“That would explain these fucking enormous wolves.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, I’m going out to talk to them.”
“Be careful.”
Daniel hung up and turned to his brothers and Evan. “I’m going outside. I’ll see if they’re willing to talk.”
“I’m going with you, then,” Drake said.
“Me too.” They both turned to look at Scott. “Hey, it’s my home too. I’m as capable of protecting the property as either of you.”
Daniel couldn’t argue with that. But they weren’t exactly equals. Neither of his brothers had the combat training he had. Nevertheless, a front of three would improve their odds against the enormous wolves. “Fine. But let me do the talking.”
The three of them went out the back door, their parents on their heels. At the last second, their father followed them. “Let’s see what we’re up against, boys.”
They walked halfway across the clearing next to the corral and stopped, hoping the enemy would send a contingency to meet them. Members of NAR moved in tight, fully-automatic rifles at the ready.
Daniel spoke first, his voice loud so everyone in the vicinity could hear. “This will go much easier if a few of you would shift. We can hardly negotiate without verbal communication.”
Several of the larger wolves approached in a
V
pattern. The center one dropped a huge pouch from his mouth and shifted. He shrugged his tall lanky self into a pair of jeans and then met the Spencers several yards away. Brown hair fell over his brow, in desperate need of a cut, considering the last time he’d had a trim it seemed to have been with a pair of safety scissors in the dark. “There is nothing to negotiate. Like we told your posse here…” he nodded at the NAR contingency “…we’re here to retrieve the women you folks kidnapped from our men. By any standard of law, that would be considered illegal.”
“And the fact that your people kidnapped them in the first place over the years is above the law?” Daniel gave a sardonic chuckle. “I think you must be confused.”
“If those women told you they were taken against their will, they lied.” The man spread his legs wider and set his hands on his hips. “If you people allow yourselves to be steamrolled by a bunch of fucking women, you’re stupider than dirt.”
“Then I’d say we have a problem, boys.” Daniel glanced at each of the wolves fanning out from their leader. “I have to take the women at their word. And besides, even if they had gone with your people willingly in the first place, the fact that they don’t want to return trumps everything else you have to say.”
“You can’t win against us, jackass. We’re powerful. Each of my men could take out three of yours without breaking a sweat.”
Daniel decided to call his bluff. “Is that so? The intelligence I have from the group of your trained animals captured by us in the night would have me believe otherwise.”
The leader of these fuckers flinched. Good. Daniel had never seen the man before, and he didn’t care who he was, as long as he backed down and got the hell off his family’s property.
“Look, guys. There isn’t a chance in hell we’re ever turning those women over to you, so I suggest you go back where you came from before the North American Reserves get impatient and start killing off your men. No one has to die here today.”
The skinny man smirked. “We aren’t as easily harmed as you seem to think.”
“Oh, I’m aware of your strengths.” That wasn’t entirely true, but this jackass didn’t know it. “Nobody is invincible, though. A bullet to the heart is a death sentence even for the hardiest of creatures.”
The lanky man hesitated.
A shot rang out.
Daniel ducked low next to his family, unsure where the shot had come from or what its target was. Considering the posture of the enemy, Daniel realized someone from the other side had fired a weapon. Which meant not all of them were in shifted form and the asshole staring at Daniel had anticipated the gunfire.
“That was a warning shot, Spencer. Send the women out now or my men will start aiming at people.”
Another shot rang out. This one did startle the fucker. Daniel lifted himself to standing while the leader of the enemy turned around to scan the area.
“Man down!” someone yelled.
The skinny man turned back to Daniel’s family. “You want a war? Fine.” He shifted so fast, his jeans flew up into the air in tatters. Teeth bared, he advanced toward Daniel, his eyes feral, the rest of his enormous shifted men closing in around him.
Without hesitation, Daniel and his family shifted in an instant also, their clothes scattering around them in shreds. Every enemy wolf was much larger than the average shifter, but Daniel had no intention of backing down. He growled deep and loud as he advanced.
Come on backup. Now would be a good time to arrive.
If the fuckers wanted a fight, they were about to get one. They might have been larger and had uncanny strength, but they weren’t half as intelligent if they thought to win this battle. Shifters emerged from everywhere. It was easy to discern who the enemy was by their size. And NAR troops outnumbered the Romulus. Daniel glanced both ways during the initial standoff. About half of the good guys were shifted. The other half held their weapons drawn.
Someone shouted above the growls. “Stand down unless you fuckers have a death wish. I don’t care what your agenda is, you will die here today if you don’t get your asses off this property and go back where you came from.
Suddenly a high-pitched scream filled the air, chilling Daniel to the bone. When he scanned the enemy, he quickly found the source of the voice.
His heart leaped in his chest. He’d known what he would find, but he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Allison. A huge man held her back against his front. He’d removed his hand from her mouth only long enough to let her disrupt the beginning of the battle, and then he’d silenced her.
Her eyes were glazed over and huge with fear. Tears ran down her face. She didn’t look right. Those fuckers had drugged her. Probably to keep her from shifting.
Daniel inched forward, holding his breath. These large wolves were going to die.
Before he could fully wrap his mind around what was happening, Daniel lost sight of his mate. The larger wolves bounded forward, initiating the battle. In an instant the clearing was filled with wolves attacking one another. The enemy was larger, but so many members of NAR shifted that they were outnumbered two to one, making the field more even. Daniel’s heart pounded as he tried to squeeze between the tumble of snarling wolves toward where he’d seen Allison.
If they hurt her…
It took what seemed like forever for Daniel to escape the battle and come out on the other side. The same moment he laid eyes on his mate, still held around the middle by some mother fucker with a death wish, another shot rang out. The asshole holding Allison collapsed to the ground, blood running from a perfect shot to the head.
Daniel raced forward, his paws not moving fast enough. He watched as Allison shuffled backward, using her feet to scoot away from the fight. Thank God she had enough of her faculties to react.
Shift, baby. Shift and run
. He willed her to escape, but he knew she would if she could.
And then the leader of the enemy suddenly appeared at her side, once again in human form and naked. He grabbed her by the neck and held her against his chest. “Stay back, Spencer. Unless you want this pretty little thing to die of asphyxiation, I suggest you make this madness end right now and turn over the women you’re harboring.”
Not a chance in hell, you asshole
. Daniel continued to inch forward, only yards separating him from his mate.
“I’m not going to warn you again. Step back or watch her suffocate.” The fucker squeezed her neck harder. She was turning pale, her eyes huge, her hands gripping his forearm. But she was no match for him. When he dragged her to her feet, he held her so high, her toes barely touched the ground.
Daniel stood very still for a moment. If he hesitated much longer, her life was over. Fury made his adrenaline pump until it boiled over. Still he stared, waiting for the right moment.
And then he got his opportunity. The asshole, deciding Daniel had chosen to see things his way, relaxed his stance marginally. Daniel leaped into the air, higher than normally possible, his jaw clamping down on the fucker’s arm and yanking it so hard he pulled it free of Allison’s neck.
Allison slumped to the ground, gasping for breath on all fours. He could hear her sputtering for oxygen, but he continued to rip into the leader of this insane group of assholes who dared to attack his family’s property.
Having been caught off guard, the son of a bitch didn’t have the opportunity to shift. In human form, he was no match for Daniel, who saw an opening and went for the man’s jugular. It took just seconds. Blood filled his mouth as he bit through the vein that would bring a quick ending to this asshole’s life.
Daniel dropped the lanky man to the ground, spat out the disgusting taste of his blood, and watched as his life ebbed away. He stared up at Daniel with huge eyes for several moments, his body twitching. And then he relaxed as he succumbed to his fate, his gaze still pointed at Daniel.
When he knew it was safe, Daniel leaped toward his mate, finding her huddling against the ground in a ball of fear. Her huge brown eyes stared up at him before she opened up and wrapped her arms around his furry neck.
Daniel nudged her away, nodding toward the barn at her back. She released him and took the hint, scrambling to stand and then running toward the safety of the structure.
She plastered herself against the door, her shoulders slumping as though she were struggling to remain upright, but she didn’t enter. He couldn’t blame her, and he was glad she was still in his line of sight.
Daniel turned around to find wolves everywhere, their fur and paws and jaws the only thing visible. He scanned the surrounding area. NAR troops had the entire clearing surrounded, guns drawn. The Romulus may have made their presence known, but they would not win this battle today.
In a matter of moments, every enormous wolf had a human figure standing over him with a gun to his head. Thank God for the arrival of the additional troops.
He turned toward his mate and bounded in her direction. The moment he arrived, he shifted, grabbed her hand, and tugged her into the barn. He pulled her into his embrace and held her tight as she heaved for breath and sobbed against his chest.
Daniel lifted her face with both hands. “Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
He lowered his lips to hers and closed his eyes. When he pulled back, he set his forehead against hers and sucked in a deep breath. “Scared the fuck out of me.”
“Me too.” Her eyes were still huge dark spheres.
“It’s over now.”
“I hope so.”
The following morning, Allison rolled over in Daniel’s embrace and held him tighter. She hadn’t released him for the entire night, and she had no intention of doing so anytime soon. “Someone fixed the window,” she muttered as she kissed his pec.
“Yeah, my family doesn’t waste much time.” He kissed her forehead. “Did you sleep?”
“A little. I kept jerking awake in a nightmare.”
Daniel chuckled. “I’m aware of that.”
“Do you think this madness is over?” She bit her lip as she waited for his response.
He hesitated before he shook his head. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “We can’t be sure of that. Just because we took several of them into custody yesterday doesn’t tell us how many there are in total and what their long-term objective is.
“I’m just relieved none of our men were killed. My family is safe. Their wounds will heal.”
She shivered. All of the Spencer men had been in the midst of the battle. Each had received a variety of injuries before NAR had stepped up their involvement and taken over. None had life-threatening wounds. The women were all safe. Natalie had been the only female family member to stay behind, and she was a blessing now that the battle was over, soothing the nerves of the six women still in their care.
There was no way to be sure of anything, but for now, NAR was still present and hopefully everyone had been able to get some sleep.
“Your brother Scott is going to enlist.”
“I know. He made that perfectly clear last night.”
“I think Drake is torn.”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, but he has a baby to consider now. If I weren’t already committed, I have to say it would be difficult to make that decision now that I have you.”
“If you hadn’t enlisted last year, there’s a good chance I would be dead now, or at least back in their custody.” She shivered. The idea was never far from her mind. She owed Daniel her life.
When her vehicle had been stopped on the way off the base and she’d been snatched from the car, she had never expected to survive. Six of these huge feral wolves had been no match for one small woman and the shifter driving her. When those massive beasts had stepped into the road and blocked the car, Allison had nearly swallowed her tongue. She’d lifted her face when the car came to an abrupt stop and gaped at the size of those wolves.
In a heartbeat, two of them shifted, overtook the car, shot the driver, and yanked Allison from the back. She’d squirmed from their clutches, but she was no match, and moments later she’d felt the deep penetration of a needle.
She’d expected to be knocked out, but instead, she realized she was unable to shift.
But much to her surprise, the men who snatched her drove her straight to an airstrip and loaded her onto a small plane. They hadn’t said a word. She’d been surprised when they landed in an unknown location and then driven her straight to the ranch.
And then she’d learned the reality of her predicament. They needed her as a pawn, intending to use her as a way to get the Spencers to back down and deliver the six women sheltering in the dorm.
She knew that would never happen. And then fear over her fate had crept into her system and shook her to her core. She would die, but not in vain. Her life wasn’t worth an exchange for six other women.