Page 14 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
In the meantime, my pack needed to be notified. There could be more of these creatures around. There was no telling what else she may have stirred up by entering the forest. If she was as powerful, and evil, as the elders said …
I paused mid-step.
Something didn’t add up. The elders were convinced she was as evil as her grandmother and had the power as well, though none had ever seen her use it. If that were the case, why did the bear go after her? If the power behind it was what I suspected, it didn’t make sense. Nothing did. They should have been allies, not enemies.
Lots of coincidences and many curiosities. No answers.
The run back to the pack den helped to clear my mind and ensure I was thinking straight, but it did nothing to provide clarity to the situation that was emerging.
I still had not sorted my mind out by the time I trotted out of the thick undergrowth and into the massive awning created by the giant bur oak and Douglas fir trees. The branches of thetrees were so interlocked they created a virtual dome under the canopy, keeping out much of the weather while still allowing sunlight to filter through. My pack called this dome home.
I trotted past cabins built under the big limbs of the mighty trees, crafted from the fallen branches as they grew higher and higher. Here and there, the sounds of children at play reached my ears while adults chatted, working away at the various tasks necessary to keep our den maintained.
On the far side, the rumble of a diesel truck engine dispelled the illusion of pure nature, though it was quickly shut off without an extra second of idle. We lived among nature and in harmony with it as much as possible, but some realities of a modern world simply could not be ignored.
What would she think of this place? Would she still want to destroy it if she could see the simple existence we seek to live?
There she was again. Getting in my head.
“Linc! Linc, wait up!”
I slowed at the familiar voice chasing me. Coming to a halt, I shifted back to my human form, the process swift and painless. No real sensation followed the shift. So normal was it to be in either form that switching from four legs to two was as simple as closing my eyes and standing up in the blink of an eye.
“How was it?” Roman “Rome” Jackson wasted no time on greetings.
“Good to see you too,” I said wryly, not surprised by my best friend’s eager attitude.
We embraced quickly, slapping backs in a measure of testosterone to see who could do it harder. I won. I always won.
“Did you see her?” Rome prodded. “What is she up to? Do we have proof she’s come back for good, to fuck with us? Is she—”
He stopped talking midsentence to take a deep breath in through his nose. His eyes widening, he backed away from me. “Are youcrazy?”
I ignored the hissed question.
“Linc, you reek of her. I can smell her all over you. What the hell happened out there? What did you do?”
“One, calm down,” I growled, irritated at Rome’s tendency to jump to conclusions at hyperspeed, especially bad conclusions. “Two, she went into the forest while I was watching her, and I had to tackle her out of the way. During said tackle, she landed on top of me.”
Blood flowed like lava at the memory of her legs astride me, the downward pressure of her hips in that moment. I fought down the stirring between my legs, annoyed at my own inability to keep calm. She was the enemy, nothing more. There hadn’t been a single iota of sexuality to that moment. I knew for sure she hadn’t felt it.
“You had better hope that’s what it was,” Roman said. “Wait. Out of the way of what?”
“There’s Roman, always a day late,” I joked, before turning somber. “Believe it or not, it was a rabid black bear.”
“You’re joking.”
I shook my head. “I lured the thing halfway to the vamp’s territory before killing it. The body is still there. I didn’t have anything to burn it with. I have to get Gerratt to send people out there to do that, so nothing else gets infected. Damn suspicious that it showed up when it did, though.”
“Not at all.”
“Huh? What are you talking about, Rome? How is that timing not suspicious?”
“Don’t you get it?” Roman asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly, his brown eyes ablaze. “The forest itself understands the danger this woman represents. It sent the bear to deal with her.”
“It could have just sent a non-rabid bear,” I pointed out. “And the forest is alive, of course, but sentient, Rome? That’s a new one.”
“I’m just saying. The magic knows.” He shook his head, shaggy chestnut hair bouncing everywhere. “And you saved her from it?”
