I’ll get you settled.” He ushered her and Troy toward the main house. They exchanged introductions and shook hands. Troy made small talk with Noah about the Wolf Hunter. Zoe was fuzzing out with her attention—she barely noticed what they were saying.

It occurred to her that she might actually be in shock.

Once they reached the house, Noah turned them over to Mama River—she was apparently the matriarch of the place, the mother of Jaxson, Jace, and Jared, the three River brothers. Jared was Grace’s mate, so Zoe had met him before, briefly, and Jace was married to her cousin, Piper, so technically they were family.

Mama River seemed incredibly kind, linking her arm in Zoe’s and patting it as she escorted them up the stairs to the second level of the estate. Her long gray hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, and she wore absolutely no makeup, but somehow, she was all the more beautiful for it.

“You dears must be exhausted,” Mama River said, softly. Zoe felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders just with the older woman’s touch. “I’m so glad you decided to come up and stay with us. Whatever you need to do, you can do it from here. My boys have given us extensive security—the Wolf Hunter can’t touch you here.”

Her reassurances were like a warm blanket wrapping around Zoe’s shoulders. Mama River guided them down a long hallway and two more turns before she stopped at a pair of rooms, side-by-side.

“Make yourselves at home,” she said. “Breakfast is served at seven AM sharp in the downstairs dining room.” Then she patted Zoe’s cheek, and said, “Come find me in the morning, Zoe dear, and I’ll get my scissors out. Between Skylar and me, I think we can come up with a hairstyle that’s a little more suitable for your lovely face.”

Zoe choked up, unexpectedly and with a fierceness that felt all out of proportion to Mama River’s kind offer. “Thank you,” she managed.

She left Zoe and Troy to pick their rooms and turn in.

“I call the one on the right,” Zoe said, her voice soft. She was so damn tired.

“Zoe, wait.” Troy stopped her with a touch on her hand. It was warm and soft, but she pulled away from it—the last thing she needed was to be reminded that Troy-the-hot-fireman would be sleeping just next door.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

“You do?” She almost didn’t have enough energy to be surprised.

“You’re thinking you’re not like those other white wolves out there,” he said softly, drawing closer to her. “You think you’re all alone in this. But you don’t have to be alone, Zoe, not anymore. You’ve got people here who care about you—people who are
like
you. You should tell them.”

“It’s more complicated than that.” She peered up into his gorgeous green eyes and willed him to just
understand
so she wouldn’t have to explain all of it. She was too tired for that.

But he just leaned in closer and touched a hand to the hair that wasn’t half burnt off. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. I’m good at keeping secrets, remember?” Then he leaned in even closer like he was going to kiss her. Zoe’s inner wolf yipped with happiness, and she nearly let it happen, but at the last second, she put up her hands to hold him off. Then she stepped back.

Jesus,
the last thing she needed was to get caught up in Troy’s arms… or his bed.

“Okay, all right,” Troy said, but she could see the disappointment in his eyes. He put more distance between them and rapped a knuckle on his door. “I’ll be right next door if you need anything.”

He disappeared into the room and left her standing in the hallway alone.

Her wolf whined her disappointment, and Zoe wished more than ever that she could backhand her wolf into the dark recesses of her mind.

She was tired—
exhausted,
really—scared, and probably in shock. She needed a new plan of how to move forward. She didn’t need to be falling into the arms of a hot shifter right now. What she needed was to talk to Grace about how far this would set them back.

Did the Wolf Hunter know Zoe had the data? Was that why he attacked her at the lab? Was her dad still in danger? Maybe Grace could help her answer these questions.

Zoe’s brain was too fried.

What she really needed was a good night’s sleep.

She stumbled into her room and practically fell into the bed.

Troy was running through the forest in wolf form, and it was glorious.

He’d never had a pack growing up, so this was a completely different experience—and it satisfied him in a deep hungering way that he didn’t even know was there. His wolf was shaggy brown, and Daniel’s up ahead was Wilding-pack black, but the other three—Noah and Owen and Kaden—were white blurs through the forest in front of them.

All right, you guys!
Daniel’s voice sounded in Troy’s head.
Show me what you’ve got.

Troy knew telepathic communication was common among wolves in a pack, but he’d never actually done it—the words still startled him when they rang in his head, but he was quickly getting used to the idea of pushing his thoughts out to specific wolves at specific times.

Can they do magic in wolf form?
he asked Daniel, careful not to distract the others by broadcasting to them.

Oh, yeah,
Daniel replied.
Keeping them from burning down the forest is a bit more of a trick.

Up ahead, Noah and Owen were wrestling, while Kaden stood back watching and yipping a kind of wolfish laugh. Troy didn’t know how the two of them could wrestle without killing each other, given the size of their freakish claws, more like six-inch-long daggers at the ends of their paws. They hacked and slashed at each other, their white fur quickly becoming drenched with red. They must have the same crazy superhealing as Zoe because their wounds didn’t seem to be slowing them down.

Okay, knock it off,
Daniel broadcast to all of them.

Noah and Owen stopped their wrestling, shaking off their wounds and seeming fine in spite of looking like extras in a horror film. They each brought up a paw behind their heads as if cleaning the back of their ears, only instead, they whipped their paw forward to release a blue ball of energy. The two balls zipped through the forest, lighting it up in an eerie whitish blue on top of the early morning sunrise. When the balls slammed into a tree trunk, they blasted away half the wood and threw off a million sparks, which quickly died.

Noah and Owen were already preparing new crackling balls of magic as Kaden joined them—soon they were sending volley after volley into the dark dawn of the forest.

Troy and Daniel held back, out of firing range, trotting to a halt next to a large fallen log.

Are you all part of the same pack?
Troy asked Daniel, again being careful to keep his thoughts from broadcasting to everyone and distracting them during their magical practice.

Daniel shook his head.

Troy wasn’t sure if he was answering or shaking off some of the early morning dew.

Kaden and Noah have submitted to Jaxson, the alpha of the Riverwise pack,
Daniel sent the thought back to him.
Owen has his own pack.

Submission. Troy knew what it was, but he’d never experienced it firsthand. 
I’ve never been in the pack before,
 he admitted.
I managed to get out of the gangs downtown before I was forced to submit. And I’ve never met anyone I’d be willing to pledge myself to—hell, I really haven’t met that many wolves at all. But man, I’ve been watching you on the news…
He stopped because this level of fanboying was getting embarrassing. He wasn’t quite sure how to tell Daniel that he would join his pack in a heartbeat.

The news doesn’t exactly tell the whole story. But I know what you mean about who you’re willing to submit to. I haven’t submitted to anyone in a while, not even Jaxson, even though I respect the hell out of him. The last wolf I submitted to was my father, and you probably know how well that worked out.

Troy ducked his head in acknowledgment. Daniel’s father, Colonel Astor Wilding, was in jail for experimenting on shifters, and Daniel helped put him there. That was part of why Troy respected him so much—the man had to have a seriously straight moral arrow to put his own father in jail for crimes against shifter kind.

This seems like a good group here,
Troy thought, giving a nod to the three white wolves who were still practicing their magic, tearing up the forest.

Daniel dipped his head.
Noah shows me every day how white wolves don’t have to be assholes. I hope he’s right because it’s possible I might be one, too.

You look pretty black-wolf to me,
Troy thought with a wolfy smirk.
Is that something you really think can change?

I don’t know. But it’s been a pretty shitty ride for the Wilding family. This white wolf thing is potentially lurking inside of all of us.

Troy was dying to tell him that Zoe’s white wolf wasn’t exactly
lurking
inside her. She was a full-blown white wolf or, he guessed, a witch. And a hell of a powerful one, too. As much or more than these guys in the forest with her insta-healing leg and magical shield.

But that wasn’t his secret to tell.

Isn’t that a good thing?
Troy thought.
Having these special powers?

I guess.
Daniel was staring hard at the other three wolves in their practice.
The Wilding pack was broken up by a white wolf—one of our grandfathers, at least in the biological sense. There were two brothers—an alpha and a beta—and the beta was a white wolf. He slept with the mate of the alpha and then killed them both. That’s our secret family shame. And why no one in the Wilding family actually wants to be a white wolf.

Oh.
Troy hesitated.
I guess that’s why you don’t want Skylar to help you bring out your inner white wolf?