Seeking Pack Redemption (8 page)

I hope he knows what he’s doing.
A sharp crack and a yelp
later, he shook his head as the crazy wolf with a death wish gave them the
diversion they needed to sneak in.

Trent
swung out of the tree, landed on sure feet, and ran at the biggest cabin. In
the center of camp and ringed by the other smaller huts, it seemed the logical
choice to start with. He didn’t make it far before furry bodies flew out of abruptly
opened doors and smashed windows.

The fight
was on.

Shifting
into his wolf, glad he’d stripped beforehand—because a wolf wearing
tighty
whities
just didn’t
inspire the right level of fear—he dove into the madness with ferocious
glee.
A month’s worth of frustration boiled over as he bit
and clawed at the bodies pummeling him.
See a neck? Bite down hard. Feel
movement? Duck. Catch one trying to tuck tail and run? Pounce and take him
down.

In the
heat of battle, his blood coursing through his frame, he only caught glimpses
of the chaos around him. What he saw assured him that his two friends had
joined the fray to tear and maim anything that thought to attack.

It was
with a sense of relief that Trent noticed none of the wolves
who
’d
first chased
Jaxon
or the ones currently trying to
rip his throat out were his brother. What he would have done if his little bro
attacked remained a mystery. But he did know what he planned to next. Find him.

Don’t worry, David, big brother is here, and I’m
going to save you and the girl before I kick your ass for scaring the shit out
of me.

*
* * *

A shouting
voice woke her, and
Thea
lay in bed wondering if
she’d imagined it. In the daytime, things tended toward the quiet and she used
that time to sleep, not always an easy feat with the sunshine they denied her
heating the cabin and rendering her room, with its boarded-up window, stifling.
She rolled over on the mattress, ignoring its poking springs and brown stains,
and closed her eyes.

Doors
slammed in the hall, accompanied by excited snarls. Hmmm, sounded like something
provoked the freaks keeping her captive. Maybe a giant bunny hopped into the
camp. Or someone came back with dog treats from the store.

She tuned
out the cacophony and shifted yet again, looking for a nonexistent, comfy spot.
So long as they didn’t bother her, she really didn’t give a damn.
Thea
didn’t stir even when she heard the commotion arrive
right outside her door. Why bother? Energized by David’s death, she’d looked
for a way out. Fought to no avail. All it gained her was Roderick’s sick
attention—and that wasn’t something to aspire to. It was easier to give
up again. With David dead and the madman in charge, forget any rays of
sunshine. She’d inhabited this hellhole long enough for the cops to find her,
if they even bothered to look. As for escape, even if they accidentally left
the door unlocked, her hard, rounded belly couldn’t exactly handle the hard run
that she’d need to escape wolves.

Now there
was a shocker right up there with the vampire. Who would have thought the
legends of people turning into slavering beasts was true? She certainly hadn’t,
but she changed her mind quickly the first time one of the rancid-smelling
bastards shed his clothes and turned furry. The howl wasn’t the eeriest part,
nor
the stomach churning she endured as she watched limbs
reshape themselves and fur sprout. No, the worst thing was the eyes and seeing
the
intelligence, that
oh-so-human awareness, mixed with
madness, watching her. Tracking her every movement.
It’s just not right.

Then
again, knowing werewolves existed, along with bloodsucking undead freaks, paled
in comparison to another discovery. According to the vampire, she was a monster,
too, a decree she refused to believe. Roderick was a liar who loved to say
things, shocking things, to watch the reaction of his victims, soaking in their
terror and misery. So his announcement, she’d
one day
turn furry on the full moon? No way was she swallowing that one.
I’d know if I wasn’t human, wouldn’t I?
Of
course she would. But she couldn’t help thinking of David. David was a
werewolf, so what did that make her baby?

The door
flung open and hit the wall with a crash, derailing her thoughts. Startled at
the intrusion, her head swiveled and she saw a man in the door.
And what a man.
Naked, he had a tanned and smooth body, and he
rippled with muscles as he stalked into the room. It was enough to make her
breath catch. Good-looking or not, though, his state of undress could only mean
one thing: he was a wolf.

She backed
away from him, huddled into the corner, and tucked her knees up, protecting her
belly. The startling blue gaze, one she’d not met before, took her in, his eyes
scanning her frame. She couldn’t miss how his already half-erect cock twitched,
and she flinched. Had the vampire lost the leash on his dogs? Was this stranger
here to rape her? Kill her? A whimper escaped her as she wrapped her arms
tighter around herself, a protective measure that would do nothing if he
decided to attack.

“
Thea
?” His knowledge of her name did nothing to abate her
fear. He reached out a hand, a big one with long, calloused fingers, and if she
could have merged with the wall, she would have.

“Go away,”
she whispered, caving to fear. “Please. Don’t hurt me.”

His dark
brows drew together, but before he could reply, he whirled to meet an attacking
furry body. The mottled wolf snarled and snapped at the stranger. They
grappled, their struggle taking them out of the room to ricochet in the hall.

What the
hell was going on? Why were they fighting each other? Were they allies or
enemies? He knew her name. Could he have come to rescue her?

Unlikely
given he was a wolf, too. It seemed more likely he’d gotten caught trying to
play with the vampire’s prisoner and now paid the price.

Forget the
handsome man with the startling blue eyes, though. The door! He’d left it wide
open. A trick?
Or a mistake?

On bare
feet, she crept to it, flinching at every crash and snarl, expecting at any
moment for someone to come hurtling through that door and yank her precious
hope of escape away. She made it to the doorjamb and froze. She peered around
the edge and noted the empty hall. The sound of fighting echoed still, but it appeared
to have moved elsewhere.

One step.
Two. By the third she was walking quickly, unsure of where to go where they
wouldn’t recapture her, but she was determined to try. An exit. She needed an
exit.
Or a big window.
Anything to
get her outside.

A naked
man, a different one, sporting short red strands, freckles, and slabs of
muscles blocked the end of the corridor.
Friend or foe?
She didn’t wait to find out. She darted into an open doorway and quickly
slammed the door shut. But would the flimsy portal suffice? She slid a dresser
with peeling paint across it and panted from the exertion as she looked around.

No other
doors graced the room, but she spotted an
unboarded
window. A yank on the sash accomplished nothing. Time and humidity had warped
the frame. The doorknob behind her jiggled, and she heard voices murmuring.

I need to get out.
How the outdoors would
prove any better, she refused to think on.
One step at a
time.
First, get out of the room. Then . . . she’d wing it.

There
wasn’t much in the room to use as a weapon, but an old chair provided just the
right momentum to smash through the dirty glass.
Oh, crap, that was noisy.
And if the silence on the other side of
the door was an indication, it didn’t go unnoticed. She ignored the few
remaining shards as she scrambled out the window, hissing as one pointed piece
sliced across the side of her thigh and left a lengthy gash. Ignoring the
welling blood, she hopped to the pine needle–laden ground. Not stopping
to get her bearings or look around, instead she quickly walked, her bare feet
protesting the rough ground, her heart hammering in her chest.

I’m outside.
Unbelievable.
She’d made it that far. It seemed like a miracle. The edge of the woods
beckoned, but she halted as a silver-coated wolf with red eyes stepped into her
path.

It stalked
her, its lip peeled back in a snarl as it trod toward her on big, hairy paws.
She retreated, flicking a glance to the side only to see another furry beast
with an equally violent expression. The other side proved open, and despite
knowing she couldn’t outrun the fleeter creatures, she tried. She hugged her
belly as she jogged, her captivity and lack of firm muscle tone before the
kidnapping working against her. The wolves gave chase, snarling and growling. To
her credit, she said not a word, more because she couldn’t, each indrawn breath
a sharp, wheezing pain.

A yelp
sounded behind her, and she couldn’t prevent herself from craning to look. A
third wolf with dark fur had arrived, and he battled the two chasing her.
God, the savagery of it.
She didn’t ogle the violence long
because she smacked into something hard and bounced back. Hands reached out to
grab her arms, steadying her as she turned back to see who’d caught her and
ended her short-lived escape.

The face she
saw hit her like a punch to the gut. Golden-haired, his lip bloody, and familiar
brown eyes alight with ferocity, he stood there and she sucked in a breath. It
couldn’t be.

“David?”
Her soft query didn’t go unheard.

“No. I’m
his brother, Trent. I’m here to save you.
Both you and David.
Do you know where he is?”

His
brother? She stared closer. The resemblance she’d initially espied resided on
the surface only, she realized. Although Trent and David shared the same thick
blond hair and brown eyes, even the same general face structure, everything
about this man was bigger, harder, from his expression to his body. In other
words, he looked like a meaner version of David, which wasn’t reassuring. She
cringed from him and held out her hands in a plea.

“Please
don’t hurt me.”

His brows
shot up, and his expression turned grimmer. “I wasn’t intending to. Just what
happened here?”

Happened?
What hadn’t? A hysterical bubble of laughter threatened to burst free, and she
bit the inside of her cheek to halt it. He held out a hand and beckoned. She
stood frozen instead. Naked like the other men she’d encountered, he was a
wolf, too, or so she could only assume—
just like his brother.
The knowledge didn’t reassure.

Impatience
darkened his eyes. “Come on, we need to go! I doubt the diversion is going to
last long, and I don’t have the numbers to hold them off if they come back.”

Escape?
With him?
She peered back at the battling wolves, now down
to two, with the scruffy one who’d initially confronted her lying prone on the
ground.

“Don’t
worry about Darren. He’ll keep that rogue off our back.”

“You’re
here to save me?” She couldn’t help the incredulity in her tone.

He nodded
and again held out his hand.

Because she
doubted she’d get a better offer and despite his overwhelming presence, she
inched toward him, ready to flee at the slightest hint of madness in his
face—or red in his eyes, the precursor for the evil to come.

The shock
when he clasped her hand traveled up her arm and made her eyes widen. She’d
felt a smaller version of it with David. How odd his brother caused the same
reaction. He didn’t say if he felt it, too, just tightened his fingers around
hers and tugged her after him.

“We have
to hurry. Tell me where they’re keeping David. We need to grab him and get out
of her.”

She
blurted out the truth. “He’s dead.”

The body
tugging hers stumbled before he caught himself. He wheeled around. “He’s what?
How? Are you sure?”

“I had a
front-row seat. The monster made him kill himself in front of me.”

There was
no mistaking the shocked daze in his eyes. “David would never commit suicide.”

“David
would have done anything to escape
its
control.” Yes, she sounded bitter. It was hard to respect a man who would
rather kill himself than fight to live and save his child. She didn’t care how
fucking strong the creature called Roderick was. It still seemed cowardly to
her.

The brief
glimpse of grief in Trent’s eyes disappeared, replaced by a hard glint. “You
will tell me the whole story, but first let’s get out of here. Follow me.”

Did she
have a choice?

At the
sound of howling, a chorus of it echoing from the woods, he darted into a
cabin, the front door hanging off its hinges. He led her through the trashed
living room into a filthy kitchen, the cupboards wide open, those with doors at
any rate, the sink full of dishes swarming with a haze of flies. The bright
sunlight streaming through the windows made her blink as it decided to burst
out from behind the clouds. Trent didn’t give her time to adjust or think,
yanking her after him across the torn linoleum floor and out an already open
door. They hit the porch, never slowing, and he emitted a piercing whistle.