Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: Shadowmaster\Running with Wolves (35 page)

She dug inside and pulled out a bottle of water and a packet of jerky. Before she could dig further to see what else was in there, the snap of a twig sounded from behind the tree she was squatting next to.

She froze. Buddy whimpered softly and she placed her hand on his neck, pulling him to her. “Shh,” she whispered against his head, and then set the jerky and the water bottle on top of the pack and pulled out the knife Jason had given her. She peered around the large tree.

No one was there.

She stilled, listening intently. All around her the woods were alive with the sounds of animals rustling through bushes, birds with their constant chatter and the occasional cry when a hawk got too close to their nest. Every animal in the forest was either looking for food or trying not to get eaten by something stronger and bigger. She was beginning to understand how that felt and knew that even with her father's training she wouldn't be able to protect herself. She had been too young when he'd taught her to fight. But even if she had been old enough to remember the moves, she wasn't strong enough to fight a demon.

Buddy whined, his ears twitching, his eyes alert and scanning. Was it Jason? No. She could still hear him in the distance, sounds of growls, barking and the occasional yelp. But the truly frightening part was that he didn't sound that far. In fact, he sounded a lot closer than he should. Had she really not made that much progress?

Taking a deep breath, she shoved the knife back in its sheath and clipped it on her jeans' belt loop, snatched up the water bottle and jerky and ran.

Behind her, a howl ripped through the air, turning into vicious growls. She looked up the hill at the outcropping of rocks in the distance. They were still too far. She had to put some distance between them, because if Jason didn't win, if he couldn't stop the demon, then she'd never make it to the top before the demon found her.

She put her head down, barreling forward, watching her feet, following the narrow path through the thick trees. Despair bordering on hopelessness filled her as another painful stitch cut through her side, and her lungs burned with each breath. She had to stop thinking bad thoughts. Jason would make it. He would come back to her. He would help her navigate this new life. He had to, because she couldn't imagine doing it without him.

The growls and barks behind her intensified. Fear clenched her insides tighter. Buddy stopped and barked, looking behind him, obviously anxious to go back and help Jason. “Shh,” she said, patting her side for him to follow, and tried to break into a jog, anything to put some distance between them, afraid of the demon and terrified Buddy would leave her and go back for Jason. And if he did, and something bad happened to them both, then she really would be alone.

And that was something she just couldn't handle.

“Come on, Buddy,” she called when he lagged behind her. He sprinted up ahead of her, easily maneuvering through the terrain. She watched him with his sure footing and boundless energy. He wasn't tired at all. She needed to be like Buddy. She needed to be like Jason. She needed to be a wolf.

Now.

If she were able to transform, she could easily make it the next twenty miles, and the best part would be that the demons wouldn't be able to follow her scent.

Then they'd all be safe.

But in order to make that final transformation, she'd have to make love. And she wanted to make love. To Jason. Buddy ran in circles around her, his growing agitation obvious. “You stay with me, Buddy,” she demanded and forged ahead, her hand clutching the handle of the knife as she hoped and prayed she wouldn't run into another one of the demons. But she knew if she could hear the loud battle going on behind her, then the others could certainly hear it, too.

And come running.

Her gaze flitted through the dense woods around the tall pine and spruce trees. She peered beyond the thicket of bushes. They could be anywhere. Suddenly all sound ceased. Shay stopped, looking behind her, listening intently.

But she could no longer hear the growls and yelps of battle. “Jason?” she whispered as fear stole into her heart and squeezed. Buddy whined and rubbed against her legs. She listened for a moment longer and still no sound reached her. Not even the rustling of an animal cowering in the bushes or the song of a bird in flight.

The squeezing fear blossomed into panic. She rushed forward, climbing up the steep hill, moving toward the rocks above. Her safe place. Her haven.

This had been a dumb idea, she thought, struggling to hear anything over her labored breathing. She and Jason should never have separated. She could have helped him. They worked well together. She shouldn't be out here on her own. She skirted around a massive tree and skidded abruptly to a stop, her arms pinwheeling as she struggled to keep her balance on the uneven ground. Her heart lodged painfully in her throat as she stared at the large man standing directly in the path before her.

Chapter 9

T
he man didn't say anything. He just stared at her through dark, menacing eyes, a black cloud swirling around his head. She knew what that was now, knew the glimpse of teeth she saw within the maelstrom of darkness was the demon. A demon sent to kill her.

She dropped the water bottle and jerky then gripped the knife with white-knuckled fingers, pulling it from its sheath and shifting it back and forth in front of her.

Buddy started barking ferociously, lunging forward, his paws digging into the earth as he held his ground. “Get away from us,” Shay warned with as much bravado as she could muster.

Her dad had trained her for this. She could take him, she told herself, though she didn't believe it. Not for a second. He stepped toward her and she saw how big he was, at least six feet three inches of sheer muscle. His biceps were as big as bowling balls. And when he flexed them, like he was doing now, they rolled, moving like something alive was buried beneath his skin.

She shivered and looked around, contemplating her options. He was blocking the path directly in front of her. What if she headed back down the mountain? Could she outrun him? Would the momentum help her or send her flying? If she could find the truck, could she drive back out to the road? Back to the store? Back to help?

Not without a key. Before she could finish weighing her options and decide what to do, the man lunged. He grabbed hold of her, his teeth sinking into her shoulder.

What the hell! She screamed and pushed against him, slicing his arm with the knife. Buddy went nuts, barking like Cujo. The man pulled back, laughing, her blood painting his lips. She tried to sidestep him to put some distance between them but instead tripped over a root, lost her footing and fell to the ground with a teeth-jarring thud. Terrified, she stared up at him. His smile deepened. Before he could pounce, Buddy jumped, his teeth tearing viciously into the man's arm. He roared and turned, then kicked Buddy hard, sending him flying with a loud yelp.

“Buddy!” Shay screamed, then tightened her grasp on the knife, jumped up and ran at the bastard. He could hurt her all he wanted but no one messed with her dog. She thrust the knife toward him but before she could connect, he swung round, hitting her with the force of a Mack truck and knocking her back to the ground. Her head hit the trunk of the huge tree. Pain shot through her skull. Blackness swirled around the edge of her vision.

The ground shuddered as he came at her. She shook her head, trying to clear her sight and instead sent a bolt of pain pinging through her brain. She touched her head and her fingers came back wet and sticky.
Blood.
Lots of it. Through a haze she saw the man bend over her. She tried to move, to jump to her feet, to get away from him and fight. But her legs weren't following her brain's commands.

She struggled to rise, pushing against the tree for purchase, swimming through the dizziness, but it was too late. It didn't matter now. The struggle. The fight. It was over. She wasn't going to make it.

She braced herself for another blow. But it didn't come. From behind her a gray blur flew through the air, crashing into the man's chest, pushing him backward to the forest floor.
Jason.
The wolf's teeth tore through the flesh of the man's neck. He screamed, an agonizing howl of pain.

Then the giant wrapped his arms around the wolf and pulled it down away from his neck, his face turning red with the effort, his teeth clenched together. The wolf continued viciously snapping and tearing. The man's arms, encircling Jason, squeezed until his face turned purple with the effort. Hell, he was a freaking machine.

“Jason!” she screamed. But she could do nothing as the two fought, rolling over and over across the ground. The giant
Abatu
was trying to crush Jason even as Jason tried to rip out his throat. The battle was taking too long, too painfully long, to watch. Shay couldn't tell who had the upper hand, but she knew she had to do something.

Acting on a spike of adrenaline, she rushed forward, her knife clutched in her hand as they rolled back and forth along the ground, rolling away from her then turning back toward her again. Somehow, she had to distract the monster, to weaken him before he squeezed Jason to death.

As they rolled away from her once more, she jumped forward and thrust the knife into the man's shoulder and then jumped back out of his way, falling into the nearest tree as a wave of dizziness broke over her. The man roared in pain, flailing his arm out to his side, trying to grab for her, for the knife still stuck in his back. His hold on Jason loosened. It was all the leverage Jason needed.

Jason scurried forward, crawling up the belly of the beast, his back paws scraping against the man's legs as he pushed himself up his body, toward the massive neck where the wolf's powerful jaws clamped down in a vicious tearing bite.

The
Abatu
thrashed his head back and forth, trying to pull free from the wolf's brutal grasp. Blood flew everywhere, in every direction, and still the monster wouldn't stop. He continued to fight, but he wasn't nearly as strong as he had been, and not nearly as fast.

The wolf pulled back and barked at her, staring deeply at her with those pale blue eyes. Surprisingly, she was almost certain she knew what he was thinking, what he wanted. Leaving the knife where it was, she ran past them both as quickly as her swimming vision and the pain in her head would allow and hurried over to Buddy. He was sitting up, licking his wound in his side.

“You okay, boy?” Gingerly she ran her fingers over his wound. He would be sore, but it didn't look too bad. He licked her fingers then stood up. The two of them continued up the hill, toward safety, toward the cave. But neither one of them was moving as quickly or as steady as they had before.

Piercing pain arced through her head with each pounding step. Blood trickled down her forehead, running into her eyes and stinging them. And on the back of her head, where she'd hit the tree, the skin had split. There was more than a trickle of blood running down the back of her neck. Her wounds would make her scent stronger, make it a lot easier for the other two
Abatu
to find them. She had to make it to the top of the mountain, to the cave before they did, or before her legs finally gave out from under her.

* * *

Jason hurt everywhere. He tried to stay in his wolf form as long as he could, but there was no way Shay could keep up with him and he kept having to circle back to her. Worse, the other two
Abatu
were close. Every now and then, when the wind shifted, he could smell them. Somehow he had to get Shay up to the cave before the demons reached them.

Fighting off two or more of them, especially if they were together would be problematic, if not impossible. Especially the way he was feeling. Shay stopped and leaned against a large tree to try to catch her breath. She was hurt, he could see it in the way she moved, could smell it on her skin. She needed to rest and heal, but they still had too far to go. He needed her to transform.

But to do that he'd have to make love to her.

He wanted to make love to her. He hadn't been able to think about anything else since their kiss earlier that morning. The kiss that still burned on his lips and coiled tightly in his gut. But to think of her that way... He stopped himself.

He couldn't not think of her that way. He had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Shay right then. Not even Maggie had heated his blood with such an unquenchable desire. Guilt seared through him at the thought.

He'd loved Maggie. She'd consumed his life from the time they were both eight years old in Ms. McKenzie's class. But his love for her had been as steady and strong as the river that fed their lake in The Colony. It was never turbulent or filled with unpredictability. With Shay, he wasn't sure what he would do, how he felt or if he could stick to his convictions. All he did know was that he wanted to hold her, to keep her safe and to make love to her all night long.

How could he let Shay be with Malcolm? Especially given the way he felt about her now. Even knowing what it would mean for the pack. How a relationship with Malcolm would help smooth the building tensions and ensure Malcolm's leadership. Perhaps, Malcolm could find a new way. A different way.

They forged ahead. He continued his wide arc around her, making sure no one got close to them, but she kept dropping farther behind as her pace slowed to a crawl. Finally he walked up alongside her, pushing into her legs, letting her lean on him as he pulled her up the steep incline toward the peak.

When at last they crested the top, she stopped and leaned against a tree then slumped to the ground. She wasn't going to make it any farther without him. Not wanting to scare her, he walked behind the tree and reluctantly changed back, shifting easily from wolf into man.

“Come on, Shay,” he whispered softly, holding out his hand to her. “It's not far to the cave now.”

She opened her beautiful blue-violet eyes and stared at him, her gaze sweeping him from head to toe, a crimson blush filling her pretty cheeks. And yet, she liked what she saw. He could read it in the quick intake of her breath and the slight puckering of her lips. Her pupils dilated as she looked shyly up at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “But I lost my clothes somewhere on the mountain. I have an extra set in the pack, but we need to get you into the cave as quickly as possible.”

“All right,” she murmured, standing, then gasped a quick breath.

“What is it?”

Panic-stricken, her eyes met his. Her sweet mouth opened then closed. That's when he noticed she wasn't wearing the pack.

“The pack. I, uh, it was too heavy. I left it on the mountain.” She turned and looked back down the steep slope into the thicket of trees below. “I'm so sorry. I meant to tell you....”

“It's all right,” he assured her while quietly thinking of the phone and the extra food inside the pack.

“But you can't...” She stared at him, her eyes widened with dismay.

“What? Walk around naked?”

“Well. Yeah.” She was trying to look everywhere except at him.

He couldn't help the grin pulling at the sides of his mouth. “Why not?” he teased. “Afraid you won't be able to keep your eyes off me?”

He didn't think she could turn any pinker, but she did.

“I'm really sorry,” she gushed, but even as she said the words, her gaze slipped down his body.

He quickly turned before she could see the physical effect she was having on him. “You're still bleeding pretty heavily. We best get into the cave as soon as possible,” he said, and hurried forward.
And not just to escape the demons.

* * *

Shay tried not to stare at Jason's well-defined muscular behind, but she couldn't help herself. She was so intent on not watching his very appealing backside that she barely noticed as he vanished into the side of the mountain. One moment he was in front of her and the next he wasn't. If she hadn't watched Buddy disappear into the rocks right after him, melting into the darkness, she never would have known the entrance was there.

She followed behind them, stepping cautiously through the small, barely noticeable opening. She stood still for a moment, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She couldn't see a thing and hoped there wasn't anything big inside waiting for her. But then, after fighting demons, a bear really didn't seem all that scary.

She hovered around the opening, reluctant to step too far inside. There was something heavy and confining about the utter darkness. She stretched her hands out in front of her and moved slowly forward, blindly scraping her fingers along the rough stone wall. She shuffled along, straining her ears to hear Jason or Buddy, but she heard nothing. She saw nothing as the utter darkness stretched forward without an end. An eternity of nothing but cold, damp air.

After a few minutes, her senses adjusted and she heard drops of water hitting stone. Light wavered in the distance layering the deep blackness with various shades of gray. “Jason?” she called. She didn't have to wait long and he was standing before her, a flashlight in his hand and wearing a pair of jeans, shoes and a fresh shirt.

“You have clothes?”

“Disappointed?”

“Not in the least,” she said, thankful that the light wasn't on her face.

“Are you sure? I can take them off again if you like.”

Now she wished she could see his face. Was he flirting with her? She felt as if she'd been pulverized by a semi then picked over by vultures. Not to mention that she needed a hot bath. Bad.

“Come on, the chamber is this way.” He and his light turned and walked away from her, descending deeper into the cave.

Chamber? She wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. “Are you sure it's safe in here?” she asked, her voice trembling a little. No one knew where she was, and worse, in here no one would ever find her.

“There are no
Abatu
in the caves—of that I am sure.”

“What about anything else?”

He turned back to her and laughed. It bubbled forth and rebounded off the rocks in the cavern.

Buddy looked up at him, his tail wagging and springing against the wall. Apparently he was feeling better. How he could have the energy to wag his tail, Shay didn't know. She felt as if she could collapse at any second. And she hurt...everywhere.

“It's just a bit farther up ahead,” Jason said, as if sensing her need to drop where she stood.

“What is this chamber?” she asked as they meandered deeper into the cave, turning this way and that. She realized she had no idea where she was or if she'd be able to find her way back out. She only hoped she wouldn't need to. Wherever he was taking her it had a flashlight and it had extra clothes. Maybe it would have water and something to eat other than jerky, too. But honestly, right then, she was too tired to care if there was nothing.