Dark Wolf (Spirit Wild) - By Kate Douglas Page 0,22
down on the loose skin above his shoulders. Sebastian yipped, twisted, and bit down on the wolf’s front leg.
Lily heard the bone snap and winced at the gray’s sharp howl of pain, but she didn’t wait to see the results. Instead, she charged out of her refuge, leapt over the two wolves rolling in the dirt, and hit the second wolf as it raced to help the gray.
Her attack seemed to surprise the beast. He pulled back, but she hit him hard, slashing his muzzle with sharp fangs, rolling him off his feet, and clamping her jaws down on his throat.
He clawed at her with his hind feet, ripping dark fur out of her soft belly as he twisted and turned, struggling to break free. Then Sebastian was beside her. Lily almost lost her grip. Who would he side with—the other males or the female he’d somehow decided to claim as his own?
He bit down hard on one of the wolf’s flailing hind legs. Again, that sickening snap, a howl of pain, and the animal’s attack turned to a mad scramble for escape.
Lily turned the beast loose and backed off. The gray and his darker companion limped away snarling with ears back and tails tucked. They paused in a shaft of moonlight just at the entrance to the canyon, heads down, sides heaving. Blood speckled the muzzle of the gray, but Lily couldn’t tell if the other one bled or not. He did, however, hold his left rear paw off the ground.
The gray favored his right front leg, but he stared at Lily and Sebastian through eyes filled with rage. After a moment, Sebastian snarled and charged the two.
They turned and raced away, each on three legs and limping badly, but still managing a fair burst of speed.
Sebastian slowly turned and walked stiff-legged back to Lily. His eyes were narrow slits, his ears back. Would he attack? Even now, after they’d fought together, after he’d helped her defeat her assailant?
He went flat to the ground, belly pressed to the dirt, and bared his throat. A totally submissive gesture. She’d not expected this, but she’d be damned if she wasted the opportunity. She closed her jaws over his throat, clamped down hard enough to make her point, and then turned him loose.
Lily, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. Did I hurt you?
What do you mean, you don’t know? You son of a bitch! You tried to mount me. You chased me here and wouldn’t let me out. Not the best first date I’ve ever been on, that’s for sure.
Oh. But . . . shit.
He looked honestly perplexed. That didn’t make sense. He shook his head, a terribly human act that looked almost comical in the big black wolf. Who were those guys? I’ve never seen them before. Why would they attack us? Were they after you?
I’ve never seen them, either. But I recognize their scent.
How?
I smelled it a couple of days ago in Golden Gate Park. At the scene of the latest murder attributed to wolves.
Crap.
Exactly. Now, are you going to tell me what happened tonight?
He sat back and stared at the ground between his paws. I have no idea. My last memory is running behind you. You scared up a rabbit. I remember losing the rabbit in the brambles, racing after you . . . and then nothing.
She stared at him, searching his mind for any sense that he lied, but all she felt was his confusion. What the hell had happened ? We need to get back. Breaking their mental connection, Lily trotted a few steps, looked over her shoulder, and waited. Sebastian sat in front of the tumbled boulders where he’d held her captive. She sensed his confusion, his need to understand what had happened to him. What he’d almost done to her.
She turned and followed the trail that would lead them to the parking lot. After a moment, she sensed Sebastian following.
This time she recognized the Sebastian she thought she knew.
But there was another side to him, a dark and dangerous side. She had no idea where it was hiding, or when or if it would break free again.
Trotting along behind Lily, Sebastian couldn’t recall ever feeling as much shame as he felt at this moment. Shame and fear, and an overwhelming sense of confusion. What the fuck happened back there? He’d never before lost himself in the wolf, never once had his sentient human mind disappear during a shift.