Silence of the Wolves (9 page)

‘Are you all right?’

‘Yeah, it just hurts a little.’ Leyth gave her a sideways glance. It was strange how naturally comfortable they were around each other; he was beginning to realise he knew his way around her emotions pretty well, it was almost as if they were connected in some strange way.

He shook the thought off as he reached over and patted her on the leg, he really was no good at this whole comforting deal. His hand briefly brushed hers and he could have sworn his heart skipped a beat or two. Her green eyes met his, and for the briefest of moments the scent of lust filled the air.

It took all the strength he had to pull his hand away and look anywhere but those beautiful green eyes.

Tam rapidly cleared her throat.

‘So, the Council?’ she prompted.

‘OK, the Council delegates to groups of supernaturals. As I said before, vamps and wolves are on the frontline. We fight the tuhrned and make sure, firstly, that they don’t expose us, and, secondly, that they can’t get to the Council. It’s the Circle who create tombs; in a nutshell, they’re rebels who have turned against the Council because they don’t like the rules put in place.’

‘And the Council have put these rules in place to stop humans finding out about the supernatural community?’

‘Yes.’

‘So who is in charge of the Circle?’

‘The Circle is run by magis, as powerful as the ones who run the Council, but they use dark magic. Supernaturals who join the Circle go through a ritual that binds their soul; apparently they know what’s happening, but allow themselves to be controlled by the Circle, who can use their bodies as a vessel to fight.’

‘Christ, that’s horrible! Why would anyone do that?’

‘Beats me. We actually don’t know all that much about them to be honest; we’ve never really had a chance to “study” them, as it were.’

‘How do you kill them?’ He was beginning to like this female more and more; she just got straight to the point and got the job done, didn’t mess about. She would do well in the field.

‘You have to cut their head off.’

Finally they began to speed through the country road leading up to the mansion, his pack home. He didn’t want to bombard her with people, Maker only knew if he went through the front entrance, the whole pack would be hanging around somewhere and would want to find out who she was. He headed around the rear entrance, turning right off the main road and onto the bumpy back track. Abruptly the scent of fear washed through the car, filling his nostrils.

He turned his gaze to Tam, who was staring around them with wide eyes.

‘It’s OK, we live out in the middle of the woods; it’s pack-land.’

‘OK.’ He could see her gaze was filled with a mixture of fear and awe. Carefully he bumped the car through the woodland, stopping briefly at the large, rusty gates at the back; he watched the camera do a sweep of his car, and the little light turned green before the gates swung open allowing him entry. Security was everything here. Finally he pulled up to the small car park at the back of the clinic. The mansion was nowhere in sight from here, only the boxy warehouse extension that made up the clinic. Even so, Tamriel was taking it all in, her eyes scanning the area.

Climbing out, he walked around to the other side of his Range Rover and swung open the passenger side door. Carefully he shifted around, ready to pick Tamriel up and carry her inside.

‘Ready?’ Leyth nodded at her.

‘Yup.’

He leant forward, brushing a stray strand of that silky black hair behind her ear. He didn’t even realise he was doing it, until the heat of her brushed his hand as she pressed her cheek lightly into his palm.

Instinctively he leant further forward, until she was only inches from him.

Lord almighty, he wanted to kiss those lips.

‘Leyth?’ she whispered, her breath hot against his lips as she spoke.

‘Yeah.’ Christ, all he needed to do was lean forward, just a fraction more, and he would be on her, he would be tasting that beautiful mouth of hers.

‘You gonna take me inside?’ she asked softly, snapping him back to reality.

Crap, that was close. What the hell was it about this female that made him almost lose control so easily?

‘Sure,’ he grunted, clearing his throat and snapping his hand away from her, a little more violently than was really necessary. Her green eyes locked on to his as he retreated, both emotionally and physically.

She looked startled, and maybe a little hurt.

‘OK.’ She cleared her throat, her hands twisting in her lap. He leant forward once more, keeping his mind on the ball and not allowing himself to think of anything other than getting her inside to see Doc. Shifting a little, he hauled her gently into his arms, ignoring her warm scent as it filled his nose and keeping his eyes away from her. He shot through the parking lot and in through the side door into the clinic. Once inside, he didn’t give her time to look around or for anyone to notice he was home, he just carried her straight into one of the medical rooms lining this half of the mansion and closed the door.

Leyth pulled his phone out and sent a quick text to Doc, telling him to get his arse here ASAP. This awkward silence was killing him.

‘Can they use their um, “abilities” when the Circle has taken them over?’ Tamriel asked, touching the metal gurney he’d placed her on. He was pretty sure she was trying desperately to fill the silence with conversation.

‘Yes. Well, no. The problem is, the magi who control the tomb can’t use their abilities properly. Have you ever watched a werewolf horror movie? You know where they make wolves out to be like a human-wolf monster?’

‘Yeah, like a hairy person with a wolf head and massive claws?’

‘Yup. That’s what a tuhrned wolf looks like. Half shifted, it’s creepy.’

‘Sounds it.’ He watched her as her eyes scanned the room, she was literally the strongest female he’d ever come across. Calm and controlled even in a situation as crazy as this one.

As Leyth waited for Doc, he racked his brain for anything else to tell her; he was pretty sure that he’d told her everything she would need to know, but Lord only knew he couldn’t recall a word he’d said. The entire time he was talking, all he could do was look at those ruby-red lips of hers as they moved.

Her eyes sparkled every time he talked about the kingdom; something about the magic of it all seemed to intrigue her.

She seemed to get excited discussing the likes of fay and elves; it just made him want to wrap her in his arms and crush those big lips against his own. What on earth was wrong with him?

Doc, of course, was at the ready as soon as he came in.

‘Tamriel? John’s whelp?’ he drawled.

‘Hi, nice to meet you.’ She grinned, sticking her hand out, though her wide eyes took him in with what could only be described as awe. As Doc bent to kiss her hand, a pang of anger roared through Leyth. What
was
this? Jealousy?

Doc flashed him a grin as he checked her pulse and took her temperature.

‘She just needs her wound checking,’ Leyth muttered.

He caught his reflection in the glass and groaned. He really was a state.

His grey eyes looked colder than ever under the bright lights of the clinic. Once they’d been a deep, gun-metal grey, the colour of his father’s, but when he went rogue, he isolated himself. And, as a result, he’d lost the colours he was born with. Even under Julian’s roof, with the brotherly bond he had here, it wasn’t coming back. Once rogue, always rogue.

‘Leyth!’ Doc snapped at him. ‘Turn the hell around!’

‘Wha—?’ Crashing back to reality, Leyth realised he was staring into the glass stand next to the bed like a gormless idiot, and both Doc and Tamriel were staring at him.

‘Turn around so I can dress her,’ Doc growled.

‘Sorry,’ Leyth muttered, spinning around so quickly he nearly lost his balance.

‘OK, you can turn around now.’

‘Sorry, Joe.’ The male’s head snapped up at the sound of his name; he was in fact ‘John Doe’, the lost kid abandoned at Dover docks many years ago. He’d shortened the name to Joe after a while, but had never been called anything other than ‘Doc’ since he’d started training to be a surgeon.

The Council agreed to let Julian, their alpha, take him on, look after him and feed him. But, in return, he had to work for the Council, had to train to help the ‘kingdom’, like the rest of them. Doc had been beaten and bruised, though those like him generally had exceptional healing abilities; whoever had left him there obviously wanted him to suffer. They’d bound him with silver, scarring his skin and keeping him from healing and, as a result, he was now a broken man. His left leg was torn to shreds; the nerves and tendons had healed, but not fast enough, making him rely on a crutch most of the time.

He could fight with the best of them though, he trained and sparred daily with the rest of them and, as a result, he was the same size as everyone else and just as deadly. But he’d devoted his life to medicine, searching constantly for ways to help the race heal even faster. To stop salt and the ever-present threat of silver affecting them the way it did.

Looking at the guy’s chocolate-brown skin, scarred by the enemy and worn by time, Leyth had nothing but respect for the male. He may be a beta, but he was a male of honour without a doubt.

‘I think it’s best you wait outside.’ Doc started dabbing at Tamriel’s forehead with a wet cloth, trying to ease the sweat that had broken out across her forehead as he prepared to remove the bandage. As Doc slid the damp material down to her neck, Leyth bared his teeth; the wolf in him snarling to the edge. Before he realised what he was doing, a thundering growl rumbled its way from his chest, reverberating across the room.

‘What the—?’ Doc shoved his chiselled face directly in Leyth’s line of vision, hiding Tamriel from view.

‘Cut it out.’

‘Sorry.’ Leyth cleared his throat. ‘I’m responsible for her life,’ he muttered by way of excuse.

‘
Sure
.’ Doc grinned, ushering him out of the room.

Leyth took one last look at Tamriel, now wrapped in a loose hospital gown. Still trying to hide the fear rippling out of her in waves, she looked so fragile on the gurney as Doc gently unwrapped her bandage.

It was possibly the most painful thing he’d ever encountered; it absolutely broke his heart to see her like that, scared and in pain – and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Doc would take care of her, he told himself. She’d be OK. Of course she would. So why in the hell was it so difficult to leave her in a room with Doc? What was this impulsive anger that roared through him when another male was near her? Ridiculous.

He would wait it out, he decided, as close to her as he could be.

Such an idiot, letting himself begin to care for her. She didn’t even really know who he was and she deserved so much more than he could ever offer. He was a deserter. His father was a deserter. No, he needed to stay the hell away from her and allow her the best chance at life she could get.

When all this crap was over, he would drop her back into her world and she would be fine, wouldn’t she?

She could lead a normal life, or as much of a normal life as she physically could. It was better than living under the Council’s rule; Lord only knew what they would do to her. The bastards treated everyone like dirt; they all had to provide a service and if they didn’t comply, they were relieved of duty, by the way of death.

And those of them like Tamriel?

They were treated even worse; hell, they were made into servants or killed straight off. This would be no life for her, even if Julian did accept her into his pack; she would have to go and live with Sarah and her group of half-breeds on the reserve, separated from everyone else and living in fear of the Council’s men showing up and picking them off, one by one, to be sold, put to work for another pack as slaves or killed.

At least Julian treated them with respect, tried to make them live as equals and refused to let them work as servants.

The problem with that was that most of them had been brought up as serving staff; it was the only life they knew, they didn’t
want
to fight and live as the rest of them on the reserve did, they actually
preferred
to keep the grounds tidy, to look after the various houses built on the land and the mansion, they liked to cook and clean. But Julian wouldn’t allow it.

So they, and the rest of the wolves, tended to live separately.

Julian ran the grounds, of course. This was his land and it was hundreds of acres; more or less all of it was woodland, and wild wolves, rabbits, deer and a variety of other creatures roamed freely.

It was a ‘nature park’; after all, that’s where most of the pack’s money came from. Hunting, or at least the normal version of hunting, was forbidden, of course, but given the number of trained fighters on the land, you were a brave man indeed to hunt in these woods.

The mansion, which was smack bang in the middle of the land and was surrounded by a group of houses built into the landscape, all blended smoothly into the trees. They were almost invisible to satellite pictures and curious eyes, only if you knew they were there, could you find them.

Julian lived in the mansion, as did his sister Alison. The rest of them had houses surrounding the main manor; the twins lived together and Dax lived by himself. Leyth lived in one of the mansion’s spare rooms at the moment; he had no personal belongings to speak of and definitely no furniture, just the clothes on his back and that was pretty much it. So living in a guest bedroom suited him for now.

‘You can come back in now, Leyth,’ Doc barked out of the door. She’s healing well.’ He leant in and hissed, ‘You need to go speak to Julian soon though, some shit’s gone down with Alison. She never turned up at her parents’ house.’

Leyth cursed and nodded. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. Let me get Tam home first though, OK?’

Doc waved goodbye to Tamriel, promising to tell her more stories of her father when he had a chance. Tamriel was still sat on the gurney, looking embarrassed, scared and hopeful all at once, if that was even possible.