He placed his hands on her hips to steady her. “You okay?”
No, I’m not okay, she thought, but managed to hold her tongue.
“Yeah, I think so.” Rubbing her head, her shoulders slumped at the strip of wet that crossed her forehead.
He snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side, her hand moving to his warm chest as her body molded to his.
“Let me look.” His hands were gentle as he examined the gash, brushing her hair to one side.
His breath felt warm so close to her face. He glanced down and met her eyes for just a moment. The look there was tender and caring. Marian admired how gentle this large man could be. His very nature as a wolf screamed aggression and activity. She felt as if she could just rest with him though, let her guard down for once. As if she could gaze into those eyes on a long night and not hide her silver blade under the pillow.
“Come on, we should get some cold water on that. If you stay closer to me, I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt again.”
If you insist, she thought.
He released her waist and led her, more slowly this time, down the cliff. He smiled at her, his teeth white in the darkness as he looked over his shoulder. Silver flashing showed her when he was watching her, his eyes reflecting the pale moonlight. An interesting bulge rubbed against her leg as he pulled her closer to him when the path narrowed. She pressed her hips to his, all thoughts of self-preservation gone in her injured daze.
He turned and stopped, bringing his lips down to hers in a quick, rough rush, his breath hot against her mouth as his tongue parted her lips. A flutter of dizziness sweep through her, which had nothing to do with her injury. The suddenness of his movements caught her off guard. She couldn’t get enough of his luscious, sweet mouth. His hands came up to hold her face gently, but with authority. His mouth worked to ease her anxiety and open her mind to allow much more luxurious sensations to flood her pulsing pussy.
A faint rustle in the trees to their left made them both turn, the moment broken as she felt his muscles tense under her hands.
Kennard was just a blur as his pale form sprung at her through the trees. She didn’t blame him really. She was trespassing on his hunting ground, bleeding, just asking to be dinner, and they were more than distracted. The wooden stake was out of her waistband and in her hand as he hit her. She felt the wood pass through the soft flesh of his chest, missing his heart by millimeters. It was his lucky night.
He dropped to the ground, a corpse again, as his waxy skin lost all sign of life. It would take an hour at least for his body to reject the wood and reanimate.
The attack took just seconds, but Gabriel didn’t pause to see if she, or Kennard, were okay. He threw her over his shoulder, jumping off the cliff and landing ten meters below with a teeth-jarring jolt. They were in a cove before he set her down in the sand and strode away.
Marian wondered how Gabriel had controlled himself enough not to kill Kennard. She knew for a fact werewolves could move much faster than she could, even with her honed skills. She had been too focused on her own actions to pay Gabriel much attention. Yet it seemed that Gabriel’s first thought had been to get her away, not to seek his revenge on Kennard for attacking a human under his protection in his territory. He hadn’t left her side. She considered this for a moment, a million other thoughts running through her throbbing and muddled mind.
Her knees threatened to drop her body to the sand. Years of training kept her on her feet as adrenalin fled her limbs now that the danger had passed.
In all the time she had known Lione, he had never thought of her before himself. The thought caused a tightening in her chest. The feeling made her weak and she was stronger than that, she told herself. Surveying her surroundings, she sought to distract her train of thought, ever aware of Gabriel’s presence behind her. They were in a small bay, bordered by the cliff on three sides, the water lapping against the few meters of rocky shore.
“Are you okay?” Gabriel growled from behind her.
She could see his body shaking, and she knew he was fighting the urge to morph into his defensive form, a sight which had been all too common when she was with Lione.
“I’m fine.” She moved to the shore to give him some space to calm down, splashing the cool water across her face. She ensured she always kept his body in sight, all thoughts of the brief kiss they shared dashed from her memories.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him pause for a moment, seeming to gain control as his chest rose and fell in controlled breaths. Coming forward slightly faster than a stride, he soaked a handkerchief in the water.
As she stood, her vision blurred and she swayed. Resting her head in her hand, she must have sighed. Gabriel rose and said something that was drowned out by the roar in her ears. To her embarrassment, her legs gave way beneath her. A strong arm wrapped around her waist, taking her weight before she fell. She leaned against him, feeling his chest rise and fall as he lowered her to sit on the coarse sand.
A cool dampness settled over her head. Gabriel pushed her hair back off her face with tender strokes. The cold helped to bring Marian back to the present. Opening her eyes, she gasped and jerked back away from him. His face was just inches from her own, and a fire burnt behind his gaze as he watched her lips.
“Sorry, I…” He looked surprised at his own actions, yet made no move to pull away. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a deep gash.”
He sat back onto his heels; even as he sat he looked attentive, ready to catch her again if she fainted.
Marian felt embarrassed more than anything. She had never been the fainting type, she was never even ill. It seemed like whenever she was with Gabriel she had some kind of accident.
“I think being around you is dangerous to my health,” she commented, feeling a little better.
He stood and paced to the water, looking like a predator, his every step smooth and powerful. He turned back to her, but didn’t make to return to his place at her side. “Sorry, I’m just in a bit of a mood tonight.”
“It is nearly a full moon,” she pointed out. She wasn’t sure if he realized she was a hunter yet; her knowledge of what he was could release his natural instinct to protect his pack.
He laughed, but it was bitter and didn’t last. “Yes, that will be it.” His shoulders rippled as he shook off his anger.
She picked at the pebbles around her. She wasn’t feeling faint anymore, the light-headedness replaced by annoyance. A headache was forming behind her eyes. She closed them and tried not to concentrate on the blood throbbing through her head and the shimmers around Gabriel, showing just how close he had been to losing control.
She wasn’t aware he had moved until she felt his hand brush over her cheek. His skin was hot, despite the cold night air. She leaned into him, savoring the feel of another human’s touch. A pulse of regret flooded her as she reminded herself that he wasn’t human.
“Poor pup, let’s get you back so you can rest.”
His verbal slip, calling her his pup, made her roll her eyes. She was not his pack. The thought made her shudder. She stood carefully, letting him help her. Together, they made their way up the slope, slower this time, as he seemed to feel that she was an invalid now. She tried to reassure him she felt fine, but he just smiled and shook his head as if he indulged her beliefs but knew better.
They were almost back when the sound of snarls and yelps reached them. Marian hesitated. The noise signaled a fight and she didn’t have enough blades on her to take on the whole pack, especially in her current state.
“Wait right here.” The authority in Gabriel’s voice left no room for argument as he dashed up the path, stopping long enough to look back at her, his eyes flashing silver, his muscles shivering with anticipation.
The darkness pressed in on her. With Gabriel, she had not even noticed the blankness of the night, but now she was hyper-aware that she was in the middle of rogue territory, injured and without enough weapons to take down even
half his pack. The sounds of the fight grew louder, and she considered running back to the beach where she could find shelter. But with Kennard still out there, she didn’t want to risk moving far from help, if Gabriel could be considered an ally. She didn’t want to think that she could have been wrong about him, he was all she had.
A yelp split the air, making her jump. She didn’t like standing down there in the dark, not being able to see what was going on. At the same time, she was in no condition to help. Resigned to wait until Gabriel came back, she found a clear area behind a sturdy tree, clasped a blade in her fist, and sat down to wait. Her every nerve was on a knife’s edge, feeling more helpless than she ever had as she balanced one of her knives in her palm. She scanned the inky blackness of the trees pressing in around her. The hairs stood up on her arms as she scanned the tree line. Rising from her seat, she braced herself for whatever lurked in the trees. Silver eyes stared at her from the path.
“Nole?” She assumed it was the girl as the eyes were far too low to be one of the men. Her heart skipped a beat until the girl stepped into the moonlight and she eased back her nerves from their state of alert.
“Why did you come here?” Nole asked in her woman’s voice.
She wore a simple white dress. Marian assumed she wore it when she shifted as it was something easy to slip on when she turned back to her human form.
“I didn’t, Gabriel kidnapped me.” Kidnapped…was that what had happened? She wasn’t sure now that she was not there of her own free will.
Nole moved toward her in slow, balanced steps. “So leave?”
Her head tilted to the side in such a cat-like manner of attentiveness that Marian wouldn’t have been surprised if she had started circling her legs and rubbing up to her for a pat.
“I can’t, not at night.”
The girl watched her, her eyes blinking in the blue-tinged light. “You love him,” Nole commented in that haunting woman’s voice.
The thought sent a shiver through Marian’s body. That was all she needed.
“I have found that children are able to pass unnoticed in society, seeing things, hearing things that adults assume you are too young to understand. Tell me, Nole, what have you seen?”
The girl smiled in the darkness, her teeth white, just a little too sharp. “I like you. Most I meet are afraid of me or assume I’m an ignorant child as you say. I cannot tell you what I see, you won’t be here for much longer and I cannot risk you telling your hunter friends how to kill us.”
“What makes you think I will be leaving?” Marian didn’t sit back down as the girl paced in front of her, balancing on an invisible line in the dirt path.
“Do you think Gabriel will let you stay once he realizes what you are?”
It was something that had been at the back of Marian’s mind since she’d arrived. She didn’t want to stay, she just had to hope he didn’t realize what she was until daybreak. She turned her attention back to Nole. Crouching to get to her level, Marian watched as the child came to a stop in front of her.
“How old are you?” Marian found herself asking, not admitting that she was changing the subject.
“I am seventy years old this year.” The girl said it without removing her knowing gaze.
“Do you love Gabriel?” Marian asked, curious about their relationship, and if this wolf could in fact be different from others of his kind.
“He will not remember, but he once paid me a kindness when he was a child.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Marian pointed out.
“Nor you mine.”
Marian could not fault her on that. She hadn’t addressed her statement about loving him, and had no intention of doing so. Besides, she didn’t even know if she knew the answer. Could she love a man she had known barely a day? A wolf at that. Wolves mated with little time for courtship, and for life. She wasn’t ready for that, not to give up her life as a hunter.
“Be careful, hunter. This is no place for a human. You should leave, now.” With that, she eased back into the trees, invisible in the darkness and quiet as a cat.
“Nole?” Marian called out. She got no reply and could no longer sense Nole’s odd presence.
The conversation had unnerved her. The little girl saw too much, and rumor had it that werecats were also fortune tellers. Her last words, to leave now, had seemed more like a warning than an idle comment. Their conversation had made one thing clear, however…she was not ready for where this may lead. She would heed the warning. At first light, she would leave, with or without Gabriel’s aid.
The sounds of the fight grew fainter as the minutes ticked by, and she assumed they were gaining control of themselves…or they had killed each other. She shook her head to clear that idea and regretted it when the throbbing behind her skull grew to such a pitch that she had to knead her temples in an attempt to calm it.
She didn’t even have time to open her eyes before the calm night air was split, a rushing noise was all the warning she had as she was slammed to the side with the jarring force of a car wreck. A white, hot pain ran down her back as her ribs cracked from the impact. A tearing, wet sensation coursed through her skin as something ripped deep into her flesh. She cried out so loud that her scream echoed around the dense trees.
The dark outline of a huge wolf sprawled across the path in front of her face as she thudded to the ground. Regaining its legs, it took off down the path with one backward glance, its claws stained dark with her blood.
Chapter 4
Pain flared in Marian’s back with every agonizing breath. The blackness faded in and out as she tried to remain conscious, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as she lay paralyzed in the dirt.
Aware of her surroundings, she felt someone touching her, but the memory blended with nightmares of huge beasts rearing over her and the sounds of wolves racing through her mind. There were voices that at times she was sure were real, but as they talked of hunts and deaths she knew they were part of her waking dreams.
It was the realization that she was no longer in pain that made her think she was still asleep, even though she could smell the hot porridge somewhere in the room and feel the warm sun on her skin. She sat up, flinching as the skin on her back stretched tight. With her fingertips, she explored the two thick scars which wrapped around her side and up across her back. She flinched as she turned, trying to see what had happened to her.
Her brain felt sluggish, but one thought persisted: she was hungry. Her body yearned for food as hunger pains stabbed at her, overriding all other needs. Scanning the room, she found a bowl of porridge on the table by the window. Its white, fluffy mounds drew her in as she picked up the scent of cinnamon and creamy, warm milk. She sat and looked at it for a moment. Moving slowly, Marian stood, balancing before moving to the window seat.
Glorious food, where have you been all my life? It was as good as it smelled and she shoveled it into her mouth with relish. Her stomach growled as she stood, looking for something else to devour, the small bowl not filling the hole in her appetite.
She twisted in the window bay as she scanned the room. The skin on her back stretched, but wasn’t painful. That was reassuring. It meant she could hunt down something else to eat.
The room looked odd to her. The curtains were closed, yet she could see with detail each corner of the space with no effort. Despite her accident, she felt firm on her feet. Confident in each step she took toward the door, her body moved with the strength and agility of a cat as she stalked her next meal. The smell from the kitchen guided her, the faint scent of cold meats and coffee. She didn’t give her accident another thought as she made her way across the entry, the floorboards cold on her bare feet.
The kitchen was full of large, brawny men, whom she guessed were the other occupants of the house. Ignoring them, she made for the fridge, its large, gleaming stainless-steel doors seeming to call to her. Grabbing a packet of what smelled like ham, she shoved a handful in her mouth before closing the door. Sh
e found the bread and made herself a sandwich, which she consumed whilst making another. After the third, her hunger began to lessen and she allowed herself to sit as she ate, boosting herself onto the marble bench top.
“Marian.”
She looked up to find Gabriel and the rest of the household staring at her. The sun felt warm on her skin through the window behind her, and she groaned and leaned back further into it. “What?” she said around the bread and ham, but it came out more like “Whooft.”
Gabriel watched her eating. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got attacked by a werewolf. Got any milk?” she asked once she’d swallowed.
He tapped the shoulder of the guy in front of him who was staring at her, his mouth ajar. He seemed to come to himself after a second tap, which was more of a slap across the back of his head, and jumped up to get the milk. He poured her a glass, but with a second glance at her, poured another before placing the carton back in the fridge. Marian drank down the first glassful in just seconds. She was getting full now though, so when he handed her the second glass with a crooked smile, she sipped it slower and offered her hand to him.
“We haven’t met. I’m Marian.” She shook his hand, admiring how warm his calloused skin was to the touch.
“Jake.”
“Say, Jake,” Marian said, looking around the room. “Why is everyone staring at me?”
Several of the men looked away. Raphael, who she noticed was sitting on the far side of the large wooden table, his blond hair glowing in the sunlight like a halo, chuckled, until a sharp elbow in the ribs from Gabriel left him gasping instead.
“You’re in your underwear,” Gabriel said bluntly.
She looked down and, sure enough, she had not a scrap of real clothing on. She sat shocked for a moment, noting that most of the men were smirking, but also sporting very red faces. She turned on Jake, as he was closest, and all but ripped his shirt off as her heart beat faster in embarrassment, a heavy, warm flush rising on her chest. She struggled for a moment, trying to get the shirt over his head with one hand and trying to maintain her modesty with the other.
Taming the Hunted Page 3
