Wild Nights (18 page)

Lenox back home. She may have been smaller in stature, more

inexperienced than these wild creatures, but she linked with her inner

wolf. The feral toxin of survival instincts rushed her and she bolted

toward the two standing wolves.

“Aya! What the fuck are you doing? Don’t—”

Aya slammed into the first wolf. Barks and growls sheered the

night as she fought for control. Every swat of his paw, she dodged and

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countered with a half-dozen of her own. Her teeth tore open his chin,

his cheek. If she could get to his neck…

A loud rustling caught her attention. She knocked her enemy away

in time to see more wolves bursting into the melee. While she was

battling, Riley had placed Lenox on the ground and transformed back

to his wolf.

“Aya, when I tell you to run, you’d better do it.”
Riley stood over

Lenox, protecting the unconscious wolf as a new duo crept closer to

him.

“I’m not leaving you two.”

Riley snorted, his jowls trembling as they remained taut, baring

his teeth to the new threat.

Air rushed by her, ruffling her fur as the two wolves she had

attacked leaped past her. All at once, four wolves converged on Riley

in a standoff that lasted seconds before they pounced. Aya screamed,

but the sound came out as a high-pitched wail. She charged toward

the ruthless pack. One wolf whimpered as he flew backward. Another

barked out in pain.

Riley clawed out of the center of the brawl. He ran up to her side

and nudged her violently with the top of his head.

“Go, go, go!”

“But—”

“NOW!”

Aya sprang forward. Riley held pace alongside of her, switching

from one flank to the other. They sped through the forest. Her paws

barely touched the ground before she arced in a leap again. The night

became an obscure blur, all except for what lay directly in front of her

path.

“Faster, Aya. I can’t fight them off and keep you safe. They’re

gaining.”

“I would’ve helped—”

“Over my dead body, and that’s what you would’ve had if we

didn’t get out of there.”

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“But Lenox—”

“We’ll get him. Focus on your speed.”
Riley snorted beside her,

the strength he expended apparent in his labored breathing. Still, he

plowed ahead. Aya wouldn’t let him down. Her heart shattered to

know Lenox was left behind. She had no choice but to trust in Riley.

If it wasn’t for him, they’d all be dead.

Aya didn’t stop until she bounded up the open expanse of Lenox’s

backyard. She dove through the shattered slider and into the dark

house. Riley transformed back to human.

“Hurry. We haven’t much time. Grab a set of clothes. I’ll find

Lenox’s cell phone.”

Aya leashed in her wolf, melting back to her human form. She

hurried down the hallway to the guest room and snatched a handful of

clothes laid out over the bed. When she returned to the living room,

Riley had a pair of Lenox’s jeans draped over his arm, a cell phone in

one hand and a set of keys in the other.

He flashed her a solemn look, and it nearly succeeded in cracking

her adrenaline-fortified shield. The aches and burns from her

numerous wounds throbbed in time with her hammering heart. Her

chest was painfully tight, constricting her breaths. She clung to her

clothes, a weak lifeline in this deadly ocean.

Cries and howls filled the night, their symphonic calls chilling.

Aya shuddered, trying to cipher through the events that left a marred

streak through her memory.

Riley snaked an arm around her waist and urged her to the front

door.

“You okay?” he murmured, the rough edges of his tone dulled by

his concern. Genuine concern, she noted. He threw open the front

door and ushered her outside. She nodded. “They’re coming up the

back hill. Get in the truck. We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Silence struck her, but she did as she was told. An unnerving

numbness coiled along her body, squeezing any residual strength she

may have had from her adrenaline rush. She stumbled along the

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driveway when her knees quivered under her weight. Riley scooped

her up and carried her to the passenger side of the Silverado. He

dropped her in the seat and ran to the driver’s side.

He couldn’t have slammed the truck into drive any sooner. As the

back tires spun out, they shot a spray of pebbles across the front yard.

Aya caught the reflective orbs of two wolves rounding the side of the

house and gasped. Her muscles seized even as their yelps were

muffled through the window. They scampered out of range before

disappearing from sight.

The tires bit into the ground, gaining traction, and the heavy truck

sped ahead. The tension was near palpable in the truck as Riley

guided the vehicle at breakneck speed along the dark dirt road. He

barely tapped the brakes when they reached the end of the drive, and

peeled out onto the paved roadway.

“Aya, you’re in shock.”

Riley reached over to her and had to pry her fingers away from

her clothes. Her muscles tightened more. She tried to decipher the

scenery as it blew by them. She tried to make any distinction in

direction. Even her wolf senses seemed awry. She could smell the

blood still on Riley, but she couldn’t smell the heat of masculinity that

put her at ease. Everything smelled like metal, copper, resonance of

death. Her eyes saw Riley, but his details were so hazy. Were those

scratches on his face? Was his chest marred? Was that a bruise on his

arm? A circuit in her spirit sparked and sizzled, needing to be

reconnected to flow correctly.

“Sweetheart, I need you to come back to me. I need you to help us

get Lenox back.”

Aya blinked.
Lenox. My other mate
. A man who took her into his

home when she narrowly escaped the fire that claimed her uncle. The

same fire Riley and his pack started. The same pack that attacked her

and Lenox in the forest, then attacked Riley.
Oh, God. I need to snap

out of it. I’m spinning around in circles. I’ll do Lenox no good if I

can’t get control of myself.

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“Ayasha.” Riley’s voice was brimming with genuine concern.

That same concern flashed in his amber eyes, igniting a warmth that

sliced through the ice holding her spirit and her mind captive. His

fingers tightened around hers. This time, she returned the pressure.

“Are you okay?”

“Riley, they’re going to kill Lenox. We need to get back to him,”

she said, ignoring his inquiry. He shook his head, the multi-hued

waves tumbling over his cheeks. “They will! They were trying to kill

us!”

“If they wanted him dead, they wouldn’t have tranqed him.

They’re gonna take him prisoner. If I know Liza, she’s gonna make

sure he wishes he were dead.”

“Then we
must
go back.” Aya shook her head, the last of her

shock slipping away. She pulled her knees beneath her and turned to

Riley. Her heart twisted, her gut cinched. She didn’t want to leave

Lenox. She couldn’t! If anything happened to him… If she were to

lose him…

“You love him.” Riley’s voice held no resentment, only a hint of

resignation. He avoided looking at her. “I know that.”

Aya grabbed hold of his shoulder, allowing him full control of the

steering wheel as they sped up the mountainside. She swallowed the

truth of his words. “Where are they going to take him? How long are

we going to wait before we go find him? It’s almost dawn. If we wait

too long—”

“As soon as I get you cleaned up, and those wounds disinfected,

we’ll go. We need more muscle, little one. I can’t defeat a pack of

rebels on my own.” The truck slowed down. He pressed a finger to

her lips, hushing her before she had a chance to get her protest out.

“And there’s no way in hell I’ll let you place yourself in any more

danger. Lenox can be a frightening wolf to face when he’s enraged,

and returning to a bruised and battered white won’t be earning me

friendship points.”

“Where are we going?” The sickening churn of her stomach

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intensified. Every glance at the clock wrenched the need to turn back

and help Lenox. The farther along they drove, the more her wolf

detected a familiarity with the surrounds.

Aya’s eyes widened. A shutter snapped in place over Riley’s

expression, locking the turmoil away.

“One place I know you’ll be safe.”

* * * *

Eliza sauntered up to the fur ball lying on the ground. She nudged

the gray-and-white with her bare toe. No response. She lifted her gaze

to Jared, who stood on the other side of the downed wolf.

“And the others?” she asked. It took more strength to keep her

voice level and calm, but her nails bit deep into her palms.

One out of three. Poor odds.

Jared’s eyes lowered. Kyle fidgeted beside him. He cast a short

glance toward their mauled sharpshooter and a second fallen pack

member. Two more men sat on a downed tree and nursed severe

wounds to their faces, throats, and arms.

The outcome of their planned ambush was not what she had

envisioned.

“Well, someone better start speaking before I leave you with no

throat to speak from.”

“They got away,” Jared said quietly.

Eliza snickered, rolling her eyes toward the full moon. The gray

clouds that had cloaked the forest in darkness for them to initiate their

attack thinned. The icy blue light that poured down on her was a

brutal reminder of the pack’s failure. She wanted to see the reflection

of red on that pristine surface. She wanted that moon to bleed as the

spirits wept over the loss of their precious white wolf. She wanted to

laugh in the face of fools who bowed down to the old ways and

ancient lore passed down from the elders.

Whites were nothing. Their coats may be snowy and pure, their

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bloodlines rare, but they were wolves no better than the rest of them.

Folding her arms over her naked chest, Eliza trained her attention

on Jared. Her malicious humor fled, leaving cold blood in its place.

“It’s quite obvious they got away. What happened to them? Are

they injured? Where did they go?” The fury sharpened her voice with

each question. She had one wolf, but she wanted three. The two that

eluded her pack were the two she wanted most.

Riley, you’ll pay for this,
she vowed silently to herself. Oh, yes, he

would pay for abandoning her and her pack. A man turned traitor

deserved excruciating punishment. But
her
man turning his back on

her for the pleasure he found in that white… Prophecy or not, she’d

destroy
him.

Lost in the funnel of frustration and betrayal, she barely heard

Jared explain what had happened.

“…not hurt. He placed himself between us and them, but in the

end, his loyalty was definitely exposed. He left this one for the sake of

the white. We couldn’t reach them before they took off in the truck,”

Jared said. He turned slightly. Eliza noticed the raw welts and narrow

streaks of dried blood across his back. “He kicked up enough of the

drive to nail us all with pebbles and stones.”

“And you retreated,” Eliza groaned. She lashed out her arm and

grabbed Jared by the throat. Her nails dug into his flesh, and he

grimaced. New streams of crimson trickled down to his shoulders.

The other males took a step back, out of her immediate reach. “You

had a perfect opportunity, and you blew it. You all
blew it
. Why the

fuck didn’t you tranq Riley first? Wasn’t that the plan?”

Eliza shoved Jared back and the man stumbled over the rough

terrain. He fell on his ass and wisely remained on the ground. The

huntress in her snarled to come out. All she needed was a little

provocation and the leash would snap. Blood would douse the night,

but it wasn’t the blood she wanted.

With an agitated growl, she flicked her wrist toward Lenox Carter.

She’d deal with these imbeciles until she got what she wanted. Then

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she’d build a new, stronger pack. A
smarter
pack.

“Let’s get this one out of the area. If I’m gonna find any solace

this evening, might as well be with him,” Eliza sneered. She spun on

her heels and dove ahead, allowing her wolf’s lithe body to consume

her.

One good thing came out of the evening, though she would never

admit it to anyone. She had Lenox. Her body yearned for the expert

sexual skill Riley possessed, but her curiosity over this new,

incredibly handsome man muted that need.

Tonight, she’d toy with the white’s other mate. She would cover

the man in her scent. And if he resisted?

An inner laugh filled her mind and her spirit as she loped down