Page 5 of His Three Wolves
We exchanged a quick glance before we broke into a dead sprint.Linc’s howl hadn’t just been a greeting.He needed us there, and fast.
Ell fell back to let me take the lead.He could be faster if he wanted to be, but while he’d been born out here—a few towns over, into the Wind Creek Pack—he’d only returned three years ago.I, on the other hand, knew these woods like the pattern of my coat.
The fastest route was across some cracks in the forest floor, and it included a short swim.The river was shallower elsewhere, true, but Linc kept howling for us to move our asses, so we did.
I could hear Ell behind me, probably because he wanted to reassure me I hadn’t lost him.Ell could be too damn quiet, the creepy stalker wolf of our little pack.Again, how the man had ended up tending to sick children with all his super creepy attributes, I had no idea.
After the swim, we didn’t so much as stop to shake the water out of our coats, but with a few more jumps and hard turns to avoid thick undergrowth, we were pretty much dry anyway.
The reason Linc needed us became obvious even before we got to him.The scent of blood hung in the air, human male.
Now, I was pretty damn certain Linc hadn’t done any hiker chomping—he really was too cultured and well-behaved for that shit—but things getting out of hand when our kind ran into hikers or hunters happened.We were larger than normal wolves by a lot, and humans scared easy and acted damn stupid once they were scared.
But the scent here wasn’t at all… Hell, I didn’t know.Blood, sure, but something else.Something…familiar, as if I knew the person on the ground, even though I was sure I didn’t.
Ell overtook me at some point, his damn muscles pushing out speed effortlessly.The scent became more intense.It was as comforting as a hug, but it was a lot more besides.Oddest thing, that.I wanted to bury my nose in it, roll in it.
Ahead, Ell jump-changed, only slowing down fully when he was on two legs again.
“Oh,” he said before stopping dead for a heartbeat as if his damn power cord had been cut.
Then he leaped into action as Linc shifted as well.Well, fuck it.Looked like we were all going to be doing this naked in the woods, so I shifted too.
“He fell,” Linc said as I approached the human on the forest floor.
Idiot wasn’t anywhere near geared up enough for a hike out here.Didn’t look like a damn hiker at all.Black hair, bit long, but the cute kind of long.He was super pale and still, not moving at all.I swallowed hard, because my throat had suddenly gone all dry.
“He…” I said.“’S he okay?”
Ell stared at the human as if he was the first of their kind he’d ever seen as he ran his hands over him.That did something to me.I wanted to do that, but I knew Ell was the one the idiot human needed.I took a deep breath and tried to work out where these weird urges were coming from, and then it hit me.
“Mate,” I said.“He’s mymate.”
Once the words were out, I knew it was right.My granny had said once that you justknewwhen you found your mate, sure as you knew the sun was up and not the moon.That simple.
I’d thought maybe Ell or Linc were mine, but this was something else entirely.I’d have laid down my life for this idiot human hiker in a heartbeat, even though I’d never even met him before.
Linc dragged his eyes off the human and looked at me.“What did you just say?”
He sounded oddly vulnerable.Linc didnotdo vulnerable.It shook me.
“He’s my mate.Is he going to be okay?”
“He’syourmate?How…How?He’s mine.Mine.”
Linc looked confused.In another alpha, those words might’ve been a challenge, but Linc was too secure in himself for that, too comfortable with his position.Linc didn’t do posturing.
Ell glanced over his shoulder before looking back down at the human.“This can’t be right.He’smymate.And we need to take him home.I need to get that wound cleaned.”
Ell ran the back of his hand over the human’s cheek with the utmost tenderness.What the fuck?
I stepped up next to them, knelt, reached out to take the human’s hand, and found his fingers wet and icy from having been on the ground too damn long.I wanted to swaddle him in a blanket, and—damn.I wanted to croon and wrap myself all around him.
“I didn’t want to move him,” Linc said.“I was afraid… Is his neck okay?”
“Nothing’s broken,” Ell said, giving me a strange look.Then he gingerly cradled the human’s shoulders and brought him into a sitting position, careful to support his head, before he removed the human’s shoulder bag.“Can one of you take that?Look for an ID.I don’t think he was planning to be in the woods.”
“Hold on just a hot minute.”Linc took my mate’s bag.It had his scent.Gods, but I’d never loved a bag more.“Are both of you saying he’s your mate as well?”
