Page 32 of Pack Witch
“That I’ll never get it right?” he shot back, fur rippling over his cheeks as he fought a shift. His eyes glowed with his wolf’s power as he struggled to control himself. “You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know that you think I’m a piece of shit? Hell, Sergeant, I’d be the first to admit it. But if you think I’m gonna be a bad Alpha, why fuckin’ bother? Why not just cut off my head, or throw me outta your pack?” He spat on the ground. “Tell you the truth, you’re actin’ more like the Alpha I grew up with. Maybe you’re not the right one to show me how it works, huh?”
“Disrespectful pup!” I roared, grabbing him with both hands by the collar, rage giving me the strength to lift him off the ground. I shook him, then let him go. “Laps, up the mountain and back, and don’t stop running until it’s dark. I don’t want to see you again until you remember who I am and who you are and what that means, boy.”
His lower lip trembled, and a pang of agony shot through me, worse than anything I’d felt from my tattoos. The young pup whose eyes had always shone with love and hero-worship, now looked at me with something closer to anguish.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I muttered.
I was talking about myself, but his eyes hardened. “My old Alpha used to call me that, too,” he spat, turning on his heel to run.
I had to explain, but he was already gone by the time I took my first step. “Bo!” I called, but he had all his strength and rage keeping him ahead of me, and I fell a few steps later, gasping for air.
“Sergeant?” Leroy came jogging through the pines to my right, carrying a stringer of fish. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I panted. “I’m… going after Bo. I need you to… go to the garden. Watch over Zinnia. She’s sleeping.”
“I can help you find him,” he offered, dropping the fish. “You look tired.”
“I told you what to do! Go watch over my mate, Leroy.” I barked the next command, to make sure he’d understand how serious I was. “Don’t leave her alone until I’m back.”
He shuddered as the command hit home. “Yes, sir,” he whispered, grabbing the fish and running for the garden.
A hundred yards down the path, I found Bo’s discarded clothing.Shit.He’d taken on his wolf form, which meant he was moving even faster. Cursing myself, I pumped my trembling legs as hard as I could. I didn’t have the strength to shift and follow on four feet, though the path grew steeper and more perilous for anyone in human form. I slowed, hoping to keep myself from plummeting off the side of the mountain, though a part of me felt I deserved the pain of such a fall.
My instincts screamed at me as I followed. He should have reached the top of the mountain and returned by now. Had herun away? I sniffed the air. The cold breeze seemed to carry the scent of alarm, and a musky smell I hoped to hell wasn’t what I thought.
The scream of a mountain lion had my blood going cold. I understood immediately why Bo hadn’t returned. But he knew better than to face down a lion… didn’t he?
Of course he did. After the encounter with Marta the bear, he and Leroy had vowed not to harm any more animals—other than trout—up here. But ahead, around the next jumbled pile of boulders, I heard a wolf snarling and another lion scream.
Worse, I scented blood. “Bo!” I shouted, racing toward him. I rounded the mountainside and kept going, though the scene before me was dire.
The mountain lion had backed Bo against a cliff at a narrow place in the path, into a pile of medium-sized boulders. I could tell at once that his back paw had gotten jammed in between two rocks. Bo’s ruff was raised, his teeth bared, as he stared down the lion, but he couldn’t retreat.
And neither would the mountain lion. Above Bo’s head, on a ridge of stone, two cubs perched, watching the scene below with wide eyes. Their only easy way down was where Bo stood.
Fuck.This was bad. The mountain lion had already gotten in more than a few lucky swipes with her claws, it looked like. No. Not lucky. As I watched Bo snap out with his jaws, just missing the mama lion’s throat, I knew what had happened. My heart sank. We’d all made a vow not to harm any of the animals near Zinnia’s home, and he was keeping it.
“Hey!” I shouted, waving my hands in the air as high as I could. “Hey, ya! Leave my son alone!”
The cat turned, spitting, and ran at me.Fuck.I couldn’t jump out of the way, not without falling off the mountain. I did the only thing I could think of: I ran toward her, ducked under her claws, and flipped her over my head. I ignored the rivers of firethat ran across my shoulders from the lion’s claws as I reached Bo’s side.
He yelped as I kneeled to free him. I knew why; I could smell her coming at me again. I turned back, aiming a solid roundhouse kick at the cat’s muzzle and connecting. I only had an instant, so I leaned down and twisted Bo’s hind foot, covering him as much as I could with my body so that if the lion struck again, it would only hurt me.
When it struck again.
Bo whined as his hind foot came free, and I threw myself backward at the same time. The lion was on me, jaws closing on my shoulder, claws catching my side and turning me, tearing into me.
“Run!” I yelled, pushing as much Alpha command into my tone as I could. “Run to the cabin!”
Bo whimpered, and I thought he obeyed. I couldn’t tell for sure. I was fighting for my own life now.
Not a lot of things could kill a full-grown shifter. A fall from an incredible height could do it, crushing a skull on impact. Enough wounds that weren’t healing fast enough would work, too. For instance, if an enraged mama mountain lion thought her cubs were in jeopardy.
I didn’t have the strength to fight this cat, or to run away.
I had to make a choice. As I tried to force her jaws away from my shoulder, I managed to stagger close to the drop off. Far below, I knew there was a wide spot in the river. I also knew to reach it, I’d have to roll down half a mountain and fall over a cliff. Could I make it?
I had no other options.
