She pulled her arm free. “Don’t fucking curse at me, Devlin, I’m not in the goddamn mood for this fucking shit. And we’re so done.” Hearing the front door slam shut, Gwen looked to see Ally rushing off the porch.
“Ally, wait!” Derren called out, hot on her heels with Bracken right behind him.
Zander prowled toward them, abruptly alert, as their footsteps thundered along the boardwalk. “What’s going on?”
“Get her in the house!” Ally shouted, urgency in every syllable. “She’s not—”
The breath left Gwen’s lungs as something heavy crashed into her back, knocking her down. Fire blazed along her shoulder blades as razor-sharp knives stabbed and tore through her skin like butter. Not knives, she numbly realized as a short, shrill shriek split the air. Talons.
Even with pain beating at her back, she tried to get up. However, she only managed to roll onto her side as, in a mad rustle of wings, a flock of large birds descended on her. Glaring at her through deep red eyes, they shrieked and bit and raked their talons, leaving trails of white-hot pain in their wake. She kicked her legs and swiped out at them, but they were too damn heavy to move. It all happened within seconds.
There was a loud, guttural roar. Then something larger jumped into the fray. And something else. And something else. Shrieks of alarm and pain mingled with furious growls and snarls. Unable to move, Gwen stayed curled up in a protective ball as a fight literally went on around and above her.
Suddenly the birds were gone in another rustle of feathers, and she heard the click of claws as the wolves gave chase.
“Gwen?” said Ally, shakily, as she dropped to her knees at Gwen’s side.
She lifted her head, and there was a large wolf, his fur a mix of brown and gray. “Zander?” The wolf snarled, golden eyes hard and . . . distrustful. More pain tore through her, but it was emotional pain this time. The wolf raced off in the direction the other wolves had headed.
“Gwen,” Ally repeated, “can you stand? We need to get you inside.”
With Ally’s help, Gwen rose to her feet. For a long moment, she stood still—baffled, speechless. Then the blazing pain from her wounds really kicked in, and she snapped right out of her shocked state. Noticing two gray birds lying dead on the boardwalk, she blinked. “Shit, what the fuck?” She touched her throbbing cheek, felt something warm and wet.
“Inside,” said Ally, gently drawing Gwen along the boardwalk. Ally led her into the house and through to the living area. The lights flickered, and doors banged shut all over the house. Ally’s brows almost hit her hairline. “I don’t think the ghosts like that you’re hurt. I’d ask you to lie on your back, but I think it would hurt like a bitch. Just sit on the floor for me.”
Gwen did so. “What are you going to do?”
The Seer fell to her knees at her side. “Sorry if this hurts.” She rested her hands over a wound on Gwen’s back.
Gwen flinched, hissing in pain, but otherwise remained still. Soft, preternatural energy flowed through her like warm syrup, soothing and healing. If she wasn’t having her own personal crisis in her head, she’d have been utterly absorbed by what she was feeling. It was one thing to know that some shifters could heal, and a whole other thing to experience it.
At that moment, Marlon came rushing into the room. “I heard all the—” His eyes bulged. “What. The. Hell?”
“Marlon, get over here and hold Gwen’s hand.”
Marlon did so, demanding, “Will someone please tell me who the hell did this to you? Was it Brandt? I will seriously shoot the little bastard myself if—”
“It was a flock of birds,” said Gwen, tone flat. “Big birds with red eyes.” Initially, she’d been numb with shock, unable to properly process what happened. But the shock had given way to a controlled anger that left her able to think more clearly. “Shifters.”
“Shifters?” echoed Marlon, incredulous. “That’s—” Noticing that Gwen’s wounds were healing, Marlon said, “Wow.”
“Yes, shifters,” Ally said to Gwen with a sad sigh. “It’s shifters like those birds who give our kind a bad rep and make humans distrust us.” After a few moments, she sat back on her heels and puffed out a long breath. “You may feel a little drowsy, but I doubt you’ll lose consciousness.”
Yeah, “drowsy” was a good word. Gwen’s body felt limp and featherlight, like she could happily doze off. She probed the area where she’d had a long rake mark on her arm, surprised to find it wasn’t even tender.
Marlon frowned at Ally’s pasty face. “You don’t look too good yourself. Stay there, I’ll be right back.”
Gwen sat on the sofa, her movements sluggish. She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Thanks for healing me.”
“How do you feel?” Ally asked.
Gwen snorted. “Like I was attacked by a flock of birds. You came running outside as if you knew something was wrong. Did you?”
“I’m a Seer. I had a vision that you were attacked by goshawks.”
“Goshawks?” Gwen shook her head. “I’ve seen goshawks. They’re big, and some of them have red eyes, sure, but they’re not that big.”
“Shifters’ birds are often much bigger than their avian counterparts. Our pack had a run-in with harpy eagle shifters not so long ago. That was bad. One struck Zander hard from behind, barely missing the back of his neck—that move might well have killed him. Another actually tried to carry him off; it probably would have carried him high and then dropped him.”
Gwen’s chest tightened. She was pissed at him, but that didn’t mean she was okay with hearing he could have been seriously hurt or killed.
Marlon reappeared and handed both Gwen and Ally a bottle of water and a granola bar. “Here. Now, tell me exactly what happened.”
Gwen gave him a nod of thanks and unscrewed the lid of the bottle. “They just came out of nowhere. Zander, Derren, and Bracken shifted and attacked them while I pretty much lay there, unable to do a fucking thing. Ally thinks they were goshawks.”
Marlon swore. “The Moores will be behind this.”
“I should have expected Ezra to hire shifters to hurt me.” Gwen sipped her water. “No one would suspect him of that.”
“Bastard,” Marlon spat. He shot Ally a weak but grateful smile. “Thank God you were here.”
Gwen sighed down at her ruined, bloody clothes. “I really liked this shirt. Yvonne bought it for me. I’m so glad she decided to stay at Julie’s for the night. This would have sent her in a blind panic.”
Frantic footsteps were quickly followed by the door bursting open and Andie dashing into the room, breathing hard. “I saw the wolves running around like their asses were on fire.” She noticed the blood on Gwen’s torn clothes, and her eyes flashed cat.
“I’m okay. Ally healed me.”
Andie carefully eyed the she-wolf, who was munching on her granola bar.
“I’m no threat to you,” said Ally. “I’m one of Zander and Bracken’s pack mates.”
Looking a little mollified, Andie shifted her focus back to Gwen. “Did Brandt come back? Was it one of the Moores?”
“In a sense.” Gwen explained what had happened, leaving Andie gaping at her.
“God, I really hate that family.” Andie nostrils flared. “I think I smell fire.”
Marlon cleared his throat. “That happens sometimes. We’ll smell things like perfume or smoke or aftershave. Blame the ghosts.”
Looking fascinated, Ally went to speak. But then her head tilted. “Sounds like the boys are back.”
Silently, Derren entered first, scratches on his face. “They got away,” he bit out. “We followed them as far as we could, but . . . well, we can’t fucking fly.”
“At least we killed two of them before the others flew off,” said Bracken. “We dumped the bodies in the river.”
Zander stalked inside and made a beeline for Gwen, neck corded, nostrils flaring. Fury was stamped into every line of his face. A frisson of fear trailed down her spine.
 
; “She’s fully healed,” Ally reassured him.
Zander sank onto the sofa and drew Gwen onto his lap, holding her tight against him. He breathed her in, using her scent to calm him. But the scent of her blood was still strong in the air, thanks to the stains on her clothes and skin, and it was hard to regain his composure.
He wanted to punch and bite and claw and mangle and kill, but most of the bastards had gotten away. He needed to see them pay, needed to tear them apart, needed the smell of their blood to replace the smell of Gwen’s.
He ground his teeth until his jaw ached. There was a tightness in his chest—unfamiliar and insidious, leaving him with a thick ache in his throat. He could see that she was trying to relax against him, but she couldn’t stop the delicate tremble that ran through her limbs. Couldn’t erase that her face was pale or that her eyes were wide and glassy.
Adrenaline still coursed through him, making it even harder for him to cool his anger. If she was close, if he could scent and feel her, just maybe he’d get through the night without losing his mind.
Gwen squirmed. “You can let go. I’m fine and—”
A growl rattled his chest. “Shut up and let me hold you.”
She pinched him, but the big bastard didn’t even flinch. “I don’t need your attitude right now, Devlin.” But she didn’t push him away, because she sensed he was on edge. She was still pissed at him for earlier. In fact, she was pissed at the other three wolves in the room too—they had no right to invade her privacy. But since one had healed her and the others had just risked themselves to hunt a flock of bird shifters who’d attacked her, she couldn’t really complain right then.
“Why can I smell burning?” asked Bracken.
Marlon quickly explained, only to receive skeptical looks from Bracken and Derren.
“The birds were goshawks, weren’t they?” said Ally.
“Big-ass goshawks,” said Derren. “Most flocks of their species are available for hire.” The light flickered, and he tensed as he glanced up at it. “There aren’t many of the flocks around these parts. We’ll find out which one it was, and they’ll pay one way or another.”
Gwen twisted as much as Zander’s grip would allow so she could look at Andie. “I don’t mean to scare you, but you could be next. If you’re not going to go to the shelter, at least move in here. You’d be safe inside the walls.”
Andie bit her lip. “About the shelter . . . I was thinking that maybe it might not be such a bad idea to check it out. I’m just a little worried that it’s not even real. It’s hard to believe a place like that exists.”
“It exists,” Ally assured her. “I think it would be a good place for you.”
“I could go with you to see it,” Gwen offered. “If you don’t like it or you feel it won’t work for you, we’ll come right back here.”
Zander didn’t argue. It would be good for Gwen to get away from Oregon, even if only for a day. He was no longer concerned about trying to hide his involvement with her from his pack, beyond caring whether they would approve of it. Human or not, Kenny Cogman’s daughter or not, she was his. Since Ally and Derren already knew, it was likely that they’d told Nick anyway, so it made no difference if Gwen stayed behind.
“We can take you there as soon as tomorrow,” Bracken told the cougar. “In my opinion, the sooner you leave, the better.”
Andie took a long breath. “I’ll go and check it out tomorrow, but I want Gwen to come.”
“That’s fine,” said Bracken. “We’ll leave in the morning. I really think you should stay here tonight, just to be on the safe side.”
After a long moment, Andie nodded. “I’ll go pack my stuff in the morning, just in case I decide to stay at the shelter.”
Relieved, Gwen smiled. “The only guests we have at the moment are Ally and Derren. There are plenty of free rooms—take your pick.”
“Marlon can help her find a room.” Zander stood, cradling Gwen against him. “You need rest.”
“I’m just a little drowsy—Ally said it’s normal.”
Ignoring that, Zander carried her out of the room and up the stairs. He heard Donnie enter the house, but he kept walking. The others would reassure Donnie that Gwen was fine and explain what happened. She needed peace and quiet and rest. And he needed to be alone with her.
Zander never resorted to panic. He was always the practical voice of reason in a dangerous situation. But as they’d stood on that boardwalk and he’d seen those birds descend on her and he’d smelled her blood, he’d sure as fuck panicked. That panic hadn’t yet left him; it still slithered through him, tormenting him. She was really the only thing keeping him from losing his shit, and he doubted she even knew it.
Inside her room, Gwen squirmed. “Put me down. I can walk on my own steam.”
“Don’t, Gwen,” he clipped. “Just let me have my way right now.”
Gwen sighed inwardly, not really sure what to do with him. She’d never seen him this way before—edgy, vibrating with suppressed anger. So Gwen didn’t say a word as he took her into the en suite bathroom, where he gently set her down and stripped off their clothes. She didn’t say a word as he opened the frosted glass door of the shower stall and ushered her inside. Still silent, she shampooed her hair as he soaped her down, careful to wash away every bit of dried blood from her skin, utterly focused on his task.
When they stepped out of the shower and he wrapped a lush towel around her, she said, “Your wolf doesn’t like me, huh?”
He blinked in surprise. “He didn’t like seeing you bleeding and in pain. The smell of your blood made him crazy.”
She snorted. “He snarled at me, Zander. He doesn’t trust me. I could see it in his eyes.”
Patting her dry, Zander explained, “My wolf is a tough fucker. Nothing fazes him. Something about you makes him wary, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what. He doesn’t dislike you; he’s just on his guard.”
She didn’t like to think that his wolf felt that way about her. “Suspecting I’ll do what?”
“I don’t know. He’s gotten better as the days have gone on. He doesn’t mind you being around; he’s not uncomfortable with you. In fact, he enjoys your company and wants you around. He’s also protective of you. But he’s still on his guard.” Now that she was dry, he used another towel to dry himself off. “You shouldn’t take his negative behavior personally. My wolf generally doesn’t like female attention.”
She paused in pulling a brush through her hair. “Why?”
“It’s just the way he is.”
“Maybe he gets aggravated by it because the only attention he wants is that of his true mate,” she suggested.
Zander frowned thoughtfully. He hadn’t considered that before. “Maybe.” Right then, it didn’t matter. He cupped her jaw, letting his gaze roam over her face. “Such big eyes.”
She swallowed at the possessiveness in his voice. “Aren’t you supposed to be pissed at me for not pouring out my life story?”
“You’re not going to cause an argument, baby, if that’s your game.”
“I don’t have a game. I have a problem with people thinking I have to justify myself to them. There’s a good reason why I don’t tell people shit about my past—there’s nothing good to share from before I went into foster care.”
“Gwen—”
“When people learn that my mom’s a stripper, my stepdad’s a drunk, and my dad’s a drug dealer, they look at me differently. I’m the same Gwen you impaled on your cock last night. But because you discovered my biological father is a drug-dealing equivalent of a Nazi, you were looking at me like you’d never seen me before.” And that hurt, even as she wished it didn’t. “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”
He crowded her, shaking his head. “Oh, no, you don’t.”
Her brows snapped together. “What?”
“You’re pouncing on this as an excuse to push me away.” He could literally see her bolstering her defenses. “Let’s get a few things perfectly straigh
t. You’re right; you don’t have to justify yourself to me. I was mostly mad because I didn’t like learning something so significant about you from my Betas. I would rather have heard it from you. It hurt, so, yeah, I overreacted a little.
“I understand your privacy is important to you. Neither me nor my pack meant to hit any hot buttons. But I’d do the same search on any stranger that hung around you . . . because you matter, and I’d put your safety before another person’s right to privacy. I won’t apologize for that, so I can’t expect my pack to apologize for putting my safety first either. Also, I don’t believe you’re anything like Cogman. I’d have already sensed it if you were.”
“Maybe I’m a good actress.”
“And maybe you’re someone who’s trying to atone for the sins of her father—that’s not something you need to do.”
Gwen perched her hands on her hips. “I’m not trying to atone for Kenny’s fucked-up mistakes. No amount of good deeds from me would manage that.” The guy was plain cruel. “This isn’t about me or anything I went through. It’s about Andie. I’m helping her because I want to, because she deserves justice, and because Brandt needs to pay. That’s it. My childhood . . . it’s not relevant here. None of it matters anyway. It’s in the past.”
Oh, it matters, thought Zander. If it hadn’t, she’d have looked her cool and casual self. Right then, she looked like someone who’d been jammed in an elevator too long. He’d have expected defensiveness or anger, but not the panic he could scent. And then he understood.
Zander framed her face with his hands. “It’s not just that you’re highly private, is it, baby? It’s not even that your natural instinct is to keep things to yourself. You avoid talking of your childhood because you never feel far enough away from it.” Her eyes flickered, and he knew he’d hit the nail on the head. “I didn’t see that before. Should have. I blame your legs. They’re too damn distracting. Your eyes too. And your mouth.”
He kissed said mouth, indulging in a long, thorough taste of her. His cock, already hard at just the sight of her naked, throbbed painfully. But she needed to rest, not to get fucked into the mattress. So he settled them both in bed, curving himself around her. “Sleep, Gwen.”