Allister, J. Rose - Disowned Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (26 page)

The wolves began growling, positioning themselves with feet planted and ears pricked toward David. The gray wolf Solomon advanced on David with a snarling bark that pierced the space, and the gun whirled on him. He stopped, his yellow eyes glaring murderously at the man.

“Don’t fucking
move
, wolf,” David said, waving his gun slightly. “Yeah, you know what this is, don’t you? You know I can shoot you and your buddies dead.”

Except that a normal gun wouldn’t work, and Aimee wondered why the wolves weren’t taking advantage of that fact. Did they think David knew about werewolves? Maybe they assumed he had silver bullets in his gun, like the red-haired huntress. Otherwise, they could easily have overpowered him by now. Aimee swallowed.

He addressed Kyle while still staring Solomon down. “I don’t see any movement over there. Hurry the fuck up and get her out of that collar.”

Kyle cleared his throat. “I suppose this is a bad time to admit I left the key in my other pants.”

“Fuck you,” David spat out. “Get her out of that sick restraint
now
.”

“I’m the one who put the collar on,” Aimee said. “So don’t stand there with the wrong idea about Kyle. He tried to get me to leave. I refused and locked myself into this thing.”

David’s lip curled. “Why the hell would you do that?”

The gray wolf barked again, then shivered violently. His body expanded while fur retracted, and Solomon rose naked with every bulging muscle tensed. “Who gives a fuck?”

“Holy shit!” David threw himself backwards at the sight of the wolf morphing into human form. His back hit the cave wall, and his eyes were bugged half out of his skull. “What the hell are you?”

“Thought so,” Solomon said, his ass twitching as he strode closer to David. “He’s packing a normal weapon, boys. It’s all right.”

One by one, the wolves transformed around David until all Aimee could see was muscled backs, tight, pale buttocks, and toned legs. Dillon phased as well, but stayed crouched between the pack and Aimee. Blood streamed down his back from the ragged tooth holes Solomon had torn into him, and she felt an answering pang of sympathy twist in her gut.

David spotted Dillon, and his mouth fell open. He glanced at Aimee through the ranks of naked males. “That cowboy’s one of them?” He eyed her up and down. “And you?”

She shook her head. “I’m human.”

“And a waste of my time,” Solomon said, whipping his head toward her for a moment before turning his still-golden stare back on David. “Both of you. You just interrupted some important pack business, and you made me tip my hand. Afraid that leaves us with a bit of a quandary.”

David stared at him. “What are you?”

“Something you shouldn’t have tangled with, son. The question now is what to do about it.”

“You don’t need to do nothin’,” Dillon said, rising to his feet. “He’s nobody. Just a businessman.” He wandered over and stood by Kyle, with Aimee on the ground between them.

“I’m Aimee’s fiancé,” David retorted. “I only care about seeing her back to safety.”

Solomon laughed. “Fiancé? Well, this really isn’t your day, is it? Might interest you to know just what your little bondage slave was doing with those cowboys when my pack and I came in.”

David’s face reddened, and his eyes narrowed as he glowered at the three of them together along the back wall, but he shook his head. “No, I don’t want to know.” He looked at Aimee’s hand, then back up at her. “All I know is that you’re wearing my ring again. That has to mean something.”

Sorrow flooded her chest. “I came up here to get the ring so that I could give it back to you. I’m just wearing it for safekeeping.” A hiccup of emotion broke over the last word. “I’m sorry, David. I’ve made my decision.”

“No. I don’t believe that.” He started toward her, but Solomon’s pack tightened their formation and glared him down.

“She’s a load and a half of trouble, I see,” Solomon said. “Good thing we interrupted Kyle before he finished his claim on her. We’d have had our hands full of feminine wiles.”

David glared at Kyle with his nostrils flared, but said nothing.

“Let him go, Solomon,” Kyle said, moving forward. “His business here is done.”

“You know I can’t. He’s aware of our kind now.”

“Thanks to you,” Dillon spat.

“I don’t know a damn thing,” David said. “I have no idea what the hell you are, and I don’t care. The only thing I did care about apparently doesn’t exist anymore. The rest of whatever is going on here doesn’t concern me.”

Solomon snorted. “And I’m supposed to believe you’ll just leave here and never think about what you saw again? That you’ll never mention it to anyone?” He leaned closer to David, and he raised his gun. “That you won’t get it in your head to come back in a jealous rage to get revenge?”

“Why?” The gun quivered slightly. “You aren’t the one who stole my girl.”

“I can’t say that’s entirely true. But one of my pack members did. And I can’t leave a threat like that hanging loose.” Solomon glanced down the barrel of the gun. “Might as well put that away before you hurt yourself. It’ll do you no good on us.”

Instead, David lifted the gun higher so that it was pointed between Solomon’s flickering eyes. “Maybe, maybe not. But I bet it’d hurt like fucking hell.”

Solomon laughed. “You know, I kind of like your gumption. Shame this isn’t going to end well for you.”

David let out an indignant snort. “I just found the woman I love chained up half-naked in a cave with a bunch of naked men—by her own choice, apparently. I’d say things have already ended on a rather sour note.”

Aimee’s stomach twisted into a knot of remorse.

“Solomon, please,” Kyle said. “You’re no murderer, especially of innocent humans.”

“You’re right.” Solomon turned away from the still-quivering gun and wandered back to Kyle. “This entire shit pile is your fault. You’re the one who’s going to have to shovel it.”

Kyle stiffened, as did Aimee and Dillon.

“I’m not going to kill him,” Kyle said.

“I didn’t say anything about killing,” Solomon retorted. “You’re going to turn him.”

“Turn me?” David asked. “What the hell’s that?”

No one paid any attention. Aimee tried to struggle to her feet. “You can’t do that! This wasn’t his fault.”

“It’s the perfect answer.” Solomon’s grin held a mocking edge. “Don’t you see? Kyle wants to be an alpha, and I’ll release him on the condition that he takes this man into his pack. That way, our secret stays safe, Blaise’s outcast loser won’t have to fight me, and David gets to have you after all. Everyone walks away happy, and no one gets hurt.”

Solomon’s pack nodded and muttered assent, but her heart pounded and tears sprang to her eyes. It was her doing that brought David up here. “
David
will get hurt.”

Solomon bent over her. “David will get a gift unlike anything he’s ever known.”

“What if David doesn’t want a gift?” David asked.

Kyle shook his head. “I can’t do it. I
won’t
do it.”

His alpha stood up. Aimee turned away from Solomon’s cock, which was dangling too near her face and pulsing with interest. “Oh, come now, don’t tell me you don’t want your romantic rival in your pack. You know this is the best way, Kyle. You caused all this. You’re going to have to suck up some consequences for it. Lord knows I’ve sucked up consequences for you.”

One of the men grunted assent. Kyle gritted his teeth and fell silent.

“Listen, assholes,” David said from across the cave, and Solomon finally turned to him. “I don’t know what the hell all was going on when I came in here, but I have no intention of being someone else’s consequence.”

Solomon sighed. “I know it’s a shitstorm of bad luck that you staggered into this steaming pile, but I’m afraid there’s only one way out. I’m sorry, David. I truly am.”

He nodded to his men, who began moving toward David. The two on opposite ends of the group shifted and gnashed their sharp fangs at him in warning.

“Stay back or I
will
shoot you,” David said to them, his gun moving back and forth between the pack members as he backed into the tunnel.

One of the wolves sprang at him. With another deafening roar, the gun went off. The wolf went down with a sickening yelp, but the second one was on David with a vicious snarl before he could get another shot off. David began screaming as the creature tore into him.

Aimee shrieked. “God, no! Leave him alone!” She was writhing in her restraints now, furiously tugging at the collar and chain in a futile attempt to yank the latter out of the cave wall. “Kyle, Dillon, help him! Damn it.”

Both of them stood frozen with horrified expressions as Solomon issued a stern command. “Jack! Stop.”

“David!” Tears streamed down her face while she shouted over the muffled ringing in her ears from the latest gunshot. “Oh, David, please.” Her arms and neck ached from trying to force her way out of the collar. “Jesus, someone get me out of this thing.”

“Relax,” Solomon said. “You’ll break your pretty little neck.” He eyed her up and down. “And the way you’re jiggling and writhing has my wolves thinking maybe it’s a mistake to let another pack claim you.” He inhaled and let out a growl of need. “I’ve been around a long time and have damn good control over my nature. But with your bitch-in-heat scent, even I’d love to sink my nine-incher deep in that hot, dripping cunt until you scream my name.”

She froze in wide-eyed shock as she realized that in her struggle to get free, she was no longer covering herself. Instead she was upright on her knees, which were parted wide in the dirt. The blazer had fallen completely open, exposing her breasts and pussy to the men who were now staring at her with a look she recognized far too well.

Dillon knelt down in front of her while she yanked the blazer closed. “Like hell, you’ve got nine inches,” he said. “Go stick it up your own ass, Solomon. Consider her claimed.” She was relieved to see that the blood had dried on his back and the wounds were no longer visible.

The man laughed and reached down to toy with the dick twitching between his legs. “We’ll see about that.”

Rage rose in her chest. “You stay the hell away from me. You killed David, and he did nothing to you.”

“Nothing? He threatened me with a gun and shot one of my wolves. And nobody’s dead.” He sighed. “Although it seems my plan for Kyle to turn him has been unfortunately waylaid.”

Two of Solomon’s men carried David by arms and legs, dropping him on his back in the middle of the cave floor. The jacket was gone, and his striped business shirt was ripped and bloody near the shoulder David clutched when they dumped him on the ground. He moaned in obvious pain as Aimee tried to crawl over to him, but the chain was too short.

“David!” she began to sob. “How bad is he hurt? Bring him closer. Let me help him.”

“Oh, that wouldn’t be a smart idea, hot thing,” Solomon said, standing over David with his hands fisted on his hips. “It’s a full moon tonight. The change is going to come on him almost immediately.”

“Shit,” she heard Dillon mutter. He circled her shoulders with his arm. “He’s right. I’m so sorry, Aimee. If only I hadn’t been such a smart-ass and taken that ring, this wouldn’t have happened.”

She shook her head and sniffed. “No, it’s my fault. I’d have come up here anyway. That seems to be all I want to do anymore.” Another tear dripped onto the dirt.

Kyle knelt at David’s side and unbuttoned his shirt to check the gaping wounds that were pouring red blood. “We have to get him out of here.”

“Where are you taking him?” Aimee asked, panicked.