Two Wolves for Cat (Paranormal Shapeshifter Werewolf Romance) Read online

  “Hey, don’t blame me, man. I got a hot woman in my arms. You’d do the same,” he mumbled as Cat crowded against him to lick his face in concern.

  Ryder growled again, ignoring the elation that his brother was conscious and speaking, baring his teeth in a silent warning. Jayce just laughed.

  “Bully. Okay, okay.”

  He closed his eyes and sighed. A shudder racked his body as the change rolled over him slowly. Cat leapt away as bones popped and cracked. Sickening wet sounds as flesh flowed and moved into new formations were accompanied by the sound of tearing cloth as Jayce’s clothes were destroyed.

  Boy would be butt-naked when they got out of here, Ryder thought as Jayce completed the change, but clothes could be replaced. Ryder was more interested in why people were out to kill them. They were bounty hunters, yes, but this was a level of retaliation that didn’t fit. Jayce staggered to his feet, his legs a little unsteady.

  Ryder winced. He hated to see any sign of weakness in the man he considered his brother. His experienced eye swept over the wolf form so like his own. They’d both been injured before so he knew what to look out for. Cat though, didn’t, brushing against Jayce with a concerned whimper in the back of her throat. Attention Jayce lapped up, holding his right fore-paw up in an almost canine bid for sympathy.

  Ryder shook his head. Pathetic, truly pathetic. Bending down, he picked up the bundle of clothing secured by his belt and turned toward the mountains in the distance. Then he started to run, the two other wolves at his side, heading away from the bar and the werecats who’d tried to kill them.

  Chapter 3

  The run was a long one, which wasn’t a problem for Caitlin. She’d run with the pack since she was old enough to change. She was used to long weekends under the moonlight spent furry and on the paw. Just…she’d never usually run so long or far without a break.

  She ran on one side of Jayce as they headed toward the mountains, in case the injured male faltered. Although what she thought she was going to do if he did, she didn’t know. Perhaps break his fall as he squashed her? The two brothers were as big in wolf form as they were in their human guises, and far bigger than most wolves she knew. She wouldn’t stand a chance. But she would if she needed to, leaving her clothes behind so she was unencumbered.

  At first, in the hour after they’d left the diner behind on swift feet, she’d reveled in the exhilaration of just running. She’d missed this, missed running with Jayce and Ryder as they had before they’d left the pack. The world had seemed so magical back then. A world seen through the eyes of a young wolf, everything sharp and sparkling in the silver of the moonlight.

  Now though, the silver was sleeping with the moon and the late afternoon sun beat down on the three wolves as they loped across the sparse terrain to reach the foothills. The sand under their paws gave way to dirt, and the first scattered and gnarled trees, twisted and scoured by the desert wind, cast a welcome shadow. Her feet dragging with weariness, Cat slowed down as Ryder led them higher into the hills and the forest beyond.

  “Could do with some clothes, you know. These pants itch like fuck.” Jayce, sitting on a fallen log in the clearing they’d stopped in, complained as he wriggled his ass, his lip curling as he plucked at the leather pants clinging to him like a second skin. Ryder’s leather pants.

  “Well, helps if you wear underwear,” Ryder replied. Lounging full length on his back with one arm covering his eyes he was as bare-chested as his brother, both displaying all that toned male flesh like a sensual photo shoot purely for Cat’s benefit.

  Gotta love how a shift destroys clothing, she decided silently. Especially as it meant they only had one set of clothing between the three of them. She’d gotten Ryder’s shirt against the cold, complete with his scent all over it, and the two men had had to share what was left.

  Jayce’s lip curled. “I am not wearing your boxer shorts. Brotherly love only goes so far, you know.”

  Ryder shrugged and lifted a knee. Cat’s attention riveted to the powerful thighs and lean hips, and flirted over the fabric of the boxers at his groin. An area that started to tent as she watched.

  Dragging her gaze away, she fussed with her hair as heat flared in her cheeks. Conversation had been minimal since they’d reached the sanctuary of the forest and found this clearing a short while ago. Ryder hadn’t been satisfied with the first or even the twentieth stopping place they’d discovered, eliciting growls of complaint from the two other wolves as he pressed on deeper into the forest. She’d always thought Jayce to be the bossy one, but Ryder had taken command with a vengeance.

  Finally, he’d allowed them to stop and they’d dropped where they stood, all three wolves stretching out on the forest floor to rest. The night creeping in helped, the shadows under the trees lengthening until darkness was upon them. Then, one by one, they resumed their human forms.

  Now she was in the middle of nowhere with two half-naked wolves, two half-naked male wolves. Butterflies raced around the inside of her stomach like it was a circus wall of death. Not just any wolves but ones she’d had a crush on since she was a kid. She ran her hands through her hair and tried to make it lie flat.

  There was just one problem about being a werewolf. When she changed back there was the mad scramble to get dressed again and her hair always looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backward. Why, she didn’t know. Some—hell, most—female wolves looked fantastic before, during and after a change. Like there was some inner sexiness they tapped into that Cat just didn’t have.

  She was a woman now but still felt like a gangly teenager who’d not quite grown into her own body. Nibbling her lip, she tried not to peek at Ryder and Jayce. She felt like a kid again. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact she’d not been in heat yet…

  “It’s no good; I need to get some decent clothes. We can’t go out in public with this fashion-timeshare thing going on. Not that I’d call your sense of style fashion. Christ, how do you move in these damn things?” Jayce grumbled as he surged to his feet.

  Movement, he needed to move, because if he had to sit here a moment longer with Cat’s scent hanging in the air like the smell of a banquet, he would go stir crazy. There was only so much a man, or wolf, could take.

  “Well, what do you suggest…This part of the world isn’t exactly a fashion mecca, is it? Although if you keep running for a couple of hours you might hit some yokel’s hovel. I’m sure a plaid shirt and dungarees will suit you down to the ground.” Ryder didn’t move his arm from over his eyes, feigning a state of relaxation Jayce knew was a show for Cat. Even if she was too innocent to sense it, Jayce could feel the sexual tension and sheer frustration emanating from Ryder like heat off an oven-baked brick.

  “Ha-ha, you’re a laugh a minute, aren’t you? There’s gotta be a town about here. I’ll double back to that road we crossed on the way in and follow it into the pass. We need supplies and wheels,” Jayce announced, nudging his brother with a foot and casting a pointed look at Cat.

  Perhaps the reason she wasn’t picking up on the heavy sexual tension swirling in the small clearing was because she looked done in. How long had she traveled before she reached them at Honey’s? He’d assumed she’d traveled by car but now he wasn’t so sure.

  “Yeah, pick up some burgers or something as well if you’re taking orders. And a couple of bottles of beer wouldn’t go amiss—”

  The conversation was conducted over and around the nearly silent Cat, a silence Jayce was ignoring. Women were prone to such things, and Jayce assumed she’d come out of it when she was ready. Most women did if it wasn’t too serious. The rest resorted to tears and threats, but Cat had never been that sort.

  Innocent she had been, yes, but never the sort of frivolous female who had them both cringing and running for the hills. Unfortunately, they usually found out what sort a woman was the morning after, which meant they’d done their fair share of early morning escapes.

  However, Jayce wasn’t prepared for what h
appened next.

  Cat lifted her head slowly, her beautiful face wary and a look of anguish in her eyes. Jayce went still, a malevolent chill running down his spine like icy water.

  “You can talk about beer?” she asked incredulously. “After someone tried to kill you and your m-mother…”

  “Our mother what?” Jayce’s voice was like a lead weight in the sudden silence of the clearing. Next to him Ryder rolled to his feet, mirroring Jayce’s stance, and both stared at the trembling female wolf sitting on the log in front.

  She had a leaf in her hair and her cheek was dirty. Jayce waited for her to answer. What she said was going to be bad, he could feel it, but it was like a train crash. Once it had started you just couldn’t look away.

  “What’s happened, Cat? What about Mom?”

  She couldn’t do it. Sorrow welled up in Caitlin’s chest as she looked at their expectant faces. They didn’t know, couldn’t suspect the news she’d traveled day and night to bring them, and she should have told them sooner. But with the attack and Jayce being injured, she couldn’t have expected Ryder to cope with that alone. No, she’d chickened out and decided they both needed to be there and conscious when she told them.

  Now she had no excuse. It had taken her nearly half an hour to work up the courage and now she couldn’t back down.

  “Your mother died a week ago,” she said softly, looking down at her hands. “Wolfsbane. Someone slipped her a massive dose of it.”

  “What?”

  Their response was instantaneous, two voices echoing as one, filled with disbelief. Cat bit her lip and looked up, trying hard to school her face.

  “Wolfsbane? What sort of sick bastard does that?”

  She shook her head, unable to answer. It was a question she’d asked herself repeatedly. Unlike her rebel sons, biological and adopted, Rosanna was the sweetest, most amiable woman alive. A born wolf with a mother hen complex she’d become the unofficial pack nanny, and nearly every cub had spent time at her home during the school holidays. That someone had wanted to kill her, and in such a painful way, had rocked the pack to its core. Wolfsbane wasn’t usually harmful to wolves, but some, like Rosanna, were allergic to it.

  “She didn’t stand a chance. It wasn’t even a full moon…” Jayce murmured, looking up at the cloud-covered sky above them. “If it had been, she could have shifted and…” he broke off, his voice cracking, and swore.

  Cat stood and looked from one to the other, not sure what to do. Should she comfort them? But they weren’t kids. Prowling around the clearing, their movements jerky with anger and pain, neither of them looked like they wanted comfort, much less from her. The dark expressions on their faces were ones she’d never seen before, and they scared her.

  Cat swallowed. Perhaps she should have let someone else come and tell them, or agreed with her grandfather that the pack would deal with it and leave Rosanna’s sons in the dark about their mother’s death. They’d left the pack and the pack dealt with its own business, which was the argument some were using. But Cat knew that was more because some people found the Vanir brothers too odd.

  Bonded wolves were rare—rare but possible. And they were usually from a single birth; twins. Bonded wolves that weren’t twins... the elders said that wasn’t possible, despite the evidence standing right in front of Cat. Then there was that rumor they’d mastered the change when they’d hit puberty. Even Cat, the daughter of a powerful alpha pair, had taken a couple of months to get used to her new form, but they’d done it within a week. A. Week.

  Odd things like that made people nervous. But not as nervous as Cat as she stood in front of them and cleared her throat to ask another question burning in the back of her mind. “So, your mother is murdered, and someone tries to kill you within the space of a week. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

  “I can’t stay with her,” Ryder argued a few hours later, crashing through the undergrowth and into another clearing away from the one Cat was sleeping in just before Jayce shifted again.

  “So, patrol when she wakes up and stay out of scent range,” Jayce grunted in reply, pulling at the skin on his bare stomach as he examined the scattered, shallow scabs. It looked more like he’d taken a slide across some asphalt than a gunshot wound.

  “Leave them alone and they’ll be healed in a week,” Ryder ordered automatically. Jayce had a bad habit of picking scabs, one of his less endearing traits. “You do realize she’s about to go into heat?”

  Jayce closed his eyes and dropped his head back. His lips moved, very much like he was praying. “Yeah, I know. Why do you think I want to put as much distance between me and her as possible?”

  “Oh great, and leave me with her?” Ryder blinked in surprise. If anything, he had even less control than his brother. Jayce turned and gave him a hard look.

  “This is Cat we’re talking about. Not some two-bit whore or floozy looking for a quick fuck. Caitlin. Sweet, innocent and oh-so-we-are-not-touching-her Caitlin.” Jayce sighed heavily as he shucked out of Ryder’s leather pants.

  Pants Ryder instantly decided he would throw out. He loved his brother and he’d happily share a woman with him, but putting your dick in the same pants as someone else? That was just sick.

  “No, you’re okay. Keep them.” He shook his head as Jayce held them out to him, his eyebrow disappearing up into his shaved hairline.

  “Thought these were your favorite pants?”

  “They were until they had your cock and balls rubbing about the inside of them.”

  Jayce barked a laugh. “Okay, so we can share pussy but not pants? That’s weird, man.”

  Ryder shrugged. It was and he knew it but there were just some things he wasn’t prepared to do, some lines that couldn’t be crossed. The sanctity of a man’s pants was one.

  “So what we gonna do? About Caitlin? About mom?”

  Jayce rolled his shoulders, easing the heavy muscles across his back as he stepped into the middle of the clearing and shuffled his feet. Recognizing his brother’s pre-change ritual, Ryder stepped back.

  “Cat…I dunno. You figure it out. I need some decent clothes and food before I go stir-fucking crazy. Mom? We find the bastard who killed her and make him pay. In blood,” Jayce said over his shoulder and launched into a run, shifting in mid-air and already in wolf form by the time he disappeared into the darkness.

  Cat woke suddenly. One moment asleep, the next, her eyes flicked open in sudden awareness. She blinked, not moving a muscle, as she tried to work out what had pulled her so quickly out of sleep. That wasn’t like her. Normally she took her time about waking, unwilling to leave the comfortable area between true sleep and consciousness, but not this time.

  She lifted her head, all her wolf’s senses on alert. Hikers perhaps? What hikers were doing out this late at night she didn’t know, but stranger things had happened. She looked a sight so she could do without company. One look at her, scratched up with ripped and bloodstained clothes, and they’d call the emergency services.

  Sitting up, her movements slow and deliberate, Cat kept her attention on the forest. It wasn’t hikers. When humans were around there was noise, movement as nature avoided them. A subtle movement away from those who considered themselves the “apex” predators—predators with no clue how the rest of nature played them for fools. There was nothing.

  Suppressing the shiver that raced the length of her spine, she rose into a crouch, her legs under her. Something was wrong. The whole forest was silent. Silent and dark, with an overlying presence that caught her breath in her lungs.

  Someone was watching her.

  Not moving, Cat scanned the shadows for the source of danger. Her heart pounded behind her ribcage and she opened her mouth to shout for Ryder or Jayce. Then she closed it again. Jayce was off looking for a town to lift supplies from and she had no clue where Ryder was. Gone off on patrol or something.

  Patrolling. What would Ryder patrol? The little clearing they’d staked as an impromptu lair? Why bother? She s
wore under her breath as the shadows to her left caught her attention. With a nonchalant air, she looked away from them, the skin between her shoulder blades crawling as she checked them out again from the corner of her eye. Yes, there was something in the shadows there. Something big.

  Fear quivered through Cat’s slender frame as the need to run filled her. But she fought it back, shame rising high in her throat. What was she, a bloody mouse? She was a wolf and proud of it.

  Wolves didn’t run. Ever.

  She reached down inside herself, past the physical and right into her soul, seeking the place that smelled like the woods after the rain and felt like silky fur against her skin. Her power welled within her, building in her soul until it spilled out from her center and raced across her body. A tiny muscle in her jaw twitched as she deliberately held the change in check, just under her skin. In her head her wolf yipped and yammered, desperate to be free and protect her soft human body within the more dangerous form of the wolf.

  “You may as well come out; I can see you over there.” She was surprised at how level and commanding her tone seemed. She didn’t feel like that inside. Inside she was less dominatrix and more marshmallow.

  The branches rustled, parting, and Ryder stepped out.

  Chapter 4

  A town, to Jayce’s surprise, was relatively easy to find once he’d located the road. Running parallel in the cover of the forest, it wasn’t long before the lights of civilization lit the night sky up ahead. Slowing, he trotted to the edge of the trees, parked his furry butt and looked out of the shadows.

  He wrinkled his nose at the scene laid out in front of him. Small town America in the ass-end of beyond. Worse, in mountain country. He wouldn’t be surprised if half the inhabitants were married to their cousins and played the banjo. This early in the morning most places were shut up. Just the all-night diner was open, a hint of movement through the windows telling him there was someone at home.