His Perfect Wolf (Mystic Wolves Book 2) (2 page)

Mystic, South Dakota
was where all of her maternal family lived, and Alaina
always wondered why they never went back to visit. Now she knew the why. What
she didn’t know was why her mom didn’t stay and marry her real dad? Why did she
move halfway across the country with Roger, unless she wasn’t sure who was the
father. Alaina cou
ld imagine the Maury show, with her
mother sitting next to Roger and the paternity test coming up negative. Only
when Maury did the reading and saying
Roger,
you are not the father,
her dad, or the man she thought was her dad, would shift
into his wolf and
eat Maury before turning his focus
on Adalynn. The image was so real Alaina shivered.

She hurried into her
bedroom, seeing the bag she’d packed still sitting on the bed, she made a snap
decision. Without wasting time, she grabbed it and her purse, opened
her bedroom window and snuck out, like she’d done so many
times as a teenager. Only then it was to go hang out with her friends, this
time it was to escape her father.

Alaina pressed the
unlock button, hoping none of the wolves with their super hearing wer
e anywhere near. She held her breath as she tossed her bag
in the passenger seat and climbed inside. The entire time she kept expecting
her dad, or one of his enforcers, to come charging out of the woods and drag
her in front of the council. When she was b
uckled up
and the keys were in the ignition she exhaled and looked around before turning
the key. Her cell phone was in her purse, but she wasn’t going to risk calling
her mom until she was hours away.

Driving at a sedate
pace, she pulled out of the drivew
ay, keeping her
eyes on the road in front of her and didn’t look back. Alaina thought about
returning the rental to the airport, but was sure her da…Roger, would look
there for her first. Once she hit the highway she’d make a plan as to where she
would go.
She had two weeks leave from work with pay,
but she hadn’t planned anything beyond staying with her parents.

The sound of her phone
ringing made her jerk the wheel, almost causing her to collide with another
vehicle on the highway. Alaina realized she’d a
lready
begun driving east, and passed the turnoff to the airport. The ringtone was the
one she’d assigned for her mother. Which meant her mom was checking in with
her, or Roger was making her call, either way she wasn’t answering.

After many hours on
the r
oad, and not stopping for anything, she was in
need of several things, gas being one, something to drink, and the ladies
room were
the others. Not necessarily in that
order. She pulled into a large truck stop, figuring she could blend in with the
other veh
icles. Again, avoiding eye contact was her
main focus. She filled the tank, and then visited the bathroom, before loading
up with bottled water and snacks.

A sign saying free
Wi-Fi caught her attention. There was no way she was going to drive across the
co
untry with no destination in mind, and the thought
of Baltimore held no appeal. Mystic, South Dakota, where her mother’s family
still lived, was a place she’d always wanted to go. Pulling her iPad out of her
bag, she logged onto the free server and google
searched
the Glade family in Mystic from her mother’s journal entry.

“Gah,
damn wolves and their secretive hides.”
Alaina tapped on the route icon.

“Excuse me, are you
okay?”

Alaina looked up,
startled to see a slender man sitting so close to her. She scen
ted the air, but found him to be one hundred percent human.
She may be only part wolf and part fey, but she had heightened senses, and
could smell another wolf a mile away.
If she was paying attention.
“I…do I know you?” she asked.

“You just exclaimed
abou
t wolves. I was wondering if you were okay.” He
smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Alaina’s creep meter went off.

“Oh, I was just
looking at all these…stuffed animals.” She hid her screen and stood from the
barstool.

Glad that she’d parked
the rental cl
ose to the front of the building,
something she’d learned in one of the self-defense classes she’d taken, Alaina
waved at the stranger and held her breath as she walked briskly to the door.
She felt him watching her as she left, but he didn’t follow. At th
e rate she was going, if she kept holding her breath she
would be able to qualify for deep sea diving. The thought had her giggling as
she put the car in gear and pointed it in the direction of Mystic. “At least
now I have a destination in mind, even if it
’s going
to cost me an arm and a leg with the rental company.”

The song
Something
Bad
by Miranda Lambert
and Carrie Underwood came on the radio. It used to be one of her favorite
songs, only now the words seemed ominous. She was running away from something
bad, not toward it. She hoped.

She stopped one more
time for gas and had driven almost nine hundred miles. When she’d left her
mother was just starting to prepare lunch. The clock on the dash showed she’d
been driving for almost fourteen hours, stopping f
or
gas and food and short breaks to stretch her legs. As she passed through the
town of Sturgis, she realized it was still filled with people long after
closing time for bars and she wondered why. Mystic was still an hour away, but,
being so close, she fel
t excitement and nerves bubble
in her stomach.

So intent on getting
to her mom’s sister, Payton’s, house, she missed the turnoff to their town, but
saw the sign for Mystic Lodge and decided to continue on up the mountain. She
hadn’t called to tell them she
was coming, and since
it was well after two in the morning, Alaina thought the lodge might have
rooms.

The dark night seemed
to close in on her as she drove further up and away from the town, with the
only light coming from her headlights and the dashboar
d.
She looked down at the mile gauge to see how far she’d gone, trying to measure
how much farther she had to go.

“Oh, shit,” she said
as she ran over something in the middle of the road, the sound of crunching
glass could be heard through the closed
windows. Her
stomach clenched in dread and she figured she was halfway between the lodge and
her aunt and uncle’s house. A trek she wouldn’t be scared to make if it wasn’t
after two in the morning on a dark and winding road. She snorted. “Cue the
scary mus
ic, Lainey.”

Had she not been
playing the music so loud, and singing along like she was Adele, maybe she’d
have seen the bottle lying in the road. Her rental jerked hard to the
right,
thankfully she was on a flat part of
the road and was able to pull off t
o the side. The
moon overhead gave her enough light to see the lopsided way the car was
sitting.

She unplugged her
phone from the charger putting it in her back pocket, grabbed her purse and bag
and locked them in the trunk. Up or down? Alaina was always c
autioned by her mom not to use her fey abilities because it
upset her dad, or Roger. She threw caution out the proverbial window and let
her fey senses guide her.

The rainbow of colors
was awe inspiring, clearly leading back downward. “How does the story g
o?” She looked through the trees.
“Over the hills and through the woods.”

With a shrug she
followed the trail, wishing she was sitting in her comfy apartment in Baltimore
watching Sons of Anarchy. Instead, she was traipsing through unknown
territories, to
seek shelter from unknown family. Not
the smartest thing she’d ever done.

A wolf howled in the
distance, followed by a chorus of several others. She’d heard wolves howling
before,
having grown up in a pack, but these
howls had the hair on the back of her n
eck standing
on end. Alaina thought about sticking to the road, but the colors were more
vibrant and seemed to go in a straight line through the trees. As the howls
sounded closer, she chose to go with her gut and headed into the woods, the
thought of clim
bing one of the trees as a last resort
flittered through her mind.

Her enhanced hearing
picked up all the sounds surrounding her, and it took her a moment to filter
them out and focus on the danger. The wolves were closing in from three sides.
She was fast
er than a normal human, had heightened
senses, but up against the odds of several shifters, she knew these were not
mere wolves, she was no match. Even if she was to climb the tallest tree, they
could shift and climb up after her. However, she did have her
fey magic.

“Screw it,” she said
and started running as fast as she could, following the trail while dodging low
hanging branches. Her feet flew over the ground, barely making a sound, but
each time she broke a twig it sounded like a gunshot to her ears. S
he knew the wolves could hear the same thing, she just
prayed her Aunt Payton felt her presence. When she’d opened her fey abilities,
the welcoming flood of magic was a familial one she recognized. It was very
similar to her mother’s, only crisper, not as
shadowed
with sadness. Alaina realized her mother wasn’t happy, and she wished she’d
paid closer attention when she was younger. She made a silent vow to do all she
could to get her mother away from Roger and his pack…if she made it out of her
own predicam
ent.

Alaina swerved around
a fallen tree, losing sight of her color guide. She stopped, trying to catch
her bearings. A huge wolf jumped in front of her, his teeth bared, spittle
dripping from his jaws. Another wolf, not quite as big, but just as menacing
came at her from the left, followed by another on her
right. She knew the tactic they were using, caging her in on all sides. She
wondered if there was one behind her, but was too scared to take her eyes off
the largest one in front of her. The eerie yello
w
eyes staring at her held menace and knowledge, a double whammy in her world.
She wondered if she’d wandered onto their land.

“Listen, I know you
understand me. My dad is alpha of the Cascade pack and would be really pissed
if you hurt his baby girl.” A c
omplete and utter lie,
but he didn’t need to know that, she used the extra fey powers to surround her
with an utter sense of calm, hoping they believed her.

The leader of the
wolves chuffed and took a step forward.

She sent a call out to
her fey family, ho
ping someone was up and near.

You never turn your
back on a predator and you never run from a wolf. However, she did take a few
steps back sensing there was no other wolves behind her. For every step she
took backward, they took one forward, closing the ga
p
between them.

Alaina raised her
hands in front of her. They began to glow, magic from the lands infusing her
with power she’d never had before. “If you don’t back the fuck off, I will
blast your asses.” The two smaller wolves stopped the pursuit, their
heads cocking to the side. The alpha snarled
,
the hair on his back stood up,
indicating he was ready to attack. “I mean it, you prick. One move and you’ll
be roasted dog meat. Imagine the stink, boys. Have you smelled burning hair?”
She made a gagging soun
d, but never let her arms
drop. They seemed to believe she could actually roast their asses, which Alaina
wasn’t so sure she could or couldn’t do. Continuing to back up she didn’t take
her eyes off of the three wolves in front of her, she didn’t realize wh
ere she was walking. In that moment her main worry was
keeping the animals at bay. The thought made her giggle almost hysterically,
but only for a split second.

Arms flailing she
screamed as she fell off the edge of a cliff. Her back hit what felt like a t
ree branch. Instead of a free fall she began sliding,
tumbling end over end as she frantically tried to grab onto anything to stop
her downward descent. A sickening crunch followed by pain flared down her left
arm, making her pull back and then a jarring s
top
followed by another hit, this time on her head and Alaina saw stars and then
blackness swallowed her whole. She yelled out for help just before total
darkness encompassed everything.

Chapter Two

Niall locked up after
the last of his employees had
gone home. It was after
two in the morning and Sturgis was still lined with bikes and their riders,
along with the street vendors who had yet to close up. He shook his head. They
could have the left-overs, all the smart businesses closed up before the loc
al police started making their rounds. Checking his phone
to make sure Nolan was okay before he strapped his skull
cap on too, he scrolled through the half a dozen pics
Payton had sent of his laughing son.
Lord,
he loved that kid. He texted a short
message
that he was leaving Chaps and heading home so
the older woman wouldn’t worry, he’d have to text again when he got home. The
irony made him chuckle. His own mother didn’t have him checking in, hadn’t
since he was sixteen, and here he was at thirty-seven ch
ecking in with his mother-in-law. The instant reply to be safe gave him a
sense of home.

He pocketed his phone,
straddling his bike he headed toward home. When he crossed his packs boundaries
he was immediately assailed with the knowledge he had intruders
on his lands. The Harley, with its loud pipes, roared even
louder as he twisted down on the throttle. He let his alpha powers tell him
where the breach
was,
let the fey wards Payton had set show
him how many there were.

Past the turnoff to
his pack’s land,
the fey colors swirled brighter,
indicating where the danger lay. He recognized the area, and his heart froze
while his blood ran cold. The Glades home sat close to where the mass of colors
were leading, from what he could tell from his bike. He crested t
he last hill, seeing a sign for the Mystic Lodge. His
headlight flashed on a vehicle parked on the side of the road with out-of-state
plates. He pulled behind the vehicle, his nose picking up on a feminine scent
that seemed familiar. His instincts were scr
eaming at
him to hurry, but he pushed them back, walking around the car he felt the hood.
It was warm, so either the car hadn’t been driven far, or it hadn’t been here
awhile.

Niall looked up and
down the road, seeing the fey colors leading into the woods.
“Why would a female go into the woods alone?”
Unless she was leading him into a trap.
He wondered if she knew the fey would
lead him to her.
“Only one way to
find out.”
He let the change come over him, calling on his wolf,
seamlessly changing. Once he was
on four legs, he
took off, following the scent as it grew stronger.

When he became aware
of three new scents of shifters in his territory from the pack that had sworn
to not enter his lands, Niall’s wolf snarled. He’d recognize their smell in a
crowd of h
undreds after the run in they’d had when
Cora had been taken. Had Zayn not already turned her—Niall’s heart ached at the
knowledge he’d ha
ve lost more than just a sister-in-
law. He slowed his pursuit. The female
scent of orange blossoms and ginger turned t
o fear,
unmistakable to him. He knew in that moment she wasn’t with the shifters
chasing her, and by the tracks in the ground he could see they were most
definitely corralling her. His ears didn’t pick up any sounds of a struggle,
which caused his stomach
to clench.

The female’s scent
followed the fey trail and then stopped. He followed the three wolves’ path,
taking precious time so he didn’t miss anything. He turned his nose up and
howled, a warning should they still be in the area. Niall would remember t
he smell, and he’d exact punishment for being in his
territory. For now, he followed the unmistakable scent of the orange blossom
and ginger female, its intriguing smell made the man and wolf want to mate with
her.

At the edge of a cliff
he thought he’d lo
st all traces until he smelled
blood, the sickening coppery scent was something he’d never forget. Looking
down, Niall saw the woman lying in a heap twenty or so feet down at the bottom
of the hill. Without wasting time or thought for his own safety, he be
gan the slippery decent.

A few times he almost
lost his footing, but in wolf form he was much more agile. By the time he
reached the fallen woman, he’d prayed to every deity he could think of, hoping
he’d find her alive. He’d shifted back to human before h
e’d completely hit the bottom. With shaky hands, Niall brushed her long
brown hair back from her face. His breath caught in his throat. She was
drop-dead gorgeous, even with a few cuts and scratches.

He let his breath out
when he felt how warm she was. Her
chest rose and
fell, but her left arm was held against her, it appeared to be twice the size
of the right one.

Niall ran his hands
over her legs and sides, checking for other breaks. A moan escaped the woman on
the ground. Her eyes fluttered
open,
a dark
brown
gaze stared back at him. He could get lost in their amber depths. “Don’t move,
babe. I think you’ve got a broken arm and maybe a few other injuries. Can you
tell me your name?”

“I…I don’t know?”
Tears welled in her beautiful eyes.

“Hey, listen
it’s
o
kay.” Niall
wiped at a tear on her cheek. “You took a pretty hard knock to the head. My
name’s Niall Malik,” he said in a soft voice. “I’ll call my sister-in-law,
she’s a doctor, and
have
her meet us at my place if you think
you’re up to the trip on foot.
If not, I can call for
one of my guys to bring in an ATV, but I think that would be more jarring on
you.”

She nodded. “Okay.

Her instant agreement
worried him. He didn’t know her, but was pretty sure it wasn’t normal for her
to automatically agree.

He plac
ed one arm under her legs, the other behind her back. She
kept a death grip on her injured arm, but her pale features worried him the
most. He sent a call to his pack, needing his bike picked up and wanting their
territory scouted for the intruders. Within
seconds,
he had several members’ affirmations they were on their way.

“You’re really
strong,” the woman in his arms murmured.

She felt right in his
arms, her head nuzzling into his neck made his dick stand at attention.

Niall picked up the
pace to his hom
e. The last thing she needed was to be
mauled by him when she was obviously going into shock and hurting.

The feel of her warm
breath fanning over his neck didn’t calm his hormones,
nor
the feel of her teeth scraping over his shoulder.
“Careful, babe.
You
keep
doing that and I’m liable to drop you.” His voice came out much deeper than
normal, his wolf coming to the surface.

A single swipe of her
tongue, followed by a gentle nip, and then she said, “You’d never hurt us.”

Niall looked down to
ask who was us, wondering if she was maybe pregnant, or if there was someone
else in the woods with her, but her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
Alarmed at her loss of consciousness Niall yelled out to Zayn.
Z,
I need you and yo
ur woman at my place, like five
minutes ago.

He used her lack of
wakefulness to his advantage, putting on a burst of preternatural speed. By the
time he made it to his home, Zayn and his mate were waiting for him.

“Holy
fuck, Ny, what happened to her?”
Zay
n asked.

“Damned if I know, Z.
Thanks for coming, Cora. I found her at the bottom of a cliff, busted up.” He
proceeded to tell them about the strange
wolves,
and her use of the word
us.
He didn’t like to admit he felt
completely useless, but when Cora instructed him to lay her on the bed in his
guest
bedroom,
he ignored her, taking her into the
master bedroom instead. His excuse that the bed didn’t have sheets on it was
bullshit, but no o
ne called him on it.

As he placed her on
the bed, she did that moan thing again. The sound made him think of sex, not
something he should be thinking while surrounded by his brother and his mate,
and definitely not when it was coming out of an injured woma
n.

“I asked if you could
get me some warm water in a pan and some washcloths, Niall. I know you’re
alpha
, but in this I need to be the boss,”
Cora said, her green eyes laughing at him.

“I’m always the boss,
Cora. However, I’ll get you what you need.” He sm
iled.

Cora laughed while his
brother kept a protective stance beside her. Niall shook his head and walked
out of the room.

In the kitchen he
filled up his largest pot with warm water and retrieved several cloths from the
laundry room off the mudroom. Zayn
was waiting for
him when he came out. His little brother was leaning against the kitchen
island, arms crossed over his chest, a smirk on his face.

“She smells funny,
Ny.” He tilted his head in the direction of the hallway.

Niall raised his
eyebrows. He tho
ught his mystery woman smelled
fantastic. “That’s kinda cruel, Z. Maybe you just think that because you got
your nose stuck up Cora’s fine ass.”

Zayn’s lips tilted up
in a grin. One finger
raised
to his right eye, the middle finger no
less, and he scratche
d. “It is a fine ass, but that’s
not what I mean, jackhole. I mean she reminds me of Payton, and—Emma.”

Niall’s heart skipped
a beat. Nobody ever mentioned Emma around him except her parents, and sometimes
Nolan. No one ever said they recognized her scent
in
someone else. She was special, and she was dead.

“Whoa, calm down,
Niall.” Zayn held his hands up, his relaxed stance gone.

“She does not smell
like my Emma,” he growled. He tried to remember what his mate smelled like. He
swore he’d always know her sce
nt anywhere, but he
couldn’t remember at that second.

His brother turned his
head away, exposing his throat, making Niall feel like a total asshole. It
wasn’t Zayn’s fault he couldn’t remember what his own mate’s unique smell was.
“I’m sorry for growling a
t you, Zayn.” Niall
approached his brother slowly, pulling him in for a hug. He didn’t want to be
the alpha that instilled fear because he was a tyrant.

Zayn slapped him on
the back. “No worries, bro, I love you. I’m sorry I brought up a sore subject.”

Nia
ll let Zayn go with another pat and then they both went
back to check on the two women.

Cora’s eyes were
misty, making Niall painfully aware she’d heard their entire conversation. Damn
wolf hearing. The mystery woman was awake again, and if he wasn’t sure
she was human, he’d think she had heard as well. There was
definitely something different about her, he couldn’t put his finger on it, but
he wanted to put so much more than his fingers on her.

“You boys okay?” Cora
asked.

The sound of his
Harley saved him
from answering and also gave him a
reason to leave the accusing eyes of both women. For fucksake, he was
alpha
and here he was running away.

“Jett brought my bike
back. I’m going to have him tow your car as well.” He didn’t ask or wait to see
what was sai
d. He needed to leave the room that
smelled too much like orange blossoms and ginger.

* * * *

“I’m really sorry
about him. He’s really a sweetheart when he’s…” Cora began.

“Asleep?” Alaina
asked.

Laughing, the woman
touched her arm. “How are you feeling?
My name is
Cora, by the way, and this is my…fiancé Zayn.”