Page 51 of Wulf's Pack
I roll my eyes.
I reach out to the hawk mentally. The bond hangs between us. He doesn’t seem to realize it’s there, waiting for him to accept or reject it.Hello? Are you there?
My pushy wolf scoots closer to the man and stuffs our snout beneath the man’s hand. The man startles, but soon begins to run his hand through my fur. I try again.Hello?
Hello?His mental voice sounds as disoriented as he looks.
Pack?My wolf asks.
Okay?
Good grief. I give up.
In the next moment, a woman stumbles out of the cage. The man turns to her, and something clicks into place for him. He recognizes his mate, and it’s helping him connect with his human. “Isabella.” He drags her into his arms and starts nuzzling her.
My bastard wolf chomps down on the woman’s leg. She’s not even looking at him. She’s probably not even coherent yet.
Beside me, Skylar sighs. “Wulf. Can’t you at least give them a moment first?”
Pack,my wolf says stubbornly.With Skylar’s calm affecting me, I can’t even try to fight him. Not that the hawks seem to mind. The woman’s bond sparks to life in my head. I’m still not sure she realizes what’s happening. They’re going to be pissed when Skylar turns off her juice and we all return to our senses.
“Fine,” Skylar says. She scoots over until she’s in front of the coyote’s cage. “Take care of them while I try to help the others.”
My wolf looks at the mated couple, now crying and holding one another, and turns his attention back to Skylar. He’s interested in the other shifters. He sidles up beside her and studies the coyote. Skylar begins to talk to her, but the shifter doesn’t respond. After a few minutes without success, Skylar sticks her hand through the bars. The coyote growls and jumps to her feet, snapping at Skylar despite the omega power in the air. I’m up in an instant and throwing my dominance at the woman. Her eyes turn to me, and rage is all I see. No intelligenceat all. No awareness.DOWN!I bark using my alpha command. It has no effect on her. She’s completely feral.
Skylar tries again to speak to the coyote, but nothing she does or says works. The jaguar in the cage next to her, however, has crawled to the corner nearest Skylar and is whining for attention.
Skylar gives the coyote one last pained expression, then turns to the jaguar. Bree is still petting the man like he’s her personal house cat. “Fix him,” she pleads with Skylar.
Skylar rests a gentle hand on Bree’s arm and pulls it back. “He needs to focus on me if I’m going to pull his human forward.”
Bree nods in understanding.
It only takes seconds after touching the jaguar for him to return to his human form. He stumbles backward and leans against the back of his cage. He’s got some residual anger in his eyes, and he glares at Samuel. “Peace,” Skylar murmurs to him. She holds her hand out to him through the bars. “If you can calm down, we can set you free.”
His eyes flash to Skylar. She shakes her hand at him. “Come. Take my hand. Connect with your human.”
It takes him a minute, but he warily inches forward and takes her hand. She smiles at him, and I know her touch is soothing him. He starts to nuzzle her hand. Apparently, that’s all the go ahead my greedy wolf needs. He shoves our snout through the bars, but the jaguar is out of our reach.Good, I mutter. He huffs and sends a thought to Skylar.Pack?
Skylar gives us a crooked smile. “Give him a few minutes, Wulf. You can ask him once he remembers he’s a man as well as beast.”
My wolf balks and moves to the bear. Like the coyote, there is no bringing the giant shifter back from the madness. Skylar tries for a full ten minutes. The three wolves are different. They’reresponding more to me than Skylar. She’s tried to pull their humans forward, but they’re more interested in the powerful alpha wolf than the human omega. My wolf loves that.
They’re not completely feral. Skylar was able to bring them back to conscious thought, but their wolves are too distressed to allow them to change back. They must feel safe with me, though, because they’re tracking my every move. My wolf is pacing back and forth in front of their cages.Pack, pack, pack!he keeps shouting.They want pack!
Skylar considers this, then shrugs. “It’s worth a shot. If I can’t bring them back, perhaps their alpha can.”
The wolves yip in response. “All right, gentlemen and lady. Paws forward if you’d like to join the pack.”
All three of them push their paws through the bars of their cages. My wolf does what he apparently does best and claims all three of them quickly. Their connections blink into my mind, and together they reach out through the link.Thank you, Alpha.
My wolf preens. Every single one of these shifters is an alpha, and now five of them are ours. I look at the wolves again and throw my dominance at them.Shift, I command.
In a flash, three humans sit in the filthy cages. Two men and one teenage girl. My wolf howls when he sees how young she is. The poor thing is just a child, maybe sixteen or seventeen. How did she come to be trapped here? How long has she been here? How many fights has she had to live through? If I could kill Samuel right here and now, I would.
A rough male voice pulls me from my seething thoughts. “You’re part of a wolf pack?”
Bree is talking to the jaguar. He seems to have his mind back. “We have a bear, too, and now it looks like a pair of hawks as well.”
