Page 21 of Taken By The Wolves (Blackwood Forest #2)

NIXON

I’m in the yard, sweeping up after unpacking the morning delivery, when I catch sight of the truck creeping up the drive. Finn’s behind the wheel, and Scarlet is perched beside him with her wild red hair forming a luminous halo against the washed-out sky.

My heart thuds at the sight of her, relief pouring through me.

I hadn’t even realized how tightly I’d been wound until now.

Leaving her in bed this morning was the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long time, and being separated from her is a torture I couldn’t have endured for much longer.

She’s the fire I’ve been craving, and the missing piece I can no longer do without.

Then a scent hits me, sharp and foreign. A wolf, not of our pack. My shoulders lock, every nerve ending razor-edged with instinct. My wolf surges beneath my skin, furious and territorial. Has someone touched her? Claimed her? Brought her back marked with another pack’s scent like a brand?

The shift claws at me, hot and wild, begging to surface. I shut my eyes, grip my rage by the throat, and force it down into bone. Now is not the time.

The truck stops. Finn climbs out, rounds the vehicle, and opens Scarlet’s door. She swings her legs out slowly, cradling something in her arms. My gaze drops, and the rest of the world vanishes.

A baby.

A tiny naked baby, vulnerable, skin damp and flushed. It’s a little girl with red hair and a Cupid’s bow mouth, so perfect she looks like a cherub in an oil painting.

But it reeks of wolf.

Not our pack.

The animal in me stills.

I step forward as Finn guides Scarlet toward me. She meets my gaze, those green-gold eyes bright with fierce determination. This is not the shaken woman we pulled from the woods days ago. This is my mate. My strong, vibrant, beautiful mate.

Reed steps through the warehouse door behind me, his entire body going taut, senses lashing like whip cords in the direction of that scent. He smells it, too.

Where has this baby come from, and why does it smell like it’s been curled up with a wolf?

Finn straightens. “Let’s go inside. We need to talk.”

Scarlet shifts the baby in her arms. She looks at me like she’s already made a choice and is daring me to have something to say about it.

I step aside, gesturing toward the office. Reed follows, his brow tight, his fists balled, his wolf ready. We move in silence that pulses with questions.

The baby sleeps, belly rising with every tiny inhale.

My gaze locks with Scarlet’s. “Where did you find her?” My voice is quiet, but the edges are sharp as wolf claws. Tell me the truth.

Scarlet tugs the baby closer and meets my eyes. My brothers are watching, waiting, but right now, it’s me who needs answers.

“She was in the woods,” Finn says, his voice low. “Alone. Whimpering. But she didn’t look like this when we found her.”

I straighten, bracing for more. “What do you mean?”

Finn shifts uncomfortably, his hand scrubbing the back of his neck. “It was a wolf. Small. It shifted.”

The air cools around us. Even the dust motes seem to pause, suspended in light. Reed swears. I don’t move.

He said it.

Out loud.

In front of Scarlet.

The secret we’ve kept buried. The truth we’ve shielded Scarlet from since the first moment she stumbled into our world.

I stare at him, eyes wide, waiting for an explanation, but instead, he meets my gaze with grim finality.

My mind spins. Not because he spoke freely, though that’s a problem all on its own, but because what he’s saying is impossible.

Female.

My eyes drop back to the sleeping child, her fingers curled, her lips parted, totally at peace.

Females don’t shift.

Except sometimes… they do.

Rare cases. Freak occurrences. The kind of stories whispered at firesides, about one in a generation. Myths and legends. Worshipped and feared. Because a female shifter, if she lives, is a miracle.

“She smells of Aura,” Finn says. “The scent is weak, but it’s there.”

The name slices like a blade to the gut. “Aura? Gregory’s mate?”

“Yes.”

“No. She was—” I trail off. Everyone knows what happened to Aura.

Gregory took her violently and claimed her before she was ready, binding her by force.

She survived the bite, but not the aftermath.

A rival pack attacked. She was violated and left for dead.

At least, that was the version of the story that drifted from wolf to wolf.

Then again, wolf whispers are notoriously unreliable.

I swallow the bile rising in my throat.

“She had a child?”

“She must have,” Finn says. “And left her here.”

My stomach knots.

“Abandoned her? This miracle child was left to die in the woods.”

Reed shifts closer, brows drawn low. “And Scarlet found her.”

I close my eyes. This isn’t our business. This isn’t our war. Gregory is a tyrant, but he’s an alpha with allies. Interfere with his pack, and we invite a blood feud. We’ve worked too hard to keep peace in Blackwood.

“This isn’t our business,” I say, because I have to say it. I have to be the one who sees the whole board, even if it means sacrificing the piece everyone else wants to protect.

Scarlet stands taller, the baby tucked to her chest like she’d fight to the death for her already.

“It’s my business now,” she says. Her tone is soft, but every syllable lands with determination.

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” I tell her, stepping back. “Wait here.”

I nod toward the door, and Reed and Finn follow, silent and tense. Scarlet’s voice trails behind us, low but firm enough to echo against the glass walls:

“We have to take her to the authorities. They’ll know what to do…”

I pull the door closed, filling the narrow hallway with our quiet tension.

Outside, the morning sun warms the dew from the leaves and grass. Reed shifts on his feet. Finn turns to me, anguish twisting his expression.

“We have four options,” I say, voice even but tense. “First, we take the cub back to the woods. Let nature decide her fate.”

Finn looks away. No one speaks.

“Second, we let Scarlet take her to the authorities,” I continue. “And risk exposing everything.”

“Third, we find the mother and return the child,” Reed says quietly. “But we risk getting involved with a volatile pack.”

I swallow hard and press on. “Fourth, we tell Scarlet the truth. About who we are. About what she’s seen. And pray she chooses to stay.”

Reed exhales sharply. “You’re seriously considering that?”

Finn’s voice is quiet. “We crossed a line with her last night. Made her trust us. Took things further than we should have. She gave herself to us. We showed her what life could be if she were our mate.”

“And we gave ourselves to her,” I say. “It’s already done. Now we owe her the truth.”

“But that doesn’t affect the child,” Reed says. “That child… It’s a miracle.”

“It is.”

I rub my stubbled jaw.

“What are we choosing here?” Reed asks. “The baby? Or the woman?”

I meet his eyes.

I close my eyes. My wolf claws at me from the inside, roaring to claim my mate and only protect what’s mine. But my heart, the human part, pushes back.

I open my eyes and square my shoulders. “We’re choosing both. You remember what Mom used to say about the goddess… that she had her ways and that questioning them was a sure way to turn fate away from your favor.”

“And Dad used to say that the goddess was wily and liked to test us, and it was up to us to use our free will to decide our own paths,” Reed reminds me.

I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. “Aura knows that Blackwood Forest is our territory. She ventured into rival territory, risking herself to leave the baby where we’d find it. She didn’t want it to die. She wanted us to find it.”

Finn sighs. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

“So what?” Reed’s usual humor is replaced by stress and tension.

“She thinks we’ll be great daddies? Gregory can’t want that child…

the way it was created…” He shakes his head, lines bracketing his mouth.

“So, we’re supposed to raise it alone. Scarlet’s leaving unless we can convince her otherwise.

This baby isn’t guaranteed a new momma with its three daddies. ”

Finn snorts. “I’m trying to imagine Nixon changing diapers.”

“You think I can’t?”

He shrugs. “This morning started out spectacularly, but it’s taken a weird turn.”

“You think the goddess wants us to raise this baby… this female?”

“I don’t know. But what I do know is the woman in there is waiting for us to tell her what this is all about. Whether it’s the right time or not, we have to tell her about the world she’s stumbled into. Then, we work out what to do next together.”

I inhale deeply. The weight of legacy, of pack politics, and all the complexities of being a shifter in a human world sits heavily on my shoulders. But so does the need to protect what we’re building with our mate and find a way to handle a child that is a gift to the world, even if it isn’t ours.

Scarlet’s already claimed more of my heart than I thought any mate ever could. And, from the way she’s looking at that cub, I think she’s lost her heart, too.

“Let’s go.”

I lead the way back inside, ready to face whatever comes next.

Everything we’ve been hoping and dreaming about is now at stake. I don’t know what Scarlet will choose when she learns the truth of who and what we are, but I know this: the goddess is watching us now, and whatever she wants will come to pass.