Hunter's Heart: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 5) (9 page)

“Time for what?” I asked.

Grammy turned toward me. She nudged my father in the
shoulder, making him stand up. He looked back at her, grimacing. She just
crossed her arms and nodded.

“Fine! But I still think this is a terrible idea.”

“Dad?”

He crossed the room and went to the locked metal
cabinet against the wall. He threw the doors open and pulled out a brown glass
bottle. Gripping it with a tight fist, he thrust it toward me. “I have an
antidote. But if you so much as look at my daughter the wrong way, Monroe, I
swear to God I’ll put you down for good.”

Chapter Ten

“How did you? When did you?” I held the amber bottle
in my hand. I unscrewed the cap and sniffed its contents. Wrinkling my nose, I
started to cough. “God, that smells awful. Like deer piss and ten kinds of
vomit.”

“For all I know, that’s exactly what’s in it. Don’t
suppose it tastes very good, either,” Grammy said. “And I can’t say for sure
whether it’s still potent.”

Derek took the bottle from me and stuck his nose in
it too. The odor made my eyes water; I couldn’t imagine what the experience was
like for him with his supernatural sense of smell. Derek’s color turned ashen
and he turned his head to the side to catch his breath again.

“Charles invented the toxin with a little help from
friends,” Grammy said. “Thomas refined it and weaponized it.”

“And Grandpy made the antidote too?” I said, taking
the bottle back from Derek before it made him sick.

My father moved to the back of the hut and planted
himself in front of the monitors. He ran his hand hard over his chin. I knew
him well enough to know it took everything in him not to blow up just then.

“Yep,” she said, taking the bottle from me.

“How old is that?” Derek asked, looking dubious as
Grammy stirred the liquid with a dropper.

She raised a brow. “Let’s see. Charles passed away
in ’98. He and Thomas stopped working on this quite a few years before that.
I’d say it’s maybe thirty years old. I can’t promise it’s going to work. But
it’s worth a try.”

“Wait,” I said, going to Derek. He’d perched himself
on the edge of the table. His eyes widened as he watched Grammy stir the
liquid. It was viscous, like oil. Fat, amber drops of the stuff beaded at the
end of the dropper as she dipped it in and pulled it out again. “Is there a
chance that stuff could make Derek worse?”

Grammy looked back at my father. I knew he was
listening, but he kept his eyes glued on the computer monitors. Two pairs of
glowing green eyes looked toward one of the cameras on the south side of the
yard. The wolves were back near Grammy’s trailer now and getting closer.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Derek said.

“Dad?” I went to him. “You need to get over yourself
for now. We can fight about all the rest of this later. Right now, we’re
surrounded by at least ten wolves who seem hell bent on tearing us all apart if
we’re lucky, or just burning this place to the ground around us if we’re not.
Unless you have some better plan for getting us out of this, we need to focus
on helping Derek and getting out of here.”

He looked up at me, arching a bushy brow peppered
with gray. “It might,” he said, shooting a glance toward Derek. Derek hopped
off the table and came toward us. I put a hand up. There was more than enough
testosterone flaring at the moment. None of it helping. “It might not. That
stuff was my father’s idea. Not mine. He seemed to think someday we’d run the
risk of shooting the wrong wolf. I disagreed.”

Derek growled and took the bottle from Grammy.
“What’s in it?” he asked.

“Honestly? I’m not sure. My father was the chemist.
My expertise is mechanical.”

“Charles didn’t exactly invent this,” Grammy chimed
in. “Or the toxin either, if you want to know the truth. I said he had help
from friends. Your people in Wild Lake might actually have more information on
where it comes from. During the last pack wars, oh, I don’t know, fifty years
ago, somebody up there worked with a shaman from one of the native North-American
tribes over the Canadian border.
They
invented the toxin and the antidote,
but as far as I know, it was never used up there. Charles convinced them to
sell it to him. He wanted to do some experiments, but never got around to it.”

“So, you’re telling me there’s a chance if I take
this stuff one of three things could happen. One,
nothing
happens and
I’m stuck like this forever. Two, it kills me. Three, I take it and it cures
me. You want to give me odds?”

“Well, one out of three,” Dad said.

Derek growled again and gripped the bottle so
tightly I worried he might crush it.

“Enough,” I said, taking the bottle. “How do we
administer it?”

“You drink it,” Grammy said.

“All of it?” Derek asked.

“Better not,” she answered. “Two or three drops at
the most. If that doesn’t work, we can increase it. But, the way I remember
Charles talking about this stuff, it should work about as fast as the toxin
did. Right away.”

Derek gave Grammy a nod and took the bottle from me
again. She held the dropper out to him and Derek dipped it into the bottle. He
filled it and held the dropper over his tongue.

Oh, God! He was going to do it! “Wait!” I yelled,
moving toward him. What if it didn’t work? Or worse? “Why don’t you try it on
him first?” I pointed to the paralyzed wolf in the cage.

Derek raised a brow and nodded. “Good idea.”

I went to him, intending to take the bottle from
him, but Derek brushed past me. “No way I want you near him. He might be
paralyzed, but aggression is still pouring out of him. He’s liable to rip your
hand off if he gets the chance.”

Derek went to the cage and squatted down near the
wolf’s head. The wolf took slow, measured breaths and water poured from the
corners of his eyes. I could have felt sorry for the creature, if he hadn’t
tried to kill Grammy less than an hour before.

The space between the bars was just wide enough to
allow Derek to fit his hand through. The wolf’s golden eyes widened as Derek
got closer. I couldn’t read him the way Derek could, but I swore they conveyed
pure terror. Derek filled the dropper and reached in. The wolf’s mouth hung
slightly open as he panted, his tongue lolled to the side.

“I can’t do this one-handed I don’t think,” Derek
said. “Jessa, I’ll hold his jaw open, you pour three drops of the stuff in on
my count.”

I went to Derek’s side and took the dropper from
him. He reached in with his other hand and spread the wolf’s mouth with two
hands. His shoulders quaked from the effort of it. I knew what the toxin did.
It rendered the victim stiff as well as paralyzed. Derek gave me a nod and I
slid my hand in under his. Squeezing the stopper, I watched the thick liquid
slide down the wolf’s tongue. Derek clamped his jaw shut and held it tight.

“Move back,” he commanded me. I did.

The muscles in Derek’s back strained as he held the
wolf’s jaw closed. The wolf began to tremble. His gray fur rippled and his eyes
widened. Something was happening.

“Listen to me,” Derek said, his voice low and full
of threat. “You don’t have enough room to shift, so don’t even try.”

A muffled whine tore through the wolf as Derek held
him still. But, the wolf’s body moved. He thrashed as Derek carefully let go of
him and pulled his hands back through the cage bars. He didn’t have enough room
to stand, but he regained the use of his muscles and rolled until he rested on
his belly, head up and pressed against the bars.

“I’ll be damned,” Grammy said. “Looks like it
worked.”

Derek stayed crouched. His own wolf eyes flashed as
he leveled a gaze straight at the wolf’s. His heartbeat rippled through me as
Derek grew agitated.

“Is he talking to you?” Grammy asked. I thought it
the minute she did. Derek and the wolf seemed locked in some sort of telepathic
conversation. Derek reached in again and put a hand on the wolf’s back to still
him as the last of the tremors went through him and the antidote did its job.

“It’s okay,” Derek said as he withdrew his hands.
“He’s healing. The bullet in his hip should work its way out. That shit
worked.”

“Did he say something to you?”

Derek rose and stood next to me. I put the bottle of
antidote in his open palm.

“In a way,” he said. “He’s not part of my pack, so I
can’t hear his thoughts plainly. But, he’s afraid. He’s asking for help. And
it’s not any of you he’s afraid of. It’s something out there. His pack leader,
maybe.”

I looked back at the wolf. His eyes held an emotion
I couldn’t quite place. Sorrow, maybe. But, I didn’t trust it. For now, his ass
needed to stay in that cage. He could move now, but made no attempt to push his
way past the cage bars.

“Keep that trained on him just in case,” Derek said,
picking up the AR-15. He tossed it to my father. Then, he took the dropper and
gave me a quick wink.

 “Ugh!” The shit smelled even worse out of the
bottle than it did in it. Derek held the bottle out to me and covered his mouth
with his forearm. I screwed the cap back on the bottle and waited.

Derek staggered backward, then steadied himself with
one hand on the table. He doubled over and his color went from white to
greenish, then flared red as if he’d just eaten a handful of ghost peppers. The
whites of his eyes turned pink, and a capillary burst in his left one.

“Derek? Dad! Do something to help him!”

My father was at my side. He put a steadying hand on
my back and then gripped my arm to stop me when I made a move to go to Derek.
Derek’s heartbeat boomed inside my ears. He was in agony. I couldn’t feel his
pain, but I felt the effect it had on him. He gasped for air and gripped his
knees. Sweat poured down his back and he trembled.

“Don’t touch him,” Grammy said, coming to the other
side of me. “Don’t go near him. If he can’t control his shift, he might hurt
you without meaning to.”

Derek managed to nod and put a hand up, agreeing
with Grammy’s warning. So, I stood between my father and grandmother and
watched helplessly as we waited to see whether the antidote helped him as well.

His whole body shook. In fact, the walls of the hut
quaked along with him. The howling outside drew closer. Derek dropped to all
fours and clawed the floor with his hands. His spine drew up at an impossible
angle. Bones cracked and rolled as his fingers elongated, becoming black. Then,
fur sprouted all over him. Silvery gray and shimmering. Derek’s pants ripped at
the seams, and he finally took a halting step forward.

He shed the last of his clothes and his human form.
His wolf sprang forth, snarling and powerful. Dad tried to push me behind him,
and Grammy let out a gasp. But, I pulled myself away from them and walked
toward Derek.

I wasn’t afraid. I was in awe. Derek’s wolf took a
slow step toward me. Though Grammy and my father couldn’t sense it, I could.
Derek was free. His heart beat strong and steady. Power coursed through his
veins. He dropped his head and came to me. Reaching out, I put a tentative hand
on his back, my fingers sinking into the rough fur. A shiver ran through me as
my wolf came to me. I sank to my knees in front of him.

Derek nuzzled against me. I ran my hand down his
powerful back, feeling hard bones and sinew.

“Is he okay?” Grammy asked, traces of fear in her
voice. She’d moved back behind the computer monitors. In her head, she knew who
this was. In her heart, I knew she still carried the fear from her own
experiences so many years ago.

“He’s more than okay,” I whispered as I lowered my
head so Derek and I were eye to eye. He blinked slowly. Though his beast was
out, I still sensed the keen mind of the man who’d risked his life to save me.
Not once, but many times over in the space of a day.

He pawed the ground and took a step back. The wolf
in the cage whined behind us. Derek’s wolf went to him. He bared his teeth and
let out a low, vibrating growl. The enemy wolf went quiet, submitting to
Derek’s authority. He laid down, resting his head on his front paws. Derek let
out a chuff then paced in front of the doors of the hut.

“No!” I cried out, sensing at least the direction of
his thoughts if not the specifics. His heart raced. He felt trapped. I knew what
he wanted. To hunt. To kill if it came to it. He let out a low, gruff bark and
pawed at the doors.

“There’s too many of them,” I said. “They’ll kill
you.”

Derek pawed at the ground again. He pressed his
snout against my palm and raised his tail high. He couldn’t talk. I couldn’t
read his mind. Still, I somehow knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to go
out there. He thought he could chase off the threat all alone.

“Let him go,” Grammy said. “He knows what he’s
doing.”

“Grammy, they’ll rip him apart.”

“No they won’t,” Dad said. He’d joined Grammy at the
monitors. “I think they’ve been called back. Fire’s almost burned out in the
storage shed. They haven’t done any more damage. The two that were circling the
south entrance aren’t there anymore.

Derek barked again and pressed his shoulders against
the door. He could have easily torn through them, but then we couldn’t lock
them behind him. “Are you sure?” I asked. Derek went up on his hind legs and
dropped down again.

“Shit,” I said. I went to the metal cabinet near the
wall and pulled out a duplicate AR-15, slinging the strap over my shoulder. “Fine.
But I’m not letting you go out there alone. I’ll watch your six. I think I’ve
proven more than once I know how to shoot straight when I have to.”

Derek growled and pushed me backward with his snout
against my leg.