Chapter Seven
It hadn’t worked. His warning had fallen short, obviously, because the little city wolf hadn’t gone away. No, instead Lee had gone to the alpha who’d been sticking his long, sensitive nose into everyone’s business.
He’d had to quit watching, because the alpha had put a sentry at Lee and Heather’s house, a big male that Lee was related to.
Frustration boiled up inside him, but he didn’t let it overwhelm him. Instead, he used it to focus his rage. The first night of the moon came tomorrow.
Tomorrow Lee and Heather and their little city wolf would pay.
“You ready to run with the big wolves, Dan?” Lee clapped Danny on the back, rubbing a little to release the obvious tension he felt in Danny’s muscles.
“I think so.”
“Don’t sound so sure.” The sun was making its way toward setting, and the moon was coming. Lee’s skin and bones told him, feeling wrong in their human form.
“I just wish your Logan had found the guy who trashed my room, is all. Maybe I should go run with the campus pack.”
“No way.” Baring his teeth, Lee growled a little. “They can’t protect you like I can.” He would protect what was his, both Danny and Heather. He’d fucking tear anyone up who came near them.
“My hero.” Danny smiled, his dark eyes a little haunted. Hunted.
“You’d better fucking believe it, baby.”
“You two ready to roll?” Heather came out of the bathroom wearing a loose pair of sweats and a T-shirt, and she was still the hottest thing Lee had ever seen. God, he loved her. He would talk to her folks in the morning, now that he’d talked to Logan. Let them know it was a love match as much as a pack thing.
“Ready.” Danny gave them both a smile, and this one reached his eyes.
“Let’s go, then.”
The pack tried to get as far away from town and the college as they could when the moon came, no one wanting to harm the non-wolf folks who lived among them. They met at a pre-arranged location, usually determined by Logan, and picked for terrain and game availability. They headed out in Lee’s truck, and almost an hour later they got to the big clearing where everyone was parked, the moon riding Lee hard. His hands shook on the steering wheel when he hit the brakes for the last time.
“Remember, baby. Stay close.” He said it to both of them, knowing he needed to be able to protect them from whoever or whatever the threat might be.
Heather nodded and Danny grunted, and Lee figured that was as good as it would get. Lee nodded at his cousin Gabe when he got out of the truck, knowing the big guy was there to protect his lovers, just like he was.
Everyone milled around, probably two hundred werewolves were there, ready to start the hunt. There would be some fighting, some fucking, and a lot of running. That was the way of it.
Danny crossed his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders. Lee glanced at Heather, and as one unit they moved close, bracketing Danny in safety and warmth.
“It will be okay, baby. I promise.”
“I know. It’s just weird.”
Yeah, Lee imagined it was. The campus pack was way, way smaller than this. The scents alone had to be overwhelming. Logan came by, not saying a word, but nodding at them, those sharp eyes scanning the pack, his long nose vibrating.
Lee was sniffing too, trying to catch the scent of the guy who had trashed Danny’s room. With no luck, damn it.
“Here it comes.” Heather bounced and grinned. His girl loved the full moon, loved letting the wolf take over.
The moon broke free of the clouds in the sky overhead – and boom. Lee’s body began to change, his face elongating, his arms and legs pulling in, then out as he sprouted a tail and ears. He’d learned long ago not to fight it; it was way less painful if you just let the wolf out of the cage instead of making him break the bars.
His senses sharpened as all four paws hit the ground, and he smelled his mates, then his alpha. There was another scent there, something he was supposed to be searching for, and Lee fought the urge to let the moon carry him off on his monthly scramble for prey. He stopped, his head tilting, his nose picking up every scent in a half-mile radius. There was Gabe, right there, six feet to his left. The sweet and spicy scent of Heather was close, too close for his good sense, almost. Then there was Danny. Less earthy, smelling almost like rain and cinders…
There. There it was. The trail of the asshole who’d tried to hurt what was his. Lee took off, following it, trusting Danny and Heather to be at his heels, to be close enough for Gabe to protect their back trail.
He ran, the tracks clear now. The wolf he followed wasn’t in the best shape, had a few too many pounds on him. He ran with a limp on one side, the right front foot, which rang a little bell in the human part of Lee’s head, but that wasn’t the part he was really thinking with.
When the trail led him into a copse of trees, Lee skidded to a stop, not wanting to fly right into a trap. The scent trailed off there, which was weird as hell. Danny padded up beside him, tongue lolling, nose twitching. A soft bark from Heather told Lee that she thought the whole thing was messed up too.
Where the hell had the guy gone, and why was the scent trail just nonexistent now? Gabe nosed his hindquarters, growling a little, wanting to run. Wanting some kind of action. Lee agreed. Damn it, where was the asshole?
The crack of a rifle shot made them all scatter. A sharp yelp from Gabe indicating a hit of some kind. Lee whirled, biting Danny so hard that Danny yipped and ran, his inexperience showing. It was just what Lee wanted, needing Danny to get away. Heather gave him an agonized look, then took off after Danny, just like she was supposed to, leaving him and Gabe to face the threat.
Lee moved into the shadow of a tree, his senses so attuned that he could hear every crackle of movement, from the rabbit that ran past at twenty feet to the wheeze of Gabe’s breath.
There was no sign of the shooter, though, and no sign of the werewolf who had led them there. Nothing.
Lee waited, even though patience wasn’t his strong suit, hiding out to see if anyone came after Gabe, which would be logical since he was the wounded prey.
No one came.
Lee went to see to Gabe, who lay in the small clearing, on his side, blood spattered around him. When Lee got close though, Gabe sprang up, shaking like he’d been doused with water. They stared at each other, Gabe’s head tilting, for long moments before Lee scented the air one last time and turned tail, heading out after Danny and Heather, needing to make sure they were safe.
Whoever this guy was, he was not only a coward, threatening Lee and his mates. He was endangering the whole pack by enlisting some very human help. If Lee had thought it was a matter for Logan before, now he knew he had to make Logan aware of this new development as fast as he could.
Every single one of them was in danger when regular humans entered the picture.
Epilogue
Sun. Sand. Heather in a bikini.
Danny had never imagined he’d be so glad to see spring break come. The second full moon had passed since that first attack, and things had gone from bad to worse.
Two werewolves had died since whoever it was after them had shot at Lee, Heather and him, and they were no closer to finding the culprit. Shit, in a place like Mystic U and Wolf Creek, it should have been easy as pie, but it just wasn’t.
Logan was about to foam at the mouth.
Simon had been the one to suggest that they all go to the beach for spring break, and Lee had agreed wholeheartedly. Danny hadn’t really realized how much stress they had all been living with until they got to Padre, settling into their rented condo with the private pool.