Feral Northern Shifters 2

when he came quite close that he realized the wolf was female. Rare, though she-wolves were not unique. Still, she seemed like less of a threat and something in Bram loosened. While he did not want to be the creeping omega that had to ask for everything, he really wasn’t interested in busting everyone’s balls to show he was at the top of the heap.
She whined in greeting as he came into the field where she sat, ears forward, face alert, and he saw a beautiful dark wolf. She rose and trotted towards him, tail wagging, like he was her long-lost brother or something. Her golden eyes were striking.
He wanted to protect her, which was not a surprising reaction. Even if she wasn’t part of his pack, she was female and valuable.
Valuable. It confused Bram. Where were the others? It wasn’t always safe for a she-wolf to be on her own. In the past, males like Gabriel had gotten a bit nutty about she-wolves and had liked to control them or kill them when they became too defiant.
Was she actually going to come right up to him?
A bark sounded from an upwind direction and then, out of nowhere, a white wolf streaked across the field. Her protector maybe, but Bram had no intention of hurting her and signaled that. He stopped, keeping his posture friendly, and whined in greeting.
There were more wolves, but these two—the white wolf had reached the she-wolf and danced around her once, to her evident irritation—were not threatening.
He whined again, wary, wondering what they expected of him.
A third wolf appeared and while his scent wasn’t recognizable, it was vaguely familiar—which sometimes happened when you got siblings. The hair on the back of Bram’s neck rose.
The she-wolf noticed his change in demeanor, turned towards the newest wolf and barked, telling him to back off. Which was even more baffling.
Another scent came to him on the wind. This he recognized absolutely, of course he recognized it, but he rejected the fact that he smelled Ethan. Impossible. Ethan was long gone and safe and not near wolves tracking Bram.
My cousin Trey is a cat killer. Doug’s voice, explaining how he knew about Ethan. Bram rose to his full height, snarling, ready to take on the new wolf who smelled alarmingly like Gabriel—these wolves were all related and to Bram’s mind that boded ill for Ethan.
Bram didn’t care that there were three, no four, against one. If he could take out one or two, Ethan would have better odds of escaping. It would be hard for two, even three wolves, to bring Ethan down.
Bram focused on the one who had to be Trey, Gabriel’s brother, and was preparing himself to go at him when the she-wolf stepped between them. She whined in greeting and Bram snapped at her, not willing to hurt her unless it became absolutely necessary.
The white wolf immediately stepped in front of the she-wolf, and Bram expected to be attacked. Except that Trey was backing off, quickly, even as the white wolf shouldered the she-wolf away. She was annoyed, seemingly determined to make friends.
Bram couldn’t imagine what the hell any of them were thinking.
To Bram’s dismay, Ethan’s scent grew stronger. When he appeared, heading right into the middle of the wolf pack and putting himself at grave risk, Bram barked once in warning. Ethan ignored him and came straight at him, knocking Bram to the ground with a shoulder block. Before Bram could regain his feet and try to better communicate the danger, the cat draped his entire body over Bram and used his extra weight to prevent Bram from rising.
Jesus, he needed to speak, and could not. Bram tried, growling and snapping, to convey the urgency of the situation but to no avail because Ethan simply held him down. It wasn’t even aggression. The cat’s actions were all affection, purring, rubbing his large head against Bram, overwhelming him with the rumble of his full-body vibration.
After months of loneliness, Bram felt a sensory overload, what with the danger and the anger, and this body tackle. Ethan licked Bram’s face, his eyes, his ears, over and over, stunning Bram until he was whining, pleading with Ethan to listen.
As if finally realizing something might be wrong, Ethan moved off and Bram stood, stunned and confused by the fact that the wolves hadn’t yet attacked and Ethan was here . He braced himself for a fight and found…the wolves were gone.
What the fuck? He swerved his gaze towards Ethan, trying to take it in. Had he been imagining things? Was he going crazy? Had the