Into the Unknown (Werewolf Wars, #2) (4 page)

Gene rubbed a hand over his stubble. He needed to find a way to connect to Natalia and let her know she was safe.

“So Talia? Is that what she prefers to be called?” Gene asked making a mental note.

“Yeah.”

“Ask her to see me before she goes for her run,” Gene responded. Slowly, but surely, he planned to put her mind at ease. The more time she spent immersed in the pack, the more comfortable she would feel—at least he hoped so.

***

N
atalia grumbled under her breath as she walked down the stairs. The alpha wished to see her. Well, she thought, he could wait until after her run. Her muscles ached, and her joints were stiff. The wolf in her wanted to be released, regardless of the duress, it caused her body. Her transitions had become exceedingly worse since Adrian’s birth. She wondered if all women felt this way after giving birth. Nine months was a long time to go between shifts. Unfortunately, there was only one woman at the ranch who had been in her position, and she would
not
be asking Claire McKinley.

Claire did not seem trustworthy. Then again, the only person here she found honest was Lark. The human woman reminded her of the person she had been before her life was turned upside down. If only she could be that strong, determined, yet kind and cheerful, person again.

Tiptoeing toward the door, Natalia carefully pulled it open, sneaking outside into the sticky night air. The door clicked shut behind her, and she slowly closed the screen to keep it from banging loudly.

Natalia glanced around and sighed, realizing she was alone. The she-wolf took smooth, calculated steps across the porch, ensuring that she was silent. Once off the porch, she sprinted toward the creek, skipping over the rocks into the woods. After a long moment, the thick brush enveloped her. Now that she was undercover, Natalia slowed to a trot until she reached the clearing where she liked to change.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath. The woods were quiet—too quiet. Her eyes flew open as she spun around. The woods should be full of noise. Wildlife should be fluttering through the trees, yet she heard nothing. A chill shot down her spine as she balled her fists tightly. Something was very wrong.

Adrian!

Heart pounding against her ribs, Natalia took off running toward the house. She had to protect her son. The branches and leaves whipped against her face as she darted through the woods. The sting barely registered as she fought down the panic bubbling up inside her.

The bright white of the barn lights came into view as she pushed herself faster. In her panic, she didn’t see the leaves rustling in front of her until a man stepped out from the bushes. Natalia skidded to a stop, a scream working its way up her throat. Before she could think of a way around him, another wolf crashed into her side. The she-wolf cried out as she was propelled into the ground. Her head collided with a rock, causing a searing pain to shoot through her skull.

Blackness clouded her vision, and she clamped her bottom lip between her teeth, forcing herself to stay conscious. Rolling with the attacker, she balled her fist, thrusting it toward the wolf’s face. The wolf reeled back as a burning sensation exploded in her hand from the contact. Her assailant quickly regained his composure, however, snarling at her with bared teeth. His paw slammed into her shoulder, claws lengthening, tearing into her flesh. Natalia cried out as heat scorched her wounded shoulder.

The wolf snapped it’s teeth at her, pressing her further into the ground. Hot breath puffed against her face as the wolf snarled menacingly at her. Natalia used both hands to shield herself from an attack, but it never came.

“Now calm down, Sweet Pea. No need to make this harder on yourself,” the man said, kneeling by her head. The wolf showed her his canines as the guy reached behind his back to pull out a pair of zip ties.

They’re going to kidnap me!

Swallowing, she gathered her strength, and lashed out with her fists. She didn’t care where she hit, only making sure that each strike exerted every ounce of power that she could muster. A scream bubbled up her throat as canines ripped into her flesh. Sticky warmth dribbled down her shoulder.
Blood!
Panic flooded her. Twisting to her side, she lifted her knee, and kicked as hard as she could.

The wolf yelped as he was thrown off of her. Rolling across the earth, Natalia clasped a fallen branch in her hand, pulling herself up as the man lunged at her. Gritting her teeth, she jumped out of the way. He tried to rush her again, but was tackled to the ground by a black wolf.

Natalia stumbled back, falling against a tree trunk as four other wolves descended on her attackers. Panting, she watched as they defeated the two assailants. The black wolf—Gene—turned to her, his golden eyes surveying her. The alpha lowered his head, and Natalia watched in fascination as his bones popped out of place, quickly realigning. His black fur retracted into tan skin. In mere seconds, his transformation was complete.

Her breath caught in her throat as he stood, forcing her eyes to remain on the wolves behind him. She knew that nudity was common in the packs, especially while shifting, but she hadn’t been brought up around other wolves. Heat scorched through her as he approached; and the urge to peek began to overpower her. To dampen her need, Natalia decided to close her eyes, and focus on controlling her breathing.

He is your enemy. You should not be attracted to him!
She reminded herself. She could never forget that. Trusting him—trusting the pack—would be a mistake. This was not her world.

“You’re hurt,” Gene grumbled. Natalia’s eyes flew open as his fingers traced across her shoulder and down her arm. She watched him carefully, her breath catching in her throat.

His stubbled jaw was set tightly, while gold-flecks still flashed in his eyes. He gingerly assessed her wound, his fingers grazing around the sensitive flesh.

“You’re lucky one of my men saw the intruders. You could’ve been taken! Devon’s on his way here. Have him look at you. I’ll be in, in a few.” He nodded towards the house and turned away, dismissing her. Sighing, Natalia walked toward the house. The ache on her right side was slowly beginning to register with each step she took.

***

G
ene tugged on a pair of jeans and a blue shirt before making his way to the infirmary. He’d made sure that both intruders were secured before heading back into the house. They remained unconscious, but his men were supposed to alert him the moment they came to. Personally, he hoped they would wake soon; he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Natalia was lucky that his patrolmen spotted the intruders. If they hadn’t—he didn’t even want to think about the repercussions.

If he couldn’t question the men, though, then he would have to question Natalia. Running a hand through his hair, he stopped a few feet from the infirmary. All Gene could hear was the occasional clink of Devon’s tools hitting the metal table. He only hesitated for a moment before moving forward to knock on the door, letting himself in. Natalia looked up at him sharply but Devon continued his work, dressing the injury on her shoulder. Gene shut the door behind him with a click, taking in the wounded she-wolf before him.

The white room was sterile. A silver cabinet filled with medicines and tools ran along the far wall. In the center of the room sat a single metal table. Natalia sat atop it, staring down at the pearl-colored tiles.

A fine line of sutures were sewn around her slender wrist and up her forearm. There were also a few puncture wounds from where she’d been bitten on the back of her shoulder and on her collarbone. Aside from her injuries, dirt caked her hair, and was smudged across her face. Otherwise, she appeared relatively unscathed from the attack.

“Are you alright?” Gene asked.

Natalia blinked, and looked down at her hands. “I am fine. Where is Adrian?”

“He’s still with Lark in your room. He’s fine,” he assured. He ran an appraising look over her before turning to Devon. “She’s fine?”

Devon nodded. “She has a nice bump on the back of her head—and possibly a concussion—so we should keep an eye on it. She’s also got a few stitches in her wrist, but these bite marks on her shoulder aren’t big enough to warrant stitches. You should wait twelve hours before shifting just to be safe. No need to add more stress to yourself.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” Gene asked Natalia.

Natalia licked her lips, nodding as Devon pulled some bandages from a drawer. The she-wolf turned to him, causing her long coffee hair to fall over her shoulder.

“I was getting ready to go for a run. When I got to the clearing where I usually go, I noticed that it was too quiet. I felt that there was someone out there. I ran towards the ranch, but they cut me off before I got here,” Natalia said dejectedly.

“Did they say anything to you?”

“No,” Natalia replied shaking her head. After a moment, however, she seemed to rethink her answer. “ Wait—they did, actually. They weren’t here to hurt me; they wanted me alive.”

“Do you know who they were?” Devon asked, placing tape over the gauze on her back.

“No.”

“You’re sure? You’ve never seen them before?” Gene prodded.

“Fernando Juarez has many men,” Natalia replied, flinching as Devon ran a cotton pad over the claw marks by her collarbone.

“You think they were Juarez’s men?” Gene inquired.

“Who else would it be?” Natalia shot back.

“They could be from Emmett’s pack. Perhaps the remaining members of the pack are trying to get back in Juarez’s good graces by taking her,” Devon said. “That, or Daniel tipped them off.”

“I do not trust the fake alpha’s son,” Natalia hissed. “He is not a good man.”

Gene looked between Devon and Natalia before responding. “I’ll talk to Daniel, but I don’t want this to turn into a blame game. Until we get to the bottom of this, keep your concerns to yourselves. Daniel has come through for us when we needed him. I’m not going to throw him under the bus on suspicions alone.”

“You cannot undo
years
of cowardice in a few months time. He is his father’s son, and always will be,” Devon muttered.

Natalia sighed, clenching her hands so tightly, that her knuckles turned white. “They knew where I’d be. I always go to that clearing to shift. The past few weeks, I’ve always gone at the same time. They knew exactly where to find me. I cannot believe that was a coincidence.”

“Sounds like something Emmett would do, which means Daniel-”

“Is a member of my pack, not yours,” Gene reminded Devon with a growl. “I’ll be the one to question him.”

Gene sighed and closed his eyes, massaging his temples. “It’s obvious we have a traitor in our camp. Whether it is Daniel—
or
someone else—remains to be seen. We need to conduct our search quietly, so they are not aware we are onto them. That means you can’t go around accusing Daniel of things,” he warned Devon.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do what I always do, keep my distance. But you need to keep a close eye on Daniel. Don’t let him fool you, Gene,” Devon insisted. “Until we figure this out, we need to guard the females even more closely than before.”

“Lark,” Natalia whispered quietly. “She could be in danger too.”

Devon set his tools down and stared at Natalia. “You know why Juarez is interested in her?”

Natalia nodded.

“Why?” Gene asked, taking a step forward.

Natalia shifted on the metal table. “There are instances where an alpha male can procreate with a human woman, and pass on not only the werewolf gene, but the alpha gene as well.”

Gene gaped at Natalia, an incredulous look spread across his face. “That’s not possible. Is it?” Gene asked, looking to Devon.

Devon let out a long breath and shrugged. He clenched his jaw, scrubbing a hand over his face. “It’s genetics. The alpha gene would be dominant. So, theoretically, it could be very possible. Our culture is obsessed with only mating alphas with other alphas; I can’t imagine that any alpha has ever taken a human mate.”

“Yourself excluded,” Gene said.

“Yeah, well, I’m not experimenting.” Devon shook his head.

“I do not know how it happens, but I do know it is possible. I have seen it,” Natalia replied.

“He keeps human women there?” Gene asked, grinding his teeth together. They needed to take Fernando Juarez out, and fast.

Natalia shuddered, visibly flinching as she spoke. “I heard some of the men talking; he takes women who are unlikely to be missed. Usually runaways, or people who have no family. I don’t know exactly how many he has, but there are many prisoners at his home.”

“We need to talk to Derek Stiles and set up a time to strike,” Gene said, balling his fists. “We cannot allow this behavior to continue. Our species may be on the brink of extinction, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to rape women for the benefit of our kind. This needs to stop!”

Natalia scoffed, glaring at him. “You can’t just attack him.”

“Why?” Gene demanded.

“You do not understand. Fernando Juarez’s home is at least ten times the size of yours. He has hundreds of men, if not a thousand, in his pack alone. You would never even make it to the main houses. And that is just at his compound. There are packs all over North America that will fight with him. You are talking about thousands of werewolves that are at his disposal. The only thing you can do is run,” Natalia said. Her bottom lip trembled, and she looked down to the floor.

“We are not running,” Gene growled. “I will not be chased from my home.”

“Then we will all be dead, or forced into lives we do not want,” Natalia whispered.

“No! This is my home! My family! We will not run away. We will make a stand, and we will win,” Gene said, pounding his fist against the metal table.

Devon met Gene’s gaze. “We should send out emissaries like we talked about. Preston and Vincent can go speak with the other packs, and try to get them on our side—to join our cause,” he suggested, going back to work on Natalia’s shoulder.

“Do you know which packs are already in Juarez’s pocket?” Gene asked.