Shift of Fate: A Wolfguard Protectors Novel Page 8

  From deep in the woods, a sound unlike anything I’d ever heard cut through me, heating my blood once again.

  It was a low, threatening growl, followed by a plaintive howl. Jason pulled away as if my skin had turned to fire.

  He staggered back and shielded his eyes with his forearm.

  “Go back inside,” he said. “We’ll talk again later. And don’t you dare try anything like you did on the road. This weekend, I’m throwing an engagement party. I’m going to present you to important people. People whose influence your father desperately needs. You’ll play the part you were born to play, my love.”

  Or else. He didn’t say it, but the threat was still there. I tore away from him, adrenaline coursing through me. He felt it. God help me. He felt it. It only made his midnight black eyes darken even more.

  Instinct fueled me and I ran. As I reached the French doors and vaulted into the kitchen, I had that same stifling sense that prison bars had just closed behind me.

  Chapter Eleven

  Val

  My wolf ripped out of me. Willow’s fear struck me like an arrow through the heart. She was with him. He was dangerous.

  I stayed under cover of the brush, just beyond the tree line as Willow and Jason Soren made their way to the gazebo. I could see Soren’s lust pouring off of him. He was having a hard time controlling his own wolf. If he made one false move, if he harmed so much as a hair on Willow’s head, I would end him.

  I bared my fangs, a growl running through me in constant, low vibration. It was dangerous to let it. If there were any other shifters nearby, they would scent me in a second. Soren should have. But, he was too busy trying to maintain the balance between his primal and logical nature.

  It was me. I knew it. He hadn’t expected to come face to face with another Alpha wolf in his own damn dining room. It had short-circuited his instincts. Made him more feral, just like it had for me.

  I had to be careful. If Soren had a pack and I made a careless move, they’d be on me in a flash. As much as it tore at my soul, the best way to keep Willow safe was to keep my distance.

  His hands were on her, pressing her against the gazebo post. Fear laced her scent, making it so hard for me to see straight.

  Soren became nothing but an infrared shape to me. All the cool blues and greens faded to fiery red and orange. Lust. Possession. Power. Willow was unaware of what she did to him. I felt her pulse beating alongside mine. Wild. Edged with panic. She had to stay calm. If she ran. If she tried to fight, it would set Soren off like a stick of dynamite. I was fast, but still wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. Willow had no idea how her nature affected a wolf shifter like me. Or like Soren.

  She was a wolf’s mate. I had recognized it the moment I laid eyes on her, even if I hadn’t let myself believe it. She was the job. I was trained to keep my distance. But, when I touched her for the very first time, I knew. She wasn’t just any wolf’s mate. She was mine.

  Only Soren thought the same thing. He was different than me. Just as strong, maybe, but there was an undercurrent running through him. He was on the edge of something. I knew in my heart that under the right conditions, his could go Tyrannous.

  A Tyrannous Alpha was the worst kind of shifter. A pure abomination. Fueled by anger an evil, he would exert total control over his pack and his mate. They could not eat, sleep, or shift without his permission. The most powerful Tyrannous could make his pack kill for him, die for him.

  And right then, this asshole gripped Willow’s arms so hard, he would bruise her.

  I would kill him. I would enjoy it. But, even as I thought it, I knew how dangerous it was to think it. I couldn’t let Soren’s evil get into me. I had to stay calm. I had to find a way to get Willow away from him without bringing his entire pack, if he had one, down on our heads.

  He let her go. I could see her eyes glisten as she fought back the tears. I wanted to go to her, hold her, protect her with my body. But, I also wanted to make her mine.

  He knew it. Deep down, Soren knew what she was to me. It’s why he danced so close to the edge right now. He saw me for the threat I was to him. Damn right. He’d have to kill me to get to her if that’s what it took.

  Willow turned away from Soren. From this angle, I saw his eyes flash red. He was more far gone than I thought.

  Careful, I thought. Willow was too close to him. She had no idea how much danger she was in. I couldn’t make it worse no matter how badly I wanted to race across that yard and take him down.

  I couldn’t hear what she said to him. It wasn’t that I lacked the power. It was only that my own predatory rage began to drive out human words and thoughts.

  She was bold. Defiant. She challenged him. Oh, God. If she took a step closer…

  Soren grabbed her again. My vision went bright red, then dark. I had to keep it together. For her. For me.

  I found control. When I opened my eyes again, Soren was kissing her. His grip was cruel, possessive. It was a claiming. My heart ripped down the middle. To hell with the man, I would call forth the beast. I could taste his blood in my mouth.

  I couldn’t stop it. A howl ripped from me. Soren heard it. He sent out a call.

  Dammit. I was out of time.

  But, Willow was too strong for the both of us. She kept her head and finally pulled away. Her pulse raced, but she projected calm. Then, she ran toward the house. I wanted to call to her. I wanted her to run to me. Together, we’d tear through the woods and I’d get her far from Soren’s grasp.

  All at once, I sensed Soren’s pack. Dammit. They’d stayed hidden, but Soren’s rage and mine brought them out. They patrolled at the far edges of the property on the other side of the woods. They were heading this way and fast.

  I kept my eyes on Soren. He stared at the woods, searching for me. Of course he knew I was there. With Willow at his side, he hadn’t sensed me. Her pull was far too strong. Now that she closed the door between them, I knew his head cleared enough to feel the real threat.

  Four. Seven. No. I sensed at least a dozen wolves headed straight for me. Shit. His pack was massive. Even some of the largest packs in upper Michigan and Canada weren’t that big.

  I wondered how many had joined him willingly. One move, one word, and he would order them to kill first and ask questions later. One on one, I liked my chances against Soren. He may be strong, powerful, a pack leader. But, he hadn’t come of age under the harsh landscape of the Siberian wilderness like I had.

  Thirteen. Fourteen including Soren himself. Strong as I was, I knew I couldn’t take on that many wolves alone.

  As much as it killed me, my best move was to retreat. Regroup.

  I pulled back to the shadows and followed the trail along the hidden stream. I knew there was a lake out there somewhere. It wasn’t ideal, but if I could get to it before they caught the full force of my scent, I could keep them away.

  Payne.

  I needed to call Payne and let him know what was going on here. I didn’t care how much Soren paid him for this job, Wolfguard wasn’t in the business of helping wolf shifters on their way to becoming Tyrannous Alpha.

  Somehow, I managed to come back into myself. I found the scattered remnants of my clothes and got dressed. My cellphone was still in my jacket pocket. I pulled it out and punched in Payne’s number.

  The call wouldn’t go through. There was no cell service out here. Damn. It meant I’d have to get closer to the main house. Doing so put me at risk of detection from Soren’s pack, but I had to chance it. There was no way I was leaving this place without Willow safely beside me. From the looks of things out at the gazebo, I knew she’d agree.

  How in the hell had her family let it get so far with this guy? As much as I wanted to rip Jason Soren to pieces, I had fantasies about doing the same to Daniel Rousseau. To hell with how connected he was.

  From the looks of it, Willow was nothing more than chattel to the both of them. Soren must have sensed what I did about Willow when she was just a kid. I nearly doubl
ed over as I let that thought fully form in my mind.

  Willow told me she first met Soren through her father when she was fourteen years old. God. It meant he’d tried to groom her. All these years. She said she’d confided things in him. She said he made her feel safe. It was only when she finally got out on her own and moved to Denver, she started to get out from her father and Jason Soren’s influence. No wonder they’d fought so hard to keep her at home.

  I realized with cold, stark, clarity, that’s exactly why they hired me to bring her here. They knew she might try to run. Oh, God. I had helped them. I had talked her into coming here and telling Jason how she felt. I had played right into their fucking hands. I came to the edge of the woods on the north side of the house, away from the gazebo. I sensed Willow on the third floor. She was back in her suite of rooms. She was alone. For now.

  I pulled up Payne’s number again. The call immediately dropped. I was still getting a no service warning. It made no sense. I had seen a cell tower right off the main road leading up to the Soren estate. It couldn’t be more than a mile away.

  I turned off the phone, then powered it up again. Still nothing.

  I had two choices. I could move to another part of the grounds and try again. Or, I could leave the property and head into town and call from there.

  But...then I’d be leaving Willow here alone, unprotected.

  Shit.

  I felt Soren’s pack. They had mostly dispersed after not finding their quarry in the woods. I knew it was more than that though. The minute Willow was away from Soren’s direct sight and touch, he came back into himself. He was in control. As much as it tore at me, I knew Willow might very well be in more danger with me here watching her.

  But, I couldn’t leave without telling her what I planned. I made a promise to her. In another couple of hours, the sun would go down. I’d told her to meet me by the stables. With any luck, she’d find a way to get there.

  So, I would wait. Willow may not have known exactly what Jason Soren was, but her instincts were good. I could sense those too. She knew he meant her harm. She knew he wasn’t who she’d grown up believing he was. If she could keep her head, I could figure out a way to get her out of here without bringing the whole pack down on us.

  It was a good plan. It might have even worked. But, as I receded back into the relative safety of the woods, with one wrong step everything went to hell.

  He was pissing on a huge maple tree, his back to me. I’d been so focused on Willow, I hadn’t heard him. A branch cracked beneath my foot as I took a step. He froze. Turning to the side, his wolf eyes flashed.

  Just a beta wolf. A low-level lackey. His mind was thick and dumb. But, he had a voice. It only took the span of a heartbeat before he called to the pack.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said, then he shifted on a dime. His wolf was pale gray and skinny. His eyes sallow. I knew I could probably take him down with my bare hands without even shifting. But it wasn’t just him.

  They heard the call. The woods became ringed with yellow eyes as the rest of Soren’s pack closed in. There were four to the left. Two to the right. The skinny gray wolf faced off with me. I made half a turn, planning to shoot for the small clearing over his left shoulder.

  The three behind me struck at once, tearing the flesh from my back.

  I let out a great howl and swiped my arm in a great arc. I was half in my wolf before my blow landed. I hit one wolf hard enough to knock him out before he hit the ground.

  That was the last thing I remember before five more wolves leaped at me and the air went out of my lungs.

  My ribs cracked. Blood poured from a gash at my temple. They drove me to my knees. I supposed I should have taken some small comfort in the fact that it took ten of them to bring me down.

  There was a leader among them. Probably Soren’s second in command. He was the only one of them not to shift. He stood over me as I doubled over. I tried to stand. I looked up at him, blood pouring into my eyes. He bared his teeth and curled his fists. It took six of them to hold me down as he landed a punishing blow to my jaw and all the lights went out.

  Chapter Twelve

  Willow

  I paced in front of my bedroom window. Jason had given me a suite of rooms in the east wing of the house. I had my every need attended to. A staff waiting on me hand and foot down to every detail such as drawing my bath. But as each moment ticked by, I knew this was nothing more than my prison.

  There was something out there, watching me. I could see the woods from the window, dark, expansive. I waited until the moon rose high.

  There was one mercy. Jason had left for the day and instructed his staff to let me take my meals in my room if that’s what I wanted. I became keenly aware of the only thing I really did want above all else.

  Val.

  I should have met him the night before, but I couldn’t get away. There was always someone with me, checking in on me. They were kind, attentive, but I knew every well-meaning face from the housekeepers to the cook to Kenneth Ramsey were all my jailers.

  On the afternoon of the third day at the Soren House, something made me venture out.

  There had been no word from Val. My heart sank, knowing he had probably just done exactly what Jason asked him to. He had taken his payment and gone back to his job. Because, that’s all I was to him, wasn’t it?

  “Can I get anything for you, Miss Rousseau?” Naomi, one of the house managers stood at the top of the staircase. She had a tablet in her hand and was busy giving instructions to a younger maid named Caddie who I’d just met this morning.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I just need some fresh air. Mr. Soren showed me the path through the rose garden the other day. I think I’d like to go walk it again.”

  Naomi smiled. “It’s a beautiful day. Enjoy it. Do you want me to have your dinner brought to your rooms again?”

  “Is it okay if I let you know when I get back?”

  “Of course.” She turned back to Caddie.

  My heart raced as I made my way down the stairs. I wondered what would happen if I went through the rose garden and right on down into the woods. Part of me wanted to try, just to see.

  I had every intention of heading through the French doors off the dining room. My heart raced with the prospect of even that much freedom. As much as I wanted to see Val again, I wanted my father too. I had zero contact with him since I left Denver. That was more than strange. Jason told me he had called in to check up on me but never asked to speak to me in person. But, he would be here in just a few days’ time. Daniel Rousseau would be the man of the hour at my very own engagement party. My stomach churned just thinking about it.

  I never made it to the dining room or the French doors or the rose garden. Instead, voices compelled me. There was no one in the grand foyer. Naomi and the housekeeping staff were still making their way through the east wing. The cooks were busy preparing dinner. Not even Ramsey popped his head out as he usually did when I left my rooms.

  The voices were coming from the study. My pulse quickened as I recognized them. One was Jason. So, the staff had lied. He wasn’t away on business again. That was the bad news. The good news was, he hadn’t yet come to see me.

  “He hasn’t said a word.” I didn’t recognize the voice. I got bold and stepped closer to the doorway to the study. There was a tiny alcove and sitting area right next to the study. It was the perfect reading spot, overlooking the garden. Beside it was another door leading outside. On a whim, I opened it. I winced, waiting for some silent alarm to go off, alerting Jason or the rest of his staff that I’d gotten loose.

  Nothing happened.

  I stepped outside. An overhang kept me in shadows as I edged closer to the window to the study. The voices were still loud and clear. Only now, I could steal a glance at the faces they belonged to.

  Jason sat behind his desk. Ramsey stood at his shoulder. Two other men stood in front of the desk as though Jason hadn’t given them permission to sit.

&nb
sp; They were tall, like Jason. Like Val. In fact, as I stood and watched them, I noticed a familiar quality about all of them. They each had an intensity to their eyes that made them glint. Corded muscles and broad frames made them look almost like a different species from Kenneth Ramsey with his long, wiry build. But, Jason looked different somehow. I hadn’t noticed it before, but, he seemed bigger, more muscular. I wondered if he’d taken steroids in the last few years.

  “I think the steel might be affecting him more than we expected.” One of the men standing in front of Jason’s desk spoke. He and the other man had the same ruddy complexions, closely cropped beards and black as midnight hair. They could be brothers.

  “Maybe,” Jason said. “And I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. As long as it’s keeping him quiet, it’ll do for now.”

  “I just don’t understand it,” Ramsey chimed in. “If he’s a problem, you know I’ll handle it.”

  Jason let out a sigh. He folded his hands at his desk. His ring flashed and he picked up an odd-looking keychain. It was gold, rimmed with diamonds. There was just one key on it. He spun it on his index finger.

  “I don’t pay you to understand, Kenneth.”

  “Mr. Soren,” one of the black-haired muscleheads said, “We really could have handled this job. If you didn’t want me or Rawley near Willow, I understand. But, Wolfguard?”

  My heart twisted. Me. They were talking about me. And Wolfguard? That was Val’s security firm.

  “You do what I tell you,” Jason said. He narrowed his eyes. When he did, both men before him squeezed their faces tight as if they were in pain. I watched as Jason exhaled. At the same time, the men relaxed.

  What the actual hell was going on?

  “It’s not for us to question the ways of the ring,” Ramsey said.

  Jason shot him a look. I couldn’t see his exact expression from here, but it was enough to make Ramsey blanch. Then, Jason turned back to his two associates.