Ren’s [POV]
“Okay. We can do this.” I whispered, my nerves so tight it took me forever to partially shift my teeth and start chewing on the ropes holding my wrists to the chair.
I was shaking so badly that I nearly tore my wrist off, but I kept chewing frantically until I got free and untied my ankles. I was scared. I’d admit that right now. My bravado and crazy wore off around the time Shane started prattling about our life together, having cubs, and so much crazy that I realized he was out of his mind.
And not cute crazy like me or adorable crazy like Caleb. I’m talking lunatic, killer, dangerous psycho kind of nuts.
Would you stop talking and run already? I’m about to pee myself, and my mind shrieked while my wolf snickered hysterically.
She was completely gone, like off her rocker gone, and no help, so I wouldn’t even bother trying to shift since getting her to give me teeth was hard enough.
“Okay. Both of you, just chill. I need to concentrate, and I can’t do that when you’re losing it. I need to focus.” I warned them as I crept towards the backdoor and peeked through the window.
Seeing it was clear, I silently opened it and cringed when it creaked so loudly it sounded like a gunshot.
Shit!
“Chill. Don’t you start freaking out on me? I’m having enough trouble not losing it, and the Yellow belly is already enough of a drain on me.” I hissed, peeking my head out to sniff quickly.
When I didn’t catch a scent, at least anything close, I did the only thing an intelligent woman in my situation would do. I ran like my ass was on fire, not caring about the direction because, at this point, I was so panicked I’d probably get lost in the grocery store.
Panting, I figured I needed to start working out or shift more regularly to keep my form healthy. Ignoring the burn in my legs and ass wasn’t easy, though, and that was down to the weight I’d gained recently. It was Caleb’s fault anyway. The man was a feeder, and he bought a lot of junk food.
Okay, fine, I baked a lot, and I’d developed a love for wine, but that wasn’t the point!
“Would you shut up! You’re freaking me out.” I whined as I ran, the sound of movement behind me breaking through my panting and wheezing.
We’re gonna die!
“Shut up, just shut the hell up, wolf.” I sobbed, my eyes widening when I focused forward.
Ugh!
Shock slammed into me when I saw an edge coming up, and I dug my heels in, praying I would stop in time to avoid going over. “Oh, God!”
I screamed, the sound bursting out when I felt my feet slip and skitter on the damp earth. Falling on my ass, I skidded, coming so close to a cliff edge I nearly hurtled off before I twisted, rolled, and leaped back to my feet. Panicked, I looked around frantically, searching, needing somewhere to run before they caught up to me.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough, and when I thought about breaking right, I realized I was trapped. A pack of men walked out of the trees, blocking off escape. Shit.
“Now, Ren. Did you think you could get away?” Shane asked, his smile soft as I looked around and tried to consider my options.
With the cliff behind me, I had nowhere to go. Terror hit me. More so when I remembered my dream and a sense of doom curled through me.
“Oh, God. This can’t be real.” I choked, my head pounding as the voices screamed at me to run.
I can’t walk on air! What about you, wolf?
When she didn’t answer, just started to hum the theme song to Mary Poppins, I figured she was a lost cause, and I was on my own.
“Oh, it’s real, Mrs. Sheppard.” A big, blond man said softly, his smile almost tender when he took a step closer. “We mean you no harm. We need some help, is all.”
“I’m not helping you.” I hissed, my eyes darting around as if I could find an escape.
All I needed was a chance, and I’d freaking fly.
“It’s nothing big. I need to know what Walker plans for security around his pack. We’ve been scouting, but their lines are tight and more males are patrolling lately. I want to talk to him.” he lied, smirking when I scowled at him and hissed.
“You want to kill him. Don’t think I don’t know.” I huffed, ignoring the fear I felt because I would never, ever betray Walker, no matter how much trouble I was in.
He’d been my savior for a long time, in my corner despite the difficulties, and I owed him everything. I would never hurt him, not even to save myself, and while I didn’t want to die here or get stuck with Shane, the freak lunatic, I wasn’t doing what they wanted me to. Never.
“Oh, come now. Surely you can’t like him? The male almost let the Sheppard brothers kill you!” the Janus Alpha said, frowning when I narrowed my eyes and glanced at Shane.
Something about this wasn’t right. Something about things for the last while didn’t seem right. I mean, I knew Josh and his stupid brothers wanted to hurt me and swore to kill me, but now that I thought about it, they hadn’t done anything in a while.
“That was you outside my trailer?” I asked, watching them all until Shane smirked.
“No. It was my brother. Little shits were trying to scare you out of there, get you to run to that feral mutt, Caleb Chase. I’m going to have to punish them for that. If not for them, I’d have gotten to you much sooner. But they were sniffing round, and they picked up Rudy’s scent.” He said, nodding to a redheaded man with eyes so beady, I thought of a ferret.
“Don’t do this. I know you’re upset, but you don’t hate me, Shane. Don’t hurt me. Let me go home.” I begged softly.
It’s not like he was decent. He never really was, and no amount of lying to myself would make it so. He was a terrible husband and a terrible man, and this proved how much of a mistake I’d made wanting to love him. It proved that he was irredeemable and my ‘accidental’ killing of him wasn’t worth a second of guilt.
“To Caleb Chase?” Shane sorted, baring his teeth in a cruel smile. “Maybe? If you help us.”
He was lying. I could smell it, and he proved it when he snorted and rolled his eyes at me, snickering cruelly. On the heels of the thought was a flash of something. Like a dream. Except, I knew it wasn’t.
This was some sort of waking vision, and glancing over to where my mind saw them running I gasped. Even knowing that what I was seeing wasn’t real, not yet anyway, I saw something so wondrous it shocked me.
Walker looked pissed, seriously pissed, but it was Caleb who caught my attention most when I saw his eyes. Golden. Two golden, furious eyes burned right before he shifted and turned into the most monstrous wolf I think I’d ever seen. Huge. His wolf was huge and a russet brown, as if his bear and wolf shifted together.
They were coming. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I did. Now all I had to do was buy myself some time.
“You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” I snarled, taking a step back gingerly when he growled and stepped closer. “Your poor mother is so wrong about you, and I doubt she’ll ever accept that. Did you tell your friends here why we divorced, huh? Tell them you turned into a drunk who couldn’t get it up?” I taunted, a scream breaking from me when I realized I’d gone too far.
Shane hissed, his face a mask of fury, and lunged for me so swiftly I flinched back and…
Fell.
Caleb’s [POV]
I roared, every part of me screaming in denial as I broke through the tree line and spotted Ren, her blond hair flying in the breeze just before she was shoved and flew back. Into air. Nothing. A dead void of space that had her plunging away in a blink. All I heard over my roar was her screams, and when my bear and wolf both roared, I stopped fighting something I’d spent months fearing.
I felt it happening, that sick slide of insanity, the raging fury, the madness of the feral state that nearly killed me. This time I didn’t fight it like I tried to last time in an attempt to save myself. I didn’t want to be saved, not now. Not with my mate gone, I thought, agonizing anguish choking me so hard my roar ended on a whimper of crazed grief.
“Ren!”
I heard Cole yell as I started to shift and let out an earsplitting howl. Becoming a monster, I attacked, tearing through males without thought. I tasted blood and heard screams of pain and gurgles of death, but nothing mattered as rage and grief coalesced and overtook me. I killed, not thinking beyond the pain of loss. When I finally got to Shane Sheppard, standing near the cliff’s edge, his eyes a blazing blue that brightened when he shifted, I felt true bloodlust hit me.
Kill, my bear growled, making me aware that I was thinking.
Me. Not my wolf. Not my bear. But me.
“Caleb!” Walker yelled, trying to gain my attention.
But I didn’t give it. I wasn’t insane, not feral, and it was shocking and frightening as I faced off against this male who thought my mate was his to harm. I wanted to be mad, wanted my mind gone, wanted to be… gone. Without Ren, I didn’t want to live, and it had nothing to do with pride. It had nothing to do with my male worth and being humiliated.
It was about her. Knowing I wouldn’t wake up with her every morning and see that smile. Never hear that chatter and the way she talked to herself. It was me, never smelling her sweet vanilla scent or hearing her call me a dick-wart under her breath when she thought I wasn’t listening.
It was Ren. My Ren.
Gone.
Snuffling because the pain was as intense as the rage, I glared at Shane and bared my teeth.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her! I swear I wasn’t. All we wanted was help.” He cried, his cowardice turning my stomach because I couldn’t believe he thought he was good enough for Ren.
This sniveling, weak bully thought he could hold a female as strong and brave as my Ren? I snorted at the thought while my chest burned, and tears filled my eyes, the pain of it nearly crippling.
“Mine.” I rasped, shock tearing through me when I spoke in animal form.
Males went still, falling silent around me, and I heard Cole gasp when he stepped in beside me and laid a hand on my shoulder. I was huge, monstrously big, so he had to reach up to touch me, but I shook him off.
“Caleb. Do it fast.” He said, stepping away when Shane Sheppard suddenly shifted completely and lunged at me.
Part of me, the broken part that had just died with Ren, wanted to turn and bare its throat and let him kill me. The still sane part of me that was filled with a white-hot rage lunged forward and bit savagely.
The moment my teeth sank into him and blood flowed, madness took over. I was hurting so deeply, but the rage was so thick within my blood that when he tried out, my bear growled. It wanted Shane to hurt, and for once, I was letting him have his way. Shaking my head, I flung him away and watched as he landed and rolled, coming onto his haunches.
Shifters are fighters, and as much of a coward as Shane was, even he couldn’t deny the need to fight. He growled, the sound a deep rumble of aggression, and I welcomed it when he lunged at me, his teeth sinking into my foreleg.
“Caleb, stop playing with him.”
Ignoring Walker, I growled and leaned in, biting again. My bear and wolf both rumbled their satisfaction when a whimper filled the air, and then we were rolling as Shane tried to defend himself and snapped at me. The fight was brutal as we clawed and bit, but I was stronger. With two animals inside me, I would always be Alpha in any fight, and this one was no different. Bitten, inured from Shane’s razor-sharp teeth, I threw the wolf off and reared up, letting out a howl of fury. He needed to die now, and when he lunged again, his teeth focused on my throat, I waited.
The moment he thought he was going to win, I turned my head and closed my muzzle around his throat, biting down with a growl of rage that echoed when I shook my head and blood exploded from his throat.
Shane let off a whimper, the sound ending on a bloody gurgle, and fell still. Dropping him, I allowed my wolf and bear a moment to sniff at him and only when they were sure he was dead did I pull back and bare my teeth in victory.
It was over too fast, I thought as I dropped his lifeless body to the ground and shifted, stumbling to the edge of the cliff.
Throwing my head back, I howled with grief, the pain so stark it tore out of me with enough force to make my chest burn.
“Ren!” I roared, my throat straining from the force of my cry before I heard a chuckle, and Cole shoved me to the side.
“Jesus, Caleb, slow your roll, man. If you want to act so bad, maybe you could wait till Ren’s healed and then go try your luck in Hollywood. You’d give Diane Keaton and run for her money”. He muttered, falling to his knees and peering over. “She didn’t fall, man. Look.” He said softly, laughing when I blinked and peered over the edge, my heart stuttering when I saw her.
Lying on a ledge.
“Oh, God.” I groaned, almost collapsing sideways with relief while males all around chuckled, and Trey started to wail dramatically, mimicking my moment of pain.
“You’re never gonna live this down,” Walker muttered, falling beside me while he wheezed and peered at Ren as well, his eyes softening.
“I don’t need to live anything down. All I need is her. Alive.” I whispered, relief making my blood rush so hard I felt light-headed. “Ren is life.”
“Caleb. That’s sappy as hell. Is this what we can expect?” Trey laughed, already coordinating ropes and pulleys so we could lower down and grab my mate.
“Likely. Did you see him wail?” Cole asked, snorting when I snarled and threw them both dirty looks.
“I was grieving. I thought my mate was gone!” I yelled defensively when Walker laughed.
“I’m telling her when she wakes up. Oh boy, she’s going to love this.” Trey mused, his eyes sparkling with unshed tears as we all settled and got to work.
I hoped so.
Because I loved Ren Chase.
The crazy, stubborn, impossible female who had woken me from my nightmares and given me a dream when she burst into my life.