Wolf's Return (Black Hills Wolves Book 1) (2 page)

His old—friend?—colleague?—pack mate?—it had always been next to impossible to define their relationship well—hadn’t aged much. If anything, his square jawline had hardened. Like Gee, Ryker’s bloodline traced back to Native American ancestors. Some member of their wolf pack, or in Gee’s case Bear clan, had mated a nonshifter, a pure human. They retained their human ancestors’ line of features. With dark hair and severe eyes, they both gave off the impression of intensity, all the time.

“I wasn’t going to throw Ryker in the middle of this.” He tried to breathe through the discomfort and fisted his hands. Humans didn’t talk about each other in front of each other. He had to get used to the fact no one in the pack would blink an eye about discussing these things in public and specifically in front of the person being discussed. “And I didn’t want him—you—siding with my father. I had enough troubles.”

Drew rubbed at his leg. It didn’t hurt right then, but the old wound was a constant ache, in his memory if nowhere else.

Gee shook his head. “Well, you’re never going to know, are you?”

Enough was enough. Had Gee brought him back to the Black Hills just to drive him crazy? “Nothing to say for yourself, Ryker? Wanna weigh in on this?”

Ryker had been kneeling down over a campfire. He stood up and looked Drew straight in the eyes. The jolt of pack awareness Drew hadn’t felt in a decade lanced through him and threatened to take him to the ground. It was a week until the full moon, the only time Drew ever had to shift, but he thought he might lose control and bring on his wolf any second.

For the first time in ten years, Drew sucked in a deep breath—a real lungful of pure, mountain air.

“You’re late.” Ryker threw a twig into the fire. It sparked and burst apart with a
pop
.

The forest fell quiet. Drew could actually hear his own intake and outtake of breath. “For what? I don’t remember having any appointments. I thought I’d be attending a funeral at some point.”

Ryker and Gee shared a look Drew couldn’t decipher. And it ignited the flint of his temper. “If you have something to say, say it.”

“You’re late for starting your life, son.” The bland expression didn’t match Ryker’s near-tolerant tone.

Drew growled. It felt good to not have to restrain the sound. “You’re not my father. You’re older than me, I don’t even know how much more, but you don’t get to call me son.”

“Lifetimes older. Take my word on it.” Ryker dismissed his objection with a shake of his head. “I need to see something.”

“What’s that?” Drew felt edgy. Goose bumps had popped out all over his body. Ryker hadn’t threatened him. Why did he feel like he was about to get into a fight?

Two seconds later, Ryker struck. He hardly had a second to shift before Ryker slammed him into the ground. It had been years since he’d made the change so fast and it hurt his bones, like he needed to stretch. But there wasn’t any time. Ryker meant business, and although he didn’t smell any intent to kill on the other man, Drew still wasn’t prepared to take a beating just to satisfy whatever issue Ryker needed to work out.

Drew lunged forward. It had been a decade since he’d been able to spar with another werewolf. Full moons had been tricky in the human world. One time in Manhattan, he’d had to rent a U-Haul and lock himself in it. The thing had been destroyed in the morning.

He had to face off with a powerful and deadly werewolf. Ryker was the color of rusted leaves in autumn, deep brown with hints of gold in his wolf coat. They were unusual markings for one of their kind, but gods help the person who dared to mention it to him. There was a reason Ryker took care of the rule breakers. The man could be scary as shit when he wanted to be.

But Drew had never been a coward—not even the day he’d had to leave—and he had no intention of backing down from this fight. He surged forward, lunging for Ryker’s side. He’d get a good bite in if nothing else. The other wolf dodged the full assault, but Drew managed to scrape him. His mouth watered.

This. Was. Fun.

Drew swiped one more time at Ryker. He wasn’t certain how long their quasi fight went on, but eventually, Ryker withdrew several paces. Tail straight up and his head raised, his dark eyes locked with Drew’s for what seemed an eternity—the bastard wasn’t even winded. The Enforcer shifted into his human form, a spark shimmering as his clothes coated his bare body. Ryker cricked his neck but, other than that, didn’t utter a word to indicate they’d just been battling in the snow. If not for the few drops of red staining the churned up white, Drew might not believe it either.

Drew called his shift back on himself. His muscles were sore, his bones ached. How and when did he start to feel like such an old man?

An expressionless Gee leaned against a tree, and if their only audience was impressed or disappointed—he kept it to himself.

After stretching his hands over his head to loosen his arms, Drew stared at the two of them. “Was that some kind of test?”

Ryker nodded. “Yes.”

“And did I pass? Because I’m not entirely certain I wanted to. I don’t know what’s going on here.”

“He’s ready.” Ryker nodded to Gee. “Rusty but ready. Centered. But as he said, he doesn’t know what’s going on here.
Maybe
he doesn’t want it.”

Gee shook his head. “He does.”

A sinking realization of what all of this could mean settled on his shoulders. “Enough. The two of you can be as Yoda as you want with each other. I am out of here.” He didn’t know if they’d get the references or not. Drew had had to learn a lot of pop culture over the last ten years. But perhaps things had changed. If Gee could text message, that could mean they were all having movie nights. George Lucas could now be a household name.

“You limp still. On your left leg.” Gee pointed at it. “You’re harder than when you left. You’re not ranting. Or yelling. Or raging at the unfairness of the pack. Ten years ago, you weren’t ready to take him, not alone anyway. If you’d tried to take power from your father, you would have lost. Few pack members saw him for what he was.”

“And now?” Was Gee actually suggesting he take back the pack after a decade away from it? Ten years ago, he’d been a native son. The automatic assumption, to everyone but his father, Magnum Tao, was Drew would inherit. These days, he’d be nothing more than a usurper who’d run away. Ten years ago, he’d been mated to the most wonderful wolf on the planet. If he strolled on in, she’d likely, and with good reason, not speak to him—if she even bothered to acknowledge he was alive. Especially because he’d never be able to explain to her why he’d left her behind. Not without shattering her world.

Leaving her had been the only way to protect her.

Hell, he’d be lucky if any of the pack members spoke to him, forget supporting him in a bid for power.

“Have you forgotten what it is to be a wolf?” Gee shook his head. “You don’t ask for power. You take it. Ten years ago, you couldn’t. Have you changed?”

“Who says I want to take the pack?” He didn’t like how his heart pounded so hard or the ache forming in his chest.

Gee raised an eyebrow. “Why would you have come back if you didn’t? You don’t fight like a man looking for forgiveness.”

Damn it
. He turned on his heel and stormed off toward the town. The two meddlers could stew in their own manipulations for a while. He’d come home because he wanted to watch his father die and spit on his corpse. No other reason. And fuck them for thinking it was anything else.

If he also happened to get a glance at B, that would satisfy him for years. He’d get to imagine her at night as she currently looked.

But taking over the pack? What were they thinking? Gee wasn’t even pack, just this were-Bear who for some reason never left Los Lobos. Ryker could take it over himself. The pack would do whatever he wanted out of fear.

Him? He was in no condition to lead.

Drew rounded a corner, and Los Lobos appeared in front of him like a brick wall slamming into his heart. The town was as much a part of the wolf pack as the people who made it up. And if his eyes were to be believed, the town had all but fallen apart.

With the exception of Gee’s bar, every building in the place had taken a turn for the worse in the last ten years. Hell, some of them were going to need to be torn down. He stepped forward.

Paint peeled off the walls, boards indicated the majority of the places were closed, and an awning swung back and forth over what had been at one time a restaurant called Dottie’s. He growled, and it quickly turned into a howl of mourning. The emotions racing through him threatened to bring him to his knees. There were too many to count, too many to manage. How had this happened? How had his father let this happen?

Where was everyone?

Her scent hit him before he turned around to look at her. His whole body went numb before every nerve ending he possessed flew to life at the same time. For thirty seconds, he stood there and burned just by being in the sheer vicinity of her. Appearing to his left like the universe had conjured her from his secret desires stood B. He breathed her in. His mate. The other half of his soul he hadn’t seen in ten years but whose memory had kept him sane on nights when the darkness had seemed too much to bare.

Her red hair had grown. It fell halfway down her back in waves of curls he knew she hated but he’d always adored. Her eyes, narrowed at him as she stared back in his direction, were usually beacons of blue, calling him out when he’d been foolish, laughing with him when something happened they both found amusing. Pools of heat when she was lost in passion.

The cleft in her chin remained the same. He smiled as he saw it. The little mark had been his favorite part of her body—outside of her breasts, which he didn’t dare tell her unless he wanted to get his eye blackened.

She was the toughest woman he’d ever known.

“Hi, B.” He almost choked on his words. “Long time no see.”

“Don’t call me B. You don’t get to use that name anymore. You….You….You….”

She must not have come up with what she wanted to say because she launched herself into the air without finishing. Shifting midway, she took him to the ground in her full-on black wolf form.

Betty tore at his clothes, shredding his shirt in mere seconds. “Okay.” He called out to her, hoping she’d hear him through the rage he could smell coming off her body.

Drew raised his hands to cover his face. If she wanted to kill him, he supposed she would be entitled to do so. But she stopped and pulled off, darting to the side before she put herself back in her human form.

“I don’t know what you thought coming back here would accomplish.” Her voice hitched, and it nearly killed him. “You should go back wherever you’ve been. Los Lobos and the wolf pack don’t need you, Drew. I don’t need you. Go, run away again. We can all pretend you never came back at all.”

Her words tore at his insides, but he ignored the pain. She’d launched an attack right at him, and the flare in her eyes hadn’t changed. Oh, yes. B was totally pissed at him and would remain that way for a good long while.

“B.” He held up his hands to stop her from interrupting. “I’m sorry, Betty. Elizabeth. Whatever you want. Ms. Holden. We have a lot to talk about. You deserve answers, and I wish I could adequately give you the ones you want. You don’t have to tell me anything. But if you would, could you at least let me know what happened here. Why did this place fall apart?”

She laughed, a cold sound he’d never heard her make before. He tried to ignore the way it made his stomach clench. There were lots of things about her he didn’t know. He’d known what would happen when he’d chosen to go. He had to live with the consequences.

“Everyone is gone, Drew. Anyone who could keep this place together has left, driven out by Magnum’s antics and destruction. Your father, his cronies who never cared in the least about keeping anything nice or cherished, remained. Gee has done his best. Ryker would protect everyone, but he stays in his place in the woods to keep your father from ordering him to do horrible things. His blood oath as pack Enforcer collared him. And then the elderly and the sick. I’ve been trying. But I can’t possibly do it. I can’t paint buildings and wipe brows at the same time.” She threw her hands in the air. “That’s what happens when the people who should be here aren’t here.”

He stood up. Enough. “Where is my father, B?”

Drew had done what he promised. He’d left, stayed away. His father hadn’t lived up to his end of the bargain. For the first time in years, Drew believed he was just the werewolf to bring him to justice.

“What difference does it make? You’ve never been able to do anything about him.”

His woman didn’t believe in him anymore. He couldn’t blame her. But maybe he could do something to help. “Where is he?”

Betty Holden couldn’t believe this was happening. When she’d scented him—his warm, woodsy smell—she’d really wondered if she finally crossed over into the land of insanity from where she would never return. Truth was, she wouldn’t even complain. It would be such an utter relief from her day-to-day struggles she’d taken the permanent trip to la-la land to get away from here.

But here he was. Drew Tao. Her mate. Who had left her. Who had taken her heart, stomped on it, and left it to wither and die. Screw his stupid, ridiculously perfect face, his dark eyes, his sculpted eyebrows that just looked perfect naturally, and the horse he road in on.

Another growl sounded in her throat. She’d already attacked him and, unfortunately, had realized one minute in she would never really be able to kill him. Fighting proved fruitless.

So, damn it. She had to get him out of her town, out of her life, before she did something stupid like begging him to explain why he’d done what he did, or worse, asking him to please take her with him.

Drew had never remained as still as he did right then. The version of him from her memory—the one who had proven to be a complete lie—had always been in constant motion. The last ten years must have taught him how to remain in one place. Too bad he couldn’t have learned how a decade ago and not abandoned her. Betty gritted her teeth.