A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing (Welsh Wolves) Read online

  A Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing

  by Tielle St. Clare

  A Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing

  Ebook Edition

  Copyright © 2013 T. L. Green

  All rights are reserved. This e-book is licensed for individual readership only. No portion of this e-book may be resold or redistributed in any format.

  To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at www.tiellestclare.com

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and events are creations of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Prologue

  “Come out, little Reese.”

  Reese ground his back teeth together, crushing the snarl that lodged in his throat. He hated the sing-song, coaxing voice the doctor used. He wasn’t a child or a puppy.

  From his hiding place under the pile of dirty blankets, he waited, barely allowing himself to breathe, perfectly still, not permitting a single muscle to twitch. Fuck, he was so close. The others—Trevor, Jason and Terry—were counting on him. It had been his plan. They provided the distraction. He would escape and bring back help. Surely there was a pack nearby willing to rescue some fellow wolves held captive by a mad scientist.

  He knew it sounded like a bad horror flick but damn it, it was his life.

  Just a few more steps and he was free. He just had to stay hidden, stay still.

  Somehow they’d tracked him to the laundry room. Or maybe they were just searching every room. Still, they shouldn’t have even known he was missing. Not yet. The others had promised him at least five minutes. That’s all he’d needed. Once he was out of the building, he was pretty damn sure he could make it.

  He opened his mouth and forced his breath slow and silent through his lungs.

  “You’ve been a naughty boy, Reese. You’ll have to be punished.”

  The thought of another punishment sent spasms through his muscles. The jerky motion must have given away his hiding place. Air rushed around him as the doctor pushed the pile of clothes away.

  “There you are. Such a bad boy.”

  Reese came up swinging. His fist connected with the doctor’s jaw. The drugs they gave him stopped him from changing, but the strength of the wolf remained. The doctor’s head snapped back with the force of the blow.

  Reese leapt over the laundry pile and sprinted toward the door, but the two seconds it took for the doctor to recover weren’t enough. He couldn’t outrun the tranquilizer gun. The dart pierced his shoulder. He tried to keep moving, but the fast-acting drug instantly paralyzed his upper body. He stumbled into the door. His hands wouldn’t work for him to open it.

  Within seconds, his legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor.

  He stared up, his eyes locked open as the tranq finally took control.

  The doctor bent over him, shaking his head, the disappointed click of his tongue making Reese’s stomach turn.

  “You had such potential, Reese. You could have been the leader of my pack.”

  Reese tried to growl, but the tranquilizer targeted the wolf as well as the human muscles. The other captives all treated Reese like their Alpha but he would rather be dead than lead this bastard’s make-believe pack.

  “Come on.” The doctor sighed and bent down, hefting Reese over his shoulder. The man was strong. He carried Reese like he weighed nothing. The doctor had created a drug made from werewolf blood. It gave him extra strength. Too bad it also made him bat-shit crazy.

  The color of the room changed to the bright white of the testing lab. A whimper teased the inner lining of his throat, but he couldn’t even make that sound.

  Relief surged through him as the doctor carried him to the table instead of the bench. Whatever his punishment, at least he didn’t have to endure the bastard’s body on top of his, pounding into him.

  The doctor placed Reese in the middle of the table and splayed out his body, locking his wrists and feet into the cuffs.

  The door opened and the familiar scent of the doctor’s assistant, Diana, came in.

  “Reese again?” Diana leaned over him so he could see her. She shook her head, her blond hair swinging around her shoulders. The sympathetic moue of her mouth made his teeth ache. She straightened and pushed her chest out, her breasts straining the buttons of the white blouse she wore, her nipples pressing against the thin fabric.

  The doctor’s eyes flickered over to her tits and he licked his lips.

  Reese didn’t know why Diana hung out with the doctor—he was twenty years older than her and ugly.

  But she stayed and she let him fuck her. Of course, Reese was pretty sure she’d fuck anything. She’d crawled into his cage one night when the doctor was out. Promised Reese extra rations and maybe a chance to escape.

  He didn’t bother to tell her he was gay. It was more fun to reject her.

  Since then, she’d gone out of her way to brutalize him—smiling the whole time.

  She stroked her fingers through his hair and sighed, her eyes sparkling with a wicked pleasure as she stared down at him.

  “I know I shouldn’t be impressed, doctor, but he is a clever beast.”

  “A bit too clever. We must take steps so he doesn’t keep escaping his cage. I don’t have time to chase him down every other day.”

  “What are you going to do?” she asked with a soft laugh. “Lop off one of his feet?” Excitement laced her voice and a vicious eagerness flared in her eyes.

  “Tempting, but no. I need him to be able to shift fully when I command it and still look impressive. A wolf that limps will do me no good. But I think I have the answer. Bring the laser. He doesn’t need his eyes to make the transformation into a wolf and this will keep him from running.”

  “But what good is a blind wolf?” Diana asked. “He’ll be useless.”

  A rough hand slid down his side. “He’ll be good breeding stock. He can still fuck without his eyes.” The fingers gripped his ass. “And be fucked.”

  “Shouldn’t we just gouge them out?” Diana said as she rolled the laser stand across the room, her voice breathless with anticipation. “I thought they healed from any damage.”

  Sadistic bitch.

  “From what I’ve observed of the others, they heal when they make the change back to wolf. I think if we keep him in his human form until his eyes are permanently scarred, then he won’t be able to go back.”

  “Ooh, an experiment.” Diana giggled. “I can’t wait to see the results.” She patted Reese on his head and smiled down into his eyes. “Isn’t science fun?”

  Light and pain pierced his brain. He remembered screaming but nothing beyond that until waking up in his cage, his body locked in human form.

  Spasms ripped through Reese’s body as his wolf fought to transform, but the inhibitor they’d given him was too strong. The animal inside him panicked and the wolf howled, rattling the inside of Reese’s brain with the noise.

  He stared at the blank white space that filled his vision, hoping that as he moved his head the picture would change, that something besides white would appear.

  “Sh, it’s okay, I’m here.” Jason’s voice floated from the cage next to his. The other werewolf petted Reese’s hand through the bars. “I’m so sorry that this happened, but I told you what would happen if you tried to escape.”

  Jason was a good kid, but he was terrified. Reese had passed terror months ago and was ready to die to get out of this place.

  “I’m here,” Jason whispered again. “Everything will be okay. We’re together and everything will be fine now.”

  The comfort lulled
Reese into a kind of trance. His vision remained blank, but picture after picture crossed through his brain—and they all ended with the doctor, bleeding out at Reese’s feet.

  * * * * *

  Reese had to wait about a year. He’d spent the time learning to rely on his other senses. Jason was there for him, supporting him, helping him. But despite Jason’s pleas, Reese hadn’t given up hope of escaping. He knew he couldn’t make it out. His vision had healed in a strange way. He couldn’t “see” in the traditional sense but he saw heat signatures, almost auras. It allowed him to track living creatures but he was useless around inanimate objects. No, he couldn’t escape, but he could make it possible for one of the others to get free.

  The opportunity had finally come and Reese had created a distraction that had lured all the guards from their posts and Trevor was gone.

  Three days had passed and all Reese could do was hope.

  Jason moved within his cage, whimpering as he shifted.

  Reese looked at his friend. Reese had been learned to interpret the colors of the auras. Right now, Jason’s blazed with puke yellow and red.

  “You okay?”

  “No,” Jason said. “They hurt me.” The pout behind his words made Reese’s chest ache.

  “I know.” The doctor had taken it out on the others when they had discovered Trevor was gone.

  “This is your fault,” Jason accused. “Why couldn’t you just behave? All you had to do—”

  Jason continued on the familiar tirade, but Reese ignored it. A strange scent hit his nose—like gasoline and lighter fluid.

  “Shut up,” Reese snapped. “Guys, I think this might be it. Be ready.”

  He heard the clicking of locks. Reese had figured out how to pick the locks on their cages and taught the others.

  “We shouldn’t,” Jason said, but still he moved, crawling toward the front of his cage. “They’ll just punish us.”

  The others—three more wolves had been brought in during the past year—ignored Jason’s whining.

  “Reese,” Terry called in a low voice. “I’ll come guide you.”

  “No. Get yourselves out. We’ll meet up later.”

  “But how will you—?“

  “I’ll be fine,” he said. He didn’t expect to make it out alive, but that didn’t matter. He was going after the doctor. “Just get yourselves free.”

  * * * * *

  Reese stood over the body. The last heartbeat had occurred almost two minutes ago so he was pretty sure the bastard was dead. Considering the amount of blood pooling around Reese’s bare feet, there was no way the doctor could be alive, but he wasn’t taking any chance on a resurrection.

  Reese swung his foot out and kicked the body.

  How’s that for useless, you bastard?

  “Oh, I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Reese’s head snapped up at the new, unfamiliar voice. A shadow passed through the blank white of his vision. He blinked and let his eyes focus. Colors developed, the full rainbow spectrum. Whoever was standing there had a lot of energy inside him.

  Humans had little. Werewolves had a lot, usually emanating in bright reds and oranges.

  The newcomer was clearly a werewolf and not one of the others kept in the cages.

  “Who are you?” he demanded, standing up to his full height.

  “I’m here to rescue you, though from the looks of it, you don’t need any help.”

  “Rescue?”

  “Yes, a wolf came to us a couple of days ago, told us what was happening and we knew we had to stop it.”

  Reese nodded. Seems Trevor found some friends. “Who’s ‘we’?” Reese asked.

  “Me and...others.” The young werewolf—because even without his sight, Reese could tell the pup wasn’t much past his majority—groaned. “Blech. Yeah, we need to go or I’m going to be sick all over that dead thing...and they’ve wired the building to blow up so we should really get moving.”

  Explosions? The kid must have some high-powered friends.

  Reese nodded and took a step toward the door. His foot slipped in the blood and he dropped to one knee.

  “Okay, yech. Uhm...”

  Reese reached out, flailing for the operating table to leverage himself up.

  “Oh, wow. You’re blind. That guy mentioned you. The others said to leave you behind because what good is a blind—” The kid stopped. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. They’re right.”

  “Here, let me help you.” The voice was closer now.

  “I can do it.” Reese hated the thought that anyone had to help him with simple tasks.

  “I’m sure you can because, well, you did a great—” The pup choked on the word. “—job on him.”

  Reese’s lips curled up into what he knew had to be an evil smile. Even without use of his eyes he’d torn the doctor’s throat open and sliced through the femoral artery with the doctor’s own scalpel. Reese wasn’t taking any chances on the bastard coming back.

  The doctor might have given himself injections of werewolf blood, but not even a full-blooded werewolf could survive every drop of blood being drained from its body.

  “Is everyone else out?” he asked.

  “I think so. Cages are empty. It looks like we’re the last ones and we’d better go.” Panic painted the edges of the kid’s voice.

  “What about the assistant?” Reese asked.

  It was strange. He could “see” the hesitation in the other man’s aura.

  “Uhm, there isn’t anyone else in the building. What’s he look like?”

  “It’s a she and you can’t miss her.” Tall, blond and a royal bitch. But Reese kept that description to himself.

  “Didn’t see any females.”

  “Fuck!”

  “Yeah, always a possibility, but we’re in a bit of a time crunch. I really don’t want to be inside the building when it explodes.” He grabbed Reese under the arm. “How about you?”

  “No. I’ve had enough of this place.” Though at one time he’d thought it would be his grave, he let the young wolf guide him out of the lab, up the stairs. The whisper of fresh air urged him forward. He didn’t know how long he’d been in that lab, but the scent of antiseptic seemed permanently burned into his nose.

  Light scratched his eyes. The lab had been well lit, but it had been man-made, not natural sun. Pain or not, this was the first time he’d “seen” the sun in a hell of a long time.

  Reese stopped at the top of the steps, took a breath and tipped his head back, savoring that first moment of freedom.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  Reese looked toward his escort. The colors in the kid’s body had changed, burning deeper, almost a blood red.

  “What?”

  “Those bastards left us.”

  “What?!”

  “Come on. We’d better keep moving.” He yanked Reese’s arm and dragged him along. It was harder going since the ground wasn’t a smooth tiled floor, but Reese just picked up his feet and trusted the kid wouldn’t lead him into any ditches.

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean they left us? Your pack?”

  “They weren’t my pack.”

  Reese could hear the disgust in the kid’s voice.

  “They were just some guys who let me stay with them in exchange for sucking them off occasionally.”

  “Oh.” Reese hadn’t been expecting that. “And they left you behind.”

  “Yeah.” The kid sighed. “I’m guessing I was supposed to take the blame for this.”

  They stopped and Reese was left standing alone though the other wolf didn’t go far.

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, I doubt they expected you to try to rescue me.”

  Silence echoed through the space.

  “Probably. Wow, nice guys, huh? You were expected to die and I’m the fall guy. I can really pick my friends.”

  He heard the clunk of a car door shutting, then more creaks.

  “What are you doing?”
r />   “I have this kind of luck with people. They don’t like me for long and when they want to get rid of me, they really want to get rid of me.”

  The kid didn’t sound overly concerned.

  “But—” The kid continued. “I’ve learned never to let yourself get stranded.” Metal clanked on metal. “And people don’t steal cars when they can’t start them.”

  It took Reese a moment to realize what was going on. The pup had disabled his own car on the chance that someone would try to steal it.

  He couldn’t help but admire that kind of forethought.

  A few more sounds—like twisting caps to pipes—and the hood dropped down with a clunk.

  “Here.” The pup took his arm and strangely Reese didn’t flinch at the sudden contact. “Let’s get you ready to go.”

  Without his vision, Reese had to trust. The colors glowing from the other werewolf were bright and bold, almost innocent.

  The kid guided him forward and Reese ran his hands along the top of what was obviously an older car, something out of the Seventies if his spatial senses were correct.

  “Here.”

  Material was thrust into his hands.

  “We can’t do anything about the blood, but you being naked will be really hard to explain if the police stop us.”

  Reese’s cheeks burned. He’d forgotten that he was naked. Their bodies hadn’t belonged to them. They hadn’t been allowed clothes.

  “Climb in. You can dress as we drive.”

  The kid left Reese on his own to find his way into the passenger seat.

  The overwhelming scent of the pup flooded the car as he plopped down in the seat beside Reese.

  “I’m not the best driver, but I’m assuming I’m better than a blind guy, so, I’m going.”

  Reese couldn’t stop his smile.

  “Go for it.”

  The car engine gunned. Gravel sprayed from the tires and Reese grabbed the door handle, holding himself in place as the kid barreled down the road.

  His brain spun inside his skull, but Reese maintained his control. A heavy thud pulsed against the car windows, but the speed never slowed.