Chapter Three
The searing pain in his chest woke Raul from his deep sleep. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth as he endured the agony. A soft light entered his line of sight. Raul threw a quick look around him. He didn’t recognize his surroundings. The house he was in didn’t resemble his cabin. There were no logs up on the ceiling or a fireplace in the corner. Glancing down, he saw a candle on a table, surrounded by boxes of gauze, bandages, and a bottle of alcohol. Another glance down his body told him what had transpired. Raul was covered in bandages; some of them even had small spots of blood on them. He could even feel the threads of stitches on his skin. To his dismay, he had ended up in a human’s home, and that human had taken care of him.
Within seconds, his nostrils were overwhelmed by lingering scents–medical supplies–but those were quickly masked by three separate, much sweeter scents: human women. Each one had a different scent. One smelled like cinnamon, one like almond, and the most intriguing, like roses. The flowery one was stronger. Looking across from him, he spotted his savior sitting across from him on the couch, arms folded across her chest, head tilted to the side, eyes closed, with a few of her long, whiskey curls draping her cheeks. Raul swiped the towel away from his body. He sat up, his gaze locked on her, watching as her chest rhythmically rose up and down. Getting off the couch, he smiled to himself, unable to believe that this human had been so kind to him. And better than that, she was a sight for sore eyes. Even in her pink pajamas, he could see every soft curve of her voluptuous body. But as he closed in on her, Raul couldn’t help but marvel at her gorgeous face–soft, deeply tanned skin that glowed, high cheekbones, luscious lips, and a French nose.
He stopped right in front of her. Bending his knees, he sat down on his feet. Raul reached up. The sensation of her curls in his hand made his body tingle as he tucked a few tendrils of her hair behind her ear. He tilted his head up, desperate to taste her mouth, even though he knew very well that a human woman was forbidden to him. His lips touched hers tentatively. It was as if Raul was afraid he would break her. He drowned in her scent, lightly caressing the delicate skin on her cheek.
“Thank you,” he said in a near whisper. Monica’s eyes twitched as a broad smile spread across his face. Her brows popped up in shock as their gazes met. Raul lifted his free hand to her mouth. The last thing he wanted was to scare her.
“Shhh…” he admonished. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to thank you, okay?”
Monica nodded her response. Slowly, he slid his hand down her face. Raul had lingered there too long. He had expressed his gratitude. Now, he had to leave as fast as possible.
“You shouldn’t be up.” Her feathery voice tore the silence as he arose to his imposing, six-foot-four stature. “You should be resting. What happened to you?”
Her simple question turned his happy smile into a bitter one as Raul recollected the reason why he had ended up at her house. All the same, a brutal fight between him and two more of his kind was something that a human could not comprehend. He might have been grateful to her, but sharing his secret with her was out of the question. It would only complicate their lives.
“You have a good night now.” He spoke in a calm voice, dragging his gaze away from her. Raul turned and strode off as the torrential rain whipped against Monica’s living room window.
“Will you at least give me your name?” Monica requested, her voice shaking. “I’m Monica. Monica Mills. I’m a doctor.”
Raul froze halfway through her living room, his eyes a blazing yellow as a low growl started in his throat. He wouldn’t answer. He couldn’t. Her question had bothered him. She was being too inquisitive. For his savior’s sake, his identity had to remain a secret. Yet another stream of lightning flashed and sizzled as he whirled his head around. Monica’s face went slack in utter disbelief as he glared down at her over his shoulder. She curled up in her seat as he raised his upper lip in a terrifying grimace. A wave of regret washed over him. Raul had done precisely what he had been meaning to avoid: scare her. Sadly, though, he didn’t have time to make up for it. He turned his attention back to her front door. The cool, wet breeze blew right into his face as he swung it open. With a few quick strides, he crossed the empty street.
Raul jumped over a short bush, finding himself at the top end of Sutton Valley–his home. Mud gave way beneath his feet as he started down the slope. The heavy rain blurred his vision as he picked up the sound of Monica’s door being slammed shut. He looked back longingly at her house, wishing he could go to her and apologize. In fact, Raul continued to stare at it, putting distance between him and the town of Shandaken, until the slope blocked his view.
“So long, good doctor. It is better this way.”
By the time he reached an acceptable spot, water was streaming down his entire body, soaking bandages and skin alike. Raul ran both hands through his short, black hair, the vapors from his breath clouding his vision as he readied himself for what was about to follow.
Ribs rippled cracked like dry twigs. Neck, fingers, muscles, and cells reshaped with agonizing pain in just a few seconds as the wolf ripped out of his skin. Massive and dark gray, with a few contrasting shades of light gray on his chest, a diamond-shaped patch of white on his right shoulder. Raul’s wolf tossed his head back. His loud howl resounded through the valley just before he started his short trip back to his family. However, for some reason he couldn’t yet understand, the fear in Monica’s eyes was swirling in his mind. Loping through the brush, he could still recall her reaction, wishing that he had kept his cool just for a few more seconds. At the same time, though, he realized that this was one of a series of mistakes he had made that night. Yes, it wasn’t as important as his bloody fight earlier, but it was a mistake all the same. This was not a way to treat his savior.
Furthermore, Raul had a bad feeling about the welcome of his brothers. He had been in a fight with the two wolves he should stay away from: Warrick and Bryant, his alpha and his lieutenant, a fight that almost claimed his life. As the oldest of them, Raul should have known better than to engage them. He should be the one to teach them some restraint, and yet he had failed to do so. Still, Dean and Ray were his blood. The brothers were close, and despite their occasional argument, they would understand as soon as he explained the circumstances of his fight against their alpha and his lieutenant.
Raul soon crossed the border of the balsam fir tree forest that encircled Paxton, the town of their ancestors. Ears ticked high, hackles raised, and tail straight out behind him, he loped through the trees, his big paws crushing small twigs as he sped past. Tipping his chin up, he hoped to catch any familiar scents, but to no avail. The only thing he could smell was wet soil mixed with soaked wood. As he sprinted toward the edge of town, however, he recalled Monica’s scent: roses. That simple fact made him angry at himself. He hardly knew her, and he could not take his mind off of her.
“Snap out of it, Raul. She’s human. Humans are forbidden.”
Maybe it was her nature that attracted to him. Or it could be her impeccable looks. Or maybe it was all of the above. At any rate, Raul had to put this behind him. A relationship with a human woman was punishable by death. Should he pursue her, he would put her life at risk as well.
The lights in his cabin peeked through the trees as he climbed the short hill at the end of the forest. Raul expected to catch a whiff of his brothers’ scents, and eventually, he did, but not until he stepped into his front yard. Moreover, it was rather weak, a clear sign that they had left long before he arrived. He shifted into human form. His legs lengthened and thickened, his fur disappeared, his muzzle shortened, his claws retracted and reformed, his hips changed shape, and his eye color returned to its usual, sky-blue shade. Raul took a few, furtive glances around him as he climbed the short staircase that led to his front door. He grabbed and turned the golden doorknob on the left side, eager to put some clothes back on. It had been a strange, long day for him. He could do without the embarrassment.
Raul sprinted up the stairs to his bedroom, his chest heaving from exertion. Without wasting any more time, he quickly dried off, put on a pair of boxers, black jeans, and a red sweater. As he shoved his feet into his boots, though, Dean’s scent filled his nostrils. Before he knew it, he heard paws galloping in the distance. Raul rose from his bed and went to the window. A pair of yellow eyes was staring up at him. Dean curled up his lips and threatened a growl as Ray’s loud bark tore the night. He wasn’t far behind. Adding to Raul’s discomfort, his brother had also settled his gaze on him.
“Come on in, you little mutts.” He smirked, nodding at the same time. “I’ll explain everything.”
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