Wild Hearts (11 page)

Chapter Ten

Coal’s ears perked up. He stilled, the only motion coming from his ruffling black fur against the breeze’s gentle breath.

Crack
.

The dead twig snapped from behind him. He sniffed the air, trying to detect what approached, but the breeze kept the scent at bay. Lowering himself to his belly and moving below the brush line, he turned away from the trail and began to slink toward the sound.

The breeze shifted.

The enemy’s foul odor assaulted his nostrils a split second before the bushes a few feet away parted and a wolf lunged at him.

With a threatening growl, Coal leaped from beneath the white and tan, spun, and pounced down on his back. White teeth snapped up at him, one sharp fang catching the side of his snout. Coal barked, deep and low in his throat, swatting a large paw at the wolf’s face. The move might have been human, but it stunned the fool long enough for Coal to pin him to the ground, his dark body covering the lighter one.

“Who sent you last night?”
he demanded. The white and tan struggled beneath him, small yelps escaping his throat as he fought. Coal pulled back his jowls in a snarl, showing off his razor-sharp teeth in the gloomy afternoon. “
I have no need for you if you won’t cooperate. One more chance. Who sent you? Laela?”

“She wants the white.”

“She won’t get the white.”

“She won’t stop.”

“By force, I think she will.”
Coal sank his teeth into the tan and white’s throat. The wolf howled, thrashing against Coal and the ground until his struggle slowed and finally ceased. Coal snorted, climbing off the wolf. Licking the blood from his snout, he returned to the scent trail.

He didn’t manage a yard before he heard the steady, padded approach of another animal. Preparing for a second attack, he lunged back on his haunches and waited.

“Coal, don’t you fucking jump me. Oh, shit. What the hell did you do to him?”

Jacy rounded a tree and stood before him, gray fur rustling in the strengthening breeze. Immediately, Coal suppressed his wolf, and his animal body reshaped and molded into his human form.

“What the fuck are you doing here? I told you to stay with her,” Coal snapped, smacking Jacy’s shoulder.

Jacy took a swipe at his hand.

“Don’t, you idiot. You’re in for a fucking hell ride should anything happen to her.”

The gray sat back. He watched his friend’s body contort and conform to the human shape he was familiar with. Naked, just as he, Jacy brushed back hair from his eyes and arched a brow.

“You really think I would leave her without making sure she’s safe? Christ, Coal. Your house is the next best thing to a high-security federal prison, minus the barbed wire and uniforms. I’m not about to let you take on however many renegade wolves solo.” Jacy leaned in toward him, green eyes ablaze. “Both of us will return to her, as long as we do this together. Don’t go frightening our little pet again, got it?”

Despite his bristling reaction to Jacy’s response, Coal calmed the anger that ripped through him. His home was safe. Who was he to deny Jacy some bloodshed?

“Laela wants Shyla. That’s all I got from that one,” Coal said.

“Tell us something new. You know who he was?”

“No. I’m not standing around to find out either. There’s another. Shouldn’t be too far ahead.” Coal submitted to his wild wolf. His bones reformed, his joints popped, and his fur grew.

“
Behind—”
Jacy never finished the warning. His reshaping body flew past him.

Coal didn’t have time to react. The force of the blow at his back sent him sprawling to the ground. He rolled onto his back, willing the change to finish. He heard the whoosh of air in his mind as Jacy’s body smacked into a tree.

Coal drew all four paws into his body and thrust outward, shoving the wolf off him only to have a second leap on top of him. Growling a threat, the second wolf hesitated, but the first wolf attacked.

Teeth bore into his shoulder. He barked, lifting his hind legs into the tender underbelly of the first wolf. He arched his paws and ripped his nails down flesh. The wolf howled and hopped back. The second wolf began to slink away. Coal flipped over onto his paws and stole a quick look in Jacy’s direction.

Three wolves had descended upon him, all viciously snapping deadly white fangs at any exposed area on his friend.

The first wolf leaped at Coal, hooked paws on his shoulders, and dug nails into his muscles. Coal shot his head around and caught the tip of his snout between his teeth. Mewls scraped along his eardrums as he clamped down harder, drawing blood that streamed over his tongue and to the back of his throat. Raw, primal instinct conquered his mind as the second wolf came at him again.

Battling five blood-hungry, death-hunting wolves, the only thing that could save them was instinct.

Coal snapped a command at Jacy just before he cut the only remaining thread holding him to his wolf.

* * * *

Her lovers filled her dreams, but she woke alone.

Shyla sighed, stretching her arms over her head before rubbing her eyes.

The bed shifted beside her. Half expecting to have one of her two men roll on top of her and make love to her, she peeled back her eyelids with a sultry smile.

“Hello, Shyla. We finally meet after all these years.”

Shyla shot upright and scrambled to the edge of the bed. The woman grabbed her arm and yanked her back, a dark smile on her mouth. Her eyes, frost blue and nearly translucent, sparked with a basic predator triumph. Her wild blonde hair caped her to the waist. She wore nothing but a sheer pair of panties.

Shyla tried to twist her arm away as she slid her feet to the floor. Stretched over the mattress, she gained leverage and yanked her arm.

“No. I don’t think so.”

The woman latched on farther up her arm. Shyla’s body tumbled back onto the bed, knocking into the woman. She hissed, shoving Shyla off her.

“Who are you?” Shyla demanded. Her mind worked in overdrive, trying to devise an escape. Whoever this bitch was definitely had the upper hand with strength.

“I’m the deliverer of your birthright, child. Your
other
birthright.” The woman chuckled. She pulled something from beneath a pile of black clothing and held it up for Shyla to see.

A short silver knife reflected the illumination from the fire like hellish glass. Her blood ran cold.

“Don’t run. I’m a perfect shot,” the woman warned, her cruel smile still toying with the corners of her mouth.

“Who are you? How’d you get in here?” Shyla asked, buying time. The knife just lowered her chances of an unscathed escape. If the woman was a perfect shot, Shyla would be an easy target starting out so close.

“My name is Laela, and I’m the leader of the Dark Moon pack, and all the packs around here. I don’t appreciate you coming and stirring things up. See, first off, the two men who’ve been fucking you like a common whore belong to me. That’s all you are to them, a common little fuck whore.” Laela scoured a frigid gaze over Shyla. The woman raked ice down her front. “Second, we don’t like white wolves here. They’re marked for slaughter. Have you heard of the Blood Moon Legacy?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, all this white wolf shit,” Shyla spat. Maybe playing ignorance would help her cause.

Laela scowled. She slid to the edge of the bed and climbed off, brandishing her knife as a stark reminder of who had control. Shyla cast a glance toward the bedroom door and quickly dismissed the obvious means of escape. Laela paced between her and the door.

“How’d you get in? This place is on lockdown,” Shyla repeated. Laela paused and cast her a subfreezing glance. Shyla stood her ground, sitting on her knees and leaning forward on her fists.

“They may think they’re smart when, in fact, they’re idiots. Your two alphas have a nose worth envying. I know where Coal lives. It’s not a secret. Everyone knows, especially the women he brings back here.”

Laela’s cruel grin melted into a cold smile. Her eyes flickered with frost as Shyla’s heart skipped and her stomach rolled. She didn’t like the idea of Coal bringing women here, in this house, in this room.

Her fingers curled into the satin comforter. The shadow in her mind expanded and teased, whispering for release. It was the very shadow that brought a wolf to life in the place of a human.

“Jacy left some clothes at Jacob’s cabin. I used them to cloak my scent and slipped into the house behind you. Both of you fools had no idea.” Laela tipped her nose up and inhaled deeply. “The mixture of Jacy and Coal is strong enough to mask a hundred wolves.” She laughed, further freezing blood in Shyla’s veins. “A hundred wolves couldn’t keep you safe from me. I helped kill your mother. I’ll kill you. This is my area, my packs, and my wilderness. My territory.” The knife glinted. “I don’t tolerate trespassers and man thieves.”

Shyla tucked away the bitterness that erupted in her mind. She wasn’t going to let Laela chisel away her protective barriers by tossing a line at her regarding a mother she never knew.

The shadow grew until it scraped the walls of her mind. The wolf twisted and turned, wanting to come out. Her fingers flexed and splayed, her body leaning heavily on her hands. Joints in her hands began to ache and change.

Trying her damnedest to suppress the alien creature threatening to consume her, she halted the subtle beginnings of change. However, her bones didn’t return to normal.

“Where are they now?” she growled.

Laela shrugged, then laughed. “Do you really think I’d be here if I didn’t make sure those two were as good as insect food? I have my loyal pack on them as we speak. Coal and Jacy might be admirable and fearless creatures, but not even they can withhold the strength of six wolves. Don’t expect them to come to your rescue.”

Shyla’s heart raced as adrenaline spurted through her body. She followed Laela as the woman paced the room, the silver knife turning over in her hand, catching the glow of firelight and reflecting the orange against the stark white walls. Shyla sat back on her heels and paused as the woman crossed over to the bedroom door. She had forgotten about the cell phone in her pocket, now digging into her hip. With Laela’s back to her, she dug it out and stuffed it between her legs.

“I wanted to kill you in front of them. I wanted them to watch each cut I make on your pretty little face.” Laela kicked the bedroom door closed, turned, and tipped the edge of the knife to accentuate her point. “Each jab into your pretty little chest. Just like I did with your mother. I stabbed her over and over. I listened as blood filled her lungs. I watched her spirit light her eyes in fear before I extinguished it.”

Shyla’s shoulders stiffened. She stared at Laela as the creature spun in circles, her hair spreading out around her, exposing her naked body to the room. She lifted her face to the ceiling and laughed. Shyla took the brief opportunity to reach her fingers between her thighs, press the number three on the cell phone keypad, and dial Len. She closed her legs over the phone to silence any noises that might draw attention from the crazed woman twirling like a carefree child.

Only this child wielded a deadly knife and even deadlier intentions.

“I never knew my mom. Your attempts to frighten me with her murder do little,” Shyla said, muffling the connecting of the call and Len’s husky “Yeah.” She separated her legs just a tad, enough for the man to hear the conversation and hopefully get the hint she was in trouble. “You killed her, but I still lived. I was hidden from everything and everyone. I grew up knowing nothing about my family, my culture, or these absurd legacies you keep mentioning. I’m not a wolf. Get that through your head.”

“Oh, Shyla.”

Laela stopped spinning and focused that icy blue stare on her. She lifted a blonde brow, and a mischievous grin tugged the corners of her mouth. Shyla shifted back on the bed, the cell phone sliding easily over the satin comforter. She had to hide the phone and get away from here.

“My men told me you shifted into a wolf while Coal claimed you last night. He’s good in bed, isn’t he? That man’s incredible. And Jacy. I’ve had them, and I hoped to continue to enjoy their bed play. But you had to go and ruin it. You ruined everything.”

“I doubt you’ve had them in bed. They would’ve said so.”

Although that she couldn’t be so sure of. She barely knew the two men who vowed to keep her safe. The wolf inside her body churned the spark of doubt in her gut. Had they intentionally brought her here to set her up? Were they part of this plot with Laela to dispense of another white wolf? After all, Coal coaxed her into changing in the middle of the woods, where anyone could have seen, and Jacy brought her to this house, where only he and Coal had access.

Oh my God
.

Shyla tried to swallow the swelling knot in her throat. Laela stalked over to the bed and swiped the silver blade across her arm before she could react. Heat seared the open wound, pain clawing into her mind and making her stomach roil. Clamping a hand over the gash and fighting the sting of tears in her eyes, she threw herself backward as Laela came in for another shot.