Base Nature Page 16

  Garrett ran his hand down the small of her back, feeling her supple skin, watching the small amount of light from the bedroom window play across her jaw, her cheekbones. She shivered made a small noise, pressed her body back to meet the warmth of his touch.

  “A.J.’s coming, Liv,” he whispered. “And that can’t be just. A.J.’s form of justice is rarely pro-wolf. A lot of us think he’s a wannabe human.”

  She moved back a bit more, talking softly in her sleep. But a smile curled her full lips and his heart rushed with love for her. Garrett felt grateful in that instant. Her second shift had been easier for her than the first. He’d noticed even in the chaos. It seemed Liv was special in many ways. She might just be one of the lucky few who accepted the change with ease. And power. Before he’d changed her, when she slept she cried, she screamed, dreamed horrible dreams of always being a breath away from abuse. Now she slept and dreamed peacefully. He hoped she was dreaming of him.

  “I’ll protect you,” he said, kissing the back of her neck so she sighed. “I know you don’t hear me but I will. Because if he’s here, then you’ll need it.”

  He felt sick to his stomach, his head pounding with fatigue and pain. He needed to get home and get food and warmth. He needed to have his wound looked at and he probably needed an antibiotic. He was useless to Liv if gangrene set in and he fucking kicked it.

  “They’re coming,” Liv said in her sleep. Her brow wrinkled with worry and she frowned. “I need him,” she said.

  Garrett felt his stomach dip like he was falling. He kissed her shoulder. “You have him,” he said into her ear, hoping that she heard. The him being him, of course.

  He didn’t want to wake her. He didn’t know how long it would take the others to track them to this place—not long he sensed—and he didn’t want her scared. If he only had a few minutes, he’d rather it be peaceful for her. He didn’t have the strength to run right now. He was man enough to admit it. He was wiped. His body was consuming every ounce of energy to try to clot the bleeding and heal the damage. Shifting so often and barely any food had made matters worse.

  “I need him,” Liv said again and she gave a little cry.

  He had the urge then to change, rise up and run, taking her with him. So angry at seeing her scared again that his rationale left him. But it was almost too much effort to breathe, he couldn’t imagine running. He kissed her one more time, feeling the slide of her silken skin under his lips right before everything broke down into dots of white and gray.

  Garrett lost his grip on consciousness.

  ———

  She was gorgeous, A.J. would give him that. A totally different female from Eileen. Where Eileen had been average height and lithe and redheaded with sparkling green eyes like the sea, this one was tall and curvy, with flared hips and a small waist. Long unruly hair swirled around her pale face and when she heard him, her eyes flew open, dark brown like the best mahogany wood. They were so dark, in fact, for an instant he thought they were black.

  “Hi there, you must be the new mate. I’m A.J. and I’m here to make sure you answer for what you’ve done.” He said it softly and grabbed her by the arm to haul her up. She might be wolf now but he was bigger and stronger, older and a born lycan. She was half human, brand-new and had no idea what was going on. He smiled at her even as she kicked out, instinct taking over.

  Garrett, pale and unconscious on the bed, tried to stir.

  “Put her down, A.J.!” Kelly said from the door. She stalked in as if she owned the dank hovel of a house. Bits of ceiling flaked down around them like rotten snow when the door banged the wall on the backswing.

  “Mind your own business, Kelly,” he said. He shook the girl a little. Just to show her that he could.

  A.J. felt the wave of fear he was after but then she surprised him, snapping at him with her very even, very white but very human teeth. He laughed, he had to. “Oh my. Who’s afraid of the little new wolf? Not I but I give you an A for effort,” he said and dropped her. A.J. gathered both wrists in his big hand and squeezed until she winced.

  “I don’t think there’s any call for that, A.J.,” Chester said walking in. He put his hand on Kelly’s shoulder to tame her. She looked fit to kill.

  A.J. grinned. “I’m pretty much the elder who handles justice, so I think there is. At least until we get it all straightened out. Now, what about our little lost lamb here?” He took the toe of his boot and nudged Garrett. Garrett struggled to open his eyes and barely could. Liv let out a cry and moved for him but A.J. tugged her back, the pressure on her shoulders so hard she screamed.

  “A.J.!”

  “Shut up, Kelly. Is he dying?”

  Kelly and Chester both rushed forward. “We need to get him back and cleaned up. Doc Verde can look him over and—”

  “Let’s all go then. We’ll head back to the farm. I’ve got his mate here, I’ll take her. You take Garrett.”

  “A.J., you’ll take that girl over my dead bo—”

  “Elected justice enforcer,” he said. “Now why would you doubt me? Plus, I wouldn’t harm her. That would make me no better than her and she’s a killer. Aren’t you, doll?”

  She snapped at him again, her eyes rolling wildly from him, to Garrett and back again. “That just never gets old,” A.J. said and turned her roughly. She was wrapped in nothing but a filthy blanket and he was bare. Getting back to the vehicles would be fun but they’d make do. Wolves always had. “We’ll be outside waiting. You see about him. Don’t take too long, though. You wouldn’t want me to get bored. Come on, sweetheart. Let’s see you march like a good little prisoner.”

  He hustled her out as Liv did everything within her power to halt his progress. “If you make me, I’ll pick you up and sling you over my shoulder like a sack of dirty clothes. Do you want that?”

  “No,” she said from between clenched teeth.

  “Then knock it off and walk.”

  A.J. had just gotten outside, pushing her in great staggering steps across the front lawn, when Garrett came crashing out of the second-story window. Snarled fur, bared teeth, weakened but intent. He was off the roof in a leap and had A.J. backed to a tree in no time.

  “See, I know you’re angry, Garrett. I know you are. But I have her and in order to fight you I have to shift. And I’m not shifting. Because shifting means letting go of princess here, and princess is a killer. A murderer.”

  Garrett, roared, stalking forward, head and neck craning toward A.J. for a weak spot.

  “So I can’t shift. But I sure as hell can take her from you. Would you like that?”

  Garrett froze, teeth bared, breath ragged. Kelly and Chester hit the front porch already changed. Three wolves to one man and a captive. A.J. didn’t mind those odds.

  He pushed the short silver knife to Liv’s throat and she yelped. The metal irritating her skin almost instantly. The threat of violence too real already after changing. She was still off.

  She was a weak one, he thought. Or she had been. He pushed a little harder just to make his point.

  Garrett growled, advancing one step as Kelly and Chester slunk closer.

  “See, what we have here,” A.J. said softly, “is a stand-off.”

  ———

  Old Wounds

  “A.J., you don’t want to do this.” Kelly advanced, barefoot, naked, in her plaintive, very human form. Proving her vulnerability.

  Liv waited, heart pounding. It was Garrett she was worried about. He seemed unstable. Injured and angry, he panted way too hard. His fur was mussed, eyes mildly fixed. He was worse than he’d let on and she felt her anger grow. Who was this man to keep her captive? Who was he to threaten what was hers? Whoever he was, he was in a position where others watched their behavior.

  Kelly was firm but remained reserved. “A.J.?”

  “Garrett’s been a thorn in the hide of the pack for a while. His constant demands for vengeance. Then he leaves to live as a lone wolf? Because he didn’t get his way.”

 
“He suffered a great loss, A.J. Any one of us would want vengeance. It’s our nature to protect and seek retribution for ours.”

  “He’s a weak wolf. He’s a failure.”

  Liv felt the anger building. Her breath barely sneaked past his grip on her throat. Garrett flickered, the lines of his form bleeding in the air and then he was there, as a man, crouched low on the ground. Pale, dirty, bleeding. “Why don’t you tell them the truth? You blame me for Eileen’s death.”

  Kelly looked confused and out of the corner of her eye, Liv caught the shimmer of Chester shifting back to human form also. She wondered, in a half hysterical way, how long it would take her to get used to all these naked people.

  “What’s he mean?” Chester asked. He moved forward slowly. The stand-off very much a hostile hostage situation. Everyone moved around them with great care which upset her even more. How dangerous was this man? Or how angry?

  A.J. went taut behind her. His grip released just a bit and Liv sucked in a great breath. She could taste the wet earth, grass and hostility on her tongue.

  “I mean,” Garrett said, still crouching, “that he wanted her. He harassed her and wooed her and she wouldn’t leave me. She loved me and he could never stand that.”

  “Garrett, you have clearly lost your mind,” A.J. said. But his body language said that Garrett had pushed a button. Liv felt the knife pull back a bit.

  “Did you try to take his mate? Is that true?” The anger in Kelly’s voice was audible. Her face flushed red, she shook her head. “Goddammit, A.J., how could you do that?”

  “I would never do that!”

  The knife sagged a little more and Liv’s body went to war. The wolf in her urging her to change to her base nature. Prodding her to shift so she could be in control, have more advantage. The human part of her feared the blade and what would happen if she tried. All hell could break loose and she could make things worse for Garrett and the rest.

  “He’s a liar,” A.J. said but his voice said he was lying. His hands shook with barely suppressed rage and though the knife hand fell back a bit, his other arm around her waist became a vise.

  “Garrett should be second in command,” Chester said softly. “But he didn’t want that on him. He’s always been a bit of a loner. But then Eileen had him grounded in the pack. In the community. Do you think if he comes back he’ll want your place as law?”

  “He’d never win it. He abandoned the community!” A.J.’s voice was poison and barbed wire. He gripped her harder still and the unnatural strength made Liv gasp for air. She was unnaturally strong now too but once again in a position of weakness. Tears pricked her eyes from frustration. But there was no fear and for that she was grateful.

  Garrett studied them intently and she watched him weighing the option. “You wanted her. You wanted Eileen and then when she was killed you punished me by not getting justice for her. You blamed me, you hated me and you punished me. So you didn’t pursue it with the sheriff. You simply let it go and let her death stand as nothing more than an accident. When it was clearly drunken recklessness, something that should never have happened. Never been allowed, A.J.! A crime. Something should have been done!” Garrett roared. Even as his anger overtook him, his color grew paler, his hands shook. Liv sobbed, unable to go to him, trapped as she was. The anger in her became white hot. A monster with claws and teeth.

  She shook with rage and A.J. laughed softly in her ear. “Oh, you’re so brave now, aren’t you?”

  Garrett had to resist the urge to rush forward and simply take A.J. out. He’d fucked with his life years ago, he’d left Eileen’s death an open wound—not just for Garrett but for all who loved her—and now he had Liv.

  His hearing was shot, his head full of the sound of his own blood in his veins and the ringing that got worse the weaker he got. His chest ached, a dull stabbing pain that made each breath harder and harder. And he was freezing. The lack of calories and clothes weren’t helping the weakening nature of his injury. He couldn’t read Liv, either because his wires were crossed or because she was too scared.

  She looked angry and he hoped he was right. Everything in him screamed for him to lie down, shift to wolf and sleep for a thousand years or until help or death arrived. Instead, he staggered forward a little bit. “You left her death to the humans. You didn’t protect the pack. You were a coward and you fell down on the job all to punish me because a woman who deserved the world loved me instead of you.”

  “She could have loved me,” A.J. said and the pain and hatred were crystal clear in his voice. “When we were younger she—”

  “But then she grew up and saw what you really are!” Garrett yelled, taking another clumsy step forward.

  He tried to signal to Liv. He tried to get his message across but her eyes were wide with the confusion and commotion.

  Garrett ran, head down, full force. He caught the brief but exquisite dull metal glimmer of Liv’s eyes as she took it all in. The tarnished silver sheen of her gaze gave him hope. Hope that she would act the way he wished her to. A.J. gave a huge cry and pushed the blunt silver knife to Garrett. He pressed it hard and time seemed to slow like the dragging breath of a dying man. The tip slicing down Garrett’s left shoulder as everything went white.

  His grip loosened immensely and Liv sucked in a great breath. She pushed her thoughts away, embraced the pain as it rushed to her and let her body take over. The agonizing cramps and onslaught of aches were overwhelming but she pushed past them. It only took seconds but felt like lifetimes. She opened her jaws wide and took A.J. down as his arm arched back up with the knife to deliver a debilitating blow to Garrett. She stood, paws forced to her enemy’s heaving chest, jaws hovering precariously close to his throat. Liv’s weight wedged the blade hard between his palm and her soft underbelly where it sawed into the flesh. The damage was enough to steal her breath. It burned but she kept the pressure. As long as the knife was pressed to A.J.’s flesh he could not change. Or so she’d been told. The important part was, she was in control. Unafraid.

  “She could kill you right there,” Kelly whispered. She came forward slowly, looking as if she feared Liv would mistake it for aggression. Liv wagged her tail. This was all so new. Having her very real human thoughts in the body of a sleek yellow wolf was nothing she’d ever thought possible.

  “But she isn’t,” said Chester and he laughed. Liv liked him right then. His laughter was clear and deep and perfect.

  But then she caught sight of Garrett, bloody and unconscious and she pressed her powerful teeth to A.J.’s throat. Pressed them hard enough for him to flinch.

  “No. Don’t!” he said, feeling her rage from the small pressure she applied.

  She didn’t bite. She had learned her mistake the last time. Bloodshed must be avoided at all costs. For their protection. So she nipped hard enough to make him squirm. To scare him, to make him beg—but she didn’t bite, though she wanted to.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Surgery

  “We really have to take him back to the farm, I hope you understand,” Chester was saying. Liv’s head was pounding and she pulled the clothes that had been in his truck around her tightly. They hadn’t even gone in a house—hers or Garrett’s. There were sweats in every vehicle and Chester had tossed her some. Together they’d loaded Garrett into the back of Chester’s truck and had strapped him into a small cot back there. Then they’d bundled him up in woolen blankets. Chester wouldn’t let her ride in the back with Garrett and it was hard for her to accept. “He’ll know you’re here and he won’t let himself go under. He needs to go under so he can conserve his energy.”

  “Go under?”

  “It’s like a bear going into hibernation. Sort of. Hard to explain. He basically shuts himself down to bare bones metabolism to try to heal up.”

  She’d shivered and he’d covered her with a spare blanket in the truck’s seat. The rain had started again and the headlights from Kelly’s truck bounced sparkling white lights around the inside the
cab.

  Kelly was escorting A.J. home to the farm. There they’d figure it all out. There waited a pack member, Ben Verde, who was also an M.D. He would fix Garrett, he had to. Now she prayed—a lot—though in the past it hadn’t helped much.

  Another wave of shivers overtook her and Chester patted her leg. “You okay, kid? It’s been a long day. Lots to absorb. We’ll get it all worked out, just watch.”

  “I’m fine. It’s not about me. It’s always been about me in my head. My whole life, you know? Struggling to keep my head above water. Now, this—this is not about me. This is about Garrett. And the fact that I can’t lose him. I can’t lose him, Chester,” she said, swallowing her tears. “I just found him, I can’t lose him. It’s not fair.”

  “You won’t, Liv. You won’t. You watch, Ben will get him all stitched up. Good as new. And then you two can start doing your part to keep our farm populated.”

  She blushed, tried to laugh but it came out as a strangled sob. “I’ve been so afraid forever,” she said. Chester—in her heart—was already a surrogate father. A man she could trust. She’d never had any, now she had two.

  “I know. Kelly told me some of it but—”

  “You don’t understand,” she rushed on. “None of that fear, no matter how big or horrible it was, could touch this. The thought of losing him just…it takes my breath. It makes me cold all the way through.”

  “You’re not losing anybody. You hear me?”

  She nodded, fingers twisting around and around themselves with nerves. “Promise me? I know you really can’t but I—”

  “Oh yes I can, young lady. And I do. I promise you that Garrett Gustafson will be fine and you will have your mate until he drives you crazy and you want to just choke him the way Kelly does with me sometimes.”

  The windshield wipers slapped the glass and more bright balls of fairy light bounced across the dashboard, speckled Chester’s rugged profile. “Good. Thank you. Even if it’s a lie, I need to hear it.”