Haunted Wolves: Green Pines, Book 2

by Moira Rogers

  Zack glanced at Colin, who did his best to keep his face blank. Not encouraging or condemning—if he planned to face Lorelei with a clean conscience, leaving had to be Zack’s choice.

  “I’ll think about it,” Zack muttered finally, turning back to his worktable. “But only if we can get all this stuff built in the next few days. I want Mae and Kaley to have everything they need.” His gaze flicked to Shane, and Colin couldn’t tell if the next word was a threat or permission. A blessing. “Everything.”

  Shane thumped the stack of hand-drawn plans. “Then we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  The small length of wood didn’t feel magical. It could have been an ambitious piece of kindling, or a branch blown down by a storm. It didn’t vibrate with energy or look out of place…except for the dark, bloody handprints marring the rough bark.

  “It’ll heal fast,” Jay murmured.

  Lorelei glanced at him and tried not to show her exasperation. “I know that. I’m not new. I just don’t like blood, that’s all.”

  “I’ll go next.” Kaley reached past her, grabbed the small dagger out of Jay’s hand and sliced the blade across her palm. The wound welled red, and she frowned down at it before clamping it tight to a clean spot on the wood. “See? Nothing to it.”

  Mae, looking a little pale, thrust out her hand before turning resolutely away. “Someone do me. I can’t watch.”

  “Here.” Kaley sliced Mae’s palm, then reached for Lorelei’s hand. “Yours too?”

  She nodded and winced through the fleeting pain. “How many more?”

  Sasha rinsed her hands in a porcelain bowl on the picnic table and dried her hands with a rough white cloth. “I need everyone.” She glanced over at Tammy, who had her arms locked protectively around her son. “Everyone but the child.”

  “Would he be in danger?” Jay asked.

  Lorelei couldn’t swallow her protest. “Jay, no.”

  He pulled her aside and lowered his voice. “Why not?”

  She pitched her voice to match his, though it wouldn’t stop Tammy from overhearing. “She shouldn’t be here. It’s not right.”

  “Why?”

  “Because.” Because she’d helped Christian Peters. She’d betrayed them, they couldn’t trust her, she was weak, and the child—

  Jay spoke, his words cutting firmly into her thoughts. “I know you don’t like her. Hell, everyone’s seen how you avoid her. But Tammy wants to help, and that trumps all the bullshit from Memphis. It’s in the past.”

  Tammy was watching them, and Lorelei grudgingly met her gaze. She knew she was being unfair, that the woman had only done the same as the rest of them—whatever she’d had to, enough to keep herself and her son alive.

  The boy stood in the circle of his mother’s arms, pale and silent, his breath hanging in the chilly air with each exhalation. He looked small for his age, so fragile, and Lorelei’s stomach roiled with nausea.

  She didn’t like looking at him.

  “The kid,” she mumbled. “It’s too dangerous.”

  Jay kept staring at Lorelei. “Stella?”

  The implied question seemed to take the witch aback. “The circle should keep him safe, but—”

  “All of us.” His tone brooked no argument as he cast glances around at his gathered pack. “Together.”

  Tammy wet her lips and nodded. She bent and whispered something to the little boy, who watched with huge eyes as Mae and Lorelei added their blood to the wood.

  “Me next,” Colin whispered, giving them a little more time. He took the knife from Kaley and sliced his hand without so much as a wince before passing it to Shane. With Lorelei still holding the branch, Colin met her gaze and smiled, small and just for her. “You okay?”

  His words and smile combined helped to drive away her chill. “I’ll be better when this is over.”

  “We’re almost there.” He gripped the branch in his hand for a moment, layering his blood alongside hers, then reached for a cloth as soon as he’d passed it on to Shane. “Let me see your palm.”

  Her flesh had already healed. She showed it to him, pale and unmarked under the smeared remnants of blood. “Are you nervous? About the spell?”

  The admission came slowly, and low enough for only her to hear. “A little. Magic…it’s not something I’ve dealt with a lot.”

  “Me neither. Especially not this kind.”

  Colin wiped her hand clean before smoothing his thumb over her palm, a slow caress that ignited her nerve endings. “I can handle it, if it makes you safe.”

  “So can I.” She closed her fingers around his. “For everyone’s sake.”

  People were gathered around, some watching avidly, but Colin didn’t seem to care. He held her gaze as he lifted their hands and kissed her knuckles.

  Stella hefted the piece of wood and whispered something under her breath before laying it on the grass in the center of the rough circle they’d formed. “There. We don’t have to hold hands or anything—” she arched an eyebrow at Colin and Lorelei, “—but we need to focus. It might feel a little weird at first.”

  Colin’s hand tightened around Lorelei’s. Mae edged a little closer on her other side, but she reached for Kaley’s hand. Zack stood quietly on the other side of the circle, as far away from them as he could be.

  An accident, maybe, but Lorelei suspected something more. And as she met Zack’s gaze in the darkness, she knew it was true—they’d already lost him. Again.

  As if he could see the path of her thoughts, Colin lowered his mouth close to her ear. “It’s not all bad,” he murmured before kissing her temple. “I promise.”

  He probably thought she was worried—and she was—but her sadness stemmed from a more selfish concern. Colin couldn’t understand what the others meant to her, and especially Zack. Zack, who had lured her out of her self-imposed exile, plucked her off the streets because he needed help with his ragtag little pack.

  A pack that no longer existed.

  Eden seized Lorelei’s free hand, her grip warm and steady. Her other hand found Mae’s, and she joined them together in a flood of power—wild strength and fierce caring and the awed wonder that was so much a part of her. She caught Lorelei’s eyes with an encouraging smile. “Nothing wrong with holding hands. If Stella wants to make fun of me, I’ll start singing ‘Kumbaya’.”

  “You would, wouldn’t you?” Stella knelt and lit a small charcoal disc in a brass brazier, fanned it red with a spoken command and tossed a handful of small amber bits on top. The sweet but sharp scent of myrrh began to rise from the brazier, and she rose along with it. “We’re ready. I’ll light the branch and help it along, but the circle won’t be complete until it consumes everyone’s blood from the wood.”

  “What do we do?” Jay asked.

  It was Sasha who answered, her eyes already heavy, her voice slurred and slow. “Try not to fight it.”

  Another spark, and the tiny terminus of one arm of the branch caught fire. The flame licked over the wood, traveling quickly toward the trunk as both witches began to intone the same words, rhythmic and unintelligible. Their timing was off by a fraction of a second, and the effect was disorienting, a strange echo that sent a shiver through Lorelei.

  Then the really weird shit started.

  Eden gasped first, sucking in a trembling breath as her fingers clamped tight. Lorelei felt it, a swirling tickle of magic that seeped through her skin. She was awash in emotion that wasn’t her own, bright joy and tense anticipation and tremulous fear. Curiosity, determination and sadness, all tempered by relief.

  Lorelei was still spinning when a second wave of magic stretched out, drawn across the center of the circle, taut like a rubber band. Foreign but familiar, and she realized she’d always felt it at the farm, a low vibration in her bones. Stella’s incantation grew louder, taking on an edge of accusation as it rose in volume and intensity.

  Lorelei opened her eyes. This strange magic hungered—quick, ravenous pulses that kicked her heart into her
throat, like a prey animal startled by the shadow of a predator.

  Dylan’s voice rolled across the clearing, low and powerful, his tone confident in the face of that vicious energy. “It’s weakening.”

  A little more. Sasha’s voice, reverberating through the night, though she never wavered in her melodious chant.

  The panic twisted up and gripped Lorelei, shaking her control. Dangerous, it hissed. Run.

  Zack growled, as if facing a challenge. Fletcher’s expression turned fierce, and Colin bared his teeth in a furious snarl. Warmth surged out from him, enfolding her in protective strength. His hand cradled hers, fingers locked but gentle.

  She could stand this. She didn’t have to run.

  She could fight.

  The moment the thought flitted through Lorelei’s mind, the tense ribbon of magic snapped, lashing back on her—on all of them—with searing force. Mae sucked in a pained breath and swayed. Kaley steadied her, her chest heaving but her hands sure.

  The burning branch extinguished suddenly, leaving Lorelei stripped of the jumble of emotions the spell had wrought. She was alone again, separate.

  Sasha slumped to the grass, and Dylan broke the circle to hurry to her side. Eden let go of Lorelei and turned away, but Colin held on tighter, his voice hoarse as he stared at the branch. “That was…” He cleared his throat roughly. “Intense.”

  Boz had tried to explain it to her once, the music your own energy made when you combined it with others. A pack, harmonious in every way. “Yes, it was.”

  Having steadied Mae, Eden moved to Stella’s side. “Did it work?”

  “The thread is broken,” she confirmed.

  “It’s hard to tell where or how the spell originated,” Sasha explained. “Or when. It felt old, like something that had been waiting for a long time. Not fresh.”

  Zack’s entire body tensed. “How long? Could it have been here longer than thirty years?”

  “Could be thirty years or three hundred.” Sasha shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

  Jay frowned. “You think it has something to do with your family, Zack?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided looking at Eden. Instead he stared out into the woods. “I don’t know, but it makes me wonder. Maybe my mother didn’t run away. Maybe her bastard husband found her dead and didn’t want to get blamed for it.”

  “She’s here.” Kaley wrapped her arms around her midsection. “When I was lost—no, when I was dying. I saw her.”

  Zack stared, unblinking, and Eden rose into the silence, her voice trembling. “You saw Kathy? How did you know it was her?”

  “Pictures.” But Kaley wouldn’t look at her, wouldn’t look at anyone. “I’ve seen Zack’s pictures.”

  Clenching her hands, Eden turned to Sasha. “She’s not the only one who’s seen a ghost. Jay did too, and he wasn’t dying. Could the ghosts be real?”

  The redhead flashed her an apologetic smile. “I don’t believe in ghosts, exactly, but I believe in energy and magic. If you put the two together in certain ways, you could definitely get what some would think of as an earthbound ghost or spirit.”

  Zack closed his eyes. “Is it over now? With whatever-the-hell spell you just did?”

  “It’s gone,” she confirmed. “It can’t hurt anyone else.”

  “All right.” He took a deep breath before turning to look at Lorelei. Not just her, but Mae and Kaley, who stood clustered behind her. “They invited me to go up to Red Rock for a few months. Dylan thinks they can help put me back together a little less crazy. I want to go.”

  “Then you should,” Lorelei whispered. Having him gone and getting well would be better than having him around and miserable. Colin squeezed her hand, and she leaned against him.

  Mae’s voice came from behind them. “Jay and Eden will take care of us. We want you, Zack. We always want you. But you don’t need to stay for the pack. Just promise you’ll come home when you get better.”

  He tried to smile, but it looked painful, as if even that effort threatened to snap him in two. “When I’m better,” he agreed, and Lorelei couldn’t tell if he believed that day would ever come, but she saw something new in that tortured gaze, something that hadn’t been there as long as she’d known him.

  Hope.

  “We’ll manage here,” Kaley told him. Her smile was easy, bright, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “We’ll be more than okay.”

  “I know you will.” Zack’s focus shifted, narrowed, and suddenly the rest of them didn’t exist. He only saw Kaley, and he stared like he was fixing her in his mind, the last sip of water before a long trek through barren land. “You’ll be good. You’ll be happy.”

  “Yeah.” She slipped her hand free of Mae’s and took a step back, followed by another. Finally, she turned and tossed a wave over her shoulder as she headed for the house.

  Eden bustled into the awkward silence, bright-eyed and forcibly upbeat. As she hugged her half-brother, Colin drew Lorelei aside, a wary, almost nervous look in his eyes. “Are you upset?”

  “I should be, maybe, but I think this is for the best.” Before they lost Zack in a much more painful way.

  “I do too.” Colin’s arms folded around her, and she could hear the relief in his voice. Intense relief, as if she’d answered more than one question. “You haven’t seen how he acts with Dylan. The man knows everything to say, when to push and when to back off. Maybe the other people in Red Rock will too.”

  She nodded, but all she really wanted was to be away from there, not thinking about how far they’d come…and how far they had left to go. “You promised me a run.”

  “Now?” He eyed the surrounding crowd. Mae had already disappeared into the house after Kaley, and Fletcher had crouched next to Stella to help her gather supplies. Jay and Shane had joined the knot around Zack, and once Dylan rose to his feet, Eden pounced on him. “I suppose everyone will be fine without us for a little while.”

  “They will.” Lorelei tugged him away from the circle, toward the woods. “Colin.”

  He paused, but only long enough to make eye contact with Jay. Their alpha inclined his head, and Colin smiled and hurried his pace, until he was pulling her.

  Lorelei broke free of his grasp. She needed to feel the wind in her hair and then her fur. No thinking, no doubt or pain. To run, away from the past or toward the future.

  To be free.

  She took off, trusting him to follow.

  Chapter Twelve

  Running through the woods on two legs was exhilarating.

  Running on four was peace.

  The autumn chill didn’t bother him, not with crisp leaves crunching beneath his paws and Lorelei running at his side. She was a beautiful wolf, sleek and quick, and this was the first time he’d gotten to run with her. Before he’d run behind her or beside her, but always surrounded by pack, always a part of the whole.

  Tonight their pack had constricted to two, and he felt the responsibility and the joy and not one shred of fear.

  Lorelei separated just long enough to circle a tree before crossing in front of him with a teasing, jubilant yip. He growled and snapped his teeth together just short of her tail, daring her to run.

  She did—faster than he’d seen during the last two full moons. Without holding back for the others, she sailed through the night, unfettered.

  Unclaimed.

  Not for long.

  The wolf rose, not just joining but consuming him. So rarely did he feel complete in this skin—one being with one purpose. Magic pulsed in the night, the tickle of the distant wards that protected them and the lingering buzz from the earlier spell, but none of it pounded through him with a strength comparable to his desire as he plunged through the undergrowth, reckless in his pursuit.

  No need to be cautious. Not tonight, in their territory. Not tonight, with his—

  Mate.

  Adrenaline flooded him, and he threw back his head and howled.

  Lorelei disappear
ed into a thicket ahead, a dark area of the woods where the pines stood so thick on the ground that their branches blocked out the light. When he followed, the damp earth beneath his paws was bare of everything but moss and ferns, his quarry nowhere in sight.

  She wanted a chase, and he was more than willing to catch her.

  Lowering his nose to the ground, he inhaled the scents of the woods and picked out the intoxicating thread that was Lorelei. It led deeper into the thicket, where a sudden surge of magic had him jerking his head to the left.

  She stepped out from behind a tree, naked and on two human legs. “You found me.”

  With his blood pounding, it took longer to shift than it should have, even with the breathtaking vision of a naked Lorelei to hurry him. The wolf wasn’t ready to relinquish its hold or its hunt, and he shuddered through pain that left him crouched and panting, feral hunger seething under his skin.

  “I found you,” he rasped, staring up at her.

  She returned his stare for a moment, then raked her gaze over his body. “You’re looking at me like you’re going to eat me alive.”

  That would be a start. “Come over here and find out.”

  “Mmm.” She bit her lip and shook her head slowly. “Not so easy. Not this time.”

  Then she ran again.

  Hope of a slow seduction vanished along with most of his higher thought processes. He couldn’t remember lurching to his feet, but he plunged through the trees after her, his pulse pounding in his ears.

  The pounding echoed his footsteps, faster and faster, as he chased her, following the quick flashes of pale skin through the trees. He lost sight of her, whirled around—

  And there she stood against a tree, her chest heaving.

  Colin covered the three paces between them in a slow stalk, giving her time to watch his approach. Time to bolt.

  Instead, she opened her arms and reached for him.

  He caught her wrists and guided them to the tree above her head as he pressed his body to hers, skin on skin and the sweet scent of her twisting around him as he lowered his mouth to hover over hers. “Caught you.”