Claiming His Need (4 page)

“Doubtful.” I turned toward the front door to hide my smirk.

Shadow snorted a laugh but didn’t comment. Sandman caught my eye, fighting a grin.
 

“Feel better now?”

“Fuck yes.” I straightened my cut, lifted my chin, and rang the doorbell. “Okay, you assholes. Let’s get this shit done.”
 

“Notice anything off?” Sandman asked as we waited for someone to open the door. All the shifters in the area would know we had arrived by the sound of our bikes, yet no one had come out to greet us. Even the shifters who’d surrounded us as we drove in hadn’t officially welcomed us to Valkoisus land. For a pack, whether they followed the more traditional teachings or not, it was a major breach of protocol. And yet I knew that wasn’t what he was referring to.

“No women or pups.” I didn’t need to elaborate. Sandman let out a quick grunt, letting me know he found the situation odd as well. Before I could give much thought to the atypical behavior, the door flew open.
 

“It’s about damn time you boys showed up.”
 

The man I remembered to be the Alpha of the Valkoisus pack turned and walked back into the house. No welcome speech or request for respect of pack lands.

I glanced at Sandman then stepped inside. Something on the air, a subtle scent I couldn’t describe, teased my senses. I wanted to track it, to find where it was coming from and keep it all to myself. Floral and sweet with a hint of spice, the aroma captivated me and caused the blood in my body to rush south. I adjusted myself as subtly as possible while mulling over what the hell could have caused such a response. I hadn’t had a surprise erection since my pup years.
 

Shaking off the unusual reaction, I refocused on the job at hand and rushed to catch up to the Alpha.

“We came as soon as we received the call about your territory dispute.” Sandman gave me a silent
what the fuck
look. I shook my head and kept my eyes on the older man as he led the way through tiled halls toward the rear of the monstrous house. Packs had rules and tended to stand on ceremony, yet the Valkoisus was not behaving in the way we expected. The lack of formality left me feeling a bit off balance.

The Alpha—simply known as Wariksen, if I remembered correctly—chuckled darkly.
 

“The territory dispute is nothing compared to what these miscreants have done.” He led us into the kitchen, which opened to a massive great room with a ceiling three stories high. And a ton of glass and debris scattered about. Some kind of battle had taken place.

Shadow beat me to the question that needed answering. “What the fuck happened here?”

Glancing around the room, I nodded toward a woman in the corner. “Watch your mouth, gentlemen. There’s a lady present.”
 

Shadow ducked his head, that strict pack upbringing showing in his submissive posture. “My apologies, ma’am.”

“None needed, Breed brothers.” The woman approached with grace, her gait long and her body lithe. Her white-blonde hair hung to her hips, and her blue eyes practically glowed against her pale skin as she regarded us with obvious interest. “I am Uuna, Alpha female of this pack. We must impose upon you to help us in more than a simple territory dispute, so your language is of no concern. You will find no censure from me.”

I dipped my head, offering her my respect, as was custom in pack culture. At least one person was acting as I would have expected.
 

Uuna smiled. “Thank you, sir. My husband would prefer to offer the details of this morning.”

“They came before dawn.” Wariksen looked at Sandman. “Six of them entered the house, but we scented more outside. The cowards snuck in after everyone was asleep. They must have been watching us to know when we bedded down for the night. My guards caught two of them down here. One made it past them, but the other was killed as my pack awoke.”

I once again glanced around the destroyed room, taking in the broken furniture and glass scattered all over the floor. Someone had fought hard. Whether that someone was the dead nomad or one of the pack wolves remained to be seen.
 

“We will help you seek justice for your—”
 

“Fuck justice,” Wariksen interrupted me, spittle flying from his mouth. “They took three of our women from their beds. One mated wolf and a mated human, both staying here as they awaited the return of their husbands from a fishing trip.” He closed the space between us, his face a mask of pain and fury. “And they took my only daughter, the Omega of our pack. They have passed the point of justice. I want our women back, and I want the assholes who took them to die by my hands.”

Shadow spun and strode out of the kitchen. There was no need for him to speak—I knew he was going to tell Magnus the change in situation. Females of any sort—mated or not, human or wolf—were to be honored and respected. Women who could deal with the animals within us were a rarity, even more so ones born to shift. The rarest of all was the female Omega, who brought a mystical strength and energy to the pack. To have two female shifters in one pack was a blessing. To have a shifter Omega was a gift of the utmost power.
 

And to have her taken by force was a crime punishable by death.

I looked Wariksen in the eye. “We offer our assistance to retrieve the women kidnapped from your pack. The Feral Breed will not stand for such a blatant disregard for our customs.” I glanced around the room, taking in the Valkoisus contingent present. “What’s the plan?”

“We are the Feral Breed. We follow no simple pack’s plan.” Magnus pounded into the kitchen, not even glancing at the Alpha. His tone held no respect, his declaration filled with derision. Knowing Magnus’ arrogant attitude toward one of the oldest packs in our territory was a recipe for disaster, I stepped between the two men and addressed my so-called leader.

“Perhaps we should listen to what Alpha War—”

Magnus interrupted me by spitting on the floor. “You growing a pussy now, son?”
 

I snarled and pushed the little shit against the counter. “What did you say to me?”
 

“Easy, killer.” Always the strategist, Sandman wedged himself between us, directing his full attention to Wariksen as he pushed me away from my prey. “Do you have any idea where this other pack is holing up, or are we going to need to track them?”

I fought against Sandman’s hold until he finally met my glare and shook his head. I knew what that look meant…not now. I would get my revenge on Magnus for the blatant insult, but we had Breed business to attend to first.
 

Fighting back the urge to rip Magnus’ head from his shoulders, I relaxed and nodded, giving Sandman the okay to release me.

“They’re about fifteen miles northwest of here, hiding out in an abandoned copper mine.” Another wolf stepped next to the Alpha, obviously one of his sons. The two were nearly identical. Most humans probably thought they were brothers. “We have a couple of wolves patrolling the woods outside the mine and keeping an eye on the nomads. As soon as we’ve loaded up the weaponry, we’re rolling out.”

“We should wait until nightfall.” Magnus grunted. “Our wolves will be more focused once the sun sets.”

Wariksen crossed his arms and glared at Magnus in obvious disgust, the tension between the two making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
 

“We’re going in now, as men. I will not risk the safety of our family by waiting a minute more than necessary. Those beasts brought guns into the camp, so we know they’re armed. We have enough firepower here to turn the peninsula into a real island, and we intend to use it to save our women.”

Magnus growled deep in his chest, his eyes becoming more amber as his wolf responded to the Alpha before him. “We will fight with honor as wolves. Only cowards would go in with guns.”

Wariksen and his son glared hard and stepped closer to Magnus.
 

“They have weapons and our women. I will not risk any of my pack on outdated posturing. If you want to go in as a wolf once the sun sets, fine. You and your little club can clean up the mess we make as we kill every last one of those fuckers who dared to step foot on Valkoisus territory.” Wariksen’s voice rose in volume, ending on a yell. His packmates chuffed and yipped their support of their Alpha.

Magnus looked ready to explode, the hair on his arms and face growing as he lost control of his human form and began to shift right there in the kitchen.
 

“No one tells the Feral Breed what—”

“Per Feral Breed regulations”—Shadow leaned against the counter, completely casual in the face of two powerful shifters about to rip each other apart—“we must bend to the direction of the leader of the pack to whom the women claim allegiance. The only caveats are if the decisions of said pack leader show grievous lack of planning, forethought, or could directly contribute to the death of a Feral Breed member.”

Magnus spun faster than I’d ever seen him move and swung at Shadow. I took a step in their direction, but Shadow needed no help from me. He dropped his shoulder as I’d taught him and dodged the blow with a smoothness even I could envy. Magnus’ fist crashed instead through a cabinet door.

“You know-it-all little pri—”

“If the dick-measuring contest is complete”—Wariksen’s son put himself between Magnus and Shadow—“I’d like to get my mate back from these bastards. She’s human, for fuck’s sake.”
 

Magnus froze, glaring at the man. Interrupting a fight was a ballsy move, one I could only respect. Most shifters would have chosen to stay clear of a wolf as dominant as Magnus. Wariksen’s son, on the other hand, had the stones to confront him directly, even though such an act could be seen as a challenge for position. I knew then, looking between the man I’d been forced to follow and the one I’d only just met, who the true leader was. And sadly, he was not a Breed member.
 

After several tense moments, Magnus turned toward Sandman and began ranting about being unprepared. The move was meant to be sly, but every shifter in the room knew Wariksen’s son had just bested a leader of the Feral Breed. Magnus had lost any respect the patch on his back had offered him, and sadly, he’d taken the rest of us down with him.
 

Without a single stutter or smirk, Wariksen’s son turned and addressed three other wolves standing guard near what was once a set of French doors leading to a huge deck.
 

“Is everything ready outside?”

The sentries nodded.

“Fine.” He turned and strode over to where I stood with Shadow by my side. “My name is some ridiculous Finnish word my father insisted upon but none of you will be able to pronounce. Call me Rex. We leave in five.”

We parked the cars and bikes about three miles out from a long abandoned copper mine along a stretch of dirt and rock too rough to be called a road. Centuries before, there would have been a bustling town filled with the families of the men working the mines. But, much like me, their time had passed. The area was riddled with abandoned mines and old smelters, often deep in the woods and almost unreachable. At least to humans.
 

The sun hung high in the morning sky, the only sounds in the still air coming from our team as we prepared for a fight. Late morning was resting time for most wolf shifters. Many would be napping in anticipation of their nighttime runs with the other nocturnal creatures. It was a good time to attack—unexpected. I could appreciate the Valkoisus Pack’s desire to go in at this time, as men and with guns. We would likely catch these nomads off guard.

“Think this is going to work?” Sandman asked as he strapped a holster around his broad chest. Two handguns went into the holders beneath his arms, a shotgun held in place on his back.
 

I loaded the clip in the gun I’d pulled from my saddlebags. “I sure as hell hope so.”

We checked in with the rest of the teams once we were ready to depart. Rex and Magnus had agreed upon a three-pronged approach. The first wave would sneak close to the mine in groups of two. They would be our backup and outliers, ready to move in should the rest of us fail. The second wave would move in teams of four. This was the offensive line, the ones who would take down our adversaries and create a diversion. This would hopefully offer our third group, made up of four Feral Breed brothers, time to retrieve the women and deliver them to the transport vehicles hidden at the end of the road where Magnus and Wariksen would be waiting.
 

As part of the retrieval team, Shadow and Pup would lead the way into the compound. Where Shadow was super sneaky, almost ninja-like in his stealth, Pup was fast. He could easily outrun any one of us. The two together were perfect for an infiltration—get in unseen and be ready to escape quickly if need be. They would search out the women. Sandman and I would follow the two younger shifters, our goal to infiltrate the den and extract the three women once their location had been identified. As the two strongest fighters of the Breed, we were the best to defend our quarry in case the nomads caught up to us before we could get the girls to the transport vehicle. The second line would be ready to have our backs should something go wrong, but the ultimate goal was to get the women out.
 

The plan was aggressive yet sneaky, something I enjoyed. The hunter in me was going to have fun with this one.

Once all the teams were in position, I sent Pup and Shadow ahead to the mine. Sandman and I trailed behind them. The rest of our group moved silently through the trees, some in human and some in wolf form to cover all our bases. Most of the others were slightly northeast of our location—each team spread out to fully encompass the property and offer no room for escape.

Sandman caught my eye as we ducked underneath an ancient pine tree. “You ready for this?”

I nodded once and bared my fangs. I kept my wolf close to the surface, ready to shift and take over if need be. Sandman was ready as well. I could see it in the way his eyes burned, hear it as he growled deep in his chest. The Wariksens might not have been our pack, but we were still ready to battle for them and for the safety of the women they cared about.