Savage Moon: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 4) Read online

  “But, Jax . . .”

  He kept a firm grip on my shoulders but took a step back and leaned down so we were eye to eye. “Listen to me. I think Jaxson’s safer if I get you away from Kane. Not if you stay. If you’re gone, Jaxson’s the only leverage Kane has with your father.”

  The barks and howls grew closer. I could make out Kane’s pulse among the pack. They were very close indeed. And we were out of time.

  “They’re too close,” I said, breathless. “We’ll never outrun them. At least . . . I can’t.”

  Alec gave me a grim nod. “You’re right. I fucking hate it. But, you are.”

  “What do we do?”

  Alec leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine. “I need a couple of days. You get back to the compound. Lay low. I’ll stay here tonight. Close enough to get to you if Kane tries anything. Far enough away they won’t suspect anything. I’ve been doing it for days and it’s been okay. Fuck. What am I saying? It’s been torture for me being this close to you. Knowing Kane’s close to you. But, I can do it. We can do it. Just for a little while longer. Then, tomorrow morning I’m going to get reinforcements. My own pack’s too far away, but there’s another pack on the other side of the lake. I think I can convince them to come back with me. We’ll get you to the Bonner farm. Neutral turf. Then we let the Alphas’ counsel decide.”

  “Beer court?”

  He smiled and kissed me. “Beer court.”

  “Okay.” I went up on my tiptoes and hugged him. Leaving him this time was going to physically hurt. But, I could do it. I had no choice.

  “Stay safe,” he said, his voice grim. “Now go. Run. I can keep the pack distracted like I did the last time. Get back there and wait for me. No matter what happens. I’m coming back for you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I did as Alec asked me to. I ran. This time was different. I felt like I was running toward something instead of away from it. For the first time in six months, I felt hopeful. And I know hope is a dangerous thing.

  My heart hammered in my chest and I had to stop; grabbing a tall birch, I doubled over to catch my breath. I couldn’t get careless now. Alec had the pack on the run, but I couldn’t assume Kane wasn’t out there listening for me.

  A few days. I could manage a few more days. Then I would leave with Alec. He was right. It sickened me to think of Jaxson as Kane’s pawn. But he already was. I could do more good for him away from Kane than with him now. And I wasn’t alone in this anymore.

  I hoped there was still time to get through to my father. The gash across Alec’s chest worried me. Deeply. But one crisis at a time. Now was about getting away from Kane and convincing the other wolf packs to do something about him. I prayed Alec was right.

  I was one hundred yards from the ranger station when I heard voices, low and threatening. I dropped to my knees.

  “It’s now or never.” Wade’s voice.

  “Why? I mean, are you sure?” Brandon’s voice.

  I blew hard through my mouth to try and slow my pulse. I needed to hear every word they said, and I couldn’t do anything to let them know I was listening. The two of them walked behind Brandon’s cabin. But, they were alone. I couldn’t sense Kane or anyone else. They had to have broken off and gone after Alec.

  “Yes. Don’t question me. Kane’s on his way back. He needs us to take care of this once and for all. He can’t have Alec’s blood on his hands. We have to take the risk for him.”

  My heart stopped.

  “Kane’s chased him off. He’s holed up in the weeds near the sand bar. He’s not moving. We go now. While his scent is still thrown from the hunt. Quick and deadly. No more discussion. I’ve been craving the chance to rip his throat out since he rode up here with Bas earlier this year poking their noses into our business. Without his pack around him, we’re never gonna have a chance like this again. One by one, if we have to. Just like Kane said. You wanna live under Wild Lake law forever? Or do you finally want to be free of it like we’re supposed to be and take what should have been ours all along?”

  Oh, God. They were going after Alec. Now.

  I looked up. There was still time before sunrise. Not much. But I could head them off and warn him. Alec wasn’t anywhere near the sand bar, but if they made it that far, they’d be able to pick up his scent. Two against one with the element of surprise, and Alec could be in real trouble.

  “Shit. Shit!”

  I took off back toward the water, cutting a zig zag path. I had no hope of outrunning Brandon or Wade, but they were luckily headed in the wrong direction. If Alec stayed where he told me, at least. God. Please let him stay where he told me.

  I made good progress, staying to the thickest part of the woods and following the trail from a small stream. I came out near a rotted tree that served as home to a muskrat and three mallard ducks. The ducks quacked in protest and moved off toward the middle of the lake.

  Alec’s white wolf stood in profile at the edge of the water not far from the overturned kayak. My heart thundering in my chest, I let out a sigh of relief. I’d done it. I’d gotten to him in time.

  “Alec!” I whisper-shouted. He turned and his eyes flashed. He shifted instantly, his sleek muscles rippling as the moonlight bathed him in a silvery glow. The shock of white through his hair looked almost luminescent as he bounded over a rotted log and got to me. He kissed me hard, making my blood sing. I wanted nothing more than to sink into his touch and make the world go away. But, the world was headed straight for us with snarling fangs and flashing gold eyes.

  “Brandon and Wade,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “I heard them. They’re coming. You have to leave. Now. They’re going to kill you. It sounds like Kane’s given them the implicit okay. At least that’s what Wade’s telling Brandon.”

  Alec’s eyes went wide and he looked over my shoulder. “New plan. We both have to leave. Now. You’ll never make it back to the compound before Kane. We’ll head to the Bonners. From there I’ll figure out what to do.”

  I nodded. Alec kissed my forehead and flipped the kayak. “If I get us out fast enough, they won’t be able to follow the trail. We should have enough of a head start. Get in.”

  But we weren’t fast enough. From the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the trees. I turned toward it. Alec had already shifted. He darted in front of me, his tail up and his back arched. Growling, he stood his ground as Brandon and Wade’s wolves advanced on them.

  Oh, God. They looked so big. Saliva dripped from Wade’s fangs and his snout curled back. Brandon flanked him, trying to move around Alec. Make him choose. Decide who was the bigger threat. I knew it from experience; Alec knew it on instinct. Wade would want the kill.

  Alec turned his head quick and snapped his jaw at me. He was beyond words, of course, but I understood him anyway. He wanted me to get in the kayak and put distance between them. But, my feet seemed rooted to the ground. They would kill him. Without control of them like an Alpha had, Alec was outnumbered. And they would soon call to the rest of the pack.

  Brandon struck first, but his lunge was clumsy. Alec caught him by the neck and flipped him hard. Brandon cried out and Wade made his move. He pounced on Alec’s back, driving him to the ground. His fangs cut deep into Alec’s side, but somehow Alec managed to heave Wade off, using his powerful hind legs. Blood poured out of the gash on Alec’s side, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. He took two quick steps forward and clamped his jaw over Wade’s ear. He shook his head hard, tearing through Wade’s flesh and driving him to the ground. Brandon rallied and leaped on Alec’s back, driving his teeth into the back of Alec’s neck.

  I grabbed the kayak paddle. If I could distract one of the wolves long enough, maybe Alec could get the upper hand again. I took two steps forward and a sharp bark from Alec made me freeze in my tracks. I stayed put. But I hated it. If I could do something, anything to help even the odds. Alec was strong and big as any Alpha I’d ever seen. But, he was one wolf against two, and they had come here with murd
er in their hearts.

  Wade was on the ground, bleeding badly. The side of his head was a mangled mess. Alec kicked backward, launching Brandon against a large tree. The crack of bones cut through the air as he landed hard. They weren’t dead. Brandon and Wade would rally. But Alec turned and ran toward me, shifting from wolf to man mid-leap.

  Sweat poured from him, his right side bled, but he looked whole. “Get in the kayak,” he said. “I can’t hold them both off much longer. They’re in a bloodlust. They’ll kill you if they get through me, and I can’t take that chance. Let’s go.”

  I tossed the paddle to him and stepped in the back of the kayak. Alec shoved the boat so hard it felt like we’d made it halfway across the lake before he even started to paddle. He jumped in behind me, and I shifted my weight to help steady the boat. Then Alec carved the paddle through the water, picking up even more speed.

  “Are you all right?” I shouted.

  “Been worse.” Alec’s voice was ragged and breathy.

  “I’m so sorry. I should have done what you asked. We should have left days ago.”

  “Don’t worry now. Main thing is to just get you safe.”

  The effort of talking seemed to take something out of Alec. I reached back and put a hand to his cheek. His skin was hot, but his pulse was steady. My own flared to match his. But, I felt Kane back there too. As soon as he got to the water line and joined Brandon and Wade, he’d know exactly what happened.

  God. He’d know what happened. I said a silent prayer for Jaxson. Alec had to be right. Kane couldn’t risk taking anything out on my brother if he didn’t have me as a bargaining chip anymore. I should have left sooner. I should have listened to Alec from the beginning. But there was no help for it now.

  My heart pounded inside my chest. Wild Lake wasn’t huge. We should be able to make it across in less than an hour. But, what if Kane figured out where we were headed? There weren’t that many options. Thank God he didn’t have easy access to a boat to catch up with us. But, wherever we were headed, he could meet us when we docked. They could fan out. Drive around the lake for hours until they caught our scent. And I was beyond able to control my emotions to shield myself from Kane. We couldn’t stay in the middle of the lake forever. This seemed desperately hopeless.

  “We’ve got to get to the Bonners,” Alec said as if he could read my mind. “You see that silver silo in the distance? Red barn. That’s where we’re headed.”

  “I see it.” My heart leaped in my chest. It didn’t seem so far away. Alec’s oar sliced through the water, and he propelled us forward as if we had a motor.

  “Good. If we’re lucky, Kane won’t figure out we’re headed there before we get there. There’s a good chance he thinks I’m headed back toward Bas and the rest of my pack. He still doesn’t know about you and me as far as I can tell. He’s gotta think I’m trying to get reinforcements.” Alec’s voice sounded sleepy almost.

  Alec picked up the pace of his strokes. The kayak tore through the water. Ten yards. Twenty. One hundred. With each stroke, I felt my heart lift. We were going to do it. We were more than halfway there. The trees whizzed by. Kane’s presence faded with each inch we put between us.

  Freedom. Hope. A chance to right everything that had gone wrong.

  “How much farther. I can’t judge.”

  “Not. Far.” Alec’s breath blew hot against my neck. Kane’s mark throbbed. I wanted to reach back and claw through it if that’s what it took to get rid of him. I knew it wasn’t that simple.

  “Then what?”

  Alec didn’t answer, but the shoreline loomed. An “L”-shaped dock came into view and the silver silo loomed behind it. Sanctuary. We were almost there.

  “Pat and Harold will take care of you,” Alec said. I felt his whole body clench.

  “Me? Where the hell are you planning on going?”

  Before he could answer me, I saw someone running down the hill toward the dock. The first faint rays of morning sunlight stabbed through the clouds. A woman. Plump. Short. But filled with what looked like rage and purpose as she waved her arms. She yelled something, but we weren’t close enough to hear.

  “Pat,” Alec called out, but something was wrong. He slumped forward and the oar slid into the water. I grabbed it before it floated away and tried to turn. Alec leaned against me with his full weight, nearly overbalancing the kayak.

  “Alec!”

  I turned just enough to see the ghostly pallor of his skin. And the red blood running down the side of the kayak.

  “Get him in!” Pat screamed. She’d made it to the end of the dock.

  I paddled for my life. For Alec’s life. I nearly smashed into the side of the dock. Pat wore a yellow, fuzzy robe. I might have laughed. She looked comical almost. Her wiry gray hair flew around her face and her skin flushed with two red circles on her cheeks. But, she leaned down and caught the tip of the kayak with an agile strength that belied her appearance right before we crashed into the wood planks.

  “Aw, hell, Alec.” Pat yelled.

  I leaped from the kayak, landing in waist-deep water, and grabbed the other end of it. Alec fell forward and his lifeless body slid into the water.

  “Oh, God!” The bottom of the kayak contained a river of blood. Alec’s right side was opened up with an ugly gash torn through the muscle. It hadn’t looked that bad on the other side of the lake. Adrenaline and fear for my safety must have driven him. My heart sank as I realized a lesser man would have died from this. And this man looked like he still might.

  Pat straightened to her full height. Four ten if she was lucky. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Well, I suppose he’ll be easier to drag through the water anyway. I’ll grab one end of him, you grab the other.”

  Then she jumped in the shallow water, yellow robe and all, and hooked her hands under Alec’s right arm.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I don’t know how we got Alec out of the water and across the yard. Pat was small but mighty as she helped me heave him forward. Alec helped as much as he could, but blood poured down his side, soaking through my own jeans. I tried to keep my heart steady and the panic at bay. If it weren’t for Pat, I don’t think I would have managed. But, she was calm, methodical, and strong as shit.

  “Don’t you worry, honey,” she said as we dumped him onto the flatbed she had hitched to a four-wheeler at the bottom of the hill. He growled in protest, then passed out. All color drained from his face and his breaths came out stiff and ragged. “Hop on. We need to get him inside.”

  I climbed on the flatbed and tried to pull Alec’s legs up so they wouldn’t dangle over the side. But, the effort of that seemed to hurt him. Pat revved the engine and warned me to hang on as she hit the gas. We rocketed up the hill. She went fast and hard, and I don’t know how I managed to keep Alec from falling off the back. But, I did. She drove us up past the barn. Three large, black horses stomped and whinnied, announcing our arrival.

  The Bonner house was a huge, Victorian-style yellow farmhouse with a wrap-around porch and more windows than I could count.

  “Harold!” she yelled. Then, she stood up; keeping one hand on the throttle, she put two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill, sharp whistle that made my hair stand on end.

  Harold burst through the front storm door, shouting obscenities more shrill than Pat’s whistle. But, he didn’t look in our direction, and I realized why immediately. Harold couldn’t look in any direction. He fingered the porch railing and took a tentative step down toward the sound of Pat’s engine. She cut it just as he reached us. His pale, sightless eyes stared at a spot just to the left of us.

  “Who’s hurt, Patsy? I smell blood,” Harold said. I smoothed back Alec’s hair. His skin felt cold to the touch, and that alarmed me more than anything.

  “He’s lost so much blood,” I pleaded. “He needs a doctor.”

  Harold turned his head in my direction. He had tanned, leathery skin, but something kind about his face. And that seemed incon
gruous, as he had an old scar cutting across one temple to the top of the opposite cheek. Three jagged gashes, straight across his sightless eyes. My heart went cold for an instant. Had a bear done that? They were so like the wounds on Alec’s chest. But, as soon as I thought it, I knew it wasn’t true. They were claw marks all right, but smaller than a bear’s. They belonged to a wolf. I swallowed hard.

  Pat came around to the back of the flatbed and put a hand on Alec’s chest. She pursed her lips and nodded. “He’s gonna be all right, honey. He just needs a warm bed and the chance to heal. You been around men like him a lot?”

  I opened my mouth to answer then clamped it shut. I didn’t know exactly what to say. I let out a sigh and nodded. “Enough. Yes.”

  “Harold. Lend us a hand. I think with the three of us we can get him into the front room. You in there enough to help out, Alec?” She leaned down and yelled straight into his left ear. Alec let out a wincing cough that seemed to tear through him. But, he nodded. My heart lifted. He hadn’t left me. Not yet.

  So, Pat draped Alec’s left arm around her shoulder. I grabbed him from the right. Harold grabbed his feet.

  “On three,” I said, gritting my teeth. This was going to hurt. The gash on Alec’s right side still oozed, but even I could see the blood flow had lessened.

  I counted. We heaved. Alec let out a guttural growl that tore through me. He wasn’t Kane. We weren’t connected in the same way. Not yet, but Alec was mine. His pain was my pain.

  “Stay with us,” Pat said, and I knew she wasn’t talking to Alec. She locked her wide, green eyes with mine and gave me a quick nod. I nodded back, and we moved Alec off the flatbed and up the porch steps.

  Harold couldn’t see, but he knew exactly where he was going, even backward. When we got to the top of the steps, he kicked the screen door open with his foot. We entered a long hallway with rich, dark, wood floors and arched ceilings. Harold gestured with his chin toward a doorway on the left. We brought Alec into a small bedroom with white curtains fluttering against the window frames.