“Nat, I want you to drive back into town and go sit in the diner until I come and get you.”
Nat looked up, startled when Caleb pulled over to the side of the road and removed her arms from his neck, pushing her away. His eyes were locked in front of him, narrowed and deadly, and she followed his gaze to see a very expensive looking car parked in their drive.
“Is that her?” she whispered.
“I’ll get her out of there,” he said, opening his door. “But I don’t want you anywhere near here.”
“Wait—is she inside?” she asked horrified. Shoving open her door without waiting for a response, she heard Caleb mutter a curse and rush forward to stop her before she could get far.
“Nat, get back in the car,” he hissed.
“I know you want to protect me, but I am not leaving while she is with my mom, Caleb!”
“Nat, I can hear everything from here, and your mom is okay.” The look he gave her told her to watch her words. “And I’m going to make sure she stays that way.” Trust me, he mouthed, his eyes pleading with her.
I do, she mouthed back. You’ll keep me safe.
He looked ready to throttle her when she crossed her arms, but she wasn’t budging. It wasn’t just her mom—there was no way she was disappearing again to let that girl try anything more with Caleb. That stunning, perfect wolf girl who didn’t know how to take no for an answer. Because whether Caleb wanted to admit it or not, Vick scared him. His own body scared him. And Nat wasn’t leaving him to face that alone again.
But right now, she wanted to make sure her mom was safe.
“You are the worst sister in the world,” he ground out, keeping pace with her when she stalked ahead. But his face grew pale as they neared the trailer, and Nat glanced up at him worriedly.
The screen door opened when they were still a few feet away on the ground below, a long elegant arm throwing it to the side.
“Oh my god, Fenri, how have you survived!” Scrunching her nose in an exquisitely beautiful look of disgust, Vick’s lithe form stepped through the doorway, inhaling deeply. Long ebony locks reflected the last rays of the sun as she shook her head in a small shudder. Then her blue eyes narrowed on them, her gaze sliding down Caleb’s body. “But it looks like you’re happy to see me…”
Nat couldn’t help glancing down as well, her stomach plummeting instantly at the sight. It’s not his fault. But it still hurt.
“My name is Caleb.” The venom in his voice gave Nat some comfort, but Vick’s eyes only brightened more. “What are you doing here.”
“Well you ran off before we could finish our conversation, Fenri.” A slow smile accompanied his name, but Caleb only clenched his jaw. “I never expected you to be such a frightened rabbit.”
“And I never expected you to be so pathetically desperate.”
Her own jaw clenched at that, her eyes growing dark—and shifting to Nat. A thin smile touched her lips when Caleb pushed Nat behind him.
“Aw, have you been playing protective big brother? But how will you save her from the big bad wolf if you can’t face her yourself?” she said with deceptive softness, her eyes returning to Caleb.
In a swift movement that took Nat’s breath away at the sheer grace and beauty, Vick vaulted over the wooden rail to land directly in front of them. Caleb’s hand shot out immediately, holding her back while holding Nat behind him with his other arm, and Vick grinned, reaching between his legs.
Nat’s hand darted around his body before Vick’s could make contact, covering Caleb’s rigid length and drawing a harsh gasp from him.
“Don’t you touch him.” Fury made her voice tremble while she cupped as much of Caleb as she could, and Vick’s eyes widened.
“Little sister…” she breathed, her tone exaggerated shock.
“Nat…” Caleb’s hoarse voice barely choked out her name, trying to push her farther behind him while still holding Vick away.
Vick’s eyes seemed unnaturally bright as she clasped her fingers over Nat’s, squeezing, and Caleb pulsed beneath them.
“Enough!” he growled, shoving Vick back into the trailer’s small wood platform. He moved Nat’s hand quickly, stepping back and keeping her behind him.
“Yes, that is enough,” Vick hissed, yanking her shirt over her head and exposing small but perfectly firm bare breasts. Her fingers began unclasping her jeans, and her gaze returned to Nat, a gleam in her eyes. “I did say I could just eat you up, didn’t I…”
“Nat, get inside,” Caleb said hoarsely, yanking off his own clothes, and Vick grinned, her eyes drinking in every bit of exposed flesh.
“Someone could see you both,” Nat said, a sickness growing in her gut as she backed away, making her way up the steps toward the door on trembling legs. Caleb’s body already went crazy for Vick in his human form. She didn’t want to face what would happen when they were wolves…
“Won’t we be the talk of the town then,” Vick grinned. “But do stay, little mouse. It’s getting late, and I’m feeling hungry.”
“Get inside, Nat!”
The last of their clothes fell to the ground, and pain nearly took Nat to the ground as well at the sight. She couldn’t move. She could only stare, her chest so tight she could barely breathe.
Caleb naked had always been almost more than she could bear. But Caleb naked and hard…
He was perfect. Every part of him in absolute perfect proportion, from his chiseled, well muscled body to the huge, rock hard length jutting up from his center, pressed tight against his stomach.
And Vick’s tall, elegant body, firm and dripping with heat, was his perfect match.
Nat swallowed back her tears as they stood apart, neither shifting, Vick’s eyes heavy with desire as they roamed over Caleb. No. No no no! Caleb wasn’t hers. He was Nat’s! Nat was the one who found him! Nat was the one who had been beside him, year after year, working with him, playing with him! Sleeping with him…
He was Nat’s wolf.
Caleb didn’t have time to stop her before she jumped over the railing between them, less elegantly than Vick had but she didn’t care. Caleb said he didn’t want Vick. And Nat believed him. This was not his fault, and she would fight for him—no matter the cost. Because Caleb was worth it.
“I’ll stay. But you need to get the fuck out of here.”
A small, incredulous laugh sounded…an instant before a blur of black leapt for her throat with a snarl, white fangs gleaming in the fading light.
And a roar followed immediately as Vick’s wolf was thrown into the wooden platform, a sharp snapping sound and a yelp mingling with the fury of a strong set of jaws, viciously shaking her body.
“Caleb! Stop! Stop—you’ll kill her!”
Nat’s arms wrapped around the thick fur of his neck, pulling desperately as blood spurted over her.
“Caleb—let go! Let her go! Please—we won’t be able to explain this!”
Vick’s claws lashed out in a mad scramble to free herself, and Nat fell back, gasping at the gash it left in her skin. Caleb’s head jerked toward her, his jaws releasing Vick long enough for her to race furiously toward the woods.
With a fierce growl, he took off in pursuit, and Nat pushed herself to her feet, holding her injured arm and running after them, her heart pounding wildly. They were too fast—much too fast for her! But…
Nat blanched. Vick was injured, running in an almost limping gait. Caleb caught her just before she reached the line of trees. No no no!
Tears clogged Nat’s throat as she raced to them, desperate to make it in time. Caleb was already shaking her again, and the fading yelps shot terror through her, propelling her the final few yards to throw her arms around Caleb once again.
“Stop! Stop, Caleb! Please! Oh, please stop—they’ll take you from me…please, please stop…” she choked out, burying her face in his neck.
Caleb stilled at last but he didn’t release the smaller wolf. Deep, low snarls came from his throat while he held her down, his fangs buried deep in her fur, blood pooling around them.
“Caleb…” Nat’s whisper floated over the soft sounds of the wind blowing through the trees. Vick had gone quiet. “It’s okay now. You can let her go.”
Slowly, so very slowly, Caleb relaxed his jaw, his growl a steady stream of sound. Vick didn’t move, and a chill shot through Nat’s body. Please let her be alive…oh please. Caleb stood very still, a menacing sound continuing to come from his throat, keeping his muzzle close to the bloodied fur once his jaws released her.
Relief made Nat weak when Vick darted away the instant she was free. This time she moved more slowly, however—and headed back toward the trailer.
Nat kept her arms around Caleb, his snarls never abating, until the sound of a car pulling away reached them and she collapsed into him in relief. Trembling, she pet him softly.
“Shh…we’re okay now.”
But he didn’t stop snarling.
“Caleb? Are you okay?”
The rumble from his chest grew, the sound as menacing as when Vick had been near. Nat relaxed her arms around his neck, sitting back on her heels and looking around worriedly to see if she’d missed some other danger.
“I don’t see anything—what is—“
Her voice caught in her throat when she turned back toward him.
He had planted his front paws on either side of her, his claws digging into the earth. And inches from her face were huge, bared fangs, snarling in feral savagery.
At her.
“Ca—Caleb?” Nat’s voice caught, the blood draining from her face. “It’s me. Nat—”
She choked on her name when he lowered his head with a surging snarl.
“What’s wrong?” she begged, tears in her voice.
His head dropped further, the sound in his throat fading to a harsh whisper, until his muzzle reached her knees. She jumped at the feel of his cold nose on her leg, the skin exposed where her dress had bunched around her thighs as she knelt on the ground.
“Caleb, you can change back now,” she whispered, only to jump again when he nudged between her knees. When she didn’t move, he did it again. Hard.
“Caleb, stop!” Her voice was sharper now, a different type of panic beginning to creep in. When he shoved his muzzle between her thighs with a growl, she tried shoving him away, only to gasp and fall on her back when he pushed her down with his paws.
Keeping one paw on her chest, the pressure almost too much for her to breathe, he shoved his muzzle between her legs once more, this time forcing them to part enough for him to reach her center.
Twisting her hips, she kneed him hard on the side of his head, pushing and pulling at his paw and trying desperately to suck in the air. The sound he made in response was like nothing she’d ever heard. Nothing from Caleb.
A deep, guttural cry of rage, wild and savage.
The pressure on her chest eased for just an instant, just enough for her to twist over on her stomach and try to scramble away.
She realized her mistake too late.
Claws and fangs raked her back, cutting through the thin fabric of her dress and into her skin in shallow slices that had her gasping and pushing herself into the ground. Vicious snarls snapped at her ear each time she tried to move away, and she covered her head with her hands, sobs shaking her body.
But when his legs yanked her up on all fours and she felt the hard, hot length feverishly sliding between her legs, she began struggling again, fighting and sobbing at each bite that nipped her just enough to draw blood until he clenched her neck between his jaws, holding her still and thrusting wildly between her thighs, coming ever closer to finding the entrance.
“Caleb,” she screamed. “You’re just like the bad man!”
The evening stopped around them. Nat heard nothing, not even the wind she could feel blowing over them.
Caleb held perfectly still, his fangs in her flesh, his front legs hard around her waist, holding her in place. The hot length pressing against her stomach terrified her, and she struggled to keep herself from collapsing into tears once more, her body trembling uncontrollably. Waiting.
Heat flowed over her in waves from deep beneath his fur until the fur disappeared and she could feel his skin against hers, sliding off.
She turned to see him collapse unconscious beside her, his face pale as death.
“Caleb? Caleb! Wake up!” Her hands were on his face, her injuries forgotten as she felt for a pulse, a heartbeat, her own heart hammering when she felt the weak throb. And whatever panic she’d felt before was nothing to the terror filling her now.
Shoving herself to her feet and holding the tattered remains of her dress around her, she raced back toward the trailer, her boots flying over the rough ground. Falling to her knees, trembling hands searched through Caleb’s clothing until she found his phone, quickly scanning his contacts for the number she needed.
She was already racing back as it rang on the other end.
“Yo.”
“Preston?” she said, gulping in air as she ran. “Where’s Ethan!”
“In the other room dealing with some shit for his dad. He said not to disturb him, but I saw it was your brother—er—well, Caleb—and thought it might be important.”
“It is—please, please get him!” she rasped, dropping to her knees next to Caleb and struggling to catch her breath. “And if you’re at his house, his sister might be on her way there. She’s injured—I don’t know how badly, but I can’t imagine she is in a good mood. I don’t know if it’s safe for you to be there.”
“Fuck.” Preston said hoarsely, and she heard a door in the background. “Dude, you heard?”
“I heard.” Tension laced his tone. “We need to get out of here.”
“Ow—I can walk myself,” Preston muttered, but Ethan didn’t respond, and the sound of an engine roared to life soon after.
“Okay—you’re on speakerphone, Natty.”
Nat took a shaky breath, fighting back the tears and feeling Caleb for a pulse again. She gasped.
“Ethan, Caleb’s burning up! He and your sister got in a fight, and after he changed back, he just…he’s unconscious,” she said hoarsely, not sure what to say about the rest of it. “What do I do!”
“Check his eyes,” Ethan said. “What color are they?”
Nat carefully lifted a lid and released a small cry.
“They’re black! All the way to the edge,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Nat, that’s a good thing—because that’s something I know how to treat. I don’t suppose you have any wolfsbane over there, do you?”
“Dude, is that even a real thing?”
“It’s a plant—a lot of plants, actually, and most very poisonous. But it will counteract the effects of the mate—uh—scent bond.”
“I don’t even know what that is, Ethan. Can I find it in the woods? Where do I go?” Panic was clawing at her. Caleb was so still, his fever almost painful to the touch.
“Just give us a few minutes. I’m taking a back route so Vick doesn’t spot us if she’s headed this way, but I have some in the car. You’re at your place?”
Relief made her weak, and she collapsed on the ground beside Caleb, stretching out beside him and holding him close.
“Yes. Thank you, Ethan,” she whispered. “And please hurry.”
They hung up, and she curled closer to Caleb, the heat from his body keeping her bare skin warm in the crisp evening air. She supposed she should try to cover up before they got there, but she would have to leave Caleb lying there.
Tears stung her eyes.
He was going to be okay. Whatever had happened…he’d changed back. He was going to be okay!
But a sickness filled her as she lay there, her body torn and bloodied.
Because her wolf might never be the same again.
The evening light had almost disappeared by the time Ethan and Preston arrived.
“We’re over here,” she said softly, her voice catching as she stared at Caleb lying so pale beside her. Lifting her upper body, she covered his lower half with some of her torn skirt, trying to give him some privacy.
It didn’t take long before she heard footsteps running toward them.
“Jesus, Natty—she attacked you, too?”
Preston crouched down, his hands running over her a bit, checking for damage. She let him, unable to do much more than watch Caleb through blurry eyes.
Ethan gave them a quick glance before kneeling and pulling out what looked like an old fashioned metal lighter with a flip top. Holding one hand on his nose and turning away, he put the lighter near Caleb’s face and pressed down on the edge. And immediately dropped it as Caleb sucked in air and the two of them turned, coughing and hacking into the grass while Nat looked on in desperate relief, reaching out to stroke Caleb’s back gently.
His fever had disappeared completely, and another wave of relief hit her until she could barely hold herself upright. She planted a hand on the ground to hold herself up while she kept a palm flat against Caleb’s back, needing to feel him.
The coughs subsided at last, and Ethan took a deep breath, picking the lighter up once more to put it in his pocket. But he paused, looking at Nat, and held it out to her instead.
“Actually, you might want to hold on to this. I replaced the fuel cell with a Wolfsbane mixture. It won’t hurt you so long as you don’t try ingesting it, but the scent can pretty much incapacitate us. It will get weaker each time it’s opened though, so only use it when you really need to.”
Nat nodded, reaching out to take it, and Ethan’s eyes fell to her arm.
“Vick did that?”
Nat looked down at the long jagged line cutting an ugly red streak through her pale skin. It wasn’t too deep, but it would leave a scar. She nodded again, clutching the lighter and grateful that he’d asked about a cut that actually was from his sister. The rest of them…
Her eyes turned back to see Caleb still lying on the ground, his body twisted away from her, his hands buried in the grass and his head hung low.
“Caleb?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
Tension rippled the muscles of his back, and her chest constricted as she watched, the sick feeling in her gut growing with each passing second.
“Caleb…?” Her voice wavered, and he flinched as if she’d struck him. His chest expanded and contracted in shallow breaths, and a tremor worked its way up his spine until his entire body shook with it.
“Caleb?” This time the tears wouldn’t stay out of her voice, and his head jerked to the side, enough for her to see his face in the shadows.
He was crying.
A keening sound came from her throat as she threw her arms around him, ignoring the jolt that went through his body.
“Nat, stop! You have to get away from me!” he choked out, shaking in her arms hard enough to shake them both.
“You would push me away—now!” she cried, hiding her face in his back and clutching him as tightly as she could.
“I’m not safe,” he said hoarsely, his hands digging into the earth. “Ethan, keep her away from me!”
“Don’t you dare, Ethan!” she turned her head fiercely toward the boy who sat watching them so quietly.
“What happened?” he whispered, his eyes running over the cuts in Nat’s exposed skin.
“I attacked her. I tried to kill your sister and then I attacked Nat. I…I can’t be trusted.” Horror filled his voice, and Nat clenched him even tighter.
“You weren’t trying to kill me. You just…weren’t yourself.”
“Don’t make excuses for me!” he cried out to the ground, his body unyielding stone in her arms.
“Caleb,” she whispered, pressing her lips to the back of his neck and holding him harder when he flinched, his shoulders shaking. A tremor touched her voice as she continued. “You can’t do that and then desert me—you just can’t. It was scary, and I need you.”
Her face broke in silent tears, and she leaned her forehead against him, trying not to let him hear.
Turning his head to the side, he looked over his shoulder, his cheeks streaked with tears.
“Nat…” His eyes fell to the bloodied arm that clenched him so tightly, and his own arms buckled. Falling to the earth, he reached for her hand, holding it to his forehead as he wept. Then a growl sounded in his throat, and he pushed himself up to turn toward her, swallowing at the sight of her lying on the ground, looking up at him through teary eyes.
His own eyes were raw as he reached for her, his hand shaking. Tears broke through again when his knuckles touched her skin, tracing the small lines of blood up her arm to her neck where his fangs had pierced her.
Nat slid her hand to cover his.
“You stopped. You heard me, and you stopped.”
His eyes shifted to hers, burning and tormented.
“But I didn’t want to.” His gaze fell once more to the myriad of scratches marring her body, and his voice grew choked. “I didn’t mean to tear your skin…”
Leaning down, his breath shuddered over her body as he touched his lips to her shoulder, his tongue slipping out to glide across a cut until he reached her neck and the bloody indentations left by his fangs.
“But…” His voice grew husky. “I wanted to mark you. I wanted to claim you, Nat. Forever. It’s all I could see…”
She shivered and wounded tenderness filled his eyes, his hands slipping beneath her slowly to lift her into his lap. He rocked her gently back and forth while she hid her face in his neck, curling into him and letting everything else drift away.
The sounds of the night echoed around them, and leaves rustled in the trees. But no more words were spoken for a long while.
“Ethan…” Nat roused herself at last before the comfort of Caleb’s arms could lull her into sleep. “You knew what to do. Does that mean this has happened before?”
“Not exactly this but… When we’re around our m—when we’re young, the adults use wolfsbane if we lose control. Otherwise a lot of couples would start mating too soon. Sometimes a wolf will react really strongly to being stopped. It’s rare for them to lose consciousness, but it’s happened before.”
“So this happened because Caleb stopped himself from being with your sister?” she whispered, an ache in her chest.
“No.” Caleb said flatly. “The moment I shifted, that all stopped.”
“What do you mean?” Ethan’s question echoed Nat’s thoughts, and she leaned up to look at Caleb’s face, swallowing when she saw the darkness in his eyes.
“I mean as soon as I shifted, her scent stopped making me hard.”
Ethan’s brow pulled together in a deep line.
“It didn’t affect you anymore?”
“Oh,” Caleb said quietly, his eyes narrowing. “It affected me. But instead of making me want to fuck—“ he glanced at Nat, his eyes growing raw again for just a moment before turning back to Ethan, acid in his voice—“it made me want to feel her bones cracking between my jaws and her blood spilling into my mouth.”
Ethan sat back on his heels, fierce confusion in his eyes.
“Then why were you…” Nat couldn’t finish, and Caleb’s eyes returned to hers, two deep pools of remorse.
“That wasn’t about her, Nat,” he said huskily. “I didn’t feel that way until after she was gone.”
“But you weren’t yourself, Caleb,” she whispered up at him. “Something was wrong.”
Touching the tattered remains of her dress, his red rimmed eyes following his fingertips as they skimmed her wounds, he took a shaky breath.
“I felt…free. And I wanted everything I wanted. I knew I could have it. No one could stop me from having what I wanted.”
He swallowed, and his eyes shone with tears.
“It was still me, Nat.”
“It was your wolf,” Ethan frowned. “It’s just normally you’d be going after your…scent match. And she wouldn’t be resisting.”
“So I caused this?” Nat asked in a small voice.
“NO.” Fury shone in Caleb’s eyes, but for once Ethan wasn’t deterred.
“How?” he demanded, leaning forward. “How do you do it, Caleb. How do you break the mate bond? I need to know.”
“Dude, calm down.” Preston put a hand on Ethan’s chest, eyeing Caleb nervously.
Ethan looked down, intense frustration in his eyes, but he let Preston push him back. His gaze stayed on the hand touching his chest, watching it move with every breath he took.
“The better question is why have you just accepted it,” Caleb snapped. “Stop giving in, and start fighting for what you want.”
“You think I haven’t been fighting?” Ethan kept his eyes on Preston’s hand, his voice strained. “I’ve researched everything I could get my hands on, tried using wolfsbane in a hundred different ways, exhausted my body, my mind, everything before being around her, but every single time I’m with my mate it’s all there. And it only gets stronger when I shift.”
Caleb’s exhale was rough with annoyance.
“Well, what are you fighting it for?”
Ethan lifted his head at last, glaring at him.
“You are perfectly well aware of that answer.”
“That’s not what I meant. My point is…” Hesitating, his eyes fell to Nat, and he reached for her cheek, stroking gently. His voice grew husky. “If you want to beat whatever is in our blood, maybe you need something stronger to replace it.”
Ethan looked down for a moment, his expression helpless, before lifting his eyes slowly to Preston.
“Uh, you okay now, dude?”
Ethan swallowed, nodding, and Preston let his hand fall away with a somewhat wary look.
“So this was…normal? It just…happens sometimes?” Nat asked.
Ethan’s gaze returned to her, hesitation in his eyes, and Caleb tightened his arms around her with a shudder.
“I don’t think anything about this is normal,” Ethan answered carefully. “But I know some wolf pairs go a bit crazy when they can’t mate. I always thought it was because they were being separated from their scent match. I heard—“
Stopping mid-sentence, Ethan pressed his lips together and looked down. Caleb narrowed his eyes.
“Spit it out. What?”
Ethan didn’t lift his head, and a long moment passed in silence before he spoke again.
“I heard about one mating that…didn’t end well. It was one of the more aggressive couples and they’d had a lot of trouble stopping them from getting together. I guess the two of them snuck out to meet each other and the male was too rough.”
Lifting eyes heavy with apology, he spoke his final words softly.
“She didn’t survive.”
