****
Keira stared up at the ceiling, letting her vision lose its focus, reaching out with her mind for the members of her clan. She knew so far that she was a bit out of range to be able to communicate with any of the group directly; she wouldn’t be able to send any kind of clear message. But she hoped at least that the members of her clan could feel her presence, that they knew she was still alive.
It had been three days since Raul had spirited her away from the shed where the wolves had imprisoned her, Lachlan, and Gary. Raul had visited again the night before, but he hadn’t had any news for her. All he had said was that he was trying to figure out what was going on in his own Pack, and trying to figure out how to get in touch with the panthers at the same time without attracting any suspicions from his Alpha. He didn’t even have a clear idea of how long Keira would need to remain in hiding—though he had told her the night before that she would have to remain in hiding and incommunicado for at least another few days. “You’re healing up fine, but I don’t want you back with the panthers until I’m able to get in touch with somebody who can help me talk to your leadership.”
“I could do that,” Keira had pointed out. Raul had dismissed the idea.
“If you go back to them, and they know that you were with Lachlan and Gary, but you got spared…they’d just take you into their protection and come after the Pack.” Raul had paused. “While I have issues with Reginald, I can’t let it come to war between our groups.” Keira could—almost unwillingly—understand what Raul meant. She wasn’t sure she entirely agreed with Harold’s course of action in attempting to bait the wolves; she had gone along with it, but if it had escalated, she would have been against it.
The fact that she had had sex with a wolf—and enjoyed it—was another issue that weighed on Keira’s mind. She snorted, shaking her head as she stared off into space, remembering just how good the sex with Raul had been. If I told anyone in the clan about it, they’d disown me in a heartbeat. She knew that she smelled of Raul; that was even more reason for her not to go back to her own people just yet. Never should have blooded him.
Keira gave herself a shake, abandoning even the possibility of trying to contact her clan; they would just have to hold onto the thread of her consciousness that they could sense, know that she was okay, and rely on that. She slid off of the couch and padded into the kitchen where the food that Raul had left for her was. For a captor—and a wolf at that—she had to admit that Raul was a fairly decent person. He had focused on the kinds of foods that would best bolster her speedy recovery from injury and the copper chains that his pack mates had bound her in: lean meat, fish, and vegetables. He had also made sure that there was plenty to drink; not just water that she could get from the tap, but beer and one or two cans of soda. As a joke, the last time he had come to check on her, he had brought a bottle of cream with him, teasing her with it.
Keira had just served herself a large plate of chicken and mixed vegetable salad when she heard a noise outside of the safe house. Her senses went into high alert; her ears perked, the hairs on the back of her neck rose, her vision became subtly sharper, and as she sniffed the air, she sorted through the scents she could identify inside of the house; her own pheromones, Raul’s heavier musk, the older smells of wolves who had been inside the building before. She breathed in deep, wishing that she’d had the presence of mind to crack one or two of the windows so that she could keep a constant check on scent-marks around the house.
A metallic, clattering clink hit her ears and some of Keira’s tension began to ebb away. While that sound on its own didn’t mean that it was Raul, it was familiar—and she didn’t think that Raul would take her to a safe house that other wolves had keys to enter. Not to mention that if they were coming here to get me, it’s not like they would use the keys to get in. A moment later, Keira’s preternaturally acute ears heard the sound of the tumblers in the lock turning over, the knob turning. Smiling to herself, she took a plate out of the cabinet and opened the fridge, finding the pile of bones she had salvaged from her lunch for the purpose of Raul’s next visit. She sniffed the air as she closed the fridge; she heard the door open and close, and the scent that greeted her was unquestionably Raul—Raul and no one else, Keira confirmed after a moment of suspicion. “Keira? Where are you?”
“In the kitchen,” she called out, picking up the two plates. She stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room; the sight of Raul nearly made her drop both plates. The werewolf’s face, neck, and chest were dotted and splashed with blood, his hair matted with it. He smiled ruefully, setting down bags on the coffee table.
“It looks pretty bad,” he said, reading her shock accurately. “You should see the other guy.”
“What happened?” Keira quickly set the plates down on the table, moving closer to Raul with fast, silent steps, her animal instincts beginning to take over. Anger kindled in the pit of her stomach at the thought of anyone harming the man who had taken her out of her imprisonment, and Keira checked at the reaction. Slow down, girl. He is not your mate.
“Two things,” Raul said, grimacing as he sat down on the couch and began to peel his bloodstained shirt off. “First is that there is a shake-up in the Pack. The second is that your people have already commenced fighting back against Reginald’s execution of panthers.” Keira stared at Raul in shock, shaking her head slowly. Raul’s chest and arms were scored with gashes and slashes, and she could tell that he wasn’t the victim of some random wolf attack—at least not of that alone. There were unmistakable marks of panther on him as well.
“You were attacked by one of my clan members,” Keira said, pointing to one of the marks on his arm. Raul shrugged.
“They smelled you on me,” he said.
“Your own Pack hasn’t yet?” Raul chuckled.
“I’ve been keeping away from them, you big dummy. Everything so far has been by phone, with the excuse that I was recuperating from the fight with you and the wolf’s bane that your people threw at me to get you out of Reginald’s shed. Nobody wants to be around someone reeking of wolf’s bane.”
“We don’t mind it,” Keira said with a shrug. “I don’t smell anyone else on you though.”
“I showered before I came here,” Raul said simply. “But I’m not healing as fast as usual.” He frowned down at his injured, scratched, bitten torso and shook his head. “Probably from that wolf’s bane I rolled around in before I went to meet with Reginald.” He looked around and his gaze fell on the plate of bones that Keira had brought out with her own food. “Bones?”
“Fido,” Keira said, smiling wryly in spite of the fear, anger, and sadness she felt. “Not really that great of a joke at the moment, but it would have been hilarious if you’d come in uninjured.”