Wild Instinct (7 page)

He let her go, reeling from the revelation and the waves of pain that flooded from her to him. She marched back to the cave. He followed more slowly, anger burning as hot as anything else. Over Sarah Anne’s shoulder, Megan watched him with sleepy eyes and a whole lot of expectation.

He ran his hand through his hair. Shit. He’d spent his whole life thinking that, when he found his mate, he’d finally find acceptance. Cherished images, framed in his youth of his life “someday,” shattered. Sarah disappeared into the mouth of the cave.

Cur stood, his gaze following Garrett’s. “You can see she’s teetering on the edge.”

“Yeah.” Well, so was he. “She’s not pure.”

Cur would know more than anyone else what that meant to them. “Could see that.” He continued to repack his pack. “She’s got two kids.”

“She’s not pure wolf.”

“Could see that, too.”

Garrett spun around. “How do you know?”

“A pure wolf or a mix with wolf talent would have used a wolf’s speed to save her daughter.”

He was right. “Why the hell didn’t I see that?”

“I’d say you were a bit distracted.”

He had been. The woman had knocked him off his feet from the moment he saw her. And it got worse the more he saw her. He ran his hand through his hair again. “Hell.”

“So tell me, are you pissed because she’s not pure, or because you don’t know what to do with her?”

Garrett dropped his hand to his side. Cur always had a way of paring things to the bare essentials. “The latter.”

“That’s what I thought.” Cur stood and shouldered his pack. “Just remember, when that rage gets eating at you, she’s yours, and the only way you lose her is if you hand her over to whatever yahoo thinks he’s got the balls to take you down.” Cur smiled at him. “And I’m still waiting to meet the wolf who can match you in a fight.”

More of the wildness settled as that fact filtered through emotion. Though he had yet to mark her, Sarah Anne was his. And it would be a cold day in hell before he lay down in a fight.

“She is, isn’t she?”

“Yup. So where am I meeting up with this woman and kid?”

“Rachel and the boy will be waiting on the south ridge tomorrow morning.”

Cur grunted and hefted his gun. Before he could walk away, Garrett added, “I get the feeling Rachel isn’t going to be that happy to see you.”

Cur smiled over his shoulder. “Well, we wouldn’t want it to be easy, would we?”

“Nope. Have a care, Cur.”

“Going soft now that you have a little woman?”

“Got a bad feeling.” A very bad feeling.

“How much trouble could a woman and a cub be?”

Garrett scented the wind. Trouble was definitely coming. “A bit more than you’re expecting.”

Cur’s grin flashed white in the night. “Well, good, then. I hate to be bored.”

“MEGAN!”

The cry was Sarah Anne’s. In a heartbeat Garrett was in the cave, Cur hot on his heels.

Inside the cave, Sarah stood ten feet away from Teri. Meg was taking the final steps to Teri’s side. Between her and her destination was Daire. The big man looked up, his dark face starkly impassive as she offered him a tentative smile. He didn’t smile back.

Sarah tried again. “Get back here.”

Meg took another step forward, her head cocked to the side, studying Daire’s battle-ravaged face until she got close enough to touch.

“Oh, my God.”

Garrett caught Sarah with an arm around her waist.

“Daire won’t hurt her.”

Sarah shook her head and dug her nails into his arm.

“Let me go.”

It was too late. Though werewolves had hurt her aunt and killed her dad, and Daire must look, to the little girl, like the worst of them all, Meg reached out and placed her tiny hand against his cheek. The ancient didn’t move as her fingers explored every inch of scar tissue. Neither did the child. For a heartbeat they stood face-to-face. Then Meg gave his cheek a pat.

“I’m sorry.”

Daire didn’t say a word, just watched her as she went back to her mother. And sticking her thumb in her mouth, she leaned against her mother’s chest when Sarah Anne pulled her close.

“Damn,” Cur murmured. “Things are getting interesting.”

Seven

SARAH Anne took a breath and held it. She didn’t like the way Daire was still watching Meg, as if he could see beneath her skin. “I’m sorry; she’s always doing things like that.”

His lips didn’t move but there was the slightest crinkle around his eyes. Daire just shook his head and held up his hand. It annoyed her that he didn’t even deign to speak until she realized he was still concentrating on Teri, doing something—she didn’t know what, but something—to her. A smooth stroke of his thumb across her lips and Teri’s frown melted away.

“What are you doing to her?”

He didn’t look up, just said in that gravelly voice of his, “She’s dreaming.”

Could he read minds?

He looked at her. “Would it bother you if I did?”

“Of course.”

“Your daughter is talented.”

It sounded like a reprimand, but she couldn’t be sure, since he didn’t take his eyes off Teri’s face. Garrett’s arm tightened around her waist. “She’s not wolf.”

“Didn’t say she was. Doesn’t change the fact that she is talented.”

She did not want any of the Protectors’ attention on her daughter’s odd ways. “Is Teri going to live?”

“I don’t know yet.”

God, she needed good news. The brush of Garrett’s lips over her head should have been an irritation, but instead, it was a comfort. “When will you know?”

Daire looked up. It was funny—when she could really see his face, she didn’t see the scars. Instead she saw those black-as-night eyes and the endless depth of energy behind them. She grabbed Garrett’s arm against the black-magic lure. It wasn’t a sexual pull, though there was a sexual component to it. The sensation was more like the type of vertigo she got when looking over the edge of a high cliff. She had the unsafe urge to lean farther, get closer.

“Your daughter doesn’t fear me.”

“No.” And that was a mystery unto itself.

“How long have you been living with humans?”

“Eight years.”

“You didn’t teach her wolf protocol.”

“There wasn’t a need.” She’d never intended her daughter to grow up among wolves.

“She shows no respect.”

“If you touch her—”

This time his lip did twitch. “I know. You’ll kill me.”

Garrett pulled her back against the hardness of his thighs and chest. “Stop threatening the pack members, Sarah Anne. They’ll get to thinking you don’t like them.”

“Maybe I don’t.” The retort was weak because she couldn’t get past the fact that Daire was right. Meg didn’t show the proper respect and as such could find herself quickly ostracized. Her bright, shining little girl snubbed. It broke her heart.

“She’ll be fine, Sarah.”

What did Garrett know about little girls and how they needed to fit in? In her peripheral vision, she could see a pair of scuffed black leather boots. She couldn’t remember which Protector wore those. Kelon or Donovan. She didn’t care. She wanted her son. She wanted her daughter. She wanted her life back. She wanted this all to end.

“Actually,” Kelon said, “Daire hasn’t declared allegiance to anyone yet. We’re trying to win him away.”

“From whom?” She wished the question back the second she said it.

Donovan walked up. “If you believe the rumors . . . from the devil?”

She could believe that.

Donovan’s gaze raked her from head to toe. “Garrett.”

“What?”

“Your mate is tired.”

“I’m fine.”

Garrett’s hands on her shoulders moved subtly. The tight muscles relaxed and a comforting haze settled over the worry in her mind.

“I can’t leave Teri.” She looked so still, so lifeless, so close to death.

“You can’t do her any good in here.”

She swatted at his hands. “Stop telling me what I can and what I can’t do.”

His response was to lift her and her daughter into his arms and carry them over to a boulder. Easing her forward, he slid his big body behind hers. She had to admit that it was much more comfortable resting against him than the rock. And it felt so good to have his strength to lean on.

The last brought her up short. She couldn’t let herself rely on Garrett’s strength. She didn’t even know if she was going to stay with Haven.

Meg struggled in her arms.

“Megan, stay still.”

Daire held out his hand and beckoned with a twitch of his fingers. “Let the child go.”

“She’ll just be in the way.” It was too dangerous. Meg would reveal too much. She felt a pull on her consciousness. Daire looked up and, once again, she was staring into those bottomless eyes.

“You know that’s not true.”

“She’s just a baby. What can she do?”

He didn’t blink. “More than you understand.”

That was probably true. Megan’s gift had been growing along with the rest of her. She looked at Teri, remembered that moment when Teri had thrown herself between Megan and certain death. Whatever Teri needed, she would get. Sarah Anne would just deal with the consequences when they came calling. She let Meg slide down her body.

Garrett’s fingers slid down her forearm. Shivers chased up her arm. She whipped her head around. Garrett’s eyes had that same bottomless feel as Daire’s.

“If I thought there was danger, I wouldn’t let her go,” he whispered in that calm manner.

She believed him. Kissing the top of Meg’s head, she whispered, “You do as Mr. . . .” She didn’t know his last name. “You do as Mr. Daire says.”

“Yes, Mommy.”

Sarah Anne let her daughter go. Meg rushed to Teri’s side, sinking with a peculiar grace to the floor beside her.

“Oh, God . . .”
Please protect her.

Garrett’s hands slid up her arm and around her shoulders, giving her something to brace against as Meg revealed all.

“What do I do?” she heard Megan ask.

“Pick up her hand.”

Megan did, stroked her little fingers over it with an eerie competence and then brought it to her cheek while Daire watched.

“What is he doing?”

Garrett looked at her. “I don’t think he’s doing anything.”

Which meant Meg was doing everything. Whatever that was. “What are you doing, baby?”

Meg glanced in her direction as if it should be obvious. “I’m giving Teri happy dreams.”

There was no way anyone could misinterpret the child’s meaning. No way anyone could mistake the otherworldly concentration in her expression.

Daire looked up at Kelon and Donovan. “She has a lot of talent.”

The look Kelon and Donovan exchanged did not give Sarah Anne a warm fuzzy. Neither did Garrett’s curse.

Megan was different, and now they all knew it.

Eight

IT was her worst nightmare come true. It would be hard enough for the child to live among werewolves as a human, but anything more different from the species would just be too much. Weres were not tolerant of “different.”

Garrett’s hand tightened on her shoulder for an instant as his thumb rubbed at the top of her spine, seemingly finding the tension within her and dispelling it in outward shivers of relief.

“Easy.”

There was an odd depth to the order. If Sarah Anne hadn’t been focusing so hard on Megan, it would have stolen her attention away. She shook her head. She couldn’t afford that. Megan and Josiah were the only things she had in the world. It was up to her to keep them both safe. Even if she had no idea how she was going to do that.

The command came again, more forceful, so imperative that she couldn’t find the strength with which to fight it. She leaned back against Garrett, just wanting to close her eyes as the rightness of his scent enfolded her. With a wave of her hand she motioned Megan over. “Come here, baby.”

Megan was so slow to respond that Sarah Anne wasn’t even sure she’d heard her, but then she turned. Her eyes were very large and they looked like . . . Dear God, they looked like Daire’s, compelling and haunting, with endless depths. “I stay here with Auntie T, Mommy. Daire needs me.”

Sarah Anne had the eerie impression that Megan was slipping away from her. Everything was slipping away. “You don’t need to, Meg. Mr. Daire is taking care of her.”

Megan shook her head. “He needs me to help Auntie T.”

“Sarah Anne,” Garrett soothed, “it’s under control.”

The wild denial whipped through Garrett’s head. Cur was right. Sarah Anne was at the edge of her control. He turned her in his arms. Catching her chin between his fingers, he turned her face to his. Her thoughts were no wilder than her eyes. “Yes. It is. Haven is not a normal Pack.”