The Midwife's Moon (15 page)

“What do you see?” Alex asked after she started the car.

“Blurred images, snow, red, people... It’s fuzzy—like an out of focus lens. But his emotions...” Nolan pushed air through again in his struggle to keep breathing. “At first, the images were clearer, even if they made no sense, but there’s something else. Something is...interfering.”

“Interfering?”

He heard the same concern in Alex’s voice as he felt. “I can’t explain it, but the interference is what’s giving me the pain.”

It started snowing lightly as they neared the turnoff to the cabin. They’d sat mostly in silence. Nolan rubbed his temples, trying to dissipate some of the pain, Alex drove, and Tom, well... He grinned in the darkness despite his pain. The cats were always a little derisive toward the wolves about the mate issue. It amused him to see Sherona bitten by the bug. Calm, cool, collected Sherona. Queen of the werejaguar pard, and in a battle royale against her feelings, but he didn’t envy poor Tom the task of dealing with her and the politics involved.

He kept checking his phone, watching for bars, but nothing. No signal. Not that unusual out here, but it remained a concern. He hoped Kamiakin could deal with things. There’d been another report of a sighting of Boris. They’d been coming steadily in since the wanted posters had gone up, and his picture plastered over the news. Supposed sightings of Roxy were far fewer. He believed it to be Boris’ unique appearance. Roxy had a more generic Native American look. Boris’ albino-like aspects made him stand out, regardless of the situation. If it were a false alarm, he wanted Kamiakin with them. If it proved to be correct, he wanted his lieutenant to be able to call for more help.

While Kamiakin took care of that report, he’d told Nolan that Moriah had headed to the cabin to guard Joseph—where Lance and Lisa had been moving toward. With Moriah and Lisa together, there was reason to think things were fine. But the belief that Lance had somehow made a direct connection to him combined with the images he received made him worry.

The snow started coming down harder as they turned down the rugged jeep trail that led to the cabin. Alex had to slow down, causing Nolan’s stress to rise.

“I’m sorry,
my love. I can feel your pain, but not see what’s happening. Are you okay?”

“No, and I’m worried. Trouble with Lance and Lisa on the same night there’s a report of Boris on the restricted lands?”

“Maybe the report is false.”

“Maybe.”
He didn’t think so.

“But?”

“But there’s still a traitor in our midst. They would have known tonight was the pack trial, would have had time to prepare for a response—killed or exiled. And tonight would be their best bet at getting to Joseph.”

“To murder him, or help him?”
Alex sounded concerned now too. She picked up on nuances faster than he.

“I don’t know.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lisa’s paws felt the cold underneath, but her thick wolf skin provided better protection than her human skin could. Some places had snow, others were patchy or just cold where the trees kept the snow from reading.

Joseph had also turned into werewolf. She’d found his shirt hanging from a tree and growled to herself. He’d leaped from the tree, and she’d lost precious minutes picking up his trail again. After she’d found tracks and verified they were his, she’d broke into a jog, but hopelessness ate away at her consciousness.

He was bigger, stronger, and knew the area better than she did. Some instinctive response caused her to slow to a walk. As she neared a clearing, she could see how brightly the snow lit up without the trees to provide shadows. Perhaps that was why she saw it—the dark depression in the midst of all that white. Sniffing the air and moving cautiously, she endeavored to stay out of the line of sight while still keeping an eye out on the dark mass and the surrounding area.

Slinking low, she cautiously moved forward. Her wolf senses were confused by the many werewolf tracks and scents she’d come upon. With the new snow, there shouldn’t have been so many scents. Plus, there wasn’t any reason for so many people to be on the mountain this time of year. There were a fair amount of werewolves—and coyotes and wolves—who lived this way, even in the winter, but it still felt off.

Something about the smells was wrong. Like they’d been planted. Her brain must have overloaded. How in the hell could someone plant smells? A buzzing started in her head, and what looked like the sunrise began to glow over the snow. Only it was far too early for sunrise. She overcame the sluggishness that threatened to make her collapse and carefully drug her paws through the cold powder. One step, two.

Not for the first time, she wished she knew more about the reservation. As a formality, she’d been adopted into the tribe. However, she’d not explored it, as was part of her new rights. The fear of coming across someone who would recognize she’d been on the wrong side of the Wahpawhat/Lupin line and demand she be punished was too great. No, she wasn’t going to lie to herself anymore. She’d not come because she hadn’t wanted to accept her new heritage—werewolf.

Despite becoming an Elite Guard, the midwife, she’d never fully accepted what she was. No more. It was time to use all of her available senses to fight for justice. Whatever Ryan and Joseph had been up to, it wasn’t the good of the pack. Her determination seemed to have cleared up some of the fog invading her brain, and she looked around.

Snow, trees, brush—and silence.

Evil lurks here.

She froze.
Who said that?
It couldn’t be... Her heart beat erratically. There were stories that a true healer, who was also a protector of the pack—a
shiiplá tawtanúk
who communed with the wind, the sea, the trees themselves—could become one with nature and hear its voice calling.

Fear gripped her, paralyzing her. But she was
aswan
. How could she be one of the legendary werewolves when she wasn’t a true one? As far as she knew, there hadn’t been one in a century.

Evil awaits. Leave.

She realized her fear wasn’t from the bodiless voice she heard, but from the dark spot in the snow. Concentrating to calm herself, she began stepping away from the area. Two steps and her legs faltered. She’d hit something—but what? There was nothing around her, no trees, rocks, or brush. Just—air.

The heart rate she’d barely got under control skyrocketed again. Her vision blurred, and dark shapes rose up out of the ground. No. Not out of the ground. Her mind may say that’s what she saw, but she knew it wasn’t. Fiercely, she nipped at her legs and yelped. The pain helped clear the fog that had again enveloped her mind. She needed to stay alive. She also needed to find out what this was, and what did it have to do with Joseph.

Her mind started to fog over, and her eyelids drooped as the adrenalin from the bite wore off.

Lance!
Her mind screeched his name through her consciousness. If she passed out, Lance wouldn’t know about the extra danger. He also wouldn’t know how much she’d come to care about him. Part of her, the part that knew someone had saved her, already knew him. Any doubts were lost as she heard the wind talking. A power, which according to legend only those who were mated were reputed to get, had come to her. Not those many years ago when he’d saved her, but tonight.
Tonight.
When they’d acknowledged each other’s weaknesses and promised to help. The commitment.

Her thoughts became clearer as her emotions—fear, happiness, amazement, hope—washed through her. Again she tried to walk backward, but the fog pushed harder into her mind.

Howling, she despaired of seeing Lance again. While she stayed hunkered down in the snow, the cold seeped through her fur and invaded her bones. A dangerous lethargy leached into her, even as she fought. She knew what caused it. Despite her extra protections as werewolf, her body couldn’t stand the cold and wet forever. If she could move, or huddle in protective cover somewhere, her natural heat in this form would protect her. But paralyzed, stuck to the ground, her body began to shut down.

Her nose hurt, and she kept trying to move it, use it, as well as wiggle her paws. However, wiggling just the paws turned out easier said than done. Again, she tried to move backward, but instead, a sharp pain pierced her skull. Dark laughter erupted all around her.

She shook her head. The dark spot had split and grown; now there were people standing there. Ryan stood there, along with Steven and Jason who held guns on Moriah. Guns? They’d been up against guns? Lance?
Where was he? Why wasn’t he with Moriah?

Desperately she looked around, hoping to see him following them. Instead, she only saw Joseph standing next to a tall, beautiful, Native American woman, werewolf, whose eyes glittered at her when she caught Lisa staring. Then three others came into view as well: another Native female werewolf, a white male werewolf, and...she sniffed.
A human.
Well, that explained the guns.

“Guns? Really? You’re not tough enough to face us women without human weapons?” She sneered with as much strength as she could muster.

Ryan and Jason’s faces clouded over in anger. With a snarl twisting his lips, Ryan started putting his weapon away and took a step toward her, but he stopped when another man spoke up.

“It’s a wonder you all survived this long. Ryan, stand back. Can’t you see you’re being goaded by her? Even in her animal form and under my compulsion, she is stronger minded than you. Roxy? Keep your pets under control, or I will.”

Roxy?
Roxy was back? Fear engulfed her and waves of chills ran down her spine, colder than the winter snow as she realized things had gone from worse—unknown danger—to horrifying.

The glitter in the man’s eyes told her she hadn’t done a good job keeping the fear to herself. Paralyzed, dangerously cold, and her mind wavering, things were bad enough. Add Roxy in and Lisa had to wonder if things could get any worse.

***

Roxy stared at the werewolf they’d trapped. She still didn’t completely understand how Justin had managed it but couldn’t deny the evidence. The she-wolf lay in abeyance unable to leave. It didn’t particularly please her that Justin could do such a thing. Had he used this unknown power on her?

Anger, her constant companion in recent times, fueled her life, her being, and this situation was no different. If she ever found out Justin did mind control on her, she’d never forgive him. And she’d find creative ways to torture him before killing him. Cheered at the last thought, she turned her mind back to the current situation.

“Who are you and where are you from? You are not Indian,” she said to the werewolf.

“I am Yakama. They adopted me years ago when I was turned by him,” she sputtered as she indicated Joseph.

“Made you?” Roxy’s horror and disgust caused shivers to run through her.

“I am
aswan
,” the werewolf said with unwarranted pride. How could she be proud to be such an abomination? Roxy stepped forward to kill it. Nothing filled her with more loathing than an
aswan.

As she bore down on the atrocity, she yanked out her silver knife from its sheath. She knelt down, and ignoring the bites as the wolf tried to get to her, wrenched the wolf’s head back. “You are nothing. And as long as Justin has you trapped, you cannot move well enough to hurt me,” she sneered contemptuously. “You should never have been allowed to live.”

She drew her arm back to plunge the knife in full force. Before she could complete her swing, another hand stopped her.

“It is not time for her to die. She needs to be alive. Without a hostage, Nolan and those who are helping him will kill you all without much trouble when he arrives. We need her.”

She wanted to snap back at him. Who did he think he was hissing at her like that, like some sort of cat?

“She is on my territory,” Roxy growled back. “I will do as I please.”

“You lost this to Nolan. It is his.”

She stood up and stalked to him until they were face to face. “It. Is. Mine. My land. Make no mistake about it.” That red haze she’d felt off and on over the past couple weeks started to blur her vision. When it didn’t clear all the way, she stepped to the side...and saw Joseph.

“How could you make such an abomination? And without permission?” Her hand flew up and streaked across his neck in a move so swift he dropped with his eyes still open in surprise. Bright red color soaked into the snow like a macabre abstract. She stared at the widening circle of blood, ignoring the few gasps around her. One day, she’d do the same to Justin.

Glancing back to see his reaction, she caught his eye. His face had a half smile as if she’d handed him a canoe load of gold and precious stones. He nodded to her then. She narrowed her eyes and turned back to watch Joseph take his last breath. He should never have made an
aswan
, much less do it without telling her. A coward and a traitor, he deserved no better than the gasping death she’d given him.

After Joseph took his last raspy gasp for air, she turned to the others. “That is what happens to those who defy me or disobey orders.”

The Wahpawhat guard Moriah continued to stare at her defiantly. She’d always hated the woman. A human police officer? Her and those like Moriah brought down the whole of the were community. Then again, it was Nolan’s fault. He set the rules and standard for the pack. Better that she hadn’t mated with him. What if they had children that were weak like him? No matter. She’d teach Moriah the right way. Not that the woman would live long enough to practice it.

Justin spoke quietly to the others, and they began forming a tight circle, Moriah out in front at one angle, Heather another, and lastly, the wolf.

“Come,” Justin said to the wolf. “Stand here and don’t move unless I tell you to.”

Roxy watched with interest as the wolf defied Justin’s orders. The defiance cost her. Justin whipped out and backhanded the wolf’s maw when it howled in pain.