by Terra Wolf
I spent the next week with my dad helping him out with my grandmother’s house and laying on the beach whenever I had the opportunity. But Alastair’s conversation, Noah’s past, and the man who attacked me plagued my mind. Everywhere I looked I thought I saw Noah. Like he was at every turn. And then the night before I went back to school my cell phone rang and it was a number I didn’t recognize. But something made me answer it, maybe fate, maybe my grandmother’s ghost, or maybe just hope.
“Piper? It’s Noah.”
“How did you get my number?”
“I asked the officer that helped you that night. I had to be a little forceful, but I had to know that you were okay. I heard that you were attacked?”
“Yeah. But I’m okay. This big bear came through and scared him off. Did the cops find him?”
“He was dealt with. I’m just glad that you’re all right.”
“What does it matter to you? You don’t even know me.”
“I don’t know you yet. I’m no good for you. That’s why I kept my distance that night, but I shouldn’t have.”
“Why should you stay away from me?”
He paused on the other end of the line, “Because I’ve got secrets. I stay away from pretty girls like you so you don’t get hurt.”
“You have secrets? You’ve no idea. Here’s a big one, everything that Alastair said, was true. My grandmother was a well-known psychic, but I had no idea she’d ever been to Hunter’s Manor. And honestly, I’ve been racking my brain for the past week as to why she wouldn’t have told me that. And the only conclusion I’ve come to, is you.”
“What is it about me?”
“She described the physical characteristics of my one true love, and they match yours perfectly. But I’ve been looking for that guy from her visions for my whole life. If she knew that you existed, why didn't she tell me about her time at the Manor? And that I should stay away from you?”
“See? Even she knew I was dangerous.”
“Maybe she did. She was a good judge of character.”
“What do you like to eat?”
It seemed so random. “I’m sorry?”
“What do you like to eat? Italian? Burgers?”
“I like Italian I guess. Why?”
“I want to take you out to dinner.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Dinner, the two of us. I need to explain some things to you, make you understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Please, it’d be better in person.” His please made me melt, just as it had in the den. I read his past that night. What would a dinner get me into?
“Fine. One dinner.”
“When do you go back to school?”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said feeling suddenly nervous.
“Then I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow night. I promise, you won’t regret it.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true, but I was desperate to see him again. No matter if I would regret it or not.
Eleven
PIPER
I sat on the couch, ready for my date, anxiously awaiting Lauren’s arrival. It was nearly seven, but she was supposed to be back by six, so I was nervous.
Finally I heard a knock at the door. I was looking at a magazine and didn’t get up.
“Just come in, you live here too.”
The when the door open and Noah popped his head around, I was shocked.
“Crap, sorry. I was waiting for my roommate, I thought she’d beat you here.”
“Oh,” he said, “do you want to wait so you can see her before we go?”
“No it’s fine.”
He held a bouquet of flowers in front of him.
“Come in. Are those for me?”
He extended the flowers towards me, dark red roses, and were beautiful. “Yeah, I grabbed them on the way here. It just felt like I needed something in my hands when I came to see you.”
“Why’s that?”
He sighed heavily, “So that would make this less awkward? But that didn’t seem to work.”
I took the roses from him. “Well they’re beautiful just the same.”
I cut the stems and went about finding a vase. I inhaled as I cut; they smelled amazing.
“I made reservations at a restaurant Luke recommended, so I’m sure it’s good.”
“Luke--the one who made the cookies?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, then I’m sure it will be good. He’s an excellent cook.”
He nodded, “Good point.”
I set the vase on the counter and admired the beautiful flowers. “Shall we?”
He opened the door for me and we walked out of the dorm and to his rusty beater truck.
It rattled down the road and I looked out the window at the passing landscape. I loved Maine. It was so pretty.
“How’s your car?’ He asked pulling me from my thoughts.
“Done,” I responded. “Totaled, I have to buy a new one.”
“That sucks. I mean it looked bad, but I hoped you could salvage it.”
“Yeah me too.”
More silence for a while, and then. “What do you think of the weather?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re kidding, right? I mean the weather, Noah? I saw your past, which I’ve never done before. We hardly know each other and yet I can’t stop thinking about you, and you wanna talk about the freaking weather? Seriously.”
He pulled off the road and into a small clearing. Cars passed by us but we sat perfectly still, daring the other to speak.
“So you’re definitely a psychic.”
“Yeah, that’s been very well established.”
“And you always see the truth?”
“I get pieces of information, they’re not always easy to decipher.”
“So you saw the cave? And just the cave?”
“Yes.”
He sighed, chewing on his lower lip. “What else have you seen with me?”
Did I tell him? How could I explain that I’d dreamt of him every night since we met? That before that I was desperately searching for him?
“In my dreams” I admitted.
“Are we together?”
“I just see you. Smiling, mostly. But occasionally you look angry, protective.”
He smirked. “That sounds like me.”
“Why would you be protective?”
“Because there are people after you Piper, for your gift. They want you for their own.”
“That guy who attacked me? He knew about my ability? But how?”
“No idea. But we’re going to find out.”
His tires squealed and we made a U turn back onto the road. “What about dinner?” I asked.
“Another time, right now we’re going to the manor. We need answers.”
Don’t I know it.
Twelve
PIPER
We arrived at the manor an hour or so later. I was beginning to get dark. I watched the trees carefully, fearing my assailant would fly through the night again. Noah watched me intently.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said, as he put his hand on my knee.
“I know.” But that didn’t mean I wasn’t still afraid.
When we entered the house, Noah called for his family, but no one responded. “I guess they’re all out. Want to wait in the living room?”
“Okay.” I would wait all night with him if we had to; I needed answers.
I sat in an old red armchair as he looked out the window. He paced back and forth like an animal and his prey. “Noah,” I called to him. “Come here.”
He walked over slowly, “Yes?”
“I want to touch you again. I’ve got to figure this out. The past, it’s so new to me. Please let me try.” I said holding out my hand.
He looked apprehensive. “I still have secrets.” He crouched down next to me.
“Everyone does.”
“But mine…”
I didn’t give him the chance to finish, inste
ad I grabbed his hand and held it between my own. He could have pulled away, broken the connection, but instead he let me in. But this time I didn’t see the past, I saw the future. The two of use tangled up in sheets. His bare back exposed and me underneath him groaning with pleasure. I was in the bedroom with us, watching like a voyeur. There was literally steam rising off of our bodies. I wanted to stay in the vision, but I couldn’t, I had to go. I just prayed this one wasn’t off. I desperately wanted a repeat of our first night together.
“Well?” He said as I emerged.
“Nothing.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “That’s not true. You went somewhere, I could tell.”
“Nope. Just big empty space,” I replied trying not to blush.
Just then Alastair walked in, “Piper, good to see you again. I must admit, I’m surprised.”
Noah stood, “You’re not really though, are you? We need to know about the other group, about everything.”
“But…” Alastair stammered. “Our ways.”
“Are about to be compromised,” Noah said in a daring tone.
“Noah, you can’t.” Alastair said walking into the room.
Noah turned to me, but the moment he did I was thrust into another vision. This time it was fragmented. Our touch at the cookie tin, the bear who chased my attacker away, Noah as a child. Suddenly the man Noah was in front of me in a dark room. He thought he was alone. He stripped down to nothing and looked into a mirror. His muscles rippled under his skin; he was flexing his well-built arms when suddenly he began to morph. Fur sprang up from around his body. His fingers turned into claws, and as he bent over his size grew immensely. In only a minute where Noah had stood was now a giant brown bear. The bear that had saved me.
Holy shit. The guy I had sex with, the ridiculously hot guy I had been dreaming of, was a freaking bear. A BEAR.
Noah shook me by my shoulders out of the vision. “Piper? Piper, what happened?” He sounded concerned.
“I found out your secret,” I said blankly. “You’re a bear.”
“What?” Alastair screeched. “But how?”
“I saw it.” And that was the truth. I saw Noah go from a human, to a bear. He was a bear shifter. And I was a psychic, and my life had just taken a turn into the land of make believe. Good lord.
“No,” Noah protested, “you’re wrong.”
“Am I? Just like I told you, you were wrong about me? No Noah, I know the truth. My grandmother told me about your kind. I’ve always known you existed. I mean it seemed like a myth at the time, but my visions, while slightly off, are always true. You were the bear who saved me that night, weren’t you?”
He looked to Alastair, but I knew I was right.
“Tell me.” I instructed.
He finally conceded sitting down on the sofa across from me. “Yes, I saved you.”
I sent a puff of air out my nostrils, “This is something, isn’t it? You a bear shifter, me a psychic.”
Alastair walked to the window. “It gets stranger.”
I shook my head. “Pile it on; I don’t think it could get much worse.”
He looked back at me. “You’re fated to one another.”
My heart constricted in my chest. “What?”
“You two belong together. I told Noah the night we met you, which is why things were so strained with you after your initial encounter. But you’re meant to be a mated pair. You’re grandmother knew it, I assume.”
Shit. The visions. Noah really was the one.
Thirteen
NOAH
Piper had decided to stay the night. Lucy and Luke were out on a run. I watched her sleep. I had to keep an eye on her, protect her. And also to make sure she didn’t fall apart. She just found out I was a bear, and didn’t lose it, but I knew it was coming. She would have to--no one just accepted that.
But I prayed she would make it. I needed her to. I needed her, plain and simple. She was suddenly everything to me.
I looked over my shoulder to watch her sleeping peacefully when the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand. I peeled back the curtain and looked out to see the wolf standing in the middle of the drive looking directly up at my window. My bear roared in a protective nature. It took every fiber of my being to contain him.
This was the same wolf I had chased off our land, the one I had been assured by Alastair had been destroyed.
So what was he doing standing with his arms crossed and his shiny bald head reflecting in the evening light? And what was I going to do about it?
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Her Wolf, Her Protector
by
Elixa Everett
Prologue
The snarl of a cougar sounding in the distance stopped the wolf from his own pursuit. As he skidded to a halt, his ears perked up and he listened again and faintly heard the sound of a girl's soft whimpers.
Damn it! He knew who the girl was and deep down inside he felt the burning desire to save her. Without further hesitation he sprang into action, moving faster than his legs had ever taken him, towards the girl, fearing he may arrive too late to save her.
He seemed to have been running for an eternity, when the girl and cougar came into his view just as the cougar was preparing to lunge on its tiny, dark-haired prey. With his heart thudding in his chest he reached the pair just as the cougar lunged.
Leaping, the wolf's body collided with the cougar's in mid-air and the two went toppling to the forest floor; the cougar landing on its back, with the wolf atop him. The wolf snarled and bit for the cougar's throat, but missed and pain immediately followed, like hot stakes being driven into his shoulder blade.
Like a hurt puppy, the wolf whimpered, squirming off the cougar, in an attempt to break free of its painful hold, while making another attempt at its throat. This time he succeeded, his teeth latching onto the cougar, as he sank them deep into its tender flesh, drawing blood.
The two animals' bodies rolled and tumbled across the forest floor, in a bundle of fur, teeth and claws. The cougar's jaw holding the wolf went slack as it cried out in pain, frantically clawing at the wolf, attempting to free itself.
Nine year old Adrianna stood rooted in the spot, her green eyes wide in terror, shock and amazement as the two magnificent creatures battled several yards from her. Her mother had warned her not to stray far from their house, but she hadn't listened. She'd wandered, loving the feel of being deep in the wilderness. The forest was the only place in the world that she felt truly at ease - until today.
The sound of the cougar's cry broke her from her trance and she began to slowly back away from the battling pair as the wolf released the cougar and they both got to their feet and backed away from each other, the wolf placing himself between her and the snarling cat.
The cougar shifted its focus to her and then back to the wolf - as though it were trying to decide if she was worth the additional fight. With a huff, it turned and rushed off into the forest quickly disappearing from her line of sight.
She continued to back away as the wolf turned its focus onto her. The fur around its face and chest was covered in mud and an abundance of blood - whether it was his or the cougars she was unsure. She was about to turn and run, but something in its eyes stopped her. Instead she cautiously approached him and touched his neck around what appeared to be the source of his bleeding.
"Thank you. You saved me."
He
whined and lowered his head allowing her to stroke his coat. After a minute of allowing her to pat him, he raised his ice blue eyes to meet hers and an understanding passed between them. From that moment on, he was and will ever be her protector.
One
Adrianna made her way through the woods towards a clearing where she knew they'd be waiting for her. She'd been making this daily trip - just before dusk - to the forest clearing for roughly ten years now, since she was nine. When she first spotted them, she'd been alarmed and tempted to run back into the woods, towards the small house she had once shared with her mother. However, her wolf had led her to this very place ten years ago and she knew he'd never allow anything to hurt her, not even his own pack.
There had been something about the wolves. Instead of regarding her with suspicion and aggression, they'd been more curious than anything else. As the years progressed the wolves became more brazen to the point where they'd come up to her and allow her to actually touch them.
Over the years, it had felt like they'd become her friends. She'd sit for hours, her back against a large oak tree which overlooked a stream, with the pack at her side. On some occasions, and more frequently as of late, a single lone wolf would appear without the pack - her wolf.
The wind picked up and blew a lock of her long dark hair into her eyes, which she quickly pushed back. Approaching the clearing today, she noticed the lone wolf, sitting patiently by the tree she'd claimed as hers - as if waiting for her. A smile touched her lips as she made her way towards the oak tree. The wolf's large, light blue eyes followed her every movement with intense interest.
"Hey," she greeted him as she sank down to the ground and leaned her back against the base.
