Naomi, in coyote form, came racing up and nipped at one of the men’s heels. He tried to kick her, but Sailor, John, and Mary were tearing at him with their sharp little teeth, and he fell to the ground, screaming.
There was a sudden sharp yelp as he kicked John, sending the little pup tumbling through the air and landing among the wet leaves with a pained whimper. Still tangled in the net, Sarah growled ferociously and struggled like a mad thing.
Naomi bounded over to where John was tottering back to his paws. She nudged him gently with her nose to help him upright, nuzzling him as she checked him over for injuries and he shook his fuzzy little head to clear it, ears flopping comically. Naomi practically had to pick him up by his scruff to keep him from running back into the fight.
Dakota had her teeth at the other man’s throat, where he lay sprawled on the floor. When he tried to sit up, she growled softly but commandingly in the back of her throat. She was disgusted but satisfied when the pungent scent of urine met her nostrils. The coward had wet himself. He’d come to snatch a thirteen-year-old girl, and hadn’t been expecting a fight with a fully grown, mad-as-hell she-wolf.
The big man, the one who’d kicked John, had dropped the net holding Sarah and scrambled to his feet. He was backing away from the snarling cubs. He lashed out with his foot again, but failed to make contact. Sarah shook off the tatters of the net and bounded across to stand in front of Sailor and Mary, hackles raised and snarling. The harmonics of her growl thrummed through the air, an unmistakable message. You hurt these cubs, you die.
A sharp scent met Dakota’s nostrils and her head whipped up.Silver. The smell took a bite out of her brain, like a vicious ice-cream headache. Fear clutched her as she saw the man pulling something from his pocket. She heard a sharp, panicked intake of breath from Naomi. Moonlight flashed on the length of a razor-sharp blade. There was no way she could get to him and disarm him before he used the knife on one of the pups.
Dakota shifted back into human form and stood there, naked in the chill night air.
“We are under the protection of the Fenris Pack!” she shouted.
Both men froze where they were, and they glanced at each other uncertainly.
“No you aren’t,” one of them protested.
“Why aren’t you living on their pack lands, then?” the other demanded.
“Go ask Miles that question.”
The taller man muttered, “I’m not taking on the Fenris Pack. They’re fucking crazy.”
“Watch your language in front of the kids!” Dakota snapped at him before she could stop herself.
In answer, the man shifted into wolf form, and turned and ran. The other man cursed under his breath, but followed suit, shifting and vanishing into the darkness. Dakota helped Sarah to disentangle the scraps of net that still clung to her. She’d already shifted back into human form. She was bleeding from her mouth and trying not to cry.
Naomi turned human again as the men ran into the woods, and stood there waving her fists at them. “Yeah, that’s right, you’d better run!” she yelled at their retreating backs. “Attack my friend, will you?”
Then she glanced at Dakota and shook her head.
“You know, I’m not complaining or anything, but being your friend is hazardous to one’s health.”
“It kind of sounds like you’re complaining,” Dakota observed mildly as they all limped back towards the cabin. “Aren’t we having fun yet?”
“This is your idea of fun?” Sarah groused. “Of course it is. You think washing your handsevery dayis normal. Why am I surrounded by crazy people?”
When they were all inside, Dakota shut the door and propped a rickety chair against it, which was actually pointless, because one good kick would knock the whole shack down.
Then she turned and looked sternly at Sarah. “Do you see now why I don’t want you running around on your own? No more going out by yourselves. Any of you. I mean it,” Dakota said.
Sarah nodded, staring down at the ground. “Thank you for coming to get me,” she said quietly. She looked at her younger brother and sisters. “They don’t have anyone else but me.”
“Do you want me to run into town and get help?” Naomi asked.
Dakota shook her head, frustrated. She didn’t want to let the kidnappers escape, but she also couldn’t send Naomi out into the night by herself. The wolves might be lying in wait somewhere. It sucked that there was no phone service in town; she’d never realized how much she relied on having a cell phone, and phone lines hadn’t even been run to most of the new town’s buildings.
“It’s too dangerous. We’ll stay inside. There were only two of them, and they tried to go after Sarah when she was alone, so I think they’re pretty weak and cowardly. We should be okay if we stick together. First thing in the morning, we’ll head into town together,” she said.
They all crowded into the bedroom, and Dakota and Naomi sat up to keep watch. In the morning they packed up and started walking down the road towards town.
They hadn’t gone too far when a white SUV pulled up. David was driving, and Macy sat in the front seat next to him. He was looking at Macy like he wanted to write poetry for her. She grinned and waved at them.
“Turns out that nice is actually a refreshing change,” she said to Dakota. “We brought breakfast for you guys.” She held up a paper bag. “Why are you walking to town with your suitcases? What happened? Did the house fall down on you when it rained?”
“If only,” Dakota said, and told her what had happened.