Wilder stood watching as Drayton limped to the wooded area with Hunter and Devin walking beside him. A silent sigh rushed through his lips, but he turned his head thinking about the task ahead of him. There wasn’t but one thing to do. Go after Bane alone. How would he handle Bane knowing that he held Adrienne, and may have caused injuries to her mind or body?
Will his emotions come into play when dealing with Bane? Was the talk he had with his sons just that talk?
Hunter and Devin extended their hands, but Drayton rejected their help as he made one more painful step in the direction of the camp. Hunter lagged behind, hoping he could go with his father because Drayton didn’t relish the help he offered him.
There was no way Drayton would appear weak in front of his nephews. Drayton thought it’s a sign of weakness for a true warrior to receive help. He wouldn’t ask for it, or accept it even if he was clearly in anguish. He is in excruciating pain, yet his will is strong, and he knows he can endure all just to hold Adrienne one more time.
Before they entered the forest, Drayton turned back to Wilder, his eyes barely open, with a feeling of hopelessness descending over him. He wanted to be the one to bring Adrienne home. He wanted to be the one who challenged Bane, to bring him down. It was a matter of respect. It was a matter of him being Adrienne’s husband. It was a husband’s right to defend his wife, and now that was left to Wilder. And he had promised Robert to bring Mena back to him.
Drayton forgot that Wilder had as much to lose and as much honor to defend as Drayton, or maybe more. Wilder is the one who first laid eyes on her, who mated and loved Adrienne, and it was Wilder who Adrienne declared that she could never love another as much as she loves him.
“Wilder, bring Adrienne home. I don’t care how, or what you have to do, bring her back to,” he wanted to say bring her to me, but he looked into Wilder’s eyes, and he knew it wasn’t just him who loved her, “bring her back to us. I don’t care what Bane has done to her. I need her.”
A look came over Wilder and he nodded, watching at the ground thinking, wondering about what she’s doing now. Wondering if he would still find the beautiful woman he loved. Had Bane broken her?
When Wilder raised his head, a flash of his steel blue eyes showed. He had been transformed into the lone werewolf. The hunter who always gets his prey. The hunter that brings down wild animals and men. A hunter with a single purpose. To kill or be killed. His eyes wandered and his gaze caught Hunter and he stood staring into his son’s eyes.
The son he named Hunter, because in him, he saw himself before he met Adrienne. A werewolf that was neither man nor beast, but he possessed the coursing desires of both running through his veins, and if not checked, would have destroyed him, and he would have remained a bloodthirsty hunter.
It was Adrienne who tamed the beast and gave him his sons Hunter and Devin.
“Father, I’m going with you.”
“You have to learn to listen,” Wilder’s voice hoarse and strong. “Now go with Devin. There is a reason I don’t want you along. I have to find your mother on my own. Bane is an adversary that you aren’t prepared for yet.” He placed his hands on Hunter’s shoulders and turned him around to face the path Devin and Drayton had taken. He hit and pushed him hard and Hunter understood. He had felt his father’s strong hand on many occasions when he tried to venture into the woods alone.
“You will have your time to fight, taste hardship, love, and experience sexual passion, now go take your uncle home and wait for me to bring your mother back.” Hunter walked slowly away measuring each footstep. Looking back, as he headed in the direction of the forest out of the clearing, his father was no longer there.
He appeared baffled at his father’s words and quick departure. He didn’t understand what Wilder meant by love and sexual passion. He had no concept of sexual passion because he had not come into that age. He was still a young cub for the moment. But he was growing fast. He grew quickly because he was part werewolf, but his manhood hadn’t taken over consuming every waking hour of his life, and that human part of him hadn’t blossomed where he would know sexual passion.
Hunter’s stature soared. He was already a foot taller than Devin. But he hadn’t reached his father’s height and wasn’t as strong and cunning as Wilder, nor had he ever had a yearning for a mate. He was still a young teenager in human years, but in werewolf years, he was close to maturity.
Hunter would have to learn about love and it would come, but with time.
Walking to the end of the woods with its tall Pines looming above him with a hint of sunshine rarely showing through, Hunter is in deep thought. He enters dense snow covered brush. The path is clear now. He follows footsteps left by Devin and Drayton, and soon catches them.
Wilder spent no time disappearing into the woods. He continued on his course of tracking Bane and Adrienne. He didn’t have time to lose on sentiments and worrying about his brothers and sons. After running for two miles, Wilder decides it’s time to shift. He can travel faster this way, and he can prevent hunger from taking hold of him slowing him down. His thick white fur can protect him from the cold, and it is a perfect camouflage in white fields filled with snow.
To maintain his strength, he needs fresh raw meat. Game is plentiful this time of year. He would find it near a river, and so he traveled along the frozen river banks to the scent of Adrienne. As a hunted werewolf, Bane would keep to the rivers to throw him off their scent. But it was futile because Wilder knew all of Bane’s tricks.
Hours passed as he ran at his top speed only taking time to make sure he still had Adrienne’s scent, but he became weak because of lack of sleep. He knew that he had to catch up with them soon. The direction Bane was traveling was north. And then it came to him that he was taking her to Alaska. Wilder had heard rumors of a compound Bane had been building, but he thought it was just that, a rumor. Only Alaskan werewolves born and remained there could traverse the harsh winters in the far north. Bane didn’t appear to be a werewolf who would want that kind of existence so he dismissed the idea. That would be a mistake on Wilder’s part.
Wilder had to rest and eat. Replenish his strength if he was to find Adrienne before they reached Alaska.
After stalking and eating fresh meat, Wilder felt strong. He would be ready for Bane. Walking out of the forest into a clearing, he looked up, and there is a motel setting on the fringes of a small town near a half frozen lake he had been following. Shifting back, he took his shirt, jeans, and boots out of his back pack and animal pouch, he dressed, and strolled into the motel to ask questions.
A young man standing behind the counter busy talking on the phone, glanced up at him in wonder, and he ended his call by saying to the person on the other end, “We have a guest and he’s not wearing a coat. Second one in two days imagine that.”
“Have you seen a man about my height and size?” Wilder said without a greeting. There wasn’t time for small talk and he wasn’t the type to engage in small talk. He was most times serious, but especially now.
He’s looking the young light haired man in the eyes. His brown eyes are overpowered by Wilder’s icy blues. It’s an easy question for the young man. How many strangers do they get wanting to rent one of the cabins and paying in cash this time of year? He had just mentioned to someone over the phone that there was another guest not wearing a coat in this cold false spring weather.
“Only one other stranger, and yes, he was your size.”
“Did he have a woman with him?” Wilder’s voice is desperate and breaking. That was all Wilder was concerned with. Whether Adrienne was still alive.
“Yes. I believe he did. I saw her get out of an old truck, red I think it was with dents.
When the man exited the lobby, he appeared upset. He looked around for the young woman as if he thought she had run away.”
Wilder prayed that if she was still alive that she didn’t try to run. This wasn’t the perfect time of the year for getting lost especially since bears and wolves were roaming the river banks looking for food.
“Can you remember how she was dressed?”
“I think she had on a large fur coat. I don’t think it was the kind of fur you see around here. She had on a pair of those Ugg boots. You know,” he smiled at the thought of the boots. “The kind a young woman would wear. I remember them because my girl wanted me to buy her a pair. They were too expensive and I told her maybe next year.” He hunched his shoulders knowing that he couldn’t afford them next year or the next. It was just something he said to appease his girl.
Reaching into his pocket, Wilder pulled out three hundred dollars, and handed it to the clerk. “Here, buy your girl a pair. Thanks.” The clerk stared at the money in his hand. And Wilder turned, and headed outside looking down studying for signs of them in the melting snow. He moved cautiously to the back of the motel entrance tracking them to the last cabin.
His nose lifted in the air. There was a strong scent of Adrienne. He touched the door, it opened, and Wilder walked inside. The room hadn’t been cleaned. Yet by the scent he knew they hadn’t been gone long. Wilder stood looking at the one bed. Anger simmered inside of him. He had to hold on to a chair to control himself. He felt like tearing up the bed. He knew Adrienne had slept in it with Bane because he smelled an intermingling of their scents.
Wilder picked up the mattress with his large hands and brought it close to his nose. He had to be sure, and when he smelled both scents merging, he was sure. It was obvious to him that they had lain in that bed together.
His human mind with its focused anger and chaos got the best of him and he became blind with jealousy. The very thing that he had instructed his sons about was overtaking him to the point where he couldn’t think with a clear head. Emotions were dictating his actions and thoughts.
He dropped the mattress on the bed and ripped it to shreds. He couldn’t handle the idea that she was in Bane’s arms and that he probably sexually abused her. It appeared there wasn’t a struggle from her. She must have wanted him and giving herself to him freely, his mind thought.
He knew Bane. Bane took women from behind. He fucked them in a private place that Wilder wouldn’t think of doing to Adrienne if she didn’t want him to. Now he has taken something, that part of her body, that part of him which had been private and precious.
Wilder thought like a human. He thought about love, not lust. That notion confused him as so many human emotions do. He understood the beast emotion of lust and satisfying that emotion, but love made him weak, and he had to separate himself from that emotion if he was to find Adrienne and bring her home.
He would have to face the reality that Adrienne was no longer his, and that she had been marked by his nemesis. Bane had taken his precious mate and ruined her. He knew what he had to do to Bane, but he was conflicted when it came to Adrienne. Maybe banish her and feel the wrath of Lycell and Drayton and perhaps his sons, also. Try as he may, he couldn’t separate the human emotions from the werewolf in him.
Wilder began to detest Adrienne because he thought she was different, but now he thinks that she’s like all the other human females he had come into contact with. When the werewolf Wilder asked Adrienne to mate him and his brothers, he thought he was building a wall between her and his heart. He didn’t want his heart to dictate and control him. But that didn’t work. He became more jealous, and man like in his behavior, the more he fell in love with Adrienne.
Wilder tried not to love Adrienne now that he knew what he thought was the truth, but he couldn’t control that human part of him, and he tried to fight against it. When he emerged from the cabin, he had a new purpose. He had to find both of them and initiate harsh punishment. He was the law and they had broken the werewolves’ law.
No Alpha would take another’s mate unless he was given permission, and no female would willingly submit to her captor.
Hunter and Devin along with Drayton finally reached the campsite where Robert was tirelessly working to save Lycell’s life. Robert looked up in shock and saw Drayton limping and blood trickling in a steady stream on the snow like a red carpet. He knew Drayton was in trouble. He stopped administrating pain medication to Lycell, and rushed to Drayton’s side.
Meeting Drayton and the others half way down the muddy path with broken ice, pools of water, Robert saw that Drayton couldn’t walk any further. His feet were dragging and Hunter and Devin was carrying him along. Robert stopped and faced the twins with wide eyes and panic in his voice. He shouted, “Where is Mena and Adrienne?”
“Wilder set out after Adrienne, alone,” Drayton said his eyes couldn’t meet Robert’s. They closed and his head dropped forward. He had failed at his promise.
“I want to know about Mena,” Robert said with dread in his voice and with his facial expression filled with fear. His face moving to Hunter and his hands holding on to Drayton’s shoulders not conscious of Drayton’s deep wounds to his neck. Drayton didn’t scowl from pain. He knew that Robert was upset, and that he wasn’t able to keep his promise of bringing Mena back. He couldn’t he was weak and there was no fight left in him. None at this time.
“She was gone when we arrived...” Drayton couldn’t finish the story.
“Where is she? Tell me,” Robert said with a strong and demanding voice and tone.
“Her father had contracted Bane to send her back to Alaska. He promised Bane that he would support him against us,” Hunter said looking in Robert’s panic eyes.
“He has my children and my wife,” Robert shouted his voice trailing off like a defeated man.
“He has my wife, too,” Drayton said quietly going in and out of consciousness.
Hunter took Robert’s hand from Drayton’s shoulder, “Bane has my mother. I know my father will do what he can to get Mena back, but he has a single purpose and that is to find my mother and bring her home. She’s the one in danger now. But I will make you a promise. If you take care of my uncles, I will go to Alaska and bring Mena and your family back.”
“Then why didn’t you go with your father. You’re old enough,” Robert says looking up at Hunter after applying a tourniquet to Drayton’s shoulder and administering medicine to control his loss of blood.
“My father forbade me and instructed me to return here. I didn’t want to disobey him.”
Lycell raised up as he came from under the medication. Robert rushed over to him inside the tent.
“Don’t move. You’ll break those stitches.” Lycell didn’t listen. He pushed Robert out of the way. And walked over to Drayton.
“Where is she?” His weary eyes blinking.
“Bane has her,” Drayton says.
“Then why are you here?” Lycell questions with a weak voice aimed at Drayton.
“He’s hurt,” Hunter said standing between Lycell and Drayton. “My father said that we should return to camp.”
“Drayton is still standing. He should be hunting them.” At that moment Drayton’s eyes rolled back and his tongue lolled to the side of his mouth, and he collapsed. Devin and Hunter picked him up and headed him in the direction of the SUV.
“He needs urgent care,” Hunter said turning to Robert.
“Then I’m going after them,” Lycell said halfheartedly. He was still frail from the mauling and if Lycell and Drayton didn’t get back to the ranch they both would die and Robert knew it.
“Lycell get in the car. We have to get you and Drayton into the hospital and quick. I’m calling my team because Drayton is in worse shape than you.” Robert walked in the direction of the SUV where Devin and Hunter stood waiting.
They left the campsite standing and were off, and headed back to the ranch.
“What happened to Drayton,” Lycell asked Hunter as Devin watched in silence. Devin rarely spoke. He observed with keen eyes. He’s calmer, and more like Wilder. Hunter is like Lycell in his temperament—impulsive in his methods of behavior.
“He fought the blond one. Bane had taken my mother and left him there to fight his battle. I suspect that he knew he couldn’t win with all of us. But he didn’t know that it would be only a few. In that way he was lucky and we were unlucky,” Devin said with quiet fury.
“Did Drayton win?” Robert asked.
“He was the last werewolf standing, so in that way I guess he won.”
“What about Wilder?” Lycell inquired.
“Father knew that Drayton was no match for Bane. He would take on Bane alone, but he had to be well to do that. He interrogated the beta werewolves after the fight, and had them agree to obey the laws if he let them live.”
“That’s just about right. Wilder and his laws,” a distrustful Lycell said. “We are the only ones who obey the laws. When those werewolves get the chance they will break every one of them, and we will have to fight the same werewolves, and the same battles again. If it was me...”
Drayton half opened his eyes and said, “We know what you would do. You would have slaughtered all the males and taken the females.”
“That was the old me. Adrienne calmed me,” he said thinking about her longingly. “My sons have settled me down, too. I just want her back and I want Bane dead.” Lycell fist hit the car seat.
“Like I said. We know what you would have done,” Drayton added and his head fell back.
“Under the circumstances could you have done less?” Lycell shouted. Drayton was passing in and out of consciousness from the powerful sedative that Robert had given him and the shot to lessen his blood loss. He slumped over in the back seat in front of Hunter and Devin.
“When will we reach the ranch? Drayton is hurt badly. I saw that fight and it was something. I couldn’t have fought the blond werewolf,” Devin said.
“I could. But father wouldn’t let me,” Hunter said with the arrogance of youth.
“There was a reason he forbid you from fighting,” Lycell said turning to face Hunter.
“I know, but when will I ever be ready if all father wants to do is protect us,” Hunter said.
“You will get your chance to learn. It’s a dangerous world out there for werewolves. You have humans ready to hunt us down and destroy our kind. And you have the other humans denying that we exist, is that right Robert?” Lycell said turning to Robert with a weak smirk.
Looking at Lycell with worried and concerned eyes, Robert said, “You’re right.” His voice is quiet and non-threatening.
“I see the ranch,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s eyesight and instincts were becoming acute as he matures. Very soon, he will have to go out on his own, he as well as Devin. Lycell knew it, and there would be no way of stopping Hunter then. He wished that Wilder would be around. Lycell wished that Wilder would bring Adrienne home before Bane took her over and mated with her.
Lycell’s sensibilities weren’t as inflexible as Wilder. He could forgive Adrienne of anything. He knew what a werewolf like Bane would do to a human female. He loved Adrienne for all that she is—the mother of his pups, and the female that made him feel like a man. He knew himself and there was a time if he hadn’t met Adrienne, he would have been as heartless and womanizing as Bane.