Timber Pack Chronicles - 27. Chapter 27

Colton and Trey walked into the Timber General Store. The bell above sounded, signaling their entry.

He had decided to include Buck in their discussion of the rogue wolf problem since he’d fought off an attack on Stan. He also thought it would help to enforce the idea that Buck was part of the pack, despite the fact that he was a self-confessed loner.

“Hey, Buck,” Colton said to the big bear standing behind the counter.

“Hey, guys.”

Stan came from the back. The small man grinned at Colton, eager to please as always. “Hello, Alpha. Can I get you anything? A drink?”

“First, don’t call me ‘Alpha,’ Stan. And I will take some water.”

“Of course.” Stan grinned as he hurried off. He returned with three bottles of water, handing them to Buck, Colton and Trey, before going to greet a customer who looked like she might need help.

“How’s the work on the camp going?” Buck asked.

“We still have a lot to do, but it’s coming along.”

“I’m available to help with whatever you need. And Stan is as well.”

“I’ll remember that.” Colton glanced around. “Can we talk in back?”

“Sure.” Buck called out to Stan, “Cub, we’ll be in back.”

Stan looked up from the cans he was stocking. “Okay.”

Colton and Trey followed Buck into the stock room. The three sat down at a small wooden table.

Buck grabbed the Ziploc bag that was laying on the table, opened it, and pulled out a hunk of jerky. Colton recognized it as the venison jerky that Jed’s family was famous for. Buck offered Colton and Trey the bag. Colton took out a piece and bit into it.

“So what are we gonna do about this fucker?” Buck asked as he gnawed on a piece of dried meat.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Colton said matter-of-factly.

“Do you think Parker’s dad has anything to do with it?” Trey asked.

“No.” Colton filled in Buck on the details of the confrontation with Parker’s dad. “I don’t know who they are, but I don’t think they have anything to do with the attacks.”

“It sounds like the kind of bullshit the Lycan Council does behind each others’ backs,” Buck noted. “Us bears don’t have councils or anything like that. We kind of do our own thing. Live and let live.”

“We can worry about that some other time.” Trey pulled out a small notepad of paper and a pen from his jacket’s breast pocket. “Let’s figure this out. He’s attacked Parker twice. There was Stan, Curtis and TJ, and the maintenance people at the school.”

“What do those people have in common?” Buck asked while looking at Trey’s writing.

“Nothing,” Colton grumbled. “They’re all wolves. Well, Parker wasn’t a wolf yet the first time he was attacked.”

“Neither was the maintenance crew guy,” said Trey. He tilted his head to the side in thought. “Hmm. Okay. Where did these attacks take place?”

“Parker was attacked in the woods behind his parents’ house, then here at the cabin.”

Buck added, “And Stan and I were in the woods not far from here, by the river.”

Colton nodded. “Curtis and TJ were at the old water tower, and then he was seen under the bleachers at school.”

Buck frowned. “I don’t get it. What do they have in common?”

“Colton,” Trey said. “They all belong to Colton. He’s marked all of them as his.” Trey looked Colton directly in the eye. “Including Parker.”

* * * *

Parker closed his laptop and set it on the coffee table. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head. Now that he’d finished up his homework, he was bored.

Colton had gone into town with Trey to stop by the store to talk to Buck, and to pick up some groceries. Parker should have gone with them to get out of the house.

Maybe he would go see what Jed was up to.

Parker slid into his boots, pulled on his coat, and stepped out onto the porch. The ground was covered by a couple of inches of snow, which blanketed everything in a beautiful coat of white. His feet crunched on the snow as he walked down to Jed’s cabin.

He knocked on the door and waited, but didn’t get an answer. After knocking once more, he gave up. Jed wasn’t home. His truck was in the parking lot, but apparently he was busy, or maybe he was out patrolling the area.

Parker headed back to his cabin. He stomped his feet on the porch to dislodge the snow, then reached for the front door. When he saw it was cracked open, Parker froze in place.

He sniffed the air, but couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary. He was still getting used to his wolf senses, and sometimes had trouble differentiating between mingled scents. The one scent he knew and could pick out anywhere was Colton’s. Colton’s scent was present, but it wasn’t recent.

When he looked down at the ground, he noticed what seemed to be fresh wolf paw prints in the snow around the cabin.

Where they there before?

They looked too small to be Jed’s tracks. Right?

He carefully opened the door, and peeked his head into the cabin. When he saw no one inside, he let out a breath.

“Quit being so paranoid,” he muttered to himself. “You big scaredy cat.”

As Parker shut the door behind him, he noticed the back door was ajar. He raced to the back door, pushed it shut and locked it. Okay, he was no longer just paranoid. He had crossed over into freaked-the-fuck-out territory.

Heart pounding, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

When he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with an unfamiliar man with the silvery-grey eyes of a crazy person. He had never seen the big man before, but those eyes were very familiar to him.

Parker screamed as the rogue’s fist connected with the side of his head.

* * * *

Colton fidgeted in his seat. He tapped his foot nervously as he stared forward at the faded lines that marked the country road.

Trey glanced at him from behind the wheel. “You okay?”

“I don’t know. I’m… It’s this weird feeling. We need to hurry home.”

Colton pulled out his cell phone and tried to call Parker again. No answer. He tried Jed. Again no answer.

“Hurry,” he growled. He rubbed his palms up and down his jeans. His fingernails shifted into claws.

Trey pressed his foot on the gas, gunning the engine.

By the time they pulled into the camp’s parking lot, they were both feeling it. It was just too quiet.

Colton raced to the cabin, and threw open the door.

“Parker!”

The back door was wide open. Snow had accumulated on the door’s threshold and the floor. Only embers remained of the fire that had burned in the fireplace.

“I’m going to kill that bastard,” Colton snarled.

“I can’t reach Jed,” Trey said. He tossed his phone onto the counter.

Colton began pulling off his clothes, and Trey quickly joined him.

The black wolf and the brown wolf bolted through the cabin’s back door, following their pack-mate’s scent trail.

They didn’t have to go very far. The trail led to the last cabin, number 12. The empty cabin was one that was currently uninhabitable because it needed too many repairs.

Colton could smell both Jed and his mate inside.

Not hesitating, Colton slammed his body into the back door. It caught on something. He looked to Trey and jerked his head. Both wolves pushed their bodies into the door with a hard shove.

The sight of reddish-brown fur lying in a lump in front of the door sent him into a rage. He gave another shove, and then leapt over Jed’s prone body.

Jed sounded as though he was having trouble breathing, but he was alive. A big silver knife or dagger was embedded into his back, between his shoulder blades.

Colton couldn’t attend to him right now because his concern was at the middle of the empty room, where Parker lay unconscious. The grey wolf stood on top of him, his front paws pressing into Parker’s back. His pup’s shirt was torn and his pants were ripped, exposing his ass.

Colton growled in rage. He directed a look of pure hatred at the rogue wolf, letting him know that he would be dead before this was over.

Trey moved away from Colton, both of them moving into an attack position. Colton looked at Trey, and with a snarl and a head jerk let him know the fight was Colton’s. Trey backed off, moving towards Jed, to protect their fallen brother.

Colton shifted back to his human shape. He stepped closer to the wolf standing on his mate. “Shift,” he barked. “Let me see you, you fucking coward.”

The grey wolf pushed back and began to shift.

Colton’s eyes widened in recognition.