Abandoned Treasure Ch. 01-19

The males? They wanted blood.

"Julie? Take her into the kitchen and get her something to drink," Stanley said. He waited until they were gone before he stood up. "Stand up, boy."

I felt like I was getting called into the principal's office, except this looked like an ass-beating was coming. I stood up tall and looked the silverback in the eyes. "I did what I could."

The next thing I knew? I was face-down on the carpet, trying to catch my breath. It felt like a truck hit me, not a fist to the stomach.

"Pick him up," the old man growled. His brother and son snatched me up as I tried not to vomit. "It wasn't damn near enough," he said.

"It wasn't."

"How long has Alpha Todd kept sex slaves?"

"A long time," I said after catching a breath. "The way he sees it, Carol should have been killed for shooting one of his men. A life of abuse and slavery is worse than death, and it serves his purposes."

"Goddam Alphas! I suppose you couldn't go against him?"

I shook my head. "The Alpha knew Carol was my mate from the beginning. He threatened to enslave me with her if we completed the mating." I caught a few more breaths. "I knew I'd only have one shot to get us out. It took years to get things arranged."

"I bet. Tell me, boy. Did you fuck those slaves like the others?"

I nodded, which got me another shot to the solar plexus. It took me longer to recover, even after the boys pulled me upright. "I didn't know any better at first. By the time I did, they were watching me closely. I tried to be gentle when I didn't have a choice."

"That doesn't excuse rape." He looked at his brother. "Toss him in one of the pens until I figure this shit out."

The two men barely let my feet touch the ground on the way to the barn. They stuffed me into a livestock pen and left, leaving me in the dark in a space I couldn't stand up in.

It was hours before the door opened, already night. Jerry and Bobby pulled me out and led me back to the house. When we got inside, Carol ran into my arms. "Are you all right, baby?"

She nodded. "We've had a long talk."

"Sit down, you two," Stanley said. We did, next to Julie, who held her other hand protectively. "First off, Nathan? Your mate is the only reason you are still alive. We feed rapists to the pigs around here. Feet first."

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Carol has claimed you as her mate, and we can't hurt you without hurting her, too. She's had more than enough hurt to last a lifetime. She told us how much you've done and how you've behaved since finding her. I'm willing to overlook those things in the past as long as you promise to keep her happy in the future."

"It's the purpose of my life now, sir."

"Carol explained her oncoming heat and the need to run as wolves without detection. You have our permission to run on the lands beyond our ranch. Follow the creek into the hills, but don't go more than five miles in. Hunt if you want; there are plenty of deer out there if you two can bring one down. We will allow the two of you to run here every full moon."

It was a waxing crescent now, meaning the next full moon would be in about ten days. "That's very generous. Thank you."

"You'll owe us, Nathan. If I ask you for something? I expect you to do it."

"Yes, sir."

"You have better things to do. Park your car in the barn; Jerry will open it for you. We'll talk more when you are ready to leave."

We stood up, and I held my hand out to him. "I won't let you down." I took Carol's hand, and we followed Jerry out the door.

I started our car as soon as we got in. Jerry pointed to the barn, and we drove around the circle toward it. "That was close," I said. "Thank you."

"It's hard remembering not to use Nora and Nick after all the work we've put into not saying our old names."

"Yeah. I get the feeling the bears are on our side."

"They hate the Pack wolves even more now, but they will keep our secret."

We pulled inside, and Jerry closed the door behind us. "Leave your clothes in the car and shift once you exit the side door," he said. "Someone is always home, so bark at the door or something after you've finished your mating."

The barn was about forty degrees, so it wasn't uncomfortable undressing. The naked walk outside was not as fun, but we both shifted into our fur and shook it out. Jerry pointed to the creek, and Nora took off running.

I followed her as she trotted along the creek. It was fun to watch her smaller wolf run; her howl of joy echoed from the slopes beyond. After a mile, the creekbed turned and headed up into the mountains. Nora stopped and faced me, front shoulders down, legs extended, and rear end high. She barked at me, wanting to play in the soft snow. We play-fought for five minutes before she stopped, turned, and bolted upriver.

She wanted me to chase her, and I was ready. I held my wolf back for several minutes to let her get a good head start. It was more fun this way, and I'd be ready to claim my prize when I finally caught up to her.

My wolf was more than ready to claim his mate and took off, following the scent of her arousal. She did her best, but it took less than ten minutes. She'd run along the cliffs above the creek, not realizing it was a dead end. She was whining and pacing back and forth when I arrived and blocked her escape. I growled and got her attention.

My wolf stood tall, fur and tail up, looking every bit like the predator and protector. She tried to run past, but I whirled on her and grabbed the back of her scruff with my teeth, forcing her chest to the ground. She struggled, but my wolf wasn't letting her go. Finally, she looked back and moved her tail to the side, her swollen sex ready and dripping.

My cock was ready. I mounted my mate from the back, my front legs hooked around her back legs, and I plunged forward. She howled with the sudden penetration.

It was bliss.

There is nothing gentle about mating in our wolf forms. My knot started forming after a few strokes, and soon we were tied. She was tight and hot and felt so good! I could feel her tremors beginning as I pounded her hard.

I picked the spot on her neck to place my claiming bite. The short strokes were coming fast, and I couldn't hold out much long. I felt her seize below me, her sex gripping me like a velvet fist, and I started to cum deep inside her. I lunged forward, biting her neck until I drew blood. When I let go, I opened my neck to her, and she bit me back. Jet after jet of puppy potion filled her womb, finally ending as she let me go.

I guided us onto our sides in the powdery snow. The knot kept it all inside but also restricted our movements. I felt the bond forming between us as I licked the wound on her neck. "My mate."

"Wow," she said in my mind. "That was intense."

The mate bond was more than I'd dreamed of. I could feel her emotions as well as talk. As we caught our breath, I could feel the love blossom. I started to move, and that got me hard again. "More?"

"Baby, I warned you that you wouldn't get much rest tonight." We took our time, enjoying the act with the mate bond helping us communicate.

The wind was picking up. We finally uncoupled, leaving a sticky blob behind on the rock.

We ran side by side into the mountains. We had sex a few more times before finding a sheltered spot under a deadfall to sleep until daylight. We hunted some rabbits the next day, then returned to our hide.

When morning came, we ran hard over the mountains, played in the snow, and had a lot of sex. If she didn't take on this heat, it wasn't for lack of trying.

We trotted back to the barn just before sundown. Jerry met us there. "There's an office with a shower back there," he said. "You might want to clean up. You guys smell like a New Orleans cathouse during Mardi Gras, and Mom has invited you to dinner."

It took a while to clean up and change. We walked hand-in-hand to the house, and the welcome this time was much friendlier. "Congratulations, you two," Stanley said as he opened the door.

Bears mate like wolves, except without fated mates. Matings are like a human wedding, and weddings are a cause for celebration. Their extended family was there, including Stanley's elderly mother, Georgina. "Come here, dears. Let me see those bites."

"Mom is a Werebear Healer and midwife," Stanley added.

"Jerry, fetch my kit." She cleaned and checked the bites, adding a stitch to the deeper one on Carol's back. "They should heal up fine. You'll need a checkup every time you visit, Carol. I'm the first house on the right as you head here."

"I feel better than I have felt in years, Georgina."

"It's more for your baby than for you," she smiled. "Don't look at me like that. Bear noses are far more sensitive than yours, and this isn't the first time I've scented one out."

I moved my hand over my mate's belly, trying to process that our child was inside.

Chapter 15

Council Enforcer Vic Knightly's POV

Oxbow Lake Pack House, Minnesota

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

"May I have this dance, Papa?"

"I'd love to." My smile could have lit up the room. I took Celeste's offered hand and stood up from the head table. I was memorizing every moment of this night. If only my mate had lived to see it.

I was alone for a hundred and seventy years before I'd found my mate. I only had sixteen years before I lost her in childbirth back in eighty-nine. I had raged at the Moon Goddess for what she took away, but I had a baby daughter to raise. My parents and extended family ensured Celeste had a happy childhood, even with my warrior duties.

She'd barely been of age for a month before a late-summer Pack visit brought her mate to her. Tom was a tracker here at Oxbow. They'd claimed each other within thirty seconds of scenting each other and had completed the mating minutes later. I'd been there for her coming-of-age party at Denali Pack but missed the magic moment. Tom brought her back to Oxbow a few days ago, and tonight was her Mating Celebration with her new Pack.

For eighteen years, I'd worried about whether Celeste would be cursed to wait and wait for her fate mate. Finding her made it all worth it, but it wears on you. Luna must have heard my prayers, or maybe she owed me. Tom was a good wolf, Oxbow Lake was a small but solid Pack, and they were young enough to have a large family if the Goddess cooperated.

Now, as I took her hand and wrapped my right arm around her waist, relief and joy filled my heart. "Your smile could light up the darkest night," I whispered as we danced to the song. She was wearing a white satin dress that hugged her body. It was sleeveless, leaving her still-healing mating bite on display.

"He's everything you told me to wait for, Daddy," she replied. "And more! I never dreamed it would be this good."

"Treasure every moment, baby. You know I am."

"You'll find someone eventually, Dad. I pray every night for you."

I knew she did. "No one could replace your mother." She didn't say more; she rested her head on my shoulder as I held her close.

The dance was over way too fast, and Celeste was off with another man. I grabbed another Bent Paddle IPA from the bar where the young wolves waited for the 'old fogie' music to end. I made my way back to the Alpha's table, where Alpha Michael and Luna Margaret watched over the festivities. Alpha Michael waved me over to the empty seat by him. "Great party," I said as I sat down. "Thank you for being so welcoming to Celeste. She loves it here already."

"She's a welcome addition to the Pack. We'll take good care of her for you," Margaret promised.

"She was worried that if she found her mate, her next Pack might not let her finish school," I said. "I'm glad you two have a more progressive attitude towards women's educations."

"It only makes sense to invest in their educations," Michael replied. "We need our people to be successful among the humans, Vic. We don't have thousands of acres of land or big businesses to support us. We depend on fees from working wolves to survive. A good education means a better job and a more prosperous Pack."

"We pray for their heats to catch, but you know the odds. It might be decades before they have a pup," Margaret added. "Celeste will finish this semester online through Alaska-Anchorage, then transfer to the University of Minnesota-Duluth. We couldn't get her admitted on such short notice."

"In-person classes will be good for her," I agreed. "She was homeschooled or online her whole life."

"How are your Enforcer duties? They must keep you busy."

"They do. It's not exciting, and I hate being around all the politics. It's a different challenge. I've gone as far as I can in the Denali Pack. Another decade or two, and they'll force me out of the active ranks. The Council Enforcers were my only way to get more experience and responsibility."

"You could transfer here when you finish with your Council stint. I'd take you," Michael promised.

"My Alpha would never let me go, and I don't want to leave the memories of my mate behind just yet." I looked out at my daughter. "She looks so much like her. The pain never leaves."

Margaret reached across for my hand. "That part of your heart never recovers, but you make room for more somehow. I still ache for the people we lost at Arrowhead."

That massacre was almost eight years ago now. "I can't visualize a whole Pack gone, and no one has been held accountable."

"That's one reason I don't send people to the Council. I can't prove anything, but if they wanted to know badly enough? They'd find out." I could see Michael's wolf coming forward in his eyes. "I'll take you there tomorrow. If I had my way, every Enforcer would get a tour. Maybe that would light a fire under their asses."

"I doubt it."

The rest of the party went well; one of the older single females tried to get close to me, but I was not interested. I left with the Alphas and senior wolves before the young ones moved the party to the bonfire by the lake.

At breakfast, almost half of the Pack was still sleeping it off. I polished off a big plate of biscuits and gravy with eggs, then followed the Alpha to his Ford Expedition. It wasn't a long drive up the North Shore to Two Harbors. We stopped so I could buy a bouquet before heading west to their old Pack lands. "Your Pack and Arrowhead was close?"

"Very. It's been that way for generations since the first werewolves arrived in Northern Minnesota. When it was difficult to travel to find mates, many choice matings occurred between us. Everyone in our Pack lost family in that raid."

He turned into a gravel driveway with a chain and "NO TRESPASSING" signs everywhere. A man got out of his waiting Jeep on the other side as we stopped. "A human?"

"The Arrowhead Pack properties are held in a trust," Michael replied as he turned off the vehicle. "The lawyer who administers the trust is the only one who can let us on the land. He's been a Pack Affiliate for over two decades now. We can speak freely and shift in front of him." Damn. I'd heard of Pack Affiliates, but they were as rare as hen's teeth. The Council and most Alphas preferred to deal with humans who learned our secrets quickly and permanently. "Ralph Emerson, may I introduce Vic Knightly, Council Enforcer. Vic's daughter Celeste just mated into my Pack, and he was curious about Arrowhead."

"It's a pleasure, Vic," the middle-aged lawyer said as we shook hands. "Hop in. Some areas are a bit rough for that glorified grocery hauler of yours," he teased.

I got in the back seat of his Jeep and hung on. "You're not maintaining the road?"

"Better this way. I don't want kids or hunters getting back here. I've got motion sensors on the major approaches, but I call the Sheriffs at least once a month to get people chased off."

"How big is the property?"

"One thousand, nine hundred and eighty-seven acres surrounded by State Forest. It has thousands of feet of undeveloped lakeshore, so I get developers asking about it often."

I whistled. "Taxes have to suck. How long until the expenses forced you to sell?"

"The Trust has enough cash, and I've allowed some logging on parts of the land. Since there is no development anymore, it's at a lower rate. There is enough to hold off for a long while."

We arrived at a clearing and stopped. I could see the foundations of burned-down homes in the tall grasses and shrubbery. The land was trying to reclaim the site; another twenty-five years, and you'd have a tough time seeing it for what it was.

A wolf graveyard.

"Damn." We walked down what used to be the street leading to what used to be the Pack House. I could see the breached steel doors and concrete of the safe room. "They cut through the door?"

"Blowtorches. By the time they broke through, every female, child, and elderly Pack member had taken their own life."

The place echoed with negative energy, and my wolf didn't like it. Every instinct told me to flee. "Why?"

"We don't know. Whatever attacked was worse than death."

"And the Council found nothing?"

"The rain and the fires took away the scents, and their investigation went nowhere. The leading theory is either werejaguars or rogues. It's too brazen for rogues, and they would have tried to set up a Pack in their place. Werejaguars are hundreds of miles away, and don't have the numbers for this."

I looked around at the destruction. "There must have been dozens of warriors involved. You can't hide that forever."

"Every eyewitness is dead, Vic. I keep hoping we find the people responsible because I want their blood on my teeth. I don't trust the Council to do it for me. Not anymore."

I didn't want to, but I owed it to the dead. I walked to the doors, prayed to Luna for justice, and left the flowers behind. I didn't say another word until we were back in Michael's SUV. "I'll keep my ears open, Alpha. Someone knows something."

"If you do, speak only to me or Alpha Charles in the Adirondack Pack. Trust no one in the Council."

The same Council I had sworn allegiance to.

I got cell reception as we got closer to Two Harbors, and I had a message to call the Chief Enforcer. "Chief, it's Vic," I said when he picked up.

"You still at Oxbow Lake?" Trestman sounded like he was in a hurry.

"Yes. The mating party was last night, and most of the Pack is still recovering."

"Good. When you're done there, I need you to head west. Spend some time around Grand Forks looking for those rogues."

"Boss, we've checked that area a dozen times. They are smart enough not to go home, not that their home still exists."

"Do it again. Alpha Todd isn't giving up, and the Chairman promised we'd keep on it. I'm emailing you a list of potential areas to check, and I want you to talk to the three bear den leaders again."

Great. Bears don't like us, and sending someone into their territory alone didn't always end well. "Just when I thought I might survive this assignment," I wisecracked. "Shouldn't someone with more seniority make that contact?"

"Suck it up, buttercup. We think sending a new Enforcer is less threatening to them than a Council member."

"That will look great on my headstone, Mark."

"Just get it done. Take your time, and report to the Bitterroot Alpha when complete."

"Yes, sir." He ended the call without saying goodbye. "I guess I'm not staying too long."

"And now you know why I don't send my people to be Enforcers," Michael said.

I stayed another two days before starting my trip west. Grand Forks was a bust, as were all the "potential" hideouts on my list. I didn't dare cross into bear territory; I'd call ahead and meet a representative at the border. Every interaction was the same; they hadn't had contact with the rogues, fuck you very much, and you need to get out of here before I tear you to shreds.