by Anna Lowe
Axel…?
No answer, so she replayed his words.
I love you.
I wish…
She squeezed her eyes tighter and dug past the words, desperate for more, but there was no more. Just the vaguest sensation, like a wobble in the air.
She closed her eyes and took two cautious steps. Glanced around to check for obstacles, then did it again. Another two steps.
Every day, his chair had drawn her like a magnet. But if she reached deeper, there was a tiny thread, leading…that way.
She opened her eyes on the wall of the library. East.
Her heart pounded, and the rose seemed to warm under her touch.
East?
She ran outside, ignoring the chilly air, and did it again – closed her eyes and wandered off in the direction that felt right. Wandered past the last houses of the settlement and out into the bush, past the paddocks and supply shed. Walking what felt like a perfectly straight line on a perfectly true course. The course to Axel?
She stood staring into the distance.
Months ago, she’d sent out a silent scream for help when the hellhound caught her off guard, and Axel had come running.
How did you know where to come? she’d asked him that night of the false alarm, when Axel had come to her home.
I just knew. Axel had shrugged at the time. I just knew.
She looked past the familiar eastern horizon, into infinity. Felt the fragile thread, pulling her.
I just knew.
When she turned around and ran back to the library, her legs felt clumsy, unwilling to cooperate. A good sign, she decided, if it meant she was tuned in to him. She rushed inside and grabbed the phone. Dialed, then waited, stroking the rose with anxious fingers.
“Come on, come on. Answer…” She glared at the phone. “Come on…”
Someone fumbled on the other end of the line, and a breathless voice came on. “Tina Hawthorne, Seymour Ranch.”
“Tina?” Beth shouted into the phone. “We need your help. Please! Come quick!”
“Beth?”
“Help! Please! Come quick!”
Chapter Nineteen
Beth knew the others were hurrying. Tina and Rick screeched up to the council house in their truck. Feet pounded over the wooden stairs, and a dozen concerned voices filled the room. But even so, everything seemed to play out in torturously slow motion. Like they were all mired in jelly or studying a video decelerated to frame-by-frame progression as her packmates deliberated what to do.
“There’s Broken Hill…” Zack, the pack’s best tracker, pointed to a map and murmured to Rae, his mate.
Tina and Rick nodded at each other. “We’re ready.”
“What exactly is the trouble?” Cody asked. “How much help do the javelinas need?”
Lana, the pack’s alpha female, looked troubled. “No telling whether they’re up against a couple of boars or a dozen.”
“Just how dangerous are these boars?” Lana’s cousin Trey asked.
Zack threw him a look that said, Dangerous. Lethal.
“One more time.” Ty turned to Beth. “What did Axel say?”
She wanted to stamp a foot and yell, because what Axel had said was only for her. What mattered was to get to him, pronto. If she had any faith in her rattling old Mazda, she’d have long since set out alone.
Then someone started shouting, and everyone stopped cold to stare at Beth. She wondered why.
Wondered why her lips were moving. Why the floor was vibrating under her feet.
She took a sharp breath because, whoa, she was the one shouting, stamping.
“We need to get going, now. That way!” She stabbed a finger—no, her whole hand—to the east. “Now!”
Ty’s eyes burned red as he stared at her. Had the lowly librarian just given the pack alpha an order?
“I can feel it,” she insisted, refusing to back down. “It’s that way.”
Ty’s piercing vision flared, then dimmed, and he nodded. Nodded—at her!
Well, he nodded at what she’d said, but his eyes were on his mate. In fact, every mated couple in the room seemed to be nodding as if they knew exactly what she meant.
“All right,” Ty murmured a moment later. He glanced at Tina and Rick. “Get going.”
Tina waved at Beth. “Ride with us.”
“We’ll be right behind,” Rae added, already heading for the door. “I just need to get my bow…”
Rick’s finger tapped at the shifters gathered in the room. “Five of us.”
“Six.” Trey Dixon stepped forward.
Beth wondered if the young ranch hand knew what he was getting into. She wondered what she was getting into…
“Six.” Rick nodded. “Is that enough?”
No one seemed able to answer the question.
It was Zack who broke the silence with a measured nod. “Enough for a start. Javelinas never travel in groups of more than two or three. Even their biggest fights rarely involve more than a handful of boars.”
Rarely? Beth wondered if this was one of those times. But time was of the essence.
“Let’s get going.” She startled herself with the firm resolve in her voice.
And finally, finally, everything shifted into fast motion. Doors slammed, engines roared, and those staying behind pulled children out of the way to let the trucks race under the ranch gateway and down the road. A road meant to be taken at thirty miles an hour, but Rick—bless him—hammered away at what felt like ninety-five. Three miles later, the tires hit the smooth tar of the highway and he rocketed into yet another gear.
Tina held a map up, but Beth ignored it and pointed. “That way.”
“That way,” Tina said, popping up from the map at exactly the same time.
They blinked at each other for a moment. Both their fingers pointed exactly the same way.
“Looks like a match.” Rick grinned.
For the first time in the past hour, Beth felt something like hope.
Chapter Twenty
“No!”
Beth jolted out of a nightmare just as the pickup rolled to a stop. She blinked away images of dark caves and choking dust and murmured again. “No…”
God, where was Axel? What happened?
Tina and Rick were staring at her, so she forced a straight face and stared at the highway.
“Not far now,” Tina said, pointing ahead.
Just refocusing on something besides the awful images in her mind was difficult, because everything felt wrong. The direction felt wrong, too. Her body was curled hard into the passenger side door as if to snuggle closer to Axel.
“There,” she blurted, jabbing a finger to the right. “He’s over there.”
Rick glanced at Tina and slowly pulled over. A second pickup pulled up alongside: Zack and Rae, with Trey crowded into the back seat. God, they looked bushed. Beth glanced in the side-view mirror and frowned at her own disheveled image.
“Are you sure?” Tina asked. “Because Broken Hill is that way…”
Beth slid out of the car and closed her eyes, as much to hold back the threat of tears as to concentrate on the pulling sensation inside. The warm, homey sensation tugging her…
“That way,” she whispered, pointing southeast.
Behind her, the others were silent, and she was terrified they’d disagree. Really, what business did one of the lower-ranking Twin Moon wolves have telling four of her most powerful packmates what to do?
Something rustled and Tina appeared at her side holding a map. Without a word, she held it up in the slanting afternoon light.
It took Beth a moment to digest the fact that she was being asked to lead the way. She sucked in a long, deep breath and studied the map.
“It’s all plains up to here.” Tina’s finger swept eastward over the map.
Beth leaned closer. The hills depicted to one side didn’t feel quite right. But the crooked lines indicating canyonlands a little farther south, that could be it. Reluctantly,
she went back to the vision of the dreams. Rocks. Dust. Cracked, broken earth. A thin strip of sky…
She tapped the map. “Somewhere over there, I think.”
I know, her wolf growled inside.
Tina studied the small print. “Mather Canyon. Indo…Indigo Bluffs.”
Every cell in Beth’s body nodded up and down. “Indigo Bluffs.”
A moment later, they were speeding down the highway again, then slowing to turn off. Minutes ticked by, and eventually a slow, bumpy hour. Then the pavement ended, and they rolled over a rough back road to nowhere.
Not the road to nowhere, her wolf growled inside. The road to my mate.
The track angled and climbed over increasingly convoluted terrain, higher and higher until—
Rick had barely rolled to a stop when Beth threw the door open and leaped out.
“That way!” Her urgent cry ended in a growl as the fastest shift of her life took over her body and her wolf sprung to the surface. She didn’t even feel it. One second, she was standing on two feet, considering the Technicolor terrain, and the next, she was pounding along on four legs in a world dominated by black and white. Sharp-edged black and white, like an Ansel Adams photograph in which every fissure in the earth, every cloud’s edge seemed carved by a knife.
“Whoa, wait up!” she heard Tina shout from behind.
No way was she waiting for anyone, not with Axel so close. Earlier, the feeling had been faint, like a muffled shout at the end of a tunnel. Now, the sensation was roaring in her ears. He was close. Very close.
Not close enough, her wolf growled through gritted teeth. Not yet, he isn’t.
Vaguely, she could sense her packmates shift and spread out behind her, keeping their backs low, their tails to the ground.
Every hair on her body stood at high alert. Where was Axel? What would they find ahead? What enemy might jump out of the bush?
The others labored to catch up, but she refused to rein in her pace. It felt strange, running at the head when Zack, a skilled tracker, or Rae, their best hunter, ought to be doing that. Back at home, she’d always been content to follow the others on full-moon runs or the occasional hunt. She rarely strayed past the fringes of the ranch, because not too far had always been plenty for her.
Not today. Today, she was leading the charge. Every muscle in her body fought the notion of slowing down.
God, where was he?
Stop! Zack shot out a warning just as Beth skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff. I’m catching a scent…
Beth sniffed and caught the faintest trace of…javelina. Just similar enough to Axel’s scent for her to identify, but light years apart. The way a ripe apple and a rotten one smelled alike. Her nose wrinkled.
She crept forward slowly, belly half an inch from the ground, feeling more canine than she’d been in an eternity. More determined. More dangerous. She licked her long wolf snout and dug her claws into the ground. She coiled her shoulder muscles, ready to spring. Lucky thing that a little chunky in human terms—her mother’s term for her body shape—translated to considerable canine power. Even if her wolf could never match Rae’s in pure athleticism or Tina’s in sheer grace, it sure as hell was a force to be reckoned with. Especially today. Hell, an army couldn’t keep her from her mate.
She peered into the canyon below in a place marked by fresh rockfall.
Not a soul in sight, yet the air wavered with uncertainty and unrest.
She’d half expected dueling boars, charging each other across the plains. Not this eerie quiet. Not this twisted, hopeless maze.
A crow cawed, and its cracked voice echoed against the canyon walls.
Axel? She reached for him with her thoughts.
Nothing.
Tina trotted alongside, panting as she studied the cleft in the earth. “What abou—”
Beth didn’t hear the rest. All she heard—or rather, felt—was the slightest scratching at the edge of her mind.
Beth?
She shot down the sheer, tenuous slope.
Gravel tumbled under her heels, and she dashed onward, clawing at the loose scree, cursing every step of the way. Her blood was pounding in an entirely different way, too, and her vision started blurring into red with fury. Because it wasn’t the nice, polite librarian racing headlong toward the foot of the bluffs. It was the wolf.
I’ve had it with waiting, her wolf swore. I’ve had it with holding back. I know what I want.
Axel, Axel, and Axel.
Now, her wolf barked.
The slope flattened, and she maintained her momentum, charging toward a wall littered with boulders. Excited wolf yips and determined footfalls sounded behind her, and the next thing she knew, they were all clawing at the rockfall. Shoving rocks, sniffing down the cracks. Shifting into human form for a better hold and shouting at the top of their lungs.
“Axel? Axel?”
She strained for any response.
Time dragged out, then skipped and bounced. A scratchy moan…a flicker of movement…the groan of rock against rock as Rick and Trey heaved a boulder aside…the hollow behind it, the crumpled forms.
“Axel!” she screamed and flung herself at him.
His bristly hide scratched her cheek exactly the way his stubbly chin had tickled her skin so many times before. The scent was richer but undeniably his.
“Axel…” she whispered, running her hands over the razor’s edge of his back.
An instant later, the hair softened and receded under her touch. His body blurred. Hide gave way to a smooth expanse of skin stretched over muscle, and fingers wiggled out of his cloven hooves.
“Axel,” she whimpered, curling around him as the final human details took shape. Elbows and knees. The seashell curve of his ear. Warm, thick fingers, wrapped around hers.
“Beth,” he whispered.
Her racing heart calmed at the sound of his bass.
Mate, her wolf hummed. My mate.
She could have held him forever if it weren’t for the outside world, charging right in. Groans sounded from nearby. Someone brushed past her shoulder, and voices broke into the hush.
“There’s another one!”
“Is he all right?”
A deep, miserable groan assured everyone listening that the second boar was far from all right.
Beth looked up to see Rick dusting off a battle-scarred boar, who slowly sat up, looking stunned. The uncle, Gunther.
The third boar barely stirred, and Tina kneeled beside it, calling out in an anxious voice. “Lothar?”
Axel came to his knees, wobbled to his feet, and lurched over. “Father?”
Lothar’s ribs rose in a shallow, labored breath, and he moaned quietly.
Everyone clustered around and quieted as Tina touched his sides.
“Broken ribs…broken leg…” She shook her head as her hand carefully took stock.
Lothar groaned sharply.
“Broken hip…”
Axel’s eyes clouded, and Beth squeezed his hand. Javelinas heal slowly, but they heal, right?
Axel stuck his jaw out, considering his father’s battered body, then managed a tight nod.
“What happened?” Rick asked.
Gunther, still in javelina form, gave a plaintive grunt.
“Ambush.” Axel nodded wearily. “The Kruesmanns set off a rockslide, then took off…”
His eyes jumped to the top edge of the canyon, and Beth felt her heart lurch.
“God, we need to get moving…” Axel winced, getting to his feet. “We have to go.”
Go? Beth’s wolf cried out.
She wanted to tackle Axel, tie him to one of the wizened roots protruding from the ground, and dare anyone to drag him away. But duty called, damn it. The Waldermann pack was under siege, and if help didn’t come soon…
The hair on the back of her neck bristled. She’d heard the stories. Javelinas lived by brutal, almost medieval laws, and interpack attacks weren’t far from Viking raids in which the conquerors would p
lunder, rape, and enslave.
Tina stood tall and looked north as if to say, Over my dead body.
Beth released a long, slow breath. The fight wasn’t over. Axel had to defend his home. She’d do the same if it were Twin Moon Ranch, right?
Right, her wolf replied in a firm voice.
She looked at Axel, standing tall and resolute, and a little bit of courage seeped back into her shoulders. He fought for her pack; she’d fight for his. And after that…
The thought started out shaky and unsure, so she started again. After that, we claim our mate for ourselves and never, ever let him go again.
Never, her wolf declared in hearty agreement.
Axel glanced over at exactly that moment. His eyes shone, mirroring her thoughts.
Gunther creaked to four feet, closing his eyes against the pain. Lothar’s hooves scraped at the ground as he tried to stand.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Tina warned, keeping a hand on his shoulder.
“We have to go,” Axel urged.
Tina’s eyes flitted to Rick’s, and they exchanged quiet nods. “We’ll all go.”
Everyone bristled in unspoken agreement, Rick, Trey, Zack, and Rae. Javelinas had come to the aid of Twin Moon Ranch when they needed it most; the wolves would reciprocate.
“You good to go?” Rick glanced at Axel.
The javelina straightened with an audible crack of his shoulders. “I’m good.” He reached a hand toward Lothar’s shoulder. “Father…”
The injured javelina grunted in a clear message. Something like, I’m fine. Perfectly fine! Stop making such a fuss.
Axel sighed, and Beth could read the meaning in that, too. Right.
The instant she put a hand on Axel’s shoulder, her whole body went warm. His, too—the heat swept up her arm and into her chest.
Let’s get going, Gunther murmured, setting off at a creaky pace.
Beth looked deep into Axel’s eyes, and a heartbeat later, they both nodded at exactly the same time.
Lead the way, my love. She pushed the thought into his mind. Lead the way.
Chapter Twenty-One
For the first few minutes of their run north, Axel despaired. His uncle Gunther struggled to keep up with the wolves’ hammering pace. As formidable as his wolf allies were, there were only a few of them, plus himself…against how many? And would they even get to Broken Hill in time? Had his packmates been able to hold out? Would the cousins who had been called in from the east make it in time?
