Home -- Wolv book 3

Chapter 9 - "I love you."

Warning: Cavities

Today was the day.

The big hunt. All of the Alphas were leaving the den bright and early, off to trek north through Atikaki towards the caribou herd. Before the sun had even risen, before any of the Omegas were awake, twenty-three large, muscular wolves padded softly out of the den.

Twenty three wolves...and Nadie.

She looked down at her brown-furred paws as she stood at the entrance of the den. She didn't want to go on this hunt; she wasn't ready to hunt big game, and she knew it. So did all of the other Alphas...but none of them said a thing.

Nadie squinted her eyes and shot a quick, longing glance back into the den, letting her eyes rest on a small, blonde figure, curled up in the Omega's half of the den, and then leapt out of the cave to follow the others.

You jerk.

The blonde fur-ball back in the den was her friend, Humfrey. At least...he had been her friend. Now, she wasn't so sure.

The past week had been a special kind of hell for her. After being bitten in the middle of the night--by, as she'd later learned, the pack leader, Kémé --she'd been left alone to her own devices. She had chosen to paddle home, only to be found by Scott Abrams' goons halfway down the Bloodvein River. They'd tranquilized her AGAIN, and had taken her back to the community.

Nadie grimaced at the memory--what had happened back in Bloodvein had been nothing short of a nightmare. Abrams had chained her up in an abandoned house on the edge of town, threatening to let one of his minions rape her if she refused to tell him where the pack was.

"This is a waste of time, Scotty," Abrams' henchman had sneered, leering over Nadie dangerously. The doctor had been pleading with Nadie to help him find the wolves, but the girl had stubbornly held her aching jaws shut...and Abram's goon, a large, dark-skinned hunk named Max, had been growing impatient. "She ain't saying nothin.'"

Abrams had only shrugged. "She will."

"No, she won't. You're payin' me to take care of your dirty work, so let me take care of it! I'll have her talking in five minutes!"

Max had leaned in even closer, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke onto Nadie.

"I'll get her to talk for ya, Scotty. You'll talk, won't you, sweetie? Cute girl like you..."

As hard as she'd tried, she couldn't forget the awful feeling of Max caressing her cheek, sneering wickedly. She had no doubt that he would have violated her, had Humfrey and Hutch not burst in to save her. She'd never been more happy in her life...but then things had gone from bad to worse.

As Humfrey, Spike and Hutch had lead her out of the community, Abrams had set fire to the forest around them. The fire had spread quickly, and Nadie had been tired from the change that was already wracking her body.

Spike had been killed.

Humfrey had been badly burned.

And Nadie had been overpowered by the change, shifting violently beneath a downpour.

And, since then, for reasons Nadie could not comprehend, Humfrey had completely ceased interacting with her. On the long walk back to the wolves' den, he hadn't said a word to her, and once they'd arrived, he'd flat out pretended like she didn't exist. It wasn't difficult for her to deduce that he was afraid of something--he avoided her gaze like the plague, fear crossing his eyes whenever she finally managed to catch him in a stare.