Restitution From His Mate Read online

  Zander’s eyes were wide, expressing his surprise. Then, he asked, “Then what the fuck are you doing here?”

  This time, it was Logan’s turn to look abashed. “I let a guy get too close, think too much, ya know?” He shook his head. “I mean, he’s a nice guy, but not…” He let his voice trail away, struggling.

  “Not someone you couldn’t stand to see on another person’s arm?”

  Yeah,” Logan agreed. “Exactly.”

  “Well, you’ll find him soon enough,” Zander said. Then, a cold smile curved his lips. “In the meantime, I have a little hunting trip we need to go on.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been monitoring the coyotes’ movements. I think I know where we need to head to catch a number of them in the canyon.”

  For the next half hour, Logan listened to Zander explain where he wanted to go to catch the coyotes that were eating his goats.

  Chapter Two

  “How’d you pull babysitting duty?”

  James Noleander, Jimmy to his friends, glanced over at Richard Ponders, the pack enforcer and the alpha’s mate. He smirked, then returned his attention to the arriving vehicles. As the beta of the Tamang wolf shifter pack, Jimmy could have delegated this task to someone else, but he hadn’t. He actually wanted to run with the younger wolves as their pack’s lead tracker, Aaric Tamang, also the alpha’s brother, taught those in training a thing or two.

  “I volunteered,” Jimmy admitted. “I like kids.”

  “You volunteered to run with the teens in tracker training?” Richard sounded genuinely surprised.

  Nodding, Jimmy watched Aaric round up the three teenagers consisting of two boys and a girl. He led them away from the driveway and the retreating vehicles. Aaric stopped at a clearing off to the side of the house and started chatting with them.

  “Yep.” Jimmy peeled his t-shirt over his head and turned to face the other man. He grinned at Richard, amused by his disbelieving expression. “Nothing better than watching their expressions of wonder when they learn something new.”

  Jimmy looked forward to having kids of his own someday. He hoped whoever his mate turned out to be felt the same way. Jimmy wanted the opportunity to see the world through the innocent eyes of his child. Experiencing the world through the eyes of a youngster as they explored and learned…in his opinion, nothing could be better.

  “Well, good luck,” Richard muttered.

  “You don’t want kids?” Jimmy asked, surprised.

  Richard shrugged. “If Abbott approaches me about using a surrogate…” His words trailed off as he frowned and shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

  Patting the other shifter on the shoulder, Jimmy chuckled. “Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that for now.” He offered the guy a wry smile. “You two are still in the honeymoon phase. Can’t keep your hands off of each other.”

  Grinning back, Richard nodded. “Yep.”

  Jimmy laughed again as he turned away from the other man. Trotting down the stairs, he headed across the lawn and joined Aaric and the three teens, Cindy, Greg, and Kyle. Since Aaric was in the middle of explaining how the training would work that afternoon, Jimmy stood a couple feet away and listened.

  “Cindy and I will leave first,” Aaric told the two boys. “We’ll use a few tricks we discussed to disguise our trail. After twenty minutes, you two will try to follow us. Beta James will accompany you. Stay together,” he reminded them.

  “We will,” Greg assured.

  “Good,” Aaric said before turning and facing Cindy. “Let’s go. I’ll follow you. Your goal is to use the terrain to hide your trail to the best of your ability.”

  Cindy nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Then, let’s go,” Aaric ordered.

  “Come on, boys,” Jimmy said as Aaric yanked his shirt over his head. “Let’s go have a soda while they get started.” He settled a hand on each teenager’s shoulder and steered them away from Aaric and Cindy.

  Behind him, Jimmy heard the tell-tale sounds of someone—or in this case, two someones—going through a shift. A few seconds later, he heard a pair of yips, then the sound of paws on leaves. Glancing over his shoulder, Jimmy saw Aaric’s red and brown wolf and Cindy’s blonde wolf disappearing into the trees.

  Jimmy returned his focus to the boys as he guided them across the yard toward Aaric’s home. The tracker had told him to make himself comfortable while they waited, so he did. By the time they walked inside the house, Richard had left with his brother Crain, Aaric’s mate. He knew that while they were training the younger wolf shifters, Crain was helping his brother paint the nursery of a pregnant pack-mate.

  “What would you like, guys?” Jimmy asked, opening the fridge. “Looks like Aaric has sprite, lemonade, and root beer.” He smirked at the pair. “Well, generic versions anyway.”

  “Sprite’s fine for me,” Greg said.

  “Uh, I’ll just have water,” Kyle answered.

  Greg nodded. “Yeah, water. Water’s good.”

  Jimmy nodded and closed the fridge. He grabbed three glasses and filled them with tap water. Two, he placed on the counter, one, he drank himself. Over the rim of the glass, Jimmy watched the two boys glance nervously at each other before grabbing their own drinks and taking small sips.

  Grinning, Jimmy set his own cup on the counter. He settled his hip against the granite slab and his palm near his water glass. “Do I make you nervous because I’m the beta or because I’m ex-military?”

  Rolling his eyes, Greg shook his head. “I’m nervous because Cindy’s better than me and Kyle.”

  “What if we can’t find her?” Kyle asked, nodding, probably at what Greg said.

  “Ah,” Jimmy responded. That made sense. Smiling, he offered, “I’m not going just to keep an eye on you guys. If you get stuck, you can ask for help.” He shrugged. “Otherwise, how would any of us learn?”

  Greg snickered. “You a good enough tracker to hunt down Aaric? I thought he was the best in the pack.”

  Jimmy wasn’t going to bother pointing out that he’d been Special Forces in the military. He probably could track Aaric, just not using traditional wolf techniques. Instead, he grinned largely and said, “Well, it’s a good thing we’re not tracking Aaric, isn’t it?”

  Both boys smiled, their shoulders relaxing. Chatting about tracking techniques, it wasn’t long before the twenty minutes passed.

  “All right, gents, let’s get on with it, then,” Jimmy said, pushing away from the counter. He led the way to the deck, and shoved his sweats off, leaving him naked. From the corner of his eye, he saw the boys pulling off their own clothes.

  Jimmy called to his wolf, letting the change take him. Within seconds, he shook out his wolf’s fur. He trotted off the deck and sat in the grass, waiting for the teens to work slowly through their own shifts. After a good thirty seconds or so, one black wolf and one gray wolf joined him on the lawn.

  Rising, Jimmy woofed softly. The young wolves exchanged looks, then trotted across the lawn to where they’d left Aaric and Cindy to shift earlier. Jimmy followed the pair as they sniffed the grass.

  Jimmy instantly noted where a twig was broken and grass was crushed several feet away. It took the teens a bit longer to realize that area was where the pair had entered the forest. Jimmy watched Greg and Kyle move into the woods, their noses on the ground, slowly moving between trees and around shrubs.

  They moved slowly but steadily until they hit a stream. They exchanged looks, then Kyle’s gray wolf scampered across the water. He started sniffing the far side of the bank. After a few seconds, Kyle looked at Greg and shook his head. Greg started searching upstream.

  Jimmy climbed onto a fallen tree and surveyed the area. He searched for signs of disturbance in grass, mud, or leaves. It took about ten seconds to spot the partial paw print in the mud fifteen feet downstream. Sitting down, Jimmy watched the boys try to figure out where their prey had exited the stre
am.

  After several minutes, Kyle started heading downstream. When he practically stepped on the print, Jimmy growled in warning. Kyle froze, and his head swung around to look at him. Sniffing, Jimmy stared pointedly at the ground at Kyle’s feet. After cocking his head and staring at him for several seconds, Kyle looked down.

  Evidently, he spotted the print, for he lowered his head and sniffed. Glancing at Jimmy, Kyle looked a bit abashed. Jimmy chuffed, his wolf’s equivalent of a laugh. Kyle looked over his shoulder and yipped at Greg. The black wolf spun, splashed across the stream, and stopped next to Kyle…landing right on the print.

  Kyle pinned his ears back and snapped at Greg. The other wolf jumped away with a startled yelp. In the next second, Greg retaliated by lunging at Kyle and knocking him over.

  Jimmy shook his head as he watched the young wolves’ antics. Barking sharply, Jimmy got the teens attention. After both stopped and hung their heads, Jimmy attempted to get them back on track by nodding toward the now destroyed print. At least they’d be able to use their nose to keep following the trail.

  After another ten minutes, it became painfully obvious to Jimmy that, while Kyle was the better of the two, neither boy had much aptitude for tracking. They kept getting distracted by various scents, from bunny trails to deer tracks.

  Finally, they came to a section of rocky embankment. The trail led up the rocks, then seemed to disappear. The boys sniffed every bit of rock along the top of the embankment, trying to decide what direction the pair went next.

  Jimmy sat down at the top and waited to see how long it would take them to realize that Cindy and Aaric hadn’t climbed all the way up. Instead, judging by the disturbed grass seven feet below, they’d climbed along the rocks, got about three quarters of the way up, then leaped from rock to rock, across a large gap, and jumped back down to the ground. Jimmy bet they’d headed north.

  He had to admit. Jimmy thought Cindy was good.

  Kyle whined, drawing Jimmy’s attention. The young wolf sat with his head cocked. Greg sat next to him, peering around, and looking confused.

  Recognizing the signs, that the boys had lost the trail, Jimmy crossed to them and shifted. He crouched beside them and pointed toward the rocks. “Look down there. Do you see the crushed grass?” After they nodded, Jimmy continued, “That means they didn’t come all the way up. Start sniffing the rocks and you’ll discover which ones they jumped on, until finally they jumped down over there. See if you can find them,” he instructed, pointing. “If you can’t, I’ll show you.”

  After the pups got moving, Jimmy shifted back to wolf form. Even through the sounds of his muscles popping and his bones reshaping, he still heard the gasped holy shit. As soon as he could move and see, Jimmy scanned the trees. He spotted the flash of a camouflaged form and heard the crunch of booted feet on leaves and twigs.

  Oh, son of a bitch!

  Jimmy had been so wrapped up in watching the pups struggle, he hadn’t even noticed the scent of a human nearby. Barking once, he got the young wolves’ attention. Then, he pivoted and headed after the human. From the words the guy had gasped, Jimmy knew he’d seen too much. He’d need to take him to his alpha so they could figure out what to do with him.

  Stretching his legs, Jimmy bounded after the human. He had to admit, the guy moved quick. Of course, panic could spur a person to greater speed than he’d normally be able to go. Still, after a couple of minutes, Jimmy caught sight of the human.

  Dressed for hunting, the male carried a rifle. Jimmy wondered what the human had been hunting. Obviously, it didn’t seem to be wolves.

  “Zander! What’s wrong, man?”

  The call of a second male caused Jimmy to slow. The deep voice sent a shiver of need down his spine.

  Well, shit.

  “Logan! Thank God, I found you. We need to get out of here,” the first man, Zander, called.

  “What is it?” Logan’s question carried between trees.

  Jimmy crept forward, seeing that he’d caught up with Zander, who must have been stopped by this Logan fellow. Crawling on his belly, he paused under a bush and peered at the two men. The first man grabbed the second’s arm and said, “I just saw a werewolf.”

  Logan’s brows shot up, which pulled the scar marring his right cheek, almost masking the odd expression that crossed his face. Clearing the look, Logan took the weapon from Zander’s hand and said, “Well, I didn’t see any coyote sign in this direction, so why don’t we head back to the ranch and you can tell me all about it. Okay?”

  Just then, the wind shifted, and an earthy musky scent wafted across Jimmy’s senses. Oh, hot damn! The man called Logan was his mate! No wonder the sound of his voice skittered so pleasantly across his senses.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Jimmy spotted Kyle and Greg about twenty feet away. Both pups were lying on the ground, watching warily. He growled softly, warning them away. Both lowered their heads to their paws and whined.

  Jimmy turned back and saw the backs of both men as Logan seemed to be leading a still clearly distraught Zander away. Coming out of the trees, Jimmy yipped once. When both men turned, he started his shift. It occurred to him that he should probably just follow them to their vehicle and memorize the license plate number, but with his mate so close, he couldn’t resist trying to talk to him right that instant.

  Shifting didn’t take long, and by the time Jimmy finished, stood, and opened his eyes, he saw the men struggling with the rifle. “Wait, please,” Jimmy called, stepping toward them. “I mean you no harm.”

  “Listen to him, Zander,” Logan grunted out. It seemed he was trying to keep the weapon away from his friend.

  “Please, I just—”

  Jimmy never got to finish his sentence. At that second, the sharp report of a rifle echoed through the trees. Pain ripped through Jimmy’s chest and he stumbled backward. Disorientation filled Jimmy and he lost his balance and fell. His head hit the ground and everything became fuzzy.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Jimmy heard Logan’s growled words right before he saw the handsome redhead’s face appear in his line of sight. Getting a much closer look at the scar on the human’s face, Jimmy decided he liked how rugged it made his mate look. Then, Jimmy realized if that was what he was thinking about, he probably wasn’t completely lucid.

  “I’m so sorry, buddy,” Logan called, his voice sounding as if it came from a long way off. He pressed hard against Jimmy’s right shoulder and pain erupted through him. “Shifters normally run in packs, right? Please tell me you’re not alone out here.”

  With some surprise, Jimmy realized Logan knew about his kind. “K-Kyle and Greg,” Jimmy managed to mumble. His vision dimmed and he knew he was going to pass out soon. He just prayed that when that happened, Logan could convince his friend to help him instead of leaving him to die.

  Before having to face that risk, Jimmy desperately wanted to taste his human. He reached up and gripped Logan’s nape. “Come here, mate,” he urged.

  Logan’s brows shot up and his eyes widened, but he did as Jimmy bid and leaned toward his face. Using the last of his strength, Jimmy leaned up and brushed his lips to Logan’s, then licked the plump lower lip, tasting man and musk.

  Grinning, Jimmy lay back down and mumbled, “Nice,” as the darkness descended.

  Chapter Three

  Although Logan’s heart pounded in his chest and all he wanted to do was run from the handsome man, he knew he couldn’t. If this guy thought they were mates…

  Think about it later.

  Logan peered over his shoulder at Zander, who stood in shocked silence, his jaw gaping. No help there. Scanning the tree line, Logan spotted two pairs of eyes almost hidden by the trees.

  “Greg? Kyle?” Logan called, hoping one of them had some kind of paramedic training or could at least point him in the direction of a nearby vehicle or home. “Come on guys, your friend needs help.”

  Unfortunately, when the pair of wo
lves, one gray and one black, crept out of from under the bushes, Logan realized the pair were little more than cubs. Still, he’d be grateful for any help.

  Then, Zander finally seemed to come out of himself. He howled and lunged toward Logan…or more to the point, the gun under his knee. “Monsters!” He placed his right hand on the ground and with his left hand, he reached for the rifle.

  Logan moved his knee so it landed on Zander’s hand. He pressed down hard as he shoved his shoulder into his friend’s chest. He understood the man was traumatized and not thinking clearly, but he couldn’t allow him to make matters worse.

  “Sit down, Zander. The cubs won’t hurt us,” Logan stated, praying it was accurate.

  To Logan’s surprise, and relief, Zander did as he ordered. He plopped down on his ass, a vacant almost paralyzed look on his face. Logan knew how he felt. When he’d learned of gargoyles, he’d felt the same way. Of course, he hadn’t tried to kill any of them.

  When one of the wolf cubs started to howl, Logan pulled his attention away from his friend and his past. He looked toward the pair and saw that it was the gray wolf howling and the black wolf was shifting.

  “Is this your father?” Logan asked once the boy had shifted. They’d both been black wolves. It wasn’t so far of a stretch.

  The boy shook his head. “No. That’s Beta Noleander. I’m Greg Thatchson.”

  “A fucking beta,” Logan grumbled. He cut a quick glance toward Zander, who now had his knees pressed to his chest and his arms around them. He rocked on his ass a bit, mumbling to himself. Logan shook his head and stated, “God, we’re in trouble now.”

  Returning his focus to the boy, he asked, “Is there a pack home nearby? Someone who can help? If not, can you help me carry him? My buddy is in shock,” Logan stated needlessly.

  Greg shook his head. “I’ll help carry him, but…” He scowled as he glanced between Logan and Zander. “Why aren’t you freaking out? I mean, you shot him,” he said even as he knelt beside them.