Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: Shadowmaster\Running with Wolves (34 page)

“I know.”
I think.

He pulled her to him as if it was natural, expected. As if they belonged together. She leaned her face against his very warm, very smooth chest and smiled. It felt wonderful against her cheek, as good as she'd imagined it would.

“I'm here to protect you, to get you safely to The Colony. I'm very good at what I do. Nothing is going to stop me from getting you to your dad's house.” The deep timbre of his voice reached inside her, caressing.
Soothing.
“A few demons aren't going to stop us.”

“Promise,” she whispered.

He pulled her tighter against him. “Promise.”

She looked up at him. “There was so much blood, Jason. I was so afraid you were going to die....”

“Shh.” He leaned down and suddenly his lips were against hers, gentle and sweet. And everything else disappeared. The ground beneath her feet, the cool morning breeze on her cheeks—all she felt was the warm smoothness of his lips against hers, of his skin beneath her fingers.

“It's okay,” he whispered, breaking away. “We're both here. We're both safe. That's all that matters.”

She nodded and smiled a shaky smile, twined her arms around his neck and kissed him again. Longer this time, feeling his mouth tentatively open, his tongue reach inside and meld with hers. Warmth dropped over her as her insides ignited. She held him tighter, pressing herself against him. She didn't want to let go. Holding him like this, being with him, feeling his heat surrounding her felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like she was exactly where she was meant to be. There was no awkwardness. No second guesses. Happiness bubbled up inside her, and she knew she could spend the whole day standing in his arms, feeling the sweet touch of his lips against hers.

She dropped her hands and slipped them up his back. Just as quickly as he'd started, he pulled away, breaking the kiss and leaving her wanting more. “We should really get going,” he said, his words sounding husky and strained.

Not exactly what she wanted to hear. She looked up into his face and wondered what he was thinking. Was he feeling the same as she? Was he feeling anything at all? “Jason...I'm not sure if it was because you got hurt, or because I saw you in your...um...your other form, but I feel close to you. I know I can trust you. I believe you when you say you'll take care of me.”

He brushed her hair back from her face. “I'm glad.”

“Then what is it?” she asked, because there was something, a sudden detachment, a sense of regret.

He eased back, taking a step away from her, putting distance between them. “I, uh, that's good. I'm glad. Like I said, I won't let anything happen to you.”

She smiled, but it was forced. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. What she wanted to know. He was hiding something from her. Worse, he was retreating. She shouldn't have spilled her guts like that. Since when did she ever do anything on instinct? She was not an instinctual person. She was a rational, logical person, and rational, logical people didn't spill their guts just because they kissed a guy. “And?” she prompted.

He looked at her blankly, that wide-eyed, unable-to-move, deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.

“I've seen you face down demons and a pack of wolves and you look more afraid right now than you did then. What is it? What's going on here?”

“It just that this... Us... We can't.” He spread his arms wide. “It's complicated.”

He reached past her into the truck for another water bottle. She felt struck. Dismissed. Worse. Inconsequential. What was wrong with her? She didn't even know this man. Obviously the stress of everything was making her think things, feel things that weren't real. Especially where Jason was concerned.

“Where are we?” he asked, obviously ready to move the conversation to safer ground.
For him.

“I'm not sure,” she admitted, unapologetically. “I followed the road you had me turn off on and it just ended. You didn't give me very much information.”

“I know.” He looked around him. “And you left the shirt I was wearing where?”

“Really? It was covered in blood. Unwearable. Why would you care where I left it?” Now she was getting pissed.

He stilled, seemingly reading her annoyance in her tone, or maybe it was the way she was staring sharp daggers at him. “It's important.”

“I must have left it back at the beginning of the road. Right when we turned off. Right where you...” She couldn't say it. Couldn't say what he'd done. Because she still didn't know or entirely understand. All she remembered was that she had helped him out of the shirt and, not wanting to get the rest of his clothes bloody, she'd laid it on the ground behind her.

He sighed. “That will make it easier for them to track us.”

“How?” Fear crept in, overshadowing her annoyance.

“They'll be able to smell it.”

“Oh.” Dread stole through her as she tried to absorb the idea of humans hosting demons that could smell blood hundreds of miles away. What were they? Supernatural bloodhounds?

No.
Supernatural wolves.
And she'd led them right to them.

* * *

Jason turned the truck around and, in the faint light of early morning with sunrise painting deep strokes of pink and red across the sky, drove back down the road. He tried to focus on the sky, on the road ahead, on anything but Shay. But he couldn't. His mind was whirling with her scent. Her taste, soft and sweet, was still on his tongue just as the warm feel of her body was imprinted on his arms and against his chest.

Her skin felt like silk against his, but more than that, her touch sparked a connection in him, a need to touch her, to be near her, to forge that contact. Even now, he yearned to reach across the seat and take her hand. But he couldn't. She was the pack's hope; he couldn't thwart that, couldn't interfere with what needed to be done. But as he looked at her, at the perfect curve of her neck and jaw, at the sweet plumpness of her lips, he wanted to kiss her again. He
needed
to kiss her again.

He shook off the thought. It would get him nowhere but in trouble. Like he'd said, this whole situation was too complicated. Even if he wanted to defy Malcolm, he couldn't. Her being with Malcolm wouldn't just affect him, it affected the whole pack. They needed to silence Scott and his people once and for all.

But she wants you.
The words whispered through his mind, and he knew they were true. Could see it in the sparkle of her eyes, in the stolen glances, in the expectation thickening the air of the cab. And she was right; there was something between them. Something he'd felt when he'd first seen her in that grocery store wearing those insanely dark sunglasses, and when they'd been together that morning at the hotel.

But it didn't matter. It couldn't matter. Even if she was the one. His one. After all this time. He couldn't have her. She was meant for Malcolm. She was the pack's only hope for peace.

“Jason?” Shay's voice was hesitant.

He stiffened, hoping she wouldn't ask him about the kiss. About them. About all the things he couldn't tell her. Not yet. Not until she was safe with her family, in her new home and he wouldn't have to worry about her leaving.

“I'm turning into a wolf. A real wolf. Is that what this change is all about?”

He looked at her, at the fear and wonderment shining through her beautiful eyes that looked more purple than blue in the early-morning light. It's what he'd been trying to tell her. What she wouldn't, couldn't, believe but had to accept. “Yes.”

“When?”

“You're changing a little every day, getting stronger, leaner.”

She looked at her arms, holding them out in front of her, turning them this way and that. “Other than feeling starved all the time, I can't tell too much difference. Any way to stop it?”

“Do you want to?”

“I don't know.”

He gave her a weak smile. “Here, have some jerky.” He opened the glove box, his arm reaching across her legs, touching her.

Big mistake.

He had to force himself to sit upright, to break contact. When all he really wanted to do was pull the truck over, sweep her into his arms and kiss her the way she deserved to be kissed, the way he should have kissed her the moment she'd confided to him how she felt about him. But no, he'd been a coward. And he was a coward now. He couldn't tell her the truth of why he was holding back.

She was upset. But he couldn't tell her how he really felt. Even if Malcolm wasn't in the picture, he couldn't let himself take a chance on love again, not after what had happened with Maggie. Even if he wanted to, even after all this time. Especially with the way everything was stacked against them. She was Malcolm's only hope. Jason's best bet was to focus on that, and not on how much he wanted to touch her.

He handed her the bag of seasoned beef. “Thanks,” she said and snatched it up.

She was so different from the reserved, guarded woman he'd met only a couple of days earlier. Yes, she was changing, she was changing a lot.

“So, if I don't have a choice in the matter, when will I make my final transformation? And will it be as painful as what I went through the other night?” She took a bite off a piece of pungent beef.

“Maybe. It's hard to say. Each person is different.”

She was looking at him expectantly. Waiting for more. He didn't want to give her more. To have to be the one to explain how it all worked. He shouldn't be the one. But if he did, maybe it would stop what was happening between them. She needed to know, he just wished she didn't have to know right then.

“Jason, what aren't you telling me? When will I transform?”

He took a deep breath, planted both hands on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. “You'll make your final transformation when you mate with another shifter.”

He heard her strangled gasp. “Excuse me?”

“It's nature's way. I had nothing to do with it. Swear.”

She laughed. Surprised, he turned to her, enjoying the twinkling sound reverberating through his truck.

“If you had grown up in the pack, just being around all the others would have started your transformation a lot sooner,” he explained. “You would have had years to train your mind and your body. You would be much more in control of what was happening to you.”

“You mean instead of being broadsided with excruciating pain.”

He smiled. “Exactly.”

“Will I be different than the others?”

He looked at her, his eyebrows raised. Though he suspected he knew what she meant.

“Because I'm half-normal.”

“Normal?” he jested.

“Human.”

“Yes. You will never be as strong. But it's not a difference that will slow you down or impede you in any way.”

“Well, that's good to hear. I guess. Although I'm still having a hard time believing it, if I hadn't seen you...”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Don't be sorry. You were...beautiful.”

Her words touched him in a way he hadn't expected. He saw sincerity shining in her beautiful eyes, and giving in, he reached over and grabbed her hand. Heat shot through him and a sense of rightness filled him with a feeling that everything was well with the world, with
his
world, in a way that it hadn't been in a very long time. That feeling was strong enough to spark a sense of fear in him. What if she was right? What if there was a connection between them? And the more she transitioned into her true self, the more she came into her nature, the harder it would be for either of them to resist the lure of what they shared.

“Don't worry,” he said, pulling back his hand and putting some distance between them. “Everything is going to be all right.” He said the words but he wasn't sure he believed them. Things would only be all right as long as he could get her back to The Colony, unscathed and untouched.

Especially by him.

Chapter 8

S
hay sat in the truck next to Jason trying not to think about what he'd said.
When you mate with another shifter.
But no matter how hard she tried, the words were front and center and replaying over and over in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about them. Couldn't stop wondering. It didn't help that he was sitting next to her with his strong muscular chest bared for her to see. Like a delectable dessert of frothy cream and chocolate, she just wanted to touch and taste and explore.

She sighed deeply and imagined how it would feel to lie under him, to feel his weight pressing down on her, his heat surrounding her, his hands caressing her. She sucked in a deep breath and shifted uncomfortably in her seat then turned to look out the window. She had to stop thinking about him like that. If she didn't, in another few minutes she'd be crawling out of her skin or throwing herself at him. How embarrassing would that be?

But how could she stop? He'd just said when she made love to another shifter she would make her final transformation. So the real question was, how soon did she want to transform?
Did
she want to transform? Did she have a choice? He said she didn't, but how long would she have to draw this out to keep her humanity? How long could she hold out and not give in to her feelings toward him? To her desire that was growing as strong as her need to eat? Of course, he said when she mated with another shifter. He didn't say when she mated with
him.

“Jason,” she said, her voice coming out in a squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Is there any reason I should hold off, that I should wait?”

“Wait?” he asked, the word breaking as he said it.

She leaned closer to him and touched him, running her fingers over his arm, surprised by how hard his muscles were beneath the smooth skin. She wanted to feel that rock-hard arm around her. Holding her tight, pulling her closer.

“If I have to mate with someone to give up my humanity, I'd like that someone to be you.” There, she'd said it; once more she'd laid it all out for him. She waited expectantly for his reaction, for what he would say, and hoped he'd pull the truck over and ravage her.

But he didn't do any of those things. He just continued staring straight ahead, focusing on the road ahead. Seconds passed, a full minute and still he didn't say a word. Tears of rejection, embarrassment and humiliation stung her eyes. She turned back toward the window and leaned her forehead against the cool glass, willing her emotions to calm.

Then she felt his hand on her hair, lightly stroking the back of her head. “It's not that I don't want to.” His voice sounded strained and husky, as if his jaw was clenched and he was trying to push his words through rock.

“Damn!” Jason cursed.

She turned and looked out the windshield. A truck was barreling toward them down the dirt road, kicking up a plume of dust behind it. Four men inside the cab.

No, not men.

Demons.

Her insides clenched and she grasped the dash. “Can we fight them?” she asked, a quaver in her voice.

“Not four.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Grab the pack in the back. Put the food in it. We're going to have to go in on foot.”

She looked into the woods surrounding them and cringed.

“How far is it to The Colony?” she asked, though she was afraid of the answer.

“Far,” he said evasively, which told her more than she wanted to know. Buddy was growing more and more agitated by the second. Shay reached behind her and patted him on the head then grabbed the big backpack off the floor, hefting it up onto her lap. She pushed the packet of jerky inside. There were already two large bottles of water, another packet of meat and one of nuts.

The truck coming toward them turned a hard right, swinging across the road and stopping, effectively blocking their way.

“You ready?” Jason asked.

“As ready as I'm going to be.”

“Hold on!” he yelled, dropped the truck into four-wheel drive and turned off the road, driving over bushes and through trees. Shay bounced so hard in the seat she hit her head on the cab's ceiling. She looked behind them and saw the others following them, though their truck wasn't as big or as powerful as Jason's was. Yet they were still keeping up.

For now.

After another ten hard minutes, the other truck had fallen far enough behind that she could barely see them. “I think we've outrun them.”

“They won't give up. And we won't be able to continue like this much longer.”

“No?” And then she saw why. They'd reached the base of the mountains where the trees grew too thick to drive the truck through.

“We can continue on through this meadow for a little while, just to put some distance between us, but it's taking us farther away from where we need to be. It will only make our walk longer.”

“Any chance of finding the road I missed last night?” she asked, the hope ringing loud in her voice.

“Not without going back. The trees are too thick.”

She sighed as she looked at the steep incline in front of them. “Let's do it.”

“You sure?”

“Do we have any other choice?”

He smiled and then stopped. “Nope.” He grabbed the pack off her lap then got out of the truck. Buddy jumped out behind him.

“Shouldn't we try to hide the truck or something?”

“It wouldn't matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because they're tracking us by smell. They'll find us no matter what we do.”

“That doesn't sound very promising.”

“It wasn't meant to be. We just have to be ready for them when they do.”

“Great.” She looked behind them and a chill rocked through her body. She started up the steep hill in front of them, wondering how she was going to make it. How was she going to climb all the way to the top with four men chasing after her? Buddy and Jason ran ahead, easily navigating the precipitous terrain. As she watched them, perfectly in sync, she knew she was going to be the weak link, the one to slow them down. When the demons finally caught up with them, it would be because of her.

* * *

The mountain was easier to climb than she'd expected it would be. She walked a lot, so she wasn't totally out of shape, but she certainly didn't walk up steep inclines, and yet she seemed to have more power in her legs than usual, more stamina. They stopped for a water break and she devoured another piece of jerky.

“Do you think they've given up?” she asked, knowing it was too much to hope for, but needing to voice it anyway.

Jason stared at her as if she'd just said she could fly. “Not a chance.”

“How much farther do we have to go?”

“A good twenty miles.”

Shay swallowed. “Twenty miles of this?” She pointed to the small deer path they'd been following. “That will take all day.”

“Even more at our pace.”

“You mean we could still be out here tonight?”

“Most likely.”

Panic expanded in her chest. “This is never going to work. We're not going to make it.” A snap sounded behind her. She spun around, looking between the trees, her nerves bunching and stretching as she expected to see the men coming toward them.

No one was there.

“It was just a falling pinecone. But we should keep moving,” he said.

She looked at the briars and branches, at the multitude of scratches on her arms. “I can't do this. There must be a different way.”

Jason grabbed her hand. “You are doing great. And yes, you can do this. You are stronger than you think. Here.” He handed her the water bottle.

She took it and drank one last swig of water before falling back into step behind him once more. She watched the sweat glistening on the bare skin of his back and tried to think of anything other than who or what could be coming up behind them at any moment.

After a while of watching him move, thinking of nothing but his long legs and how effortlessly they seemed to carry him up the mountain, she wondered if they would have a chance to be together, to continue what they had started with their kiss earlier that morning. Or if he'd continue to pull away from her. His words echoed in her mind.
We can't. It's complicated.

“Jason?” She ran ahead to catch up with him, but once she did, she had to take a minute to catch her breath. The air was getting thinner as they rose in elevation. Breathing, moving, was getting more difficult.

Impatience flashed across his face. Clearly, he wanted to keep moving. He started to walk.

The words she'd been about to ask froze in her throat as she struggled to keep up with him. “How much farther? What's the plan?” she asked instead.

“To keep moving. We don't have time to stop and talk.”

“Why not? We're obviously alone here.”

“No, we're not.”

Fear scuttled across her back. “What do you mean?” She glanced behind her, peering into the gaps between the trees, but didn't see a thing. And she couldn't hear anything beyond her labored breathing and the blood rushing through her ears.

“We're being tracked right now. He's about five hundred yards behind us.”

“Just one?” Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

“Yes. They must have split up, each one taking a different route.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I've been thinking about that.”

“And?”

A stitch of pain arced through her middle. They'd been keeping the same quick pace for too long. She needed to rest. But she knew she couldn't take a break. Not yet. Maybe not at all. She was slowing them down, and by the time the demon man caught up with them, she'd be so exhausted she'd be useless.

“Do you see those large rocks up there at the top of the hill?” He pointed straight ahead.

“You mean way up there almost near the top? Barely,” she muttered.

“If you and Buddy continue straight up this hill heading for those rocks, I can double back around and ambush him.”

“But won't he know you're coming? Can't he smell you, or something?”

“Only if I'm in human form.”

She stared at him, at the sheen on his beautiful chest, at the startling pale blue eyes, and knew what he meant.

“You're going to change back into a wolf?”

“I'll be faster and quieter. He'll continue to track you and I'll be able to sneak up on him.”

She shivered at the thought but knew it was the only chance they had. “Then do it,” she said. “Because honestly, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep up this manic pace.”

Steely determination entered his eyes and suddenly she saw him differently. She saw him as what he could be, a deadly protector.

“Just head for those rocks, steadily and as quickly as possible.”

“And if I run into another one of those things?”

“Then scream and fight, using every technique your father taught you, and try to hold him off until I can reach you.”

“All right.” She nodded, trying to look brave and confident, but she didn't think she was fooling him.

“Here.” He pulled a knife out of a side pocket on his pack and handed it to her. “Use it if you have to. Don't be squeamish.”

She took the wicked-looking blade from him, turning it over in her hand, hoping if she had to she would have the courage to do what needed to be done. But would she actually be able to push the sharp steel into someone? Honestly, she wasn't sure. She grimaced at the thought then straightened her shoulders and nodded. “Absolutely. Don't worry about me.”

Jason took off his pack, placed it on her back. She grabbed his arm as the weight of the pack knocked her off balance.

“Jesus, what do you have in this thing?”

“Just some supplies we might need. It's mostly the water weighing it down.”

“Then maybe I should drink some.”

He smiled and touched her cheek. She stared up at him, suddenly not wanting him to leave her.

“What if something happens to you? What if you don't come back?” A tremor shook her voice as she spoke.

“There is a satellite phone in the pack. Make it up to the rocks. Continue behind them and to the left. There is a cave hidden behind two tall redwoods joined together as one. Call the number for Malcolm, tell him what happened, tell him you're in the cave and wait for him.”

“What's so special about this cave?”

“The
Abatu
won't be able to smell you inside. But you must go in as deep as you can. There's a flashlight in the pack.”

“All right. I can do that. But Jason—” she placed her hand on his chest, feeling his heat and the strong beat of his heart beneath her palm “—promise me you'll come back. We still have a lot to talk about.”

His eyes held hers for a long moment and then he leaned down and touched his lips to hers—warm, gentle and holding the promise of everything she'd ever wanted. “I will,” he said softly. “Now go on, and don't look back.”

* * *

Shay didn't want to leave him. And she certainly didn't want him to leave her, but what else could they do? “Come on, Buddy,” she said, when she thought the dog might follow him instead of her, and then she did as he asked and continued straight up the hill without looking back.

She didn't make it very far, though, certainly not far enough, when she heard a loud howl breaking through the woods. A chill cut down her spine followed by a surge of adrenaline pulsing through her blood. Her heartbeat sped up and a strange prickling peppered her palms.

She hurried even faster, reaching out to touch the nearest tree for balance as the pack weighed her down, making the climb even harder, if not impossible. She considered dropping the pack and leaving it for Jason to get on his way up, and after another five minutes of struggling, that's exactly what she did. She dropped it to the ground next to a large tree, resting for a moment as she unzipped it.