Werewolves in Love 2: Yours, Mine and Howls (21 page)

Ha ha.

He’d already ridden ten miles. His mate ran faster than any human should. He’d noted her speed the night they found Aaron. That speed, combined with her hearing and her eyesight, and the strength she’d exhibited when she slammed the door, led to one conclusion:

His mate was a wolf.

Ha ha.

None of this was remotely fucking funny.

Another scent crossed Ally’s track—a wolf scent, but one he’d never smelled before. He jerked sharply on the reins. A stranger had entered his territory. Stapkis? Whoever it was, his mate and the strange wolf were now in the same vicinity. He didn’t like that.

He rarely visited this remote, heavily forested part of his holdings. Highway 50 lay five miles south. Aside from cutting juniper-pine for the woodshop, they left the area alone.

Both scents were stronger now, and they came from the northeast, where the trees were densest. He needed wolf form to track faster, smell better, and, if necessary, fight harder. But he needed human form to think and plan. If the wolf lurked in the woods, he’d had plenty of time to see Cade already, and Cade would be vulnerable while changing, so he saw no point in getting furry right away.

Ally appeared from behind a large boulder about a quarter mile away, running toward him from the east, parallel to the trees. Heart soaring, he grinned in spite of his anger, because she seemed so eager to get to him.

“Cade!” she shouted. “Someone’s here! It’s the guy—”

A rifle boomed. A bullet whizzed past his ear, missing him by a hair. Ally screamed.

Sleipnir reared. Cade, distracted, lost his seat for the first time in years and tumbled to the ground. Sleipnir pounded off in panic. Ally froze, looking from Cade to the trees. She broke for the trees as he got to his feet.

“Ally! Get away from there!”

Why was she running
toward
gunfire? Another shot rang out. This one hit him in the left shoulder.

It was a silver bullet.

Silver tore through muscle and he grabbed his shoulder, twisting in agony. One silver bullet couldn’t disable him, but the more he moved, the faster the poison would spread. If he took another hit, he’d have a hard time defending his impossible mate.

A third shot boomed. This time, no bullet came near him. Ally screamed again.

Rage drowned out the pain that should’ve slowed him down. A wolf who would attack by ambush—with a gun, no less—wouldn’t hesitate to kill a female. Terrified she’d been shot, Cade raced for the woods as the unknown wolf roared. The trees blocked his view, but he heard the fight and could make no sense of it. Ally couldn’t fight a wolf. What was he doing to her?

He found them just inside the outer ring of trees. The strange wolf clutched the barrel of a lever-action rifle in his hands, swinging the stock at Ally. She was on her feet, weaving and dodging the gunstock with wolf-like speed and agility, coming in under it to land roundhouse kicks on the wolf’s lower body. All this Cade noted as he charged the wolf, bringing him crashing to the ground in a flying tackle. The gun went sailing out of the stranger’s hands.

Cade regained his feet first, aiming a powerful kick at the stranger’s ribs while the latter still lay on the ground. The bastard managed to grab Cade’s leg and pull him back down, where they continued to punch and roll. Cade outweighed his enemy and soon had the wolf pinned on his back beneath him.

“Ally, get out of here!”

He pummeled the wolf’s face while the guy struggled to get free. Ally, damn her, didn’t answer or obey, dancing around on the edges of the fight like she was waiting to jump in.

The wolf still had one arm free, which he used to reach into his pants pocket and pull out a silver knife. Thanks to the silver already in his system, Cade’s reflexes were shot to hell, and the knife missed his jugular by an inch.

Ally screamed.

Why was she still here? Why hadn’t she run?

He was still pinned on his back beneath Cade but with that one arm free, the wolf slashed madly back and forth with the silver knife. Cade was weak and dizzy, his reflexes deteriorating more rapidly now. Any second the knife would find a vein or a chunk of muscle and that would be that. Cade made one last desperate grab for the flailing blade. The motion knocked him off balance and he started sliding off the wolf’s body. The guy drove his knee into the back of Cade’s head. Cade jumped off and rolled to his feet, shaking his head to clear it.

The other wolf looked exhausted, but not particularly angry, as if this were nothing personal. He stood, and they circled each other warily, each feinting here and there but not closing.

Cade stared at him, trying to figure out why a stranger was trying to kill him. Then, suddenly, he knew.

It was the clearest glimpse he’d ever had into another person’s mind—not simply an emotional impression, but true telepathy. In his own mind, he could see what the other wolf was thinking. It lasted only seconds, but the force of it left him dizzy. He stumbled, recovering before the other wolf could rush him.

“Whatever Stapkis promised you, is it worth your honor?”

The wolf froze, blinking in confusion.

“I asked you a question. What does an Alpha have to pay a wolf to throw away his honor?”

The stranger hadn’t been angry before, but he was now. Confused and frightened, he started to move again, feinting and dodging and slashing out with the knife.

“It’s the guy I heard in the restaurant with Aaron,” Ally called.

“I know, baby. What did you threaten Aaron with? What did you say that made my wolf try to kill himself?”

The stranger froze in shock for a second, looking from Cade to Ally. Cade closed, grabbing the wolf’s knife hand with both of his, intending to flip the guy over his shoulder. The wolf stomped on Cade’s instep, which was a bullshit pussy tactic. It worked too, thanks to the silver bullet still oozing its poison a little at a time. The shock of the pain caused Cade to lose his grip. The wolf spun in one fluid motion, burying the knife high in Cade’s left ribcage and slicing down.

The knife went in like hard, cold fire. Every nerve in his chest, and then his whole body, screamed in agony. He stumbled back, forcing himself to stay on his feet and keep moving, until he found himself with his back to a tree. He pressed a hand to the blood flowing from his side. It didn’t staunch the bleeding.

He couldn’t see into the wolf’s mind anymore. A window had opened for a few seconds, but now it had slammed shut again. Didn’t really matter, since he wouldn’t be alive much longer.

As he stood there, unable to run or fight, forced to wait and watch his enemy coming at him, he thought of another silver knife, another wolf. For a minute his attacker morphed into the tall, gaunt Fae with long silver hair who’d murdered his father on that beach in Scotland while his mother knelt screaming in the sand.

Ally let out a savage howl and launched herself across the clearing in one long, graceful, impossible leap, landing on the wolf’s back. If Cade hadn’t known she was about to die—he’d defend her to his last breath, but he didn’t have many left—he would’ve smiled. She looked like one of the Valkyrie in Mama’s stories, all beautiful vengeance and divine wrath.

They slammed into Cade, who roared with pain. Ally reared back, teeth bared. Cade watched in awe and anguish as she grabbed the wolf’s head from behind and broke his neck, nimbly alighting before his body crashed to the ground.

What a gorgeous hallucination. He even heard the neck snap.

She would’ve been a good mother for Becca. At least there was Sarah Jane…

Ally was leaning over him, her honey blond hair in his face, her precious lavender scent enveloping him, crying his name as he passed out.

This time, she was the one who killed a wolf seconds too late to save a loved one.

No.
Cade wouldn’t die. He was a wolf, stronger and fiercer and much harder to kill than her weak, human self had been. She had to get him back to the ranch.

She was afraid to move him and more afraid to leave him. She could get back to the house in minutes, but they’d need to get a car, and that would take time, but if he were in shock and she tried to carry him… And while she dithered like a useless idiot, he was turning gray and his breathing was shallow… His cell phone. He always carried his cell phone.

Her hands trembled as she searched for Michael’s number on speed dial.

“What’s up, Boss, I—”

“Michael! Cade’s been shot, and—and—he’s been stabbed, and I’m going to carry him, but I need—”

“Ally!
Ally!
Calm down! I’m in Colorado Springs. I’m calling Roman. Stay put!” He hung up without another word.

She pressed down harder on the stab wound, wishing she had something long enough to tie around his chest to keep pressure on it. If she could get her T-shirt off with one hand, and hold it in the wound, then…

The phone rang.

“They’re almost there,” Michael said. “Who did it? Where is he?”

“Some wolf. He’s dead,” she hiccupped. “I saw him with Aaron a few days ago but— They’re here.”

The blessed Range Rover roared toward her, Dec and Shawn leaping out before Trey came to a stop. They lifted Cade gently and put him in the back—still breathing, weakly, but God, he was so pale. She climbed in and wrapped an arm around him as they took off over the rough terrain.

“Hang on, baby,” she whispered into his hair. “Please, hang on. I don’t care if you act like an asshole. Just don’t die.”

Dec leaned over from the backseat, keeping a finger on Cade’s neck. He looked as sick with fright as she felt.

“He’s so cold, Dec. Why is he so cold?”

“His pulse is weak but it’s there,” Dec said tightly. “It looks like we got to him in time. I need to get that bullet out. The wee fella is gathering his herbs and poultices—”

“
Herbs
? We’ve got to get him to the hospital!”

“No, love, there’s no time.” Dec’s voice and expression were both grim. “He’ll never make it. The silver’s already workin’ in him. I’ve got to get the bullet out and cleanse the wounds, and Sindri has the poultices and the comfrey mead to neutralize the silver.”

“Dec, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Listen to me, girl!” She saw real fear in his face. “I know what I’m talkin’ about. I know what to do. I did not come all this way to watch the wolf die. You will do as I tell you and we’ll—shite.” His phone rang. Ally heard Sarah Jane’s voice.

“What happened? I know something happened, Declan, who is it—?”

“It’s Cade. He’s been shot and stabbed. Where are you?”

“In town, with Rebecca.”

“Stay there ’til I call you. She doesn’t need to be around this.” He hung up.

Wolves immediately thronged the Rover. They carried Cade to his bedroom, where Sindri was assembling an array of surgical tools so calmly and methodically one might’ve thought the place doubled as a surgery all the time. She smelled a strange odor, sweet and woodsy, not unpleasant but very strong.

Dec ordered all the wolves out. Even the alphas obeyed.

Ally hung back at the door, expecting Dec to kick her out. “I don’t want to leave him.”

Once again, Dec surprised her.

“I don’t want you to go. Just stay out of our way for a bit, there’s a good girl.”

She collapsed onto a vintage-looking sofa covered in rich green suede and standing on brass-tipped walnut legs. More stylish than comfortable, suitable for sitting but not for lounging, it wasn’t the kind of couch a male would buy. Somehow, Ally knew Eirny had picked it out. This had probably been Eirny and Louis’ bedroom. She wanted to cry again.

Dec and Sindri got Cade undressed. Sindri cleansed the wounds while Dec reached for a scalpel and retractors lying on the bedside table next to a small steel bowl. She was glad he had his back to her. She could’ve watched the procedure in an ER, but it looked barbaric when performed in a bedroom. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her mouth.

“You all right over there, Ally girl?” Dec asked absently.

“I think so,” she said between gulps of air. She couldn’t bring herself to ask him if he thought Cade would be all right, couldn’t even consider the possibility that he might die. It terrified her almost as much as the prospect of leaving and never seeing him again.

She heard the ping of metal hitting metal as Dec dropped the bullet in the bowl.

“All right,
barn,
” he said to Sindri, “get your comfrey and mint and then I’ll close him up.”

Ally watched with interest as Sindri, kneeling on the bed across from Dec, applied compresses to Cade’s shoulder and side. The cloying order she’d smelled earlier now permeated the room.

“What’s that stuff, Dec?”

“Comfrey and marshmallow, red sorrel and bits of other stuff the wee fella would never tell me about. It’ll draw the poison from Cade’s system. We’ll need to get comfrey tea inside him to raise his temperature.”

A werewolf’s normal temperature was one hundred five. Silver poisoning lowered it dangerously.

“Is knowing how to do this a brownie thing?”

“No, it’s an Old One thing, a Viking thing. Cade’s mother was an acolyte of Eir, an Old One. The Vikings called her a valkyrie, a handmaiden to Freya.”

“I know Eir.”

“Is that so?” He turned to gaze at her thoughtfully, his arms crossed. “Interesting choice of words. Well. Eir is a healer. She passes her art to womenfolk. Eirny never had the patience for healing, but the wee fella has a gift. I don’t think Eir minds a male doing it if he’s not human. Or wolf.” He rubbed his chin, still smiling at her in his shrewd, amused way. “I’d like to hear more about how you know Eir.”

Sindri interrupted. “You may finish, then we will change the sheets.”

Dec turned back to stitch up the wounds. Sindri gathered his materials and came to stand in front of her.

“Michael has returned. You need food. Come.”

Not hungry in the least, she followed.

Michael grilled her for an hour, making her repeat the morning’s events several times, as if telling the story over and over would cause her to suddenly know something she hadn’t known the first ten times.