The Pack Girl's Retribution (Sequel to The Pack's Girl)

He Needs Help

She cracked the door and peered out. Blinking at me through one large blue eye. Thickly lashed and brightened with curiosity as to why I would be there in the middle of the night.

I could imagine how ridiculous I looked, standing there in my billowing white nightdress tossing in the slight breeze. Like a ghost in the dark.

"Jaecar is bleeding. He...Hit his head..."

She hissed through her teeth and stared at me suspiciously. "Are there any males out tonight."

"None but the Border Guards, that I've seen. Why?" It instantly dawned on me how foolish my question was. I instantly recalled how afraid of the night I was when I was unmated.

Now I know the males won't touch me. They'd be ripped apart by my men if they tried.

But Rebekah...

"Nevermind." I said at her startled look.

She doesn't even know how to begin to explain that to me. I remembered how meticulous she was that no males ever entered her hut.

"Show me where he is." She draped a long pink blanket over her shoulders and followed me.

For only a heartbeat I wondered where she would've gotten a pink blanket. Colored wool was very uncommon in the camp.

It's considered finery. I knew that to my core. And for some reason that stood out to me. I decided I'd ask her about it later.

***

"He's this way." I pointed. We rounded the corner of the Hayden hut and she saw Jaecar on the ground.

"Jaecar!" Rebekah hurried to his side. Sliding on her knees to put a hand on his side to verify he was drawing breaths.

I chewed my lip worriedly as I noticed that the pool of blood around him had grown. "I was scared to move him."

"You couldn't have anyway." Rebekah reassured over her shoulder. "He's far too large for you to have budged."

I nodded. Still feeling guilty as I worried he'd not be okay. He was the first one to be kind to me.

I heard a branch crack in the distance and my head whipped. My wolf catching Marta's sent on the wind. I looked down at Rebekah who had a ferocious look on her face.

"Go after her." She snapped. Lip curling. "But be careful."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Find out what that old witch is up to."

Rebekah's clear animosity shocked me.

"I don't want to leave you." I objected. I caught a slight movement next to me and realized someone had moved nearer us without making a sound. Startled I gasped and looked to it.

Realizing Fury had stepped between us without either of us having any idea he was there.

"I'll stay with her."

I gave him a reserved look. Leave a male with her?

Rebekah caught my skirt. Looking from me to Fury. "It'll be fine. He'll look after me."

His large fist wrapped her wrist.

"I won't put a hand on her." He told me so sternly that I was certain there was truth in it.

He's trying to reassure me.

Fury was nothing if not a man of his word.

But why did Rebekah look disappointed?

***

I stood and caught up my skirts to run. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't going to catch up to her like this. I stepped behind a tree and shucked my nightdress. I turned from behind the tree and leapt over a log. Freeing my beast.

I could feel the fur peeling through my pores. Each strand unfurling. A sense of relief rolling over me as I let her go. The she-wolf always scratching from inside me to be free.

But I worried about the consequence of changing. When I was in this form my alluring female scent was more potent for males in the area.

They leave me alone because they know who I am.

But the Mating Moon was getting close again.

And my males are back home sleeping.

They all had tonight off and were getting some much-needed rest.

Hunter had been walking around agitated.

Still annoyed that I haven't yet paid up for my promise.

But I hated the feeling of going from one of my mates immediately to the other. It wasn't that I never did it. But something about it still felt wrong.

I wanted to give Hunter a night. One night I can devote to him as thanks for what he did.

I was loping through the dark. The black slash of darker fur running over my eyes like a mask. The rest of me was glistening white, making me easy to spot in the dark. So, I was working hard to follow Marta's scent but to try and keep tree trunks between me and the direction I thought she might be headed. Toward the back of the wall.

Why?

***

It didn't take me long to figure out the answer.

I caught up to her and slowed my pace to peer around a large tree watching her creeping through the woods.

She was looking furtively over her shoulders.

To see if someone is following.

She eventually reached the large stone wall. Putting a hand to it, she squinted in the dark. Her eyes changed from dark to shining yellow. Her wolf peering out to see in the dark. She dragged her old, withered hand over the stones and uneven boulders until reaching a spot where there was a narrow gap in the wall. Just behind a tree.

She slipped through, her brown dress catching on a few rocks. She jerked it free. Ripping her dress.

Clearly in a rush to get somewhere.

Escaping the pack? I couldn't fathom why she'd want to do that. She's honored here.

Her skills were appreciated, and all the younger females looked up to her. Hanging on her every word.

I sat, winding my furred tail around me. And tipped my head forward. As I relaxed my body and tipped it back, my neck elongated, and I shed the fur in a white and black pile on the ground. Taking the more subtle form of a naked woman. With less scent.

I've no idea what is beyond that wall. And I intended to follow her.

I was so busy changing shape, that I didn't notice the faint scent of another wolf approaching from behind me. Didn't hear the padding of paws moving smoothly over leaves or realize that the speed of their approach should've given me a hint as to who it was.

I should've been paying more attention...