Wild Nights (20 page)

stopped being a friend, even when Riley turned the raw fierceness of

his wolf on him. And Aya, damn that beautiful little vixen, snagged a

place deep in his chest that even
he
feared to acknowledge.

Well, Aya loved Lenox, and that’s how it should be, even if it

shredded every alpha intuition in his body. He was no good for her.

Undeserving of her.

“You’re smart to keep your wolf in check.” The dark rumble of

Mase’s voice tore him from his thoughts. The man came back into

focus. Riley straightened his shoulders, which seemingly had slumped

during his introspection.
Pull it together, man. Leave the petty

thoughts for later.
Only they weren’t petty, and they continued to

plague him. “Where’s the bitch hiding at?”

“I’m unaware of a den other than the motel I’ve checked the pack

into,” Riley said.

One of the glowering wolves snorted. Another reclined in his

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chair, arms crossing with deliberate exaggeration over his chest. All

of them feasted upon him, waiting for him to misstep so they could

attack.

He chuckled to himself.
I might be blind, but I’m no fool.

“You’ve been sleeping with the woman for how long and you’re

telling me you have no idea where she might be hitched up?”

“I’m telling you if she deceived me for a year and a half, I think

she’s capable of slinking below my radar on this account as well.

Have you checked the motel?” Riley asked. His defenses were

climbing higher with each cold question asked of him. These men

were loyal to their leader to the death. They didn’t care what it took to

get him back.

Even if it meant torturing him.

“Riley, you’re a mangy smartass, you know that? We’ve all bases

covered and no Eliza. She somehow erased her scent from the forest

behind Lenox’s house.” Mase leaned forward, bracing his hands on

his knees. He cocked his head to the side, narrowing his clouded

green eyes on him. “So tick off some locations where we might have

success finding her.”

Riley flexed his fingers in his lap. His blood heated with his

mounting frustration. He ground his teeth, desperately working off a

layer of anger, and enamel, while the numerous gazes pointed at him

intensified. The air grew thick and dense with testosterone. The scents

made his skin tingle and itch. His lungs were saturated with the air of

a hunt, but he was the prey. Damn, this wasn’t the time for a power

struggle. Couldn’t they see that?

At last, Riley shifted on the sofa, mirroring Mase’s position. The

corner of his mouth twitched from restraining his alpha wolf. His lip

curled back in a scowl. “I’m definitely a smartass, but I’m not a

fucking idiot. I wouldn’t dump myself into the midst of
pups
unless it

was a dire situation. You want your leader back, I want Aya’s mate

back. A quarter century of rivalry needs to end tonight, or Lenox is a

dead man.”

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135

Every muscle in his body quivered with tension. His gaze was

fixed on Mase’s feral expression as the man contemplated what he

said.

A split second later, Riley found himself pinned to the wall behind

the sofa. Mase’s steel hand clamped around his throat. Sharpened

claws dug into the side of his neck. Riley growled, baring his

transformed teeth. Two other pack mates held his hands by his sides,

rendering him defenseless.

“You come into my home and threaten me with the loss of our

leader. I should tear your fucking throat out now and leave you as a

gift on your little whore’s doorstep,” Mase barked. He pulled Riley’s

head off the wall and slammed it back. The edges of his vision turned

red. Rage thundered inside his spirit. His wolf growled relentlessly

inside his mind. His body quivered with the onset of a transformation.

“One more chance. I don’t give a shit that you’re an appointed

anything to our white. You deliver us to—”

“Daddy?”

Mase’s features froze before Riley’s glowering eyes. The molten

heat of his anger bubbled and splattered through his veins, but he

didn’t miss the crack in the man’s fearsome expression at the highpitched inquiry from his son.

“Get back to your room, Ethan,” Mase grated.

“But—”

“Now!”

“Daddy, the girl isn’t here anymore.”

Just as fast as the fierce defender’s expression dropped in

confusion, Riley’s anger vanished, leaving a black hole of disbelief in

its stead. He ripped his hands from the slackened hold of the wolves

and shoved past Mase.

“What do you mean she’s not here?” Riley demanded of the child

even as he rushed to the staircase. “Where did she go?”

“I-I don’t know…”

Riley bounded up the stairs three at a time. Lenox’s men clamored

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at his heels as he bolted down the hallway to the back bedroom.

He threw open the door and came up short. One man rammed into

his back, shoving him deeper into the silent room, all except for the

gentle fluttering of the lacey curtains hanging over an open window.

The intoxicatingly sweet scent of his woman curled amidst the crisp

forest aromas and early morning dew. His nostrils flared. His wolf

bristled.

The room was empty.

“Ayasha! Where the hell are you?”
Riley called out to his mate.

Five long strides brought him to the open window. He leaned out, saw

the ivy-covered lattice that spanned most of the back wall, and

growled.
“Aya!”

As Mase stepped up alongside him, he climbed out the window.

The man grabbed his arm, bringing him to momentary pause.

“What are you doing?” Mase grilled. Riley yanked his arm back

and caught the man’s eyes.

“Think what you want of me. I’m not so careless and selfish as to

let my woman put herself in danger.” He hooked his bare foot into the

latticework and made quick time to the ground.
“Ayasha, answer

me!”

“While you were having a powwow in the living room, I’ve

located a trail.”

His blood went cold. He turned his face up to the window and saw

Mase leaning out.

“There’s no time to waste. Aya’s about to step into the wolf’s

den.”

With that, Riley handed himself over to his wolf and rushed back

to Lenox’s house.

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137

Chapter Twelve

What the hell was I thinking?

Aya dug her claws into the soft ground and crawled along on her

belly into the dense shrubs surrounding the pack of wolves. Three of

them remained in human form, two men and one woman. All of them

surrounded an old spruce.

Her heart lurched when she first caught a glimpse of the object of

their attention. Her powerful Lenox, hanging by his wrists, bloodied

and battered. Completely helpless. His arms bulged, the muscles

stretched taut by the weight of his body pulling down on them. His

head hung forward, his dark hair falling over his face. She swallowed

back the whisper of a whimper before she gave herself away to the

blood-hungry beasts prowling around her man. They had a meal

dangling before their salivating mouths and glinting eyes. Bait

swaying in wait for a bite…

Aya’s breath hitched. She stilled. Bait.
Oh, God
. The realization

dawned too late for her to retrace her steps.
He’s bait. They’re luring

me out.
As she stared at the rumbling pack surrounding Lenox, her

stomach rolled. He was hurt, terribly so, and he needed her to save

him. She was only one person, one wolf, and an inexperienced wolf at

that. She held compassion in her spirit, unlike the feral creatures

before her. She had a weakness for forgiveness, something she

doubted the cold-steeled pack possessed.

Now’s not the time to mull over weakness. Lenox needs you.

Aya stretched beneath the scraggly bush, resting her snout on her

crossed paws. Riley would surely figure out where she was. She

deliberately didn’t cover her scent trail for that reason, just as she

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answered his demands of her location. Right now, she was at an

impasse, a very aggravating one to boot. Each glimpse of Lenox

succeeded in gouging out a piece of her heart. Moments passed when

she wanted to cry. She couldn’t do anything to help him alone. Lenox

was as good as dead if this pack got her in their claws.

Rather, she hunkered down and tried to focus on the taunting

words the woman spoke. She also prayed to the spirits that the early

morning breeze didn’t shift course or that the lightening sky didn’t

cause her snowy fur to shimmer.

“You mustn’t be well liked by your mate for her to leave you out

here most of the night. What a pity. I can always take you in as one of

my own,” the woman purred, scraping her nails up and down Lenox’s

chest. He flinched, but didn’t lift his head or make any attempt to fend

her off. Her hand drifted lower, and the hair on Aya’s hackles bristled.

“I take very good care of my men. All I ask is that you take very good

care of me.”

“Lenox, can you hear me?”
Aya whispered. She needed to

distract her wolf’s ingrained desire to reclaim her territory as the

woman stroked Lenox’s limp shaft. She was only slightly satisfied

that he didn’t harden by another woman’s touch. That bitch had no

right touching her man!
“I’m going to help you. I promise.”

“Stay with Riley. She’s hoping to lure you out by keeping me

here.”
The weak rasp of his voice twisted her spirit. She shifted

against the ground, trying to soothe the tension in her muscles and the

pain her heart endured for him.
“Sweetling, do not worry about me.

I’ll be fine.”

“Are you hurt?”
Aya knew the answer by the coppery scent in the

air, the blood covering his body, and the force it took him to speak.

His energy pulsed with a dimming light. His spirit swam in an endless

sea of confusion. Fatigue threatened to pull him under. However, she

couldn’t let him know she was within yards of him.

Another thought struck her.
“How do you know Riley came

back?”

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139

“I’m fine.”
A tenuous pause drifted over their telepathic line.
“I

know the real Riley. The man I grew up with would never abandon his

mate, and that man is still at the heart of the beast.”

Aya’s vision blurred, but she ignored the moisture and brought her

attention back to the woman. She’d given up trying to arouse Lenox,

to Aya’s satisfaction. Her sultry smile melted into a scowl.

“You couldn’t please her, is that it?” The woman issued a sharp

nod of her head. One of her cohorts reached up to the cuff biting into

Lenox’s wrists and wedged a key into the lock. A moment later,

Lenox crumpled to the ground, the sharp scraping of the chain links

stinging her ears. She cringed as the chain dropped over Lenox’s

head. He didn’t react to the hit. He didn’t try to move. Aya lifted her

head and watched his chest until she saw it rise and fall with each

breath. “Can you use your mouth? Your tongue?” The woman

growled and shook her head. “And to think I fantasized about

bringing you into my bed. You’re worthless.”

Aya’s snout twitched at the insult to Lenox. She quietly eased

herself backward, out from under the brush. The breeze continued to

lap at her face, keeping her scent away from the primitive pack. The

wolves who padded back and forth covered the sounds of her own

steps, allowing her to slink closer to the group.

“Once I get my hands on your precious little white, I’ll spare your

life long enough to see what we do to survivors of the Blood Moon

Massacre. That one in Hood River murdered my sister. The one here

in Wolf Creek will pay for the doings of that bitch. All these packs

belong to the Dark Moon clan. Those whites have no place among us.

None
. They should’ve all died twenty-five years ago.”

The woman snarled as two men reached down to Lenox. They

stopped dead in their tracks and slowly straightened up. Aya crept

along the shrubs and trees, pausing to glance at Lenox, until she came

up behind the woman.

“Lenox, do you think Riley will come here to save you?”
Aya

purred. She needed to soothe his tattered spirit, issue her assurances

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Rhea Regale

that he’d be okay. Hell, she wouldn’t accept anything less than her

Lenox coming out of this alive to share a life with her.

She reached a break in the bushes. The woman was in a perfect

position for Aya to have the upper hand in an attack. The creature

made the idea even more irresistible when she crouched down in front

of Lenox. Aya lowered herself to creep between the separation. She

shifted her gaze to Lenox’s face…

She met his narrowed gaze directly. Shock tore through her,