Ravensong (Green Creek 2)

“What the fuck is going on?” Carter squeaked, startled out of his shift as he got a face full of tail.

“Joe,” Elizabeth said sharply, causing her son to stop before he could reach the timber wolf. “Don’t.”

Joe looked surprised as he glanced back at his mother. “But it’s going to hurt him.”

“I don’t think it is,” Mark said thoughtfully at my side. “It’s… protecting him.”

“From what?” Joe asked.

“From you. From all of us. Step back, Joe.”

“But—”

“Joe.”

Joe did as his uncle asked.

The timber wolf eyed him warily, standing above Carter. Once it was sure that Joe wasn’t a threat, it turned back around and put its snout against Carter’s chest again, rumbling low in its throat.

Carter tried to shove its face away, but it snapped at his fingers, growling a warning. “What the hell is its problem?” Carter asked, sounding annoyed.

“I think it likes you,” Elizabeth said mildly.

“Oh, gee, Mother, thank you for your input! I don’t know where I’d be without you!”

“You wouldn’t be born without her,” Joe said, helpful as ever.

“Ox!” Carter cried, trying unsuccessfully to shove the wolf away from him. “Do your I’m-So-Special Alpha thing and get this fucker off me.”

“You seem to be doing just fine on your own,” Ox said, stepping out of the bar and into the snow. The timber wolf glared back at him over its shoulder. Ox made sure to give them a wide berth as he approached us, much to Carter’s outrage.

“What happened?” Ox asked us in a low voice. “Rico said the hunters were in the garage?”

I scowled. “As if I didn’t want to kill them already, they’re touching my stuff.”

“He focuses on what’s important,” Mark told Ox, and I gave very real consideration to blasting him across the bar parking lot. But I didn’t think it would do well for whatever was going on between us, so I didn’t.

“I don’t like it when people touch my things.”

“I’m sure Dale would agree with that,” Ox said, because even though he was an Alpha, he was still a bitch.

Mark started choking.

I hated everyone. “Killed the red wolf. Crushed it under the truck.”

“You followed?”

I shook my head. “The guys and Jessie made sure our tracks were covered most of the way here.”

“And what’s that about?” he asked, nodding toward the wolf that now had the collar of Carter’s coat between its teeth and was trying to drag him away. It wasn’t going so well for the timber wolf, seeing as Kelly had burst out of the bar with an impressive battle cry, grabbed his brother’s leg, and was pulling him in the opposite direction.

“I couldn’t even begin to tell you.”

“Kelly!” Carter shouted. “Save me!”

“I am,” Kelly yelled back.

The timber wolf jerked its head back roughly, trying to pull Carter away from Kelly as it snarled a warning.