Wild Wolf Chasing Read online

  “We’re going to have to finish this argument later,” he clipped, staring past her out the driver-side window, “because those bastards are coming and we’re not going to make it back to my truck before they reach us.”

  “Oh, God,” she groaned. “Why do you even bother chasing after me?”

  He locked his brilliant gaze with hers, and simply said, “Because you’re mine.”

  “I’m not your responsibility!” she shot back, about two seconds away from completely losing it.

  “You’re mine, Vivian. Leave it at that.”

  “I left to keep you safe!” she shouted, the entire situation too much. “And now you’re in danger all over again!”

  “Jesus, woman, get down!” he growled, the gun he’d had back at the motel suddenly in his hand again as he stared past her out the window. Dropping down in the seat as far as she could go, she peered over the top of the door and, at first, she thought the rain must be screwing with her vision, because it looked as if there were more than thirty males, of all shapes and sizes, walking toward them across the meadow.

  “Ohmygod,” she whispered, her heart hammering and her pulse roaring in her ears as she watched the first male begin to change into some kind of creature that had crimson-colored skin, as well as fangs and claws, while the guy next to him shifted into the shape of a massive black panther, and the next one down the line started transforming into a towering werewolf.

  She didn’t understand anything that was going on, but she knew this wasn’t right. They were approaching them as a group, but she could see skirmishes breaking out between the different species, as if they weren’t all playing on the same teams.

  “Who are they?” she asked, turning her head back toward Max. “Or should I say what?”

  “Looks like we have a little bit of everything out there,” he muttered, his deep voice so guttural it barely sounded human. He locked his blue eyes with hers, and she could have sworn there was a shadow of regret burning in his mesmerizing gaze. “I hate to do this to you, Viv, but I’m going to have to fully shift if we’re going to have any chance of getting out of here.”

  For the third time in twenty-four hours, she knew this man was preparing to do battle for her, and fear shook through her body so hard it made her teeth chatter. “Max, you c-can’t go out there.”

  His lips curled with a brief, hot smile. “Got to, sweetheart. Not gonna let them hurt my girl.”

  Oh…Oh, God. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried once again to find that terrifying burst of energy that had overtaken her at her apartment, and then partially outside the strip club, but it was like she was broken. What the hell? What was the use of having something so awful living inside of her if she couldn’t summon it in times of need? And she really needed to keep Max from getting slaughtered out there in that rainy, monster-filled meadow. But just as he reached for the door handle, there was a thunderous roar of engines from out on the road, and the next thing she knew the darkness was being flooded with light as what looked to be at least thirty gleaming motorcycles sped onto the field.

  Vivian pressed her nose to the cold window as she tried to make sense out of what was happening. “Who in the hell are these guys?”

  “No idea,” Max bit out. “So whatever happens, stay in the truck.”

  “Wait! What are you—?” Before she could finish her question, he’d climbed out and slammed the door shut behind him, and she yelled with frustration, unable to believe he’d actually gone out there. For a spilt second, she thought about going after him, then stopped herself, worried she’d simply be a liability, seeing as how she couldn’t seem to access any of her newfound abilities.

  Then the night filled with the deafening sound of gunfire, and all she could think was that she hoped Max had had the good sense to hit the ground when the first shots rang out, because it looked as if the bikers were taking out anything that moved.

  “Please let him be okay,” she prayed, repeating the words over and over as she watched the meadow fill with strange, blinding bursts of light that were always followed by a sizzling crack of sound. As the screeches and howls of those who’d been preparing to attack them became fewer and fewer, and the number of bodies falling into the long grass grew steadily higher, she realized that the badass bikers were actually saving their asses!

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered to whatever higher power might be listening, unable to believe that she and Max were going to make it through the godawful night alive. As the battle, which really hadn’t been a battle at all, since their rescuers had somehow decimated every single baddie in less time than it took for most pop songs to finish, drew to a close, the bikes were all driven into a straight line. They faced the truck, and for a moment she was blinded by the multitude of headlights, until they all dimmed to a soft, golden glow.

  “Ohmygod,” she breathed, unable to believe what she was seeing as her eyes adjusted and the faces of the riders became increasingly visible.

  They’d just been saved by the most beautiful group of men and women that Vivian had ever seen, and she could only gape through the window at their perfection.

  Every instinct she possessed screamed that the bikers were anything but human.

  And if she didn’t know better, Vivian could have sworn they were a gift from the gods themselves.

  Chapter Seven

  I Want What’s Mine

  As he stood a few yards away from Vivian’s truck and swept his gaze over the long line of bikers, Max still didn’t have a clue what had just happened. Somehow, this group had managed to destroy an array of preternatural creatures without ever severing a single spinal column, and he knew that whatever had been firing out of their weapons, it wasn’t conventional bullets. Not even close.

  But at the moment, he didn’t really give a damn. He was too busy being beyond grateful for their help, because if they hadn’t shown, he had a bad feeling about the way things would have played out. There’d been too many adversaries for him to handle on his own, and the fact that Vivian seemed to somehow be drawing every supernatural bad guy in the region to her location had him seriously freaked out.

  He heard her open her door, and then she was behind him, clinging to the back of his jacket as she looked over his shoulder. “Who are they?”

  “If the backs of their leather cuts are to be believed, the name of their gang is Heaven’s Reapers. But other than that, I still have no idea.”

  “They look like some kind of bizarre cross between Sons of Anarchy and the Gods of Olympus. I’ve never seen so many breathtaking people in my life.”

  It was true. They were all beautiful and powerfully built—the men and women alike—and they all looked like serious badasses.

  While he and Vivian just stood there staring, two of the bikers—a man and a woman—climbed off their vintage motorcycles and approached them. The guy, who had shaggy auburn hair that reminded him of Brody and a golden complexion, was Max’s height, if not a bit taller, and the woman had to be at least six foot, her skin a rich, creamy shade of cocoa and her long braids falling all the way down to her waist.

  “I hate those rogue panther pricks,” the female snarled, tossing her braids over her shoulder as she slipped her modified handgun back into its holster. “But those crimson-skinned bastards are always the worst.”

  When the enemy had started to fully shift in the meadow, Max had noticed that the ones turning a deep shade of red also had black eyes, same as the two males who had attacked Vivian at her apartment, and he’d later killed outside of the diner. “We’ve had trouble with some others of their kind. Do you know what species they are?”

  She gave a soft laugh as she brought her stunning green gaze to his. “Of course we do.”

  “Then explain it to us, because we don’t have a clue. And do you know who they’re working for? Do you know Chiswick?”

  “Who’s Chiswick?” Vivian asked, just as the man glared at him and muttered, “Don’t make me regret helping you, Lyc
an.”

  Max narrowed his eyes at the cocky jackass. “You wanna repeat that?”

  “Don’t take any offence,” the woman murmured. “My brother doesn’t like questions.”

  He wanted to say that that was just too damn bad, since they were in desperate need of some answers, but sensed that pushing his point with this group was going to get him nowhere. Trying a different tact, he reached back for Vivian’s hand, pulled her to his side, and said, “I’m Max, and this is Vivian.”

  The male looked at him like he was an idiot. “We don’t need introductions. We already know who you are, Runner.”

  “Oookay,” he murmured, wondering what the hell was going on. “And you are?”

  “I’m Leo,” the guy said, jerking his chin up, “and this is my sister Arra.”

  The breathtaking female, who looked like she could have played the part of an Amazon in Wonder Woman, jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Those are our other brothers and sisters.”

  Max gave a low whistle. “That’s a big-ass family.”

  The auburn-haired behemoth smirked. “You have no idea.”

  “Thanks so much for helping us,” Vivian said, speaking to them for the first time.

  They both inclined their heads in a way that could only be described as regal, while the rain continued to fall over the meadow in a light mist, the wind thankfully dying down.

  “So are you like a heroic neighborhood biker gang?” Vivian asked, leaning in closer to Max’s side.

  The cocky bastard laughed as he grinned at her. “You could say that.”

  Max couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something about this group that made him think of the mercenaries who had lived in Bloodrunner Alley for the past eight years. Then again, it could have just been that the Leo dude reminded him of Lev Slivkoff, the cockiest of the mercs. But even with his arrogant attitude, Lev was still a good guy who Max had always gotten on with.

  When he caught Leo giving Vivian a slow, interested onceover, he shook his head and said a single, quiet word: “Don’t.”

  The guy arched one auburn eyebrow. “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  The jackass smiled. “You’re possessive. That’s admirable in a mate.”

  Vivian spluttered, but was smart enough not to argue about the status of their relationship in front of them. Thank God for small favors and all that shit, he thought, sensing that the guy would be even more of a handful if he believed she was single.

  “If you won’t tell us anything about the pricks who attacked us,” Max murmured, desperate for any information he could get, “then maybe you can shed some light on how they keep tracking us down.”

  “They’re tracking her, not you,” Arra corrected him, which didn’t come as a surprise. He’d just been trying not to freak Vivian out any more than she already was.

  “They’re literally tracking me?” she whispered at his side. “How? With what?”

  “It’s a you thing, not a technology one,” Arra explained, which wasn’t much of an explanation at all. “But if you eat a teaspoon of honey every day, it will help mask your ‘call’ and make it more difficult for them to find you.”

  “My call? What the hell is that?” Vivian asked in a breathless rush. “If you know how to help me, then you must know what I am. Tell me. Please.”

  Arra’s mouth pressed into a flat, emotionless line. “I’m sorry, but that’s not for us to say.”

  “Because you can’t?” Max growled, giving Vivian’s hand a comforting squeeze. “Or you won’t?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Leo sighed, shrugging his massive shoulders. “The answer is still the same.”

  “Just tell me, am I like them? The ones you just killed?”

  Arra’s green eyes widened with surprise. “God, no.”

  Vivian slumped against his side in relief.

  Finally seeming to take some mercy on her, Arra’s voice gentled as she gave Vivian a brief smile. “You’re not evil, Vivian. Your story is not ours to tell, but you can put that question to rest.”

  “You’re seriously not going to give her any more than that?” Max ground out, his low voice cut with angry frustration.

  It was Leo who answered his question. “We’re forbidden from discussing these matters outside of our own kind.”

  “Which is…?”

  “Sorry, pretty boy,” Arra said with a husky laugh. “You’re cute, but these are sacred laws my brother is talking about.”

  “I’m getting seriously sick of that nickname,” he muttered to himself, making Vivian hiccup a quiet giggle.

  “Don’t,” she wheezed. “Please don’t make me laugh.” At his questioning look, she leaned closer and kept her voice soft. “If I start, it’ll just lead to tears. And I don’t cry.”

  He frowned as he searched her expression. “Never?”

  She shook her head. “Never.”

  “Noted,” he rasped, thinking they were a hell of a pair, seeing as how they both had mountain-sized control issues.

  “What’s your plan now?” Arra asked, drawing his attention back to her.

  “We’re still figuring that out.”

  She looked from him to Vivian, then muttered something under her breath, before saying, “Give me a minute.” Taking a pen and a small business card from an inside pocket of her jacket, she wrote for a moment on the back of the card, then held it out for him to take. “Follow those directions, and then use the five-digit code to get in the front door.”

  “Arra, what the hell are you doing?” her brother grumbled with a scowl.

  “Shh,” she tossed at Leo, while keeping her focus on Max. “I’ve written down directions to a cabin that’s not far from here. It’s a safe house that you can stay at today, but you’ll need to be out before nightfall. Things linger in the surrounding forest that you do not want to tangle with.”

  “Those things being…?”

  “Let’s just say the world is wider than even the Lycans know,” she told him, her green eyes, the exact same shade as her brother’s, shadowed with secrets. “So don’t be foolish.”

  Pulling in a deep breath, Max fought to keep his cool, since she was offering to help. But if he heard one more obscure warning or phrase from these two, there was a good chance he was going to totally lose his shit. “Thanks,” he murmured, hoping he was making the right decision in trusting this woman.

  As if she’d read his mind, she said, “You have my word that the two of you will be safe there, Runner.” Then her gaze hardened with warning. “Except for when you’re not. So by six, be on the road.”

  Not comforted in the least by that cryptic warning, he gave her a stiff nod. “Got it.”

  “But what about my truck?” Vivian asked, glancing up at him. “I mean, we could probably tow it out of the mud with your truck, but then it might get stuck too.”

  “It’s best if you stick close to the Runner,” Leo told her. “But we’ll make sure the truck makes its way back to your apartment in Charity.”

  “What the hell?” Max clipped. “How do you know where she—?”

  “Keys?” Leo asked, cutting him off, the guy’s unusual green gaze zeroed in hard and tight on his life mate in a way that made Max want to snarl like an animal.

  “Thanks,” Vivian said, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to do, she took what appeared to be an extra truck key off her keychain and dropped it into Leo’s open palm. “I really appreciate the help.”

  “I’ll send someone to collect it before dawn,” the guy husked, before giving her a little wink and then turning and walking away, his sister right beside him.

  “Be smart and watch your backs!” Arra called out as she swung a long leg over her bike. “And whatever the hell you do, get back to your pack!”

  Their engines roared as they rode off into the night, their brothers and sisters following after them, and Max scrubbed a hand over his face, wondering what had just happened.
The entire conversation had been surreal. Hell, the entire night, for that matter.

  “Max—”

  “Not now,” he said low and fast, grabbing her hand again and pulling her toward her truck, since they needed to grab her bag and get out of there. They also needed to get warm, since they’d been standing outside in the freezing rain all that time. “We’ll talk when we get to that cabin.”

  “Okay. But, just tell me one thing first. You didn’t pull the protection off my family when you realized I’d run again, did you?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that?” he muttered, pausing in the middle of grabbing her bag from behind the driver’s seat as he brought his narrowed, insulted gaze back to hers.

  “No,” she sighed, looking contrite. “I’m sorry for sounding like a bitch. I know you wouldn’t do that.”

  He grunted as he went back to what he was doing, slipping one of the straps on her backpack over his shoulder. “You need anything else from the truck?”

  She shook her head, and they walked in silence back to where he’d left the Chevy. Once they were buckled in and he had the heat blasting from the vents, he handed Vivian the card Arra had given him, and she read out the directions to the Reapers’ safe house. The journey took less than a half hour, and as he pulled to a stop in front of the beautiful log cabin that sat beside a fog-covered lake, he was relieved to see that the place looked like something that could have been found in the Alley. There was even a generator for electricity, so at least they wouldn’t be freezing their asses off.

  Just as the sunrise started turning the sky a majestic blend of purple and pinks, Max climbed out of the truck and pulled in a deep breath of the surrounding forest, seeking the comfort of nature that reminded him of home. But no matter how hard he tried to scent the earth and trees, it was as if they weren’t even there. There was only a faint coal smell, and something he couldn’t place that was sharp enough to burn his nose.