ALPHA SHIFTER: Protected By The Alphas (Alpha Werewolf Shifter Menage Romance) (Paranormal Werewolves & Shifters Romance Short Stories Book 1) (2 page)

              Each day became something new for Molly. She learned that the pack of wolves Gavin and Tom led were different from ordinary wolves. They weren’t werewolves, like the two alphas, but they were far more intelligent than other animals. They understood specific howls, barks, and growls that Tom and Gavin gave and could even recognize them when the alphas were in human form.

              There were times where either Tom or Gavin would take her out to the forest, but only to the edges where the mansion was still in sight, so she could meet with the members of the pack. Tom later explained that each pack had its own hierarchy and that priorities were given to those highest on the ladder.

              However, Tom and Gavin also explained that the common notion of a wolf pack is wrong. There are no real alpha wolves in a pack. They are simply parents and the rest of the pack are their cubs. When the cubs are old enough, they branch of, mate, and form a pack of their own. Strength and dominance doesn’t make a wolf the leader of his pack – being a parent does.

              Their pack was a little different since both Tom and Gavin were males. They couldn’t mate and so the members of their pack aren’t their children. Instead, these wolves are “adopted” animals. They were the weakling siblings of different packs and Tom and Gavin brought them in and took care of them. In essence, they became the parents of these stray wolves and trained them to become a powerful unit.

              First she met the wolf that ranked the highest, Helen. During an attack, Tom and Gavin would split the team into two: there was a diversion team and an assault team. Helen was often tasked as the striker because she was the largest and strongest of her foster siblings. She also got the largest share of the meat once Tom and Gavin had their fill.

              Then there were Kyle and Rick. These two wolves were often tasked as den guards. Many animals lived in the forest and some were scavengers that would steal the food the pack had worked hard to get. These two wolves would keep the food safe. When it came to assaults, they were the ones that attacked from the sides. Their bites wouldn’t instantly kill but that’s never their purpose anyway – they have to keep biting so that a large animal, like the bear, would weaken from excessive bleeding.

              Last was Sheila. She wasn’t the weakest per se but she was the most docile. Gavin told me she was born in captivity. The zoo that kept her couldn’t handle another wolf so they had to let her free in the wild. She would have died out there alone but Tom found her and took her in.

              Molly would spend time with them, petting them and feeding them, and soon they warmed up to her as much as they did to their alphas. Sometimes she wished they could speak to; they would have a lot to say, she figured. Perhaps Kyle and Rick would please her too if they could transform into a human. She even imagined what it would be like if she was with Rick, Kyle, Tom, and Gavin all at the same time in one bed. The thought brought a wicked smile to her face.

              Sleeping with four men… sleeping with four
wolf-men
. She would laugh at herself and wonder how she had grown so wild these past few weeks but all it took was a glance at Tom and Gavin to figure out her answers.

              She wished it could be like this forever. Yet Molly quickly learned to never become complacent – that was when the worst things in the world could happen.

              One morning Molly was on top of Gavin’s lap, sharing a passionate kiss with him when Tom stormed into the bedroom with a worried look sprawled all over his face. His shirt was torn and he was covered in sweat.

              “Tom!” Molly exclaimed when she saw him. She immediately hopped off Gavin and stood with her hands to her mouth.

              “What happened?” Gavin asked as he too rose to his feet.

              Tom immediately came forward and kissed both on the lips before he answered, “My loves… I am sorry. I-I did my best but… but…”

              “Tom, what is it?” Molly asked again as she hugged him close to her.

              Tom began to shudder as tears flowed from his eyes, “I-it’s Sheila… she was taken.”

              Gavin held Tom by the shoulder and demanded, “What do you mean, she was taken?”

              Tom looked back and met Gavin in the eye, “The bear. That bear we killed, it had a mate; female, large, and angry and it even had an adult pair of children with it. We couldn’t handle three large bears, Gavin. We just couldn’t!”

              Gavin rubbed Tom’s back and tried his best to comfort him, “We’ll get her back.”

              “I’ll come too. I can bring Jared’s gun with me.” Molly said.

              Both Tom and Gavin spun to look at her and exclaimed simultaneously, “No!”

              “Our job is to protect you,” Gavin told her. “We will not deliberately bring you closer to harm’s way.”

              Molly pushed herself away from the two men and told them directly with a firm tone, “You’re supposed to protect me, so if I go out there to help Sheila the only way you’ll be able to do your job is to come with me.”

              Tom and Gavin looked at each other as they both knew that at this point there was no way to dissuade Molly from her decision.

              “Get your gun,” Gavin told her, “and get dressed.”

              The large back doors of the mansion flung open as Molly walked out in a tight pair of denim shorts and a loose white tank top. She had Jared’s shotgun strapped to her shoulder and a long hunting knife holstered to her waist.

              As she strode out, Tom and Gavin ran past her. In a blink of an eye she saw them shed their clothes on the ground and transform into a pair of large, hulking gray wolves. Tom stayed by her side while Gavin scouted out ahead.

              They entered the forest and almost immediately were greeted by the rest of the pack. Helen, Kyle and Rick were darting to and fro as they waited for Molly, Tom, and Gavin to catch up. As soon as they did Helen darted out, indicating which way the bears had taken Sheila.

              What Molly couldn’t understand was why the bears would even take Sheila instead of killing her. Bears weren’t the types of animals to keep prisoners. They mostly ate fish and small animals. Attacking and kidnapping a wolf was not natural to a bear, let alone to three of them.

              They crossed a small creek and past a small glade. Molly could see the pathway beyond a small bend which led to the wolves’ den. Helen didn’t stop for home though, and just ran past all that to make sure she wouldn’t lose Sheila’s scent.

              Gavin once explained that a wolf pack’s territory normally stretched for a 30-mile radius. That would be a long run if the bears were beyond their hold, which was most likely since wolves and bears never get along.

              Crash.

              All of a sudden Helen crashed through a hole in the ground. Her yelp and howl pierced the sky.

              Molly rushed in and found Helen lying in a deep hole. Her left hind leg seemed sprained and she couldn’t get up.

Gavin transformed into his human form the moment he saw Helen’s predicament. He stood there, naked as the day he was born, and said, “We need to get her out of there. She’ll die if she stays there too long. Other animals will find her or maybe even humans. This trap looks like it was made by humans.”

That didn’t make any sense to Molly. “But our home is the only place here for miles on end,” she said. “That’s why Jared likes it here. That’s why we live here. We’re supposed to be isolated.”

That’s when Tom noticed what was wrong. He too transformed into his human form and signaled both Kyle and Rick to guard their perimeters.

“Gav, look,” Tom pointed to one of the nearby trees. Molly and Gavin looked closely and found claw marks on the tree trunks.

“You think the bears made this trap?” Molly asked.

Gavin spat in anger, “These aren’t bears. They’re shifters too, like us.”

“Were-bears?” Molly asked.

Tom shook his head, “Don’t call them that. It sounds disgusting darling.”

“Well, can they be killed?” Molly again asked.

“In their bear form, we wouldn’t stand a chance,” Gavin answered. “And besides, we need to get Helen out of there first.”

Tom took some twigs from the ground, “We’ll have to come back for her. We can cover the hole for the mean time. That will stop other animals from finding her. Maybe these shifters have some equipment we can use to get her out of there. After all, they made this trap, right? That means they should have some way of retrieving what they caught.”

“You’re assuming we can kill them,” Gavin said. “Tom, I love you but we’re dealing with three bears here. One bear is already a day’s work for a pack of wolves and we’re down to just four instead of six. There are at least three shifters out there. It’s too much for us to handle.”

“Too much for
you
to handle,” Molly corrected. “I have a plan boys.”

“This doesn’t sound good,” Tom exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Molly replied. “You’re still going to do it anyway. So… here’s how it goes…”

              The sea of emerald trees broke into a small clearing, a lone spot where the sun could shine through and cast its warmth into the depths of the forest. In this lone glade was a creek that winded down from north-west to the south, bringing with it fresh fish and drinking water. Beside it, right next to the line of trees that walled the glade, was an extinguished camp fire.

              A single pot was on the ground, empty now but for the remains of a stew that had gone cold over the past hour. Beside it was a stake driven to the ground and tied to that stake was Sheila.

              The young wolf did not struggle. She simply kept herself to the ground, surrendering herself to her fate. But then her ears s hot up as she heard footsteps as they crackled twigs. When she looked, she saw three humans emerge from the tree line.

              One was an old woman, perhaps in her late forties. She had wild red hair and though old she had an alluring beauty to her. Perhaps it was her figure or the way her breasts bounced with her every step.

              The other two were young males, both in their early twenties. They seemed like her children since they both looked like her, with the same black eyes and fiery red hair. All of them walked naked and it was only after a while did Sheila figure out that they were the bears that snared her with their elusive traps.

              One of the males sat on a log. His member dangled between his legs and he held onto it with one hand. “What do with her?” he asked his mother.

              “Keep her alive, at least for now,” she replied as she sat down beside him. “They’ll come for her.” The other male took his spot beside her and all three took a moment to soak in the warmth of the sun on their skins.

              “Help!”

              All three stood up the moment they heard the voice call out.

              Molly suddenly emerged from the tree line, her tank top ripped, exposing her breasts. She ran frantically, as she if was running away from someone, but tripped on one of the logs. When she fell to the ground she panicked and scrambled to get back on her feet but she only bumped straight into the mother.

              “Hey, hey,” the woman said as she wrapped her arms around Molly. “What happened?”

              Molly shuddered and tried to fight back tears as she replied, “I was being chased by someone… a man… he was going to r-rape me!”

              “You’ll be safe here,” said one of the young males. Yet as he spoke he realized that all three of them were naked. Immediately his hands shot down to cover his exposed cock and balls.

              That was when Molly took notice. She took a step back from the mother and asked, “W-who are you people? Why are you all naked here in the middle of the forest?”

              “We live here,” the mother calmly answered. “No man can hurt you here.”

              “Lucky we’re not men,” said a deep male voice.

              Everyone turned around in shock. The three shifters and Molly saw Gavin standing at the other end of the glade holding Jared’s shotgun. Before anyone could make a move Gavin fired. The male still sitting on a log barely could scream before the shells blew his back and chest wide open. In an instant he flopped to the ground, dead.

              “No!” the mother screamed but her voice choked just a moment later when she felt a sharp pain shoot through her body. When she turned back she realized Molly had stabbed her with her hunting knife, straight into the chest.

              The mother fell to the ground and her body convulsed as she began to wildly shift from human to bear and back to her human form. Her cries drowned out Molly’s hearing but could not stop Molly from finishing the job. Molly walked closer and stomped on the mother shifter’s chest, pushing the knife even deeper. Before long it found its way to her heart and the shifter died.

              When Molly took a step back she saw a mangled corpse that was neither human or bear. It was disgusting but it also made her feel triumphant. She was just a female human but her wits helped her kill a powerful alpha were-bear.

              “Mother!” the remaining shifter screamed. He shifted into his bear form and charged towards Molly. There was nothing left for him to say or do – there was just a target to kill.

              Yet as he got closer he felt a pang of pain rush through his body, stopping his blood-rush assault. The bear stumbled and crashed to the ground. When he looked up he found a wolf-shifted Tom staring back at him, blood flowing from his fangs. The werewolf had taken a strong bite out of the bear’s hind leg.

              Staring at Tom for too long was a bad idea. Preoccupied, the bear did not notice Kyle attack from the side. The smaller wolf took a snap at the bear’s chest. Before the bear could retaliate Kyle had ducked and stepped out of the way. Distracted, the bear did not see Rick as he came from behind and took another bite at the wound opened by Tom.

              The three wolves took their turns torturing the remaining bear. As the bear grew slower with the loss of blood, it also grew less aware of its dire situation. It was almost a pity that Gavin stepped in from behind and shot the bear point black behind its head.

              Molly, on the other hand, was working to free Sheila from her bonds. With the same knife she used to kill the mother shifter, Molly broke the ropes that tied Sheila. Almost immediately Sheila pounced on her and covered her face with warm licks.

              “Hey,” Molly exclaimed between her laughs. “Go on, girl.”

              “Hey, I found something.”

              Molly looked up and saw Gavin going through the stuff lying about the ground. “What is it?” she asked.

              “A lot more rope than what they used for Sheila,” he answered. “We can use this to get Helen out of that hole.”

              “Let’s do it,” Molly said. “Then let’s go home. I want to… I… w-want to…” Suddenly Molly collapsed to the ground. Tom, Gavin, and the pack rushed to her side.

              Gavin and Tom gasped at the same time the moment they saw what was wrong.

              “Molly,” Gavin whispered. “You’re bleeding!”

              “H-how?”

              Tom pointed to her shorts. They were torn and blood had just begun to gush out. “That mother… she must have clawed you.”

              “Impossible,” Molly stated. “I stabbed her in the heart.”

              “Things were moving so fast,” Gavin said. “You probably didn’t even feel it with all that adrenaline rushing in you. C’mon, we need to go now. Tom will work with Sheila, Rick, and Kyle to help Helen. I’m going to take you straight to the mansion.”