Wolf on the Run: Shifter romance (Shifters of the Glen Book 4) Read online

  “I’ve texted him.” Jake flashed his phone screen at me.

  I gulped some wine and nodded. My heart started doing an erratic dance.

  “Got it so bad,” Cait teased.

  And I so did.

  “What is it about him?” she asked.

  Her question made me pause. What, indeed? “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “He’s big, and I like it. Never thought I would. You know me, I normally go for the lean, model-looking guys, but I love his size.”

  Not that Boyd held any fat on his bones, but his muscle wasn’t of the cut, lanky variety, more of the bulky type. He looked like a big rugby player. Rugged, broad, and tough, and I liked it.

  “I like his face. And his…presence. He’s calm, but also protective. I even like the way he seems so sad.”

  “Don’t.” Jake’s terse tone made me give him my attention. “Don’t go liking his sadness, because it’s the thing that will keep you apart. I sensed his attraction to you the first time you met. But he won’t act on it.”

  “He likes me?” I breathed the words out like a little girl finding out her first crush wants to take her to the end-of-year dance.

  “Yep. From what I can tell. But don’t get your hopes up. Boyd isn’t in a place to be anybody’s.”

  “Why not?” Cait asked the question I desperately wanted the answer to.

  “He lost his mate. Never got over it.”

  “Oh, no. How? When?” Cait’s face dropped as she asked the questions, and her eyes filled with distress.

  “Not my story to tell.” Jake bit off the words, and his tone brooked no argument.

  Shit. So Boyd once had a mate but lost her. How, I couldn’t guess, but it didn’t seem good from Jake’s reaction.

  “I’m going to freshen up.” I needed some time to think about the things I’d learned. Part of me wanted to turn tail and run on home, but I’d boxed myself into a corner, telling them about my flat. No way would Cait see me in a hotel.

  “I put your bag in the room at the end of the hallway.” Jake jerked his chin toward the stairs.

  “Thanks.”

  Once in the guest room with the door firmly closed, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I relished a bit of time to myself to gather my thoughts.

  First things first, though. I needed to freshen up. I rummaged around in my travel bag until I found my toiletries. I checked out my outfit in the full-length mirror running down one wardrobe door. I’d do, I supposed. My jeans fit okay, plus they were cut on a slight flare so I could wear the Achilles tendon support easily. My top clung around my bust and my potbelly, the thing I hated most of all, and I pulled it away in disgust. Maybe I ought to change?

  A banging at the door downstairs focused my attention. Shit, he’d come early. I dived into the bathroom and topped up my blush. I also gave my eyebrows a comb through and added a slick of lip gloss. With great care, I dabbed concealer around the scar on my cheek. Lastly, I added a sweep of eyeliner and some mascara. I’d been told many times how my eyes were my best feature. They were big and violet. If anything ought to distract Boyd from the scar, maybe my eyes would do the trick.

  I fluttered my lashes and blew myself a kiss in the mirror, but I wasn’t feeling the love. I stuck my tongue out at my reflection instead and marched out of the room.

  As soon as I opened the bedroom door, the deep rumble of Boyd’s voice reached me. My heart rate picked up, and my palms went damp. I’d wanted this meeting with him, and now I had no choice but to face the music and the man of my dreams.

  Chapter Two

  I descended the stairs, trying to school my face into an expression of casual friendliness for the moment I saw Boyd. Rather than the schoolgirl-in-love look I imagined I usually rocked around him.

  I rounded the corner and went into the large kitchen. Boyd sat on the opposite side of the table, seeming to swallow up half the space in the room.

  He let one arm drape over the back of the chair he occupied, while a beer bottle dangled in his other hand. As I walked into the room, his eyes met mine. Warm, rich brown, they made my tummy dip in the nicest way. But those brown eyes ran cold as he looked at me, and a small frown marred his friendly face.

  “Laura.” He dipped his head.

  Maybe he didn’t like the new me. Or perhaps he didn’t want me here at all. Tough. This wasn’t his house. I straightened my spine and tossed him a friendly smile before joining Cait at the stove.

  “Do anything to help?”

  She shook her head. “It’s all done. I only need to put the bread in the oven to warm through.”

  I poured myself some more wine and girded my loins to go and join the men at the table. I sat down and twirled the wine around in my glass, watching it as if it were the most interesting liquid on earth.

  “You’re looking good, Laura,” Jake said. “Don’t you think she looks well, Boyd?”

  Boyd grunted and gave a short nod. Great. Nothing like being damned by faint praise.

  “Did you have a good run?” Cait asked Boyd in the overly bright tone she used when going into peace-keeper mode.

  “Okay.” He took a swig of beer, and I watched as he swallowed. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and my throat ran dry. “Something’s off out there in the woods beyond our compound. I sensed it…almost as if it came after me.”

  His words hit me, making me sit up straight in my chair. They reminded me too much of my dreams. Where I’d be running, always running, through the woods as something truly evil pursued me. Its rank odor filled my nostrils; the roar of something terrible, like the worst howling wind imaginable, screamed after me, and I’d awake trembling and sweating as my arms and legs still twitched with the need to get away.

  “What do you mean?” Jake leaned both arms on the table and joined his fingers, peering over his hands at Boyd.

  “I don’t know. But the last couple times when I’ve been outside the compound, I’ve felt something…approaching… Something bad is coming our way.”

  “Oh, my God.” The words were out before I put my brain filter into gear.

  Three sets of eyes all swiveled my way. Cait’s were warm, but the other two held suspicion.

  “What?” Jake fixed me with an intent stare.

  “It’s only… Well, I wanted to talk to Cait about this first.” I flushed. I hated the way the men watched me. Not unfriendly, exactly, but not warm or inviting either.

  “Are you okay, babe?” Cait came and sat beside me and took hold of my hand.

  I nodded.

  “I think anything you can say to Cait, you can say to me,” Jake said.

  “Don’t be a dick, Jake. If Laura wants to talk to me alone, then she can.”

  “Not if it concerns the pack, she can’t.” Boyd fixed me with a steely glare, then swept his gaze over Cait.

  “Hey, don’t go giving my mate the stink eye.” Jake bristled, and I swore he sat up taller in his chair and squared his shoulders.

  “Oh, for pity’s sake. Stop with the macho bullcrap. Laura and I are going for a girl’s talk.”

  I loved how utterly unafraid of these big, scary men Cait appeared. She hadn’t always been such a strong character, and seeing her come into her own made me smile. Maybe I ought to take a leaf out of her book.

  “I’ll tell you all,” I said, voice shaky. I squeezed Cait’s hand briefly. “I’m fine, honest.”

  “Go on.” Jake gestured with his hand for me to speak.

  “I’ve been having the same feeling Boyd described, but in my sleep. I keep dreaming about this place—and you guys.” I fought down the threatening blush and told myself no one would know I mostly dreamed about Boyd. “I have various dreams about shifters and the village, and they are mostly regular stuff. But every now and again, I have these…the only way I can describe them is hyperreal dreams. They feel as real as the day that follows them. In these scenarios, there’s always something lurking at the edge of the village, in the woods. I’m there and I try to run away, but it never stop
s coming after me. I can’t tell you what it is. Only that it means this place harm, and it feels evil.” I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the creepy feeling of my nightmares.

  Boyd watched me speak, his face increasingly tense. When I finished, he scrubbed a large hand over his face. “Sounds similar to the thing I’ve been sensing.”

  “Fuck.” Jake blew out a long breath. “You think it’s the rogues?”

  “No clue. Could be. But why would I sense them now in particular?” Boyd asked. “There’ve been rogues in the forest for as long as we’ve had a settlement here. Hell, they come from here.”

  “But they’ve been different recently,” Cait put in. “Look at the ones who attacked after my ill-fated camping trip. The two who are still in the medical center are so strange. Stuck in a half-living, half-dead limbo.”

  “How are they strange?” I kind of didn’t want to know. The things scared me to death with their huge, hairy bodies and their part-human, part-monster faces.

  “They are almost completely unresponsive.” Jake’s lips were tight and grim. “It’s almost as if they were programmed to come and attack us here, and after…nothing. Power out.”

  I shivered. “This is the main reason I came here. I wanted to talk to Cait about the dreams, but I wasn’t sure about sharing them with everyone until I’d told her. I mean, they aren’t concrete evidence of anything. The best way to describe it is something horrible coming for me and it roars and even smells, but the worst bit is before, in some ways. Before I run. Then there’s this…calm…like the sense you get of a storm front moving your way. The stillness in the air before the wind gets up and the rain begins.”

  Boyd choked on the beer he’d put to his lips and slammed the bottle down on the table while he coughed until his eyes streamed.

  “Christ, pal.” Jake patted him on the back until he managed to take in a proper breath.

  “Fuck, Laura.” Boyd looked at me, and for the first time, his eyes held no aloof wariness. “Those words.” He shook his head. “Exact same thing I thought to myself today, out there. It’s like a storm is coming.”

  “Well, shit.” Jake stood and stalked across the room. He came back with four small glasses in one hand and a bottle in the other. “I think all this calls for something a little stronger than beer. Tomorrow, I’m going to have a chat with Drew and our father, see what they want to do, but I imagine they’ll call a pack meeting. You might have to speak to everyone, Boyd. You too, Laura.”

  My heart rate picked up, and my palms turned moist. “What? Me?”

  “Yeah, you.” Jake poured a thick shot of whisky and handed me the glass. “You’ll be okay. Simply tell everyone what you’ve told us here.”

  I so wouldn’t be okay. I didn’t do public speaking. Had always hated it. Even small talks to my seminar group at university left me quaking in my boots. No way I’d be able to stand up in front of a group of wolf shifters, for God’s sake, and talk.

  “It’s important, Laura. You can do it.” Boyd touched my arm.

  His fingers brushed my skin for the briefest moment, but in that split second, my whole world changed. A stupid crush morphed into something so much scarier. I felt connected to him, like some old couple with a live wire of shared life experiences stretched between us.

  He pulled his hand away as if my skin burned him. His brows drew down, and he looked at his fingertips for a moment before grabbing his whisky and knocking it back in one smooth movement.

  I stared back down at my arm where the skin still tingled. My heart beat fast, and my skin perspired. Jake and Cait exchanged loaded glances, and I wanted nothing more than to run from the room and go hide somewhere to gather my scattered thoughts.

  I regretted coming. Boyd didn’t want me, yet with one touch, he’d gone and torn up my old life and shown me something beautiful but out of reach.

  Jake refilled our glasses, and I didn’t hesitate to knock mine back. I seemed to be in for a rough few days.

  Chapter Three

  I tossed and turned half the night, terrified of having to speak in front of the group the next day. Jake said he’d talk with Drew and Adam first, but to be prepared to retell my story.

  By the time the sun came up, my fidgety body refused to stay in bed any longer, and I snuck downstairs to make myself a coffee. Jake sat at the table in the kitchen, and I squeaked in surprise.

  “Can’t sleep?” He got up and headed over to the stove to put the metal coffeemaker on to heat. “Me either.”

  “Why can’t you sleep?”

  “Why do you think?” He rubbed a hand over tired eyes. “I’m worried about protecting my mate. She’s precious to me. I’m also worried for Drew and Brooke and Louis and Izzy. Izzy is with child. Louis already lost his family, and in particular, he lost his sister to a rogue. I don’t want him to have to worry about anyone else being torn from him.”

  “Well, we don’t know how real or accurate these…feelings—can’t even call them premonitions—Boyd and I have experienced are. Also, you as a pack can defeat a few rogues.”

  He sighed. “Yes, we can. But from here on out, our females aren’t safe. Rogues are lurking, we’ve known it ever since the attack on the village. The one you witnessed. They’ve never done such a thing. It shows they are either being controlled or are desperate. Either way, I think their end game is to take our females.”

  “Why are the women such targets?” The smell of coffee made my mouth water, and I longed for a cup ASAP. No sleep equaled a coffee-craving morning for me.

  “Females are rare in shifter packs. We don’t produce as many as we do males. For years, it has meant our species numbers have slowly dwindled. We don’t know why, but the same is true for the vampires.”

  My gasp stopped him, and he raised a brow at my flailing hands. “Vampires? Oh, my God! Vampires!”

  “Hey. Shush.” He came over and put his hand on my shoulder. “Keep it down. I don’t want to wake Cait yet. Yeah. Vampires. What, you thought we were the only things you humans didn’t know about?”

  “No. But holy crap. Vampires.” I shuddered. “Are they gnarly and ugly with big, pointy teeth?”

  He laughed. “No. In fact, you females seem to love them. Think they’re a bit girly, myself. They always seem to go around wearing their hair a bit long, and they love their clothes. And their bling… You should see the watches some of those guys have. Their females look like they’ve stepped straight out of Vogue’s pages. They love their style. But they’re in the same boat as us. For hundreds of years now, they’ve produced fewer females, and so they are dwindling in numbers. You have less of something, it becomes an important commodity.”

  “Whoa!” I held my hands up. “Women…females aren’t commodities. They are human beings. Well, perhaps not human, but they are sentient beings. Not things.”

  “Jesus, Laura. I know they’re not things. Do you honestly believe I think of my mate as a thing? But they are rarer than males by a long shot. And sadly, it means those without honor may try anything to get their hands on our females. What’s worrying me is people like Cait, Brooke, and Izzy. Empathines, we knew would always be targets of the rogues. Seriously, a human empathine, male or female, is like catnip to a wolf shifter. Make them female, and add in the fact nearly all rogues are male, and well, you can see why I’m worried.”

  “But Cait’s not an empathine.”

  “No, she’s not. She’s not like you either.” He stared off into space for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. “I mean, you seem to have some sort of connection to us. Possibly a sixth sense that shares some of our feelings or perceives things about us. Cait doesn’t. But still, the moment we…er…we got physical.” He cleared his throat, and his cheeks reddened slightly. I bit back a smile, not wanting to interrupt his train of thought. “I immediately started to bond with her. Shouldn’t have happened. And she found out about this place purely on some whim and connection she experienced to an online photo of our village. Seriously, a
ll of this is adding up to a much bigger picture than we first thought.”

  It suddenly struck me that I might be in danger myself. For a pathetic, girly moment, I wished Boyd wanted me the way Louis, Drew, and Jake all wanted their mates. I doubted I’d feel afraid with the big guy cuddled up to me at night. Jake, Drew, and Louis were all big, but Boyd came seriously built. His shoulders were so broad he dwarfed any chair he sat in. I’d watched him drinking his beer last night, and his hands were massive, his forearms thick and muscular. Yeah, he’d keep me safe. But it seemed I’d made a stupid error. I’d allowed myself to grow attached to people and a place that held no room for me. Without a mate, I doubted I’d be welcomed to stay at the village, which meant I’d have to go home soon and return to my flat where I lived alone. Fuck.

  “Morning.” Cait came into the room and gave a big yawn. Her gorgeous hair hung in loose waves and curls around her shoulders. Even without makeup, her skin glowed. I once more thought how beautiful she looked, and how sad she’d only realized it once Jake showed her. She’d spent years believing herself fat and ugly, when she was anything but.

  “What are you two looking so serious about?”

  “Nothing, babe.” Jake walked over to her and kissed her with a soft brush of lips. “Just discussing the meeting later today. I’m going to head out and see Drew and Dad after breakfast. What are you guys going to do?”

  Cait shrugged. “Not sure. I’d intended to go for a walk with Brooke and Marissa. They want to check out the woods for more herbs, but Drew put his foot down and says Brooke can’t go at the moment. She texted me five minutes ago. She’s fuming.”

  Jake positively scowled. “Babe, Drew’s right. It’s not safe for females to go wandering around the forest unattended.”

  “Oh. So we’re prisoners now?” Cait’s eyes flashed, and I recognized the classic sign of her temper heating.

  “Not prisoners, no. But Louis is coming to the meeting, along with Boyd, so there’s no enforcer to go with you. In fact, we need to train more if the threat level against us is raised.”