Wolf Song (Wolf Song Trilogy #1)(16)

The saloon owner nodded toward the long-barreled gun resting on its butt end at his side. “Don’t make me plug you again, wolf. Don’t think my niece would be happy with that.”

“Summer,” he croaked, his mouth dry, his lips cracked.

“I’m here, my darlin’.” Her voice soft, sweet, the soothing lilt he lived for. He turned toward the sound. She huddled, dispirited, in a chair in the corner of the room. Not tied down that he could see. But something seemed to subdue and constrain her natural ebullience.

“What did he do to you?” A belligerent growl. But the residual effects of the drugs sapped his demand of true force.

“Nothing.” She couldn’t disguise her bitterness.

“I’ve managed to convince my niece the time has come for her to take a mate. And to choose one of her own kind.”

“Niece?” he echoed.

“Oh, did she neglect to mention that? Daughter of my beloved sister. Revered female of the Goldspark Clan. Of which I’m alpha. A princess of priceless worth. Destined bride of an estimable cat. Beyond the touch of a packless no-account loner.”

Cal’s words dealt him a series of blows more crushing than the pummeling he’d taken so many years earlier in The Den. Summer? His Summer? His beautiful, daring, high-flying raven? His Aura Lee? Niece of the alpha of the Goldspark Clan? Promised to a f*cking cat?

His wolf rebelled. Howled.

Brick rose to his feet with a roar. “Not while I live.”

“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the point, wolf. The trade Summer’s agreed to make. She’ll take the mate I pick for her. Mother some kits for us. And I’ll let you live.” Cal actually smiled. “Oh, and you’ll remove yourself from my mountain. Never show your hide anywhere near Shady Heart again”

“Your mountain?” he echoed.

Cal gestured at the game plan on the wall behind him. “Soon enough. Magnum pretty much sold you wolves out. Gave up more and more territory every year for a couple of handfuls of gold. But I don’t trust Drew to do the same. Or honor his father’s agreements with me. My bulldozers are getting ready to plow Los Lobos into the ground even as we speak. Just waiting for the word. But my niece has convinced me to spare one wolf. That’d be you.” The lethal grin broadened. “Deal?”

His mouth stuffed with dryer lint, he barely mustered enough saliva to spit. His drugged limbs weighed him down. Or he’d lunge at the motherf*cker and tear out his throat, claw off his head. And that would definitely not endear him to the female he craved.

“Brick, please.” Summer’s voice, beseeching him. “If anything happens to you, I’ll die.”

“Won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me, sweetheart.”

She shook her head. Tears meandered down her cheeks. “For me,” she whispered. “Please. For me. I won’t be able to bear it if they hurt you.”

“You’d mate another?” His words emerged dark, vicious, bitter.

“For your life? Yes.” She extended a hand, as if she could reach him from across the room. “Nothing I wouldn’t do.”

“No life without you,” he muttered.

“You’ll make one.” Pause. She looked away from him, swallowing a sob, the tears flowing more freely. “As I will.”

Her words clawed his gut, ripping open his belly, exposing a bag of shredded giblets, the pain so sharp it diced his guts. A blood-orange haze descended over his eyes. His heart. Jesus. How could the ticker even keep beating when she’d julienned the muscle like coleslaw?

“We’ve only known each other a day,” she tried. But the falsehood didn’t resonate, had no strength.

“Ten f*cking years,” he snapped. “Ten years of racing beneath the moon together. Of play. Of friendship. You saved my life back then. Gave me something to live for. For what? This? To kill me now? I’m dead either way.”

“Ten years?” Cal raised an eyebrow, darting a disgruntled glance at his niece before shaking his head, as if shaking off the unwanted disclosure of their long-term bond. His focus returned to Brick, with lethal intensity. “Your choice, wolf. Summer’s made hers.”

Rebellion filled him like boiling acid but he couldn’t submit, couldn’t surrender. He stared back at the cat alpha and shrugged. “Put me in the f*cking ground then. I don’t give a shit.”

“No.” Summer shrieked and shifted suddenly, flying at him, perching on his shoulder. Her song filled his brain, lulling him. “Aura Lee, Aura Lee, Maid with golden hair; sunshine came along with thee, and swallows in the air.”

“Don’t do this, baby.” He shook his head, trying to remain alert. “My life…my heart.” The last words he managed.

She flapped away. Zeroing in on her uncle.

The tranq gun exploded. Once, twice.





Chapter Six


She’d never been to Los Lobos. But she’d get no help from anyone in Shady Heart. Not with her Uncle Cal’s “on-off” switch stuck in the “out-like-a-light” position, as he sprawled on his office floor, frozen as the Blue Screen of Death.

How she’d pulled that off, she couldn’t imagine. One second she’d been perched on Brick’s shoulder, crooning in his ear, trying to comfort him. The next she’d been winging toward her uncle, ready to peck out his eyeballs—and batting the tranquilizer gun away from his side in the process. As it clattered to the floor, she’d shifted in surprise, snatching it up and plugging him full of industrial strength Carfentanil. He’d kissed the parquet floor in a heartbeat. The bigger they are….