Even that satisfaction couldn’t be his. The other wild werewolves
beat Eli to it, and they all jumped on top of the injured wolf in a
massive ball of teeth and fur and claws.
The werewolf whined and cried, attempting to defend himself for only a minute before the body stilled, but the other wolves continued their attack.
Blood and ripped flesh flew about as the wild wolves feasted on their former ally. Eli watched, aware that he should be sickened by the carnage, but he felt nothing but disappointment and loss.
His heart hurt.
“Come on,” James said, putting his arm around Eli’s shoulder. Eli
realized he was still naked when someone took their coat off and
handed it to him, but he shook his head. He didn’t want it.
“I’ll take you home,” James said.
Everyone walked with a slight hunch in their shoulders, and no
Eli’s Reluctant Mate 101
one bothered looking back at the little massacre that was going on behind them. With Chris gone, those wild wolves would have no reason to attack DeWitt’s pack anymore. They would go their
separate ways.
Eli would go with James, but only to keep the others at ease. He
had no intention of staying.
102 Marcy Jacks
Chapter Twelve
He came up for air gasping. Choking and coughing, Chris floundered around in the water, searching for a solid surface to grab on to.
Eli!
Chris never grew up near a lake, or any source of water, and because of that he couldn’t swim. He didn’t like going into the water for just that reason. He was choking, dying. Drowning.
Eli, help me!
Something grabbed Chris by the back of the neck. It felt like sharp teeth, like those of the many werewolves Chris had seen since he first came to James’s pack. His heart lurched in panic, but the teeth didn’t bite down hard enough to rip his skin, only to pull him slightly out of the water so that he could breathe.
Try to, anyway. Water was still in his lungs, and Chris coughed and gasped, choking it up until he finally realized he was being dragged away.
Where was he?
He understood when his feet touched down on the smooth rocks
and soft sand beneath the water. Chris was being taken back to dry
land.
He was promptly dropped onto his chest in the grass, and the scent
of it filled his nose.
He felt like he was coming out of an ocean rather than a medium-sized pond, and he wanted to kiss the sweet-smelling grass.
Dry land. Thank you, God.
Chris turned over. His vision was blurry from being under the
Eli’s Reluctant Mate 103
water, but he could still make out the massive shadow above him. It
was definitely in the shape of a wolf. He could tell by the way the ears
pointed. He reached out to touch it.
“Eli?”
The shadow promptly vanished, and Chris’s vision cleared. He blinked several times up at the orange sky. The sun was beginning to
set.
Then he smelled something other than grass. He smelled blood. Lots and lots of blood. The scent was so strong it was nearly overpowering. Chris had never smelled anything like it.
He rolled over and saw the source, and he nearly puked.
In the middle of the grass was carnage. Absolute frickin’ carnage. It looked like someone had improperly skinned an animal alive. Strips of fur and hair lay everywhere, and blood and all sorts of pieces Chris couldn’t name were all that were left.
A black crow stood over the wreckage, eating what it had found, but there was no way the crow had been able to consume so much. Chris knew that there should have been way more pieces of a body left behind.
His first horrified thought was that this was Eli, but then, no, the smell gave it away. Something about this, he didn’t quite know what it was, but there was something in the smell that told Chris that this was not Eli.
His mate was not here.
Chris’s insides shifted. He gasped in pain as everything inside of his ribs seemed to relocate and light on fire.
His wound! He reached down to make sure that nothing had spilled out of him, but there was no longer a gaping hole in his body. The three slashes had been replaced with stinging scratches that hurt
to touch, but when he pulled his hand back there wasn’t even any blood. It was like he’d been scratched by a cat and not a wild werewolf.
Something inside his body cracked, and Chris cried out, falling
104 Marcy Jacks
onto his sides in pain. What was happening to him?
Something itched on his hands, and when he looked, he saw all the hair growing from the pores of his skin at a speed that should have been impossible. His eyesight changed. Suddenly he could see all the tiny ants working to collect the bits of meat from the dead werewolf and bring it back to their colony. The smells he picked up before intensified. Not only could he smell the blood in the air, but also the sweat of the men who had been here before, who left very much alive only a few hours ago.
Then Chris knew no more as everything changed, giving over to the animal side of him that fought so hard to come out. He threw his head back and screamed, but it came out as a long howl.
* * * *
Eli had gone back to his cottage but then recalled the scene that would be awaiting him in his bedroom and stopped.
James, knowing what he was avoiding, ordered the omegas to clean up the mess and bring Eli a pair of jeans he could wear.
He didn’t want to stay here. Just the fact that he’d come back without Chris, and everyone who looked at him knew why, drove him insane.
So he left.
He expected an argument or a warning about avoiding the bars, but James never said a word. The alpha put his hand on Eli’s shoulder, squeezed, and then wordlessly let him go.
Eli’s mission was simple. He was going to find one of the
