by Kimber White
“I’m impressed,” she said and until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I needed her to be.
I looked at her. Really looked at her. She was stunning in every way. Full, luscious lips. Now that I knew how they tasted, I wanted so much more.
She had a small waist but ample hips that swayed when she walked. And those tits. Her nipples still pebbled beneath the thin fabric of her tank top. She brushed her hair over her shoulder. Even in the dim light, I could see the shimmering kaleidoscope of color. It almost looked natural. Was that possible? But not even witches could grow hair like that. I’d once met a water witch with blue hair, but that was about exotic as I’d ever seen.
“So,” she said, standing with her hands on her hips. “Is it safe here?”
A low growl went through me. An answer bubbled up. Something stopped me from saying it. It would have to be a hell of a thing that could get through me to this woman.
“I’m pretty isolated out here,” I said. “If something comes up that ridge, I’ll smell it miles away. Magic or no magic.”
“You’re satisfied?” she asked.
I raised a brow. Not even close, baby.
“I’m satisfied you’re not a junkie,” he said. “But, you’re something. If you want my help, you’re going to have to tell me what that is.”
“I’m a daughter looking for her parents,” she said. “You know everything about me that’s worth knowing. Believe me.”
“You can say that all you want,” I said. “But I know what I felt. You did something back there. When those idiots tried to corner you.”
“You’re deflecting,” she said. “Tell me what your friend said about my parents.”
I could barely remember my conversation with Bach. It almost seemed like years ago. Here, with Cassia alone, the world fell away. But I wasn’t one to live in a fantasy world. That Dragonstone burned in her pocket. My heart flared with alarm.
“They wanted you,” I said. “Those spell-heads. Please tell me you didn’t show anyone what you’re holding.”
“The Dragonstone?” she asked. “I’m not an idiot, Colm.”
“Hmm.”
“Tell me what you found out,” she asked again.
“Not much,” I said, turning away from her. I guarded my words. She might not be using, but it didn’t mean I could trust everything she said.
“Tell me!” she shouted.
“He’s heard of your folks,” I said. “A little. Your father mostly. He doesn’t know if he was involved directly, but there was a shifter transport headed through northern Ohio that went missing a couple of months ago. I don’t know if they got away. I don’t know if they got dead. But, the timing tracks with when you said your father went missing.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, her voice breaking. The alarm in her eyes sliced through me. I had the overpowering urge to take her in my arms and kiss her pain away. I shook it off. It was dangerous for me to think that.
“It means I have more questions to ask. But there’s nothing we can do tonight. You drew some attention at Bach’s. Whether you meant to or not. Those spell-heads tried to get something off of you. They think it’s pure and powerful. If you want me to go any further for you, you’re the first person I need more answers from. But not tonight. I need to…”
“You need to shift,” she said. “You need to hunt. I can see it in your eyes.”
My wolf let out an answering growl. Dammit.
“I told you,” she said. “I know a thing or two about your kind.”
“You need to stay here,” I said. “Out of sight. I need to make doubly sure we weren’t followed. If you’re hungry, there’s some jerky, fresh bread, fruit, bottled water, and some other stuff in the cupboards. Help yourself. I won’t be gone long.”
“Then what?” she asked. A tiny bead of sweat formed on her upper lip.
“Then we come at this with fresher heads in the morning. There’s a pallet up in the loft. Or you can take the couch. It has a pullout.”
“What about you?”
I didn’t answer. The truth was, I wouldn’t sleep a wink tonight. I was too damn keyed up.
“Don’t worry about me. You asked for information. You paid for my protection. You have it. Now get some sleep.”
I left her mouth gaping as I let myself out the back door and answered the call of my wolf.
I ran to the top of the ridge. The moon hung low, just a sliver tonight. It helped. Had I tasted Cassia under the light of a full moon, I didn’t think I’d have been able to stop.
I used the power of my hind legs to propel me forward. Dark earth. Warm blood. The tangy scent of my prey sent me tearing through the woods.
A fat rabbit skittered out from under the brush. I could have scooped him up in an instant. He was fast. I would always be faster.
Still, I needed the dark pull of the chase. Wild. Feral. Natural. Later, it would clear my head. Let me think. At least, I hoped.
I felt his thundering heartbeat. So fast. So strong. And then…still. There were three more where he came from.
I brought them to the bank of the hidden stream and washed the blood from my snout. Later, I’d skin them, start a fire, and give Cassia a feast.
I pawed the ground. It was still and cold that night. The stars were a blanket of glittering diamonds. The brightest hung right over my rooftop.
I lifted my head and let out a howl I’d held pent up for hours. Then another. I sat back on my haunches and looked toward the cabin. Cassia had chosen the loft. I couldn’t see her from here, but I sensed her as if she materialized right in front of me.
Her pale skin, soft and heated. I still had the taste of her on my lips.
I closed my eyes and let my pulse slow. I had a vision of her. She waded in just downstream. Her rainbow hair glimmered in the morning sun. She threw her head back and laughed.
She turned. Her perfect breasts swung. Dark nipples, flat, toned stomach. Long legs. She squatted down and cupped her hands in the water. Laughing, she splashed me. I had my arms around her waist. I drank in her scent and her sun-warmed hair fell over my shoulder.
So warm. So wet. So perfect.
Want. Need. Mine.
She was beneath me. Her eyes sparking, changing color just like her hair. She let out a little sigh as her walls shuddered around me. I threw my head back and let my fangs drop.
Then, she was on all fours, her perfect ass high in the air as she beckoned me forward.
“Please,” she whispered. She gathered her hair, exposing the base of her neck.
A growl ripped through my whole body as I shifted back and dropped down to my knees. Sweat poured off of me. Panting, I got to my feet.
Mine.
I closed my eyes. The wood was still and silent. Every creature within a mile radius had sensed me on the hunt and gone into hiding after the rabbits met their fate.
No. Not perfect stillness. Just one sound reached me.
Tha-thump. Tha-thump.
I held my breath. Cassia’s heartbeat. The rhythm of it matched my own.
No. Not here. Not after all this time. I wanted her. But she couldn’t really be mine.
And yet, it wasn’t a dream. Not my imagination. She was here, just under my breastbone. It was as if my veins filled with the sense of her.
Fated mates. I’d long since stopped hoping for it. I’d seen all the trouble it caused the wolves of Wild Lake. My mother. My father. How many times had he risked his life for hers? They spoke without words. They felt each other even when they were miles away. It was pure. Intense. And then, I’d seen what it could do to a man when he lost the thing that made him breathe.
Broken. Lost. Mad.
It was too much. Too risky. In places like Wild Lake or parts of the Yukon, fated mates could be together without fear of repercussions. Here in the NZ, a thing like that could get you killed if you were lucky. If you were very, very unlucky, they could use it to make you do things that would send you straight to hell.
No, I thought. Not me. That can never be me. My heart had to stay my own no matter what. This wasn’t Wild Lake. This was real. I survived alone, and that was that.
She turned in her sleep. I didn’t remember even walking up from the stream. I was on autopilot. Damn. It was as if the girl acted on me like some kind of tractor beam.
All the more reason to get her the hell out of my life for good. The Dragonstone could buy my freedom. But what good would it do me if I sent myself hell to get it?
“Colm.”
I heard my name whispered on her lips. I stood a few yards away from the house. I could see her shape through the open window to the loft.
Her hair fanned out over the pillow. She lay with her arm draped over the side of the pallet. The blanket slipped down. She’d taken off her jeans. My eyes followed the swell of her hips. I wanted to slip in beside her, press her curves to me.
I shook my head to clear it and walked down to the firepit. It was almost dawn. No better time to busy myself by making her a breakfast of rabbit stew. Then, I’d tell her this was the end of the road. No matter what I’d heard about Brandhart, she could find some other sucker to take her to the shores of Lake Erie. This was where I got off.
I lost myself in the task at hand. I made clean cuts. Quick, methodical. I found my flint and started the fire. It crackled to life and calmed me the way fire always did.
I kept my back to the house.
As the sun peeked over the tree line. I almost didn’t hear the sound of footsteps coming down the north side of the hill.
My wolf did. My fangs dropped. Cassia’s scream cut through the air and shattered my heart.
Black smoke enveloped me. The stench of dark magic made me retch. I couldn’t see them. Couldn’t tell if they were shifter, human, or something in between.
I heard a buzzing sound that drowned out Cassia’s voice. Gagging, I staggered through the smoke and let instinct take over.
More buzzing, then pain shot through my shoulder. Blood sprayed across the side of the house. My blood.
That’s when the bomb went off.
The blast threw me back on my ass. For a moment, I forgot the shooting pain through my arm.
“Cassia!” I managed to shout.
The window to the loft exploded outward, showering me with glass.
I got to the front door. Flames licked their way up the walls. So strong. So fast. Another blast of fire knocked me back as I opened the door.
She was there. With her arm covering her mouth, she stumbled forward into my arms. Tendrils of flame swirled around her. But she was real, solid, alive.
I gathered her in my arms and ran deeper into the woods as black smoke and white flames devoured the cabin behind us.
Chapter 7
Cassia
The world was heat, light, and the smell of charred wood. Colm drew me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist. I felt his racing pulse, echoing my own. It was everything I could do to keep my own fire from exploding from my fingertips. I felt my wings pressing against my shoulder blades. I willed them not to come out.
I ran with him, away from the inferno that was once Colm’s hideaway. I felt his panic, his fear, his protective instincts flaring. His wolf struggled to get out just as my wings did.
We covered a few miles before Colm finally slowed. We stopped in the wet, soft earth near a bubbling stream. The sun started to peek over the tree line.
Gasping, Colm ran his hands over my shoulders, down my arms, his eyes wild, his skin ashen.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his brow deeply furrowed.
“I’m okay,” I said. My heart raced, and I forced it to slow.
“Are you sure?” he said, crooking a finger beneath my chin to raise my gaze until I met his. I slowly did a mental ten count to get my fire under control.
Colm stepped back, his eyes still wild, flashing gold. I could still detect the strong, primal scent of his wolf. He had shifted just before he approached the cabin. His power coursed through him, nearly igniting my own.
He shook his head, then tore a hand through his hair. He took two steps away from me then smashed his fist into a nearby tree, splintering some bark.
“I don’t understand it,” he said. “I was sure no one followed us. I went all through the woods. No tracks. No scent. What the hell just happened?”
A log had fallen parallel to the stream. I sank down and sat on it.
“Christ,” Colm said. “They could have killed you.”
“They?” I asked. I hadn’t sensed anyone either before the explosion rocked the cabin from its foundation. He didn’t know. I couldn’t tell him. If I were just human, I’d be dead right now. But no fire like that could harm me.
“Magic,” I said, as much as myself to Colm.
Colm sniffed the air. His lips curled in a snarl.
“Yeah,” he said. “Maybe.” He started to pace along the bank of the stream.
“No one,” he said. “No one knows about that cabin. You’re the only person I’ve ever taken there.”
His eyes narrowed in accusation. My pulse skipped. Lord. Had it been me? Did I do that? No. Not me. I’d never lost that much control. And it had been quiet just before the explosion hit. I hadn’t even sensed Colm until he raced toward me and the fire already started.
“You think I did it?” I said.
He charged me, searching my face. “Did you?”
I rose from the log. “No,” I said, lowering my voice. “It wasn’t me. Why the hell would I set fire to a cabin while I was still in it, Colm?”
He blanched as my logic sank in. It was a lie, though. But it was a secret I couldn’t trust him with. Not now. Maybe never.
“Brandhart,” he said. “Somebody doesn’t like me asking questions.”
Cold fear snaked its way up my spine. “How well do you trust your wizard friend back there?” I asked. “Seems to me he’s the only one you’ve told about my father. He had you followed. Or cast a spell when you weren’t looking.”
“Or you,” he said, pointing a finger on me. “I warned you about flashing too much money in town. Hurley. That transport driver. Those spell-heads at Bach’s place. Christ. I must be out of my mind bringing you this far.”
I sank back down on the log. “Colm,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking to bring trouble for you if that’s what happened. My father…he’s a good man. If something bad has happened to him, if he needs help… I don’t care. Not about your cabin. Not about my safety. Not about you. Every single thing will be worth it to me to find my parents and bring them home.”
Colm shook his head. I felt his anger rising. It threw off a heat of its own that stirred me.
He came to me. I stood my ground. My heart tripped and I could feel his rising to match it. My entire body ached for something. A deep craving started in my core and spread, making my nerve endings tingle.
Touch me. Kiss me.
I blinked hard, trying to clear my head. Colm’s skin flushed. His breath quickened.
“Who sent you?” he barked.
“What?” I asked.
He gripped my upper arms. Electricity shot between us, taking my breath straight from my lungs.
“No one sent me,” I said. “I told you. I asked around. My intel led me to you. Hurley led me to you. And we have a deal.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Dragonstone. Colm licked his lips. I held the stone flat on my palm. The rising sun reflected off its smooth surface, making it glitter green and gold.
“They’re worth it,” I said. “I’m worth it. When you help me find my parents, the loss of your cabin won’t matter, Colm. You’ll have everything you need right here.”
His eyes flicked to me and flashed. I was talking about the Dragonstone, but I felt his appetite for something more. Me. His lust poured off of him. Mine matched it.
A low growl rumbled through him. His eyes went utterly feral. We were practically nose to nose. Sweat dripped from his brow.
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br /> “I want more than that stone,” he said.
My breath caught. Heat pooled low in my core. I couldn’t read his mind. I didn’t need to. Every inch of him transmitted the war going on inside him. I waged a similar one within me.
Want. Need. Mine.
“Who sent you?” he said. He could still form words, but his voice became guttural and low.
“I haven’t told you a single lie,” I said.
He snapped his teeth. His incisors sharpened as his wolf played just below the surface.
“I want more than that single stone,” he said, his meaning clear.
I felt a groan bubble up in me. I wanted to throw my head back. Expose my neck. A vision flashed. Lord help me, I wanted to go on all fours for him.
I gritted my teeth against my own rising desire. Gathering my strength, I jerked away from his grasp.
He growled and snapped his teeth.
“Watch your manners, wolf,” I said.
His shoulders dropped. He licked his lips again. The wind kicked up, lifting my hair from my shoulders. He reached for it, letting the rainbow-colored strands wrap around his fingers.
“It’s not enough,” he said. “My terms have changed. I just lost my house because of you.”
I stood my ground. “I had nothing to do with that.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “You had everything to do with it. I deal with the most dangerous people in the NZ. But they leave me alone. Until today.”
“What do you want from me?”
I could feel the answer in his wolfish gaze. Everything. He wanted everything. So did I.
New heat rose within me, settling at the base of my neck.
No. I would not give in to it. Colm was dangerous. Dark. Unpredictable. He just said it himself. He dealt with the most dangerous characters in the Neutral Zone. The moment he knew what I really was, he would turn on me. Maybe he already had.
“My price has doubled,” he said. “Tripled. It’s not safe for me in Michigan City tonight. It’s one thing trying to help you from my home base. If I take you on the road…”
“Your friend Bach told you something,” I said. “You know where to look for my parents. Tell me the truth!”
