Charmed Wolf by Aimee Easterling (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

And...I turned away from them. Cold air prickled against my back as I stalked twenty feet to my pile of clothes and retrieved my cell phone. I left the knives hidden, but shuffled my feet until I could feel the hilt of one.

If I needed a blade, I knew where to find it.

By this point, the phone had stopped ringing. But the moment I swiped it awake, another call came in. From a stranger. No fancy ringtone and no name on the display screen....

“As fascinating as it is to watch you check your messages,” the woman said from the other side of the alley, “perhaps we can discuss business. I’m Lupe and this is Ryder and we’re....”

I stopped listening. Because a text had come through from the same number as the second call, the one not from a pack mate. A text with an image that hit me like the punch I’d expected from Lupe and Ryder when I turned my back.

Kale. The photo was taken from a distance, my favorite kid surrounded by trees in a wooded area like yet unlike our pack hunting grounds. He appeared to be alone, but the bend of his spine wasn’t quite right.

And whoever had sent the image was close enough to be the cause of that crumpled posture.

“Who are you?” I typed. “How did you get this number?”

The phone rang. This time, I ignored the other shifters and accepted the call.

“This is Rune.” His voice was so quiet I could barely hear him. “Caitlyn gave me your number. I’ve found the child, but he smells like fae.”

Rune. Air rushed back into my lungs even as my brain started moving. “Where are you? I’ll come get him.”

I scooped up clothes and knives and tossed them into Natalie’s car, not bothering to pull on so much as a t-shirt. Swiped the key off the tire and turned it in the ignition.

Old Nellie refused to start.

Chapter 16

I’d forgotten Lupe and Ryder the moment I saw Kale’s picture. But now they stood on either side of the car’s open window.

“Rune,” Lupe said, her voice loud enough to be heard down the phone line. Did she realize she’d just overheard then spoken his true name?

“Lupe,” he answered, as if he knew her. “I’m glad you’re there. With Tara’s permission, we could use assistance.”

Which is the moment I put two and two together. Addressing Lupe and Ryder equally, I observed, “You’re Samhain Shifters.”

Ryder leaned in the window, invading my personal space. “Cute and clever. Do you have a boyfriend?”

A growl from the phone reminded me of my nakedness. Snatching my bundle of clothes, I shoved the car door through a wall of shifter. Then, ignoring Ryder’s cascade of cussing and Rune’s satisfied chuckle, I disembarked, pulled on clothes, then forced myself to meet Lupe’s eyes.

The gesture was a struggle given her extreme dominance, but I managed. Only once our gazes had locked did I ask: “You can drive me to...?”

“The park off State Street,” Rune inserted, naming a spot I was very familiar with since it was back in the direction of pack central. His voice turned melodic, like baritone wind chimes as he continued. “Thank you, Tara, for letting them be involved.”

It wasn’t as if I had much choice. Piling into a vehicle with two shifters stronger than me was uncomfortable. But waiting for another mode of transportation when Kale was in trouble would have been considerably worse.

So I did it. Took shotgun when Ryder insisted, then opened the window and leaned out into the wind while wishing for Rune’s persimmon instead of Lupe’s oily dominance. Only once the latter had faded from my nostrils and city streets were beginning to give way to forest did I turn back around to assess the shifters Rune worked with.

Ryder was the easier one to understand. He crouched behind me, one hand bracing himself against the rough carpet where back seats should have been while the other stroked a gleaming motorcycle strapped into the open space. I could almost imagine the deep growl of its motor, Ryder’s face splitting into a boyish grin as he drove far too fast.

Unfortunately, the tattooed shifter noticed my attention. “Just imagine me wrapping”—his eyebrows waggled—“my legs around the barrel and....”

“Ryder,” Rune interrupted through the phone, “Tara is concerned about Kale. Now is not the time for your unique brand of bonding.”

“Not all of us,” Ryder countered, “have a stick so far up our asses that we can’t get on a bike.”

The obvious affection between two men who couldn’t have been more different was heartening. But Rune was right. I had a hard time thinking about anything other than Kale at that moment.

So I turned back to my phone and asked, “Does he look hurt?”

The answering hum warmed me, but Rune’s words didn’t. “He looks...blank.”

I agreed. In the photo, there had obviously been something wrong with my buddy. “Okay then,” I started. But Lupe finally took an interest, speaking right over my words.

“I want you to stay as far back as possible. Best not to spook whoever is influencing the child.”

The child, not Kale. When Rune had used the term, his words had seemed endearing. From Lupe, they sounded...cold.

I flared my nostrils in annoyance, but Rune was the one who answered. “Is that what you want, Tara?”

“To use Kale as bait?” My tongue felt strangely lumpy. As if Lupe was pushing an alpha command into me without even needing words to do so. It tasted like I was chewing on a mouthful of tar.

“If not,” Rune continued, “you should be aware that Lupe’s commands work across phone lines. Now might be a good time to end—”

“This call,” I finished for him at the same time I powered down my phone.

“GUTSY,” RYDER OBSERVED, his breath hot on my neck. It was all I could do not to turn and face the unseen danger.

“Stupid,” Lupe countered, reminding me that baiting her was far