Chapter Nine
A Blooded had been hurt, and it was Caleb’s damn fault. He was supposed to have been watching her. What good did it do if he saw trouble and still let it get to her?
Even though he’d seen the True Sons, he’d kept his distance, thinking Malcolm might have been right and she was a spy. Then the bastards started firing. On a public road. In the middle of the day.
Caleb didn’t want to have to tear men apart in front of Sarah, but when he’d hurried and caught up with her just to find them hitting her, he’d lost it. What kind of wolves would harm a Blooded?
They deserved no mercy. He clamped down on the neck on the first one, not even giving him time to shift before bringing him down.
Caleb stopped short of taking the bastard’s head clean off, something that would actually kill him. The biker’s current wounds would keep him out of action for long enough, and he needed to handle the other one.
Not only that. The other one had kicked Sarah. He needed to be taught a lesson about respecting Blooded.
The other True Son shifted into a dark gray wolf. Still gripping the first man in his mouth, Caleb tossed him with his powerful jaws as the other wolf leapt. The man slammed into the gray wolf, and they fell to the ground with a thud.
The alpha sprang at the wolf, bringing down both his claws and jaws on the other wolf and tearing into its flesh. The battle was over in seconds, the other wolf collapsing to the ground, covered with blood. His wolf form shifted back to a bloodied biker with a torn jacket, proof that he was unconscious.
Sarah moaned as she pushed herself to a sitting position. She held her stomach. Caleb’s hackles raised at the sight.
Caleb growled at the downed men, resisting the urge to tear out their hearts. While he didn’t give that much of a shit about pissing off Jake, two bikers missing their hearts or decapitated in the middle of east Phoenix would raise too much attention.
He wondered if Greg and the King would still be happy with their hands-off position on the whole thing, given they now had bikers shooting at people on the street. At this point, he didn’t care. He wanted to teach Jake a lesson for his own personal reasons.
The angry alpha spared one glance at the wounded men. Some of their wounds had already healed. By the time anyone noticed them, they’d probably be conscious enough. Not like they were going to report him to the cops.
For now, Caleb had something more important to handle. He shifted. Without a word, he swept Sarah into his arms and rushed toward her car. She let out a little yelp of surprise.
“I have my truck stashed nearby,” he said. “I’ll come back and get it later. We don’t want any cops connecting you with this… uh… traffic accident, if they happen to show up. So I’m going to drive us out of here. You understand?”
Sarah offered him a quick nod.
His gaze dropped to the silver in her hand.
“I wasn’t sure if it would work,” Sarah said softly. “Score one for myths and legends.”
“Drop it now,” he commanded.
“But…”
“Just drop it. I’ll protect you,” Caleb said. “I’ll protect you from their whole damn pack if needed. You have my word.”
They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, and she nodded before unwrapping the necklace from her hand and dropping it to the ground.
Caleb carried the woman to the passenger’s side and then opened the door and slid her in, her small form easy for his large arms to handle. He then hurried to the driver’s side, hopped in, and sped away from the downed bikes and wounded werewolves.
“Fucking True Sons,” he growled.
“I don’t understand why they attacked me.”
Sarah’s pale face ate at Caleb. He started regretting not killing the other werewolves.
“For breeding purposes,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “Dumbass got too pissy because you hurt him. Pack discipline is shit if Jake’s letting his wolves smack around Blooded. But they probably would have gotten what was coming to them eventually even if I hadn’t beat them down.”
Sarah rubbed her upper arms and trembled. “From what it sounded like, they were planning to hurt me way worse.”
Caleb let out a low growl. “Jake’s an alpha. If they’d taken you to their alpha all busted up, he might have torn one of them apart. Werewolves heal fast. Blooded don’t heal any faster than any other human.” He slammed a fist against the steering wheel. “Fucking idiots. They could have made you crash your car, and then they hit you. Stupid ass bastards.”
“How are you any different?” Sarah said. “You just want me because I’m Blooded. It’s not like you’re just some nice guy who stopped by and decided to rescue me.”
“Yeah, and you’re a hot little thing, too. The difference is, I’m man and wolf enough to not go where I’m not invited.”
“But you were following me.”
“Yes. Not just me. The pack has been taking turns keeping an eye on you.”
“You’re stalking me together? Sure, not creepy at all.”
“No, we’re making sure you don’t do something stupid that will get us in trouble.” He snorted. “Good thing, too. If we’d not been watching you, then the True Sons would have you now.”
Sarah sighed. “Would your other pack members have protected me like that?”
“Unlike those bitches working for Jake, my men aren’t idiots, and they follow orders.”
Sarah fell silent, and Caleb watched the road, wondering if he’d screwed up. If he’d made her stay with him to begin with, she wouldn’t have been attacked. He also might not have had to nearly kill two other wolves. Even if he had let them live, a pack war might be inevitable.
“I need you to stay at my place,” he said, “until all this shit blows over. You’ll be safe there. Even if I’m not at Devil’s Den, there are pack members there. We’re not going to let anyone lay a hand on you again.”
Sarah let out a long sigh, her blue eyes filled with defeat. “After that, I don’t think I have much choice.”
“Are you hurt bad?” Caleb glanced over at her. “I can take you to urgent care or something.”
“No magical healing wereunicorns?” she said, rolling her eyes.
Caleb grinned. He could really get used to that kind of feistiness. He was happy to see her in a position to push back a bit.
“Nope. Why would we need ‘em? Takes a lot to kill us. Need to take the heart or the head. Most everything else won’t work. Even if we lose an arm or a leg, it grows back in a day or two.”
“Those men… or, well, those werewolves, you didn’t kill them, then?”
“Nah. They probably have already gotten up to crawl off, but they’re not exactly going to be in fighting shape right away. Even if some ambulance picks them up, they’ll wake up, do a little animal magnetism, and wander off.”
“But silver works. I burned one.”
Caleb gave a grim nod. “Yeah, it burns, and silver wounds take longer to heal. I made you drop it because just being around it can slow down our healing.” Caleb shrugged. “That’s for the wolves. Not everybody’s the same.”
“What about dragons?”
Caleb huffed at that. “Legend says you need some weapon touched by the essence of fire. Whatever the hell that means.”
“Interesting. So you’re saying you don’t know their weakness?”
“Weakness is to throw enough shifters at ‘em and take their heart. Or a freaking rocket launcher or something. I’ve heard about dumbasses going after them with flaming swords, and that not doing much good. The damn dragons breathe fire, so of course it’s not going to work.” He glanced over at her and winked. “Don’t worry. If you’re lucky, you’ll never have to deal with one. They are major pains in the ass, and they are smug pricks who think they are better than everyone.”
Sarah looked down at her hands and sighed. “Is your world always this violent?”
Caleb snorted. “Actually, no.” A motorcycle appeared in his rearview mirror. He bit back a growl and slowed a bit. The bike passed, and he realized it was just some middle-aged joy-rider, not a True Son.
Sarah tensed, and her eyes widened. She watched the biker, and then a look of visible relief spread over her face.
“Look,” Caleb said, “the thing is if shifters were fighting twenty-four seven, then people would find out. Back in the day, yeah, a single werewolf could probably take out forty guys with swords like nothing, but now humans, they’ve got guns, they’ve got bombs, they’ve got goddamn nukes. I’m a wolf. I’m territorial, but I also get that being dumb about it ends up with me dead.”
“But the True Sons—”
“Are dumbasses who have gotten too used to beating up human bikers. I think they’ve forgotten what it’s like to deal with other werewolves.”
“Are you the only two packs in this area?”
Caleb shook his head. “Nope. Though the only two packs in the West Valley.” He scoffed again. “This will finally convince Malcolm.”
“Malcolm?”
“My pack beta. You saw at Devil’s Den. Dark hair, hazel eyes, late twenties, looks like he has a stick up his ass.”
“Oh, I kind of remember him. What about him?”
“He thought you might be a True Sons spy.”
“A spy?” Sarah groaned and facepalmed. “I’m really starting to wish I’d picked a thesis concerning preschool education or something.”
“Nah. Kids are more annoying than werewolves.”
Sarah actually let out a laugh. He was glad to see her smile.