Читать книгу Wolf Tales VIII - Kate Douglas - Страница 10

She jerked back from the eyepiece on the spotting scope. That was too damned close! Those brilliant amber eyes had gazed straight at the camouflaged blind for much too long a time for it to have been an accident. They’d appeared so close, magnified as they were through the lens, even though the man was over a quarter mile away.

Discovery meant almost certain death. Her father was proof of that. He’d learned their secrets and he’d died. They showed no mercy, but they were animals. All of them, predators.

Of course, what they couldn’t find, they couldn’t kill. She gazed at the forest around her, at the thick branches of the big blue spruce concealing her perch. Then she gave the scope a subtle twist of the lens and focused once more on the house.

“I’m going to help Oliver and Keisha get dinner on.” Eve leaned over the edge of the bed and gave Adam a kiss. Before he could respond, she pulled away. “Later,” she said, in her soft, southern drawl. “You distract me too easily.”

“I try.” He watched her go, and then crawled out of bed. By unspoken agreement, they’d all taken naps once their guests were settled. Of course, napping with Eve had nothing to do with sleep.

The past couple of hours had been absolutely magnificent. Feeling unusually mellow, Adam showered and threw on a pair of warm sweats. Temperatures had dropped the past few days. Fall was definitely in the air, but Anton intended to run tonight, which meant Adam needed to find Logan and Deacon.

They were both out on the back deck having a cold beer. Adam plopped down in one of the chairs next to Deacon. “Got a few minutes? I thought I’d take a look at your leg before the rest of them come wandering out here.”

Deacon nodded. “Logan talked to Oliver.”

“Ah. Good. What did he say?”

Logan shook his head. “What he said was fucking impossible. That you gave him a set of balls he’d never had. How?”

Adam shrugged. “That’s the problem. I really don’t know. I’m assuming he told you he’d been castrated when he was a child. I wanted him to be complete—a whole, intact man. Not for the sex, so much, but so he could shift. Once we linked I was able to help him become a wolf, and the wolf had balls. Luckily, they stayed when he shifted back.”

“Damned lucky. In fact it’s almost scary.” Deacon stared at his beer for a few moments. “I’d like for you to try and fix it, Adam. It kills me to watch everyone shift at night. They go off and leave me at the house and I feel like they’ve ripped something out of me.”

Logan frowned. “God, Deac…I’m sorry. You never said…”

Deacon shook his head. “Not your fault. There wasn’t anything anyone could do about it, but if Adam can help me heal faster…” He sighed. “It’s a compound fracture—I could be in this damned cast for four more weeks. I’m tired of waiting.”

“How’d you break it?” Adam tried to see beneath the cast. He felt the injury, a raw, only partially healed wound.

“Walking down a trail in the redwoods, looking up at a bird.” He glanced away and blushed. “I’m so tall…I’ve always been really clumsy. I fell into a ravine and caught my foot in some roots on the way down.”

“Ouch.” Adam shuddered. He’d picked up Deacon’s memories clearly enough to make his own leg hurt. “Logan, put your hands on mine and link with me. Can you get into my head?” Adam pressed his hands against Deacon’s cast, directly over the break.

“How’d you know exactly where it was broken?” Logan’s eyes locked with his. His palms were warm and solid when he covered Adam’s hands.

“I felt it.” Adam shrugged. It was never easy to explain what he did. “It just feels wrong right here.” He paused for a moment, searched for Logan, found him. “Okay…I’ve got you in my head.” He glanced at Deacon. “Hold really still now, and open your thoughts. I want to make sure I’m not hurting you.”

“Good idea,” Deacon muttered, but his barriers were down and his mind wide open.

There was so much pain in this kid. So much loneliness. Adam slipped away from the more intimate, personal memories, closed his eyes and pictured the open wound on the leg beneath the cast—the flesh beneath the wound, the veins and arteries feeding blood to the bone, and the bone itself. There was some infection in the broken skin where the bone had torn through, and the break in the bone was long and jagged. It reminded him of the shattered bones in Anton’s wolven body when he’d been shot by intruders last month.

Anton’s fall from the cliff had caused more damage than the bullet, and the repairs had taken everything Adam had. This was simple by comparison. He found the edges of bone and tied them tightly together, manipulating tissue, nerves, blood vessels, and bone on a cellular level until the separation between the two pieces was solid once again. In a way it reminded him of the jigsaw puzzles he’d loved as a kid, as piece after piece slipped into its proper spot. He removed all signs of infection where the bone had broken through the skin, and closed the wound with healthy tissues.

Logan remained a silent presence, hovering just on the fringes of Adam’s consciousness. Deacon hadn’t said a word. Adam wondered if the kid felt anything as the break in his leg healed. He stayed long enough to check the underlying bone, the one he thought was called a fibula. He wished he knew more about the human body—at least that bone looked and felt healthy.

Slowly backing his presence out of Deacon’s leg, Adam checked blood vessels and muscles, passed through flesh and healthy skin and plaster cast. Back in his own reality, he felt Logan’s consciousness slip away from his and blinked himself back to full awareness.

The first thing he saw was Logan. The shocked look on the man’s face was priceless. “Amazing,” he said. “Absolutely amazing.”

“Not bad for your average auto mechanic, eh, Doc?” Adam laughed. “How do you feel, Deacon? Is the pain better?”

Deacon shook his head. “There’s no pain at all. It felt warm when you were both spaced out, but the pain’s completely gone.”

“Spaced out? I guess that’s a good way of putting it. Or spaced in. I think we can take the cast off. Shifting seems to promote healing, too, from what we’ve seen. There’s going to be some swelling. I haven’t figured out how to deal with that, but it’s not going to interfere with the bone’s healing. As long as you take it easy tonight, you should be able to run with everyone else.”

Adam stood up to leave. Logan grabbed his arm. “I need to learn that. Can you teach me?”

“I can.” Adam gazed steadily into Logan’s eyes. Eyes exactly like his own. “I know you’re new, that you’ve not been Chanku long enough to really understand that much about yourself, about all of us, but the easiest way for you to learn is to link at a deeper level.”

“How?” Logan lurched to his feet, still holding tightly to Adam’s arm. There was a desperate look in his eyes.

“A deep link during sex.” Adam shrugged. “How else? Maybe tonight after we run?” He touched Deacon’s shoulder. “I’d offer to saw the cast off, but it’ll fall off when you shift. A lot easier on all of us, don’t you think?”

Deacon blinked, his eyes going from Logan to Adam and back to his friend. “You mean it’s not broken anymore? Just like that? I can try shifting tonight?”

Adam shrugged. “Just like that. And yeah, you should be fine shifting.” He grinned at Logan. “What do you think, Doc? Can he shift?”

“I saw what you did, but I still don’t believe it. Yeah, Deac. It looked totally fine.” Logan stood up and grabbed Deacon’s empty beer can. “I’m going to get us a refill. I don’t know about you, but I could really use another beer. As far as your leg, I’ll check it after you shift, but I think it’s good to go.”

They gathered in the great room after dinner. Logan glanced away from his conversation with Jazzy and Deacon as Anton stepped out of the kitchen. He had a stained, once-white dish towel wrapped around his waist and the front of his otherwise immaculate white shirt was spattered with water.

Logan snapped his attention back to his packmates. He’s doing dishes?

Jazzy shrugged and Deacon just stared, but he’d been acting a little spaced out all afternoon, ever since Adam had repaired his broken leg and told him he’d be shifting tonight.

That had to have been a shock. Logan was still sorting through the unreal experience of actually taking a mental trip inside Deacon’s leg.

“Anyone who plans to run tonight, be here in the great room in ten minutes.” Anton tugged the towel off and dried his hands on it. “And yes, Logan. I’ve been doing dishes.” He grinned. “Don’t worry. It’s a democracy. You’ll get your turn.”

He went back into the kitchen where Mei and Oliver were loading the dishwasher.

Logan watched until he disappeared through the doorway. “How’d he hear me? I wasn’t broadcasting.”

“He hears everything.” Tala flopped down on the couch next to Logan and in a deep, mysterious voice, said, “Hears all, knows all, sees all…” Smiling, she added, “And he’s one of the nicest men I’ve ever known. However, he used to scare the shit out of me.”

Mik flopped his huge frame down beside Tala on the big leather couch and kissed her on the nose. “For what it’s worth, he still scares the shit out of me. Deacon, you ready for tonight?”

Deacon shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve been waiting so long, been ready for so long. How come I’m such a nervous wreck?”

Jazzy leaned over the back of the couch and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “Because you know we’re all going to be watching you when you take your clothes off.” She laughed and rubbed the top of his head like he was a little kid. “S’okay, though. You’ll be great. And Deacon…” She leaned even closer and pressed her breasts against his shoulder. “After we run, I think Logan’s going to spend a little quality time with Adam, so you’re all mine.”

“Oh, shit.” Deacon looked at her wide-eyed. “Now I’ll definitely screw up.”

Quality time. Logan’s stomach clenched into a tight knot. No way in hell would he admit it, but he was as nervous as Deacon. Not about shifting. Never about that—at least not anymore, but sex with Adam? He’d never done it with just a guy before. It was different when he and Jazzy brought another man into bed with them. She was the buffer, the one who made it all okay.

Would he ever get over his hang-ups? Hell, just thinking of that first time with Mik still made him hot, but he’d had Jazzy there too. Sort of as a “guy on guy” shock absorber. And since then, Deacon had joined them on a lot of nights and it was cool, but Deacon was a buddy and definitely not alpha.

Deacon and Matt were a lot alike in that respect. Both really great guys, but quiet and not at all aggressive. Logan wondered how Matt was doing with Nick and Beth. The three of them had flown back to Colorado to work on that wolf sanctuary with another group of Chanku. It couldn’t be anything like it was here, not with all these different packmates, all of whom seemed to be pure alphas. It was amazing they got along so well.

Matt and Deacon were different. They accepted their Chanku birthright without any overt issues at all, but they hadn’t even tried to get either of the women to pay attention to them. It was like the competition and aggression that most of the Chanku males accepted as their due didn’t exist with the two of them.

But Adam? Adam was definitely alpha. Even Anton Cheval, the one everybody treated as the uber-alpha of the pack seemed to defer to Adam. It had to be the guy’s amazing abilities.

Logan’s stomach practically tied into knots just thinking about the fact Adam wanted to have sex with him tonight. Except it wasn’t so much for the sex, it was to give Logan the knowledge he wanted. Knowledge he craved, information that would help him be a better doctor, better prepared to help his patients in a manner he had never dreamed existed.

So, if he wanted to think about it, it wasn’t just sex for sex, it was sex for the sake of the link. For learning. Yeah, he could handle it easier so long as he thought about it as…

“You okay? You’re a million miles away, and your barriers feel like a brick wall around your brain.”

Jazzy’s soft words in his ear dragged Logan out of his mired thoughts. “Yeah,” he said. He turned his head just enough to plant a kiss on her full lips. Damn. He’d been so lucky to find her. So damned lucky. Everything about her seemed to fit him perfectly. “I’m just thinking about everything that’s happened. Hoping it goes okay for Deacon tonight.”

Jazzy slid over the edge of the couch, squeezed in between Logan and Tala and snuggled up close against him. “It will, now. That was so cool, how Adam fixed his leg.” She ran a finger along his shoulder. Logan was convinced he felt the heat through his shirt. “I’ll be thinking of you tonight. You and Adam. It makes me hot, imagining the two of you together.”

Hearing Jazzy say the words sent a shaft of lightning from Logan’s balls to his cock. He wasn’t sure if it was her voice or the image of Adam and what they’d be doing in a very short time.

He’d never before been so anxious for a run to be over. Never been so apprehensive about his own sexual skills, his control…or lack of it. What if he…?

“Everyone here?”

Anton’s voice snapped him back to the present. Logan glanced around the room and realized it had filled up while he’d been indulging his libido with daydreams of Adam Wolf. Everyone seemed to be here except for Mei Chen and Oliver, but they’d volunteered to stay and watch the babies for Keisha and Xandi.

Logan glanced over at Deacon and gave him a thumbsup. He noticed Adam had moved closer to the young man, almost as if he were a doctor and Deacon his patient, which, in some ways, sort of explained their strange new relationship.

“We do the shift indoors, okay?” Anton was already working down the row of buttons on his shirt. “And stay alert. I’ve still got a strange feeling, as if all is not as it should be, but I can’t put my finger on anything in particular. Keep an eye out for anything that feels the least bit sketchy. Have fun tonight, but don’t forget to pay attention with all your Chanku senses. You smell anything, see anything, feel anything at all different, I want to know about it immediately.”

He tugged his shirt off and started on his pants. Logan realized he was surrounded by people in various stages of undress, including his mate. Within moments, all of them were nude, and seconds later, everyone but Adam, Logan, and Deacon had shifted.

At well over six and a half feet tall, Deacon towered over both men in a room filled with wolves of all shades and sizes, all of them waiting to witness a new Chanku’s first shift. “Are you ready, bro?” Logan stood to one side. Adam took the other.

“No pressure here, eh? Give him some space, guys.” Adam touched Deacon’s arm, steadying him once he dropped the crutches. The huge cast looked awkward and unwieldy. Deacon shifted his weight to regain his balance.

“Get inside my head,” Adam said. “Watch what I do. Then do the same thing.”

Deacon nodded. Adam shifted. Deacon took a deep breath and followed his lead. The plaster cast crumbled into dust. The large gray wolf sitting in the midst of the pile sneezed.

The sense of celebration and outright relief in the room was an almost palpable force.

Logan dropped to his knees and hugged Deacon’s furry neck. “I knew you could do it. Is your leg okay? Any pain?”

The wolf shook his head. Lifted up his front paw and studied the long, black nails, the thick pads. Shit. I didn’t really think it would happen. My right rear leg doesn’t hurt at all. That’s the one I broke, right?

“Yeah. That’s the one you broke.” Logan swallowed back a sudden thickening in his throat. He’d been part of this. He’d made love with this young man, had helped him when he’d been hurt. Had ached for him when they’d all shifted and Deacon remained behind.

He wouldn’t stay behind tonight.

The other wolves milled about. Many of them approached Deacon, as if offering congratulations. It took Logan a minute to recognize individuals in the pack, but their personalities showed through even in wolf form.

You did it, kid! Stefan bumped shoulders with Deacon and moved aside when Tala, Mik, and AJ approached. They sniffed noses with the big gray wolf. The wolf that was Tala stayed a moment longer than the two guys. Logan wondered what she said to Deacon. It was obvious some private communication went on between the two of them. Finally she nuzzled Deacon’s shoulder and turned away.

She paused a moment and looked up at Logan. I told him we’ll always have a bed for him in San Francisco. For you and Jazzy, too, and your three buddies in Colorado. Before he could reply, she turned and trotted after Mik and AJ.

Finally, everyone’s attention shifted away from the newest wolf. Regal even on four legs, Anton headed for the open back door, but it was his mate, Keisha, who led the pack out into the Montana night. Logan’s head buzzed with all the mental conversations as each wolf followed their lead and slipped through the doorway.

Logan shifted and stood beside Adam, Deacon, and Jazzy. It happened so easily, the change from human to four-footed beast. So naturally.

It still embarrassed him, remembering how he’d practically called Tala, AJ, and Mik liars when they’d first tried to explain his Chanku birthright to him. He couldn’t believe how stubbornly he’d resisted the truth, even though he’d already witnessed Nicky’s change with his own eyes.

Well, no one ever accused him of not being a horse’s ass…Logan glanced toward Adam and found the other wolf staring at him. A shiver raced along his spine. Damn. He usually wasn’t this horny until after a run.

When they fell into line behind the others, Logan followed, but his mind wasn’t on the frosty air or the sounds of wolves running on all sides. He wasn’t mesmerized, as usual, by the pure joy of running on four legs with his beautiful mate at his side.

No. He was lost in Adam Wolf. Caught in the view of his lean, dark frame streaking through the forest. Trapped in his scent, which had suddenly become a seductive lure unlike anything Logan had ever known. Beguiled by the feral beauty, the mystery of their kind and the knowledge he and Adam would be together tonight, he followed the pack into the forest.

Damn. Dark shapes streaked through the artificially bright green meadow, clearly visible through the high-tech spotting scope. Even in the distorted light it was obvious the pack was huge, but at this distance a clear count was impossible. Were all of them running together? They wouldn’t leave the babies unguarded, would they? Babies couldn’t shift, at least not babies as young as theirs.

A light went on in the house. Then another at the opposite end. That meant more than one person inside. The rest of the pack would be gone for hours, but the house appeared well guarded. There’d be no chance of getting inside, at least not tonight. No matter. Wrapping up in a warm coat would have to do. Maybe the dreams would return, and with them the heat of sexual desire. Better than nothing…

Something was going on. She wished she knew, just as she wished she understood the strange dreams growing more vivid each night. At least once the wolves entered the forest, they’d be gone long enough to allow for a quick nap…a nap, and another round of dreams. Maybe the dreams held answers? If only Father were still alive. She’d never thought to ask him about the dreams.