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Chapter Eight
Levi
Crashing glass and splintering wood sounded like a bomb blast radiating from the direction of the house, and I knew my patient had decided to reject our hospitality. It was not surprising, considering who she was and how she’d gotten there. If there was one thing I knew about Charlie Larsen, she was not the type of female to cower or wait around for a hero to rescue her.
I was cursing myself for going out for a run. I’d needed a leg stretch after hours of tending to her extensive magic and silver burns, but I should have been there to greet her. Nothing like waking up in a strange place surrounded by werewolf smells. Been there myself. Not fun.
I turned on a dime then headed back toward the mansion. If Charlie was on the run, I needed to get to her before she realized she was trapped. We had protections along our property border that she wouldn’t like, and that would make her feel like a prisoner, which was exactly what we didn’t want. She was free to leave—out of the front door, not the way she was headed. Those magical burns would be nothing compared to the zap she’d get if she tried to cross our perimeter. It wasn’t like we could just turn them off either, not with so many enemies living so close. Vancouver might have been a paradise, but it was chock full of werewolves, and they all wanted a piece of the same pie.
Leave it to my brothers to fuck this up. I’d asked them to keep an eye on our guest. Obviously, they’d had other ideas. Probably slunk off to have a glass or five of bourbon in the den. Both of them, for different reasons, thought this was a done deal, like Charlie would accept her fate gratefully.
Ha!Fools. After everything that had happened preceding her arrival, they should have known better. I’d been livid when I’d seen the damage to her throat. Sal Larsen was a monster, and he deserved what was coming to him.
Inwardly sighing, I pushed myself in the direction I thought she might be going—not along the heavily traveled main path, that would be too obvious, but where the brush was thickest and the hiding spots plenty. Not that I’d imagine Charlie would be cowering, but if hunkering down became a necessity, that was the move I’d make. Her progress would be slow, but it was the way to conceal travel, especially if attempting an escape.
Since I’d been in Charlie’s head more than once, thanks to her wily beckons, I felt like I knew a little bit about her instincts. She’d take some risks…but not until she got her bearings.
I picked up on a change in forest smells, a new wafting scent that cut through the pine. Clove and earth, an herby tang that was fresh and slid through the mossy musk I was used to. It was her. I knew it was.
Changing course, I aimed for the clump of fallen trees, skirting the perimeter wide enough that she hopefully wouldn’t pick up on my scent until it was too late.
There was rustling to my left, which I discounted as a rabbit or deer. Despite my wolfie instinct to check it out, my ears perking toward the noise, I had bigger prey to track.
And I wanted to catch her…badly. Every part of my body, every muscle, quivered to get Charlie in my sights and under my paws.
My heart thundered and my lungs screamed. I pushed myself harder. I hadn’t pursued any big game in a long time, nothing with high stakes involved. The chase was exhilarating, especially since I knew it was a female I was after.
One who belonged with me, even if she didn’t know it yet.
She would. It was only a matter of time.
She’d called to me for three years—tormented me with desires that pummeled my senses while I slept and sometimes when I was awake, inviting me into her unconscious mind all the while without ever revealing who she was. It had taken three years to figure it out, to understand that she’d been calling to my brothers as well—Kane and Johnny both, all three of us at the mercy of Charlie fucking Larsen, one of the last known ‘of age’ unmated female werewolves in Canada.
Now she was with us, and she would answer for it. Even if Kane and Johnny didn’t remember, I did, and she had some explaining to do.
The rustling was silenced, like the prey knew a dangerous predator was near. I slowed my pace, knowing that I’d intercept her soon by the way her scent carried through the leaves, kissing my senses.
I made it to the stream, the fresh water calling to me as it bubbled over the rocks and fallen branches. It was humid as fuck out here, unusually muggy, even though it was past midnight. A few sips of cool fresh water would do me good. I skidded to a halt, somehow staying silent, because just there, on the other side of the stream, was a beautiful black wolf—one I knew from my dreams.
Her fur was sleek, showcasing the lean muscles of her flanks. Her legs, long and corded, broadcasted power and elegance at the same time. Obviously, I’d never seen her wolf outside of the shadows of her dreams.
I liked what I saw.
Even with her shoulders hunched and her muzzle down, looking for all intents and purposes submissive, I knew she was anything but, which was why it was so surprising—and, yeah, disappointing—that she didn’t flinch, not even a slight ear swivel in my direction. I’d have thought she’d be more aware of her surroundings. Maybe the rumors about her prowess were exaggerated.
She was slowly lapping at the water, her breath coming out in great gusts after a hard run. I crouched lower, wiggling my belly into the dirt, watching her. She was mesmerizing, truly a specimen of the finest of our kind. Her body was brimming with power, her claws digging into the dirt. And the languid movement of her tongue, sucking back the refreshing water of the stream? Well, let’s just say I’d known that tongue to do wicked things in my time behind her walls. My eyelids drooped, my heart beat faster. I couldn’t believe she was here…really here. Feet away.
She continued to drink, her eyes closed as her sides started to slow their heavy breaths.
I moved a little closer, giving up the shelter of the fallen branches that protected my back, slinking slowly, not making a sound. I could pounce on her in a heartbeat—and maybe I would. I slouched again, took a sniff of the air, opened my mouth to let her scent play along my tongue. I wanted to taste her for real. Touch her. Consume her.
She opened her eyes, green gems alight in the darkness, then she looked right at me, and I swear on my wolf, she grinned.
In one great leap she was across the stream and on top of me, digging claws and fangs into the scruff of my neck and pinning me down. I howled, tried to roll away, but she had more leverage and dug deeper, using her back paws to rip at my spine. Fur flew. Blood, too. The slight ledge we were on began to crumble with our combined weight. She shifted only her arm to that of a human and wedged it against my throat, cutting off the air with her combined human agility and wolf strength.
I was going to die. Right here. Right now. And I deserved it.
The ledge fell apart, and her weight shifted. I managed to greedily suck back a lungful of air.
She didn’t let the sliding terrain take her down, and she used my body as a springboard, shifting her arm to wolf once again as she jumped over me then raced into the woods, but not before taking a chunk of my flesh with her.
I shook the pain off, stumbled a bit, too, the smell of my own blood making my fangs ache. She got me! That fiend! I howled, desiring the hunt, giddy to chase after her.
She was crashing through the brush like she was taunting me, coaxing me into a trap. I veered to the left, moving along a path I knew, a deer trail that was hidden so well it had taken me weeks to find it.
I saw flashes of black fur dart in and out of the bushes and tall grass. She was weaving, no doubt thinking I was behind her. The moon, while only a small sliver, wasn’t doing her any favors. Her fur gleamed under its glow.
I dove over a branch, aiming to tackle her, but she spun away at the last second, anticipating my move, then in a half shift that took my breath away, literally, she used her human knee to slam my ribs so that I hit the dirt hard, skidding against rocks and branches until I stopped, smashing into a boulder, and all my breath whooshed out of me.
Back in her full wolf form, she charged toward me with murder in her eyes.
