Summer’s Wolf

Chapter Thirteen

The woman talked incessantly but at least she seemed friendly and kind. If she behaved any other way, Summer would rip out her throat and she could easily accomplish the task since for some reason the woman trusted her enough to let her wander around the decrepit looking RV that had furnishings circa nineteen-seventy-two uncaged.

“So did I tell you my name is Faith?”

Oh, only about five hundred times, but Summer couldn’t blame her for her babbling. She wouldn’t have known what to do with a person she thought was a captive wolf-shifter either if she didn’t happen to be one herself. In fact, Summer had gone so far out of her way to behave and not cause the woman problems, she’d be surprised if Faith didn’t start to suspect she was actually a regular wolf and not a shifter at all.

Summer’s skin itched. She was in Mexico and the little bit of air conditioning Faith seemed to have in her makeshift trailer they were driving in was doing nothing to cool her down. She wanted out of her fur coat. She groaned and Faith looked up in the rear view mirror. While her face looked full of worry, her eyes were steel and calculating. It was obvious to Summer that Faith cared what happened to her, but she was not a woman to be disregarded.

She had somehow broken in and out of the Institute and stolen a wolf. Faith was obviously not just flighty, which had been Summer’s initial impression.

“I’m so sorry they did this to you. We’ll find someone to help. I promise. I don’t know who, but I promise we’ll find someone who can turn you back. We won’t let you end up like Andrew.”

Andrew? Who the hell was Andrew? Summer sighed. It was infuriating not being able to speak or communicate. Hell, even if she got a hold of a pen, she couldn’t write anything. Unless she held it in her mouth…

Summer was suddenly jolted out of her make-shift seat on the floor of the van. As she flew forward, she tried to protect her damaged paw and landed on her face for all of her efforts. Lifting her head, she realized she had practically landed in Faith’s lap. The other woman held her head, her face contorted in pain. All Summer could deduce from the increasingly bizarre situation was that Faith had somehow hit her head on the steering wheel which meant she hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt. What the hell had happened? Fear stung Summer’s stomach—had Kendrick’s Institute found them?

So far Summer wasn’t overly impressed with the other woman’s common sense. Who didn’t wear their seatbelt these days? Who sat in a trailer with an unrestrained wolf-shifter? How did she know Summer wasn’t going to hurt her?

Hell, there was so much about this situation Summer didn’t understand she shouldn’t be surprised at anything anymore.

“Summer, we’re coming in for you.” A familiar voice filtered in. Tristan? What the hell was the Alpha doing there? How had he found her? “We have the car surrounded. Whoever has you will pay.”

Faith sucked in her breath. She wished she could assure the other woman that they wouldn’t hurt her but beyond the fact she couldn’t speak, she wasn’t convinced Faith wasn’t in danger from her pack. They would probably assume she was an enemy and Summer couldn’t even speak telepathically to tell them she was just some crazy, babbling woman caught up in all of this.

Faith shook her head and stared at Summer. “I won’t let them take you back.”

Summer made a sound in her throat that was something in between a groan and a sigh. This couldn’t get any worse. Now Faith thought she was going to fight the wolves, who she thought were from the Institute, to save her.

Nope, Summer had enough. No one was fighting, no one was rescuing her, and she was getting out of the trailer all by herself. Summer turned, wincing at the pain in her leg, and walked to the door of the trailer. She scratched against it and rolled her eyes. She was scratching against the door like a dog. She hoped beyond hope that Tristan and whoever else was out there—since she couldn’t smell them thanks to Kendrick’s spell—would just open the door.

“No, no, no, friend.” If Summer could have rolled her eyes she would have when she heard Faith’s voice. “They’re bad men. They used magic to make the trailer stop. They’re the ones that hurt you.”

No the men outside were not bad. None of them were as good as Cullen but more and more she thought of them as family. They’d used magic to stop the van? Summer sucked in her breath. The only one out there who could do that kind of magic was Ashlee. That meant Ashlee was out there. Her sister. In her life, she’d never imagined she could be so excited to encounter her sister. Summer supposed Faith was trying to be calming so she couldn’t believe it when the other woman opened up the glove compartment and pulled out a gun.

Nope. She wasn’t going to let Faith, nice as she might be, shoot any member of her pack who had somehow showed up to rescue her. She leapt at Faith who shrieked before she dropped the gun. Summer clamped her teeth around the weapon.

“No you don’t understand, little wolf.”

Little wolf? How big did this woman think a wolf was supposed to be? Summer snorted. She’d been listening to the same discussion on her lack of height her whole life. As a wolf, she felt practically huge.

Summer patted the door again and this time it opened. Gabriel and Michael stood in front of Tristan. Gabriel’s head was bandaged.

“Move.” Tristan commanded.

Michael shook his head. “No, my Alpha. Not until we ascertain the situation is safe.”

Summer limped down the two steps of the trailer towards the crowd. It looked like the entire pack, with the exception of Theo, had turned out to rescue her. She still wasn’t clear on how they had found her and until one of them, probably her sister, found a way to bring back her wolf and her voice, she wasn’t going to be explaining anything.

Behind her, she felt Faith step outside of the trailer. “I won’t let you hurt her.”

The woman had guts. Maybe no sense, but a lot of fearlessness.

Tristan laughed and pushed through Gabriel and Michael’s blockade. “This?” He pointed to Faith. “This is who we rescued her from? This little woman?”

“Hey!” Ashlee’s voice sprung out from the crowd and Summer relaxed a little. “She could be extremely dangerous. “You don’t know anything about her, my liege.” The last words were said with such sarcasm, Summer wished she could laugh. “And women can be quite dangerous. Especially to those who underestimate them.”

To Summer’s shock Tristan nodded. “You’re quite right, little Ashlee.” He motioned his head toward Rex who had moved up to stand to his left. “Take the woman into custody.”

Faith stepped back. “You aren’t from the Institute are you? Look, I just want to help those poor people in there. They took Andrew. He wasn’t well but he never did anything to hurt anybody not in the twenty-eight years that I knew him. But when I found him, he was different, changed, animal-like somehow.” Summer could hear the emotion in Faith’s voice. The woman held herself together by a very thin thread. The others in the pack who still had access to their wolves could probably smell her distress. Tristan stepped backwards giving her space and Ashlee walked forward to his right.

Her sister caressed Tristan’s hand gently, never breaking eye contact with Faith. The others took their cue from their Alpha and shifted the way they stood into less aggressive positions.

Tristan spoke first. Summer noted that he very wisely wore his sunglasses disguising his wolf eyes. Unlike the others, as Alpha, Tristan could never hide his true self from the rest of the world. “You have a friend who has been made into a wolf? A sick wolf?”

“He’s dead. He didn’t live a week after I broke him out of there.”

Azriel stepped forward. “They must be drugging them up, making them addicted to something they give them, something that will cause a deadly withdrawal, my Alpha. This is the kind of thing Ashlee saw the last time we were at IPAG, when we came to find the witch.” Tristan nodded to Az but the Alpha never took his eyes off of Faith.

“I tried to get help, but my job forces me to be alone most of the time. Besides who would believe me if I started spouting off about men turning into wolves and strange experiments? They tossed him like he was so much garbage. When I found him…” Faith inhaled deeply and Summer seized the opportunity to move forward and rub against Ashlee. Maybe her sister would get the idea that she needed help.

Ashlee gasped and bent over to touch her hurt paw. “She’s injured.”

Tristan made a growling sound in his throat and the other male wolves followed suit, which caused Faith to back up. “Did you do this to her?”

Faith shook her head. “She was injured when I grabbed her and took her out of that terrible place.”

Tristan narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been inside and came out again?”

Faith nodded. “I find kidnapped victims and bring them home. It’s my job. I’m good at getting in places I’m not supposed to be.”

“I don’t smell Cullen in your vehicle. I take it you don’t have him too?”

Faith wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t know what that is. I don’t even know who she is and I’m getting the impression you people are wolves too. But not from that place?”

Tristan shook his head. “Very different wolves. What did you say your name is?”

Ashlee started to stroke Summer’s head which Summer was immensely grateful for. She never would have guessed she was the type of person to need human contact but being trapped like this was teaching her all sorts of new things about herself. “She hasn’t said, Tristan.”

Faith cleared her throat. “My name is Faith Anderson. Look, she obviously belongs with you. I’m just glad I got her out of there. I’ll leave her with you now.” Faith turned around.

“Wait.” Tristan called after her. His voice an order and as with most things Summer found true to be of Tristan, he was obeyed. Faith stopped moving. “I want to hear more of how you got in and out of that place.”

“Tristan.” Ashlee interrupted whatever it was Summer’s brother-in-law was going to say next. “I don’t think Summer can communicate. I’ve been trying to speak with her telepathically and I don’t even think she can hear me.” Her sister was right. Summer had no idea Ashlee was trying to speak with her. “I think she’s stuck like this.”

Tristan crossed to Summer and bent down to look at her. He took off his glasses and Summer heard Faith gasp. Tristan’s eyes would do that to anyone who wasn’t prepared for them. Summer looked up to see Faith struggling to get out of Gabriel’s grip.

Tristan followed her gaze and took in the scene. “There’s no need to restrain her Gabriel. I’m sure Ms. Anderson won’t leave until we tell her it’s alright.” Amazingly, Faith stopped struggling and Gabriel let her go. Even non-shifters were listening to Tristan now.

“We have nearly the whole pack here.” Tristan’s eyebrows curved downwards as he spoke. “It’s not ideal but we’re isolated out here. We’ll have warning if anyone comes along.”

Michael shook his head in confusion at Tristan’s words. “We’re not following you Tristan. What are you going to do?”

Summer would love to know that too. Her paw ached, she was hot, itchy, and sweaty, and she was dying to get to Cullen. Her heart ached as she let herself even think his name. Was he okay? Had they harmed him because of her disappearance? He needed her. She could feel that much in her soul. He’d lived too long without her and this was far too long a separation so early on in their mating. She wasn’t sure why she was so clear on this, except that she held his soul with her own and there were some things about Cullen that Summer just knew. The agony she felt at their parting was nothing to what he was suffering without her.

Tristan cocked his head to the side. “I’m going to call back her wolf from whatever spell they’ve placed on it and then I’m going to return her to her human form.”

Michael cleared his throat. “You’re going to do this here? In the middle of the jungle?”

Tristan nodded. “No time like the present. We need to know what happened, Summer can’t tell us, Cullen could be hurt somewhere and he’s not tagged so we can’t find him, and my wife is going to freak out if I don’t restore her sister immediately.”

Really? Ashlee was that upset about her absence? Something about that statement made her feel warm inside for a moment. She blinked. In her wolf form she couldn’t cry but that didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling the emotion or the need. In fact, she felt like she might explode from all the unexpressed tears she had inside of her.

Gabriel stepped forward. “What should we do with the girl?” He motioned his head towards Faith.

Tristan shrugged. “Leave her. Ashlee will wipe her memories before she leaves. It’ll be like the whole thing never happened.”

Behind her Faith startled. “Wipe my what?”

Tristan faced her, his eyes intense, his gaze intent. “Come to me, Summer. I call you and your wolf back to my pack.” Summer felt the air stir around her. Tristan called on powerful magic to help them. As the Alpha of the pack, he was the only male who could perform this kind of ceremony, with most mystical abilities belonging to the female members. Summer had only felt similar sensations once during Tristan’s Alpha ceremony three years earlier.

Summer felt a jolt of electricity fill her body. She jerked on the ground and felt herself start to pant. What was Tristan doing to her?

Tristan’s voice got louder, stronger and the temperature around her seemed to drop instantly. “Come back to me. I call all members of my pack within hearing distance to adhere to my call. Come back to me Summer. All members of my pack will answer my call.”

I am here.

Her wolf! She could hear her voice again. Even in her furry state, Summer had to swallow past the lump that formed in her throat.

He calls to us.

Yes he does. Return me to my human form. You are the magic within me. Put me back. You can undo whatever it is that they did.

Summer stiffened as the change came upon her. Her body vibrated. What had been painful her first time, now felt natural and easy. Her bones, muscles, and skin reshaped with no complaint, as if she were no more than a piece of clay being remolded into a different form. Behind her, she heard a scream of agony but she could not turn around to look as her body acquiesced to her Alpha’s command. She fell to the ground with a thud, her injured ankle giving out beneath her. In some corner of her mind, she noted that there were some benefits to being in her wolf form. She was protected from a great deal more pain that way.

“I don’t believe it.” Summer looked up from her position on the ground to see both Ashlee and Tristan staring with their mouths open behind her. She followed their gaze and sucked in her breath.

Where Faith had stood, was now a dark black wolf. The wolf howled and rolled on the ground, clearly in distress.

“She’s a wolf?” Summer looked up at Ashlee for assurance that she hadn’t cracked her head open when she fell and was now seeing things that weren’t there. Ashlee nodded, her mouth still shaped like an O.

“She’s one of our missing.” Tristan stepped forward away from Ashlee and Summer, toward the howling wolf. Summer could remember the feeling from three years earlier. It was excruciating to go through the first change. Summer didn’t envy the girl but she had other things to focus on.

“Ashlee, help me up.” Summer finally wrenched her sister’s attention away from the newly transformed wolf. She looked down at Summer, her eyes wide, then seemed to get hold of herself and focus on the task at hand.

“We need to fix your ankle, hold on.” Ashlee knelt down beside her and laid her hand gently on her ankle. Summer flinched at the pain but tried not to cry out. Ashlee closed her eyes and muttered some words Summer didn’t understand. She was really going to have to get her sister to teach her how to do some of the healing stuff. A wave of relief flooded her body and she realized her ankle no longer panged. She took a deep breath and stood up. The pain was gone, as if her injury never happened.

Ashlee crossed to a backpack on the ground and handed Summer a long sweatshirt. She smiled and put it on. Truth was, she wasn’t really used to the nakedness that came with the shifts. Especially without Cullen around.

“How did she shift?”

Summer watched as three of the pack members surrounded the wolf version of Faith. Everyone was trying to get her to calm down. She darted from right to left howling. Her ears stood straight back and her head flung from one shoulder to the next as she desperately looked for escape.

“Stop, Faith.” Tristan’s voice held authority. Faith whimpered and fell to the ground in obedience.

Ashlee turned to Summer, her arm around her waist. “I guess the same magic that called you back called Faith’s wolf out. He did order all members of his pack within earshot to stand at attendance to him.”

Summer nodded. “What are the odds?”

“This is nothing about odds, little sister. It’s about fate and magic. Who else would rescue you from Kendrick if not a member of our pack? Even if she didn’t know she was a member?”

Summer nodded. “Stop sounding so wise. You’ve only been at this three years.”

Ashlee laughed out loud and covered her grin with her hand. Tristan shot her a look that even Summer could read. Now was not the time for joviality. Summer agreed. She needed Cullen. But there were a few small things she had to tell Ashlee first.

“Where are your children?”

“Uncle Theo.”

Summer crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s well enough to babysit?”

Ashlee shrugged. “Well is a relative term but Tristan thought it would be good for him to spend a little time outside of his own head for a while. So he ordered him to take care of the children today. He was none too pleased.”

Summer nodded. She didn’t really get what Tristan had done but the man had just called back her wolf and given her back her human shape. She wasn’t going to argue with his decisions, at least for an hour or so.

“Ashlee, I’m sorry. I didn’t get it. I do now.” It was hard for Summer to apologize, had always been, but it needed to be said.

“What are you talking about?” Ashlee shook her head.

Summer sighed. “I wasn’t mated. I didn’t understand. I would do anything to get Cullen back right now. Even drag Dad down to Mexico. Mom was mated. She would have understood it too.”

“Summer, you and I have always been oil and water in some ways. But I love you. You’re my sister. No apologies between us, okay?”

“You came for me in Mexico even after all I said to you?”

Ashlee smiled, it was a sad smile but Summer could see her eyes sparkle. “You came to my ceremony when you didn’t even believe any of this was real. You’re my baby sister. And I couldn’t have kept Tristan from leaving the island, even if I wanted to. His sister-in-law and the pack’s eldest warrior, the man he idolized as a child, both get kidnapped by demons? I thought his head was going to explode.”

Summer watched as the scene in front of her with Faith continued to unfold. “Do you think we could get Tristan to turn her back?”

Ashlee nodded. “What did you have in mind?”

“I had a vision, a dream my first night on the island. In it, I was trying to rescue Cullen, and he wound up dead.”

Ashlee sucked in her breath. “Oh Summer, what are you going to do?”

Summer smiled. “I’m going to thank destiny for the pre-warning and go kick some butt. So I need that wolf over there to tell me how to break in. Think you could get your husband to bring her now?”