Fangs of Blood and Moon

Chapter 5

Celine

I watched with wide eyes as the man before me morphed into a large wolf. Glowing yellow eyes met mine, and I whimpered in fear. He was huge. The biggest wolf I had ever seen. His fur was a light auburn. Not quite red like the other wolf, but a coppery tone that caught the light and seemed to shimmer. His paws were white, as were his snout and ears. He jumped up on the bed, and I screamed. Reed raced forward and grabbed his coat.

"Alpha! You'll scare her more!" He yelled at the massive wolf, who growled at him. The wolf snapped his teeth, and Reed held his hands up. "Fine. Be that way." The wolf huffed and walked over to me. I wanted to run and pulled against the rope holding me. Then he flopped next to me. Curling his large body against me. His fur was so soft, and he smelled of fresh forest rain. Despite my fear, I found myself nuzzling into the soft, warm fur. He rumbled in his chest with a sound of approval.

I looked up to meet those bright yellow eyes again, and they no longer glowed, but they met mine with an intensity I had never seen. He lay his head down and watched me for a few moments before he shut his eyes. He took a deep breath, and then his body relaxed. I looked up to see that Reed had left. I looked up at my wrists and twisted in the rope. It took several minutes, but eventually I was able to slip free. My skin was burned and bleeding, but I had to get out of here.

I made my way to the door and opened it. I darted for the front door when arms wrapped around me. Suddenly, I was pinned to the wall, and Reed was glaring at me.

"Are you insane?" Suddenly, there was a loud growl, and we both looked at the massive wolf ready to pounce. "She was trying to run away again," Reed said, and the wolf flicked its tail as its eyes went to my hands. "Dante." The wolf looked at Reed. "You can't shift back yet. What do I do with her?" The wolf looked at me, and its eyes went sad. It whimpered and stepped forward. I tried to run, but Reed held me firmly.

The wolf's body seemed to hum in place, and Reed shifted to pin me to the wall with one hand, and the other reached out towards the wolf. Even with one hand, he was easily overpowering my frail body.

"Dante! You can't shift back yet, you haven't recovered!" The wolf growled at him. "You'll hurt yourself. Alpha. Please." He frowned deeply and then looked at me. His eyes shifted yellow, and the wolf growled harshly at him. "Sleep." He said it like a command, and suddenly my whole body felt heavy. I fought the weird feeling, but my eyes drooped closed almost on their own. Then my body went limp, and the world went black.

Dante

Once I was able to shift back, I pinned Reed to the wall and growled harshly at him.

"How dare you!" I growled low and threateningly to him. "You have no RIGHT to command her."

"What do you expect me to do?! Let her run away?!" My wolf wasn't pleased in the least with him.

"Our bond is barely settled. You could have hurt her by trying to use your command like that. It only worked because our bond is still frayed. She is ABOVE you." I growled harshly. As my beta, he could command our pack just like I could. But he should not be able to command my mate. It had only worked because of how fragile our bond was right now. He met my eyes and tilted his chin back to show he wasn't going to back down.

"Dante. This isn't like you." I growled, but I let him go and ran a hand through my hair.

"I know that." I hadn't felt like myself since I had found her. I normally had so much more control. She was testing it in every sense. I looked at him. "She's really fragile. I don't think she's been eating properly." The worry in my gut about my mate was getting harder to ignore. Not only was she trying to flee, but she had clearly suffered before that. Her body was covered in injuries still, despite having treated most of them. Her body was also weak, and it looked like she hadn't eaten properly in far too long.

"How is your bond?" I shut my eyes and reached out to my wolf and the bond to our mate. I could feel it stitching itself together from the damage she had caused it by running. But it felt sturdy and strong despite it. My chest swelled.

"It's strong. She'll make a good wolf. It's nearly fixed, too," I told him, and he nodded. "When she wakes up, she should eat." I looked around the hotel room. The young wolf had recovered, too, and was eating on the couch. "Pack up. I want to get her home before she wakes up again." That way, she couldn't just run off. Reed nodded and went about gathering our things.

We were out of there in 20 minutes, and I sat in the back seat with my mate's head resting in my lap. I knew the sleep command would last until we got back, but I worried about how she would react when she woke up in the packhouse. The young wolf rode up front as Reed drove. He looked back at me several times as I gently brushed my fingers through her beautiful platinum hair. It was nearly white, and it had taken a while to fix it, but it had been worth it.

"Alpha." I looked up as the young wolf spoke. She looked down at my mate. "That place she was in was awful. I saw what they did to her." My eyes narrowed, and then I looked down at my sleeping mate.

"Tell me." The young wolf's eyes went wide, and she started to shake her head when I growled. "I want to know what they did to her." Reed looked back at me but didn't say anything. The young wolf nodded, and she told me all sorts of awful things. How they were starving her and denying her water. How she gave what little she had to the young wolf despite all this. How they forced her to beg for scraps and hurt her anyway.

"I hate humans." The young wolf said, finally, and I glared at her.

"My mate is a human." She flinched, and I sighed harshly. "I hate the ones who hurt her. I wish I could erase all the pain she suffered. Not all humans are bad, but now you know why we have to be careful. You told someone you were a wolf, and they hurt you. My mate is human, and they still treated her in such an awful way." The young wolf nodded, and my mate shifted, whimpering in pain. I heard her stomach growl and shift from being far too empty. "I know, mate. Soon you can eat." I felt the pain for a brief moment down our bond. If I could feel something like that already, then our bond really was very strong. We weren't even fully mated yet.