Pride's Pursuit (a Wolf's Pride novel, book three) (7 page)

But more importantly I know there is a traitor amongst us.

In the darkened cabin, I take a split second to size up my opponent
, to determine what I’m
up against and figure out the best course of action.
A sliver of moonlight filters in through the small window and highlights a path across the
cabin. As the light plays with my imagination and creates monstrous shadows on the walls, I can
almost feel them closing in on me, taunting my wolf and encouraging her to rip clear of her
restraints. I work to fill my lungs as icy shards of fear shoot through me, a violent, instinctive
storm that urges me to shift.
Kill.
As that one word pounds through my head, I make a deep guttural sound and my wolf tears
at my flesh, frothing, clawing, fighting to rip her way from my body. Howling, and in kill or be
killed mode, I know my control is about to snap, my wolf about to take action.
Moments before sheemerges and goes for the man’s throat, I call on every ounce of
strength I have to stop her, because from somewhere down deep, another thought registers,
warning me not to let her off her leash. Despite what my father told me, that sometimes we need
to let our wolf rule, I know if I do I’ll never be able to prove we’re not soulless monsters.
I draw a quick breath and marshal my wolf into submission, being careful not to make any
sudden movements in the process. As she hunkers low and whimpers from down deep, I keep
motionless, my eyes trained on the dangerous hunter dwarfing me.
From my peripheral vision, I take in my surroundings, understanding I’m smack dab in the
middle of a PTF safe house—a wolf caught in the lion’s den—and what I do next could help end
the war on our kind, or forever put us at risk.
I use all my senses to assess the dangers before me, my mind working to defuse the
situation so I can make this man understand who we are and want we want. But when my glance
meets a set of dark, dangerous eyes, ones that are drilling into me with wild suspicion, I feel a
seed of doubt, some small part of me warning that I just might be fooling myself, that this is a
battle I can’t possibly win.
Refusing to let that stop me—unable to let that stop me—I open my mouth to speak, but my
words die an abrupt death when the man stalks closer, his hard face coming into full view, and I
don’t miss the way those black eyes of his move over my face with careful regard.
A hunter sizing up its prey.
My wolf wails again, urging me to let her free but then suddenly the ruthless face glaring
down at me softens around the edges, his expression morphing into something that resembles
relief. Bewildered by this turn of events I pull in his scent. I catch hints of anxiety, but I get the
strangest sensation that his nervousness isn’t because of me.
It’s for me.
As my pulse thrums in my throat I watch his posture change,and that’s when it hits me. I
know who he is. I almost breathe a sigh of relief, but the small whimpering girl caged in the
corner triggers alarm bells in my brain and warns me this hunter is no longer on my side.
Instinctively, fight or flight instincts kick in, and I widen my stance. Prepare.
“Easy there, Pride,” he warns, and I hear something desperate in his voice, something I
wouldn’t expect from a PTF officer. He lifts one hand in the air, his large palm facing out in
surrender while the other hand hovers over the gun slumbering in his holster.
While I know he’s packing silver and the odds are not in my favor, I know they’re not in his
either. I bend my knees and maintain a combative stance while I work to keep my voice level.
“What’s going on?” I ask, and don’t dare take my eyes off him as the girl begins to
whimper louder, her frightened cries echoing off the cabin’s bare walls.
Emotions gather in a knot inside my stomach, but I know better than to shift my focus and
try to help her.I’m smart enough to know that I can’t afford to get distracted and any sudden
movements on my part could be misinterpreted by this trained hunter and force him to reach for
his gun. He might have spared my life once, but I have no reason to believe he’ll do it a second
time.
“It’s not what you think.” he says with a frown, his disturbed glance flickering between me
and the small metal cage.
As my mind visualizes the torture being carried out in this cabin, there is nothing I can do to
keep my talons from elongating or my lips from peeling back to expose sharp canines. As my
wolf zeroes in on the man’s jugular, one I’ve punctured before in a dirty alley way when a trio
of hunters failed to slow me with their poison, I listen to the rapid flow of blood in his veins.
“We don’t have lot of time and you need to listen to me.You have to let me explain.”
The scent of his concern mingles with the girl’s fear. The fetid aroma saturates the room
and there is nothing I can do to keep my wolf from feeding off the medley of emotions. As she
pulls the tang into her lungs it makes it that much more difficult for me to keep her harnessed.
I watch the way his pulse jackhammers in his neck when he says, “Iknow what you’re
thinking.”
I touch my tongue to the tip of a sharp canine. “If you knew what I was thinking, you
probably would have drawn your gun already.”
His dark eyes study me and his voice is deceptively mildwhen he says, “I know you’re not
a killer, Pride and you need to let me explain.” But beneath that calm façade I know he’s every
bit as leery of me as I am of him.
He lowers his hands in a show of trust and as I watch him with suspicious eyes, studying his
every move, I find nothing calculating in his actions, nothing to suggest he wants to hurt me.
My hackles settle, but my wolf stays on high alert, her guard firmly in place. Silver bullets
or not, there is no way she is about to back down in the face of this hunter, not when there is a
young, frightened shifter locked in a cage beside me.
While my wolf is ruled by instincts, I’m smart enough to know I need to listen to what he
has to say before making my next move, so I quiet my heartbeat and offer him the chance to
speak.
“Explain,” I say facing him straight on, my primal side angry and unafraid.
As I settle my thoughts, I can feel Stone inside my head, surfing around and sorting through
the images in my mind, but before I can stop him, before I can tell him I have everything under
control, the sound of the window smashing penetrates the quiet inside the cabin.
My eyes snap up and briefly connect with the officer’s before we both turn in the direction
of the sound. My heart lurches as the hunter draws his gun and takes aim at the boy/wolf about
to attack.
In a fierce possessive rage, Stone shifts mid air and divesfor the man’s throat. The officer
peels off a shot, but it goes wayward and lodges in the ceiling as Stone pins him beneath his big,
beefy paws.Stone presses down on the man’s chest and the weight of the wolf forces the gun
from the hunter’s hands.
Ruled by his primal side, Stone’s roar echoes in the stillness of the black night, and his
large, deadly canines flash in the thin column of moonlight as animal bloodlust takes over.
“Stone, no!” I cry out, but there is nothing I can do to calm him, nothing I can do to stop the
feral wolf bent on his own agenda.
Fear propels me forward and I let loose a loud howl as I prepare to pounce, but Logan steps
in front of me to shield me from danger. Looking hard and dangerous as shards of silver bleed
into a storm of blue within his eyes, I gulp air and wonder if he, too, is going to go wild on me.
But when I look at him, really consider the boys standing over me, I see him for what he is.
Strong. Steady.
In complete control of his wolf.
“Don’t go near him, Pride,” he warns. “Not when he’s like this.”
With that, Logan tears off his clothes and shifts. Despite having just warned me, he flies
through the air, his beautiful streamlined body catching lift before he clamps down on the back
ofStone’s neck. An explosion of violence erupts in my ears as he gives a savage shake of his
head. Stone yelps, his jaws unhinging as the powerful alpha tears him clear off the hunter’s
body.
Panting hard, the officer lets loose a cry and scrambles backward. He swipes the blood from
his neck and reaches for his gun, but even in the middle of a deadly battle Logan has enough
foresight to kick it my way before the officer can grab it. It scuttles across the wood floor, out of
my reach.
As the situation goes from bad to worse, my glance locks with the officer’s, and I know our
thoughts are running in the same direction. We both dive for the gun at the same time, but I
manage to reach it seconds before he does. He lands with a hard thud, and I quickly tuck the
weapon into the back of my jeans then grab hold of his shoulders to drag him away before he
gets caught in the crossfire.
With my breath coming in ragged bursts, I turn my attention to the two alphas. While
neither is packing silver, they’re both packing deadly fangs, and even though we have
regenerative abilities, there is no way a wolf can come back from a torn and shredded jugular.
In an untamed fight that could end in death, Logan and Stone roll across the floor, and the
fresh scent of blood fills the air as they ripinto each other’s flesh. Frantic, and knowing I need
to neutralize the situation before one of them ends up dead, I give the officer a deadly glare.
“When I’m done with these two, you have some explaining to do,” I warn between gritted
teeth, then pull the gun from my waistband.
I hold it over my head, but the officer jumps me, his large palm wrapping around my wrist.
As he shackles my arm, I call on all my wolf strength and prepare to break free from his death
grip.
I jerk away, but when hesays, “Don’t, they’ll hear it
,” my brain comes to a screeching halt.
As I digest his words, my eyes study him and when I see real worry lingering in the depths
of his gaze, I understand what he’s saying, what he’s warning me about. It also becomes
glaringly apparent that if he was really working against me, he surely would have let me fire and
signal his team.
Taking that as a good sign, I announce,“They already heard one shot.” A shiver moves
through me as I look out the smashed window and listen for signs of his comrades’ approach.
The two wolves crash against the cabin wall and the floor below me shakes violently. Blood
smears on the wooden slats, and I have no idea how this fight will end, because while both
wolves know each other’s strengths they also know each other’s weaknesses.
The man gives a fast shake of his head and the action draws my attention.“One shot lets
them know someone is out here, two shots will give away our location.”
As I think about that a loud, painful yelp stabs through my thoughts, and I know things have
gotten completely out of hand. I turn the gun over in my palm, and consider my next move. If a
second shot brings the officers, could this be the opportunity I’ve been waiting for? The
opportunity to reason with them.
“Don’t,” he says, impatience sharpening his words. He narrows his eyes and when he sucks
in a sharp breath, I realize he knows what I’m thinking. In a low warning voice, he says, “Don’t
take on more than you can chew, kid.You’re not prepared.”
Before I can explain what I’m trying to accomplish, my father comes bursting through the
front door. Wood splinters and hinges twist as he tears his way into the cabin. The sound echoes
in the night and while a single gunshot might not give away our bearings, I realize the noise of a
crashing door surely will.
The look on my father’s face is terrifying, and when I glance past his shoulders to see Gem
and Sandy huddled beneath a tree, Gem trying to soothe a stricken Sandy while Nova runs away
like a scalded cat, I realize how desperate things have become. I tuck the gun back inside my
waistband for safe keeping and turn my attention to my father.
“Enough,” he bellows, the bite in his command stopping the other wolves cold. He walks
up to them, and grabs both alphas by the scruffs of their necks. They snarl back as his angry
glance goes from Stone to Logan back to Stone again and his voice lacks any sort of tolerance
for their antics when he says, “Shift.”
A second later both boys return to their human form, and as they pull their clothes back on,
my father’s glance takes in the girl caged in the corner before he turns his focus to the officer
braced against the wall.
“What’s going on here? What is this place?” he asks. I remain hunkered beside the officer,
my wolf ready to pounce should he make one wrong move against my father.While I don’t
want to kill him, and ruin everything I’m trying to prove, I’m not about to let anyone hurt those
I call family.
Not ever again.
“It’s a PTF playground,” he answers quickly, fully aware that what he says next could very
well mean the difference between life and death for him.“They hunt for sport,” he adds, and juts
his chin toward the young girl in the cage.“But I’m not part of this. Ask Pride.” As I process
what he’s saying, the truth of what goes on in this place hits like a sucker punch. My breath
escapes my lungs in a hissas I think about this man’s warning.
“Don’t take on more than you can chew.”
Suddenly his words begin to resonate with me, a reminder that these men are monsters—
cruel, ruthless humans who enjoy the hunt. As I consider that a moment longer, I suddenly feel
foolish for coming here unprepared. In my quest to be more human I tamped down my wolf
instincts when they were warning me of danger—warning me about Nova. A cold chill rushes
through my bones, becausewhile I know we’re all still alive, I also know things could have
gone down a whole different way.
The officer’s voice drops an octave, the seriousness of his next question apparent in his
tone.“What you really should be asking is, how do
you
know about this place?”
My father’s jaw clenches, and he angles his head to look outside. I follow his gaze and
when he spots Gem and Sandy, Nova nowhere in the near vicinity, understanding lights a fire in
his shrewd eyes. He turns back to the crouching officer, flecks of pewter glinting angrily in his
eyes, and his body braces for battle.
“You’d better start explaining.”
The officer shakes his head and looks at the busted door dangling on one twisted hinge.
When it swings wildly in the wind and cracks against the doorframe we all tense. The hunter
carefully climbs to his feet and with his body on edge, his eyes fill with something that
resembles unease as he glances at some distant spot in the woods.