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Grayson's Wolf Ch. 01

By: MJRoberts



ALL CHARACTERS IN SEXUAL SITUATIONS ARE OVER 18.

Characters are fictional.

I welcome emails from writers and fans.

Also, thanks to all the readers who have reached out and become friends. For all those who have sent compliments, this story is for you!

Enjoy!

MJ

*****

Chapter 1

Grayson Armstrong struggled to get back to consciousness. His eyes fluttered open. He became dimly aware he felt like he'd been shoved through a paper shredder. And then very aware.

The verdant canvas of leaves, with their licks and whispers of red and gold on the edges gave him a bit of comfort until he remembered why he was flat on the forest floor.

He closed his eyes.

Grayson had been fantasizing about all the sex he wanted and wasn't having, a dangerous thing to do when you're alone in the woods. Even if you're a werewolf. Hell, especially if you're a werewolf. 

Grayson carefully felt the edges of the agonizing slashes across his chest. One was over his heart and came close to being perilously deep. 

What the thrashaulers did to him, and whatever poison was on their sharp claws, was harsher than he anything he ever experienced. Hell, harsher than anything he ever imagined. Not that that was how he spent his time thinking about thrashaulers. They hadn't been spotted since before his time.

They'd left him for dead. Judging by how he felt, he wasn't far from it. But he was alive. He was an Alpha; he'd heal fast. A split second wouldn't be fast enough for him, because right now he felt like he'd been mauled by a bear and been run over by a truck. It hurt to breathe. Grayson concentrated on relaxing his muscles. It wasn't like he was going to be getting up anytime soon anyway.

Grayson wasn't going to slide peacefully into the abyss. Even as his eyes fluttered closed again, he knew he had to stay alive long enough to explain the attack to his sister.

Grayson's sister Kinley was running as fast as she could. Without breaking stride she changed into her wolf. In her wolf form her back stood at just over four feet tall; her legs were long and ate up the ground in a frenzy of speed. The light grey, tan, and white of her coat flashed between the trees.

Grayson. Grayson. Grayson. Grayson.

She stopped and sniffed.

Blood.

She was close.

Kinley adjusted her path a tiny bit and took off again, weaving between the trees like a Mercedes zooming around oncoming traffic at super speed.

She came to the small clearing and stopped so quickly she had to dig her nails into the dirt to prevent falling forward.

Oh my God, he's dead. Dead.

Kinley changed back into her human form. Thank God she had enough power to change back and forth so easily.

Slowly she approached the body. 

No. No. Not my brother.

Kinley crouched down beside him.

Gingerly she reached out for a pulse. It was weak but there.

"Kinley?" Grayson's voice was hoarse and weak.

"Thank God," Kinley said. "What happened?"

"Thrashaulers."

"This far north?"

Grayson coughed and his chest sent pain messages to every part of his body that all his cuts were on fire.

"Apparently," Grayson said.

Kinley bent down further to inspect the cuts. "What is this?" she asked looking at the small yellow froth bubbling up from each one. "Why aren't the cuts healing?"

Grayson was going to shake his head but thought better of it. "Poison, I think."

"Oh God. Okay. We have to get you back to the pack den."

"I'm not sure I should move. I'm not sure I can move."

"I'll bring Trimmner to you then."

The idea of the small, kind healer coming through the woods when thrashaulers could be near was enough to make Grayson willing to get up. He groaned loudly as he lifted his head and shoulders.

"Here, let me help you."

As Grayson slowly struggled up to standing he looked around. The trees were so beautiful; his home, his pack's land, his sanctuary. All the green and brown with the pale yellow, burnished gold, fiery orange, and deep red, ushering in the fall season. He couldn't stand the thought of thrashaulers on his land, hunting his people.

Kinley helped Grayson get all the way up to standing. 

"Here, lean on me."

Kinley ducked under Grayson's arm and propped him up as they started to walk.

"Jeez brother, you weigh a ton."

"You would too if you were six foot three of solid muscle. Or no-longer-solid sliced up muscle."

"Yeah. That wouldn't look good on me. But you, you're so sliced up we could use you to make sandwiches."

"Don't make me laugh."

"No 'Mommy, Mommy why do some kids call me a werewolf'?"

Grayson's stomach convulsed slightly as he fought down a laugh, even though he'd heard the joke so many times before Kinley didn't deliver the punch line. But it sprang to Grayson's mind anyway.

'That's because you don't remember to take your friends out of your mouth before you speak.'

Grayson smiled. Kinley always could make him feel better.

"How'd you find me?" he asked. "I mean, why did you come looking for me? You were looking for me, weren't you?" Grayson grimaced. Talking while he was walking. Not a good idea. Sort of like operating a chainsaw while having a root canal.

"I just sensed you were in trouble and where you were. I wasn't going to ignore that kind of instinct. I ran faster than I ever have in my life. Eventually I could sniff the blood smell and I followed that."

Grayson weaved and stumbled. His vision browned out and he almost lost consciousness.

"Come on Grayson. Not that much farther now. Come on, stay with me. You'll be fucking heavy to carry."

Grayson breathed in fiercely through his nose, determined not to go down.

"Oh fuck," he said right before he fell.

"Grayson!"

He was only down for a minute. Kinley helped him get back up to standing. They walked a few more feet. Both of them stopped short, instincts screaming on high alert as the smell of rotting fruit and the crunching of leaves reached them.

Thrashaulers.

"How long?" Kinley whispered.

Grayson frowned, thinking. It was almost impossible to accurately calculate the distance. His fear enhanced his hearing slightly but also made him less sure of his judgement. He tried to take in the play of wind strong trunks of the trees bouncing the sounds slightly. Then he had to account for not really knowing how fast those foul abominations were going in the first place.

"Three or four minutes," Grayson said.

Kinley muffled a curse, and then cursed again when Grayson tried to take a fighting stance.

"You can't," Kinley whispered.

Grayson's silver-grey eyes pinned her with a steely glare.

"You don't have enough energy to change and you can barely stand up," Kinley whispered so quietly it had almost no tone but it came out as fiercely as if she shouted it. "If you get even a light swipe, with whatever that poison is, it could be lights out permanently this time."

It only took a second for Grayson to realize she was right.

"And if I'm worried about you I won't be able to fight as well."

Grayson rolled his lips into a thin line. He hated the idea of her fighting.

"You should run," he said quietly. "Run."

Kinley shook her head and ducked under his arm to support him. She pulled him along as quickly as she could.

"I'll never make it, they're almost twice as fast as us," she said.

So this will help? Grayson thought. But then he realized where she was going. Just a few feet away was a tiny cave with two huge fallen trees surrounding it. 

Grayson put on a little burst of speed, ignoring his woozy feeling and that the world browned out around him again.

Then they were there. Kinley pushed him down, and he shimmied into the cave, feet first, face up.

Kinley moved a branch with abundant leaves over the front of the opening. Then she changed.

She was even fiercer with her adrenaline pumping and the hair on her back standing straight up as she prepared to fight.

The sounds of crunching leaves and twigs grew closer.

I'll never make it out of this alive, Kinley thought. She crouched slightly, ready to spring.

Bring it on, you evil undead fuckers. I'm ready for you.

The rustling got louder. The stench got stronger. Then three thrashaulers burst into the clearing. Kinley and the thrashaulers stared at each other for a millisecond. Then two thrashaulers dived toward her and with a huge lunge she surged up to meet them.

They crashed into each other mid air. It was a lot like two jet planes smashing into a toy helicopter. But Kinley took a huge ripping bite out of the neck of the one on her left, clamped down, and twisted sharply to force him down on the ground. They fell with a loud thud. Out of the corner of her eye Kinley saw the second thrashauler jump toward her back, and she rolled out of the way, just in time, taking a chunk of the throat of the first monster with her.

Kinley sprang to her feet at the same time the thrashauler did. She was very careful to dodge the swipes. She managed to dodge him by inches, but it gave her no change to go on the offensive.

The battle wore on. The thrashaulers got more aggressive. One growled and bared his teeth to reveal huge fangs. He foamed at the mouth. He tracked her movements, and swung his big, dirty claws at her.

From the corner of her eye she saw the third thrashauler move to join the fight, and in the second she was looking away the thrashauler closest to her raked his claws across her haunches in a vicious slice.

The pain was incredible and Kinley whimpered. The two thrashaulers took advantage of her weakness and rolled her over and pinned her down.

This is it, Kinley thought.

One of them opened his jaws unnaturally wide and went for her head.

Grayson burst out of the cave like a missile and took down the thrashauler in a fraction of a second, quickly twisting its neck which broke with a gruesome cracking sound.

The other thrashauler stood up, letting go of Kinley to face the new threat. The thrashauler lunged at Grayson. At the last second Grayson pivoted and as the thrashauler started to sail past him he plunged his right hand through the monster's back and ripped out his heart.

The thrashauler took one last agonizing gasp, and a low gurgle bubbled out of him and he turned to dust.

Grayson turned around to look at Kinley. She was staring back at him, eyes wide. She changed back to human form quickly, something that usually helped heal her but this time felt like a tremendous effort.

She focused on the black heart in his hand, wrapped by his fingers, the tips of which were changed into sharp claws.

"I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I."

They stared at each other, adrenaline coursing through them.

"I think one of them got away," Kinley said.

Grayson threw the heart on the ground. He picked up a long stick and sharpened it to a vicious point with his claw. When he was ready, he took a deep breath, and with all his remaining strength, plunged the spear hard through the heart, pinning the heart to the ground.

The heart started to smolder, then release a vile black smoke, and after a few seconds, poofed out of existence, leaving only its evil stench behind.

Grayson swayed a little, more determined than ever to stay on his feet. Then he passed out, hitting the ground with a loud thump.

Chapter 2

Grayson's eyelids flickered open, and closed, and then open again. He stared up at the stars and symbols on the ceiling. He was in Trimmner's healing hut. He closed his eyes again. He felt like he had the world's biggest hangover. His head throbbed. Everything ached. 

Grayson wiggled his toes; felt for ability to move his legs, his arms. Apparently everything worked. He looked around. Kinley was sitting on the couch. Her legs were propped up on a small coffee table. She had a book resting on her chest.

Grayson looked down at his chest and stomach. Bandages. Lots of them. He gingerly pulled up the edge of one. Just healthy pink scar lines. 

Wow. That looks good. I must have slept for hours.

He ripped the bandage off and inhaled loudly.

"Grayson. You awake?"

"Yes. How are you? Are you okay?" He anxiously looked her up and down.

"I'm fine now."

"How did I get here?"

"I carried you."

Grayson took that in. Injured, poisoned, bleeding, she carried her big brother almost three miles back to the pack. He smiled. She was fierce.

"Thank you."

"Enh. You saved my life, now we're even."

"How long was I out?"

"Three and a half days."

"What?" He jerked up in surprise and winced as pain lanced through his body. He lay back down.

They were silent for a minute.

"Have there been any more sightings?"

Kinley shook her head.

Trimmner came in, wearing a white doctor's coat over a blue-grey pant suit.

"How's my patient?"

"I'll live."

"I bet."

"He's too stubborn to die," Kinley said.

"Hmph. Now, now, children," Trimmner said and then smiled. "Let me check you out."

Trimmner's graceful hands looked under all the bandages. The one that was wrapped all around his mid torso she simply cut, rather than trying to get him to sit up and unwrap it.

Trimmner clicked her tongue.

Grayson looked down at himself. He hadn't realized that he sustained injuries requiring surgery, but seeing the suture marks, he obviously he had.

Trimmner briefed him on his injuries, what she had done, and his progress.

"When can I get out of here?"

"Don't like me?"

Grayson laughed, and winced when it hurt. Trimmner knew he loved her like a sister. He just smiled at her and didn't bother to answer.

"You can probably leave here in a day or two, but you'll have to take it easy, really easy, for two or three months. Minimum."

Grayson groaned.

Trimmner patted the top of his shoulder lightly. "It's all right, tough guy. No fighting. No running or jumping. No changing. Nothing too strenuous. But that doesn't mean that you can't still run the council or keep doing good around here. We're just all glad that you pulled through."

Grayson wanted to bang his head against the mattress. He probably would have if he didn't think it would send shooting firecrackers into his headache.

"Rest," Trimmner said. "Lots and lots of rest. Doctor's orders."

Trimmner left.

Grayson fell into a light sleep, waking only minutes later replaying the gruesome fight in his mind.

"You want any water?" Kinley asked.

"Yes."

She helped him sit up. She held the cup while he drank. Then he lay back down again.

"I'm exhausted, and I haven't even done anything yet."

"Grayson, I think you should go up to the coyote/wolf preserve and stay there for a while."

Grayson furrowed his eyebrows.

"Listen, you could use a place that is relaxing to be in to recover. Old Artiction just retired and he hasn't found anyone to gather the data from the camera stations. You won't have to worry about mediating pack politics. You're supposed to rest."

"I can't leave the pack with thrashaulers in the area."

"You know they usually only travel in groups of two or three. That last one is probably running as far away as he can get. There've been no other sightings in the area. They usually never come this far west or north. Besides, even if they did, we've got Beckett."

Beckett was the packs enforcer and the strongest werewolf Grayson had ever seen. If Beckett wanted to take the Alpha role away from Grayson there'd be nothing he could do about it. Luckily Beckett wasn't interested in leading. But if Grayson went away, who would take his place?

He looked at his sister. Of course. She was next in line for the title.

"You want to be Alpha?"

"Well, yeah. But that's not the reason I'm suggesting you go. I think it will be good for you. Think about it. It's incredibly beautiful up there. We haven't been up to the cabin since we were teenagers."

Grayson thought about. It made sense, good sense, but he really didn't want to leave if the pack might be in danger.

Kinley correctly interpreted his facial expression. "We'll be fine. You've made us strong. If we can't live a little while without you, you didn't do as good a job as you think you have, and I know you have. Really, we'll be fine. If you rest and recuperate you'll be a better Alpha than ever."

Grayson just stared at her.

"If you don't go, I'll just nag you every few minutes until you do."

He rolled his lips together and didn't say anything.

"Hey, you're supposed to rest, doctor's orders. How much quiet time do you think you're going to get here?"

As if on cue Beckett came in to visit. Then another person. Then another and another and another. Young and old, one after another, almost every pack member came to say hello.

When it was late, and it seemed like the last of his visitors had petered out, Grayson was more exhausted than ever before.

"See?" Kinley said. "You're not going to get any peace here. It will be good for you. Go."

"I'll think about it," Grayson said.

Chapter 3

Jack and Sarah Williams laughed like kids as they toasted their marshmallows over the fire. Then they told ghost stories, one after another, enjoying it, even though they had heard them all before.

"We should go camping more often," Sarah said.

"Yeah."

"You've been so busy the semester with all your wildlife courses."

He grinned.

"You've been so busy all semester with Colin."

She tried to keep a straight face but it was hard not to smile back.

"And remember, as your twin, I feel whatever you feel. So I can say with utmost assurance that Colin knows what he's doing."

Sarah threw a cold, charred marshmallow at him.

"Gross," she said.

They stayed up way too late when they knew that they had to hike back to the wolf pack early in the morning.

The hike back took two hours and the twins tried to see who could regale the other with the funniest incidents from college stories. Jack won, hands down. They were about to round the last bend in the path when they both smelled something. An unbelievable stench coming directly from their village.

Moving in complete sync they began to run. 

"Oh my God," Sarah said.

Again, in a perfect synchronization, they stopped short. Jack put his hand over his mouth. Sarah stood in shock. After a moment she whimpered.

"This can't be. Can't be."

Slowly they moved forward. Their entire village had been burned to ash.

They reached their own house. Their father, mother, and six-year old sister were charred skeletons with burnt flesh hanging in patches from various places. Flies were buzzing around their lifeless bodies. Sarah dropped to her knees and cried out.

"Who could possibly do this?" Sarah asked.

Jack bent down by his father, who still had a large sword tightly gripped in his hand. There was a piece of ragged clothes and dark blood on the edge of the weapon. Jack rolled his father up a little bit and found the tip of a grey finger and the outline of a head in black dust.

"Thrashaulers," Jack said.

"Here? They never come west of the Rockies."

"Yeah. And they usually travel in pairs, right? There's no way that just two of them could do all this damage. I mean, red wolves are no lightweights and the Red Wolf Lupus pack has lots of strong fighters."

Sarah looked around, still stunned. "The really are the evil undead," she whispered. "I can't imagine how many of them it would take to do this much damage."

"And why didn't they eat the bodies? I thought they survived by putting a spore into were-animals and then eating them."

Sarah broke into tears. "Maybe they did. Maybe they ate Amy, or Gretchen, or Connie." The idea of the most awful fate she could imagine befalling her best friends made her sob harder.

Jack got up and hugged her tight.

"We should have been here, Jack. We should have been there." 

Sarah's crying caused her body to jerk and hiccup.


Grayson's Wolf Ch. 01



"Sarah, if we were here, what could we have done? We're not fighters. We'd be dead along with everybody else."

"What are we going to do?" Sarah wailed.

"I don't know, sis. I don't know."

Chapter 4

True to her word, Kinley bugged Grayson mercilessly until part of the reason he agreed to leave was so that she would stop bugging him.

Grayson slowly put on his brown jacket and carefully got into his packed jeep. He looked around, reluctant to leave.

Kinley came up to the window. Most of the pack was behind her.

"It's just a vacation," Grayson said.

"Of course it is."

"I'll be back in a few days, a week at most."

"Of course you will."

"I don't have to be totally healed to come back."

"Of course you don't."

Grayson resisted the urge to growl at her.

"We're fine," Kinley said.

"An Alpha doesn't leave his pack," Grayson whispered.

"Even Superman takes a vacation," Kinley said. "Go, before I push your car all the way to Prince Jasper Valley."

Now Grayson did growl at her, but he put his car in gear. 

Chapter 5

Jack and Sarah searched for survivors. There weren't any. The damage was even more extensive than they thought, stretching past pack land and into their hunting grounds in the valley.

Jack's expression was grim; his face a study in harsh lines. Sarah walked a few paces behind him, tears quietly streaming down her face.

"There's no possibility of rebuilding here," Jack said. "The ground is too scorched."

"What are we going to do?" Sarah asked.

"We're going to find another pack."

They both looked to the east. Without further words, the twins started walking.

Red Aspen pack was about three hours walk, more when they were burdened down with grief. The sky darkened and a light rain fell. As they got closer to pack land the storm gathered strength and the rain came down harder. About a half an hour away, the heavens let loose in a torrential downpour, soaking them through to the skin.

Sarah spotted the crow's nest high in a tree that marked the entrance to pack territory. The twins smiled through the rain. Werewolves couldn't live without a pack. The two packs were friendly; surely Aspen would take them in.

The stench of charred wood and flesh hit them first. Sarah made a horrific sound, somewhere between a growl and a cry, and ran forward.

Scorched. Everything.

There were bodies strung from the trees, so burned it was impossible to recognize the features. Cars were burnt out to twisted metal shells. Not a house was standing.

"Nothing," Sarah said. "No one."

"I don't understand," Jack said again. "Thrashaulers never come this far west. Hell, as far as I know they've never been west of the Mississippi."

"Well they're here, and they're angry."

As one both twins looked around, straining their senses for any danger nearby.

Sarah slumped, the awful reality of this defeat crushing in on her.

Jack hugged her and held her tightly until all the emotions seeped out of her. She was like an empty balloon, deflated to fast and left wrinkled and underneath a table.

"We'll never survive without a pack," Sarah said.

If Jack's expression was grim before, it was absolutely deathly now. "You know where we need to go."

Chapter 6

Strangely, the farther Grayson got away from pack land the better he felt. He drove with the window open, the crisp air of northern Canada keeping him refreshed and alert on the drive.

Kinley was right, he thought. This was a good idea.

He passed through the valley, where the nearest town was. Flurries started, their white puffy snowflakes looking like cotton balls as they drifted on the wind.

Grayson passed the town of Lastburr, but then doubled back. Who knew what kind of supplies had been left in the cabin? He wasn't accustomed to dealing with humans, but he could certainly deal with them long enough to buy groceries and other supplies.

Grayson thought the town would have grown, changed since he'd last been here. No. It was exactly the same. There was no big grocery store, but rather the same small Lastburr General Store that he remembered.

He walked in and the young girl behind the counter did a double-take and stood a little straighter, pushing her breasts out subtly and fingering a lock of hair. Grayson's build, his stormy eyes, his jet black hair obviously did something for her.

Grayson nodded politely. Sorry, he thought, not interested. Wrong species. 

He quickly walked to the back of the store, out of her sight, and stopped in front of a shelf of flour. It had been a long time since he had been around regular humans. He had barely thought of it when he left, the cabin was so isolated he didn't expect to see anybody.

I better get what I need, and enough of it that I don't have to come back, and get out of here.

Usually Grayson didn't like to cook, but he decided loading up on staples that he could make something out of was better than bearding the lion's den and being worried that the smell and noises of people would make him antsy.

Grayson bought a cart full of supplies, tactfully deflected the subtle flirtations of the check-out girl, and went back to his car.

The snow started to come down even harder, the wind blowing large solid flakes and small specks of ice around like a snow globe shaken up by a rowdy teenager. Grayson turned his face into the wind. He let the weather pelt him, strangely invigorated by the energy of the storm rolling in.

Then a huge black and red Mercedes-Benz pick-up truck that looked half tank stopped a few feet from Grayson. A man got out, bundled head to toe in beige and black fur. An evil wafted off him that made a nasty shiver shoot up Grayson's spine.

The man looked at Grayson for a second and then walked into the store.

"Time to get out of here," Grayson thought. He got in his jeep and turned the ignition, listening to the car roar to life. "And come back as infrequently as possible."

Chapter 7

The cabin was larger than Grayson remembered. As he pulled up he realized that this was because there was an attached garage on the right, obviously something that Artiction had added.

Grayson got out of his jeep and paused for a second before unloading the groceries. He sniffed the air, enjoying the fresh scent of evergreens and falling snow. The tree branches were already weighed down with snow cover, and the wind picked up until it was howling. Grayson smiled, tilted his head up, and howled back. He heard his call echoing through the trees, and the far off sounds of his four-footed cousins answer.

In just the few minutes he was outside the snow cover increased dramatically.

This is going to be one hell of a storm, Grayson thought.

Chapter 8

Kinley had been Alpha for exactly four hours. Kinley loved it even more than she thought she would, and she knew she would love it a lot. Like a struck tuning fork would sing and resonate exactly the right note, Kinley was completely in tune with the position.

She was born for power.

Kinley got a lot done in four hours, including setting up walking patrols, scouts, and guards at the outer perimeters of pack land. She herself was crouched high up in a tree, not far from where the thrashaulers attack on Grayson had taken place. This particular tree, with its huge boughs and dripping canopy of leaves was one of her favorite places.

She was hidden behind foliage, and downwind of anyone coming from the east, the opposite direction of her house and all the pack buildings.

Which is why she sensed them long, long before they sensed her.

Jack and Sarah were almost directly under her when she sprang out of the tree and landed a few feet in front of them. Her attack crouch, hands up like claws, and bared teeth would be enough to frighten anybody. But it was the huge rush of personal power, an aggressive sparkle designed to instill fear and warn other wolves that they should back off, that spiked the fear in the twins to almost unmanageable levels.

"Hello, children," Kinley said, purposely drawing the worlds out with a menacing drawl and more condescension than should be possible to impart with just two words.

Sarah immediately dropped to her knees and lowered her face to the ground. Her camping backpack covered almost all of her that was showing, except her flowing hair that pooled around her.

Kinley looked at Jack. He was too beat to lower himself to the ground in front of a stranger. The hike from camping to his town wasn't bad, but the devastation of finding his family and pack gone, and their only neighboring pack decimated was too much for him. Too much grief, too much shock, too much sadness, and underneath that too much anger. He let all those expressions show in his face when he said, "We are here to ask for sanctuary."

Kinley raised her eyebrows. She'd never met a red wolf before, but they were easy enough to identify by their scent and small build. The grey wolves and the red wolves hadn't talked in at least a generation.

"Did you forget the treaty?" Kinley asked, knowing full well that no wolf, red or grey, would have been raised without consistent reminders of the treaty that kept red wolves in the middle northwestern U.S. and grey wolves in Canada.

Sarah stood up and shook her head. "We didn't forget," she said softly.

Kinley made her facial expression as harsh as she could. "Then why are you here?" she asked.

"We have no place else to go," Jack said.

*

Kinley slowly walked around Sarah and Jack, looking them up and down, sniffing them. When she was in front to them, she said, "Okay. Tell me the story." Sarah broke into tears, but quickly quieted herself. Jack told Kinley the story, from the beginning of their having toast and tea for breakfast and sunrise, to their standing in front of Kinley, begging to be accepted into the pack, because even as twins, being without a pack was a horrible fate.

Kinley nodded and made sympathetic noises in the appropriate places. A few powerful werewolves could sense even the slightest lie, and Kinley was one of them. Jack was telling the complete truth. Jack and Sarah's grief and desperation were real. 

It was easy to tell by looking at them that they were twins. The dark hair, the bright blue eyes, the identical spotting of freckles across their noses and cheeks. It was also painfully obvious that they weren't dangerous.

Kinley knew what she was about to do was manipulative. It was wrong. It was devious. Underhanded. Yet...if ever there was an opportunity to meddle, it was this one.

Kinley made a slight growling sound, the one that demanded she be acknowledged as dominant. Both young people stepped forward immediately, and Jack offered her his neck first.

Kinley opened her mouth as wide as possible and clamped her teeth on his neck. Not a bite really, not hard enough to break the skin, but a pince sharp enough to be clear to both of them. Jack was short enough that he didn't even have to bend down to make it easier for her. Kinley carefully let go. Jack stepped back and Sarah stepped forward to offer herself the same way. 

When they were done, all three of them were calmer. Kinley knew that in a minute she was going to blow that calm apart, like blasting dynamite in a brand new quarry.

"Do you know I'm the Alpha of the Yukon Coast Spirit pack?"

Jack and Sarah shook their heads.

"Well I am. So it is my permission you have to ask and my sole discretion that will let you in or not."

A storm blew in, seemingly out of nowhere. The temperature dropped radically within minutes, and the wind picked up hard enough to blow their hair into their faces.

"We formally petition you for entrance," Jack said. This time he did get on his knees.

"I can't let an unknown, untested male into the pack," Kinley said firmly. "You can enter," she said pointing first at Sarah and then Jack, "and you cannot."

"I'm not going without him," Sarah said. "We stick together, it would be even more devastating out there for just one rather than two." She stuck her chin up. Suddenly she sounded much younger. "No way. I'd rather take my chances than abandon my brother."

"Noble," Kinley said. "But I'm not giving you a choice. And we're not abandoning him. He simply has to stay with someone who can get to know him, learn that he is of true heart and not a threat. Someone who is pack but not living with the pack."

"No," Sarah said again.

"It's okay," Jack said. "I'll go wherever I have to go, do whatever I have to do. I'll do it."

"Good," Kinley said, and then smiled. "Get ready to meet my brother."

Chapter 9

Grayson spent some time reacquainting himself with the old cabin, unpacking, and starting a fire. There wasn't one part of his torso that wasn't sore. Every reach or bend reminded him that he might heal supernaturally fast, but not instantaneously. He took of his shirt to get a better look at his wounds. 

Grayson grimaced as he touched the scars. Something in that poison slowed the healing. They didn't look like they'd ever completely heal. Was that true of his insides too?

He distracted himself by finding batteries for the old radio and turning the knob until he could get the one station that reached so far out into the wilderness.

"We're looking at the storm of the decade, maybe the century," said the D.J. "We've got six inches of snow so far in most of Glass Hedge County, more further inland. Predictions say we're expecting eighteen to twenty-four inches tonight alone, and more layers over snow and ice tomorrow morning."

Grayson fixed himself some hot chocolate and smiled. A good winter snowstorm. A perfect reason to relax, just as the doctor ordered.

Grayson held his mug near his chest and looked around the main room again. It was exactly as he remembered. The red futon couch with the Indian blanket was still on the left wall, the glass and wood coffee table resting a few feet in front of it. The quiet fireplace with the slate stone all around it on the right wall. The rough-hewn beams across the ceiling. 

When was the last time he felt peace like this? Had a moment of quiet? It had been a long time. Not since he took over as Alpha after his father died, ten years ago.

Grayson put his mug in the sink and was just about to explore the bookshelves when he heard a noise.

That was a knock.

No, it must be the wind pushing a tree branch up against the cabin.

Grayson shook his head. 

He reviewed his situation quickly, even as he strained to hear anything over the wind. He was the only one living on 155 square miles of wolf and coyote preserve. The cabin, nestled in the northern-most corner of the property, was three hours away from the nearest city and forty-five minutes away from town.

This was solitary living at its best.

Obviously he was hearing things.

Tap, tap, tap. 

That was definitely a knock.

Who the hell would be knocking at his door at...Grayson looked over at the clock, 9 p.m. on a snowy evening? He sniffed and his ears perked but he couldn't sense anything through the thick wooden door.

That knock again. Louder this time.

Strange.

Grayson opened the door. He saw a young man wearing a large backpack. A breeze blew in, taking the man's scent to Grayson. It assaulted his nose and shot a huge bolt of lust down his body, but also, a wary, defensive aggression. The intensity of the warring emotions, overwhelming desire, surprise, and a tense cagey fear froze him to the spot for a second. Then hair on the back of Grayson's neck stood up as soon as he realized what he was looking at.

Without even meaning to, Grayson peeled back his lips and let out a low warning growl. 

The man put his hands up in the classic surrender pose and took a small step back.

"Your sister sent me," he said.

Grayson sniffed again, searching for lies or deception or some type of underlying sly plan that could indicate a trap. All he could smell was the boy himself, a combination of dried sweat, worry, trepidation, and bravery. Like cut lemons on cedar.

The heavy snow turned to hail and the young man shivered. 

Grayson stared at the kid. He looked about twenty. He was about 5'6", with jet-black hair. His bangs hung across his forehead and over his eyebrows, almost, but not quite hiding the bright blue eyes.

"Why would my sister send a red wolf up here?" Grayson said. His voice came out sharper than he had intended.

The wind changed slightly and the hail began to drift inside. The boy crossed his arms over himself and shivered.

"Kinley wanted you to...ah...check me out."

Grayson's eyebrows shot up high.

"Oh, not like that, I mean, I want to join the pack and she wouldn't let me until you, you know, said I was okay."

"You want to join the pack?"

A vicious wind whipped through, and a small branch sailed toward Jack's head. Jack ducked without even looking at it.

"Come in," Grayson said. He stepped back to allow Jack in. "I should have invited you in sooner. You just surprised me."

"Thanks." Jack stomped on the mat outside, and again on the mat inside the door to shake off the snow. "I'm Jack."

Jack stuck out his hand and Grayson shook it. The sharp flash of arousal, and the sense of rightness that swamped Grayson made him more uncomfortable than even the slashes from the thrashaulers.

"I was just about to go out," Grayson said and grabbed his coat, making sure his wallet, keys, and cell phone were in it. "Make yourself at home, I'll be back in a few hours."

"You're going out in this?" Jack asked. "I had to hike from the bus station and it was getting worse by the minute."

I have to get out of here.

"I'll be back," Grayson said. It took effort not to slam the door behind him.

Grayson drove toward town simply for a place to go. The road wasn't plowed. Grayson's jeep was able to make slow progress. It only took about five minutes before Grayson realized if he kept going he wouldn't be able to make it back. There weren't any hotels in town that he knew of.

Shit.

He checked his phone. No service. He went another mile and checked his phone again. One bar; he called Kinley.

She seemed like she was expecting his call, because she answered on the first ring.

"What the hell?" was Grayson's opening line.

"Hello to you too," Kinley said. "Listen, I had no choice, he—"

Whatever else Kinley had to say was lost in a crackle of white noise followed quickly by a disconnect.

Grayson called right back. "He can't stay," Grayson said. "As soon as—"

He was speaking to himself. Connections were spotty during perfect weather. Of course, when he really wanted to bitch his sister out, the call dropped.

He tried calling back.

No service.

Grayson looked out the window. Visibility was close to zero. He turned around. Whatever reason Kinley had, Grayson would have to trust he could get it out of Jack. 

"Kinley, I hope you know what you're doing," Grayson mumbled to himself.

Grayson turned his jeep around. It took four times as long to get back. Grayson hunched over the wheel, concentrating on driving and the weather, but still thinking about this new change in affairs.

The red wolves had been people to avoid from before Grayson was born. But why had the rift occurred in the first place? Grayson was pretty sure no one ever told him. He wondered if anyone could even remember.

He tried to think what he knew about red wolves. His father had said that grey wolves were bigger, faster, smarter, nicer, better. But...what if none of that was true? Who was this guy who wanted to join the pack?

Finally Grayson was home and he pulled the car into the garage. He didn't get out. He sat in the car, getting colder and colder. 

He was all set for solitude. He didn't like that plans suddenly changed.

Why would a red wolf want to join the pack anyway?

Well, I'm not going to cower in the car freezing my nuts off, that's for sure. Time to find out.




Grayson's Wolf Ch. 01



Grayson walked in his living room to find Jack curled up, sleeping on the couch. In sleep he looked even younger. With his face so relaxed he looked more like sixteen or seventeen.

Could he be teenager? I'm attracted to a kid?

Grayson shook his head like a wet dog trying to get dry.

What?

Grayson turned sharply on his heel and went into the kitchen. 

I need a drink.

The mug Grayson left in the sink wasn't there anymore. Instead two clean mugs were upside down in the small wire drying rack. Two clean spoons mated perfectly in the plastic silverware holder part of the rack.

Grayson stared at the mugs, then looked out the window. It was a wall of white.

He looked back at Jack's sleeping body.

Well kid, I guess you're not going anywhere soon.

Chapter 10

The smell of steak woke Jack from his nap. He sat up, wiping his mouth.

"Oh sorry man, I must have drifted off. I don't think I drooled though. I was just sitting here, I didn't know how long you would be. I walked like a thousand hours today."

Grayson was standing at the stove. He turned around sharply. "How old are you?"

"What? Oh. Twenty-three."

Grayson narrowed his gaze.

"Seriously, dude. Red wolves don't age like normal people. We always look a lot younger than we are. Don't you?"

Grayson shook his head.

"Huh. Well anyway, yeah, I'm in grad school and I still have this baby face. Being short doesn't help."

Jack got up and walked into the kitchen. "That smells great."

When Jack got close to Grayson, Grayson automatically, and subtly, stepped away slightly.

"Sorry, man. Didn't mean to get up in your space."

Grayson plated up food for both of them and placed the plates on the kitchen table. Grayson was going to question Jack over dinner, but Jack started shoveling food in so fast, there was no way he would be able to talk.

Jack finished the steak and the potato in less than two minutes and was starting in on the vegetables when he looked up. Grayson hadn't touched his meal, he was just staring at him.

"Oh. Sorry. I...ah..."

"When's the last time you ate?"

"Early breakfast. We just had tea and toast. We figured we'd have a real breakfast when we got home." Jack's easy expression clammed up to a controlled neutral face that showed nothing.

"We who?" Grayson asked.

"My sister, my twin sister. Didn't you call Kinley when you ran out of the house?"

Grayson couldn't suppress his smile. "Good guess. But I didn't get her. So where's your sister now?"

"With your pack I guess. Kinley said she'd take care of her."

"Kinley took her in but not you?"

Jack shrugged. "She said she couldn't take a male into the pack without someone vetting him first. Safety issue."

Grayson frowned. Females were just as dangerous as males, sometimes more so. That didn't make sense. Unless...

"That manipulative bitch," Grayson mumbled under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. She just...ah...shouldn't split twins up. You're obviously not dangerous."

Jack smiled a devastatingly wicked smile that said both 'I'm an innocent, and I could be dangerous if I need to be.'

Grayson's heart skipped a beat. "Eat your food," he said gruffly.

As Jack ate his vegetables, Grayson got a large container of ice cream out of the refrigerator and put half of it in a bowl. He set it in front of Jack and started on his own dinner.

"You might not be a teenager, but you sure eat like one," Grayson said.

Jack sent him another wicked smile. "I'm a growing boy. Or I wish I was growing."

Grayson couldn't help it, he laughed. Grayson hugged his torso. Laughing still hurt.

"Besides, I always eat when I'm stressed. And I had a really, really long day."

"Tell me about it," Grayson said.

Chapter 11

Jack recounted the story, starting from camping and roasting marshmallows, through detailed accounts of the devastation of all the red wolves he knew about, to the encounter with Kinley, to arriving at Grayson's doorstep.

"What would make thrashaulers move in a group like that?" Grayson asked. "I've never heard of them being this far west, or working together in more than a very small group, or attacking an entire village. What would drive them to change their patterns? Why, and why now?"

The expressions that played across Jack's face before he got them under control were easy to read. Anger, sadness, hopelessness, determination.

"We have to get back," Grayson said. "I can't let my pack be...well, I was going to say undefended but Kinley's there, we have plenty of defense, it's just..." Grayson looked away from Jack and out the window. "I should never have come here, I can't be away from the pack right now."

They both looked at the front door. It was obvious they weren't going anywhere in this storm. Grayson strode to the front door and threw it open, with the intent on looking at the sky to get energy from the moon and see if he could predict the weather.

The snow had piled almost as high as the door, leaving only a tiny gap of visibility to the outside.

"Holy shit," Jack said.

Grayson slammed the door.

"Well, at least the weather will stop the thrashaulers as much as it will stop us," Jack said. "Right?"

Grayson shook his head. "They don't feel cold and they're stronger than us."

Jack's eyebrows shot up, he crossed his arms over his chest, and Grayson could feel his fear lance through the room like a sharp wave of icy acid.

"I don't think this will stop them. No werewolf anywhere is safe."

Jack started to shiver, probably a combination of delayed shock as well as Grayson's words. Grayson put another log on the fire and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch over Jack's shoulders.

I'm not going to let these monsters hurt you or my pack. "They have a new motivation; we just don't know what it is."

Jack looked up at him, his eyes wide. Grayson's heart caught in his throat. 

God, he barely knows me, and his expression is so full of trust.

"I'm not going to fail you, or them," Grayson whispered. Although as soon as the words were out of his mouth he thought of the snow trapping them in and doubt slammed into his chest followed quickly by a string of curse words flooding his mind.

"Nothing's going to stop me," Grayson said.

Jack nodded. "We're smart," he said. "We'll figure it out."

Chapter 12

"Beckett, I need to talk to you," Kinley put her hand on his arm, and the sexual spark that sprang up surprised them both. Kinley yanked her hand back. But Beckett smiled at her. 

"Please," Kinley said. Beckett nodded.

Kinley had been planning on bringing him into her house, but in light of how intense that touch was, she thought better of it and headed to the main hall. She found one of the little side rooms that wasn't in use, and they both sat down.

"It's about the new girl, I assume," Beckett said. His voice was low and resonant. Kinley wondered why she never noticed it before. Probably because he'd always been with Conna and when they broke up...Kinley shook herself out of her reverie and brought herself back to the topic at hand.

"She has a twin brother, Jack. I sent him up to stay with Grayson."

"Wait, wait." Beckett said and then smiled a huge smile.

Oh God, his smile never affected me like this either.

"First off, twins came here and you separated them? Secondly, isn't it weird that they have human names? Thirdly, you sent him to Grayson?" If possible his smile got even bigger. 

"Yeah, yeah. I know. It was hugely manipulative. But Grayson's been alone for so long. He thinks I don't know about his friend down from the Southern Grate Pack that he hasn't seen in over a year? Like that's healthy? You should have seen this boy. So, yeah, I told them that I couldn't take a male in without someone checking him out first."

Beckett laughed.

"Yeah, I know. Grayson will check him out all right," Kinley said. Her cheeks reddened a little. "That's not the point. It's the reason they came here that's the point."

"I wondered what little red riding hood was doing here," Beckett said. "But I wasn't going to ask until you found it fit to tell me. I figured maybe some male was creating serious problems for her."

Kinley shook her head. "Not a wolf. Thrashaulers. Lots of them."

Kinley told Beckett everything that Sarah told her, not leaving out a single detail. Beckett wasn't just the muscle. He was as smart as he was strong and as Kinley wove her story his face and body language reflected how seriously he was taking this and how grim he felt the situation was.

Kinley paused when she was finished but neither one of them said anything. Beckett could tell there was more.

"So I was thinking," Kinley said. "We know thrashaulers hate werewolves. We know they kill them, insert their spores, feed off them until they're dead, and then make them into the undead walking abominations."

Beckett nodded.

"But they've never behaved like this. Why would they burn towns to the ground?"

"It doesn't make sense," Beckett said.

"Then I had a vision," Kinley said.

"Oh shit," Beckett mumbled.

* * * ...



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