Wolf Tales 11 (7 page)

“Glad you clarified that.” Shannon punched Jake’s shoulder, laughing. “I remember when Tia told me about it. It happened just before I was kidnapped.” She grabbed Jake’s hand. “Just before you rescued me.”

Jake kissed Shannon, but then he smiled at Bay. “Right. And that’s when we met Baylor.”

“Yeah, when he showed up to kill you.” Manda leaned against Bay. “Amazing how that all worked out.”

“It is, actually.” Bay thought of all the things that had come together over the course of those few days, but the man who’d been behind the kidnappings, the one he’d worked for, was dead now. Milton Bosworth had died of a stroke, though all of them suspected Ulrich Mason had somehow been behind the bastard’s death.

Two of the men they were to watch tonight had worked under Bosworth.

“I wish I’d been in Montana when they first linked like that, but if I’d been there, I might not have been sent to rescue Shannon.” Jake kissed her again. He wasn’t laughing, and his voice had gone gravelly with emotion. “Babe, I know I drive you nuts, but I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

Shannon faked a light punch to his chin. “Driving me nuts is part of your charm.”

Manda nodded. “So that’s what she’s calling it, now? Charm?”

Jake laughed and tugged Shannon’s hand. “If you’re gonna pick on me, I’m leaving. C’mon. We’ve got time for a shower before we leave for dinner. I think we need to work on building up that sexual energy Anton’s so fond of using.”

Bay leaned back on the bed and stretched. “Thank goodness he’s gotten strong enough on his own that we don’t need to be celibate for his plans to work. That used to make me nuts. Celibacy is not a good thing when you’re wired for sex.”

Manda stood up and grabbed his hand. “If you’re so wired, you can join me in the shower. I need someone to wash my back.”

She tugged. Bay stood and followed her to the room where she’d left their luggage. Thank goodness they’d packed for a long weekend in Freeport. He tried to put his worries for Lisa and Tala out of his mind. It was easier, now that they had a job to do. He wondered what they might learn from the men they were supposed to spy on tonight.

Wondered if their luck would hold when they sneaked onto the grounds of the National Zoo, and how Anton intended to use whatever energy they were able to share.

Then he thought about mating later tonight, the fact they’d be in the heart of Washington, DC, mating as wolves and hoping like hell they wouldn’t get caught. Why the hell did he find that so arousing?

And why was he even worrying about it when his mate was stripping her clothes off that perfect body of hers and gazing impatiently over her shoulder because he was moving so damned slow?

Grinning like a complete idiot, Bay kicked off his shoes. He managed to lose the jeans and shirt in record time, but Manda was already in the shower, waiting impatiently for him. She stared at him through spiky lashes with her long blond hair plastered to her head and her lips full and inviting. As always, the sight of her was more than he could handle, and he was lost.

He’d loved her before she was beautiful. Loved her when he’d first found her alone in that small apartment in
upstate New York where she’d been hiding out from the rest of the world.

She’d startled him at first, a misshapen creature beyond anything his nightmares could have envisioned. Half wolf, half woman, with twisted limbs and a perpetual snarl deforming her hideous face, but she’d still been Manda. Loving, beautiful on the inside, an intelligent young woman trapped in the body of an impossible monster.

He’d loved her more than he’d believed himself capable of loving anyone, ever. And when she’d finally shifted after so many years of pain, the woman inside had proved to have a body as perfect on the outside as the beautiful soul inside.

Like a moth escaping from its chrysalis, she’d spread her wings and flown.

Thank the Goddess, she’d chosen to fly into his arms. He’d loved her. He loved her now. No matter how she looked, he would always love her. Bay stepped under the spray and held Manda close, remembering what it was like when he’d found her, when he’d first realized she was meant to be his.

It wasn’t sex he thought of. It wasn’t the perfect fit of her body to his.

No, he was thinking of Tinker. Of Mik and AJ, and what they must be feeling right now, loving their women the way he loved Manda. He didn’t want to imagine their pain. Selfishly, he tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t help himself.

He held Manda in his arms, safe and whole and perfect, and felt guilty for the perfection of this moment with his bonded mate. He opened his mind and found her there with him, sharing her thoughts from his sisters’ point of view. How frightened they must be right now, how worried about their unborn babies.

He pressed his forehead to hers. “We’re too much alike, you know?” Then he slipped into mindtalking, needing
the intimacy of their mental connection.
I love you, Manda. I love you more than I can possibly express, but I am so worried about Lisa and Tala. I feel sick for AJ and Mik and Tinker, for what they must be feeling.

I know, Bay. I know. Just hold me. Share your thoughts with me and hold me. They’re going to be okay. We have to believe that. Anton’s always come through before.

He nodded, thankful for the streaming shower that hid tears he couldn’t control. Thankful for the woman who held him every bit as tightly as he clung to her.

All those years he’d been estranged from his sisters came back to haunt him. They had to survive. As Anton had said, there were no other options.

But damn, he wished they weren’t so far away.

Keisha waited until they were both back in their room, both in human form and heading for the shower before she stopped Anton with the slightest of touches. Stroking his forearm with her fingertips, she waited for him to stop, to raise his head and look into her eyes. She met his with all the honesty in her heart. “This isn’t about you,” she said, smiling to take the sting from her words. “It’s not all your responsibility. Not your burden to shoulder alone.”

He blinked and frowned at her. “What do you mean? What’s not about me?”

“Lisa, Tala. What happened to Tia. Thank the Goddess Luc’s got her home, but I was in your head today. You see yourself as the only one capable of fixing this mess. My love, we are a pack. You might be the alpha male and a wizard beyond compare, but I’m your mate. Don’t cut me out. Don’t think you have to handle this on your own. We are a team. We, all of us who are Chanku, are a pack. We solve our problems together. We share our strengths even as we share our fears and our weaknesses.”

He closed his eyes and lowered his head, but he couldn’t hide his smile. “You know me much too well.” Sighing, he gazed at her once again. “Old habits die hard. There was a time when I was so entirely alone …”

“Well, you’re not now. Not anymore. Try to remember that.”

He brushed her tangled hair back from her forehead. “Keep reminding me, would you?” Then he leaned close and kissed her. “We need to hurry. I want to shower and then go talk to Liana and Adam. Liana sensed the moment the girls were attacked. I’m not sure how that happened or how much she knows, but I want to see if she can help us with anything at all.”

They were in Liana and Adam’s small apartment atop the garage within twenty minutes. Keisha had pulled on a comfortable pantsuit for travel and tied her long, wet hair back in a tight ponytail. Her bags were already in the car.

She’d not been up here for a while, and the change in the once sterile little room was amazing. The big bed was still the largest piece of furniture, but Liana had added a comfortable couch and a work desk and two chairs. The walls were painted a soft, mossy green, and the bedspread had all the colors of the forest in an intricate pattern of geometric shapes.

Liana was on the couch surrounded by rolls of yarn in all shades of pink, busy crocheting what appeared to be a crib blanket. When Keisha raised an eyebrow, the woman who was once a goddess merely laughed.

“Not for me, Keisha! This one’s for Lisa’s little girl. I’ve already finished blankets for Tala’s son and daughter.”

“I wondered. That’s beautiful.”

Liana sighed. “I’m still learning. Don’t look too closely. Xandi’s been teaching me but I still make mistakes.” She dug into her work bag and pulled out two neatly folded blankets. One pink, one blue.

Keisha took a moment to admire her work. “Definitely traditional, I see. Lisa and Tala are going to love them.”

Liana sighed. “I hope so. I’ve been so worried. I keep listening for the sense of their life force and I can’t find
anything. It’s scary. I’ve been praying to Eve since this morning when I first heard their cries.”

Keisha sat next to her on the couch. “Does she answer you?”

Liana shook her head. “Not really, though I know she hears.” She flashed Keisha an open, honest smile. “Eve’s a much better goddess than I ever was. I don’t expect answers, but I have complete faith she’ll do what she can.”

Keisha wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. “We always had faith in you, Liana. You didn’t fail us.”

“I failed Eve.”

Anton sat on the other side of her. “Not necessarily. I think Eve’s happier in her life as Goddess than she ever was as a mortal. And aren’t you better suited to this life, as a mortal woman?”

The door opened and Adam stepped into the apartment. That’s when Keisha realized that the best thing about this small room was the amazing change in Adam.

He smiled at Anton and Keisha, walked across the room, and planted a big kiss on Liana’s mouth. “She’d better be suited to this life, because I’m not turning her loose. What’s up? Any word on Lisa and Tala?”

Anton stood. Keisha had a feeling he was too tense to sit still. “Not a word. That’s why we came by, to see if there was anything Liana could recall from her vision this morning that might help us. We honestly expected some kind of word, some proof by now that they were alive.” He paced, crossing the room, staring out the window toward the forest, then walking back to the couch, where he stopped and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Liana shook her head. “I wasn’t even thinking of them when I suddenly felt Tia’s cry of pain and saw Lisa and Tala through her eyes. Two large men in dark suits grabbed them from behind and jabbed needles into their necks. It looked like they went for the big artery.” She
touched her neck, just over her carotid, as if she’d felt the sharp prick of the needle herself.

“My vision was very brief—mere seconds. Lisa and Tala immediately went limp, but the men were holding them up, encircling their waists so that it looked natural, as if they were walking close together. I couldn’t see Tia’s attacker. He grabbed her from behind. She struggled. The needle went into her neck, but I think he missed the large artery because she didn’t fall unconscious immediately, the way Lisa and Tala had. I heard the gun, felt the bullet pierce her body, here.”

She touched herself, over the jut of her hipbone. “Then the drug must have taken effect. Her vision and my sense of her disappeared.”

“Damn. Could the drug have killed them? I don’t want to think that, but …” Anton ran his long fingers through his hair.

Liana gave a sharp, determined jerk of her head. “I don’t think so. Tia came out of it, though she said it affected her ability to mindtalk and gave her a huge headache. I’ve been wondering if they’re still unconscious, though. If the dose was too high, or went directly into the artery. If whatever they used reacts differently to Chanku metabolism. Do we know if the ones who kidnapped them are aware they’re shapeshifters?”

Keisha shook her head. “Luc doesn’t think so. Very few people know of our existence. They might know of Pack Dynamics and that we work with wolves, but that’s about it.”

“Then I’m guessing they’re still unconscious.” Anton glanced at Keisha. “And they can’t shift to escape, so …”

Liana frowned at him. “Why not? Unless they’re tightly collared, they should be able to shift.”

Adam was the one who interrupted her. “Not if they’re eight months pregnant.” He glanced at Keisha. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t shift after about the middle of your term?”

Keisha shrugged, remembering how awkward and big she’d grown during her pregnancy. “After my second trimester, I was afraid to. I didn’t think it was safe for the developing fetus.”

“But why?” Liana glanced from Anton to Adam and then focused her attention on Keisha. “A Chanku bitch can shift up until she delivers. During delivery, if she’s in wolf form, she will have no control over a shift to human when birth is imminent, but until that moment, she can shift and the baby will shift with her. The connection is total between mother and child. Whatever her form, that is her unborn child’s form.”

“I had no idea. I worried so much about shifting, even in the very early months.” Keisha glanced at Anton. “This is knowledge that Lisa and Tala don’t have. It’s something that could make a difference.”

“I agree.” Anton ran his fingers over his forehead. “We need to get down there.” Keisha wrapped her fingers around his outstretched hand. He pulled her to her feet.

“Liana,” he said, wrapping his arm around Keisha’s waist, “when this crisis has ended and the women are safe, you and I need to sit down for a long talk.” He laughed, leaned over, and kissed the woman who’d once been their Goddess, and long ago, his lover. “I’ve been afraid to bother you with all my many questions, but it’s time to put that consideration aside.”

Keisha jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. “Actually, I think the girls and I need to spend some time with Liana and see what kinds of misconceptions we might have. I’d hate to discover we’re not really a matriarchal society.” She tugged Anton toward the door. “Because if we’re not, I don’t want the men to know.”

Liana and Adam walked them to the door. “No worry there, Keisha.” Liana’s laughter was contagious. “Female Chanku will always have the last word. It’s not only bred into us, it’s part of the males’ physiology as well.”

“I was afraid of that.” Adam kissed Liana’s cheek. “I knew there was a reason she wins every argument.”