Outlaw Valley Wolf (Silver Fox Ranch Book 2) Page 13

  “Trouble always finds its way into town, son. With the railroads gettin’ built and folks from all over comin’ through here, I’m up to my eyeballs in bandit activity. Don’t need good people like yourselves headin’ up that way and gettin’ hurt. Just turn back around and head in the other direction. My men don’t even patrol them woods no more.”

  “Thanks for the advice, Sheriff.”

  They returned to the inn, and Charlotte scampered around the room anxiously. Wesley cocked an eyebrow at his wife. “Were you this restless when you were with Itsá?”

  “Yes. And no, it isn’t what you are thinking. Itsá is protective of me because I remind him of his sister. He knows there’s no one in this world I would rather love and despise than you.” She giggled and walked over to Wesley. With a speed that caught him by surprise, Charlotte snatched his hat and plopped it on her head. She sauntered over to the bed and climbed on top.

  Wesley licked his lips as his eyes locked onto her shapely rear. “What should we do to pass the time?” His voice was thick like molasses, and he stood up from the chair. Her eyes flickered down to his lips, and he saw her cheeks flush red with a different kind of excitement.

  “I’m sure we can think of something,” she teased.

  “Oh, I can think of a lot of things I could do to you with the time we’ve got. The trouble is, I don’t think I’d stop when it came time to leave. You’re addictive, Charlotte. I can’t get enough of you. I love your smell...your taste...the way you scrape your nails down my back or bite me just to hear me holler.” Wesley swooped down and pinned Charlotte to the mattress. “And the way you tease me with the sway of your hips when you walk...it’s downright torture.”

  “I think I’d like it if you were wild with me, Wesley. I’ve got a fire burning inside, and I need you to answer its call.” She arched her back and wrapped her legs around his waist. “I’m yours, and I’ve been gone longer than either of us would have liked. I think it’s time you showed me what I was missing while I was away.”

  Wesley kissed her hard. His hips moved slightly, and she shuddered against him. When he broke away, their panting fill the air. “Temptress.”

  “Only for you,” she said with a sweet smile.

  Chapter Twenty

  Odell Ranch

  Boulder, Colorado

  They tracked a group of outlaws to an abandoned ranch just on the outskirts of Boulder. Wesley knew it wasn’t the outpost they had been searching for, but about thirty outlaws were holed up in the main house on the ranch not far from where they were heading anyway. Clearing it had been a lot harder than he expected, however, and Wesley peeled open his eyes, feeling like he might throw up his breakfast. The copper tinge of blood covered his tongue, and he spit off to the side with a grimace.

  Charlotte made her way around the outside of the house and stood on the opposite side of the door as Wesley. He nodded and then kicked open the door. Outlaws clattered to their feet. Charlotte fired her arrows one after another, trying her best to keep them from swarming him as he reloaded his weapon. Wesley looked up and saw a meat hook hanging from a chain not far above his head. “They’ve been feeding the wendigos,” he hissed as a bullet grazed his side.

  The burning pain spurred him on, and he pushed past it to make sure that Charlotte was alright. She took cover behind a wall, and he laid down some gunfire so she could fix something on her bow. His ragged breaths echoed through the small house as he fought past the nausea.

  Sweat poured down his face, stinging Wesley’s eyes as he took aim. One. Two. Three shots later and three bodies fell to the ground. They attacked the bandits with a blind fury. He pushed Charlotte towards the stairs while he finished off the first floor. Wesley holstered his revolver and shifted partially. He used his claws to tear through the men. Bullets bounced off of his chest, and he roared so loud that it shook the house. A spray of crimson splashed against a pristine white wall. He saved the last three outlaws that stood in front of him.

  The scent of urine permeated from their quaking figures. “P-please don’t kill us.”

  “Where’s the outpost?” he snapped.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He grabbed the man by his throat and pinned him to the wall. “I suggest you think twice about lying to me, partner. This ranch ain’t too far from Ethan Tate’s outpost. Where is it?”

  “Just north of here,” one of the others said. “There’s a camp at the base of the mountain. It guards a path to the outpost. An old army fort. Ye’ can’t miss it.”

  Wesley glared at the men as he dropped the one in his hands. “I want you to ride back to town and turn yourselves over to the sheriff. If you don’t, I’ll know, and you will end up like your friends over there. Try anything sneaky, and you will be just another stain on the bottom of my boots. Got it?” The men ran from the house with expressions of pure terror on their faces.

  Wesley James had no sympathy for criminals and murderers.

  He had seen far too much pain come at the hands of outlaws to show their kind any mercy. When the men were out of sight, he crept up the stairs and found Charlotte in the main bedchamber. Her nose had been bloodied, but she held six men captive in some sort of glowing light. Wesley approached calmly when she flinched at the sound of his boots on the hardwood floor. “You alright there, Charlotte?”

  “They hurt people. Killed them so that the wendigos could eat.”

  Wesley heard the anger in her voice and stood beside her. “What do you want to do about that?” he asked. When she jutted her chin to a pile of what appeared to be shoes from their victims, his stomach shrank. These men hadn’t cared enough to spare women or children. Wesley approached the glowing men. “What did he promise you in exchange for all those lives?”

  “He offered us our lives,” one of the men answered. “Ethan Tate is going to rule this world, and when he does, we ain’t going to be the ones on his dinner table. Nobody can stop him. He’ll kill everyone just to get what he wants. I don’t deserve to die like that.”

  Charlotte’s light tightened around them. “And what about the people you killed? What did they deserve? You lured them into traps and then fed them to wendigos.”

  “Not all of them. Some of them were turned, kept in a hole until they starved to death or fed off of each other,” laughed a sadistic man.

  Wesley placed his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “Do it.”

  She lifted her arms and squeezed her hands into fists. The light constricted until a gush of red imploded from behind the barrier. Charlotte dropped the spell and wept into his shoulder. The Wendigo Spirit had to be stopped. No more innocent lives deserved to be fed to disgusting creatures or forced to turn into cannibals. Wesley knew then what was really at stake. “We can’t just think about ourselves anymore. We need to focus on saving everyone and not just the ranch.”

  “This is so much bigger than any of us imagined.”

  “Life always is.”

  They continued their journey only to find that the outpost had already been burned down. There was no sign of wendigo or the outlaws they were hunting. Instead, Wesley saw a familiar set of tracks he hadn’t expected. “Ace and his pack have been here. They took out the outlaws and ran off in that direction. I think they’re heading back to Wolf Valley.”

  “They came here from Nevada?”

  He nodded. “I think something might have happened there. Ace and his pack don’t go looking for trouble unless it’s in retaliation for something. From my understanding, Boone has a shaky alliance with him, so we should head back home. We got enough blood on our hands at the moment, don’t you think?”

  ~*~

  Charlotte winced as Wesley eased her onto the small bed in their room at the inn. He tore the linens to make bandages and fished around in their bags for a few things Abigail had sent with them. She unlaced her corset slowly and lifted part of her blouse where the blood had caused the fabric to stick to her skin. “How many times are we going to get hurt
, Wesley? I’m growing quite tired of this,” she grumbled.

  Wesley hurried over to her, and she stared up at the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The man she wanted to father her children and...it was such a strange thing to accept at that moment, but it felt right. He washed the wounds on her body but focused on the worst of them. They were raw, and a steady trickle of blood dripped onto her skin until he was able to bandage them.

  When everything was taken care of, Wesley stood up to gather her bedclothes. She chuckled bitterly as she looked over his appearance. “We always look as though we’ve been in some sort of horrible accident and returned only to tell the tale.”

  “The important thing is that we survived.”

  “Oh, of course. It has nothing to do with the fact that we seem to stumble right into the worst of circumstances,” she said with a smile. Wesley changed her into something comfortable. His touch was like feeling the first ray of warm sunlight in the spring. “What are we going to do, Wesley? Where does our path lead us?”

  “To each other,” he replied. “So long as my path always leads me back to you, I’ll die a happy man, Charlotte. Nothing in this life could ever make me happier than knowing you’ll always be next to me. The dangers we face all seem worth it when I look in your eyes.”

  “Those are sweet words, Wesley, and I feel the same...but I’m afraid we won’t live very long at all. I want to be with you and have babies and name them and grow old together. But we cannot do anything until the world is fixed.”

  Wesley kissed her brow, and Charlotte slowly fell into a deep sleep. She dreamt about her time in the crypt with Kaia and the other witches, the pain she experienced at the hands of those who had called her their sister. Charlotte did not know why the world had broken so suddenly or why she had been destined to walk the path that had been laid out before her...but she knew she could endure anything so long as Wesley was near.

  She drew her strength from him, used it to find her courage.

  ...only darkness kept her company. There was no autumn breeze against her cheek or the chill of the rain. Not even the crisp scent of the forest lingered here. This was wrong...she should not have been back in this place.

  Heat rushed through her body like flames reaching for the sky.

  The hairs on her arms stood erect as someone wrapped their bony fingers around her throat. Charlotte opened her mouth to scream, but something flashed before her eyes, and suddenly, she was alone. The walls that surrounded her were formed from some sort of crystal that glittered as a faint light reflected off of a shallow pool of water on the other side of the crypt. Notches had been carved into the crystal to house what looked like human skulls.

  Four native women stood on the opposite side of the water. “Welcome back, sister.”

  “Charlotte! Come on, darling. Wake up!”

  Hands gripped her shoulders and shook her, but Charlotte could not open her eyes. She gasped and writhed upon the mattress, feeling as though the air had been stolen from her lungs. “Come on, Charlotte. Open your eyes. Take a deep breath, sweetheart. Charlotte!”

  She shot up in the bed and clung to Wesley as the dream faded. “You saved me,” she muttered. “You always save me, Wesley.”

  He held her gently, rocking her as the nightmare subsided. Charlotte let herself drown in the warmth of him as he peppered kisses along her temple and jaw.

  “Open those pretty eyes for me, sweetheart,” he ordered. “I need to know you’re alright.”

  Charlotte opened her eyes and stroked the stubble on his chin. She let him hold her for a while longer. “We have to head back home. Our friends need us,” she reminded him. “Ace might be able to help now that he’s in the region again.”

  Wesley kissed her briefly and allowed her to climb out of bed. They took turns dressing before they went to fetch their horses. Charlotte patted Wind Bearer’s side and rode slowly beside Wesley. He looked at her warily and asked, “What did you dream about?”

  “I’m haunted, Wesley. Things have happened to me that I cannot run from. I know I must move past them, but it seems impossible.”

  “We’ll get through this, Charlotte. You told me to believe in you, remember? Well, I believe that you can fight against those horrors and leave them in the past where they belong. If you don’t, they’ll consume you.” He leaned over in his saddle and stole a quick kiss that made her cheeks turn bright pink. “Don’t let them steal that smile of yours.”

  Charlotte looked at the road ahead and thought the day couldn’t have been more beautiful. Though it started out with fear, it had come to an end with a smile upon her face. Spring was rapidly approaching, and she looked forward to seeing the flowers again. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Charlotte.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Silver Fox Ranch

  Wesley entered the study, hoping to hear good news. Instead, he saw Sam sitting in the chair beside the fire with tears in his eyes. Boone had his back to his brother, and there was a thick tension in the air. Wesley turned to Jesse, and he shook his head, indicating that Wesley should keep his mouth shut. He, of course, ignored Jesse entirely. “I come back and the rest of you are looking like somebody stole your horse and called your mother a bad name.”

  Boone’s furious gaze landed on Wesley. “Some of us put what’s best for all of us ahead of our own needs while others just make a mess of it all.”

  Wesley saw the way Sam flinched and walked over to his friend. “What the heck happened, Sam? I can’t help if nobody’s willing to talk to me.”

  “Mary Ann is pregnant.”

  Of all the things Wesley would have expected, it hadn’t been that. “It’s yours?”

  “What the hell do you think?” Sam snapped. “It was an accident, alright? She was scared, and I walked her home to make sure she was alright. Somethin’ happened, and she kissed me. One thing led to another, and I’m pretty sure I ain’t got to explain what happened next. The fact of the matter is, Mary Ann is goin’ to have my baby and I...I don’t think I can handle that.”

  “Did she ask you to?” Jesse questioned. “I know Mary Ann, and she ain’t the sort to trap a man with a child. Just...be there for her. If she ain’t asking you to be the child’s father, then keep being her friend, Sam. That’s all she has ever wanted from you anyway.”

  “And you expect her to be able to bring a baby into this world?” Sam picked up the decanter of brandy and tossed it at the wall. The crystal shattered and sprayed liquor all over the floor. “Wendigos, witches, spirits, and whatever the hell else this damn war is supposed to bring is suddenly our problem. How is she supposed to protect a child in the middle of all of this?”

  “Without help.” Wesley knew how badly Sam was hurting. Hearing that Mary Ann was pregnant with his child most likely brought up all kinds of emotions from when he lost Malia.

  Boone stomped across the room. “If he had been thinkin’ with his head, he might not have put Mary Ann’s life in danger. For all we know, the Wendigo Spirit has her in his sights now. Itsá said Charlotte has visions of what might happen next, that she saw what her fate would be if she joined the side of darkness...Sam was there too. And in her vision, Sam turns his back on us.”

  Wesley shoved Boone aside and bared his teeth. “The only person who sees Sam as their enemy here is you, Boone. Whatever grudge you hold against your brother needs to end, or else it’ll get you both killed. Either avoid each other or talk it out, but I’m sick of this.”

  Jesse picked up the shards of glass from the floor. “He’s right, Boone. Sam ain’t the one causing the problem. It’s Ethan Tate. Now, Let’s hear about what happened with the outlaws so we can move on from all of this.”

  Wesley waited for Boone to back down. The eldest of them sat in the chair across from his brother and crossed his arms over his chest. “What did you learn, Wesley?”

  “They’re gone. The outlaws were taken down in one fell swoop. Acer’s pack did it. I found their tracks
all over the outpost and the camp at the base of the mountain. Coyote ravaged the entire area. I say we pay our friend a visit soon and see what he knows,” he said. “But before that, Charlotte and I came upon something real foul.”

  “What was it?”

  “A slaughterhouse from the looks of it,” Wesley replied. “The outlaws took over a ranch and used the main house to...hell, they harvested meat from people to feed the wendigos. Meat hooks hung from the ceilings, and we found a pile of the victims’ belongings in one of the rooms. Charlotte did not take it too well. We killed nearly all of them. The ones that did not run away turned themselves over to the law or died by our hands.”

  Everyone in the room looked a bit green in the face.

  “Good riddance,” Boone growled. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t there to hear them scream.”

  “What if…” Jesse paused and swallowed with a grimace. “I mean, I’m just throwing this out there, but if Ace came all the way to Boulder to kill those outlaws...he had to have had a reason, right? What if those things you found weren’t human at all, but part of his pack.”

  “You think the bandits raided a coyote band and fed them to wendigo?” Sam asked. “That’s a level of twisted even most murderers couldn’t stomach.”

  “Spoken like a former mercenary,” Boone tossed at his brother.

  Wesley shook his head and ignored their bickering. “Either way, if Ace is anywhere in the area, we should try to talk to him. He might have stabbed me in the chest just for being a wolf, but that don’t mean he deserved to witness something like that.”

  The others nodded their heads and grabbed their jackets. Wesley kissed Charlotte and headed out with his comrades towards the main road. Itsá and Gabriel waited at the fence as though they were expecting them. “I can take you to the coyote.”

  Jesse snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Because your ego is too big to see my wisdom. You see it as arrogance and cunning when I am merely trying to assist you. While I may not like you, Jesse Porter, I am on your side.”