Finding Wisp

by Noelle Marie

  “Thane!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten about him, even with all the other things battling for attention in my head. I shot up, wincing when a painful twinge shot through my side, and latched onto Derek’s shirt. “Is he okay?” I demanded. “He was so brave. He tried so hard to warn me that something was wrong at Abram’s house, and he did his best to protect me against Felix – he even got a good bite in on the man’s leg – but then Felix, he…”

  Tears sprang into my eyes as I recalled the dark blood slowly soaking Thane’s fur.

  “Hey,” Derek soothed, leaning down and forcing me to lie back against the sheets, “relax. Thane is fine,” he assured, smoothing back my hair. “Like you, he lost a lot of blood, but he’s recovering from the ordeal at the veterinarian’s clinic a few blocks down the road. His biggest problem right now is that he misses you. Luckily for him, the vet’s impressed with his recovery, and says he’ll even be able to go home in a couple days.”

  I was unbelievably relieved to hear that, and yet learning about Thane’s fate, I couldn’t help but wonder about my own. I played nervously with the crisp edges of the bed sheets. “And what about me?” I asked hesitantly.

  A frown pulled at Derek’s mouth. “You’re staying here until the doctor says you’re well enough to be discharged,” he intoned firmly.

  I nodded. “I figured that much. What I meant was… where will I go after that?”

  Derek’s face crumpled.

  “Wisp,” he whispered my name, sounding pained. “You can’t seriously think that I would send you away again, can you? I made a mistake before – the worst mistake of my life. I was a fool, trying to convince myself that you weren’t my mate when every cell in my body was screaming at me that you were mine. I swear to you, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if I-”

  Derek’s words warmed me from the inside out. But he had once again missed the point, so shutting him up the only way I knew how, I darted forward and pressed my lips to his.

  The kiss had its intended effect.

  Derek stopped talking – stopped moving altogether, in fact – and I took the time to press my mouth a little harder against his before slowly pulling away. “Thank you,” I said, “for that, but it wasn’t what I was getting at, either. What I meant was… you called the police, and now I’m staying at the hospital. I’m supposed to be dead. What happens if Cornelius finds out?” The more I thought about it, the more alarmed I grew. “Or worse, the Vanderbilts?”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Derek rushed to assure me. “I hope you don’t mind, but I registered you as Wisp Blackwood at the front desk. As for the police, well, I had a discussion with Abernathy. For all his faults, he doesn’t seem to hold a very high opinion of your so-called father, Cornelius Radcliff. He agreed to get the paperwork rolling on assigning you a new identity.”

  I blinked, incredulous that Derek and Ash had been able to hold a civil conversation long enough to organize such a thing. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  I pressed my lips together. “So… does that mean we get to go back to the cabin then?”

  Derek opened his mouth.

  “As soon as the doctor gives me permission to leave, anyway,” I rushed to tack on.

  A smile pulled at Derek’s mouth, and I knew I’d correctly predicted what he had been about to say. “That’s right,” he said.

  I felt so ridiculously joyful that I knew it was tempting fate to mention it, but I just couldn’t help myself. I reached up and ran my fingers through Derek’s hair. “You called me your mate,” I pointed out shyly.

  Derek snorted, an amused sound. “I did.”

  I bit my lip. “What does it mean?”

  Derek leaned forward enough that his nose brushed against mine. “It means, quite simply, that the universe knew that I loved you before I did.” His smile grew. “Which, just in case there are still doubts floating around in that little head of yours, I do. Very, very much.”

  “I love you, too,” I murmured in turn. “That being said, if you don’t kiss me soon – like right now – I may just have to-”

  Before I could even finish the sentence, Derek darted forward and closed the remaining gap between us, pressing his lips to mine in a sweet yet sultry kiss that had me seeing stars. (It was a good thing, too, because I had no idea what I had been about to say – though I was sure it would have been embarrassing.)

  I returned the kiss with the same fervor that Derek had bestowed it, meeting each probe of his tongue with a flick of my own, and nipping playfully at his upper lip when he sucked my lower one into his mouth.

  When we finally managed to pull ourselves away from each other, we were both out of breath and I was shockingly tired. But, also, I felt renewed – almost like I was a different person. Like I had finally managed to shed Sloane’s skin and I was truly Wisp now.

  But what about before Sloane? A little voice in my head couldn’t help but point out. You’re Abram’s daughter. Are you willing to shed that identity, too?

  My cheerful mood faltered.

  I… I wasn’t sure, so instead of attempting to answer, I badgered Derek into climbing into bed with me, and burying my face into the comforting heat of his shoulder, I allowed myself to drift off to the familiar smell of his manly musk mixed with evergreen trees.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Wisp’s unique honeysuckle scent clogged my nose.

  She had made me squeeze onto the hospital bed with her before she’d fallen asleep, and I’d had my arms carefully wrapped around her ever since.

  I’d been reluctant to climb into the tiny bed at first – I feared I would aggravate her wounds – but then she had batted those big, brown eyes at me, and I hadn’t had a chance in hell of resisting.

  Not that I had truly wanted to. Holding Wisp was like holding onto a little piece of heaven.

  Regardless, I didn’t think I would ever be able to say “no” to her again. Not after I’d nearly lost her for a second time. Just thinking about the way she had collapsed after shooting Felix made my heart palpitate in my chest.

  “Wisp!” I yelled, clambering up the porch steps before dropping to my knees beside her.

  I scanned her up and down, immediately taking note of the fact that her eyes were closed and that her breaths were worryingly shallow. I took in her mangled arm, marveling over the fact that she had been able to hold my rifle at all. By far my biggest concern, however, was that the entire left half of her shirt was stained red, the fabric shorn where Felix’s claws had torn into her.

  Renewed fury at the dead man hammered into me.

  Leaving Wisp alone on that porch to rush into the cabin and call 9-1-1 was the hardest decision I’d ever had to make, but after carefully pushing her shirt up to her breasts and seeing the extent of her injuries, I hadn’t had a choice. I managed to bark some variation of the words “animal attack”, “blood loss”, and “ambulance” at the operator who answered before sprinting back out to Wisp.

  I returned to my knees beside her.

  “I’m so sorry, honey,” I muttered, knowing that what I was going to have to do would hurt. “I have to stop the bleeding,” I explained to the unconscious girl before carefully placing my hands over her wounds and beginning to apply pressure. The tiny whimper she made ripped my insides apart, and I felt sick, watching as her precious blood continued to leak out from between my fingers.

  It had taken forever to wash the crimson off afterwards.

  The tacky blood had been everywhere – in my hair, between my fingers, under my fingernails. Even after spending hours scrubbing myself clean, I had still been able to feel it, sticking stubbornly to my skin.

  I remembered thinking that I had deserved to feel it, looking on at Wisp’s unconscious form in the hospital bed. The feeling had faded a little now that she’d woken up, but the guilty thoughts were still there, lurking in the back of my mind.

  After all, while it was Felix who had hurt her, I was the
one who had put her in the position to be hurt in the first place. My hands tightened involuntarily around her tiny waist.

  I never should have given her away, and if I had my way, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight – out of my fucking arm’s length – ever again.

  I would protect her and the little life inside of her – my cub, I still had trouble believing it – with my life. I would do anything – steal, kill, even work with fucking Ashley Abernathy – to ensure that I never lost her again.

  I buried my nose into Wisp’s hair, taking in another long drag of Wisp’s scent and letting the smell of sweetsugarhoneyhome infiltrate my senses. And for the first time in a long time, as I looked forward to the future, I felt… hopeful.

  BONUS CHAPTER

  I stared incredulously at the muffins sitting unassumingly under the tree.

  They were in a goddamn Tupperware container with a little piece of paper taped to the lid.

  When the bear had spotted them, his initial confusion had distracted him enough that I was able to take control from him. Which was why it was with very human hands that I picked up the piece of Tupperware.

  I stared at the note.

  Thanks for not eating me. I thought you might enjoy these instead.

  I didn’t know what to think.

  I knew who they were from, of course. There was only one person foolish (brave) enough to leave a container of sweets out for a ten-foot-tall, monstrous bear.

  That little girl.

  The one I’d found nestled under this very tree a few nights ago, begging me not to eat her. (Surprisingly, I hadn’t been. About to eat her, that is.)

  As much as I enjoyed the serenity of the babbling creek, she was the reason I’d ventured out here today. And the day before.

  The bear was fascinated by her. (We were both fascinated.) Even I was surprised by the way he’d reacted to her that night. Neither of us took kindly to trespassers, but when he’d spotted her, his first instinct wasn’t to growl with anger or show off his sharp teeth, but rather… to study her.

  Something about her captured his interest.

  And if I was completely honest with myself, something about her captured mine.

  Maybe that was why instead of dumping the container of muffins out into the river as I probably should have, I brought one of the morsels to my mouth. I winced when my teeth dug into a clump of baking powder, but still, I didn’t throw it away. Instead, cradling the muffins to my chest like they were something precious, I wandered back to my cottage in my human form for the first time in days.

  After all, I’d certainly eaten worse.

  A few days later, I found the cookies.

  * * *

  I shouldn’t be here.

  It was a thought – a feeling – that had been thrumming through me since I’d first stepped foot onto Boone’s-… onto Derek’s land.

  No amount of arguing could convince him of that, however – not when he was desperate for a glimpse of her. Even though I was wearing my human skin, the bear was in just as much control as I was when I walked up to Derek’s cabin and knocked on the door.

  To my surprise, he answered.

  As I took the boy – no, man now – in, however, whatever I had planned to say slipped from my mind.

  Because, to put it bluntly, Derek looked like shit warmed over.

  His hair was a greasy tangle on top of his head, sticking up every which way, and the circles under his eyes were so dark that they were almost black.

  Surprise flashed in his eyes when he saw who was standing on his porch, but they quickly hardened as he looked me up and down. He straightened his spine. “Abram,” he muttered spitefully. (I didn’t blame him.) “What are you doing here?”

  My mouth still wasn’t cooperating, so instead of answering, I thrust forward the second container of sweets that the girl – his little mate – had left out for me to find in the span of a few days. (Against his wishes, I had returned the first as soon as the sun had set the night after I had found it.)

  Derek frowned. “What’s this?” he demanded, not taking it.

  It was the first time it had occurred to me that he might not know what she had been doing. That fact confounded me – and enraged him.

  Didn’t Derek know that when you had someone precious – and that word described the girl pretty accurately – in your life that you had to keep an eye on them? You didn’t let your tiny, defenseless mate go gallivanting into the woods by herself. Why, if I still had Fiona…

  I clenched my jaw.

  But I didn’t.

  Regardless, Derek should have warned the girl against preparing and offering food to another man, at the very least. It was a gesture typically used to show interest, and it was basically an invitation for a shifter to begin courting a bearer. While it was true that courting was an outdated ritual that was very rarely put into practice these days, the connotations surrounding her actions were still there.

  (And how is Derek supposed to know that? my subconscious pointed out. It wasn’t like anyone was around to guide him through all that nonsense when he came of age.)

  Swatting away the voice, and the bone-deep guilt that accompanied it, I shoved the container forward again, pressing it into Derek’s chest until he was forced to take it.

  “You tell me,” I glowered.

  Our conversation only spiraled downhill from there.

  Especially when Derek told us that the girl – Wisp, apparently – was gone. He reacted badly, and I ended up spewing some crap about the ripeness of her honeysuckle scent.

  It set Derek off, and he punched me.

  The coppery taste of blood flooded my mouth, and the only thing stopping me from setting him loose was my pure, unadulterated disbelief. I was incredulous that Derek could deny that the girl was his mate, especially after the way he had defended her from me in the woods. (Never mind the fact that she’d never been in any real danger.)

  He wouldn’t even admit that she was a bearer.

  I couldn’t help it – I fucking laughed in his face.

  Maybe deep down, I was secretly hoping it would set him off – get him to admit that the girl was his mate and she was there. He had just hidden her away when someone had knocked on the door, viewing whomever was on the other side as a potential threat.

  But that didn’t happen.

  Turns out, she really was gone, and Derek really had deluded himself into believing that she wasn’t a bearer – wasn’t his mate.

  And as the incredulity dissipated, it left room for guilt to creep in. After all, Derek would have known the second he’d seen her that Wisp was a bearer if he’d had any sort of contact with other shifters the past seventeen years.

  Along with the guilt was a muted sort of sadness.

  I made one last appeal to Derek, trying to impart upon him the loneliness that the sort of lifestyle he was chasing entailed.

  But he hadn’t wanted to listen – not to me, anyway, and considering my own circumstances, I could hardly blame him.

  When he slammed the door in my face, I left.

  From there, I tried to put thoughts of Derek and the little girl he insisted wasn’t his mate out of my mind. Which was why I was surprised when Derek showed up at my door less than a week later, looking somehow worse than I’d left him.

  “I need your help,” he grit out between clenched teeth.

  My initial reaction had been to deny him. Mostly because I had no idea how I could possibly assist him with anything. It wasn’t until he told me what he needed my help with – namely, getting Wisp back – that I even realized the extent of what he was asking.

  Especially when he revealed that her family was in politics, and moreover, that the girl was engaged.

  Then the name “Vanderbilt” came spilling out of his mouth, and everything went to hell.

  I barely had the presence of mind to advise him to forget about the girl – Wisp, Sloane, whatever her name was – before throwing him out of the cottage.

  But ins
tead of leaving, Derek had stayed on my porch, begging for help through the front door. My will faltered when he uttered the word “please”, and when he started apologizing for the fire, I had no choice but to jerk it back open and tell him the truth.

  That it was me – me and Boone, with his insatiable hero-complex – who were responsible for what had happened that fateful fall day.

  Derek took it well, all things considered.

  But still, he wouldn’t let it – let Wisp – go.

  I tried to tell him that we didn’t even know how Wisp was involved with them – the Vanderbilts. Her story of amnesia could have easily been concocted, after all, and she could be a willing participant in… in whatever they were planning.

  In response, Derek had called me a coward (he was right), and brought up my dead wife. I knew what he was doing even as he did it – attempting to goad me into a reaction – into seeking revenge against the Vanderbilts.

  And after beating him to a pulp for his vulgar mouth, that’s exactly what I agreed to do.

  I would help Derek get his mate back. Not for the girl. Not even for him.

  Whether he knew it or not, the simple fact of the matter was that Derek would get himself killed if he faced off against the Vanderbilts on his own. His sharp tongue and brash reactions wouldn’t win him any allies in the political world.

  I owed it to Boone and Rose Blackwood to keep their son safe. I thought of the way Fiona would look at Derek with such motherly fondness – her gaze only sweeter when she gazed upon our own perfect daughter.

  I owed it to all of them.

  * * *

  The dog’s – Thane’s – whining was driving me up the wall.

  “We can’t go back yet,” I snapped at him for what had to have been the tenth time in as many minutes. “We need to give them more time to get… reacquainted.”

  In response, the (not-so) little shit pulled back the corner of his flabby lips and growled at me.

  I scowled. “The feelings mutual,” I assured the huge lab.