Page 16 of Wolf Forsaken

We'd made it halfway across the yard when the sound of the roll up door on the den and shouts could be heard. I looked over my shoulder as three wolves came after us. We needed to shift.

"Split up! Xander, go with Eli." Before I could protest, Cole shifted and turned to the west.

"Damn it!" I slowed for a second, unsure what to do, and Xander took my hand. "We can't just let him sacrifice himself! They'll kill him!"

Xander was stronger than he looked and yanked me along as we got to the trees. "Where's this treehouse? We're of no use to them. I might be a beta myself, but I am in no condition to fight and neither are you."

"And he is?" My voice shook from fear and the cold.

"We'll be faster with our wolves." He let my hand go and shifted, proving me right by surging ahead.

The wolves chasing us veered after Cole, and I cursed. If we just followed behind them, we could take them unexpectedly.

But were there just the three or were there more lurking?

I shifted and caught up to Xander. Unable to communicate with him, I nudged him in the neck with my nose and then ran for the treehouse.

No one else knew where it was as far as we knew. That was wishful thinking, but no one would think we would hide right in the middle of the territory if we were trying to escape.

When we reached the tree, I shifted and grabbed the rope pull, pulling the ladder down. Xander climbed up ahead of me, and as soon as we were inside, I raised the ladder again.

"Fuck. We're sitting ducks up here." Xander was already at one of the windows and opened it to look out. Cold air and snow flew in, and he slammed the wooden hatch shut. "This was a stupid idea."

"It'll be fine." I wasn't so sure of that and closed the wooden hatch on the floor. "We have a few blankets."

I frowned at the pile still on the floor from the other day and bent to pick them up. Cole hadn't come to get them, at least. The scents from our activities wafted from them, and I was struck with an overwhelming sense of loss.

"Hey." Xander put a hand on my shoulder. "It's going to be fine."

He took a blanket from me, and his eyes widened. He brought it to his nose and inhaled, his eyes darkening.

"We may have had some play time up here." I chuckled and wrapped the other blanket around myself. "Fuck, it's cold. Maybe we should shift."

He paced the length of the treehouse. "How's this going to work... the three of us with one woman?"

Teeth chattering, I watched as it took him four strides to walk from one side to the other. "That's a conversation we need to have with Cole."

"But you two already had a conversation, did you not?"

"That was when there were just two of us. We're best friends." I sat down on the floor and brought my knees to my chest, trying to create warmth. Wolf genetics only took you so far when you had bare skin exposed to the elements.

"I guess we need to get out of this situation first before we start fighting over her." He sat down next to me, shoulder to shoulder, and mimicked my pose.

"I don't think she'll let us fight over her. She has a best friend that has three boyfriends, so she’s pretty unfazed by it all." My body was extremely aware of the length of his arm touching mine and I frowned. "I hope she doesn't want to choose, because she'll choose Cole, I just know it."

I didn't think it was possible for him to get closer, but he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, covering part of me with his blanket.

"There are a lot of things you offer that Cole doesn't." He chuckled. "Like a longer dick."

My face heated, and I ducked my head, covering myself under the blanket. Jesus Christ, why did he have to admit to thinking about the size of my dick, and why did it make me blush?

"I was kidding." He pulled the blanket back and smirked at me. "Well, kidding about Ivy selecting a mate based on dick size. Not about... you know what? Never mind."

We sat huddled together for I don't know how long. I was starting to really worry about Cole. He should have been here by now if he got away.

"Have you been with him?" Xander asked, searching my face.

"What?" I furrowed my brows.

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