Savior of the Wolves

Aiden’s POV

My body was in the air before I knew my legs had lunged me forward. My wolf’s instincts outmatched those of mine in human form.

“What the hell?” were the only words I heard from the human as I covered the female’s body with my own. My legs were lightly against her body. I hunched down and slowly turned my gaze up towards the evil cunt.

My teeth quivered at the rage I felt toward him. My legs could feel the heat of the girl’s lifeless body underneath me and my hatred for this man grew to something unrecognizable. Something that worried me...but strengthened my wolf. It made him hungry.

The coward slowly began to lift his arm in the air as though it wouldn’t catch my attention. As though I were some dumb animal. Like he was the predator here.

Not in the real world.

Every sense in my wolf was screaming...prey.

I’ve never seen this kind of fear in a human’s eyes before. There are elders who have lifetime human friends who know our secret. But not many. It’s rare and usually accidental. Most humans have only seen our human forms. Our species has long been kept a secret…for obvious reasons.

I knew from the moment I crouched in the grass…this mother fucker would die. Even from a distance, I could spell him on her. The various areas in town that I knew from memory, those scents were all over his boots…and now…smeared all over her. Before we arrived, this poor girl had endured his kicking on most of her body.

“Even her fucking face,” my wolf thundered to my pack.

My stare moved from his eyes to his hand, and I readied my stance to finish him.

As I waited, shielding the girl, my wolf begging him to move, even flinch, something entered my peripheral vision. A mouth fully opened and growling defensively. The long set of teeth latched down on the raised arm holding the hammer.

The man screamed the most satisfying scream I had ever heard as my friend, Zeb, lowered to a crouch by my side, holding the man’s severed hand in his teeth.

A blur of tan then flew in front of me, as Lennox latched onto his neck, and with a few violent shakes of his head, the man was no longer moving.

“The threat is secured,” I heard Lennox say while turning to look at me. Blood dripping from his face. His eyes were intense.

I looked at Zeb and Lennox, my closest friends, and they knew my appreciation was immeasurable. Ron may have given the command, but they instinctively felt my rage and attacked as they knew I wanted. Not for anyone else.

I looked down at my massive paws as I carefully stepped away from over the top of her and looked down at her. The sound, the pull to her, seemed to surround her. Engulf her.

My heart felt raw panic.

“Get a car here!” I commanded through the link to everyone who was listening.

I could still hear the other wolves moving around the field, doing their jobs, “All clear Ron,” one spoke to the group.

“Understood. Don’t break detail until we follow the car back to the compound,” Ron directed.

Looking upon her, my heart began to pulse with a primal urge. Everything in my soul spoke to me that I needed her...but I’ve never needed anything.

The detail began to slowly step closer and I innately raised my head to warn them back. My eyes swept over them fiercely as a growl reinforced my command.

Then I knew why the group closed in on me. There was another scent entering the air. The scent told them to protect him also.

My brother.

He was close.

Just seconds after I smelt him, Josh leapt out of the woods in a frantic pursuit and stopped right on top of me.

His wolf, similar to my color, but smaller in size, glared at me and then down on her.

I could see it in his eyes. A need for this unknown girl. But what the hell was going on? She was clearly human.

He began to smell her, and my wolf grew primal and possessive. My lips parted as my teeth quivered with aggression.

The detail stepped closer to us. Ready to intervene.

Now was not the time.

I glared up at them again as though I dared them to do something. My glare turned back toward my brother as a low warning growl escaped his lips. He was there to protect her too.

“Aiden, you need to calm down. You know I won’t hurt her.”

“It’s taken care of Josh, now leave,” My voice spoke in a low chilling tone.

“I can’t,” he growled, lowering his head to stare directly at me. He wasn’t backing down.

The patrol had been stepping forward slowly and was nearly on top of us now. I hadn’t realized that the pack had even moved again.

My head jerked to the right as an approaching car caught my attention. I immediately turned to my human form. I didn’t care about Josh. I only cared about her, and every second counted. I knew the car was one of ours.

My nakedness didn’t bother me around my brothers. It’s something you are forced to get used to. It’s normal for us. There have been countless times that we’ve turned, practicing or unexpectedly, being new wolves, without a stitch of clothing to replace the ones we shredded. When you’re newly transitioned, you don’t give those things much thought.

As though expected, the driver pulled up beside me, lowering the window instantly. He handed a pair of shorts out to me.

I gave him an appreciative nod.

I pulled the shorts on, never taking my eyes off of Josh...who never took his eyes off the girl. I knelt down nearly nose to nose with Josh’s wolf, and let my eyes move from his to the girls as I slowly lifted her up and cradled her into my arms.

I didn’t care what he wanted, I only knew that if he tried to stop me, I would break every bone in his body.

They would heal eventually.

To my surprise, Josh didn’t shift back. As I slowly bent down to slide into the back seat with the girl, Josh stood ready to protect that side of the car as we immediately began rolling the moment I closed the door.

As I assessed her injuries, I could hardly make out where the lacerations were from all the blood. Blood was everywhere. And now it covered my arms that held her to me. The smell of her blood made my wolf intoxicated. It was her scent. The scent of her essence was carried even stronger in her blood. I had to constantly calm myself and focus.

I listened intently. Even as a human, I could hear a heartbeat from across the woods, but hers was so weak that it made me terrified.

“Hurry,” I urged the driver, just looking up for a brief second.

“Yes, Aiden.”

She had no movement except the slightest rise and fall of her chest. A human would have missed it and assumed she was dead.

I stared at her face, needing to look upon her. Her weak state made me want to turn around and find the remains of that scum and rip him to pieces all over again.

This girl made everything in me scream for her. Everything in me was scattered and conflicted too. Why would I be so protective of a mere human? And my brother too.

Nothing made sense. I found my hand drifting up towards her face, to caress her. To let her know she’ll be taken care of now. Like my touch would help...give her strength to fight. To live.

“I’m here. You’re not alone. No one will ever hurt you again.” My heart felt pain that I had never known before. My eyes closed tightly from it, and I forced them back open as I continued my plea. “You have to fight now to live. Maybe more than you’ve ever fought before.”

From the looks of her battered body, I didn’t know how true that statement was. Goddess only knew what she’d fought through to even make it this far.

Tears burned my eyes. “Please!”

My thoughts felt foreign and childlike as I shamelessly begged a stranger to live.

This could be a trick. Dad would know more. Could the witches have put a spell on her? Could that lowlife we killed be involved in some trap? But instead of just luring us, he got himself killed in the process?

It’s possible, I thought.

But the witches were our allies. Even more so since the war started with the scourges. We never attacked witches and they knew we would protect them if they needed us. So there was a trust between us. Now, more than ever.

So many scenarios were playing out in my thoughts. None of this made any damn sense.

Looking down at her, my breath caught in my chest. It didn’t matter that she was battered and bruised, she completely and utterly took my breath away.