Page 4 of An Uncertain Claim

Jase’s human voice called out to me from inside the house and my angry gaze flooded my wolf’s eyes, causing Ephraim to bow his head and expose his neck. Somewhat satisfied by his submission, I shifted and took off inside the house.

Jase stood at the island examining something. “Is this Peyton’s phone?” he asked.

An unfamiliar scent drifted to my nose—a wolf shifter—and at the sight of Peyton’s smashed phone, my fear and wrath mixed, becoming combustible.

They’d been in my house. Which meant Peyton hadn’t set the alarm. Putting herself and our cub in danger.

After I saved her ass, I planned to tan it.

Asher stalked into the house, also in human form. “Her scent is mixed with one I don’t recognize.” He sniffed. “It’s the same one here. Whoever took her had been careless. They tried to cover their tracks, but they left breadcrumbs. I’d say they’ve been gone no longer than twenty minutes. Tanner and Ephraim are already following their trail.”

“Let’s go.” In seconds, we were all in wolf form and racing through the forest.

I reached out to Lincoln and Mason, two other enforcers who were on perimeter duty, and told them to run the west and south boundary lines of our land.

We focused on following Peyton’s scent since I knew it so well. I’d become addicted to it the first night we were together, only I hadn’t realized it until she’d been in my home for a day or two. All of a sudden, I couldn’t imagine it not being there, and it had only strengthened the more time I spent with her.

Asher had been right, the person leading her had tried to throw us off, but his poor attempt gave credence to my suspicion that Peyton had been taken by the fucker who’d attacked her in the city. His biggest mistake had been staying in his human form—not that he could have dragged Peyton off as a wolf, but it slowed him down. With all of us in animal form we ate up the distance in less than half the time. Each of my enforcers had branched out, following the same path, but widening the net. We were approaching the shack when a high-pitched scream of pain reached my ears. Even though I recognized that it wasn’t Peyton’s voice, my heart sped up and I urged my wolf to run faster.

My instincts to protect the innocent, the oppressed, anyone who couldn’t fight for themselves were dragging me toward the darkness inside me—the heartless bastard who killed without conscience, without the slightest regret. But I fought it because I knew this time had to be different. It couldn’t be when the person who needed saving was my mate.

When we reached the shack—one of several around the borders of our land that we used as security checkpoints, mostly as a place for the pack members on perimeter duty to do shift changes—I knew immediately that Peyton wasn’t there anymore, but my wolf howled to draw my enforcers toward me.

They’re gone, but I want two of you to inspect every inch of this place for anything he might have left behind.

A black and gray wolf—Ephraim—and a copper wolf—Asher—both accepted the assignment, leaving the others to continue searching the woods.

We picked up Peyton’s scent again and we nearly slammed into a big, black wolf streaking out from between a thick copse of trees. We recognized his smell as the shifter who’d abducted our mate and we struggled to control our instinct to chase. That motherfucker had threatened our mate and our cub. However, a small trace of fear and pain had seeped into my mind and somehow, I knew it was coming from Peyton. I didn’t know how I sensed her, but thankfully my wolf picked up on it because it helped to draw him back from the edge of feral—just barely—and convince him that we couldn’t go after our prey. Peyton needed us, so we’d have to be satisfied that our enforcers would go after him.

We ran in the direction the black wolf had come from and entered a clearing surrounded by a wall of trees. We glanced around desperately until we realized her scent came from above us. It only took a second for us to find Peyton’s panther perched high up in one of the trees. She stared at us with a mixture of relief and agony. I swallowed hard at the sight of her cat’s mangled face. A gash sliced the side of her face and her jaw had clearly been dislocated. From the shape, I wondered if it might be broken as well. My gaze immediately went to her stomach, but from what I could see around the branches, it looked unharmed. Although internal injury wouldn’t be visible.

The relief at finding her hadn’t done much to assuage the fear and rage consuming me and my wolf, especially with the control it took to keep from running after her attacker. With Peyton’s jaguar studying me warily, I knew she could see the raw emotions in my wolf’s eyes. I thought back on the last time I’d found Peyton’s cat in a tree and figured it was my best bet to convince her to come down. I nudged my wolf to let me out and I felt his understanding as he retreated. Once in human form again, I took a relaxed stance and focused on my worry over her injuries, pushing away the negative emotions so she would feel safe and secure.

“Come on down, girl,” I called softly. “You’re safe now.”

She lifted her torso and cocked her head to the side then grimaced and whimpered from the pain.

“You’re hurt, sweet girl. I need you to come down so I can take care of Peyton.” The mention of her human in a gentle voice did the trick. She gingerly shifted into a position that made it easier for her to jump down. When her paws hit the ground, she let out a muffled cry of distress. I did a quick search of her body, looking for more injuries, feeling around her stomach a little more thoroughly. When I didn’t find any, I returned to her front and tenderly stroked her head, avoiding her cut and broken jaw. “I need Peyton, sweet girl.” That statement vibrated through my mind and heart, but I didn’t understand the depth. Why would I need Peyton? She was my mate, and the mother of my pup, but…could she be more? I shook off my questions. It was neither the time nor place to ponder shit.

Peyton’s panther whined as emerald-green began to eclipse the gold. By the time Peyton had fully shifted tears were streaming down her face and her body shook with silent sobs. I gathered her into my arms, and she passed out from the pain, which made it easier for me to hold her head to my chest so her jaw was somewhat supported. I hoped she stayed that way until we were able to reset her jaw.

I reached out to my enforcers as I started running home, keeping Peyton as immobile as possible so I would cause her minimal pain.I have Peyton. Headed back to the cabin. Status?

On his heels,Asher responded.

As soon as we were back at our house, I laid Peyton on the couch and went over to my home phone. We had several medical personnel in the pack, but I called Dr. Hollister Brooks first because we were good friends.

“Alpha,” he greeted.

“My house. Now,” I demanded gruffly before hanging up—I didn’t have time for niceties. With another glance at Peyton to make sure she still slept, I jogged to my bathroom to rummage up my first-aid kit, an ACE bandage, and a warm, wet cloth. Armed with these items, I returned to the living room and knelt next to my mate. My wolf rumbled with displeasure as I took a closer look at the gash on her face. I focused on her jaw first. At the very least, I needed to put it back into the correct position and stabilize it until the doctor arrived to set the bones. Thankfully, she remained unconscious while I realigned her jaw and carefully wrapped the bandage around her face to hold it in place.

With that done, I used the damp washcloth to dab around the injury and clean the blood away from it. It had already stopped bleeding and would likely begin to close soon, so I used the bottles in the kit to make sure I’d cleaned the wound completely. Shifters were immune to human diseases and sickness, but even we could develop an infection if wounds weren’t properly treated before they healed.

A knock on my door broke the silence and I yelled for them to enter as I used butterfly bandages to aid her body as it recovered.

Brooks came inside and, spying me in the living room with an unconscious woman, hurried to my side. “What happened?” he asked as he used a hand on my shoulder to demand I move out of his way. A strong urge to snarl at the doctor to get away from my mate bubbled up, but it was at odds with the part of me that knew Peyton needed him. My wolf was having the same struggle, irritated that Peyton might need someone other than us for anything.

After spending my life in combat of some sort or another, I had extremely competent medical skills. However, I didn’t have formal education and I hadn’t kept up with the newest techniques, and the logical part of my brain kept reminding me of that fact as I shuffled over to give Brooks room to work.

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