Wolf Sings

Chapter 9

The ski out with Keil was a hoot. He didn’t take the straight route down the hills, instead veering off into the trees and making teleturns as often as possible.

Just like Robyn liked to do.

Usually it drove Tad crazy, but here was her mate doing the same insane thing. It felt great, and it was tons of fun to have someone to ski with who didn’t freak out every time she left the main trail.

They made it down to the level of the second lake after an hour. The small hunter’s cabin at the head of the lake was in disrepair but still a great place to stop for a hot drink and a short snack.

They were putting their gear back in their packs and getting ready for the ski across the lake when Robyn threw her arms around Keil and hugged him, hard. She was incredibly happy she could talk with Keil. Usually having to use sign language and read lips made the outward journey disjointed, but she could talk to him anytime.

She wondered how far away from each other they could be and still hear each other.

“What’s up?”

“I love being with you. I love being able to speak into your mind and hear you in mine. I love skiing with you.”

“I love skiing with you too, Robyn. Especially that little trick you have of squealing with delight before skiing over steep embankments.”

Robyn hit him with a hastily formed snowball. “I do not squeal.”

His gaze dropped over her body and heat rolled between them. “You most certainly do squeal. And moan. And make all sorts of other delicious noises. Hell, I’m hard just thinking about it. Wanna fool around?”

“Keil, it’s twenty-five degrees out and we’re in the middle of the forest. Cool your jets.”

The leer he gave her as he reached down and adjusted himself promised some serious torture in the very near future.

“Do you realize how tough it is going to be to travel like this?”

“Put a ski on it. You’ll be the fastest thing on three legs.”

She danced away from him, laughing, and readied for the two-hour journey across the lake.

The snow pack was beautiful. Hard snow covered the surface with a heavy enough dusting of fresh powder to give their skis something to bite into. Once again Keil led the way, setting tracks for Robyn to follow. They continued to talk back and forth to each other easily about nothing in particular, avoiding discussing the pack, the challenge, everything controversial. Robyn enjoyed the rapid pace Keil set, and she was disappointed when he slowed down, glancing into the trees on their right.

“Hey, you getting tired or something?”

“Or something. Keep skiing but reduce your speed. Keep your eyes on my back. Understand?”

“No. We need to pick it up or we’ll be in Haines in a week instead of a day.”

“Are you watching my back?”

Robyn ran her eyes over the solid body in front of her. Her mouth watered at the thought he was all hers.

“Your backside, does that count? Yummy.”

“Glad you think so. Don’t freak out, but I think we’re being shadowed. I count at least four wolves in the trees beside us. Are you still watching me?”

A shiver raced through Robyn. Something was very wrong or Keil would have simply stopped and faced the wolves. “I’m watching you. What’s up?”

“Someone is trying to pull a fast one on us. If the other challenger to the Alpha position can take me out ahead of time, they can assume leadership. They must think you’re TJ. People knew he was going to Granite with me.”

“Yuck, what an insult. Have they never seen him ski? Wait, what do you mean ‘take you out’? Hell, are they going to attack us?”

Keil continued to ski forward, Robyn narrowing the gap between them as his pace dropped. She slipped a couple of furtive glances toward the trees and spotted some of the wolves darting in and out of the distant tree line.

“Yeah, they’re going to attack. Listen up. They don’t know we’re mates which means they don’t know we can talk like this. That’s to our advantage. If Jack were to do this right, he’d approach me alone and his seconds would stand back and watch. By sneaking up on us out here, I doubt Jack’s planning on obeying any of the rules. If they think you’re TJ, they’re going to assume you’ll fight like him.” Keil paused. “TJ’s a tough wolf, Robyn. I’m guessing they will set two wolves on you.”

“Two wolves? That’s not good odds, Keil, but if we stick together—”

“I want to, but we’d never survive that way. A four against two means they can actually have three against one at times and even I can’t fight that many at once without getting hurt. The thought is killing me, but I’m going to have to leave you for a bit. I’ll attack the two that go after me, get at least one of them out of the picture, then rejoin you. I told you about wolf society and ranking, you’re strong enough to hold them off.”

They skied a bit farther as Robyn fought down her panic.

He was going to leave her and let two wolves attack her. No, that wasn’t true. He was going to trust her to defend herself until he could come back and save them both.

That sounded better. Even if it still made her want to pee her pants.

“Right around this bend the wind usually blows the snow off the lake. The ice will be a better surface for you to stand on to defend yourself. We’ll ski until we get there.”

She didn’t know if she wanted the ski to be over or to go on forever. Finally Keil lifted a hand as if signaling for a rest stop. He shifted his body to face the trees, casually turning her toward him.

Keil undid his clothes while hiding from the view of the trees behind Robyn’s body. A dangerous gleam was in his eyes and an impression of power rolled off him. They might be in a tough place, but Keil was not going to be as easy a target as the others imagined.

“Protect your throat. If they’re close enough to get at your throat, I want you to shove your arm into their mouth. They’ll still be able to snap it and it’ll hurt like hell, but your wolf can heal a busted arm. You can’t regrow your throat.”

Robyn gaped at him. “Love you too, sweetheart. Man, you take your girl on the most romantic dates, don’t you? Any other advice for me, Cujo?”

Keil flashed a grin at her. “Just remember that kicking a wolf in the nuts hurts as much as it does a human.”

“Good to know, hon. So don’t piss me off anymore, okay? What do you expect me to do, other than stand around looking like dinner?”

His answering smile reassured her more than it should have with wolves about to streak across the snow to try to kill her. “I expect you to use your ski poles, your big knife and your tough-as-nails attitude, and kick some butt for me. Ready?”

“You are sexy when you’re all tough. I guess if they think I’m TJ I shouldn’t lean over and plant a big one on your cheek right now, hmmm?”

Keil threw back his head and laughed. His arms reached out and while he kept his eyes on the tree line he kissed her thoroughly. “What a wonderful idea. Now they’re going to be worried about the sneak attack and freaking out watching us. Here they come. By the way, Robyn, I do love you.”

They drew a hands span apart. Robyn watched as Keil threw off his clothes and shifted to his wolf. His silver grey form raced toward the nearest of the wolves on the left. He flew across the snow and she cheered inside as she saw Keil’s huge body slam into the smaller wolf and bowl him over.

Then she couldn’t watch anymore as the wolves on the right closed in on her.

She turned and crouched, making sure that she had a firm grip on her knife. Her pack lay to the side and she made a mental note of its position to avoid tripping over it. Glancing back up toward the trees, she gasped.

“Damn it, you owe TJ an apology. They obviously think he’s tougher than you realized. There are three wolves coming at me.”

“I know. I’ve got three as well. Give me a second. Try and distract them.”

Robyn grit her teeth together. Distract them? “What, you want me to do a cancan dance or something?”

Fear and anger battled within Robyn. It was bad enough Keil was supposed to have to fight in the challenge this weekend. That at least was a time-honoured tradition and involved the values of fair play. This was nothing more than a sneak attack, cowardly and cheap.

She pulled the can of bear spray from her pocket where it had been stored since the start of the trip. One of the rules of the north was to never piss off anything you couldn’t reason with.

Robyn was really pissed off.

She waited until the first wolf was in range, then lunged toward him as she held her breath and coated the beast with pepper spray. A four-second burst was enough and he howled in pain, scratching at his eyes with his paws as he rolled away from the fight, burying his face in the snow.

Dropping her knife and the bear spray, Robyn reached down to grab the straps of her pack. She swung around in a circle then let the pack fly into the next wolf, knocking him off his feet as she quickly retrieved her knife from the ground.

The remaining wolf was looking at her with his head tilted to the side like he was thinking really hard.

Like he was really confused about something.

A quick glance toward Keil showed her he’d taken one wolf to the ground. Keil’s huge silver wolf body connected with another smaller black wolf and the two of them rolled in the snow, scratching at each other’s torsos and necks with their claws.

“Steady, Robyn, I’m on my way. Watch the black wolf on you. He’s Jack’s brother and he’s a mean one. The other wolf will try to distract you, but watch Dan.”

Dan was still on the ground under the pack but he’d lifted his head and was sniffing the air hard. He threw back his head and opened his mouth wide, and Robyn assumed that he was howling. Keil swore.

“Bloody hell. Run to me, NOW!”

Robyn turned, but Dan had regained his feet and lunged.

“I can’t, he’s attacking. What happened?”

“He’s scented that you’re my mate. He just told the others. Damn, I’ve got three on me again. Hold him off, babe, you can do it. He won’t hurt you.”

Robyn heard his anger even in her mind. Following Dan’s cry the other wolf on her had left and he was attacking Keil, three on one. Robyn jumped aside as Dan nipped at her legs. Her backhand swing was too slow to do more than brush her knife against his fur before he withdrew a short way. His wolf eyes mocked her as he herded her away from where her mate continued to fight.

Keil was stronger than any one of the wolves around him, but his attackers teased, dancing out of reach of his claws and teeth.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re trying to drag out the fight, tire me out before Jack even puts in an appearance.”

Robyn pushed toward Keil, trying to narrow the gap between them, but she was frustrated time after time by Dan’s lunges. She failed to see how close to the trees she’d been maneuvered.

Then she saw him.

Shit.

He was as big as Keil, black from tail to nose and he walked out of the woods straight toward her fearlessly.

“Keil, who’s this asshole?”

Keil risked a quick peek and Robyn felt his anger flare. “That’s the chief asshole himself, Jack.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes on both Dan and Jack at the same time, and all at once, something slammed into the back of her legs and she fell, hard, to the ice. Swinging with her arm she sliced with her knife and managed to hit meat this time. Her arm went numb and the blade flew from her fingers as her elbow was slammed to the ground by the weight of Jack’s huge forepaw.

Her cry of distress reached Keil. “Robyn, I’m coming. Hit him on the nose, kick him. Fight him.”

Robyn tried not to freak out. Jack’s massive body lay on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He sniffed along her ear.

“I can’t move. He’s at my throat and he’s got my arms pinned. He must weight five hundred pounds and oh my word, that is gross.”

“I’m almost there. What did he do?”

“He licked my neck. Gack, he stinks.”

Robyn strained to pull her legs up to be able to connect her feet with any part of Jack’s anatomy. His muzzle continued to sniff along her throat, his tongue lapping occasionally as she struggled under him. He didn’t seem to be trying to hurt her, but the sheer weight of his body forced the air from her lungs. Between that and the smell of his breath, she was growing light headed from a lack of oxygen.

Keil connected with the side of Jack’s body and the two flew over her to roll toward the scraggy trees.

Teeth flashed. Jack was no longer holding back as he had with Robyn. The fury of the attack, the speed of the swinging claws, made her gasp in horror.

Fur literally flew.

But even after having fought the other wolves, Keil was clearly stronger. His massive paws scrambled on the icy surface as Keil soon forced Jack down and over onto his back. Keil’s teeth grasped Jack’s throat and he placed a set of sharp claws against his opponent’s belly.

He froze in position.

Waiting.

Robyn had crawled crablike away from their fight, mesmerized. She slowly became aware that while she waited nearby the other wolves still standing had surrounded her.

“Oh crap.”

“They won’t touch you. I’ve got their leader in a death grip. Physically he’s been defeated and acknowledged my superiority.”

The wolves circled her slowly, taking small lunges in her direction. Moving closer on each rotation.

“Are you sure that they know that? Because they’re freaking me out here.”

Robyn could see Keil’s jaw moving, and she assumed he was talking to Jack. The black wolf threw back his head and howled.

“Umm, Robyn? Slight problem. Remember TJ telling you about how being triggered made you smell kinda interesting right now?”

Robyn sidestepped another wolf that had moved closer in an attempt to brush up against her.

“Are you telling me these jerks have the hots for me?”

“Yup. We’ve got to convince them all that you’re already taken. Including Jack, who just made a comment about how good you taste, by the way.”

The four wolves circling Robyn turned and began to slink toward Keil. Tails low, teeth bared, it was clear they planned on attacking. He pressed his paw more firmly into Jack’s belly, but there was no way he could defend himself without releasing his captive.

“Call them off me.”

Robyn ran up to one of the nearer wolves and kicked him in the flank. He rolled away from her and continued on his route toward Keil. Desperately she tried to reach her mate’s side, ignoring the pounding in her heart as she scrambled into the midst of six large wolves. The males avoided her, intent on their target.

“They’re not paying attention, Keil. I have no weapon left.”

“Just call them off. You’ve got a powerful voice and we’re in the right here. It’s our only chance. Do it now, Robyn!”

Throwing herself against Keil’s side she cried out, “Stop. Leave him alone.”

All the wolves froze except Keil.

He slowly removed his paw and backed away from Jack. Moments later Keil was back by her side after retrieving his clothes and her knife. He had an extremely pleased expression on his wolfy face. “You are damn beautiful. And that voice—um, um good.”

Keil shifted and dressed as he spoke to her, finishing off by grabbing her and continuing the kiss he’d started before the attack.

“Keil, hello! Strange wolves loitering at our backs waiting to kill us, remember?”

With a final gentle nip to her bottom lip, Keil reluctantly pulled away.

“You are sexy when you use that Alpha voice. The puppies behind us? Take a look.”

Robyn turned to see the wolves all lying belly down in the snow. When they saw her glance their way they dropped their muzzles to the ground and covered their eyes with their front paws.

Jack, bloody from Keil’s attack, crawled forward on his belly until at their feet. His dark eyes darted back and forth between them, and then he slowly rolled to his back, exposing his throat.

Keil spoke aloud so the attackers could hear. “Shall we kill them?”

Robyn narrowed her eyes as she considered. “Is the challenge still on for Sunday or did your competition just disqualify himself?”

“Oh, Jack is very much out of any challenge for Alpha. In fact by the way they responded to your voice, I’d say you’ve shown we have complete power over them from now on.”

Robyn dropped to her knees and pulled back sharply on Jack’s ear, her knife close to his throat.

“Careful, babe. Think about it.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I want to do, Keil. I have only one thing to say to them.”

She leaned closer to the ear she held tightly and spoke clearly.

“Hey, asshole. Shift.”