Page 24 of To Challenge a Wolf

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you don’t trust your own pack.”

He growled.

“Hey. I said, ‘if I didn’t know better.’”

Slowly he let out a breath. “It’s habit. Checking for myself. I never trust another wolf to make my surroundings secure.”

“But you just scoured the woods and didn’t find anything.”

“No, but…” He shrugged, the motion stiff. “Habit. Anyway…you wanted the story.”

“Still do.”

“Well, the summary is…” He shook his head. “Hard to summarize. In June, there was an attack here. Five wolves trespassed on our land with firearms, ambushed our alpha and tried to kill him.”

Vivian’s throat tightened. These people were strangers to her, but somehow they didn’t feel like strangers. The thought of Malachi’s life being threatened boiled her blood.

“Who are these wolves? Are they dead?”

“Malachi killed two of them in the fight for his life. The other three got away.”

“Fromyou? With your skills and your sense of smell, they still escaped?”

With a harsh low growl he looked away, toward the group still talking around the fire pit. A muscle twitched along his jaw, and then he faced her again. “My alpha was dying, Viv. I chose to set a patrol at our property line, trying to keep the rest of mypack from danger. But if I could go back, I’d track the rogues immediately. They wouldn’t get away from me, if I could go back.”

She’d envisioned Malachi disarming the whole lot of them with ease, but Rhett was alluding to something very different.She looked past Rhett to where Malachi sat eating with Ezra and Willow. Beside him, April ate one slow bite at a time. Their expressions were tight, their voices quiet. Across the yard, Aaron and Ember, Kelsey and Trevor had moved to sit under the patio awning. A few others had joined tables, and the four young pups had been rounded up to sit on a picnic bench beside their parents. Without being obvious, the pack had closed ranks while the drone flew overhead.

“Rhett,” Vivian said. “You said firearms. Was Malachi shot during the fight?”

“Nine times,” Rhett growled quietly.

“Oh my gosh. How did he survive?”

“Any other wolf wouldn’t have. He was able to access his wolf form before he bled out, and the change closed his wounds.”

“He can change form at will?”

“He can now.”

“But why did this other pack attack him?”

Rhett cast a look toward the fire pit again, and this time Malachi met his eyes and gave a slight nod. Permission, though he’d already given it once. This must be about…April.

Rhett dropped his voice, though any wolf trying to overhear still could. “April’s new to our pack. She came here in June and asked for protection.”

“From this violent pack.”

Rhett nodded. “The rogue alpha took her against her will. Hurt her.”

“Hurt…?” Vivian covered her face. She knew without asking.Knew. “He assaulted her.”

“And then he came here to drag her back. So Malachi fought.”

Vivian let her legs fold beneath her, draw in as she sat on the ground. She kept her back away from the tree trunk so as not to snag her sweater, and she tried to process everything Rhett had just told her. Rhett sank down in the dry autumn grass beside her and said nothing, watched the yard with roving, stormy eyes. Of course he was on constant guard. The attack in June would have activated a whole system of finely tuned instincts and strategies that lurked in Rhett’s brain. And as long as the enemy of his pack still roamed free, capable of returning for more, those instincts and strategies would remain active.

“Is that everything?” she said.

“The main points, yeah. After it happened, I made a pretty big purchase on the trust account. Got us some HD security cameras, motion-sensing. That’s what the sat phone thing was about. Four of us carry one at all times. Anything registering as the size and heat level of a wolf—the specific camera pings the phones, so we know where the threat is.”

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