Free Deep Wolves by Rhea Wilde Page A

on their fur but neither of them relented. After everything Vaughn had already been through, I worried that his previous injuries would begin to take a toll on him. He backed away from the brown wolf, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted heavily. Vaughn stood there as the other wolf charged at him. I swallowed and feared that Vaughn would be unable to defend himself.
    Just as the brown wolf leapt into the air, Vaughn shifted.  Vaughn turned into a half-man, half-beast, rising up from his four feet onto two. He was now standing on his hind legs as a man. He quickly raised his arms and snatched the wolf from the sky. He grabbed him by the throat.
    “You will listen to reason,” the werewolf Vaughn growled at him in a low voice.
    The sound of the wolf struggling to breathe could be heard. I watched the claws beginning to pierce his skin, red starting to gush from the punctures.
    “Vaughn! Let him go!”
    I shouted and pleaded to him. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had already seen so much violence and I didn’t need to see anymore.
    “Vaughn, please! You’ve already won! Leave him be…”
    The clearing was silent except for the loud sound of Vaughn’s heavy breathing. My heart was racing as I wondered what was going through his mind. Then Vaughn turned slowly to me. I barely recognized the werewolf looking back at me, the blue emeralds in his eyes the only thing that looked familiar.
    I looked at him and did my best to get him to stop. And he heard me. Vaughn released his grip from the wolf and stood back up straight. He shifted back to the human he was when he got here, his jeans and shirt now in pieces upon the ground. The wolf shifted back into the short-haired blond man. His mate helped him back up to his feet.
    He was covered in wounds, lines of blood all over his body. His sweat glistened underneath the moonlight. I could see resentment in his eyes as he stared at Vaughn.
    “You,” he grunted. “You disrespect our laws. You disrespect our peace and our territory. You… You are no wolf, Shadow. You do not have my respect…”
    He and his mate were giving us a cold stare of death. But despite that, he sighed and continued.
    “But you will have my ear. And I will listen to this rumor of the threat of the Nakas.”
    “My love—”
    “Silence, my queen,” he said, raising his hand to the woman standing next to him. “There is no need for further bloodshed. I promise you your appetite will be satiated.”
    There was a look of scornful resentment on her face. She reluctantly bowed her head to him. She glared at me. I felt uneasy even though the worse had just passed. She then turned around and made her way back deep into the heart of the forest. The men who circled around us started to make their way through the trees and followed her.
    “I am Cyrus, Alpha of The Doras. This is the territory of our pack.”
    He turned around and followed the rest of his clan into the forest. I rushed up closer to Vaughn to make sure that he was all right. The wounds he had received were nothing compared to what happened last night but it still pained me to see more cuts being opened up on him.
    I didn’t say anything to him. He knew how concerned I was. When I looked at him, he nodded and it was all the reassurance I needed to know that he would be all right.
    “Come on,” Irvine said to us. “We’re just getting started.”

Chapter 9
    I listened to the sound of the wolves shuffling in front of us. I wondered where they were taking us. Life out here might have been normal for someone like them but I was human. So was Irvine. But after apparently earning their trust, we had no choice but to follow Cyrus and the rest of the Doras into the forest.
    I found something I wasn’t expecting. There was a building constructed solely out of wood. It wasn’t the most refined cabin I’d ever seen but the architecture was created by someone I assumed was comfortable underneath the trees. The makeshift wooden cabin