Just a Wolf

Beta Nolan

I knock on his office door before I enter. It’s open already, and I’m the Beta, but I would never presume to just barge in unannounced. Ross is the Alpha, and I respect the hell out of him.

He looks up from the desk and says, “Come in.” He looks tired, and we haven’t even started the drive yet. He hasn’t slept much the last few days, working late into the night on the pack alliance proposal. It’ll take about four hours to get to Humboldt. Maybe he can nap in the car. My wolf snickers. He’s right. Of course he won’t nap, he’ll be sitting in there with his laptop, working.

“Everything’s ready,” I tell him. “Most people are out waiting in the cars.”

He nods, closes his laptop and stands up, his enormous form unfolding as he rises. “Where’s Darlene?” he asks, stuffing the laptop and some papers into a briefcase. He is dressed in just a casual t-shirt, and the sleeve tattoos covering both brawny arms are on full display.

“Here,” our Luna says, coming in the doorway.

Ross looks over at her, inhaling, obviously enjoying her scent, and his eyes soften over his thick beard. She continues straight to him, and he puts down the briefcase and pulls her into his arms. She melts into his chest, and he lowers his head to her auburn hair and takes a deep whiff. Their bond is still so strong, three years after they met each other. It will never diminish. The compulsion to touch and smell your fated mate is the strongest impulse that a wolf can know.

I wait respectfully as they embrace. I’m going to miss my mate cruelly for the next week, but we decided that she really should stay home with the kids, rather than try to drag toddlers along to a formal dance several hours away. My inner wolf sighs. He’ll miss our mate even more than I will. Our wolves always seem to have an even more intense bond than we do as humans.

“Everything’s packed, my love,” she tells him, leaning back to look up into his eyes. “Everyone is just waiting for you.”

He smiles softly at her, caresses her cheek one last time, then picks up his briefcase. Holding hands, they leave the office and walk down the stairs to the front entrance of the mansion. Everyone they pass, the people who are staying behind rather than going to the party, incline their heads respectfully.

Once they have gotten settled in the back seat of the Escalade, I do one last check of the line of cars. There are about thirty of us going, not just the pack leadership, but a variety of staff. Ross wants this trip to be very smooth, because he is hoping that it will end with an alliance with the River Moon pack. They are a bit outside of our normal range, all the way out on the coast, but Dark Woods pack is growing, and it is natural to try to form new connections.

I climb into the first car in the line, and tell the driver, “Okay, let’s go.”

Dominic

It’s a real honor to be driving the car that the Beta is riding in. The first vehicle in the caravan. The Beta set the order and the seating, and I guess they wanted a mechanic up in front of the line. Dad was proud when I told him what I’d be doing. It’s the most important assignment I’ve been given yet, and I’ve been out of high school and working for two years.

Beta Nolan is sitting in the passenger seat, but he has spent most of the ride turned sideways and talking to the guys in the back. They are all part of the leadership team, and strategizing about the alliance that our Alpha is hoping to form with the pack we are visiting. This is all way over my head. I’m just concentrating on my job here, not trying to listen to this conversation between the leaders. I’m just a wolf.

Most of the rest of the group is miles behind us. We’d stopped at a rest area with a beautiful view of the mountains and a shining lake, and we had been making good time, so Alpha Ross said we could have a break for a few minutes. I think Luna really wanted to enjoy the view, and he’ll always do anything she wants. I had to stop myself from snickering disrespectfully when I saw Luna and Alpha in the rearview mirror as I pulled out, hands all over each other, definitely not looking at the view.

Beta wanted to get going, because he would like to arrive before the rest of the group and get things situated at our lodgings in Humboldt before the Alpha arrives. So we were back on the road immediately.

I think we’re about an hour away from our destination, driving along the 299 highway, when I see an older model car pulled over to the side of the road. There are very few people driving along this road today, nobody else is around. I peer at the vehicle as we approach, and see that the hood is up, steam puffing up from the engine. Someone is standing at the front staring down at it, and I realize when we are almost upon them that it is a young woman holding a little baby.

“Um, Beta?” I ask.

He’s still facing sideways, talking to the men in the back. He looks over at me, and I point to the car with my finger on the wheel. He turns his head to look where I am pointing, and sees the young woman with the disabled vehicle. “Pull over,” he instructs me, and I slow down, pull onto the shoulder just in front of her car, and stop the engine.

“Wait here,” he says, and gets out of the car to walk back to her. The moment that the door is opened we can all smell it - she’s a wolf. There is a scent that is immediately detectable, sort of earthy and wild, which makes it easy to distinguish wolves from plain humans.

The three of us stay in our seats as instructed, but we are all swiveled around to stare back as he approaches her. Damn, she is fine. She’s wearing shorts and a crop top, her long legs and narrow waist drawing my eyes at once. She tosses her long dark hair over her shoulder as she clutches the baby, all wrapped up in a blanket, to her chest. Kinda wish the baby wasn’t in the way so I could get a look at that too. Sproing! Oh dear, shouldn’t have thought of that, now I am all hard and having to adjust myself in my seat.

We hear her say, “Oh, thank you so much for stopping! I don’t know what’s wrong with the car, and it’s too far to walk to a town, and my cell doesn’t have service out here. I couldn’t even shift and run back since I have the baby.” Shit, her voice is even sexy.

“We’ll give you a hand,” he tells her, “we have a mechanic with us.” He raises his voice to call back to me. “Dominic!”

I hurry to open the door and try to do a little wiggle concealed behind it before walking back there, trying to hide this embarrassing bulge. One of the men in the back snorts and I know he can tell what I’m doing. Good thing blushes don’t show very well on my skin. I keep my hands in my pockets to pull my pants out a ways from me as I walk back.

Beta waves his hand over to the engine, and I have just ducked my head under the hood to start diagnosing the problem when I hear running footsteps. Not human footsteps.

I lean back up too fast and clonk my head on the underside of the hood, just in time to see a big grey wolf come lunging at me out of the trees to the side of the road.

No time to spare my clothes, I have to shift immediately and shred them, to try to defend myself. I have no idea what is happening, why we are being attacked, I just have to let my training kick in. Beta has shifted too, and the two men in the back seat are opening their doors to get out as the grey reaches me and leaps for my throat. We’re rolling on the shoulder of the road in front of the disabled car, and I manage to evade his snapping teeth and take a piece out of his flank with my own. He cringes back for a moment, and I see more wolves come pouring into the fray from the woods. I’m not sure how many, but we are seriously outnumbered.

I wonder where the girl went, I don’t see her or the baby anywhere. She must have run off - oh, no, wait. There’s the “baby”, lying on the ground, nothing but a roll of blankets. She’s one of them. It suddenly comes clear. They’re rogues, and we fell into their trap. They’re probably trying to steal our SUV.

As the grey spins back around to attack me again, I have a flash of realization that at least I’m not horny any more. I guess this is one way to get rid of a hard-on.

Then it’s all slashing claws and snapping teeth and snarls and pain and blood, and it seems to go on forever. But then suddenly the roar of an engine breaks into the chaos, then another, and the Alpha and the rest of the pack are here.