Fire Wolf: CINAED (New Scotia Pack Book 3) (9 page)

Suddenly everything, even the irate bear, quieted at the sound of the mountain lion’s scream. She stopped, looked away, raised her muzzle, sniffed the air and then loped off toward the forest. Having heard the cat, the cubs were standing on their hind legs and braying for her. They followed her deeper into the forest when she loped away favoring the side that Starfire hadn’t injured.

With the battle over and snow falling faster every minute, the world turned eerily quiet. All sound was absorbed by a blanket of white except for the wind that was beginning to gust and was already blowing snow into drifts.

Redruff shifted to better take a look at Ken, first feeling for a heartbeat. “He’s alive,” she said. Pulling back his eyelids, she added, “I’m no healer, but he might have a concussion.” She gingerly felt his legs and ribs. “I can’t tell for sure if anything’s broken without being able to ask him.” The only blood showing was from claw marks on his shoulder, but they weren’t deep. The bear must have caught him mostly with the pads of her paw.

Loper was at the edge of the cliff looking over. He shifted and said, “I can’t see Star. It’s a long way down there. It could take us most of a day to find a way.”

Brack whined.

“Ruff, stay with Ken. Brack, you and I are going after Star.”

Brack shifted. “Going after Star? Are you crazy? This is a fucking blizzard coming. If the bear doesn’t get us, the snow will. If the snow doesn’t get us, the lion will.”

Loper stared at Brack. “Star went down fighting for the pack. You want to just leave her out there? She could be alive.”

“She
may
be alive, but we’re
definitely
alive.” He looked down at Ken and said, “So’s he. We can save ourselves and him. Maybe. Or we can all die trying to find a female who’s probably lost already.”

As much as Loper hated to admit it, Brack made sense. Seeing Loper’s hesitation, he pressed his case forward. “We need to make a stretcher for Ken and hightail it home.”

Loper turned to Redruff. “You agree?”

“I don’t want to agree, but I don’t really see the choice. If we make a stretcher, like Brack said, and carry Ken, four of us may survive. If we go after Star, between the snow, the bear, the lion, and the fact that there are just three of us… Well, it’d be suicide.”

Loper’s shoulders sagged. He didn’t like the logical conclusion and liked his choices even less. He wished Ken wasn’t the one who was unconscious, so that he’d be taking responsibility for the decision.

“Let’s find two limbs to make a stretcher and do it fast. We need to get out of here before it gets worse. We’re going to have to do this by travois and take turns pulling it in wolf form. We don’t have shoes and our feet will get frostbit if we don’t shift. I’ll take the first turn.”

They found the limbs they needed, made a stretcher from clothes in the packs, and tied the travois to Loper’s pack. Brack and Redruff picked Ken up and laid him across the stretched clothing. Luckily it held his weight.

The pull was a struggle, but with a series of whines and a bark Loper was able to move forward slowly.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Starfire’s vision was a little blurry and matched the woozy feeling she had when she woke. She was on a bed of sorts, more like a feather mattress on the floor, but she was covered with soft blankets and furs. She was in a medium sized room with rock walls and a curved rock ceiling, turned on her side facing a fireplace that appeared to be carved out of rock. The light from the fire danced with shadows on the walls and ceilings and formed patterns that looked like something out of a dream.

She was trying to make sense of her surroundings when she remembered what had happened. The bear had knocked her off the cliff. For a minute she’d thought she was going to be able to scrabble her way to purchase on the first ledge she hit, but the snow was too slippery and she fell. She remembered some of the beating she took rolling down the side of the mountain. As she tried to stretch her body she found that everything hurt.

Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention. A man walked toward her with an uncommon grace. He wore a loose twill shirt, doeskin pants, and was barefoot. Because the light in the room was behind him she couldn’t see his face. He appeared to be in his thirties, early thirties maybe, with tawny-colored hair cut to just below his ears.

“Who are you?” she said. “Where am I?”

“Ah, sweet wolf. You wake,” he said in a timbre that suggested seduction. “I’m Brandish. And I’m very glad to have you as my guest.”

“Your guest?” Star said as she learned that trying to sit up made her head hurt even worse than the rest of her.

Brandish pushed her shoulders gently urging her to lie back down. “Be still. You’ve been injured. You’re safe here, but not entirely well.”

The cadence and octave of his speech was pacifying.

“I fell.”

“Yes.”

“You found me and brought me here.”

“Yes.”

“I have to go. My companions will be looking for me.”

“They won’t be looking for you for a while. The snowfall is too heavy and covering your scent.”

“Oh. Who are you?”

He chuckled softly. “You asked already.”

“I know your name. Brandish. I mean to ask if you live by yourself or with a group of, um, humans?”

“Humans? No. I live alone.”

He laughed soft and low and as he did he turned his face toward the fire so that she could see him clearly. She barely suppressed a gasp seeing his features for the first time. He was, perhaps, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. Strong features. Perfect skin. Full lips. And yellow-green eyes that glittered, reflecting both the firelight and a light from within.

She took in a breath a little too quickly and he caught the reaction.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“You’re not human.”

“Neither are you, sweet wolf.”

“Stop calling me that. It makes me nervous.”

“Why?”

“For one thing because you don’t know whether I’m sweet or not.”

He smiled. “Are you hungry?”

She thought about it for a second. “Maybe. Depends on what you’re offering.”

“I have meat. Cooked meat.”

“What kind?”

“Deer.”

“Okay.” She looked around. “Are we in a cave?”

“It’s my home. Call it what you want.”

The floor was covered with a large woven rug, colorful with an intricate pattern.

“This is a nice rug. Where did you get it?”

“The market.”

“The market?”

“You repeat what I say a lot.”

“Okay. Let’s talk about your name. Does it mean something?”

He smiled. “You can call me Brand.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“My mother said I move my tail aggressively.”

He put some meat in a skillet and set it on the fire. It immediately filled the space with a heavenly aroma that made her stomach growl.

“Well. There’s a clue. So you’re a shifter with a tail.”

“Yes.”

“But not a wolf. Obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“So where’s the market?”

“The villages on the other side of the mountains.”

“Human villages?”

“Mostly. There are shifters, too.”

“How many? What kind? What sort of animal are you?”

He pulled off his shirt, let his pants drop to the ground, and in a flurry of magic Brand’s striking human countenance melted into an even more beautiful panther with huge paws, a sleek tawny coat that was darker on the ridge of his back, and tufts in his ears that looked more like a wildcat than a puma.

The transformation scared Starfire so badly that she flew into a tizzy of fury and confusion and shifted involuntarily, standing on top of the mattress on all fours, every hair on her body spiked making her look bigger than usual. She snarled and lunged forward, but the cat simply watched unfazed, swishing his tail back and forth.

He blinked slowly, looking sleepy, then blurred into the shape of a man and stood tall.

“Settle, little one,” he said. “I won’t harm you.”

Starfire continued to growl and backed up until her rear end was against the wall.

“I saved you and your friends from the bear. She would have killed you all, you know.”

Brandish turned as if he wasn’t concerned about his back, pulled his clothes back on and turned the meat in the skillet. As he squatted by the fire he looked over his shoulder and said, “The meat is almost ready, but I’m only going to share if you shift and stop behaving as if you’re afraid of me.”

The smell of the sizzling meat was a powerful motivator. She shifted and, with a tremor in her voice, said, “I can’t help behaving like I’m afraid of you. I
am
afraid of you.”

“Why?”

“One of your kind killed my parents.”

“One of my kind? Or a natural creature?”

She looked puzzled. “I don’t know.”

“What were you doing here in the mountains? You and your friends?”

“Exploring.”

“Why?”

“Because something like you might be our neighbor and that would be a good thing for us to know.” Brand brought her meat on a wooden plate and she took it. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Finally Brand said, “You know it’s out of character for a big cat to attack other predators.” Starfire stopped eating and stared at Brand. “I’m sorry about your parents, but chances are the cat that attacked them was hoping for death.”

“Why would you say that?”

Brand shrugged. “It’s an innate defect. They’re compelled to seek solitude, but being alone eventually drives them mad.”

“You’re saying you think the cat was hoping my parents, two wolves, would kill him? Put him out of his misery?”

Brand made a face before saying, “They aren’t self-aware to the degree you’re describing. That would involve a tree of logic that’s beyond their intellectual ability. Though there’s a good possibility that result might be the same, acting from impulse.”

She took a few bites of meat. “Are you like that? You want to be alone, but can’t stand it?”

He laughed softly. “Something like that.” He gave her a look full of heat. “I like having you here. I hope you’ll learn to like being here. I want you to stay.”

She’d been the object of desire by enough males to know that look. The cat didn’t want to kill her. He wanted to keep her. Her heartbeat sped up with that realization and all she could think was, “
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

They had reached the summit of the second range when Ken woke. His first thought was to wonder why he was being dragged on a travois. His second thought, when he tried to move and wheezed from the pain, was the memory that the damnable bear had flicked him into a rock wall like he was nothing more than a leaf. His third thought was that they’d been caught in a blizzard, because his fur was covered in snow.

His head hurt like it was being squeezed in a vice. When he moved again, he realized that one or more of his ribs was probably broken. The thought of shifting was a dread that made him shudder, knowing how much pain was coming, but it had to be done so that he could ask questions and also identify exactly how much damage had been done to his body.

He was hissing as he took human form and panting from the pain.

“Stop!” he said as loudly as he could. It wasn’t a yell because lungs were near ribs and every deep breath disturbed the break, or breaks, more.