Savage Salvation: A Dire Wolves Mission Read online

  Luc was unable to resist the pull of the blip, the fear that his own mate might be in danger and he needed to protect her, for a single second.

  17

  Cassiel had never wanted to go home more than she did right then. Sadly, she had a feeling if she tried, the women she’d been cooped up with would stop her. Likely without breaking a sweat. They may have looked normal—otherworldly beautiful, though relatively average in terms of size—but Cassiel had already figured out that their brand of normal was simply…not.

  She hugged Moxie a little closer, doing her best to keep all her dogs calm and controlled in the small space. Not an easy feat for sure, but no way was she letting them roam the house or go outside. If something dangerous had come to the Range, she needed to know what it was, how to fight it, and how to kill it. She needed her dogs safe, too.

  And Luc. My god, how she worried about Luc. Even if he didn’t deserve her attention right then.

  “It’ll be okay,” a beautiful blond woman said as she came to sit beside Cassiel, even reaching out to pet Moxie’s ears. “I know this seems really chaotic right now, but it’s not the norm. The men will take care of things, and then we can all go back home.”

  Her voice remained soft and steady, and her movements were quite calm and oddly soothing—Cassiel had never seen anyone as polished and beautiful in real life. But she knew when someone was trying to convince her of something…and when they were trying to convince themselves.

  “Chaotic is an understatement, and I have a feeling going home isn’t going to be an option anytime soon for us.” Cassiel shrugged, unable not to. Unable to keep her cool around predators. Beautiful and poised or not, these women were just like Luc. They were animals inside.

  They were not to be trusted.

  “I think she’s got this situation pegged pretty well.” Another woman—dark hair, golden skin, and with a bundle of blankets in her arms—padded closer, giving Cassiel a friendly smile before looking to the blonde.

  “Charmaine, will you please hold Micah while I run to the bathroom?”

  The blonde—Charmaine—lit up the room with her smile. “You never have to ask, Ariel. Give me that precious angel.”

  Charmaine, Ariel, Micah…angel names. Just like hers. Luc had called her angel a few times, too. Perhaps a coincidence. Perhaps not.

  Cassiel waited for Ariel to leave the room before asking, “Who are all these women?”

  Charmaine looked confused. “We are the mates of the men. Luc didn’t explain our pack?”

  As if. “Luc didn’t explain anything about wolves or even tell me he was one, so no. No pack information was shared. Not any sort of information was shared. I simply mushed up onto your pack, thinking Luc might need help, and here I am.” The lone human. Just her and her dogs and a pack of wolves.

  Totally normal.

  A woman with deep brown skin and short, cloud-like curly hair laughed from her place sitting against the opposite wall. “Sounds like Luc. The silent watchman.” She stood and moved closer slowly, like how one would approach an injured dog. As if Cassiel was a threat. “I’m Michaela. You met Charmaine and Ariel. That freckle-faced cutie over there is Sariel. Momma-to-be is Amy, and the bitch with the glower in the corner is Zoe.”

  “I heard that,” said the bitch with the glower in the corner. Who was actually glowering out the window. And not really glowering but looking worried. In fact, all the women looked worried. Not a good sign.

  “You know I love you.” Michaela sent Zoe an air kiss then shook her head. “We’re all family here, Cassiel. All pack. We take care of one another.”

  But not her. She wasn’t pack—she was just a girl too stupid to figure out the man who she’d thought was too good to be true really was. “I’d like to go home.”

  Michaela’s smile fell, and she glanced toward Zoe. “Oh. Well…no one is keeping you here, but it’s dangerous out there right now.”

  Zoe moved away from her post at the window, beelining for Ariel’s side when she walked back into the room. “Until we know what the threat out there is, it’s safest in here. With us.”

  Michaela patted Moxie’s head. “How about you sit with us until everyone comes back, then we’ll get you home?”

  Cassiel took a deep breath, hugged Moxie closer, and voiced her greatest fear at that moment. “What if Luc won’t let me leave?”

  Six growls sounded in the room, upsetting her dogs. Every woman stared at her, all looking fierce and ready to fight, all so much more animal than human in that moment.

  It was Ariel who spoke, baby back in her arms and eyes lit with a fire Cassiel had never seen before. “No one will hold you against your will, Cassiel. If I can’t guarantee that, my mate will. And Luc may be Alpha of this pack and the biggest Dire Wolf, but Thaus never loses a fight. He will fight for your freedom.”

  The other women all nodded, throwing their support into the mix. Their confidence, their willingness to fight for her right to leave, soothed something deep inside her. Something she hadn’t even realized needing soothing. She had a posse of women at her side, ready to make sure she wasn’t held against her will, ready to fight for her. And she had a feeling they weren’t messing around about that.

  She liked these chicks.

  Time crawled. As angry as Cassiel had been and as filled with fear as the wolves had made her, those emotions couldn’t overpower the worry in her gut. The worry for Luc. Why she was so concerned about him, she wasn’t sure, but she was. And she hated herself a little bit for that fact.

  It didn’t help that the women around her seemed worried, too. They had all grown quiet as the minutes had passed, more and more of them looping by the lone window to look outside. Sighing and walking away when they didn’t see what they wanted to out there. Ariel and Charmaine had used the term mates, so Cassiel assumed the men were like husbands to the women. She understood that—the need to make sure the one you loved was safe. She definitely understood that.

  And she really, really hoped Luc was okay out there, even if she was still mad at him.

  It was a thump outside that brought all of them to their feet, the silence that ensued charged and deadly. The dogs all went stock-still, ears up and eyes locked on the same spot. Even the baby seemed tense, everyone in the room turning and staring at the door.

  “I’ll go,” Michaela said, peeling herself away from Zoe and Ariel.

  “I’m coming too.” Sariel joined her, the two women creeping toward the door together.

  Cassiel snapped her fingers for the dogs to follow her. “Might as well make it a party.”

  Michaela glanced down at the dogs and frowned at Cassiel. “This could get dangerous.”

  “I’m okay with danger,” Cassiel said with a shrug, as if danger plopped its fat ass on her porch every day for a morning coffee. She shouldn’t have been so casual, but she couldn’t help it. Anything to move this party along so she could go home. But also, there was a baby and a pregnant woman in the room—no way could they fight. Cassiel believed in taking care of those weaker than yourself, so of course, she’d jump in to help.

  Michaela finally nodded. “Fine. But if it’s not one of the Dire men out there, I want you to shift.”

  “Shift what?”

  The women all seemed to hold their breath, staring at Cassiel in a way that made her skin crawl. What the heck had just happened?

  It was Michaela who jumped in with a question. “You don’t know how to shift?”

  Cassiel glanced around the room, feeling really, really stupid. “Sorry, but I have the same question—shift what?”

  “Oh,” Sariel said, looking at Ariel. “This makes so much more sense now.”

  “What does?”

  But no one had time to answer because the dogs exploded into a cacophony of barks and growls, all focused on the door in front of Michaela. The woman jumped back just as the slab of wood was swung open.

  By a child.

  The tiny girl stood in a raggedy dress, filthy and wa
y too skinny but with bright eyes that seemed to take in everything at once. Cassiel pushed the dogs behind her, shushing them, unsure if this little person was a threat or someone who needed protection. She edged toward the latter but didn’t voice that opinion, letting everyone else regain their footing first. A child bursting through the door likely hadn’t been something the women had been prepared for.

  It was Amy—the quiet, pregnant one—who spoke first. “Are you okay, little one?”

  The child darted a look her way, seemingly scared. Terrified, really. Cassiel wasn’t sure whether she should help the kid or drop kick her out of the house. She’d seen horror movies—she knew how bad kids could be. Innocent-looking little packages of evil, some of them.

  But the little one didn’t attack or grin or say creepy things. Instead, she teared up, and she swallowed hard before she whispered, “I don’t know if I’m okay, but I need help.”

  Loud bangs and growls sounded from behind her, making the little girl spin and squeal. Sariel jumped into action, picking up the child and clutching her against her chest. All the women—Cassiel and her dogs included—jumped in front of the child. Protecting the weakest.

  “What’s the threat?” A huge and downright vicious-looking man with no clothes on said as he hit the open door, beelining for Ariel and baby Micah. The man had to be her mate, Thaus. “Are you okay?”

  Everyone froze again when the little one in Sariel’s arms whimpered, obviously terrified of the hulking male stranger in their midst. Well, stranger to the child and Cassiel. He was pack to the rest of them. Family.

  How they all weren’t scared of him anyway, Cassiel might never know.

  “Sariel.” A light-eyed man with a soldier’s stare stood in the doorway, also naked, looking toward the freckle-faced woman with the little girl on her hip. “Whose child is this, and where did she come from?”

  Sariel turned, almost as if to protect the little girl from the man in the door. “We don’t know. She just…showed up.”

  Luc appeared behind the light-eyed man, looking at Cassiel, breathing hard. As much as she wanted to deny it, Cassiel had never been more grateful to see someone in all her life. Luc was still alive, still whole, and still looking at her as if she mattered to him. Her heart actually thumped, and her body responded to his closeness. But his nakedness. Did none of these people believe in staying dressed?

  Luc didn’t seem bothered by his lack of clothing. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” Cassiel stepped closer to Luc, the two coming together separate from the rest of the group. She rose onto the balls of her feet and whispered, “The little girl just showed up and said she doesn’t know if she’s okay. We have no idea who she is.”

  “We need to find out. A child shouldn’t be alone in the woods like that. Not even one…” He paused, looking toward Sariel and the little girl. Frowning. “Like me.”

  Like him. Like someone who could turn into a giant predator. A wolf. “Is she like you?”

  Luc shook his head, looking confused, unable to stop staring at the little girl. “I can’t tell—”

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Luc spun, pushing Cassiel deeper into the room. Three men rushed inside, all naked, none familiar to her. They must not have been familiar to the other women either, because someone screamed. Luc, Light-eyes, and Ariel’s mate jumped into action, fighting and snarling and being more violent than she’d ever seen someone be. The rage on Luc’s face as he attacked the men, the harshness of his actions, made her blood run cold. These men were killers, plain and simple, and she needed to get away from them.

  But there was nowhere to go.

  Suddenly, a fourth man rushed into the room, which had dissolved into pure chaos. He headed straight for Cassiel, who had the unlucky privilege of being the one closest to the door. The man grabbed her by her throat before she could retreat, before she could scream. Her dogs, bless them, attacked en masse, all six of them biting, jumping, and snarling at the man as Cassiel grabbed the hands on her throat and tried to peel them away. She wasn’t successful—in fact, she was pretty sure the only thing her embedding her nails into his hands did was piss him off.

  The man growled in her face. “Don’t even think of trying anything.”

  And then he kicked Moxie square in the ribs, the dog squealing in pain as she was thrown across the room.

  “No,” she gasped, unable to take in enough breath to scream. “Stop.”

  Luc spun, only just then noticing the added threat. He slashed at the man he’d been fighting with fingers that looked like claws, growling low as he stepped closer. As he hunched and glared at the man holding Cassiel.

  “Let her go, Rudkin.”

  The man only increased the pressure on her throat, making her whimper. “Give me the child, and you can have her.”

  Luc shook his head, unable to catch Cassiel’s eye. “That’s not an option, but you need to take your hands off my mate.”

  The argument continued, but Cassiel could no longer hear the words being spoken. She could only stare at Luc, only had the energy to hold his gaze as something inside her responded to him. Something deep and dark and burning. A pulsing sort of energy built from her gut, a low growl rumbling up her chest. Shift, Michaela had said. And suddenly, Cassiel thought she might just have known what the woman had meant. Something not of her but inside of her wanted out, and she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to stop it. So she gave Luc the tiny nod that she could, and she closed her eyes. Preparing for her own little death. Assuming either this thing inside her or the man with his hands on her throat would kill her.

  But it was Luc’s voice that set her bones on fire.

  “Cassiel, shift.”

  18

  Luc had never felt as much fear course through him as in the moment when he’d seen Cassiel hanging from Rudkin’s hand. Her soft, human form was so weak, so fragile against one of his kind—no way could she withstand the attack. So he’d done the only thing he could think of—he’d given her an Alpha order. Called to the wolf inside of her that she didn’t even know about. Infused her with the power of his Dire lineage and his own strength and ordered her to shift.

  The fates help him, he’d forced that on the poor woman with no warning.

  But the distraction her slow, painful shift caused to Rudkin, the pure horror written over his face as he stared at her instead of at the men he’d been fighting, gave Luc enough time to attack. To set upon the man who’d erroneously put his hands on Luc’s mate. The man who needed to die.

  Luc partially shifted, bringing out his claws, relishing the feel of his teeth lengthening and filling his mouth with sharp points. Ones he put on display as he lunged at Rudkin while releasing a vicious snarl. There was no other warning for Rudkin before Luc had his claws deep in the man’s neck. One swipe, one plunge with his claws, and the man dropped. He’d be dead in moments, once he bled out right there on the floor.

  Cassiel still had not fully shifted forms, so she fell with her captor. Luc adjusted course mid-step, sliding his body forward as his mate finally completed her shift. He caught Cassiel’s wolf—the tiny, light-colored beast barely bigger than one of her beloved sled dogs—as she fell toward the ground, punching with his other arm to push Rudkin’s unconscious body away from her. The man could bleed out and die on that floor; Luc had more important things to worry about.

  Still, his attention stayed split, a small part on the fight raging around them and the majority on Cassiel. His mate looked tired and weak, and Luc worried he’d have to stop fighting to shore her up, to herd her someplace out of the way and safe.

  But Cassiel hadn’t come to the homestead alone. With ears pricked and noses wriggling as they scented the little wolf of their owner, Cassiel’s sled dogs approached. Slowly and with their heads low, they surrounded her. Supported her. Moxie even licked her ear as if to say We know you. Luc couldn’t have asked for a better sign.

  “Good dogs. Keep her safe,” he said before diving full force in
to the battle. Six more of the Brooks Range pack men had joined the fray, and all of his Dire brothers were also there. The entire upper room had exploded into chaos that slowly leaked out the door and down the stairs, through the living space and out into the late evening light.

  Even as Luc followed the fight out of the house, he kept his attention divided Kept watch on his Cassiel. Wobbly. That was the only way to describe her during those moments—like a newborn deer or lamb, she rocked and stumbled, her legs looking ready to collapse under the pressure of supporting her weight. But she was there. She was outside with her pack of dogs still taking care of her. She was also beautiful and worth fighting for.

  Luc dispatched two more of the pack wolves—nearly beheading one who’d tried to rush past him toward where the women had stationed themselves—before realizing that the pack had been decimated. Only one Brooks Range member remained—a short, thick man with long dark hair and more attitude than sense.

  “I’m not telling you nothing.”

  Phego sighed as he held the man on the ground. “I do so hate a double negative.”

  Luc almost laughed. “Find out what we need to know.”

  His Dire brother—the one trained in a ridiculous number of methods to torture shifters and humans alike—shot him an arrogant look. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll get what we need.”

  Of that, Luc had no doubt. He left Phego to his job as torturer and information-gatherer, heading straight for Cassiel.

  “Are you okay, angel?”

  The wolf didn’t meet his gaze, her dark eyes locked on the ground at his feet instead. She was far from okay, but she seemed to be dealing. Luc couldn’t really expect more than that, but Phego was about to get to work. Things would likely get a little worse once he did.

  Luc knelt before Cassiel, patting each of her dogs—all of whom had stayed right by her side during the fight—before asking, “Will you let me guard you? I really don’t want you to have to see what my brother is about to do.”