Beneath a Blood Moon (48 page)

The rumbling purr of a car engine behind me alarmed me into twirling around, raising my hackles. I regarded the vehicle warily as it came to a halt near me. Tucking my tail, I backed away from the road.

A man emerged and leaned against his car. Ruffled brown hair stuck out every which way, as though he had been driving with the top of his convertible down. “Why, hello there. What have we here?”

I whined, ducking my head to protect my throat.

“Easy,” he cooed, his voice deep and smooth. He crouched beside his car. “Come, boy.”

Boy? Unamused, I showed him my teeth and growled.

Unperturbed, the man pushed away from the car and crouched at the side of the road. “Poor thing. Who did that to you? You don’t look like you’ve had a scrap to eat in a week. Come,” he ordered, patting his leg.

My wolf wanted me to bite his foot off. For a moment, I considered it before I decided it wasn’t wise. Taking a hesitant step forward, I cocked an ear in his direction.

“That’s right. Come. Who muzzles a poor dog and leaves it loose this time of year? Bastards.”

I drew in a deep breath to catch the man’s scent.

There was something not-quite-human about him. I recoiled, but before I could make my escape, he lunged forward, grabbing hold of my scruff. I yipped and cringed, scrambling to find purchase against the asphalt.

“Ha! Easy,” he crowed, pulling me to him. “That’s a girl.”

I warbled a protest at having been tricked and struggled in his grip. He secured his hold on me, circling his other arm under my hindquarters to pick me up. Snapping my teeth drew a laugh out of him.

“Not very effective when you’re muzzled.”

I yowled, clawing at him in my effort to buy my freedom. Still chuckling, he nudged the door open with his toe, sat behind the wheel, and set me on his lap. Reaching to the center console, he pressed a button.

On the third ring, a tired voice answered, “Desmond.”

“Got a present for you,” my captor said, a snicker escaping him.

I ceased struggling and stared at the navigation panel. With my mate for company and loping wild and free, I hadn’t put much thought into human matters—or the pack I had flitted in and out of. Sanders had been the only company I needed or wanted.

My wolf, however, remembered the warmth of Desmond’s affection, and she relaxed at the sound his voice.

“What sort of present?” my Alpha asked warily.

“Two presents, actually.” While he didn’t loosen his grip on my scruff, he stroked his other hand down my back. “I’ll give them to you for a very nice price. Your approval of my successful theft of your daughter should be sufficient.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do? I’m really not in the mood, Puppy.”

“You will be in less than five minutes,” was my captor’s smug reply.

“I find that difficult to believe.”

“Is Wendy with you?”

“She is.”

“Ask her to call your most beautiful and charming daughter.”

“Both of my daughters are charming and beautiful. I assume you mean the daughter you stole from me, Thief. Wendy, the mangey mutt wants you to call Nicolina,” Desmond said, his voice muffled. “Put it on speaker. I’m putting you on speaker, Richard.”

“Hello, Richard,” Wendy said. “Ignore Charles’s griping. He’s been grouchy all week.”

“I know. That Sanders is a pretty slick bastard, isn’t he?”

I heard infuriated howls on the other end of the line, calls I recognized as belonging to my mate. I thrashed, drew a deep breath, and yowled at the navigation panel. Sanders answered with snarls and a bark of warning.

Richard shook me by the scruff, and whining, I quieted.

“You caught him?” Desmond demanded. “Where are you?”

“Hello, Father. We grabbed him in the Cascades. Richard and I found him while he was hunting. It took both of us, but we brought him down without getting too mauled in the process. He broke my wrist, the bastard. Don’t worry, it healed when I changed. He’s in a silver cage and won’t be going anywhere,” the woman reported in a tone as smug as Richard’s. “Amber’s trying to do something for him, but he’s just too riled up. We haven’t been able to calm him down, not even with wolfsbane. He’s burning it off as fast as we hit him with it, and we’re hesitant to dose him again.”

“Give me the address,” Desmond ordered.

“I think once I bring the second present, he’ll be a lot easier to contain. Found a little bitch wearing a leather and silver collar and a muzzle along the road where we tagged Sanders. She’s carrying his scent, and unless my nose is lying to me, she’s carrying a lot more than that.”

My mate snarled, and I heard the rattle of metal on metal. A pained yip on the other end of the line forced a whine out of me.

“Little white wolf?”

“Complete with red paws and a cute little black stripe down her back, just like Sanders’s,” my captor confirmed. “Poor bitch is probably starving. Looks like Sanders managed to bend the cage and loosen the leather a bit for her, but there’s no way she can hunt like this. We’ve had Sanders for almost twelve hours. I didn’t call you because I wanted to find his bitch first. I’m going to take her to Nicolina and see if I can get him calmed down with her there.”

“Give me the address, and I’ll get Dustin to come as soon as he can. He’s a water witch, so maybe he can help if we need it, Amber.”

“I’m never going to hear the end of this, but help would be appreciated,” another woman replied. “Sanders’s mad and frothing from the mouth. He’s not run completely wild yet, but he’s got zero control, and he’s too damned dominant for me to deal with alone. He’s about as bad as Richard.”

“Hey,” my captor complained. “I am not that bad.”

“Yes, you are,” a chorus of voices replied.

Richard’s scent soured with his annoyance. “Thanks. You all just go ahead and gang up on me. I see how this is. You planned this, didn’t you, Nicolina?”

“That’s what you get for taking
my
car and leaving me to deal with Sanders.”

“You can zap him. I can’t.”

“You can dominate him, which would be a lot more effective right now. Sure, I can zap him, but he’ll wake up even madder than he is now. I could also hurt or kill him, and you know it. What good does that do us?”

“Puppies,” Desmond complained. “Could you save your bickering for later? Richard, what’s the bitch doing?”

I bared my fangs.

“Showing me her pretty pearly teeth, struggling a bit here and there, but otherwise, she’s pretty calm. I think she’s exhausted, considering when I first spotted her, she was dragging her paws in a fairly wobbly walk. No wonder, if she’s been muzzled for two weeks.”

“Give or take a few days. Sorry, Nicolina. I can’t do anything from a distance, but once I’m with Sanders, I can rein him in. If that little bitch is his new mate, she’ll make it easier.”

“I know Sanders’s scent, Old Man. I’m certain. It’s pretty strong.”

“Think you can subjugate her and force her to change?”

“Desmond, she’s pregnant. I’m not forcing her to change without a damned good witch nearby to watch. No way. I don’t know how far along she is, and I’m not killing a puppy being stupid,” Richard snarled.

“You’re certain?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?” Rage added a bite to my captor’s scent, and I whined at the strength of it. “Yes, I’m certain. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Charles, Richard. That’s enough,” Wendy scolded. “I apologize, Richard. Charles is upset because we were responsible for Sara. While we still feel Sanders in the pack bonds, she’s gone.”

My mate howled his fury at the mention of my name.

“Sanders, will you please just shut up?” Nicolina shrieked. “So help me, I will jolt you.”

“Sara’s the girl he met in Vegas?” Richard asked. Once again, my mate howled at my name.

“The same.”

“How long were they mated?”

“About a month before their limousine was hit,” Desmond reported.

Richard released my scruff, turned me on his lap, and lifted my head by grabbing the cage surrounding my muzzle. “Eye color?”

“Hers? Green hazel,” Desmond replied. “Why?”

“Well, unless Sanders has a fetish for finding bitches with unusual eye colors, I’d say the little lady on my lap is probably your missing Sara.”

“Sara’s an Omega,” my Alpha growled.

“Oh, ho. You sneaky little devil, Sanders. Where the hell did you find yourself an Omega? She’s a pretty wolf, too. A good match for you,” Richard complimented. “Don’t you give my mate any trouble over there, Sanders. Keep your jaws shut before she really jolts you like she means it. It hurts. I know. Trust me, I know. I’ll bring your bitch to you within the next couple of hours, so you behave.”

“Richard,” Nicolina snarled.

My mate, however, did fall quiet at Richard’s command.

“You really think it’s her?” Wendy whispered.

Richard prodded my ribs. “Are you Sara, Lady Wolf?”

I turned my ears back, considering him with narrowed eyes. Lifting my head, I huffed and glanced to the side.

“I’m getting the silent treatment.”

“You probably did something to deserve it, Richard,” Nicolina snapped.

“Okay, so I called her a boy and tricked her so I could get close enough to grab her without having to chase her all over the mountain,” he admitted. “I even drove by her the first pass and came up behind her to make it look like I was some guy with a guilty conscious.”

Nicolina snickered. “You are some guy with a guilty conscious.”

“You’re not funny.”

“Where are you?” Desmond demanded.

“About three hours from your house, Desmond. Nicolina’s holed up in Sanders’s lodge near Snoqualmie Pass. We broke in after we found him, figuring it might help if he can smell his pack.”

“He was headed home?” Disbelief softened Desmond’s voice.

“Sure seems like it. Get your witch to his lodge. I’ll meet you there,” Richard said, hanging up with a press of a button. “I’m going to get the pad out of the trunk, set it on the seat so you don’t have to ride on my lap the entire way to your mate, and take you home. Since I’m such a gentleman, we’ll stop for some fast food first. You must be starving.”

Richard clipped a leash to my collar and let me wander near him while he dug through his trunk. In addition to the thick leather pad he placed on the passenger seat, he pulled out a blanket and made a nest of it before picking me up and settling me on it.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Sara. Takes a lot to rattle Desmond, and between Sanders running wild and his belief you had either bit a silver bullet or had been snatched without a trace, he’s been a living nightmare. I’m Yellowknife’s Alpha, Richard Murphy. My mate is Desmond’s eldest daughter.” Once I was settled on the seat, he examined the muzzle and collar. “If you promise not to chew holes in me or run, I’ll take those off.”

I bobbed my head.

While Richard hissed through the process of unbuckling the muzzle, the only evidence of his handling silver was a faint discoloration on his fingertips. “No wonder he couldn’t get it off you. That’s a nasty little collar and muzzle set.”

Opening the glove box, he stuffed the offensive items inside. A gun waited in the compartment. I stared at it with wide eyes.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to use it on you. This is my mate’s car, and I insist she goes everywhere with it. She gets into almost as much trouble as you do.”

I turned my ears back, remembering Desmond mentioning something about his daughter finding trouble—or it finding her. I wasn’t sure which.

Once satisfied, Richard started his car and headed up into the mountains, driving at a sedate pace. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get back to your mate,” he promised.

Whether lost in thought or an inherently quiet person, Richard fell silent, all of his attention focused on the road. The rage I had scented on him earlier faded, and I took deep breaths so I could identify him later. There were two distinct smells, which puzzled both me and my wolf. One I was able to pinpoint as his, but another clung to him, a brisk, spiced scent warning my wolf away.

We reached a town large enough for a Walmart. While it was open, its parking lot was all but deserted. Whether he didn’t want to take a chance with his car—or risk someone seeing me—he parked on the far side of the lot. “Stay here,” he ordered. “I’ll be back in five or ten minutes. There are a few things I need to pick up.”

The weight of command slammed into me, frightening my wolf enough she retreated. I whined and burrowed into the blanket, twisting my ears back. Satisfied with my reaction, Richard locked me in his car. My wolf was terrified of the Alpha, and I didn’t understand what bothered her. I nosed at my belly; it wasn’t long after the full moon, but its call no longer held any sway over me. Ten minutes was enough time to change, if my wolf helped.

I couldn’t afford to stay a wolf much longer, not if I wanted to protect Sanders’s puppy—our puppy.

There was no hesitation on my wolf’s part. After digging my way under the blanket, I tensed for the pain of transforming.

I was shaking in the aftermaths of the transformation, panting to catch my breath, when Richard made it back to the car. I had managed to wrap myself in the blanket, although the material scratched my raw skin. Yanking open my door, he crouched in front of me, one hand touching my throat. He ducked his head close to me, his nose flaring as he breathed in my scent.