Her Shadows

5 - Dangerous Fallout

MAX

I could smell her the moment she barreled into the pack house. My wolf, Blue, sighed in contentment knowing that she was back, and wasn’t still out with that asshole Cody. I still cannot believe she went out with him. I know it was just to spite me. I saw her damn tiny shorts and saw the thin line of her stomach below the hem of her shirt. I nearly leapt from my room when I saw her walk by. One of the hardest things I have ever done was let her walk out the door to another man. 

“Yet, you won't go to her,” Blue chastises. 

“I can't yet,” I snap back. 

He silences when her scent sharpens, her blood more noticeable than it should be. I stare towards the entryway, mortified when she comes into view. 

Naked, bruised, and bloody. 

“Where. Is. He.” I demand. That f*****g piece of s**t doesn’t know what's coming for him. No one hurts her and lives to tell about it. 

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it,” she wheezes out. 

“Like f*****g hell!” Alex yells. His temper is shorter than mine. She rolls her eyes, but even that is strained. She is clearly exhausted. The bruising around her ribs tells me why that probably is. 

I rip off my t-shirt and stomp towards her, slipping it as gently over her head as I can. I breathe in her scent, rejoicing internally when she automatically leans towards my body, inhaling my scent right back. I wrap her in my arms, tenderly leading her to the couch to sit us both down. I need to be close to her right now. Or, Blue does at least. 

“You need to tell us what happened, Nat,” Aaron tells her calmly. Though, I can see the muscle twitch in his jaw and the deep color of his eyes. He's pissed. All of us are. I can feel it through our team bond. Her head lulls onto my shoulder, a quiet groan slipping out. 

“Can you smell him? Are we sure he did this?” Daniel links, always the voice of reason. I turn my head to smell for his scent as well. Her seductive lavender and ______

“It's there,” I confirm. “Along with strong scents of dirt and dead leaves.” 

This obviously happened in the woods. Probably right before she got here. He can't be far behind. Blue scratches at the walls of my control, begging to be set free to tear him apart. I reign him in though, wanting Natalia to stay comfortable against me. 

Well, I try until Alex walks over and claps his hands in front of her face. 

“Alex,” she groans, the pain in her voice lancing straight through me. 

“Chill out, man. What the f**k?” I growl at him. 

“She needs to tell us what happened!” He growls back. 

“You don’t need to know that,” Natalia snaps at him, but it lacks her usual attitude.

“We need to know who did this, Natalia,” Aaron says, trying the calm route again. 

She was silent for a moment, breathing heavily against me. She tilts her head, subtly scenting the skin of my neck before speaking. 

“He was crude the whole date,” she begins. “He was very forthright about what he wanted, but I made it clear that wasn’t going to happen between us. I was going to call Sam to pick me up, but he suggested we walk home. I thought, why not? I am a strong wolf, and I'm the alpha’s sister. I wasn’t really worried.” I feel her nose wiggle, can tell her jaw clenches harshly. “I would’ve been fine if he hadn’t gotten my ribs,” she spits out angrily. 

“What did he do?” Aaron asks again. I just tighten my grip on her waist. She shrugs, attempting to look casual, but the fact that she won't look up doesn’t help her case. 

“He wanted to have s*x. I didn’t. he tried anyways, we fought, I ran here.” It's short, her words clipped. Natalia is an incredibly strong wolf, but anyone in that situation would be scared. She is just trying so hard to hide it. Alex opens his mouth, presumably to push for more information, but in an instant he snaps it shut and whirls around. 

The smell doesn’t process until he is in the room, but there he is. Spine straight, but blood drips down his chin and from his ear, and his eyes are wild. But it's the blood on his hands that I notice; the drops on his elbow. 

They smell like her. 

I don’t think. I simply act instinctually. And that instinct is to tear apart the man who hurt the woman in my arms. I launch myself at him, claws extending and canines pushing through. Blue is in the driver’s seat of my mind, but I'm okay with that. The only thing rolling through our mind is defend, defend, defend. 

I hear the sound of yelling behind me, but the words are tuned out. I have tunnel vision on the wide-eyed figure shrinking down in front of me. My whole body lands on his, both of us tumbling to the ground in a flurry of claws and blood. Red and black are all I see. I hardly feel my fists hitting his flesh; hardly feel the splatter of blood flying from his face.

Multiple arms wrap around me, struggling to pull me off. A pair of arms link under my arms holding our bodies tight together as he throws us to the floor, never releasing his grip. 

“Dammit, Max! You have to calm down!” 

“Don’t let go of him!” 

“He's unconscious. I can feel a pulse, but it's weak.” 

Voices ring out all around me, but only one breaks through the thick haze of red blocking my vision. 

“Blueberry.” The whispered word clears much of the shadows. She never told me why, but ever since I told her my wolf’s name is Blue, she effectively nicknamed him Blueberry. She rarely uses the name anymore, especially in that soft voice. Gentle palms rest on my cheeks. My eyes shutter and finally focus on my favorite pair of deep golden eyes. 

“Aly.” She gives me a soft smile. 

“You need to calm down, Blueberry. I am fine.” 

My body relaxes slightly, Blue fading into the background in submission to the woman in front of us. Her rewarding smile only calms me more. 

The arms around me finally unlink, releasing me to take a full breath. Natalia helps pull me to my feet, maneuvering me slowly to the couch. I keep my eyes on hers, but in my periphery I see Daniel haul a limp Cody over his shoulder and walk out. Aaron and Alex are whispering quietly to themselves, the latter shooting angry expressions to his brother, gesturing wildly around the room. 

Natalia’s focus, though, remains solely on me. 

And goddess is the attention making my pride swell. 

Until Aaron says we all just need to go to sleep and our gazes snap apart like a taut band breaking apart. 

I know one thing for sure, though. The moment will stay with me well into sleep.