Free Lone Wolf Ripples 03 - The Fire of a Lone Wolf's Heart by Anya Byrne Page B

He'd next to given up on finding a mate. Not even V had been able to help him with that, and he'd resigned himself to the solitude. Loneheart—that was what the customers of the club knew him as. He'd told himself that what he had here was enough. After all, V's power kept him from being noticed by silencers or enforcers, and prevented him from losing his wolf identity due to not having a pack. He was luckier than most lone wolves.
    It was only now that he realized how empty his existence had been, now that he looked at the slender man lying on the mattress in exhausted sleep. His skin was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. At times, his body twitched slightly and he curled into a ball and whimpered as if trying to escape nightmares Clay couldn't see.
    Clay had no idea if this beautiful stranger was in any way related to what V had come to talk to him about, but he didn't care. When his muscles finally started to work, he walked into the room like a man in a dream and knelt next to the bed.
    V finally appeared in the doorway, although she didn't actually come inside. "Well, this changes things," she said, an amused smile on her lips.
    Clay rubbed his eyes, wishing not for the first time that V could for once in her life stop being so enigmatic. "What happened?" he asked. "Is he going to be okay? Who is he?" Other than Clay's mate, that is.
    "He'll be fine. He's a half-breed," she replied. "Half-deer, half magical creature. A pixie, perhaps. I'm not quite sure."
    She didn't have to say anything more. Since the whole debacle with the grandson of the Folk's queen, human hunters had been tracking down half-breeds of all kinds. It wasn't exactly common knowledge, but V had eyes and ears everywhere, and as such, Clay had found out as well.
    He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, doing his best to restrain his wolf. "The hunters?"
    "They're no longer a problem." V's lips twisted into a wicked smirk. "They attacked him with a sonic weapon, and you know I don't take kindly to people who abuse those weaker than them."
    "Did you kill them?"
    V shrugged. "Close enough. I took their minds. They won't remember anything about who they are, or what they were doing."
    That was one of V's favorite methods to handle difficult situations. True, Clay would have liked to get his claws dirty and bury his fangs in some throats, but he had to trust V had enacted vengeance in his stead.
    This wasn't why she'd called him here, though. She hadn't known the hybrid was Clay's other half, which meant she wanted him for another reason.
    Given everything he knew, it didn't take a genius to extrapolate and reach a rational conclusion. "You can't keep him here, can you?"
    V shook her head. "I can cast a spell to cloak him well enough, but this place is too close to where he was last spotted. I can't afford risking everyone else I have here."
    She also couldn't risk herself, since her existence danced the edges of the rules paranormals used to regulate themselves. Clay could understand and appreciate that. "I can watch over him, but we have to wait until he wakes to decide."
    Clay's mate was a deer-shifter, liable to spook easily. He'd have no reason to trust Clay or V. He would undoubtedly be scared, more so since the last time he'd been conscious, he'd been attacked by human hunters. Where would he want to go? Would Clay even be welcome to come with him?
    Clay shuddered as the thought crossed his mind. He had no idea if deer-shifters mated like werewolves.  V might, but he was loath to ask. It felt... wrong, somehow.
    In the end, he didn't have to. When he turned toward his mate once more, he found wide brown eyes fixed on him. "Decide what?"
    ****
    As a deer-shifter, one of the first things Perry had learned was the value of speed. His herd was nowhere near as reliant on such skills as their animal counterparts, but they were still far more vulnerable than other shape-shifters and they had to exploit their strengths if they wanted to