When he’s whisked away from Manhattan and summoned to his father’s Long Island estate on a weekday, James Tetherington knows he isn’t there to get good news, but still he’s surprised when his father insists James leave New York and return to Milligan Island, a place James has not been since he was a boy. Not only is James commanded to return, but he’s also told to solve a war between two Wolf packs, one he must lead and the other one he must subdue or destroy. As for the witches on the island, his father says it’s time for them to go.
Chase Howard hasn’t been to Milligan Island since his father died a few years earlier, but when his coven has visions of him making peace between the two Wolf factions on the island, he knows it’s time to return. As a strong and powerful witch, Chase has never been scared of Wolves, but on his first night back to the island, when a wounded Wolf gets through a ward that’s held for centuries, Chase is forced to rethink his ideas. Chase soon finds himself nursing the gorgeous Wolf man back to health and protecting him from an island full of Wolves who seem to want him dead. Unfortunately, saving this Wolf may kill every chance Chase has to broker peace on the island.
Although James and Chase may not know exactly what they want to happen on Milligan Island, they do know there’s an attraction between them neither man can battle. With angry Wolves and mysterious men in silver coats following them about, can James and Chase find a way to protect the island, or will it all disappear in the wind like a Chesapeake howl?
Chase placed the glass next to the man on the table, and then walked behind the man and tried to slowly lift the stranger’s torso and head. The man was heavy, but Chase was strong. He wrapped his arms around the man from behind, and then pushed his own chest into the man’s back to support him.
“Just think of me as your chair,” Chase said, thinking that it might be a little unkind to wake the injured man with sarcasm.
The big stranger mumbled as Chase lifted him.
“I know you’re hurt and tired,” Chase whispered to him. “I need you to just drink a little something for me.”
Chase could feel the man stir a little, and he felt the stranger’s body tense upon waking.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Chase whispered in his calmest voice, as he brought his lips near the man’s ear. “I just want you to drink this. I need to clean you, and it will take the pain away and help you rest.”
The man tried to nod his head, and Chase felt the other man’s body relax a little. Chase reached around the man’s chest and grabbed the glass. Slowly, he brought the glass to the man’s lips. The stranger’s torso was large and muscular and Chase had a hard time maneuvering around it. He wanted to see the man’s face, but instead, he could only feel it with his hand. The man did not take a sip, so Chase moved his own fingers around the man’s face until he was sure his fingers were on the man’s lips.
“Please open up for me,” Chase whispered into the man’s ear as he moved his fingers over the man’s lips.
Chase traced the man’s lips, and then moved his finger in between them. He felt the man open for him, and he felt the man grab his finger in his mouth.
Chase laughed for a second.
“Oh, no. Not that,” he said, quickly moving the glass to the man’s mouth.
The man’s mouth had been warm, and Chase tried to forget that as he felt the man drink.
“Good job,” Chase said. “Now see if you can finish this. It really will help you, buddy.”
Chase smiled as felt the man’s hand reach up and join his own on the glass. The man pushed the glass, and their hands, up, until he had finished drinking. He put the glass down, but kept his hand on Chase’s. He squeezed Chase’s hand.
“You’re going to be okay, buddy,” Chase said.
As he felt the man relax into him, Chase almost fell over. This man was almost already out, and this drink would help get him the rest of the way. Chase could feel the man lose consciousness again, and he slowly backed away from behind him, as he lowered the stranger onto the table.
Chase put one of the other herbs he had gathered into the mortar and pestle, and ground it up. When he was done, he tossed it into the pot of water over the fire. While the herb was doing its magic in the water, Chase decided to do his own outside.
The fact that the man was injured so badly, and that not one of the other Wolves was out there screaming to get him back, bothered Chase. Had that whole group of Wolves come after this one Wolf? Is that why the Wolf had come running past the stones?
The fact that the man had made it this far sincerely bothered Chase. The Wolves of Milligan Island had always had a healthy respect for the witches of the island. It was the kind of healthy respect that one had for a lion, or a shark. They knew not to fuck with them, and no one had bothered to forget that respect for many generations.
Aside from that respect though, there still should have been no way any of those Wolves made it past the stones. Those stones had been used for that same purpose for centuries, and tonight Chase had reinforced that energy himself. When those rocks were in formation, they were meant to keep anything negative away. And they had. At least until tonight. Somehow or another this Wolf had gotten through, and Chase was not sure why.
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