Silver Wolf Clan (5 page)

Light streaming through the trees above him moved in a slow dance across the leaf blanketed ground. How long he lay there thinking about her, he wasn’t sure. Time didn’t matter so much to wolves.

A noise rustled off to the left, and he twitched his ears toward it. He could use something to eat. He rose to his haunches and crept quietly as he could toward the sound, expecting a rabbit or a squirrel to run from the brush at any moment. Wolf was ready for a good chase.

About to pounce out of the thicket, he stopped short as the wind shifted and an unwelcome smell hit him. Alexis. She stood there naked and in some ridiculous pose she’d probably practiced in front of the mirror. Nudity was part of everyday life for a werewolf community. They Changed and destroyed clothes or left them in brush, forgotten about after they’d found their human bodies once again. Being a werewolf could be hell on a wardrobe.

Everyone in the pack saw each other naked so much, it was the same as seeing them with clothes on at that point, but there was something different about the way Alexis flaunted her body. She always teased Brandon, and tried to tease Grey. Her personality was obnoxious. He pulled ready lips back from his teeth and rumbled a warning.

“Oh, stuff it. Rachel sent me out to tell you dinner’s ready,” she said before she backed away slowly.

Smart girl. Never turn your back on a wolf, especially one as dominant as him. Showing your back was like screaming,
Take me! I’d be delectable prey, and probably taste like chicken!

It looked like he’d be staying for dinner after all. What in the hell was he going to do about clothes? He hadn’t taken his off before the Change, and they’d been ripped and left in a tire track mud puddle near his truck. He paced back and forth, unwilling to go into the house with Alexis sans clothing.

No help for it. He bolted past her to Change at the edge of Dean’s backyard. His favorite spot, because of the dense shrubbery offering privacy, and it wasn’t too far from the house, where he had to go gallivanting through all of creation with not so much as a fig leaf to cover himself.

Rachel stood on the front porch with a pile of linens from the pack’s stash of extra clothes. They would likely be way too small, as he was a tall man, but he’d take anything. She waved to him and placed the clothes on the porch swing. He waved his thanks and ran to quickly get dressed before Alexis showed up to ogle him.

As he unfolded the clothes, his hands trembled. His nerve endings were still raw and new, and even a light caress from the fabric was like sandpaper against an open wound.

Of the pack, he was still the one least comfortable with nudity. Well, besides Marissa. He didn’t know what had happened to that poor wolf child, but male wolves made her extremely uncomfortable. His imposing dominance created such visible turmoil within the girl, he tried to avoid getting close to her altogether, both to abstain from scaring her and to steer clear of the smell of fear that would set Wolf off. The acrid scent of it always made him want to bite something.

Clothed, he went inside the house. Alexis sat at the table already. She must’ve come in through the back and from her smirk, she’d finagled an eyeful of him getting dressed on the front porch through the window. He growled in frustration. Obnoxious creature.

His eyes would probably remain gold throughout dinner. Wolf was always so close to the surface around a Change, and that annoying female would no doubt harp on him the entire meal. He cared a lot less around the other freaks.

He hesitated at the door. Maybe there was time to run to his truck and leave. Rachel’s face lit up, and she waved him to a seat at the huge dining table. Too late for escape.

Dean was home, and brought covered dishes to set at the table. He nodded a greeting and slapped Grey on the back, who grimaced and hoped it passed for a smile. Dominance issues aside, he’d come to rely on Dean as a friend the past six months. Physical contact was huge with wolves, but he, being so used to having none whatsoever, was only beginning to warm up to the idea of anyone touching him and it being an enjoyable experience.

Brandon and Logan were already at the table, and the former sent an occasional glare his way as the she-wolf he favored stared at Grey with unobstructed approval. Apparently he hadn’t scared her as much as he’d thought with the old kiss-and-strangle move.

“Alexis, that’s enough,” Rachel said as she sat down with the last dish for the table.

“What? I can’t enjoy the view?”

“Enough,” Dean growled in a clear order she’d have no choice but to obey. “You’re making him and everyone else at this table uncomfortable. Rachel’s put a lot of effort into fixing this meal for us. Don’t ruin it.”

Grey sent him a nod of thanks and moved large portions of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and vegetables onto his plate. His eating had improved as he’d been enlightened by the importance of keeping his new body, with its extremely high metabolism, fed. He’d managed to put on a bit of his old weight, now in muscle, but still had some to gain.

A skinny werewolf was a dangerous werewolf.

Once the food had been served, everyone stopped talking, concentrated on stuffing their faces. The silence was comfortable. After they slowed down, they spoke of menial things; work, weather, and school, in Marissa’s case, as she was barely a teenager. She sat at the end of the table, as far away from him as possible. He tried to ask her what classes she was in, but she clammed up and turned pale. The rest of the meal, he ignored her so she would be more comfortable. For as long as he lived, he’d never get used to being Monster. Accepting people’s fears of what he’d become was an ugly, jagged pill to swallow.

Logan lifted yet another lingering glance in Marissa’s direction. Grey looked at her to see if she was okay or if there was any other reason Logan would have such an interest in her, but didn’t see any difference. Still the same quiet child she’d been the minute before. Not even a blob of mashed potatoes on her face to warrant the attention. She wilted under Logan’s gaze.

That rangy shifter likes the way the girl looks
, Wolf enlightened him.

Grey let out a low rumbling growl as he stared, teeth bared, at Logan across the table.

He stopped eating and glanced, wide-eyed, at Grey. “What did I do?”

“You know what. She’s too young. Probably won’t make a decision for another ten years. Don’t even look at her the rest of the meal. You’re scaring her,” Grey bit out.

Logan dropped his head and threw a questioning look at Dean.

The alpha squinted thoughtfully and chewed slowly. His eyes lightened, and a low rumble sounded in his throat. Dean’s wolf wasn’t happy an order had been given to his pack member from an outsider. The tension hanging in the air was stifling. As if lightning had struck the room, and the overpowering smell of ozone remained, drowning everything else away.

Rachel cleared her throat delicately and rested her hand on Dean’s arm. He stared at her for a long moment. “Logan, leave her alone,” he ordered, dragging his gaze to the offending wolf.

The tension in Grey’s back muscles released immediately. Marissa looked partly thankful and mostly terrified. She tried to thank him with a smile, but it came out as a tiny lip tremble instead. He went back to eating and ignoring her, the most he could do for her. There was no conceivable way to tone Wolf down enough to ease her terror.

After dinner wrapped up, the wolves gathered on the wrap-a-round front porch and talked into the night. Grey rarely spoke at these gatherings, but he enjoyed the easy banter and rough play between the others.

“You’re welcome to stay the night, Grey,” Dean offered, leaned back in the porch swing and chewing on a toothpick. “It’s getting pretty late to drive all the way back to your place.”

“Thanks, but I’m about to head on out. Things to do tomorrow.”

“I’m going to pack some leftovers for you,” Rachel told him then disappeared into the kitchen. Grey headed toward the truck and waved goodnight to everyone—except Alexis—and Dean caught up at a jog.

Once out of earshot, Dean stopped and turned to him. “Rachel told me what you two talked about earlier, and I wanted to add something. In a mated pair, it’s different for a male and female. When I figured out Rachel was mine, I couldn’t think of anything else. Couldn’t function. I wanted to be there every second of her life to keep her safe, my instinct was so strong. It’s harder on dominants. That instinct to protect is powerful, and it’s hard to rein it in. Humans, they don’t understand the need to protect, so it’ll be an issue you have to deal with. She’ll think you are being controlling. You have to contain that instinct eventually or your woman will run away. Or maim you,” he finished, with a serious look.

Rachel brought containers filled with leftovers and pressed them into his hands, then hugged him good-bye.

The driver side window presented blurred shades of green leaves and tall meadow grass as he navigated the winding road. Mesquite and blooming cactus dotted the dark land, and he thought about everything Rachel and Dean had told him about relationships with humans. So many aspects of his Change had been abnormal, as the pack was quick to point out. He failed as a human and couldn’t even manage turning into a werewolf properly. But as far as mating bonds went, he was kind of normal. A much needed victorious step in the right direction.

If only Wolf didn’t see the threat in such progress.

Grey gasped and sat up. The mattress made a rustling sound as he kicked the sheets into a pile at the end of the bed. He panted deeply, ignoring the cold sweat on his skin and chilly breeze drifting through the cracked window. The last of the screams echoed through his bones. What a nightmare.

He rubbed his hands through his hair, a stress habit from childhood. He would never get back to sleep. The first streaks of gray filtered through the old window, and he readied quickly in the dim light. His muscles sang with restlessness. Would he have to Turn today?
Probably
. Wolf filled his head.

He pulled sweats and a hoodie on and went for a jog to ease the tension that constantly strummed through his body like the pluck of an over tightened guitar string. He’d be at the gym if it wasn’t too risky. Dean enforced a lot of rules, but most of them made sense. Allowing someone to see how much he could lift just asked for trouble. Even at empty gyms, the danger existed of cameras picking up how much weight he used. Technology. What a drag.

Nope, his main outlet had to be running, and not on some stuffy treadmill, either. Being outside was good for his soul, just as it always had been. Running outdoors helped him get rid of the caged feeling the city tried to suffocate him with.

He ran a six mile circle back to the apartment, showered and changed, and descended the apartment building stairs to grab breakfast at a cafe a few blocks down the road. Though a couple hours still remained between now and Morgan’s class, the nerves were already getting to him. The only thing that kept his hands from shaking was Wolf’s immovable focus. He finished off a big meal and headed over to stake out a better spying place than the one from the week before.

A doorway a couple shops down from the corner where he’d watched her last time was perfect. Here, he could sit with a newspaper and a coffee and no one would easily notice he was looking over the top of the paper toward the boxing gym. The angle was perfect. Plus, it brought him closer to the parking lot Morgan used so he could make sure she got in and out of there safely.

Morgan arrived early, driving the same black F-150 extended cab she’d driven last week. A truck girl. He liked it.

She opened the door and propped the tip of her tennis shoe against it while she reached for a gym bag. Grey took a long drag of air. He couldn’t help it. Her scent was tantalizing and intoxicating, like female and fruit shampoo, mixed with a tangy scent that belonged to her alone. How did no one else around him smell it?

A memory subtly clicked into place. He’d smelled her the year before and it had been powerful even to weak human senses. Now with a werewolf’s nose, it was even better. He took a pull on the air again. Underneath it all, there was an underlying scent of animal he couldn’t put a finger on. She probably had a pet.

Hopefully, she was a dog person.

* * * *

Morgan glanced over her shoulder for what had to be the tenth time. She was being watched. Some innate instinct had been telling her that for weeks. A small uninterested crowd gathered at the stop light to cross the road. A mother with a baby on her hip walked at a fast clip down the sidewalk. A man sat relaxed in a doorway across the street, reading the daily news and sipping coffee. A trio of teenaged boys on skateboards talked comfortably while they rolled across the uneven walkway. With a quick shake of her head, she sloughed off the paranoia. No one watched her. It was all in her head, just like everything else that had happened in the last year. She opened the door to the boxing gym and tossed her bag in the corner, near a wall of shelves.

“Hey, Todd,” she said to the old scrapper behind the counter.

He looked up from a stack of paperwork with an easy smile. “You ready to work today?”

“Always,” she said as she wrapped her left knuckles in stretchy insulating fabric. Her hands protected, she tossed her gloves beside a favorite heavy bag, then pulled her arm in front and gave it a deep, long stretch.

The workout was intense, but that was the point. Her martial arts training didn’t matter there. She lost herself completely for that one hour a week. She didn’t want to worry overly about form anymore. After Marianna...well, she just wanted to hit something until her arms went numb. Exhaustion was the only relief from the boundless torment of survivor’s guilt.

“All right,” Todd said from the front of the room. He turned down the blaring rap music so they could better hear him. “You guys did great today. Do some burnouts. Crunches with a medicine ball. When you can’t sit up anymore, you can go, and I’ll see you next time.”

Morgan lasted longest, and Francine waited for her near the cubby holes that housed their gym bags and water bottles. She was older, and only an acquaintance, but kind, and always took the time to catch up before and after class. She also didn’t take crap from anyone. Points for her.