I grimaced, fleeing back to the sanctuary of my hut and slamming the door behind me.
I heard the alpha loudly dismissing his pack. Some were ordered to guard the wall and others to prepare food stores and resources to avoid the rising aggressions of the Mating Moon.
I huddled in the shadows of my hut with my shutters secured, wishing that I could will my presence somewhere with no wolves.
A few hours later, there was scratching along the walls of my hut. I scented something musky and male and knew that the scratching was a wolf.
I stayed silent, unmoving. I hardly breathed until I finally fell asleep.
The nightmares were daunting, relentless. A woman’s scream, the smell of blood… But this time it was a cream wolf leaping from the door of the cottage onto the grassy forest floor. She sprinted through the woods.
I recognized her. I knew my wolf like I knew my own reflection, even without having seen her since I hit my head.
I was chasing after her, like I saw everything from someone else’s view. I ran just behind her furred tail, but as she looked over her shoulder, I was thrown into her body. I saw through her yellow eyes instead of my blue ones.
Through those, I saw more…
There was a shadow in the doorway. A lumbering shape of a male with long, greasy hair and a scar streaking down his face.
I jolted awake, heart racing.
Whatever my wolf had been trying to tell me retreated deep into my subconscious.
Motion caught my eye. I glimpsed a dark head passing by the crack of my shutters. I thought I recognized the profile. He was one of the males that pulled the angry female off me.
I held my breath at the rustling beyond my door.
When there was a knock, I nearly leapt from my skin. I waited. When I peeked out, I found a reed mat with a fresh hunk of meat.
I poked my head out and looked around. People were wandering around outside the hut. They glanced toward the door, trying to get a look at me. But the three men I’d run into before were nowhere to be seen.
The meat wasn’t enough to fill my belly, but it was enough to curb the aching of my head.
I kicked dust over the floorboards to one corner of the big, open room. It was my effort to clean. When I turned around, I squawked at the large male standing in the middle of my hut.
Midnight hair and dancing light-blue eyes were intent on me.
“You smell like honey…” He tilted his head. “Delicious…”
I stopped dead.
He was pure male from head to toe. Lean and muscled, tanned a warm brown that made those light eyes seem almost explosive. He was tall with square shoulders and athletic hips which strained the hide pants he wore. They fitted over long legs which made him look like he’d not only prove lean but incredibly agile.
He had a warm, musky smell that tantalized my senses. I felt a deep writhing inside me. The feel of something which was pure animal reacting to his scent.
He was the kind of male that would draw any female.
My chest tightened.
After listening to all Martha had said, I feared he might lunge right at me and rip my throat out.
Behind him I could see the shutters of my window were pushed wide open.
I dove for the window, but he agilely blocked my path.
I gasped, hissing at suddenly brushing against his chest.
He eyed me. “Don’t you know, honey? Wolves don’t hiss.”
I’d never felt like that before.
“What do you want?” I asked, almost afraid of what he’d say. But if I could keep him chatting, as he seemed inclined to do, then he wouldn’t instantly snatch me up.
“I wanted to meet you. Up close and”—he leaned in and took a long sniff—“personal.”
“I think you’ve gotten quite enough,” I said.
“Not sure that’d be possible. I already want more.” He pouted.
“Who are you?” I inched toward the window.
“Huntley Faber.” He flashed white teeth, oozing charm as easily as he breathed. “Don’t you know my name?”
“No.”
“You would if you came out. Everyone knows me and my brothers.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat, remembering the last time I went out into camp.
“Go away,” I said, with more strength than I really possessed.
“Or what?” He smiled. “Will you bite me?” He eased in closer.
“Huntley!” A voice snapped from outside.
I ducked to peek out.
This male was identical to Huntley. But he looked at me with blue eyes instead of green. They narrowed on me like he knew something I didn’t. I recognized that angry expression, the second our eyes met.
I opened my mouth to thank him for what he’d done, but his furious voice had me locking my lips.
“Time to come out, Huntley,” he said, his gaze still locked on me. “You know the rules…We all play together…”
I shivered.
“Oh,” Huntley pouted.
I flipped my gaze back to him just as he flicked a lock of hair back from my face. “This is pretty. How much is there?”
He eyed the rag on my head like he wanted to pull it off.
“Sounds like your master is calling,” I snapped, trying to draw his attention from my hair.
“Brother,” he corrected, smirking. “He’s always calling.”
“Huntley!” The male snapped again.
“Coming, Vic. I’m coming.”
I stepped from Huntley’s path and gestured to the window.
Huntley’s eyes narrowed on me, full of promise. “We’ll be seeing more of you, Valerie.”
He ducked and stepped out through the window with no effort at all.
“How’d—” I stuck my head out but found myself peering up into green eyes.
“He know your name?” Victor drawled. His gaze burned into me, predatory.
“Small camp, Valerie,” a third one said. He leaned against a tree just outside my hut. He had the same build and hair as Victor, but had blue eyes like Huntley.
I shivered. His voice rumbled, caressing over me. My skin pulled against the pressure of fine hairs creeping through my pores.
“Fair warning.” He looked down at me with that burning gaze. “You can’t stay in there forever…”
I stepped back, retreating from that view that had my insides trembling.
He shifted sideways, tilting his head. His look was pure animal.
“Where are you going? Hiding like a little rabbit?” he queried.
I looked away, unable to meet that penetrating gaze.
I heard a low, rumbling growl. My stomach sank.
“You’re going hunting with us,” Huntley said.
“I don’t want to.” My eyes went wide at the prospect of being alone in the woods with these males.
“You’re going to,” the other blue-eyed one, Chase, said.
“I don’t know you,” I said weakly.
“You will,” Huntley remarked in a happy tone.
“I am Victor. Huntley”—he gestured next to him—“and Chase.”
I stood my ground, thinking of a way out of this when my stomach rumbled.
Victor’s gaze narrowed. “You can open the door and walk yourself, or we can drag you.”
I shook my head and swallowed.
Victor had apparently grown impatient. He flicked his fingers and Chase was through my window and opening my door before I could blink.
“Grab her,” Victor ordered.
I shot toward the window, but wasn’t nearly fast enough.
The other two hooked my arms and hoisted me up.
“You need to hunt.” Victor walked ahead, leading us outside into blinding sunlight.
“I don’t know…how.”
Victor spun his head to eye me. “Why the hell not?”
“I don’t…remember…” I admitted.
“What do you remember?” His eyes narrowed and I wondered if he knew what I truly meant.
“I don’t know!” I shouted as they hauled me toward the river.
“Well, we’ll help you,” Chase said.
By “help” they meant they’d make me go with them to run down my meal.
They had me huddled in the bushes with them, watching for movement in the denser grove of trees near the river.
I found myself between Huntley and Victor. I shifted backward, watching them in my peripheral as I tried to keep my motions minimal. But Victor’s hand on my lower spine pushed me back into place between the two males.
I was thigh to thigh with both of them as we clustered behind that bush.
Chase was hunkered behind cover a distance away.
My heart was pounding. The warmth of the two powerful males next to me was dizzying. It sent tingles from my legs to somewhere low in my belly.
Victor barely glanced at Chase before twitching one finger.
That was enough to send Chase barreling from the brush and rushing through the trees, circling the deer so fast that he became a blur.
My eyes traced him but couldn’t keep up.
He was so fast that he was just flashes of tanned skin and hide pants between trees.
I glanced at Victor.
But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t tell.
He gave me a sideways glance. A mere flick of those piercing eyes had me looking forward. As if I hadn’t just been staring at the straight lines of his face, or the dark lashes brushing his brow as he blinked. Or the way those full lips had parted as he scanned the surroundings in order to anticipate the direction the deer would move.
When it did, he was prepared.
“Go,” he ordered Huntley and me.
We leapt from the bush, and for once my nerves calmed and everything else fell away as I saw that deer drawing toward us. My instincts were guiding me. My wolf led my feet toward the animal. Driven by mindless hunger.
I found myself moving with the males as we tackled the deer, throwing it over with massive strength.
Victor hooked his arms around its neck and wrenched, making the animal cease kicking beneath Huntley and me instantly.
All three males stopped, looking at me expectantly. When I only stared back, Victor gestured impatiently to the animal.
I blinked at him before looking down at the animal.
It smelled fresh, earthen, and delicious. I hungrily leaned in, pointed teeth elongated at the front corners of my mouth. They easily punctured the hide, freeing me to rip it aside and feast on the meat beyond.
Only after I took a bite, did they follow.
But I wouldn’t be able to take a deer down by myself in the future.
Once we’d all eaten our fill, Huntley drew a dagger and shaved off all the remaining cuts of meat, packing them in strips of fat he shaved loose. He expertly carved the carcass while Victor and Chase held it for him.
Once finished, we worked together to bury the carcass under a mound of dirt which would stem the smell and not draw vermin closer to camp.
We proceeded down to the river. Leaning over, we all washed our faces, hands, and arms.
“You need to wash your cloak,” Huntley mentioned, pointing out some blood on it.
“I’ll get it,” I told him.
“Here,” he offered, holding out his hand. “I’ll get it for you.”
I froze.
If I gave him the cloak, I would only have the dress to protect me.
But relinquishing the cloak felt like relinquishing a child’s sacred blanket. I swept it off my shoulder and reluctantly handed it to him, crossing my arms over my chest to cradle my shoulders as if I were cold. I stared at the ground beneath me, praying that if I didn’t move, I wouldn’t draw their attention.
Huntley dunked the cloak and scrubbed it with soapweed until most of the red had washed free.
“If you scrub it again tomorrow, the rest should come out.” He handed it back to me.
I threw it back over my shoulders, hugging it close against me.
When I looked up, they were all shirtless. They lifted cool water and poured it over their bodies. Streams of water flowed over them, dripping down their warm skin to saturate the waists of their pants.
Their chests were well-honed from working as border guards and maintaining camp.
Huntley scooped water and tossed it over Chase, sending a wave washing over his brother.
“Hey!” Chase loudly objected, doing it back.
But then I glanced at Victor. The smile I hadn’t even realized was there died, as I met his burning gaze. Beyond the playing brothers he was watching me. Quiet, solemn, fierce.
I looked down, twisting my cloak around my fist.
The three of them were fast, just as agile as I feared, and they had a way of talking that was more orders than conversation. But none were as intimidating as Victor. Where the other two were always half-joking, Victor was always dead serious.
Which was the last thing I wanted.
