Authors: Marcy Jacks
Tags: #none
There was the scent of more blood. Not his own.
Adam.
Nick told his heart to calm down. There wasn’t nearly enough to
be fatal. Likely Adam had been grazed.
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He was alive, and the first place he would go to was back to his pack, to warn them. Those werewolves posing as hunters would follow him, too.
Nick shifted into his wolf, his claws picking up dirt as he launched himself in the direction of DeWitt’s pack.
The scent of blood picked up the closer he got. Tree branches that he didn’t move out of the way for snapped over his face and body in his haste to just get there and help.
Grunts and shouts sounded. There was the strange scent of some sort of chemical in the air, and Nick knew the pack had been blinded right before the battle could even start.
Then he heard something, in his mind that damn near made him stop breathing.
I’m coming, Nick.
Adam. Nick recognized the sound of his heartbeat and zoned in on it. Another heart, drumming higher—which meant this man was standing over him—was beating faster, more excitedly.
The way the wind blew around them told Nick everything else he needed to know. Whoever this guy was, he was holding something thin and long and was getting ready to bring it down on Adam’s head.
So am I
, he thought, right before leaping into his target.
* * * *
Adam opened his eyes as the giant black blur crashed into Deacon’s side, knocking him down and onto the ground with a loud scream as he fought against the teeth of the werewolf attempting to rip him apart.
Adam didn’t get up. He didn’t move. He was so shocked by what he was seeing that he was basically open season for anyone with a gun to pick off, but no one came for him.
Eventually he was able to look away from the struggle happening before him to see what was going on with the rest of his friends.
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Everyone stopped what they were doing. The sight of Deacon had shocked the hell out of DeWitt’s pack, and for the new werewolves, watching their pack leader being mauled was enough to scare them into dropping their weapons.
Most turned tail and ran away before the same could happen to them.
“Jesus Christ, is that Deacon?” Isaac asked, holding the cut above his eye and squinting at the screaming man under Nick’s body.
Adam should’ve known better. Everyone had been too busy fighting to really hear when he’d outed Deacon’s presence.
“It’s him,” Adam said, getting to his feet. His main concern though, was whether or not that was actually Nick he was looking at.
Deacon still had the machete in his hand, and he eventually remembered to use it.
“Look out!” Adam yelled.
Nick was already one jump ahead of him, leaping out of the way of the attack, but unfortunately, also off of Deacon, who immediately got up and ran in the opposite direction. It seemed Deacon wanted to live to fight another day.
His face looked like ground beef.
“Deacon?” James asked, an angry frown marring his scarred face. “How the hell is it that you’re alive?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, you thieving animal!” Deacon said, though it came out as more of a gurgle with the way his face was so messed up.
He quickly transformed, and even in his wolf state, the blood soaked through his gray wolf hair. He’d definitely seen better days.
He growled at the lot of them, but then, for the first time, seemed to notice that most of his men were either dead or had run away.
He lifted his head and howled, and the few remaining soldiers he’d brought with him howled in return, transforming into their wolves and running in all different directions.
Nick growled, his muscles bunching as he was about to give
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chase.
Adam leaped forth and threw his arms around Nick’s large shoulders, keeping him in place. “Don’t go,” he begged.
Those sightless eyes looked at him.
I can catch him
, he said through their link.
“We’ll get him later, please, Jesus, you just came back from the dead, don’t leave.” He hated himself for sounding so weak and needy. He was an alpha, Goddamnit, if his mate wanted to chase down those pricks then he should be right beside him hunting them along with him.
Nick groaned deep in his chest, but he sat down, curling his bushy tail around his legs, and stayed.
All right
.
“Guys,” James said, waving his hand to call his men together. “Let’s go.”
James jumped forward, shifting in the air so quickly that his clothes shredded. Some of the others, who weren’t as fast during the shifting process, took the time to remove their shirts, pants, and shoes before transforming, running after the leader to hunt down Deacon and the men he’d brought onto the land.
Nick made his shift back into a man, the process fast for him, taking all of five seconds, and when he was able to, he put his arms around Adam’s shoulders and pulled him close.
Adam clutched him like his life depended on it, which, he supposed, it did.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you go. Not yet,” Adam said, fighting the urge to just let his emotions crash over him in an all-consuming wave. His body trembled with the effort.
“It’s all right,” Nick said, petting Adam’s hair and back. “It’s all right to not want to charge into battle once in a while.”
“We’ll hunt them later,” Adam said. “Christ, I just need to hold you right now.”
He pressed a kiss to Nick’s face, his mouth, his eyes, everywhere
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that he could. His mate was alive, and Adam’s body wanted constant proof that his mind was not playing tricks on him by touching him, gripping him as though he would vanish if he let go.
It was then that Adam noticed the slice on his arm. Nick being Nick, was likely already aware that it was there. Fucking Deacon and that stupid machete.
“I should take you inside so we can get that dressed.”
He knew Nick wouldn’t agree with him, but that was to be expected. “It doesn’t feel deep. How does it look?”
Adam’s hands were still shaking as he held into his lover, but he couldn’t lie just to keep Nick here, safe from any more harm. “The bleeding’s stopped. You should be okay for a hunt.”
“And you?” Nick’s fingers found the ruined shell of Adam’s ear. It stung like a bitch when he touched it.
“I’ll be okay. It wasn’t the whole ear they got anyway.”
Nick smiled at him. “Good. Come with me?”
And rip the living shit out of the bastard Deacon? “Hell yes.”
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Chapter Nine
They hunted Deacon and his new wolves almost to the state border, occasionally catching some of the newly transformed werewolves and dealing with them before moving on. Eli took great pleasure in killing the wolves they caught as he searched for the one who had murdered his brother, but his anger was still there as they
ran.
Deacon was the main target. He was the one they really wanted to catch because he was the one to organize the attack.
They wanted to question him as well. Find out how the hell it was possible for him to still be alive, and they ran after him, following his scent for days before finally admitting defeat. They’d caught and killed enough of those new wolves now that Deacon was once more virtually powerless, and James could not stay away from the omegas he’d sent to Phillip any longer without risking that they might lose them to the other alpha.
They had to go back.
No one was pleased about missing out on the chance to kill Deacon, for real this time, and though they were heading home to cooked food and showers, there was no happy chatter along the way.
Adam was probably the angriest out of the lot of them. He and Nick were still in their wolf forms, and the black wolf was
surprisingly calm as Adam walked beside him.
Don’t be mad
, Nick said through their link.
But he was.
He got away
, Adam responded with a growl.
But now we know he’s back
, Nick said. Adam would’ve thought he would be just as angry about missing the chance to kill Deacon,
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considering the way he’d almost died.
He was so Zen about it, it was frustrating.
He doesn’t have the element of surprise on us anymore, and we’ve
killed most of his new pack.
To be fair, Nick and Eli were the ones to do most of that.
Focused on the hunt like Nick had been, he was able to track three
of Deacon’s new recruits, even when they’d tried to hide their scent by running over a shallow creek.
Adam was still trying to figure out how Nick had managed to do that, and he knew James would be asking him to teach it once they returned to their land and everything went back to its semi-normal
state.
Maybe it was just more proof of how skilled a hunter Nick had become ever since losing his sight. Would he continue going off on his assassination missions now that he was with Adam? Maybe he’d let Adam tag along for them. Might be fun.
James stopped them ten hours out from their pack land. It was the middle of the night, and by now even the toughest of his alphas were having trouble going on. Everyone was limping from running for three days straight, even Nick.
No one bothered transforming back into the human forms when they finally had the okay to rest. Not right away, at any rate.
After a few minutes, James asked for volunteers to go hunting with him for rabbits to eat. Eli and Markus went with him, Mick,
Andrew, and Tom took off in their own direction to look for food, and
Morgan let Adam and Nick go off by themselves. The alpha was good at sensing when two people wanted privacy.
Adam was happy to locate a group of hare first, but it was a privilege to watch the way Nick silently snuck up on them. They didn’t know he was coming until he had two of them within his jaws.
Adam was able to catch one before his body refused to go on anymore, and they took their catch back to camp.
As wolves, they only had themselves. There were no supplies to
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build any fires with to cook the rabbits, but as wolves, everyone was content with eating them raw.
There would be no blankets for the night either, save for the warm fur of their coats, and Adam snuggled against Nick’s side. For the first time since they’d gone off after Deacon, he was able to relax and simply listen to the sound of Nick’s heartbeat. Confident in its reassuring drum.
He was startled awake an hour or so later as the memory of Nick being shot transformed itself into a terrible nightmare.
What’s the matter?
Nick asked.
Adam got to his paws and shook out the dust from his fur. There were too many people here. And even if the mind-reading ability werewolves had wasn’t exactly the same amongst pack members who were not mated, Adam didn’t want anyone here to overhear them by accident.
Come with me,
he said.
He trotted into the trees. God, his paws were killing him.
After shaking himself off, Nick followed.
Adam found a soft mossy patch on the ground and allowed himself to sit down in it. He made the shift back into a man, only to
realize how cold that soft moss really was.
Nick, in his human form, sat down with him before he could get up. He wrapped his arms around Adam’s waist, and they held each other tightly.
“What’s on your mind?” Nick asked.
Adam was pretty sure the other man already had an idea. “I saw him shoot you, Nick,” Adam said. The splash of blood and the gunshot itself still replayed over and over in his memory.
“You died. I couldn’t feel you anymore.”
Adam shivered as he spoke, and Nick squeezed him tighter. The slash in his arm had scabbed over and was nearly completely healed.
“I think it has something to do with that pond.”
The pond?
“Deacon was tossed into it after Jason roughed him up. He was
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definitely dead from what I saw.”
Nick nodded. “I asked James about it when we were running ahead of the pack back there, but he doesn’t seem to know of anything special or different about that little bit of water. We’re going to ask your wise woman, Maggie, when we get back. She’s the oldest in the pack. She might’ve heard something about it,”