Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Groggy, Fenris came to, sprawled beside Jericho, who stared at him with concern.
“You okay?” Jericho rose unsteadily on his feet, blood trickling from his ears.
“Fine.” A lie, but Fenris needed to find Red. “Have you seen Rudra?”
“Not yet. Just woke up.” Jericho looked around him with shock on his face. “How the hell did we get here?”
“I carried your sorry ass. Might want to think about a diet. You’re no lightweight.”
“Yeah, neither are you, Fenris Barton.” Jericho’s expression blanked.
Not wanting to hash out his relation to Uncle Mike just then, Fenris somehow stood on shaky legs, needing to find Red. Anxiety filled him that she might be hurt, needing him while he chatted with her friend.
He took two steps and would have fallen if Jericho hadn’t wriggled under his arm. The movement sent shafts of pain down his side, and he gasped.
“Stay here. Rurik will be back soon. He always knows when we’re in need,” Jericho grumbled.
“No. Have to find…Red. Make sure…she’s…okay.”
“That’s what you want?” Jericho sounded odd.
“Find her,” he growled, his werewolf wanting the woman right the fuck now. He had to see her safe.
“Whatever. Come on, furball.” Jericho helped him take several steps on the path toward Rudra’s house.
A flurry of people raced from that very direction. Rudra among them.
Fenris pushed away from Jericho and almost fell into her arms. He steadied himself and looked her over. Still golden-eyed, red-haired and annoyed with him.
“I leave you alone for a few hours and this is what happens?” she asked, glancing away from him to scowl at Jericho.
“You okay?” Fenris gripped her chin in his hands and turned her face to clearly see her. “No attacks?” He hissed when she hugged him to keep him from falling.
“Damn it. You’re bleeding everywhere.”
“Most amazing damn thing I’ve ever seen,” Brody mumbled in the background.
“Saved our asses, big time,” Gibson added, angling to get closer.
“What happened?” Rudra asked.
Her father and mother suddenly appeared in front of them, the way the smoke creatures had. Fenris wasn’t at the top of his game and took a swing, not expecting anything but trouble.
Thankfully, Rena ducked to avoid a slash across her throat.
“Shit,” he mumbled, having a hard time focusing. “Sorry, Rena. Thought you were someone else.”
“Bring him inside,” he thought he heard Rurik say.
Then someone pressed down hard on his ribs, and he passed out again.
Rudra stared in horror at Fenris, wondering if he’d make it. He looked terrible. Covered in blood, his face pale and waxy, his body burning up.
Yet he wanted to see how she fared.
Was it any wonder she couldn’t think around him? She hurried after Jericho and the others, carrying Fenris into the house. Before she entered, she spun to stop the crowd gathered behind them.
“Is it true Fenris is a werewolf?” Nine-year-old George Hankler asked with wide eyes. “Becky said she heard Gibson tell Netta that—”
“Okay. Everyone, disperse. Brody, Beckett? Put everyone on alert. We have sorcerer troubles again.”
The brothers groaned.
“Gibson? Fill the council in on whatever’s happened. I want them to instill a curfew until we figure this out. Everyone to the village center. Now.”
The crowd scattered, and she hurried inside. Her father had Fenris on the dining table and was working spells over him. Her mother spoke quietly with Jericho and a few red wolves. Spotting Rudra, she left them and pulled her close.
“Jericho was telling me what happened. I knew Fenris was a werewolf, but seeing him up close… By the Wolf, he’s impressive. And he saved your beta, did you know that? Tell her.” She shoved Rudra at the bear before moving to help her husband.
“Well? Spill it before I hurt you,” Rudra snarled.
Jericho recounted everything. About Fenris’ relationship to Mike Barton, about his transformation and how he’d saved the small group. And about how he’d looked like death and could barely stand but wouldn’t stop until he’d seen for himself that Rudra was safe.
“I liked him before, but I can’t say enough about him now. He’s yours, Rudra. And you know it,” Jericho growled. “So stop being such a dipshit and take him to mate. Sometimes I wonder how you manage to be alpha, as slow as you are.”
She blinked in shock, not used to Jericho’s criticism.
“Well, you know it’s true,” he muttered. “I love you. I respect you. But I know you. He scares you. He won’t bow down to you and do whatever you tell him to. And that’s exactly what you need. I like him.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, because he saved your life.”
“No. Well, okay, yeah, because of that. And because he’s strong enough to put you first. I saw him in all his werewolf glory. He’s alpha through and through, but he’s never done anything to impede your rule, and you know it. Goldie can handle you, sister wolf. Don’t fuck it up.”
He kissed her on the forehead and left. Jericho and his blunt two cents.
But he had a point.
She watched her father take enspelled poison out of Fenris and thought about all she knew of the golden wolf.
Aside from the perfection of his body and the amazing sex they continued to have each night, Fenris would make a remarkable mate.
Intelligent and thoughtful, he listened without giving her constant advice.
Despite her insistence that he answer her questions about his clan, he refused.
His loyalty made him that much more attractive.
And what about his decision to help her family stop their curse, a curse that had twice now affected him? Fenris had no reason to help her father, yet, according to Rurik, he’d volunteered to help end the curse because of her, not the clan.
What should she make of him? And why did her heart race only in his presence? Going into heat should have put her in immediate sexual desire for any male within reach. She only burned for Fenris.
She liked his wolf, the man, and that giant werewolf that had once again saved the day. She wanted to carry his young and watch a strong pup, just like him, grow and develop into a responsible wolf.
Rudra thought about him day and night. She smelled him on her, and she liked it. Loved it. Wanted more.
“Red?” he groaned, reaching out.
Quickly taking his hand in hers, she gripped it tight. “I’m right here, you stubborn werewolf.”
“You okay?” he asked, still more concerned with Rudra’s welfare.
Her mother sighed and murmured, “He’s a keeper.”
“I’m fine, Fenris. I think you’re the one with the problems.”
“No.” His voice grew stronger, and his wounds faded under her father’s healing touch. “I just lost a lot of blood.”
“And dealt with ghoul toxin. I’m so sorry about this,” her father apologized.
“But the good news is that I’ll have the blood I need from you in a few more hours.
I’ve also tripled my spells around the village.
I’m sorry, but I hadn’t thought to cover the communal areas in the forest before. That’s taken care of now.”
“It’s okay, Rurik. With any luck, Mikhail will be there waiting when the moon’s at its peak. I can’t wait to get my claws into the bastard.” Fenris’ eyes gleamed with anger, and he tightened his hold on Rudra without being too harsh. “I won’t let him touch you, Red.”
She cleared her throat, annoyed to feel on the verge of tears. “You helped my clan today. You saved Jericho.”
“I know how much you love him.”
But what about how much she loved Fenris? Did the idiot wolf not comprehend his importance to her? But why should he, when you go out of your way to remain distant? She sighed.
“He’ll be okay.” He tried to reassure her.
“It’s you I’m worried about,” she snapped. “Now shut up and let my father finish.”
Fenris shot her a dopey grin and closed his eyes. “So bossy.”
When her father finished, Fenris lay asleep.
“Can you take us back to my place?” she asked.
“Yes. But before I do, I’d like to know your intentions.”
“Dad?”
“I like Fenris. He has no one here willing to speak for him. Though maybe Jericho would, now that he’s seen what I’ve known about this pup from the first moment I laid eyes on him.”
She groaned. “Don’t call him a pup. That makes me feel like a cradle robber.”
“You’re still a pup in my eyes.” Rurik smiled. “Now, tell me. What are you going to do with him? Use him for your own gain, or set him free like the true alpha of her clan would?”
“But I want him to help our clan, not just me.”
“Honey,” her mother said softly. “We are who we are because we’re different than the others. Wouldn’t using Fenris to further our agenda against his own kind be just as wrong as the Silver Clan and their actions against us?”
Rudra rubbed her eyes, tired. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
“You do,” her father argued. “But now isn’t the time. Grab my hand.”
She did, and he grabbed Fenris’ hand. In the blink of an eye, all three of them were in her bedroom in her house. Fenris lay on the bed. Her father and she stood on either side of it.
“Make sure he takes this twice before tomorrow.” Rurik handed her a bag of herbs. “It will calm his pain and his troubled dreams. The ghoul toxin has a nasty after-effect.”
“I will. Thanks, Dad.”
“No, thank Fenris. This isn’t his fault, but he’s been thrust in the middle of it. Do the right thing, honey. Not for us or even for him, but for you.” He disappeared.
Exhausted and knowing she had much more to do before she could rest, Rudra reluctantly left Fenris’ side and sought the council. She would have time enough to make the decisions she knew she needed to make. She only hoped she’d have the strength to make the right ones, no matter how much it hurt.