Fire Wolf: CINAED (New Scotia Pack Book 3) (11 page)

“My people have
very
good noses.”

“Then we’ll leave here. I have other places to stay. Places no one else has
ever
found.”

Starfire’s fear began to creep back in. Only she’d exchanged the fear of being eaten for the fear of being kept against her will and forcefully mated by another species.

“I don’t want to stay,” she said quietly, hoping to get across that he wouldn’t be ‘content’ if he kept her.

“You will. After a time.” He nodded as if his will could make it so.

When Ken found the ledge where they had fought the bear, he inched toward the edge of the drop off being careful of his foothold because of the loose snow. The rock face plummeted into a narrow valley below, the sort that turned winter snow melt into a deadly current for any unfortunate enough to get caught unaware.

He looked to the right and left without spotting a route that looked passable. It seemed the odds were even as to which way to go. His grim thought was that a coin toss would have worked as well as any other method of choice. If he’d been in human form he might have laughed about the fact that there were many residents of Lunark who’d never seen a coin, didn’t know what it was, and would have been baffled by an explanation of money.

With no indication that one way would be better than the other, he turned to his left and ran northward as fast as he could, berating himself every step of the way for not acknowledging what Starfire meant to him when it would have been easy to do. Searching in solitude had given him enough time to recognize he’d been denying that Star was his mate, hurting both her and him in the process. He had a lot to make up for and hoped he’d have the chance to do it. If not, he’d follow her into the next world. Happily. There he would find her and make amends.

When he came to a forest that covered a steep slope running down to the valley floor below, he decided it might be the only way down. He knew that if he lost his footing, he could only fall as far as the next tree. It was either that or look for another route and he’d run out of time to do that.

As soon as he stepped off the plateau the snow went out from under his feet and he went into a skid. As predicted, his fall was stopped by the first tree he hit. It caused him to yelp out loud because it jarred his broken ribs. Half an hour, thirty trees, and many new bruises later, he lay panting on level ground in the shadow of rock walls looming on either side.

When his breathing began to even out, he winced and whined as he struggled to stand. It was almost dark, but he hoped to at least get as far as the spot below the plateau, the site where Starfire would have fallen.

The weather had warmed and the snow was melting which meant that it would turn to ice as soon as the sun went behind the mountain.

“None of that matters,” Starfire said, “because I have a mate.”

She blurted that out omitting the next sentence which was, “He just doesn’t know it.”

Brandish looked agitated. “No doubt he’ll be sorry to lose you. But he’ll get over it in time. There are others of your kind for him to choose from.”

Not the response she was hoping for.

“I’ll run as soon as I get a chance.”

Without shifting he extended claws from his right hand, a skill that was both fascinating and terrifying. Wolves could either shift or not. They couldn’t manifest certain features of their alter form at will.

“Not if I cut the tendons on your back legs.”

Starfire gasped. “At the moment I don’t have back legs. I just have legs. And you wouldn’t do that to me.” She knew that was a combination of hope and bluster, but hoped her tone would force him to take that option out of his menu of possibilities. “Would you?”

After staring for several seconds he sighed and retracted his claws. “Probably not. I’d like you to decide to stay.”

“I know that’s what you want, but it’s not going to happen. Look I really appreciate that you picked me up when I was injured and brought me to your, um, here. But I don’t belong with you.”

“You could. I know you’re attracted to me. And I am certainly attracted to you.” His eyes skated over her as if to punctuate that declaration.

She gripped the knot on the blanket sarong tighter. “I won’t deny that you have a certain appeal but that’s because of your beauty and the growly way you talk to me when you’re thinking about mating. But recognizing your appeal is not the same thing as choosing you for a mate.”

“It could be.”

“No, Brand! It could
not
be! I. Have. A. Mate already. And I’m not going to simply give him up and forget about him.”

Brandish narrowed his eyes. “Maybe he’s already forgotten about you.”

Star felt that comment like an arrow to the heart knowing that was probably true.

In the last rays of light before the valley was cast into darkness, Ken felt the gratification of victory when he found a hint of Star’s scent under the melting snow. Blood frozen into ice. He sniffed, then licked and whined because it was the physical proof that she was hurt, if not dead. But the good news was that there was no body nor any remains.

There was little time to revel in that newfound hope because, within seconds, he picked up the scent of the mountain lion. A growl erupted from deep in his throat. If the lion had killed Starfire, Ken would tear out its throat even if the thing shredded the last vestige of flesh from his body in the process. As darkness overcame his ability to search, he grudgingly gave up for the night, curled up next to the wall, nose to tail, and closed his eyes.

Exhaustion overcame both his injuries and his anxiety about Star. He slept, but his sleep was full of fitful dreams of Starfire’s sparkling eyes and sensuous smile freezing in fear at the scream of an unseen mountain lion, hidden in the forest.

He was awake at the first sign of light. The stream by which he slept had swollen and grown a resistant current. Its babbling meant that the sun was rapidly melting snow and ice up higher away from the shadows of the valley.

Picking up the trail where he’d left off the night before, he added hunger to his body’s long list of complaints that he was determined to ignore. He hadn’t caught Star’s scent once after he’d found where her body came to rest after the fall. He was tracking the lion instead, although his scent had become confused. The smell had traces of the lion, but was different. Whatever it was, it was Ken’s only hope.

So he was going to hunt it down if it was the last thing he ever did.

And at that moment, his mind was echoing the fact that it could
easily
turn out to be the last thing he ever did.

He ran back and forth when the lion’s scent disappeared before crossing the gurgling stream to confirm that he’d most likely pick up the trail again after crossing the water. The water was only as high as his haunches, but running across created splashing that soaked his fur. He stopped long enough to shake off the excess water, but didn’t let the bone-chilling cold keep him from moving forward, nose to the ground, until he found the lion’s trail again.

An hour later Ken came to an arched door set into the side of a smooth rock wall. He cocked his head and stared at it. It was so utterly out of place in the wilderness that he wondered if he was hallucinating.

His eyes focused on the fact that the door had a latch, but did not appear to have a lock. He waited until he was directly in front of the door before making a painful shift into human form. He pulled the latch and opened the door without having any idea what he might find beyond.

It would be hard to say who was most surprised of the three shifters. Brand shifted immediately and let out a snarl that was blood-curdling. Likewise, Ken shifted involuntarily and bared his own fangs. Star was terrified that Brandish would attack Cinaed and end the dispute in one mighty swipe of a lethal and powerful clawed paw so, without thinking, she rushed between them while still in human form.

Brand pulled back, his lip still curled above his fangs, but he withdrew far enough to make it plain he wasn’t going to take a chance on hurting Starfire in her fragile skin.

“Brandish.” Her tone was an odd mixture of scolding and cajoling. “Please shift so we can have a conversation.” Brand let out a long low growl of resistance making it clear that he didn’t appreciate that suggestion. “Come on. I told you my people would come looking for me.”

Brand shifted. “Is this him?” he demanded, raising his chin at Ken to indicate the interloping male wolf challenging him in his own den. Never mind the fact that he was attempting to poach another shifter’s mate, or so he’d been told.

Star’s face heated with embarrassment when she realized she might have to admit in front of Cinaed that she’d claimed to be mated. To him. Her mother told her that lies or half-truths always had a way of catching up with a person.

She couldn’t back out of the lie at that point without endangering both herself
and
Cinaed.

“Yes. It’s him.”

Brand’s eyes flashed and he growled again. Even though he was in human form his voice was that of a big cat, which was unsettling in the most disturbing way. “She’s mine. You can’t have her.”

Ken shifted to human form. Without taking his eyes away from the lion shifter, he said, “Are ye alright, Star?”

“Yes. Brandish found me and brought me here. He probably saved my life. The problem is that he’s, um, looking for a mate and isn’t particular about species.”

Ken’s gaze jerked to Star and back to Brand. “If ‘tis jokin’, ‘tis no’ funny.”

Brand looked at Star. “Why is he talking like that? Does he have a speech impediment?”

“No, he does not have a speech impediment,” she said, feeling defensive on Ken’s behalf. “And you, yourself, have a funny accent.”

“First, that’s rude and, second, I do not.” Brand was indignant.

“You do. I’m not saying your speech is unpleasant to the ear, but it is a fact.”

“Even if I did have an accent, it wouldn’t be
funny
.”

“Alright.” She nodded. “Funny was the wrong choice of word. Your accent is quite romantic.”

His eyes glittered as his beautiful mouth formed a slow grin. “Does that mean that…”

“No. It only means that any female
lion
shifter who isn’t blind would find you appealing.” Ken’s gaze jerked to her once again and he narrowed his eyes, but she continued nonetheless. “She might even beg to stay and make you feel
content
.”

“Star…” Ken began.

With the immediate crisis passed she noticed all the bruises on his body for the first time.

“You’re hurt. Sit down.”

“If you’re not staying,’ Brand said to Star, “this is not your home, which means you have no right to offer hospitality. And I don’t want him here. The whole place will smell like wolf.”

“You were more than willing to have the place smell like wolf when you were trying to get me to stay. So stop it,” she said. “Help me take care of him and we’ll figure out some way to help you.”

He stopped grumbling and looked curious. “Like what?”

“First let’s have a civil introduction. This is Cinaed.”

“An odd name.”

“Oh for crying out loud, Brandish. Stop trying to antagonize Cinaed. He has powerful connections.”

“What does that mean?” Brand said.

“It means he knows people who can perform feats of magick, even move people - or shifters - from one world to another.”

Brand scoffed. “Folky stories. There’s no such thing as another world.”

“There are lots of other worlds. I came from one,” she said.

“Star. I don’t think we should…” Ken began.

“Shhhh,” she said.

Brandish cocked his head and appeared to be appraising Star for the likelihood that she was telling the truth.