Remy's Wolf (Wolves of Mt. Alexis, 1) (3 page)

Hank looked at the
crumpled heap of man on the floor. The things the guy had said ran
over and over in his mind.
Like the
others.
What did that mean? Had this
guy—Hank leaned down to the dude’s pants and fished out his wallet,
taking a peek at the license—Aaron Collins killed other men? Hank
kicked the leftover clothing and closed his eyes tight when he saw
the park ranger patch on the shoulder of the guy’s
shirt.

He tossed the shirt into the fire and
once it lit up, he tossed it on the couch and watched it start to
smolder. After that, he took the guy’s pants and did the same,
tossing them on top the old wood table. Once every piece of
leftover clothing was burning in some part of the house, he
prepared to leave. As he was about to head out the door, he caught
the scent of his mate once more. He followed it quickly back to the
couch and when he looked under the flaming mass, he saw a cell
phone.

Hank picked up the phone and ran from
the burning house. He put the phone in his mouth and shifted,
running through the woods and back up the side of the mountain.
Once he had cleared the valley ledge and he got into the rockier
terrain, he paused to look over at the cabin. Flames had engulfed
the entire structure, the angry reds, yellows, and golds reached
high into the night sky and illuminated the area. He didn’t stay
long to watch, though. Hank raced on until he reached the edges of
his pack’s territory.

Only then did he feel safe. Yet he
kept running until he got back to his den. Once there, he shifted
back into human form, dropped the cell on his bed, and moved into
the shower to wash the blood and sweat from his body. He languished
there in the shower for hours, wanting to rub his skin raw, as it
would be a better alternative than how he felt on the
inside.

Already he ached to claim his mate. He
climbed out of the shower, and his gaze drifted to the phone on his
bed. He stared at it as he toweled himself dry. It was a link to
the human. With it, he could potentially find who the man was and
bring him on wolf territory where Hank could protect
him.

Kicking and screaming if he had
to.

Chapter Three

Hank awoke the following morning sore
as hell with a certain human on his mind. His cock was still hard
after a crappy night of sleep. He gave it a quick pump with his
fist, aggravated beyond all that he’d let his mate drive off into
the night. Right now, he could be shoving his erection deep into
the man and making him scream with delight. Instead he lay there
alone without the promise of satisfaction.

An insistent knocking sounded on his
door, and he rose from his bed. He scrubbed a hand over his face
and grabbed a pair of shorts from the chair by his bed. The
knocking sounded again, this time even more impatient.

“
Alright, already. I’m
coming,” Hank growled as he stumbled to the door. He whipped it
open to yell at whoever was knocking, but sucked in the words as he
saw two state police officers and a park ranger standing there with
his brother, Ty.

“
Morning, Hank. The
officers wanted to talk to everyone and see if they saw anything
unusual last night.” Ty’s eyebrow rose as he looked at Hank. “I
just brought ‘em around to you.”

“
What kind of unusual are
we looking for?” Hank asked offhandedly as he leaned into the
doorframe, eyeing the assembled men and not offering for them to
come in. Hank didn’t much care for humans, and he cared even less
for them to be on wolf ground.

One of the troopers cleared his
throat. “There was a fire last night over on the preserve. A ranger
died in it. Just wondering if anyone saw anything out of the
ordinary. Anything suspicious.”

Hank gave the man a once over before
inhaling the air. The cops were just doing their due diligence. If
they’d wanted Hank, their adrenaline levels would be up and they
weren’t. That allowed him to relax a bit and slap on a look of
sympathy. “Sorry to hear about the fire. I was at home all night
and didn’t see anything but the bottom of a couple bottles of
beer.”

The trooper nodded as he
looked about the place, or what he could see of it. “If you find
anything out here in your little
commune
, you best let us know. Come
on, boys, let’s get out of here.”

The three men turned and walked toward
the police cruisers parked in the circle drive that faced all of
the cabins in this part of the den. Just before they got in, the
ranger turned back to Ty and Hank. “Oh, we also found a bunch of
prints near the fire. They look like wolf, and they headed toward
your land, so you might want to keep an eye out.”

Ty nodded to the ranger. “Appreciate
the head’s up. We’ll keep an eye out.”

Hank watched the officers leave
alongside his brother. “Did that asshole really just call us a
hippie commune?”

Ty didn’t say anything, just watched
the dust settle as the cars moved out of sight. As soon as they
were gone, Ty pushed Hank inside the house and closed the door. “Do
you wanna tell me what that was all about?”

“
I don’t kno—”

“
Don’t fuck with me, Hank.
I can smell smoke in here.” Ty crossed his massive arms over his
chest and glared at Hank. “Give it to me.”

Hank took a deep breath, no clue where
to begin. “I scented something and followed it onto the preserve. I
ended up at one of the cabins they have over there. The ranger they
were talking about was raping a guy and planned to kill
him.”

“
So you felt the need to
rush in and play Superman for some
human
. Did you kill that
ranger?”

Hank felt a wave of anger well up in
him. “Was I supposed to let the piece of shit kill the
guy?”

“
You did, didn’t you?
Don’t even bother answering because I see it all over your face.”
Ty threw his hands up in annoyance, clenching his fists. “We
survive out here on our own by staying
away
from humans, not rushing in and
getting our noses where they didn’t belong. If you hadn’t
followed
your
nose, you wouldn’t have ended up on their land. Now you’ve
brought them on ours because you made a stupid, fucking
mistake.”

Hank looked at the floor as Ty began
walking toward the door, trying to decide if he should drop the
bombshell. He wasn’t sure how it would land, but honesty was the
best policy, right? “The guy being raped was … my mate.”

Ty spun around, his eyes
wide. “Your mate?” Ty’s gaze went down to the tent in Hank’s pants
and back up to Hank’s eyes. “A
human
?”

“
We don’t choose who is
ours,” Hank said as he released the breath he still held. He had
been sure his brother would be more concerned it was a male versus
the fact the male was human. That point seemed minor in comparison
to his species. “Am I to ignore the call because he’s
human?”

Ty’s face drained of color. “The four
of us … a hundred years waiting for mates. We hide from the human
world to survive, form this pack to keep them at bay, and you end
up finding yours in their domain, not ours. Seems rather ironic,
don’t you think?”

Hank didn’t know how to answer his
brother. He knew Ty was lonely, as they all were after waiting for
so long. “Am I going to have trouble claiming him and bringing him
into the pack?”

Ty looked at Hank, his lips a solid
line, but his gaze speaking volumes. His brother didn’t want Hank
to bring a human into their world. He could see it in Ty’s
face.

“
I’ve waited too long to
turn my back on my mate just because he’s not what I expected, what
any of us expected. I won’t go another hundred years alone,” Hank
stated quietly.

“
Bringing that human here
could mean the end for us. You’d really put us all at risk for
him?” Ty leaned against the wall, his face a mask of shock and
horror.

It wasn’t a matter of risk or loyalty.
A mate was something wolves waited for their whole lives. And
they’d waited longer than most.

“
What would you do if the
roles were reversed?” Hank asked quietly. “What if
your
mate is
human?”

Ty let out a long, slow breath as he
re-crossed his arms as he looked at the floor. “I suppose I would
go claim my mate and bring them back to the compound where I would
know they were safe.” Ty caught Hank’s eye. “Go get
him.”

Hank wanted to hug his brother, but he
fought the urge. He wasn’t into those kinds of shows of emotion.
Instead, he was the worrier. “What about the others? Mitch and Paul
will understand, but the rest of the pack may not.”

“
I’m pack leader, and what
I say goes,” Ty said as he strolled to the door. “We collected a
group of outsiders here and gave them a safe home. We will continue
to give them a safe home. As long as you stop killing park rangers
and burning down cabins, asshole.”

“
As long as park rangers
stay away from my mate, I’ll be good. Scouts honor.” Hank held up
two fingers to his brother as Ty passed him on his way out the
door.

“
Shove those fingers where
the sun don’t shine, bro. And hurry up and go before I change my
mind.” Ty paused with his hand on the knob. “Actually, maybe you
need to take Paul with you. He knows the human world better than
the rest of us. And he can drive you wherever it is you’re going.
It’ll look less suspicious.”

Paul was the only brother with a car
and a driver’s license. They could outrun a car when in wolf form,
so he and his other brothers figured they didn’t need to waste
expense on a gas-guzzling polluter on wheels. Hank nodded, and Ty
walked out the door. As soon as he was gone, Hank went back to the
bedroom and got dressed. On his way out, he grabbed the abandoned
cell phone and headed over to Paul’s cabin.

Hank had no clue where to start
looking for his mate. He didn’t even have a name. All he had was a
scent and a cell phone. Hopefully it would be enough.

Heavy metal music blared from the
place, and Hank had to slam his fist on the door several times
before the volume was turned down. Paul was the one brother who was
fascinated by the human world. He was about to get the shock of his
life when he heard Hank’s news. The door whipped open, and Paul
emerged, sweat pouring off him.

“
Sorry, I was exercising,”
he answered as he used a towel to wipe his face. “What’s
up?”

“
Exercising? You can get
all the exercise you need running through the woods,” Hank said as
he brushed past his younger brother and entered the cabin. The
living room was a wreck with bunches of computer parts and several
laptops flung all over the place. “What is all this?”

“
I’m trying to use spare
parts to supe up mine. I need a new computer, but Ty’s having heart
failure at the thought of me going to go buy one. Not sure why. We
have more money than we know what to do with.”

“
He says you spend too
much time down in the valley as it is, but that’s partially why I’m
here.” Hank smiled at his brother. “You just might get your chance
to go into town, and what Ty doesn’t know won’t kill
him.”

Paul smiled slowly, one eyebrow going
up as he smiled. “And how’s that?”

“
I need to find a human
and fast. All I have is his cell phone, no name.” Hank handed his
brother the lost phone and hoped Paul would know what to do with
it.

Paul gazed at the phone as he took it
and then up at Hank with a look of confusion. “Why are we doing
this? And how did you come by this phone?”

Hank crossed his arms over his chest,
not ready to go into the whole story again just yet. “Can you track
the guy or what?”

Paul flipped his finger over the face
of the phone and began reading over items. “All the numbers are
local, so it stands to reason he is, too. Let me see if he uses
Facebook Mobile … yeah, the guy’s name is Remy Martin.”

Remy.
Hank said the name a few more times in his head, letting the
sound of it fill him. He liked the name. It would sound good
screaming it when he claimed him. “Can you get an address for him
on that thing?”

“
Yes and no. It’s not
easy, so a better place would be to start online and do a quick
search. More than likely there’s some record out there that’ll give
us details.” Paul continued to scroll about on the human’s phone.
“Hey, I know this guy. Well, not know, but I’ve heard of him. He’s
a comic book author and artist. He writes the
Wolf Blade
comic.”

“
Wolf Blade? What the hell
is that?”

Paul laughed. “Humans like
all that paranormal shit. Wolves, vampires, ghouls, all of it.
Humans are fascinated.
Wolf Blade
is a series about a half werewolf, half human who
fights the vampire realm, staking the undead. The artwork is primo.
The guy’s got talent.”

Hank lifted his chin, the thought of
his mate being so talented at something made him feel almost …
proud. A smiled tugged at his lips, but he fought it
off.

Paul walked over to his laptop and
started clicking the keys. Until now, Hank had little need for
connection to the human world, outside the few errands he had to
run to keep the mountain legal. The Internet was something he felt
no need to use, but he felt a sense of regret that he’d had to come
to his brother to find answers. As he walked behind Paul and
watched him navigate their system so easily, he was grateful one of
them had learned how to work it.