With Her Capture (14 page)

Ayden pulled his boots off, going for the
look of being relaxed and planning to turn in for the night. His
littermate might question why Ayden didn’t want to run during the
night. Hopefully whatever had him mad would prevent him from
interrogating Ayden. Just in case he needed to close himself in the
room for the night, he left his boots by his bed, which was also by
his window. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d climbed out that
window in the night without his litter knowing. It would, however,
be the first time he snuck out on his littermate.

Hiding from his littermate in their own den
didn’t sit well. Ayden padded barefoot down the bare wooden floors
into the living area. Anthony had his head in the small, old
refrigerator, searching its contents. He stood with a bottle of
beer in his hand.

“I didn’t know you were here,” Anthony
grumbled. He grabbed a second beer and pushed the refrigerator door
shut. “If I’d known we were getting low, I would have grabbed more
when I was in Banff.”

“What were you doing in Banff?” Ayden
accepted the beer. He didn’t want one but it might ease the pain of
listening to Anthony when he’d rather be running back up to
Magda.

“Wasting my time.” Anthony ripped the bottle
cap off with his teeth and sent it flying toward the small trash
can in the corner of the kitchen. He missed but ignored it and
headed into the living area. “Why aren’t you out chasing tail on
this beautiful night?”

Ayden wasn’t about to turn the howling toward
him. If he said he was still planning on going out, Anthony would
want to run with him. He thought of the best thing to say without
lying.

“Just got back from a run. I was in the mood
for fish. Caught enough to get nice and full.” He took the couch
facing the wall where treated hides from both his and Anthony’s
first kills hung. “Now I’m sated and lazy.” He stretched out with a
grin and twisted the cap off with his teeth just as Anthony had,
but put it on the table next to the couch instead of throwing it.
“Who turned you down in Banff?”

Anthony growled, slouched in his sire’s
overstuffed chair and looked at the fireplace instead of Ayden. He
downed a fair bit of his beer then stood and walked over to put
logs on the glowing embers.

“No one turned me down,” he snapped. “I was
doing just fine and the tail was willing.”

Ayden knew Anthony well enough that if he
remained quiet, his littermate would howl his going ons without
encouragement. He sipped his beer and waited. Anthony poked at the
fire until flames danced to life.

“Sally Runner was at the bar tonight.”
Anthony’s scent began relaxing when he turned and looked at Ayden.
He smiled. “She’s one hot little bitch. Dani McAllister was also
there. I could have had my pick of either one.” He laughed. “Or
both.”

“I’m not seeing a problem yet.” Ayden sipped
more beer and relaxed on the extra long couch. There were lumps in
it, and patched rips in the cushions from where he and Anthony had
wrestled on it as pups. It still was incredibly comfortable.

“No problem with either one of them. You
know, there are many in the pack who see me as being as good a pack
leader as you. Those two females might think a title is worth
sniffing out,” he continued, standing and drinking more of his
beer. “I never lie or use my litter’s name to get a female,
though.”

“I know you don’t,” Ayden agreed.

He understood there were females who sniffed
after him, and his littermate, simply because they thought there
was more than a male to catch in either one of them. That was
another refreshing aspect about Magda. She had no knowledge of the
prestige behind his litter’s name.

“The flirting was getting rather strong. I
smelled desire on both of them. But then this asshole that I’ve
never seen before saunters in and starts howling about a litter
looking for a lost female. Immediately both Dani and Sally are all
sympathetic to the sincerity of his scent. Fucking jerk,” Anthony
grumbled. “Every female in the damn bar pranced right up to this
male, growling and moaning over how sad it was that some bitch was
lost.”

Since Ayden doubted anyone would search for
Magda, other than to kill her, he was fairly certain whoever the
male was, he wasn’t looking for her. “That sucks, man.”

“Damn straight.” Anthony sniffed the air then
narrowed his gaze on Ayden. “Smells like one of us got lucky. Who’d
you chase down?”

“I don’t have to chase anyone down.” Ayden
hurried to finish his beer, deciding it was time to end this
conversation. “I’m heading to bed.”

“You get lucky and aren’t going to howl a
name?” Anthony smelled confused. “If I don’t know who it is then it
might be me fucking her tomorrow.”

Ayden laughed. “That won’t happen.”

“You are ripe with a female’s scent. Real
ripe.” Anthony followed Ayden when he walked to the kitchen and
tossed the empty bottle in the trash. “Fucking tail. You aren’t
serious with some bitch, are you? You damn near smell mated.”

Ayden was acutely aware when his heart
pounded out an extra beat at his littermate’s observation. “You’d
be the first to know,” he promised. “Well second.”

Anthony kept following him down the hall to
their bedrooms. “You really aren’t howling about this. Why does
that make me think you’re more serious than you want to let
on?”

“Drop it, okay?” Ayden demanded. “There are
things I don’t tell you. That doesn’t mean you have to get your
tail in a knot about it.”

“Damn. Fine.” Anthony remained standing in
the hall staring after Ayden when he entered his room.

Ayden cringed when he smelled Anthony’s worry
after closing the door.

Chapter
Ten

Magda sat cross-legged outside her cave
basking in the sun. If that were possible in the over-sized down
heavy coat Ayden had left her. The temperatures were low but the
sun was high and bright. Puffs of her breath appeared in front of
her every time she exhaled. She sat on a folded blanket, with half
of her legs covered by the coat, and still felt the chill from the
stone slab underneath her. Even the long underwear underneath her
jeans didn’t prevent her from shivering. She’d have to build up the
fire or return to her fur before long.

The cold wasn’t enough to distract from her
thoughts though. After returning to his den several nights in a
row, Ayden had then spent the last four nights with her. She was
going on almost two weeks of having stayed in this cave and it was
starting to feel like her den. Which was a problem.

Magda didn’t want a cave as a den. She didn’t
want to live the rest of her life in extreme isolation, jumping at
any sound and waking up every morning wondering if that would be
the day she would die.

It wasn’t her only problem. Ayden had left
early that morning and although the sun hadn’t started setting yet,
Magda desperately missed him. Every time the wind blew or a small
animal ran across her section of the mountain beneath her, she shot
her attention that way, immediately sniffing the air. She was too
anxious for him to return.

Everything she had warned herself about had
now happened. She’d known if she’d fucked him it would be a
mistake. She’d argued with her thoughts that the smart thing to do
was to run, leave him and not look back. She hadn’t listened to
herself. Now, not only were their scents probably permanently
embedded in each other, both of them would be very hurt when she
came to her senses and left him.

He wanted her. She didn’t doubt that part.
Every time he approached or was around her, his desire for her
smelled strong and didn’t fade no matter how long they were
together. Even if she weren’t able to smell his emotions, the way
he looked at her, his possessive nature around her, and damn, the
way he fucked her, made his feelings clear.

Magda tugged at thread she used to repair a
tear in one of the backpacks Ayden had used to bring supplies to
her. Backpacks endured a lot of abuse when strapped to them while
they ran in their fur. She needed the backpack sturdy if she needed
to run and haul supplies.

She needed to run now. Heaving a sigh, she
picked up on Ayden’s scent embedded in her skin. It was the same
with him, something that should make her proud and happy. The male
she was unable to get out of her thoughts carried her scent on him
whether in his flesh or fur. She’d marked him. As he had her.

Magda loved smelling him on her when they
weren’t together. He would smell her on him, too. It was a
continual reminder of her when she wasn’t around. But her scent
being on him put Ayden in danger. More than likely he wouldn’t
agree. His cockiness and self-confidence smelled as strong as his
aggressive and possessive side of him. Those traits wouldn’t allow
him to lie. Ayden wouldn’t dream of smelling of any untruth. Not to
mention the pride that ran straight through him made him honorable
enough to never fear the truth.

So what would he howl to his littermate,
Anthony? A littermate Magda would never meet. That question plagued
her as much as knowing that Ayden would never take her to his den.
She’d never asked him to take her, but there was no point. She saw
no reason to broach subjects when she knew the answers. Magda would
never run where his pack lived.

Her thread snagged and she tugged, making the
tangled knot tighter. Growling, she flipped open the backpack to
stare at the mess of thread on the underside of the fabric.

Leisa, her littermate, was the better
seamstress. Magda never had the patience for such things.

“And the last thing you need to do is start
worrying about them too,” she snarled, bringing the bag to her
mouth. The change bit into her when she allowed her teeth to grow
just enough to bite at the thread where she’d tangled it.

Liesa was with the male who had sniffed them
out before she and Magda were separated. He was Katrin’s mate’s
littermate. Now Liesa probably ran safe with Katrin. Neither one of
them would ever know this life of hiding and daily fearing for her
life.

A cold wind made Magda shiver. She ignored
the pain to her human body, turned her face to the biting wind and
breathed in deeply. Although she’d done this every time the weather
turned her way, this time she picked up on a smell that hadn’t been
there before. Instantly her heart began thumping in her chest. She
wanted to throw down her project and run down the mountain.

He was back.

Magda pushed to her feet. She kept sniffing
the air but searched with her human eyes. She focused hard on the
steep incline below.

Then she fell back to the ground. Suddenly it
was too hard to catch her breath. Gripping the backpack, she
scooted backward toward the cave.

She’d smelled a werewolf—make that
werewolves. But Ayden hadn’t returned. Her stomach rolled at how
despicable and degrading it was cowering back into her cave. Magda
prayed they hadn’t looked up the mountain and spotted her. She also
hoped the wind didn’t change directions and carry her scent to
them. The fact that she behaved as she did, being forced to hide,
fear for her life from other werewolves, continued making her sick.
She sat in the dark cave, not daring to stir the fire. While slowly
freezing to death, Magda accepted that this had to end.

“Enough!” Magda continued shaking her hands
to regain circulation after confirming the werewolves were gone and
hadn’t detected her scent. “You either run or risk freezing to
death next time you’re hiding for your life and to scared to
change.”

This was no way to live. “And you wouldn’t be
living this way if it weren’t for Ayden,” she pointed out to
herself while pacing around the fire for the third time after
building it back up.

That repetitive thumping in her chest began
hurting. She smelled her pain stronger than she’d ever smelled
another scent. Magda didn’t question it. It made sense that a
breaking heart would have such a powerful aroma. When she came
around to the side of the fire where her supplies were, she
collapsed on top of them.

“You have no reason to cry,” she snapped at
herself. Voicing the words was hard to do around the intense lump
in her throat. “You held back tears and smelled strong for Liesa
and Katrin after Sire and Mama died. You can damn well do it
now.”

There had been enough anger over the
injustice done to their litter to keep her moving when the three of
them lost their parents. She was angry now, too. Magda embraced it.
Her legs wobbled underneath her when she began moving, doing what
she had to do. More than once it was hard to breathe. Her
extremities were no longer numb. Instead, every inch of her burned
with pain almost too unbearable to endure. This wasn’t pain done to
her human body after exposure to the cold. The source was her
heart. It had just shattered.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed before
she was packed. Magda faced the cave entrance and stared at the
stream of smoke trailing over the soaked logs. She’d poured water
she’d planned on using to prepare her kill for Ayden. Again her
eyes stung from tears that refused to let fall. She stripped out of
her clothes, not caring how cold she was, and stuffed them in the
backpack that wasn’t torn.

Picking up one of the sticks from the
remaining pile at the cave entrance, Magda entered the cave one
last time and scratched a message onto the floor. She knew what she
wanted to write. Her heart hurt even more when she dropped the
stick and stared at the letters. Hopefully Ayden would understand
her message and know that she was doing what was necessary for both
of them.

“If this is what love feels like, I don’t
ever want to feel it again.”

A lone tear burned its way down her cheek
when she let the change take over.

Ayden slowed after running through the tall
evergreens stretching at an angle up the steep incline of the
mountain. Although rocks slipped under his paws and boulders became
bigger, lodged at different angles and causing him to leap over
some and ease his way around others, he didn’t slow because of the
difficulty of the trek. He’d run to the cave enough times since
meeting Magda to know the best way to get there.