Lone Wolf (The Wulf Pack Book 1)

Hunter was waiting to greet Rage when he arrived. The dark bags under his eyes a clear indicator of the lack of sleep.

Rage didn’t bother caring as he shifted into his human form in front of his twin. He wasn’t shy and he didn’t care who saw him bare.

Hunter’s worried eyes snagged on a few scars his brother had aquired, before he met his eyes.

The gold the there was molten as he stared him down. If it had been any other wolf he would have made an example out of the clear disrespect, but he knew Rage’s anger wasn’t directed twords him.

“Where is she?” Hunter frowned. The gentleness of his voice surprised him.

“I’ll take you to her room,” Rage was silent as he followed a few steps behind. Not even saying a word as he took a sweatpants offered to him by a blushing female.

When they reached the clinic, everyone watched as they moved to Willow’s room. A pin drop could have been heard in the usually buzzing area.

Hunter almost dropped to his knees when he saw his brother set eyes on the sleeping female. His face was void but his eyes held a swirl of emotions that knocked the breath out of Hunter.

He had never seen anyone look like that, and for his brother, his twin of all people, to look like that, he felt like he had been punched in the chest.

Rage slowly moved into the room, eyes never leaving Willow. He blamed himself for her being hurt. Blamed himself for being stupid and not just marking her.

He reached out and brushed the hair from her face. Taking a deep breath when she didn’t react.

“They gave her some sedatives, the pain killers don’t seem to be working,”

Rage clenched his teeth as tight as his fists as he looked down at her bandaged chest. The wrappings were fresh and white making it hard to know how bad the wound was, but he could smell that they were still fresh, still open and unhealed.

“What happened?” he didn’t look at his brother, he didn’t remove his eyes from Willow’s sleeping form.

Hunter moved about the room, before approaching Rage with a file extended. He took it and flipped it open and froze and the printed image on top.

There were five claw marks in an arch shape across her chest, joining together in the center like the image of a setting sun. In the image each claw mark was stitched together, closing the flesh together as tightly as they could. The center of the would definitely scar, there wasn’t much they could do to close it.

Rage pushed down his anger, tried to stop his body from shaking as he handed the file back to Hunter. He didn’t want to see more, it would only make his dark side take over., now wasn’t the time.

“I’m sorry, brother, that I didn’t see the signs,” both male’s eyes lay on Willow, “I noticed that Fury had begun to care about her, but I didn’t see how much, I didn’t see that he had fallen for her,” Rage suppressed his growl. His brother had fallen for his female.

“I was plain to see that she wanted no one but you and to me that was that. I didn’t see what was happening to Fury, that his anger was more than just anger at your actions, he was jealous. He wanted to claim Willow for himself,”

Rage tore his eyes from his mate to look at Hunter, his eyebrows drawn together. The idea of Fury falling for Willow didn’t anger him as much as the idea of him hurting her, but if he cared for her, why would he hurt her?

As if reading his mind Hunter continued.

“When you were last here I sent him away. I didn’t want a fight but it seems that that was my mistake,” He raised his eyes to meet Rage’s as he watched him. “When he returned and found Willow unmarked and pregnant...” he trailed off, looking away from him, unable to look him in the eye.

Rage froze, his mind echoing the single word. With wide eyes he looked at his Little Wolf, his heart clenched. He strained his ears, trying to listed for the heartbeat. With all of the machines beeping he could barely hear her ’s. He pressed his ear to her stomach, closing his eyes and listening.

He let out his held breath as he heard it, the heartbeat that wasn’t her’s. His heart tightened as he listened, his mind racing with questions. He wanted to know why she hadn’t told him, why she...

Everything seemed to stop as he heard the murmur, his mind instently rushing at the thought of something being wrong with the pup. He listened harder, the next time the murmur came he realized it wasn’t a murmur at all.

“There’s two,” Rage whispered, raising his head to look at Hunter. They stared at each other in shock before Hunter broke out in a smile.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” They looked back at his little mate, still sound asleep. Rage’s emotions were everywhere. His eyes roamed her face before dropping to her chest, the bandiges almost like a magnet. He felt angrier than before, angrier than he had ever been.

Everything took on a pin tint as his mind finally seemed to process Hunter’s words. Not only did Fury hurt Willow, he hurt her while knowing her was pregnant with his pups.

“I need you to tell me everything that happened,” he gritted his teeth, gripping Willow’s hand tightly. He squeezed his eyes closed, focusing on her, trying to ground himself. He needed to know everything before he acted. This wasn’t just any wolf, this was his brother. If it hadn’t been one of his brother’s, the wolf would have been dead already.

“The last week Willow had been keeping to herself. She told mom she wasn’t feeling well and would see no one but her. Now that I know, she was most likely keeping the pregnancy hidden,” Hunter explained as he looked between Rage and Willow. Both had their eyes closed, Rage focusing on the words as his gripped his mates hand. Hunter was surprised at how rational he was being, he was expecting to loose a brother the moment Rage entered the castle.

“When Fury returned, he found Willow, I hadn’t even known he was back until he pulled Willow into my office,“he reached up and brushed his fingers over the nearly healed, yellow bruise on her arm, “that’s when I realized he had snapped. He was yelling about how you knocked her up and left her,” Hunter looked to find Rage’s sharp eyes watching him. “he was too far gone to care that you claimed her, that she wasn’t more than eight weeks along. When I tried to explain he freaked, gripped her throat, threatening to mark her. In his anger he ripped the necklace from her. He was too crazed to see that he hurt her, that his claws sliced through her skin,”

Hunter was angry at himself, he had let down his family, his pack, but not realizing what was happening to his own brother. He hurt for them, all of them. This was something that he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

“Fury and Jamie helped me get him to his cell. We have been waiting for you to get here before we made any judgments,”

Rage nodded, leaning down, he placed a soft kiss to Willow’s forehead, surprising Hunter at the tender gesture. When he rose, letting go of his mate’s hand, and met his eyes, Hunter saw his brother, the Rage that he was use to, the dangerous one that wouldn’t have kissed even their mother so tenderly.

“Take me to him,” Hunter nodded, his heart dropping. He had a feeling he was going to loose a brother tonight.