Wolf's Song (7 page)

But Brick wasn’t an untried cub any longer. And his female would not be wrested from his grasp. A howl burst from his throat, loud enough to curdle their cottage cheese. He martialed a flurry of long and patiently practiced
t’ai chi
moves, kicked out at his captors and caught them off guard. The moment their grip on him relaxed, he quickly shifted. He knew his mature wolf loomed huge and formidable, bigger than any of them, when the crowd edged back in fear.

Baring his fangs, he forced them to retreat with unholy snarls, his gaze traveling from one to the next as if they were Hungry-Man Backyard Barbecue and his inner dinner gong had rung.

He hunkered onto his haunches, gathering muscles, preparing to spring at the male holding Summer. To tear the creep’s throat and heart out, for daring to lay a hand on his…
mate
. Put a ring on her? Fuck that shit. Only one male would do that.

Mine
. He growled. With lethal athletic speed, he went Cape Canaveral aerodynamic, launching his bulk into the air.

“Not today, wolf. Not in my house.” Cal Seven, the owner of the saloon and casino, stood in his office doorway, a shotgun on his shoulder, aimed unerringly in Brick’s direction.

Stinging pain seared into his back, his hind quarters, his shoulders. He dropped like a boulder, crumpling to the ground.

***

When Brick came to, he lay on a parquet wood floor, a throw rug blanketing his naked human form. Cotton balls —hell, an entire cotton field, boll weevils included, grew in his mouth. Clouds rolled through his head, black and stormy. No blood. But darts of pain, as if he’d been pin cushioned by a swarm of bees.

“Tranq gun,” a deep voice drawled above him. “What we use to subdue a feral animal in our midst. Before we decide if the creature’s rabid and needs to be put down. Took about ten rounds to topple you.”

He cranked his heavy eyelids open. Cal Seven leaned back against his desk, arms crossed over his chest. Behind him, on the wall, a vast map of the mountain. Red pins dominating. A sprinkle of green pins where Los Lobos should be. His beast yowled, jabbing frenzied claws into his flesh. Great. Skin needled inside and out. He’d probably leak from all the punctures if he had something to drink. Speaking of which…his mouth had gone totally Mojave.

The saloon owner nodded toward the long-barreled gun resting on its butt end at his side. “Don’t make me plug you again, wolf. Don’t think my niece would be happy with that.”

“Summer,” he croaked, his mouth dry, his lips cracked.

“I’m here, my darlin’.” Her voice soft, sweet, the soothing lilt he lived for. He turned toward the sound. She huddled, dispirited, in a chair in the corner of the room. Not tied down that he could see. But something seemed to subdue and constrain her natural ebullience.

“What did he do to you?” A belligerent growl. But the residual effects of the drugs sapped his demand of true force.

“Nothing.” She couldn’t disguise her bitterness.

“I’ve managed to convince my niece the time has come for her to take a mate. And to choose one of her own kind.”

“Niece?” he echoed.

“Oh, did she neglect to mention that? Daughter of my beloved sister. Revered female of the Goldspark Clan. Of which I’m alpha. A princess of priceless worth. Destined bride of an estimable cat. Beyond the touch of a packless no-account loner.”

Cal’s words dealt him a series of blows more crushing than the pummeling he’d taken so many years earlier in The Den. Summer?
His
Summer? His beautiful, daring, high-flying raven? His Aura Lee? Niece of the alpha of the Goldspark Clan?
Promised to a fucking cat
?

His wolf rebelled. Howled.

Brick rose to his feet with a roar. “Not while I live.”

“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the point, wolf. The trade Summer’s agreed to make. She’ll take the mate I pick for her. Mother some kits for us. And I’ll let you live.” Cal actually smiled. “Oh, and you’ll remove yourself from my mountain. Never show your hide anywhere near Shady Heart again”

“
Your
mountain?” he echoed.

Cal gestured at the game plan on the wall behind him. “Soon enough. Magnum pretty much sold you wolves out. Gave up more and more territory every year for a couple of handfuls of gold. But I don’t trust Drew to do the same. Or honor his father’s agreements with me. My bulldozers are getting ready to plow Los Lobos into the ground even as we speak. Just waiting for the word. But my niece has convinced me to spare one wolf. That’d be you.” The lethal grin broadened. “Deal?”

His mouth stuffed with dryer lint, he barely mustered enough saliva to spit. His drugged limbs weighed him down. Or he’d lunge at the motherfucker and tear out his throat, claw off his head. And that would definitely not endear him to the female he craved.

“Brick, please.” Summer’s voice, beseeching him. “If anything happens to you, I’ll die.”

“Won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me, sweetheart.”

She shook her head. Tears meandered down her cheeks. “For me,” she whispered. “Please. For me. I won’t be able to bear it if they hurt you.”

“You’d mate another?” His words emerged dark, vicious, bitter.

“For your life? Yes.” She extended a hand, as if she could reach him from across the room. “Nothing I wouldn’t do.”

“No life without you,” he muttered.

“You’ll make one.” Pause. She looked away from him, swallowing a sob, the tears flowing more freely. “As I will.”

Her words clawed his gut, ripping open his belly, exposing a bag of shredded giblets, the pain so sharp it diced his guts. A blood-orange haze descended over his eyes. His heart. Jesus. How could the ticker even keep beating when she’d julienned the muscle like coleslaw?

“We’ve only known each other a day,” she tried. But the falsehood didn’t resonate, had no strength.

“Ten fucking years,” he snapped. “Ten years of racing beneath the moon together. Of play. Of friendship. You saved my life back then. Gave me something to live for. For what? This? To kill me now? I’m dead either way.”

“Ten years?” Cal raised an eyebrow, darting a disgruntled glance at his niece before shaking his head, as if shaking off the unwanted disclosure of their long-term bond. His focus returned to Brick, with lethal intensity. “Your choice, wolf. Summer’s made hers.”

Rebellion filled him like boiling acid but he couldn’t submit, couldn’t surrender. He stared back at the cat alpha and shrugged. “Put me in the fucking ground then. I don’t give a shit.”

“
No
.” Summer shrieked and shifted suddenly, flying at him, perching on his shoulder. Her song filled his brain, lulling him. “Aura Lee, Aura Lee, Maid with golden hair; sunshine came along with thee, and swallows in the air.”

“Don’t do this, baby.” He shook his head, trying to remain alert. “My life…my heart.” The last words he managed.

She flapped away. Zeroing in on her uncle.

The tranq gun exploded. Once, twice.

She’d never been to Los Lobos. But she’d get no help from anyone in Shady Heart. Not with her Uncle Cal’s “on-off” switch stuck in the “out-like-a-light” position, as he sprawled on his office floor, frozen as the Blue Screen of Death.

How she’d pulled that off, she couldn’t imagine. One second she’d been perched on Brick’s shoulder, crooning in his ear, trying to comfort him. The next she’d been winging toward her uncle, ready to peck out his eyeballs—and batting the tranquilizer gun away from his side in the process. As it clattered to the floor, she’d shifted in surprise, snatching it up and plugging him full of industrial strength Carfentanil. He’d kissed the parquet floor in a heartbeat.
The bigger they are
….

Nothing she would not do for her wolf. Nothing.

“Good job, darlin’.” Astonishment painted her lover’s face. “Now what?”

“Now we get the hell out of here.”

“Um. Okay. Anything you say, sweetheart.” His gaze roved over her naked form, heating, and he grinned at her, brandy-colored eyes alight. “Have I told you lately, how awesome you are?”

“I bet you say that to all the girls with tranq guns in their hands.”

“Only the one I’m desperate to…buy condoms for.” He shot her a wink. Then looked at her uncle. “And by the way…getting out of here is a really good idea.”

She found her scattered clothes and pulled them back on.

Brick tried to prop himself up, but his arm fell back to his side. “Even better plan if I could walk,” he muttered.

She raced back to him, trying to lever his body off the floor. If she’d thought him heavy when he’d pressed her against his mattress, most of his poundage borne by his forearms and shoulders, the tranquilizer deadening his limbs now seemed to double his weight.

“Help me help us, Brick,” she urged. Slinging his arm across his shoulder, she ducked beneath him, forcing him to his feet. They couldn’t exit through the door into the saloon. The cats would be on them like mustard on a hot dog. She managed to drag him toward the bathroom in the rear of the office and throw open the window.

“I got this, Aura Lee.”

He clambered clumsily onto the toilet seat and yanked her up with him. She eyed the window. His size. His lethargy. Shot him a look full of doubt.

“Let me go first, sweetheart,” he hissed. “If I don’t make it, you shift. You soar. You get the fuck away from here. Fast as you can.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“Don’t underestimate the wolf.” He touched her chin with his finger, his aim only a little askew. “Listen to me, Summer. I need to know you’re safe. That you’ll get safe. Or I don’t stand a chance.”

“All right.”

When she nodded reluctantly, he expelled a relieved breath. “You fly.” He gave her a parting wink and tumbled through the window, landing in a leaden heap in the bushes below. He shifted, the wolf bounding toward his truck, still parked in the rear lot where they’d left it. The beast moved less gracefully than usual, but not as sluggishly as the man.

She climbed out of the window and raced after him. Bundled him into the back of the vehicle, got behind the wheel, and tore ass down the mountain with teeth-jangling speed. Stopping briefly at the cabin to snatch up a bag of clothes.

And then on into Los Lobos. Slamming into the sidewalk abutting The Den. Where it had all ended for Brick. Or begun.

He sprang out of the back of the truck, a huge, furred frenzy, and marched to her side, his movements fluid, his lope confident.
I got this, baby
was stamped across his snout, written in every ripple of muscle. His jaws closed around their bag. A thrill of excitement zipped through her. She wrapped her hand in his thick scruff and walked into the bar beside him. By the spirit of the Great Hawk, she loved this guy. Man. Beast. The whole gorgeous package.

“So you finally ready to settle up your bar tab, boy?” The huge werebear lumbered behind the bar of The Den, moving toward the antique cash register. He’d brushed his black hair back from his broad, weathered forehead, twisting it into a two tight braids that flowed over his shoulders and swung when he moved. A silver and turquoise earring, shaped like a dreamcatcher and dripping three tiny feathers, dangled from one ear. His blue cambric work shirt covered the tats and arrow scars Brick had seen marking his chest.

He stared back at his mentor, the sole friend he’d had in the world—until Summer had flown into his life and thumped him in the ribcage with a Ram truck medallion, capturing his heart.

He dumped the bag of clothes on the floor. Shifting back into human form, he yanked on a pair of jeans, patting the pocket for his wallet. “Yeah, what’s the damage?”

“Let’s see…considering you guzzled like a fish, nearly got my liquor license yanked a few times, and broke up the place when you lunged for Magnum—not to mention ten years of compounded interest? I reckon that’s about $19,000 you owe me.”

Next to him, Summer gasped, bristling and furious on his behalf. “That’s price gouging, you cheat,” she hissed. “He couldn’t possibly have run up that big a tab here. He was just a kid when he got his head handed to him and you didn’t do anything to stop it. Interest? Are you kidding?”

“Yeah, he is, sweetheart,” Brick whispered. He ran a hand over her soft hair. His turn to soothe her ruffled feathers for once. He nuzzled her neck, inhaling her essence. His own scent remained faint on her skin. He’d have to do something about that soon. Make sure he’d marked and claimed her.
Mated
her.

“She’s right, Gee. So how about I just save The Den for you, and maybe all of Los Lobos along with it?”

“What’s this about saving Los Lobos?” A tall man with brown hair and compelling blue eyes uncoiled himself from his bar stool. He didn’t bear any resemblance to his late father whatsoever. Had to be Drew, though. He remembered the intense eyes from when they both were pups. What he didn’t remember, was the slight limp.

“Heard you were back. Glad you made it."

“Are you?” Drew scanned him as thoroughly as a TSA officer profling a suspect on the No Fly list. “Heard you challenged Magnum.”

Brick shrugged, extending his hands, palm up. He didn’t belong to pack anymore and he’d be damned if he’d show more submission than that. But his resentment toward the new alpha ebbed away.

“Someone needs to take charge. By rights that should be you.”

“Glad you see it that way.” Another tall, lean wolf, with long black hair and intimidating eyes emerged from the shadows to plant himself at Drew’s side.

“Ryker.” Brick acknowledged the pack enforcer briefly. He doubted he’d ever warm to the guy. That long ago day in The Den, Ryker had stood by and done nothing. True, he hadn’t piled on when Magnum and his thugs had beaten him into the sawdust. But he hadn’t stopped the massacre, either. “Especially with the cats threatening.”

Drew exchanged looks with Gee and Ryker, as if they’d all been expecting the news. “How’d you hear that?”

“We just came from Shady Heart.”

“My uncle Cal’s place.”

“The fuck were you doing there?” Ryker demanded.