Savage Moon: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 4) (3 page)

He crossed his arms in front of him and took a step
forward, leaning toward me. “Or, I’ll take what I want whether you want it or
not. I said I’d prefer you came to me willingly. I didn’t say it was
necessary.”

I balled my hands into fists at my sides to keep
from scratching his eyes out.

“Next full moon, Olivia. That’s as long as I’ll
wait.”

I stepped away from him until I had my back pressed
against the opposite wall. I couldn’t breathe. Could barely see past the
boiling rage mixed with fear. He would force me. He would bite me again and
claim me even though he’d sworn he wouldn’t. Just one more lie to stack like
cordwood with the others he told me.

“Get out,” I said, knowing full well I couldn’t make
him leave. But, I was done pretending tonight.

Kane’s smile didn’t leave his face as he reached
into the pocket of his pants. He pulled out his phone and swiped his finger
across the screen. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. I thought maybe
you’d come to your senses without me having to do this. But, you can’t lie to
me. I know you’re plotting another chance to try and run. So, here’s a little
further incentive.”

He held the phone out to me. From the edge of my vision
I could see he’d opened it to a photograph. The air hung thick between us and
some childish part of me wished I could make the image go away if I just didn’t
look at it. But, I wasn’t a child. I kept my hand remarkably steady as I
reached out and took the phone from Kane.

I hurt. From the roots of my hair to the tips of my
toes, fire raced through my veins. My fingers did tremble then as my eyes
combed over every inch of the image he showed me.

Jaxson.

My strong, beautiful brother, Jax. His dark hair,
normally soft with natural waves stuck to his forehead now, pasted there with
sweat. He laid on his side, his body curled halfway into a fetal position.
Heavy metal shackles circled his wrists and neck. They were connected to a
heavy chain bolted to the center of the cement floor on which he lay.

His bright, clear eyes had dulled as he winced in
pain. God. His
eyes
. I spread my fingers over the screen to zoom in on
his face. He was in pain. Yes. But there was something else. Something worse. I
squeezed my own eyes shut and Jaxson’s handsome face swam in my mind. Keen,
bright brown eyes that flashed dark when he was angry or passionate about
something. He was drugged. He had to be. No way Jax could keep his bear in
check if he were fully feeling the pain he was in, much less let somebody
shackle him like that.

I dropped the phone.

“He’s well. For now,” Kane said as he leaned down
and picked up the phone. The screen shattered, but Kane simply pocketed it and
reached out to run his fingers along my shoulder. I would have flinched if I
hadn’t gone numb.

“How long he stays well depends on you.”

Then Kane leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the
forehead that set my nerves on fire.

Chapter
Four

Kane left and I tore at the collar of my shirt. It
felt heavy and constricting, as if I could feel the phantom pain of my
brother’s shackles. I sank to my knees at the edge of the bed and prayed.
Something I hadn’t done, at least not formally like this, since I was a child.

“Jaxson,” I whispered as I lowered my head and
pressed it against the thin sheets. “This is all my fault.”

I wondered what would have happened if I’d made it
across the lake tonight. Would Kane have hurt Jax just to spite me? For weeks .
. . months . . . I’d lived with the fear of what had happened to my brother.
First, he’d stopped answering my texts and phone calls. Then, Kane took my
phone away. I knew in my heart what must have happened. He had probably come
looking for me. Kane set a trap. I shuddered to think what Kane had to have
done to overtake Jaxson. Had the rest of the pack gone along with it? God. Kane
was their Alpha. Just like me, he could take away their power to choose for
themselves. Which meant any hope I harbored that one of them might help me when
the time came withered.

I stayed in the cabin alone, but I couldn’t sleep.
Hours later, when sunlight stabbed through the gap in the curtain, I finally
decided to venture out. Kane left me alone, but he wouldn’t for long. Most
days, he kept me close. I played ranger station secretary and dispatcher,
answering calls and filing paperwork while he worked out of the office.
Sometimes, he’d take me on patrol with him. The best days were when he’d let me
stay behind with another member of the pack to watch over me.

I threw on a clean pair of white shorts and a tank
top and headed across the compound barefoot, dangling my tennis shoes in one
hand. Someone should have come for me. If not Kane, then one of the others. It
wasn’t like him to leave me alone for this long. I heard voices coming from the
cabin near at the northern edge of the compound. We used it as a mess hall, though
I often did the cooking.

“You’ll double up tonight.” Kane’s voice. Deep and
stern. “If he crosses the boundary lines again, we’ll be ready.”

I froze. A large oak tree stood in the center of the
compound, and I pressed my shoulder against it, hiding. Foolish, maybe. Kane
and the pack could sense me easily enough from this distance. But they seemed
more interested in their heated conversation.

“Wade, are you sure you couldn’t tell anything from
his scent?”

Wade was Kane’s number one. He was thick and
menacing, with a deeply tanned, shaved head and a dark goatee. It made him look
like the devil himself. In some ways, I was more afraid of Wade than I was of
Kane. He was unpredictable. Violent. Deadly. Where Kane at least saw the
political value of keeping me around, Wade just resented me. He spent more time
in his wolf than the others. It made him unstable, in my opinion. But no one
ever asked.

“He was careful. Probably came from the water.
Whoever he was, he didn’t want us to know too much about him. That alone is
enough to make me think this can’t be good."

“We should reach out to the other packs,” Christian
said. From my close proximity, I could sense the turmoil in the pack at his
question. He’d voiced an unpopular opinion. One that seemed reasonable. Kane
would no doubt reject it, and his two closest lieutenants in the pack, Wade and
Brandon, would back him up.

“That’s the last thing we need,” Kane said. “We take
care of our own business out here. And the other packs know the rules. If they
choose not to abide by them, then I’m not going to think twice about dealing
with it in whatever way I see fit. I have that right and they know it.”

“Did anyone get a good look at him?” Daniel spoke
up. I edged closer so I could see through the window, but kept myself shielded
behind the tree. If anyone saw me, I could claim a version of the truth. They
were discussing pack business; I could assume Kane would want me close by but
on the outside. Daniel pushed his glasses up his long, hawk-like nose. Of all
of them, he looked the least like a werewolf of any shifter I’d ever known.
Tall and wiry, he looked more like a banker or an accountant. You’d expect him
to shift into a badger, not a wolf. But his wolf was useful to the pack in ways
that surprised me. Though not the strongest in the pack, he was by far the
quickest. If my white wolf stranger had been able to outrun Daniel, he was very
fast indeed.

“No,” Christian said and Kane let out a noise of
disgust. It was like him to blame the rest of the pack for not catching the
white wolf, even though he’d been out there right alongside them. “I can’t even
say for sure who or what he was. Shifter, for sure. But that’s all I could
smell.”

I couldn’t suppress my smile. The white wolf had
outsmarted him. Whatever he’d been up to last night. He’d stayed by the water,
covered himself in the scent of whatever he’d killed. It meant he knew how to
evade notice from the pack. I could learn from that. If only I could figure out
a way to break Kane’s tenuous mental link to me. If I had any hope of doing
that at all, he’d set the timeline. By the next full moon he meant to mark me
again whether I liked it or not.

“You sure it’s not Caleb Lord?” Daniel said, and my heart
tripped in my chest. I held my breath so I wouldn’t miss a word of what Kane
said next.

Kane let out a snort of derision that made me wish I
had shifter strength. I wanted to curl my fingers around his neck and shake off
the look of scorn I knew he had on his face. “Caleb knows better. He might be
big, he might be strong. But he’s slow. No way he would have been able to
outrun us. No. The day the
Lord of the Bears
decides to charge into this
camp is the day he’s decided he wants to die.”

My stomach roiled and I doubled over. I wanted to
vomit. Caleb was my father. My strong, stubborn, proud father. Contempt dripped
from Kane’s mouth as he said “Lord of the Bears.” He was no such thing. Not in
the way Kane insinuated. Lord was just a family name, not a title. He’d earned
respect from the other werebears in the region. It wasn’t a birthright.
Something Kane would never understand. He ruled by brute force, fear, and
aggression. But, my father was fierce and powerful in his own right. That is,
until Kane came into our lives and destroyed everything.

“When’s the last time you spoke to Caleb?” Christian
asked. I pressed my forehead against the rough tree bark and tried to slow my
breathing.

“Last week or the one before that.”

My knees gave out and I sank to the ground. A week
ago? God, what had he told my father? Did he know about my brother? It would
kill him.
Kill
him if he saw that same picture I did. If my father
blamed me for it, I would understand. I brought Kane into our lives. I let him
close.
I
gave him the power to take away everything that had held my
father together since the day my mother died. The same day I was born.

“And
talking
isn’t what I’d call it,” Kane
said. “He spent most of the time staring into a beer bottle. No. That wasn’t
Caleb last night. It was someone else. Is there anyone here who really believes
we aren’t dealing with a trespasser?”

“Olivia?”

I jumped. Cole stepped forward and hooked a gentle
hand under my elbow, urging me to my feet. He’d come from behind me. God, I’d
been careless. I should have counted heads in the cabin. Cole had soft brown
eyes and a smiling face. It almost pained me to look at him. As if I hurt so
badly inside I couldn’t take the slightest kindness. He cocked his head to the
side and curled his fingers around my arm.

“Are you all right?”

I wanted to rage and scream.
Don’t ask me that.
How
can
you ask me that?
Cole saw it. He and his brother Christian
suffered the worst treatment from Kane. They knew what he was and how he led.
Every time Kane was near, Cole and Christian would shoot me looks of concern
and empathy. But, they were powerless to help me. Kane was their Alpha. Those
cursed looks of pity were all they could offer me. I wanted none of it.

“I’m fine,” I said, pulling my arm from his grasp.
“Was there an intruder last night?” I played dumb. Maybe Cole would slip and
tell me what he knew about the white wolf. “The pack is talking about it. Is
there trouble? Should I prepare for something?”

I put a light smile on my face. Cole couldn’t read
me like Kane could. My bond with his Alpha wasn’t that strong. Not yet. But,
when Kane marked me again, that could change. Then, I’d never be safe around
any member of the pack. They could sense my moods, perhaps even read my
thoughts and communicate them to Kane in a telepathic instant. For now, though,
I could hide my feelings. Cole was kindhearted enough to believe me. I hated
him for it just a little. Wade was easier. Black and white. I could just hate
him. Cole, Christian, and even Daniel were harder. They had good inside of
them.

Cole parted his lips and took a breath. Then,
something came over his eyes and he clamped his mouth shut. It was Kane. I knew
it. He transmitted some message to Cole I couldn’t hear. A pained look went
through his eyes and he clenched his jaw. Then, Cole reached out and took my
arm again.

“Come on,” he said. “Kane’s waiting. We need to get
inside.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” I planted my feet
in a wide stance, daring Cole to use more force. He narrowed his eyes then
flicked a look toward the cabin.

“What are you doing?” he whispered through gritted
teeth. His fingers tightened around my arm.

“I have a right to know what’s going on, Cole.”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to take it up with
Kane.” He put a hand to his forehead and rubbed his brow. “Please, just come
with me. Please don’t make me hurt you.”

I looked toward the cabin. Kane stood in the
doorway, his hands folded in front of him, his eyes flashing black menace.
First toward Cole, then toward me. My blood ran cold and the air went out of my
lungs. Kane looked like he meant to do me serious harm. Cole saw it too and did
something I wouldn’t have expected. He stepped in front of me, shielding me from
Kane with his body. He’d done it on instinct. A reflex. If he’d taken a second
to think it through, he never would have tried it. But he did, and Kane
reacted.

He stepped forward, eyes flashing. A low rumble
seemed to emanate from his entire body sending a vibration through me. Every
cell in my body made me want to go to my knees, or go to Kane’s side though my
mind recoiled from it. Cole’s hand burned hot where he touched me, then he
dropped it to his side. Whatever effect Kane’s power had on me, it devastated
Cole. He winced and his knees buckled. God. I blew out a breath and walked
toward Kane. My simple act of defiance wasn’t worth Cole’s suffering. I
wouldn’t add one more man to the list of those who’d been hurt because of me.

“Stop it,” I said, raising my chin. “I’m right here.
Cole hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“Stay out of it!” Kane said, but he wasn’t talking
to me. He was talking to Christian. Cole’s brother. Christian had rushed out of
the cabin and moved toward Cole. Cole was having trouble getting back up.
Whatever Kane had done seemed to have short circuited his nervous system. He
dropped to the ground and shook on all fours. His gold wolf eyes flashed and
his shoulders bunched and contorted to grotesque angles. Kane kept him locked
mid-shift. The agony of it made all color drain from Cole’s face. A blood vessel
burst in his eye.

Oh, God. Blood drained from my head and I went to
Kane’s side. I’d been stupid to act this way in front of the whole pack. I knew
better. I’d challenged him in front of the others. And Cole had been stupid
enough, or noble enough, to try and stand up to him. Now, he was paying the
price. He managed to roll to his back, and clutching his stomach he looked up
at his Alpha with pleading eyes.

“Kane, please,” I touched his arm and tried to draw
his attention away from Cole. This too might be foolish. Cole was full-blooded
were. As much as he suffered, he had superhuman strength and could heal. If
Kane ever decided to turn that level of anger toward me, I wouldn’t survive it.
And I
had
to survive. No matter what. Jaxson’s life depended on it. Maybe
my father’s too. I had to find a way.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice caught in my throat. I
tugged on Kane’s arm, but he kept his gazed locked on Cole. Christian made it
down the cabin steps and I made a gesture to him. I couldn’t take it if Kane
hurt another member of the pack because he was pissed at me. I went up on my
tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m right here. Please don’t
hurt Cole because you’re angry with me.”

But, Kane couldn’t hear me. The fuse had been lit,
and poor Cole was going to pay the price.

“Kane, please,” Christian pleaded. “He gets it.”

It happened so quickly. Kane merely shot a look
toward Christian and he too dropped to his knees and shifted. Compelled by his Alpha
it took no more than two seconds. Christian’s gray wolf whined and sidestepped.
He tucked his tail between his legs and ducked his head to Kane. He sat back on
his haunches, neutralized for now. Kane looked at the only other member of the
pack who might have given him any issue for hurting Cole or me. Daniel. But he
stayed inside the cabin with the others. Only Wade came out to stand at Kane’s
side, ready to back up his Alpha if he needed it.