A soft, but strong feminine voice filtered into his head. Not for your life, but for your love.
Not So Big Bad Wolves
The wolf nipped at her heels, hurrying her through the woods. God, she hoped her gut was right and it wasn't taking her to its den to kill and eat her. This was why no one was allowed in the Reserve after dark. Wolves. Or rather werewolves, as she'd learned recently. Some of her best friends were werewolves, as it turned out. Not this guy though. She wasn't even a hundred percent sure he was a shifter. So far he hadn't shown any signs of humanity whatsoever. “Don't be so pushy, I'm going as fast as I can.”
Thank God for all those pole classes she taught. Hanging upside down on a metal pole in front of horny people was easy. Jogging was so not her thing. She already had a stitch in her side and if she stepped on one more unidentified squishy thing with her bare feet she might give up.
No. She could never do that. Aleksei needed her help. She could only pray that this wolf knew that and was on her side.
Her next step wasn't something soft or even slimy. A rock or a pile of razor blades bit into the ball of her foot. “Ow, ow. God dammit. Someone needs to come in here and pave some better walking paths.”
The wolf replied by sniffing her foot and giving it a little yippy bark. Then it shoved her leg with its snout and forced her to keep going. Asshole.
“Please tell me we're close to wherever we're going and that there will be help there.” This random jaunt through the woods wasn't doing any good if he wasn't taking her to get help. Helplessness was not a feeling she was used to. Helena rubbed her arms and took a tentative step forward. She was going to need a month's worth of pedicures and foot rubs if she lived through the night.
The wolf gave her another shove forward and then lowered its head and growled. Helena stumbled and barely stopped herself from falling. “What the hell? What are you growling at? You'd better not be putting me in danger or I'll have to skin you and use you for a rug later.”
He ignored her completely and growled deeper. The hair on his back actually stood up in spikey tufts, exactly like in the movies. Shit. Something bad was about to go down. It crept forward and nipped at her ankles, making her jump forward again.
A rustling sounded from all sides but mainly directly in front of her. The grey wolf made a weird barking sound and then took off running the opposite direction. Before Helena could even start to follow it, she was surrounded by a whole new group of enormous wolves. The sensation of the fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck had her sucking in a breath that she couldn't seem to release. That bastard grey wolf had led her straight into a trap.
These ones weren’t mangy like the others. Great. At least she was going to be eaten alive by a pack who cleaned up after themselves.
Two more tore past her, hot on the grey wolf's trail. She was on her own for real this time.
“Nice wolfy, wolfies. Don't eat me. I'm not delicious at all.” Except according to Aleksei, who was in danger. If she didn't get herself out of this situation, she wouldn't be able to help him. Fuck that.
The closest wolf's head was almost at her eye level and she smacked him on the nose. “Bad dog. Sit.”
That shocked the hell out of him. He did in fact sit down, tipped his head to the side, and looked at her like 'what the hell, lady?'
“Good boy. Now take me to your leader.” Geez. She sounded ridiculous.
The wolf she'd smacked coughed - or maybe it was laughing? Okay, so it could understand. Because they'd come at her so snarly, she assumed these were part of Team Bad Guy, but this was going to be extra embarrassing if they turned out to be wolf-shifters she knew in real life.
She looked into the eyes of the laughing wolf to see if she recognized anything. The only thing really familiar was the same blue glow that Aleksei had. Did this mean they were in his pack? She really should have had that talk with Heli about hooking up with a Troika. Someone really needed to write The Girl’s Guide to Supernatural Dating.
That was going on her to do list. Just as soon as she saved her lover, took out the bad guys, and finally got to eat her Thanksgiving leftovers.
The wolf in front of her continued to laugh, but also bowed its head and Helena heard the sickening sound of bones cracking and watched the fur split across its back. Gross.
In a blink or two the laughing wolf became a stark-naked man. Eek. It was the bartender from Sleepy Folk. Crap, what was his name? She was completely distracted by all that man flesh and could not think of his name, and she totally knew it, she really really did. This had to be what dudes at the club felt like when she took all of her clothes off.
“Helena? What are you doing in the Reserve?”
She dragged her eyes away from his giant package and made sure not to let them drift any lower than his chin. Now that she had her gawking under control, she finally remembered his name. Harley. Phew. She blurted out, “Aleksei's in trouble.”
“Why was that wolf attacking you?” He looked off into the direction the grey wolf and his buddies had run and scowled. “Who is he?”
“What? No? That grey wolf? He was helping me. He brought me to you guys. I think. It’s confusing. Who cares, we have to go help Aleksei.”
Harley frowned and then looked her up and down like he was just realizing she was running around the woods half-naked. She gave Aleksei's shirt a tug downwards. It was only barely covering her hoo-ha. If the wolves were any smaller, they'd all have seen right up in her business.
“That was a lone wolf. They are very dangerous. Max and Niko are going to want to ask you questions about him. That is, if our Troika Enforcers don't get to him first.” He waved Helena forward and the other two wolves flanked the two of them.
Great, she was being herded again like a fucking sheep. “Harley, you aren't listening. I don't give a flying foot fuck about the grey wolf or whether he's alone or not. You have to come with me back to my house, right now.”
“The pack house is just up ahead. Selena will have clothes for you and a place to clean up. The alphas and their mates are already there and will explain—”
“Are you shitting me? Kosta, Heli, and the others are all here? Come on, hurry up. We gotta go round everybody up and bring reinforcements back to my place.” She smacked him on the arm and jogged on ignoring the pain in her feet, her side, and her heart.
Selena Troika, dressed as if she was hosting a board meeting for some fancy pants corporation, waited for her at the big French doors at the back of the house. She had a plush spa-style full-length robe held out and a pair of soft slippers at her feet.
Helena didn't realize just how cold she was or how dirty her legs and feet were until she slipped into the comforting material. “Thank you, but I'm hoping you have some leggings and, I don't know, like a flack jacket I can borrow too.”
“Don't worry dear, we'll take care of you now.”
“Selena, please. I don't need to be taken care of. We have to get Aleksei some backup. He's fighting some really ugly, mean wolves and I think he's in a lot of trouble.” She didn't want to say how she was worried it was a whole lot more than just trouble. She refused to believe he was...nope. Not even gonna think that.