A shiver raced through Robyn. Something was very wrong or Keil would have simply stopped and faced the wolves. “I’m watching you. What’s up?”
“Someone is trying to pull a fast one on us. If the other challenger to the Alpha position can take me out ahead of time, they can assume leadership. They must think you’re TJ. People knew he was going to Granite with me.”
“Yuck, what an insult. Have they never seen him ski? Wait, what do you mean ‘take you out’? Hell, are they going to attack us?”
Keil continued to ski forward, Robyn narrowing the gap between them as his pace dropped. She slipped a couple of furtive glances toward the trees and spotted some of the wolves darting in and out of the distant tree line.
“Yeah, they’re going to attack. Listen up. They don’t know we’re mates which means they don’t know we can talk like this. That’s to our advantage. If Jack were to do this right, he’d approach me alone and his seconds would stand back and watch. By sneaking up on us out here, I doubt Jack’s planning on obeying any of the rules. If they think you’re TJ, they’re going to assume you’ll fight like him.” Keil paused. “TJ’s a tough wolf, Robyn. I’m guessing they will set two wolves on you.”
“Two wolves? That’s not good odds, Keil, but if we stick together—”
“I want to, but we’d never survive that way. A four against two means they can actually have three against one at times and even I can’t fight that many at once without getting hurt. The thought is killing me, but I’m going to have to leave you for a bit. I’ll attack the two that go after me, get at least one of them out of the picture, then rejoin you. I told you about wolf society and ranking, you’re strong enough to hold them off.”
They skied a bit farther as Robyn fought down her panic.
He was going to leave her and let two wolves attack her. No, that wasn’t true. He was going to trust her to defend herself until he could come back and save them both.
That sounded better. Even if it still made her want to pee her pants.
“Right around this bend the wind usually blows the snow off the lake. The ice will be a better surface for you to stand on to defend yourself. We’ll ski until we get there.”
She didn’t know if she wanted the ski to be over or to go on forever. Finally Keil lifted a hand as if signaling for a rest stop. He shifted his body to face the trees, casually turning her toward him.
Keil undid his clothes while hiding from the view of the trees behind Robyn’s body. A dangerous gleam was in his eyes and an impression of power rolled off him. They might be in a tough place, but Keil was not going to be as easy a target as the others imagined.
“Protect your throat. If they’re close enough to get at your throat, I want you to shove your arm into their mouth. They’ll still be able to snap it and it’ll hurt like hell, but your wolf can heal a busted arm. You can’t regrow your throat.”
Robyn gaped at him. “Love you too, sweetheart. Man, you take your girl on the most romantic dates, don’t you? Any other advice for me, Cujo?”
Keil flashed a grin at her. “Just remember that kicking a wolf in the nuts hurts as much as it does a human.”
“Good to know, hon. So don’t piss me off anymore, okay? What do you expect me to do, other than stand around looking like dinner?”
His answering smile reassured her more than it should have with wolves about to streak across the snow to try to kill her. “I expect you to use your ski poles, your big knife and your tough-as-nails attitude, and kick some butt for me. Ready?”
“You are sexy when you’re all tough. I guess if they think I’m TJ I shouldn’t lean over and plant a big one on your cheek right now, hmmm?”
Keil threw back his head and laughed. His arms reached out and while he kept his eyes on the tree line he kissed her thoroughly. “What a wonderful idea. Now they’re going to be worried about the sneak attack and freaking out watching us. Here they come. By the way, Robyn, I do love you.”
They drew a hands span apart. Robyn watched as Keil threw off his clothes and shifted to his wolf. His silver grey form raced toward the nearest of the wolves on the left. He flew across the snow and she cheered inside as she saw Keil’s huge body slam into the smaller wolf and bowl him over.
Then she couldn’t watch anymore as the wolves on the right closed in on her.
She turned and crouched, making sure that she had a firm grip on her knife. Her pack lay to the side and she made a mental note of its position to avoid tripping over it. Glancing back up toward the trees, she gasped.
“Damn it, you owe TJ an apology. They obviously think he’s tougher than you realized. There are three wolves coming at me.”
“I know. I’ve got three as well. Give me a second. Try and distract them.”
Robyn grit her teeth together. Distract them? “What, you want me to do a cancan dance or something?”
Fear and anger battled within Robyn. It was bad enough Keil was supposed to have to fight in the challenge this weekend. That at least was a time-honoured tradition and involved the values of fair play. This was nothing more than a sneak attack, cowardly and cheap.
She pulled the can of bear spray from her pocket where it had been stored since the start of the trip. One of the rules of the north was to never piss off anything you couldn’t reason with.
Robyn was really pissed off.
She waited until the first wolf was in range, then lunged toward him as she held her breath and coated the beast with pepper spray. A four-second burst was enough and he howled in pain, scratching at his eyes with his paws as he rolled away from the fight, burying his face in the snow.
Dropping her knife and the bear spray, Robyn reached down to grab the straps of her pack. She swung around in a circle then let the pack fly into the next wolf, knocking him off his feet as she quickly retrieved her knife from the ground.
The remaining wolf was looking at her with his head tilted to the side like he was thinking really hard.
Like he was really confused about something.
A quick glance toward Keil showed her he’d taken one wolf to the ground. Keil’s huge silver wolf body connected with another smaller black wolf and the two of them rolled in the snow, scratching at each other’s torsos and necks with their claws.
“Steady, Robyn, I’m on my way. Watch the black wolf on you. He’s Jack’s brother and he’s a mean one. The other wolf will try to distract you, but watch Dan.”
Dan was still on the ground under the pack but he’d lifted his head and was sniffing the air hard. He threw back his head and opened his mouth wide, and Robyn assumed that he was howling. Keil swore.
“Bloody hell. Run to me, NOW!”
Robyn turned, but Dan had regained his feet and lunged.
“I can’t, he’s attacking. What happened?”
“He’s scented that you’re my mate. He just told the others. Damn, I’ve got three on me again. Hold him off, babe, you can do it. He won’t hurt you.”
Robyn heard his anger even in her mind. Following Dan’s cry the other wolf on her had left and he was attacking Keil, three on one. Robyn jumped aside as Dan nipped at her legs. Her backhand swing was too slow to do more than brush her knife against his fur before he withdrew a short way. His wolf eyes mocked her as he herded her away from where her mate continued to fight.
Keil was stronger than any one of the wolves around him, but his attackers teased, dancing out of reach of his claws and teeth.
“What are they doing?”
“They’re trying to drag out the fight, tire me out before Jack even puts in an appearance.”