Wolf Signs (11 page)

planning on obeying any of the rules. If they think you’re TJ, they’re going to assume you’ll fight like him.”
Keil paused.
“TJ’s a tough wolf, Robyn. I’m

guessing they will set two wolves on you.”

“Two wolves? That’s not good odds, Keil, but if we stick together—”

“I want to, but we’d never survive that way. A four against two means they can actually have three against one at times and even I can’t fight that many

at once without getting hurt. The thought is killing me, but I’m going to have to leave you for a bit. I’ll attack the two that go after me, get at least one of

them out of the picture, then rejoin you. I told you about wolf society and ranking, you’re strong enough to hold them off.”

They skied a bit farther as Robyn fought down her panic.

He was going to leave her and let two wolves attack her. No, that wasn’t true. He was going to trust her to defend herself until he could come back and

save them both.

That sounded better. Even if it stil made her want to pee her pants.

“Right around this bend the wind usually blows the snow off the lake. The ice will be a better surface for you to stand on to defend yourself. We’ll ski

until we get there.”

She didn’t know if she wanted the ski to be over or to go on forever. Final y Keil lifted a hand as if signaling for a rest stop. He shifted his body to face the

trees, casual y turning her toward him.

Keil undid his clothes while hiding from the view of the trees behind Robyn’s body. A dangerous gleam was in his eyes and an impression of power rol ed

off him. They might be in a tough place, but Keil was not going to be as easy a target as the others imagined.

“Protect your throat. If they’re close enough to get at your throat, I want you to shove your arm into their mouth. They’l stil be able to snap it and it’l hurt like

hel , but your wolf can heal a busted arm. You can’t regrow your throat.”

Robyn gaped at him.
“Love you too, sweetheart. Man, you take your girl on the most romantic dates, don’t you? Any other advice for me, Cujo?”

Keil flashed a grin at her. “Just remember that kicking a wolf in the nuts hurts as much as it does a human.”

“Good to know, hon. So don’t piss me off anymore, okay? What do you expect me to do, other than stand around looking like dinner?”

His answering smile reassured her more than it should have with wolves about to streak across the snow to try to kil her. “I expect you to use your ski

poles, your big knife and your tough-as-nails attitude, and kick some butt for me. Ready?”

“You are sexy when you’re all tough. I guess if they think I’m TJ I shouldn’t lean over and plant a big one on your cheek right now, hmmm?”

Keil threw back his head and laughed. His arms reached out and while he kept his eyes on the tree line he kissed her thoroughly.
“What a wonderful idea.

Now they’re going to be worried about the sneak attack
and
freaking out watching us. Here they come. By the way, Robyn, I do love you.”

They drew a hands span apart. Robyn watched as Keil threw off his clothes and shifted to his wolf. His silver grey form raced toward the nearest of the

wolves on the left. He flew across the snow and she cheered inside as she saw Keil’s huge body slam into the smal er wolf and bowl him over.

Then she couldn’t watch anymore as the wolves on the right closed in on her.

She turned and crouched, making sure that she had a firm grip on her knife. Her pack lay to the side and she made a mental note of its position to avoid

tripping over it. Glancing back up toward the trees, she gasped.

“Damn it, you owe TJ an apology. They obviously think he’s tougher than you realized. There are three wolves coming at me.”

“I know. I’ve got three as well. Give me a second. Try and distract them.”

Robyn grit her teeth together. Distract them?
“What, you want me to do a cancan dance or something?”

Fear and anger battled within Robyn. It was bad enough Keil was supposed to have to fight in the chal enge this weekend. That at least was a time-

honoured tradition and involved the values of fair play. This was nothing more than a sneak attack, cowardly and cheap.

She pul ed the can of bear spray from her pocket where it had been stored since the start of the trip. One of the rules of the north was to never piss off

anything you couldn’t reason with.

Robyn was real y pissed off.

She waited until the first wolf was in range, then lunged toward him as she held her breath and coated the beast with pepper spray. A four-second burst

was enough and he howled in pain, scratching at his eyes with his paws as he rol ed away from the fight, burying his face in the snow.

Dropping her knife and the bear spray, Robyn reached down to grab the straps of her pack. She swung around in a circle then let the pack fly into the next

wolf, knocking him off his feet as she quickly retrieved her knife from the ground.

The remaining wolf was looking at her with his head tilted to the side like he was thinking real y hard.

Like he was real y confused about something.

A quick glance toward Keil showed her he’d taken one wolf to the ground. Keil’s huge silver wolf body connected with another smal er black wolf and the

two of them rol ed in the snow, scratching at each other’s torsos and necks with their claws.

“Steady, Robyn, I’m on my way. Watch the black wolf on you. He’s Jack’s brother and he’s a mean one. The other wolf will try to distract you, but watch

Dan.”

Dan was stil on the ground under the pack but he’d lifted his head and was sniffing the air hard. He threw back his head and opened his mouth wide, and

Robyn assumed that he was howling. Keil swore.

“Bloody hell. Run to me, NOW!”

Robyn turned, but Dan had regained his feet and lunged.

“I can’t, he’s attacking. What happened?”

“He’s scented that you’re my mate. He just told the others. Damn, I’ve got three on me again. Hold him off, babe, you can do it. He won’t hurt you.”

Robyn heard his anger even in her mind. Fol owing Dan’s cry the other wolf on her had left and he was attacking Keil, three on one. Robyn jumped aside

as Dan nipped at her legs. Her backhand swing was too slow to do more than brush her knife against his fur before he withdrew a short way. His wolf

eyes mocked her as he herded her away from where her mate continued to fight.

Keil was stronger than any one of the wolves around him, but his attackers teased, dancing out of reach of his claws and teeth.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re trying to drag out the fight, tire me out before Jack even puts in an appearance.”

Robyn pushed toward Keil, trying to narrow the gap between them, but she was frustrated time after time by Dan’s lunges. She failed to see how close to

the trees she’d been maneuvered.

Then she saw him.

Shit.

He was as big as Keil, black from tail to nose and he walked out of the woods straight toward her fearlessly.

“Keil, who’s this asshole?”

Keil risked a quick peek and Robyn felt his anger flare.
“That’s the chief asshole himself, Jack.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes on both Dan and Jack at the same time, and al at once, something slammed into the back of her legs and she fel , hard, to

the ice. Swinging with her arm she sliced with her knife and managed to hit meat this time. Her arm went numb and the blade flew from her fingers as her

elbow was slammed to the ground by the weight of Jack’s huge forepaw.

Her cry of distress reached Keil.
“Robyn, I’m coming. Hit him on the nose, kick him. Fight him.”

Robyn tried not to freak out. Jack’s massive body lay on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He sniffed along her ear.

“I can’t move. He’s at my throat and he’s got my arms pinned. He must weight five hundred pounds and oh my word, that is gross.”

“I’m almost there. What did he do?”

“He licked my neck. Gack, he stinks.”

Robyn strained to pul her legs up to be able to connect her feet with any part of Jack’s anatomy. His muzzle continued to sniff along her throat, his tongue

lapping occasional y as she struggled under him. He didn’t seem to be trying to hurt her, but the sheer weight of his body forced the air from her lungs.

Between that and the smel of his breath, she was growing light headed from a lack of oxygen.

Keil connected with the side of Jack’s body and the two flew over her to rol toward the scraggy trees.

Teeth flashed. Jack was no longer holding back as he had with Robyn. The fury of the attack, the speed of the swinging claws, made her gasp in horror.

Fur literal y flew.

But even after having fought the other wolves, Keil was clearly stronger. His massive paws scrambled on the icy surface as Keil soon forced Jack down

and over onto his back. Keil’s teeth grasped Jack’s throat and he placed a set of sharp claws against his opponent’s bel y.

He froze in position.

Waiting.

Robyn had crawled crablike away from their fight, mesmerized. She slowly became aware that while she waited nearby the other wolves stil standing had

surrounded her.

“Oh crap.”

“They won’t touch you. I’ve got their leader in a death grip. Physically he’s been defeated and acknowledged my superiority.”

The wolves circled her slowly, taking smal lunges in her direction. Moving closer on each rotation.

“Are you sure that they know that? Because they’re freaking me out here.”

Robyn could see Keil’s jaw moving, and she assumed he was talking to Jack. The black wolf threw back his head and howled.

“Umm, Robyn? Slight problem. Remember TJ telling you about how being triggered made you smell kinda interesting right now?”

Robyn sidestepped another wolf that had moved closer in an attempt to brush up against her.

“Are you telling me these jerks have the hots for me?”

“Yup. We’ve got to convince them all that you’re already taken. Including Jack, who just made a comment about how good you taste, by the way.”

The four wolves circling Robyn turned and began to slink toward Keil. Tails low, teeth bared, it was clear they planned on attacking. He pressed his paw

more firmly into Jack’s bel y, but there was no way he could defend himself without releasing his captive.

“Call them off me.”

Robyn ran up to one of the nearer wolves and kicked him in the flank. He rol ed away from her and continued on his route toward Keil. Desperately she

tried to reach her mate’s side, ignoring the pounding in her heart as she scrambled into the midst of six large wolves. The males avoided her, intent on

their target.

“They’re not paying attention, Keil. I have no weapon left.”

“Just call them off. You’ve got a powerful voice and we’re in the right here. It’s our only chance. Do it now, Robyn!”

Throwing herself against Keil’s side she cried out, “Stop. Leave him alone.”

Al the wolves froze except Keil.

He slowly removed his paw and backed away from Jack. Moments later Keil was back by her side after retrieving his clothes and her knife. He had an

extremely pleased expression on his wolfy face.
“You are damn beautiful. And that voice—um, um good.”

Keil shifted and dressed as he spoke to her, finishing off by grabbing her and continuing the kiss he’d started before the attack.

“Keil, hello! Strange wolves loitering at our backs waiting to kill us, remember?”

With a final gentle nip to her bottom lip, Keil reluctantly pul ed away.

“You are sexy when you use that Alpha voice. The puppies behind us? Take a look.”

Robyn turned to see the wolves al lying bel y down in the snow. When they saw her glance their way they dropped their muzzles to the ground and covered

their eyes with their front paws.

Jack, bloody from Keil’s attack, crawled forward on his bel y until at their feet. His dark eyes darted back and forth between them, and then he slowly rol ed

to his back, exposing his throat.

Keil spoke aloud so the attackers could hear. “Shal we kil them?”

Robyn narrowed her eyes as she considered.
“Is the challenge still on for Sunday or did your competition just disqualify himself?”

“Oh, Jack is very much out of any challenge for Alpha. In fact by the way they responded to your voice, I’d say you’ve shown we have complete power

over them from now on.”

Robyn dropped to her knees and pul ed back sharply on Jack’s ear, her knife close to his throat.

“Careful, babe. Think about it.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I want to do, Keil. I have only one thing to say to them.”

She leaned closer to the ear she held tightly and spoke clearly.

“Hey, asshole. Shift.”

“She real y made them shift?”

TJ, Tad and a few other close friends of Keil’s sat together in one of the side rooms of the hal waiting for Robyn to appear. She was stil getting ready for

their entrance as the new Alphas for the pack and her first ful moon.

“Oh, not only that, she made them stand around and introduce themselves. Butt naked in the cold. Then they had to apologize to us both for ‘disturbing the

serenity of our honeymoon’.” Keil watched the ladies room door anxiously, adjusting the medal ion around his neck again. If she didn’t show up soon, he’d

go pul her out. “I thought Jack was going to pop a vein when she suggested he might like to look into purchasing one of the penis enhancers they

advertise online.”

Tad choked on his drink. “My sister?”

Keil exchanged knowing glances with TJ. “Oh, yeah. She’s amazing. Don’t piss her off any more than you usual y do. Now that she’s wolf she’s a bit of a