Defying Pack Law (2 page)

Laughter filled the room as they continued to
banter back and forth.

Cory, a deck worker, stuck his head inside the
employee break room. “Hey, Dana. The boss wants to see
ya.”

“
Now what?” she grumbled as she
stood up and tossed her half-drunk coffee in the battered garbage
bin.

“
Tell him I got a hot date tonight
and we can’t work late,” Mike called after her as she left to meet
with her boss.

She walked into her foreman’s
office expecting another speech on how the owners expected them to
up production—
blah blah, blah.
In other words, the usual spiel he gave after
every quarterly accounting. But, it seemed complacency was to be
her enemy today because she walked in and froze at the sudden,
unmistakable scent of wolf.

Fuck.
The kid in the office, the only name she had for the
fresh-faced youth standing there, turned to face her, and his eyes
widened. He opened his mouth, probably to say something stupid, and
she gave him a cold glare to shut him up. He obeyed, but she didn’t
miss the interest lighting his expression.

A pity she’d have to douse that spark
of life.

She only half listened to
her boss as he asked her to show the kid around and find a spot for
him to work. His regular training lackey was out sick, and given
the log crews were behind due to machinery malfunctions, the
annoying task of training fell to her.

The pup barely waited until they’d left the
office to announce his intention. “I claim you.”

“
Not likely,” she
snorted.

“
You can’t do that. You’re unmarked,
making you free game to the first male who claims you. Pack law
says so.”

Dana whirled and, in a flash, pinned the
annoying pup against the wall with a forearm across his throat.
“Listen here, little boy. I don’t want to be claimed and really
don’t give a shit what pack law says. In case you hadn’t noticed, I
chose to live outside of one. If you want to live, I’d suggest you
forget about trying to claim me. I’ve taken down much bigger wolves
than you.”

The pup’s face went slack with
astonishment—only for a moment. Then male arrogance—also known as
the dumbass syndrome—once again took over. “You can’t threaten me
like that, and you don’t get to decide what you want. Pack law says
I can claim any unmarked female.”

Dana’s patience snapped, and any squeamish
feelings over what she had to do evaporated with his stance.
“Really? Is that your final answer? Because, just so you know, my
law says any prick who tries to claim me against my will either
loses his dick or dies. So, what’s your choice, puppy, because I’m
losing patience really fucking fast.”

When he would have opened his annoying mouth
again to spout some more nonsense, she kneed him. Where words
tended to not work when a male was thinking with his cock, a dirty
shot tended to wake them up real quick—that and she got sadistic
pleasure out of seeing them gasp for air and turn all kinds of
shades of purple.

She sauntered away, noting with her keen senses
that he followed, if unhappily. He said not one more word to her as
she went through the motions of showing him around. She didn’t care
if he retained anything or not. He wouldn’t live to see the
morning.

Her decision to take him out didn’t please her,
but she knew his type. She’d dealt with them before. Only one thing
stopped them once they scented her—death.

Something alerted her coworkers to her
simmering anger, probably her tight jaw and flashing eyes, because
the regular crews refrained from saying anything to her face about
her little shadow. It didn’t stop them, though, from snickering
behind her back when they thought she couldn’t hear—wolves, even in
human form, had much keener senses, including enhanced auditory
ones. The mill workers joked about how she’d whip the new boy into
shape. If they only knew.

She clocked out at five o’clock, but got hung
up by one of the guys who grabbed her by the arm and teased her
about her unwilling trainee. By the time she managed to extricate
herself, the young wolf was gone.

“
Fuck, fuck, and fuck again.” She
muttered expletives under her breath as she stalked to her
beaten-up truck. She scanned the parking lot, more a mud pit with
various pieces of rusted crap sitting on tires. She didn’t find the
pup. Hell, he could have been sitting right under her nose, but
given she didn’t even know what he drove, and the overpowering
stench from the mill, she couldn’t even track him. However, there
were only two places in town to rent rooms, the majority of which
were held by mill workers. She didn’t figure he’d be hard to find.
Unless he’d smartly left town.

Two hours later, after scouring the small town
several times over, including the diner, bar, and pharmacy, she
gave up. The pup seemed to have disappeared, taking the news of her
existence with him. She drove home in simmering silence. She wanted
to believe he’d left, moved on to greener and easier pastures. Her
gut, however, said he’d be back, and she’d bet he was the type to
bring friends.

Pulling into her drive, she hit the gas too
hard and spit up gravel with her spinning tires. Not that she card
if she left a rut. The next owner could take care of it. It was
time to move on. Dana slammed out of her truck and stalked into her
house.

Un-fucking-believable.
Forced to leave because of a wet-behind-the-ears
pup. Cursing and rigid with alert tension, she first checked her
laptop for any signs of a perimeter breach. None of the alarms had
been tripped—yet. She began throwing clothes into a duffel bag, a
plan abandoned as the rumble of engines approached. She took a
quick peek out her window and saw them coming up her drive. One
vehicle, two . . .

Dana dropped her duffel bag and ran for the
back door. She flew outside, tearing at her clothes as she sprinted
across her back lawn.

She smelled the wolves before she saw them. Her
eyes flicked from side to side, scanning her yard. She discovered a
pair of them flanking the rear of the house. She vaguely wondered
how they’d evaded setting off her sensors, but didn’t ponder it for
long. One thought took precedence at this point—survival. It didn’t
take a genius to figure out that they’d planned to either flush her
out into their waiting, furry net, or at the very least corral her
in a noose of werewolves, hoping numbers would take her
down.

Like hell
.
She shifted while running, a feat that had taken practice given the
pain and distraction of exchanging one body for another. But her
self-inflicted lessons served her well as the approaching wolves
faltered in surprise. She didn’t waste the moment. She took off
like a bat out of hell, following the escape route that existed
purely in her mind, one ripe with pitfalls for the
unwary.

She hit the shadows offered by the towering
trees, the sound of pursuit hot on her heels. But she’d planned for
this. She veered sharply to the left and gauged her footfalls to
avoid the innocuous pile of leaves. She cleared the trap she’d set
and sent up a quick prayer.

A yelp sounded from behind her, and she would
have grinned had she not been intent on her getaway. One down, God
only knew how many more to go.

The summer sun, close to setting, colored the
woods a panoply of colors, but she was more interested in the
increasing murk. She turned sharply again, moving in a zigzag
pattern that brought her to a small stream, and while she hated the
noise of her passage, she knew that this liquid trail would throw
them off for a bit.

On and on she ran, her sides
heaving, her tongue lolling, weaving in and out of the forest she’d
grown to know. She avoided the trenches, snares, and holes she’d
dug in her preparation for this day, all the while cursing the
males who forced her to run.
Why does the
word ‘no’ just not exist in their vocabulary? Even better, why
couldn’t I have been born human?

Wishing, though, did nothing to
change her fate. She could only rely on herself and her will to
survive—oh, and the nasty booby traps she’d laid. She wasn’t going
down without a fight. Occasionally she would hear a howl or a yelp
as one of her pursuers met some of her hidden treats, but she
didn’t dare slow. Her gut screamed,
Danger
, and urged her to keep
going.

Night fell, and she still kept moving, her gait
slowing as the adrenaline began to wear off. She’d put miles
between herself and the house she’d abandoned. Not far enough.
Needing to rehydrate herself, she stopped for a quick drink and
listened for sounds of pursuit.

The night surrounded her in an eerie quiet.
Even the insects kept their silence. Dana didn’t like it one bit.
She took off again, slower, as she decided to forgo speed in favor
of stealth.

She kept inhaling deeply, her nose sorting the
many distracting scents. Nothing untoward appeared, and yet,
something didn’t seem right. The air hung too still. The forest
seemed to hold its breath in an unnatural silence.

Trotting across a circular clearing bordered by
towering trees, the sense of wrongness amplified, but before she
could backtrack into the shadows, bodies fell from the trees and
landed with thumps all around her.

Dana danced in place, her mind
screaming at her for stupidly walking into a well-laid ambush. The
naked men of varying sizes closed in on her, strangers all except
for one, young pup.
That little bastard.
He’ll be the first to die.

She lunged at the youth who’d betrayed her,
barely noticing his eyes widening in shock before she caught his
throat in her teeth. He didn’t have time to shift—he died that
quickly, with his blood spurting hotly and enticingly in her mouth.
Her human side recoiled from the pleasure of the kill, but with her
beast in control, she couldn’t prevent the elation and thrill. She
didn’t rejoice long.

Heavy, furry bodies slammed into her, tearing
her from their dead pack mate.

Dana fought for her life, snapping her teeth
and ripping at any flesh she could clamp her jaw around. Not that
it mattered. They were careful not to kill her, but their sheer
numbers and strength battered her. Blow after ringing blow hit her.
She staggered, determined not to give up. Human arms wrapped around
her neck and cut off her air supply.

In a panic, she shifted, trying to use the
defense moves she’d learned to unlock the chokehold—to no
avail.

“
Feisty little bitch. We’re going to
enjoy taking turns with you and beating out your
defiance.”

The speaker thrust himself against her
backside, his sickening arousal evident. Dana thrashed, fear
finally overcoming her courage, her scream of horror caught in her
throat. More and more hands grabbed at her, and though she fought
with all her strength, she couldn’t escape. They kept piling on
top, copping painful feels and cracking a few ribs in the process.
Pinned to the ground, each lungful of air became sharp pain in her
chest, and her dizziness grew.

“
Enough!” their leader yelled. “We
don’t have time for this. We’re not the only ones about this night.
Don’t worry. We’ll all get a turn at her sweet cunt. Save your
energy for when we get back to the house. You’re gonna need it to
win your spot in the hierarchy of who’s gonna get to fuck the
little bitch first.”

Cheers erupted, which transitioned into howls,
as the bastards cheered this announcement.

Dana moaned, unable to stop the
creeping terror that enhanced the pain that threatened to drag her
down in its grip. She feared blacking out and waking a victim of
their perverted lust. She was yanked to her feet, her vision
blurry, but not enough to miss the leering faces all about her.
Turned upside down and thrown roughly over a hairy shoulder, the
excruciating agony against her abused ribs finally made her succumb
to blackness. As her eyes lost focus and drifted shut, she couldn’t
stop one last panicked thought.
Please,
don’t let me wake.
She feared the nightmare
to come if she did.

Chapter
Two

Close, so fucking close.
And once again, she’d outsmarted him and his pack.
He should have placed more men at the rear of her house. He should
have snuck up with them instead of coming to the front, hoping he
could accomplish his task with words instead of force. He should
have known better.

Did she hate him so much
still?
Is she still so unwilling to
forgive?
He’d had years to revise his
stance, to get into a position of power where he made the rules,
and changed them to suit his purpose.

The mad dash through the woods had
cost him time and men. Even he had been forced to slow his chase
because of her cleverness and ruthlessness in setting effective
traps. She’d obviously prepared for this day, a fact that didn’t
hearten him. But it also wouldn’t stop him.
Baby, when are you going to understand you are
mine?

He howled as he bounded into a
clearing with a heavy stench of blood. The dark fluid soaked the
ground, painting it black. The blood and the violence it implied
didn’t disturb him half as much as the scent he distinguished from
the rest.
Her scent.