Wolf-Bound: Unfamiliar Territory

WOLF-BOUND:

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY

Rachel Bo

®

www.loose-id.com

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This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id® e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

Wolf-Bound: Unfamiliar Territory

Rachel Bo

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by

Loose Id LLC

1802 N Carson Street, Suite 212-2924

Carson City NV 89701-1215

www.loose-id.com

Copyright © September 2007 by Rachel Bo

All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared in any form, including, but not limited to printing, photocopying, faxing, or emailing without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC.

ISBN 978-1-59632-547-0

Available in Adobe PDF, HTML, MobiPocket, and MS Reader

Printed in the United States of America

Editor: Raven McKnight

Cover Artist: Anne Cain

www.loose-id.com

Jake sat up abruptly. The curtains in this seedy dive, worn through by repeated washings over who knew how many years, let in plenty of moonlight. He drew in a deep breath, cataloguing each scent as he scanned the room carefully. A moldy tub, dusty lampshades, his and Johnathan’s sour sneakers. He sensed nothing out of place, saw nothing, and yet something had disturbed him.

Always one to trust his instincts, he turned to shake his brother awake.

Glass shattered behind him. Instinctively, he grabbed the edge of the blanket beneath him with his left hand and held on as he rolled, pulling it over himself and Johnathan as shards crashed and tinkled.

His brother grunted, flailing as Jake’s weight and momentum carried them off the bed and onto the floor. Jake scrambled, crawling out of the blanket. He grabbed Johnathan’s arm and dragged him toward the bathroom. Shadows played over the walls as glass crunched beneath footsteps behind them. Jake tightened his grip on Johnny’s arm, and with a surge of effort, they dove into the bathroom. He slammed the door, clicking the lock just as something heavy hit the other side.

Jake stood and helped a still-groggy Johnathan to his feet.

Johnny’s gaze darted around the tiny room. “What are we going to do?”

Jake thought fast. There was no window in here -- the hotel rooms backed up against each other. The only way out or in was through the front door or the shattered window, both in the other room.

Another thud, and the bathroom door groaned. Jake shook his head. “We have no choice -- we have to change.” He stepped in front of his brother. “I’ll go first, hit the floor running. No matter what happens, you get out.”

2 Rachel Bo

Johnathan nodded, though they both knew he’d never leave his brother behind.

They arched, lips thinned in concentration. Their bodies rippled, torsos thickening, faces elongating, sprouting fur dark as midnight. In seconds, the bodies of two huge wolves crowded the bathroom. Johnathan backed into the shower stall as Jake crouched against the wall opposite the door, gathered his strength, and leaped.

The door splintered, a long piece down the middle see-sawing over the body of the person now trapped on the floor beneath it. The moment his paws found purchase on the lumpy body and splintered wood beneath him, Jake sprang again.

One quick snap of his jaw, and the man he landed on next no longer had a throat.

“Shit,” a shadow to his left hissed.

The dark silhouette scrambled away from him. He moved to follow, but a snatch of quiet syllables murmured in an ancient tongue raised his hackles. Turning quickly, he crouched and growled at this new and greater threat.

Witch.

Snarling, he squared his haunches, powerful muscles bunching.

The chant faltered. “Merrill!”

Jacob vaulted. At the edge of his vision, a shadow outside the window whirled, arms raised. A soft snick sounded, and moonlight glinted off the tip of the bolt whistling toward his throat.

Something slammed onto his back, and he lost his momentum. Hitting the ground hard, his legs buckled. He heard a fleshy thud, a whimper, and then the weight slid off him.

Johnathan.

Jake struggled to his feet and turned. Johnathan’s eyes glinted in the moonlight, a dark stain growing on the floor beneath him. The witch started chanting again, and Jake swept out his paw, slicing her hamstring with his claws.

The woman screamed. Another bolt whizzed through the air, but Jake sprang back, and it thudded harmlessly into the wall. The witch turned, groaning as her damaged leg took her weight. The leg buckled. Jake slashed again, and the woman crumpled to the ground, gasping frantically as life spilled from her jugular.

He turned to the broken window. Curtains billowed, giving him a glimpse of the fourth assailant, who bared his teeth as he thrust another bolt into place and leveled the crossbow at Jake’s chest.

Jake crouched low, gathered his strength, then surged forward. As he’d expected, the bowman aimed high, anticipating him, expecting him to go for the neck, and the quarrel riffled the fur on his spine as it sailed harmlessly past. Instead, Jake flowed over the low windowsill. He closed his jaws on the man’s right knee and ground his teeth, crushing the kneecap. The man screamed, his bow clattering to the asphalt as he fell backward, aiming desperate punches at Jacob’s muzzle.

Wolf-Bound: Unfamiliar Territory

3

Jake held on, ignoring the blows until a stabbing pain blossomed in his shoulder. He unclasped his jaws and raised his head. Sparing a brief sideways glance for the quarrel now embedded in his shoulder, he slammed one of his massive forepaws onto his assailant’s scrabbling fingers as the guy reached for another bolt. His opponent gasped. His free hand tore ineffectually at Jake’s ruff as Jake lowered his jaws, daintily and precisely snipping the man’s jugular.

Jake stayed low, scanning the parking lot. There didn’t appear to be any more enemies outside the room. No sirens yet, either. Maybe luck. Or maybe in this part of Vegas, anyone who might have heard them had too much to hide to risk calling the police.

Jacob turned back to the room, peering over the windowsill, perking his sensitive ears.

The other man, the one who had whispered, “Shit,” and scrambled away, appeared to have fled. Johnathan and the witch lay puddled on the floor, but his brother was the only one of the two still breathing.

The man beneath the splintered door breathed, too. Very shallowly, very quietly, staying very still.

Playing dead.

The urge to finish him off was strong, but Jacob hopped the sill and padded over to his brother instead.

Johnathan’s human form gleamed palely in the moonlight, his body covered in sweat though his teeth chattered. The bolt protruded from his chest, just between the fifth and sixth ribs. Dispatching the witch and the bowman had taken Jake less than a minute, yet an incredible amount of blood pooled on the ground beneath his brother.

“They got me, big brother.” Jake’s sensitive wolf ears barely registered the pained, hoarse whisper.

Concentrating briefly, Jacob shivered and warped, changing back to human form.

Wincing, he tugged the tip of the bolt, only half-buried, from his injured shoulder and tossed it aside, ignoring the blood that trickled from the wound. He knelt by his brother. “You’ll be okay, Johnny-boy. Let’s get you to a doctor.” He slipped an arm under Johnathan’s shoulders, but his brother held up a hand.

“You’re…the only…one…can…get away…calling me that.”

“I know.” Jacob blinked back tears. “You saved my life, little brother.” Though they were twins, he had been born two minutes earlier. He was the alpha, the one responsible.

For everything.

“’S nothin’.” Johnathan flung his arm up, grabbed Jake’s neck, and pulled him close. “P-protect…our…sons.”

“Hush now, Johnny.” Tears trembled on Jake’s lashes as he slipped his other arm beneath Johnathan’s thighs and lifted him in one smooth move. “You’re going to be all right.”

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Johnny clutched his shoulder, eyes wide, demanding. “Promise…me.”

Jacob nodded wordlessly, and Johnny smiled.

The guy who had been huddled beneath the splintered wood of the door was now crawling toward the window. He froze as they turned, but Jake ignored him as he stepped over the dead witch and carried his brother outside.

A warm breath caressed Jake’s ear. “Love…you.”

Jake sobbed. “I love you, too, Johnny.”

Before he could reach the car, his brother drew in a sharp, rattling gulp of air, then let it out in a long sigh.

He didn’t breathe again.

* * * * *

He rubbed dirt from his cheek, his chest. He was still naked. His shoulder ached and his fingers throbbed. He glanced over at the fresh grave beside him.

He’d driven out of Las Vegas, heading west, turning off onto a back road into the middle of nowhere and then cutting across the desert itself toward an area of low mesas. In a shallow arroyo between two of the blunt-topped hills, beneath an overhang, he’d dug as a wolf until his pads bled, and then buried his brother. Afterward, exhausted, he’d wept himself asleep atop Johnathan’s grave.

His brother shouldn’t have died. Weyr were supposed to be near-invincible.

But the quarrel had punctured a lung and pierced his heart.

He wanted to stay. Wanted to lie beside his brother until the sand claimed them both and they hunted together again in the Land of the Goddess.