Mated in Mist (3 page)

Wait. Wolves? Would they try to rip her to shreds like the people who watched too many movies thought? Or were they like her, forced to live in secret for so long that no one truly understood? Unlike other witches, she hadn’t known wolves in person so she didn’t know how they worked. She only knew to keep hidden was to keep safe.

She frowned, her hand lowering somewhat. She’d just hit the Alpha of the Talon Pack. That probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but she hadn’t known at the time.

“If you’re wolves, then why do you have me here?” She let her eyes rest on the one they called Ryder, and her magic settled over her, wanting to know more.

“You don’t remember?” Ryder asked. “You were shot. What’s your name? We found you and another witch in the woods. What was he to you?” He blinked, as if he hadn’t meant to say that part, but Leah didn’t care.

Instead, she dropped the weapon from her hand and let out a keening wail.

“No, no, no, no, no.” She shook her head and let her hands come up to her mouth. “No, no, no.”

Ryder knelt in front of her and pushed the scissors across the floor to where Gideon stopped them with his boot. But she couldn’t care about that. She couldn’t care about anything.

“Roland…” she choked out a breath. “Roland.”

“Who is Roland?” Ryder asked, his hand outstretched. When he brushed her shoulder, she didn’t pull back. Instead, she leaned in to his touch. The move seemed to surprise both of them.

“My br-brother.” She hiccupped a sob. “I’m…I’m Leah. Roland is…was my brother.” Tears fell and she tried to suck in breath, but her lungs weren’t working. “They killed him. They shot him right in front of me.” Her hand went to her side and she winced.

Ryder scooted closer and let his hand cover hers along her side. “They shot you too, Leah.”

“He’s gone?” she asked, the blessed numbness not coming back. Instead, all she felt was the agony she couldn’t ignore.

At Ryder’s nod, she let herself fall apart. There wasn’t a reason to be strong anymore.

Roland was gone.

He was the best of them, the one that should have made it. She was just Leah, witch with no home, no family.

She was alone.

Forever.

And with that thought, her soul shattered into a million pieces. She cried and let the tears wash over her, the magic within the water falling from her body, her entire being aching in sorrow. She barely noticed the strong arms wrapping around her, barely noticed the scent of wolf and man settling over her as she wept.

Wept for the injustice, wept for her brother.

Wept for herself.

Because now, she had no reason to keep running, no place to run
to
.

She was Leah Helm, water witch with no coven.

And nothing more.

Ryder Brentwood stared down at the small woman in his arms and tried to keep his wolf from taking control. His inner beast rubbed against his skin, pushing at him to do more than merely cradle the sobbing woman. His wolf wanted to rip anyone who had ever hurt her to shreds. It wanted to take her away from the prying eyes of his brothers and keep her safe and warm in his home. It wanted to tend to her wounds and wait for her to be healthy again so he could slide deep into her warm heat and call her
his
for all time.

What the ever-loving hell?

Ryder didn’t have time for his wolf to go batshit crazy over a woman they didn’t know. And he sure as hell didn’t have time for this mating business. He pushed those thoughts to the side and promised his wolf he’d deal with them later.

Or not at all.

Leah gripped his shirt, tugging him closer, and he did the only thing he could do at the moment. He shifted slightly so he could gather her more firmly in his arms and therefore his lap. She curled into him, and he had a feeling she had no idea she was even doing it. Her eyes were closed, and her tears soaked his shirt. At that moment, he was just a warm body for her to grieve onto, to hold onto in the darkest of times. His heart raced, but he did his best to calm it. Her ear was right over his chest, and he knew she could feel the now-steady thump against her cheek. If his wolf could give that to her, then Ryder would, as well. It was the least he could do during her time of grief.

Of course, the fact that he couldn’t seem to keep his hand out of her soft, honey-brown hair was another matter. Though it looked as if she had been on the run for far too long and hadn’t been able to fully clean it, the strands still felt soft to his touch. It was long, thick, and straight. He could imagine it spread over her pillow as she slept, or even brushing along his skin as they came together.

No, he couldn’t imagine that. Because he
wouldn’t
be imagining that.

She let out a whimper and he tucked her closer. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head, letting her know he was there. She might be a witch, but he was a wolf. Wolves were tactile creatures and needed touch to survive. He’d known a few wolves who’d gone touch-starved in the past under his father’s reign as Alpha. Ryder, as the Heir, would never let that happen. Not while he drew breath.

Again, he pushed the thoughts of his past and whatever future he didn’t want to think about out of his head. The only thing that mattered at the moment was Leah and her pain. It overwhelmed him, as did the power he felt running through her veins. He’d met a few witches in his time—he was over a century old—but he’d never held one so close. He’d hugged his friend Quinn’s mate Gina before, but it hadn’t been for long. As Quinn would readily tear off Ryder’s face for daring to touch her for more than a moment, Ryder understood. Mating was something precious.

Mating was something he would never have.

He closed his eyes, pushing those thoughts from his brain once again. He needed to focus, needed to worry about the here and now—not what would never be.

Gina was a fire witch. Or, half-witch, at least. Her birth mother had been a witch and her birth father a wolf. So when Ryder hugged her, he felt the crackle of her energy. The former Redwood Pack Healer was an earth witch; her energy was a little more grounded.

But Leah? Hers was a rush of cool power, flowing over him, under him,
through
him. And with how weak she was, he knew this wasn’t her at peak energy level. He couldn’t wait to see her at full strength.

He sniffed, frowned at the coppery scent of blood in the air.

His gaze shot to his brother, Walker, their Healer.

Walker, one of the triplets, knelt beside Ryder and Leah with a needle in his hand. “She’s not Pack so my powers won’t do her much good,” his brother explained, his voice a low drawl. “If she keeps moving like that, she’s going to tear her wound right open again.” Walker inhaled deeply. “Or she may have already. It doesn’t smell like she did it too badly, but if we don’t keep her still, it’s just going to get worse.”

Ryder nodded, understanding. Leah whimpered again, and he ran a hand over her arm. “Leah, keep still, you’re hurting yourself.” He kept his voice light, but the order was there.

She kept crying, her hands digging into his shirt.

Walker let out a sigh then injected her with the needle. Leah winced in Ryder’s arms and he did his best to soothe her. When she stopped moving and her breath came in an even rhythm, Ryder leaned back against the wall.

“Let me take her and put her back on the bed,” Walker said softly.

“Then we can talk about what comes next,” Gideon, his brother, the Alpha, put in. Gideon had been on the sidelines for most of the encounter, watching with a careful eye as Ryder had done his best to calm and comfort Leah.

“I’ve got her,” Ryder said without thinking. He should have let Walker take her and walk away, but he couldn’t. Instead, he got curious looks from both of his brothers and a knowing gleam, as well.

He ignored them and used the wall to help him stand with Leah in his arms. He could have done it easily just by using the strength in his thighs, but he hadn’t wanted to jostle her too much. She was already in enough pain as it was.

He couldn’t imagine her agony.

Ryder set her down on the bed and kept ahold of her hand, even though he knew he should let her go. Walker got to work on her gunshot wound while Gideon stood silently by, his arms crossed over his chest.

Ryder slowly let her hand go and took a step back. His wolf immediately revolted, ramming into him and scraping its claws on the underside of his skin. Ryder took a deep breath, taking control back from his wolf. Despite the fact that his claws threatened to break through the skin of his fingertips, he forced himself to be calm.

He didn’t understand his reaction to this woman—or perhaps he just didn’t want to.

“We need a family meeting to talk about what happened,” Gideon uttered into the quiet. “We might need a Pack circle, as well, but a family meeting for now.”

Ryder nodded. “I’ll round up the troops.” With that, he left his brothers behind so he could go find the others.

His sister Brynn would be close, he knew. She and her mate, Finn, the Heir of the Redwood Pack, had been the ones to find Leah and her brother. They’d wanted to stay and see the outcome, but neither of them had slept much. They’d been on a hunt with the Redwoods and had heard the gunshots outside the wards. Though the two dens weren’t too close distance-wise, they now shared a border with a tiny strip of neutral land between them at certain points. The gunshots had happened there.

So, Finn and Brynn had run to the closest Healer.

That happened to be the Talons.

It was odd to think that two Packs could work so closely together, but after over thirty years of finding ways to work as one without creating a single Pack, the Talons and Redwoods were finding their way. It had all started when Ryder’s father, the former Alpha, had died by Gideon’s hand. Ryder would have killed the bastard himself, but it had been Gideon’s right to do it.

The Brentwood family had been born in agony and honed in fire. They’d suffered at the hands of their father and uncles more than anyone knew. But they were strong now. Or, at least, that’s what they told themselves.

What Ryder told himself.

While that had been happening, the Redwoods had been fighting a war themselves. Only instead of fighting within, they’d been dealing with another Pack that had gone dark. Way dark. Ryder and his brothers had battled alongside the Redwoods in the end and had formed a truce, and, eventually, friendship.

It had taken another fifteen years for members to start feeling as if they could trust freely, and another fifteen years after that for their Packs to become as close to a single unit as possible. Gideon had married a Redwood Pack princess, and now, Ryder’s Alpha female was a young, submissive wolf with Redwood parents and the softest smile he’d ever seen.

They were growing, settling, healing.

Of course, the world had gone to shit yet again when the humans found out about the existence of wolves. Ryder had known it would only be a matter of time before technology became too great for non-humans like him to hide anymore. Magic could only do so much, but he hadn’t been prepared for the death and blood that came with the world uncovering the truth of what lay beneath the surface of their truth.

Their losses had been small so far, but he knew it wouldn’t last.

It had been a year since his people were revealed, and just recently, human hate groups had begun to kill those they were afraid of. Now, politicians in Washington were debating his Pack’s future without consulting them.

There was even a politician named McMaster who had called out the wolves as not being part of the human population. He hadn’t called for war, but it had been damn close.

Ryder’s Pack, as well as the Redwoods, were trying to figure out what to do about it. They not only needed to keep their people safe, they needed to protect the other Packs in the world, as well. The problem was much bigger than them, and at times, it seemed insurmountable.

Ryder ran a hand over his face as he made his way through the den, nodding at the few members he passed along the way. Now, they had Leah and whatever problems she’d brought with her to add to the pile. Finn and Brynn had a feeling that Leah and her brother had been running to the Pack for protection, or at least running for
something
. His family wouldn’t turn away a person in need, even if she wasn’t Pack. They weren’t callous, but they would protect their Pack with everything they had.

Only he didn’t know how he was going to do that.

“Ryder?”

He froze at the sound of Brynn’s voice, then shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He’d been so stuck in his own mind, he’d almost passed Brynn’s place. Or rather, her old place. He guessed she was living with the Redwoods now, with her new mate. He wasn’t sure what they’d do with her place since it was mostly empty except for a few pieces of furniture. With the Pack on lockdown behind the wards thanks to the hate crimes and the uncertainty of their future, space was hard to come by. He was sure Mitchell, his cousin and Beta of the Pack, had a plan. That was his job, after all—to take care of the daily needs of the Pack while Gideon and Ryder dealt with the more harrowing jobs.

Though it seemed like Gideon was the one doing that more recently, with Ryder standing behind, trying to figure it all out.

You’re nothing. Nothing. Just a waste of space. Not a true Heir.

He pushed aside the familiar diatribe echoing in his head. He didn’t have time for that; didn’t have time for anything.

“Sorry, Brynn,” Ryder finally said as he turned to face his sister fully. “Too much going on in my head.”

She studied his face, seemed to see far more than she should have. “Is it the girl? Is she okay?”

His wolf nudged him at the mention of Leah, but again, he ignored it. “She’s fine.” At least, he hoped she’d be. He wasn’t sure if anyone could ever be
fine
after that.

He looked over his shoulder as people slowed to overhear their conversation. While the others of the Pack would know about Leah soon enough, he needed to make sure his family was kept up-to-date first, before there was an issue.