by M. L. Briers
Who fell asleep on the floor of someone’s damn truck like that if they weren’t dog tired or drunk?
She wasn’t drunk.
Who lets their guard down with a stranger and takes a risk the way that she had if she wasn’t in real danger?
She said to let her out outside of town, but what was outside of town? Nothing.
A long walk up the mountain and I’m going that damn way anyway…
Then what?
She’s going to walk down the other side?
In winter…
At night when the area is pitch black…
And what about the Warlock? She’d be easy pickings out there on her own…
It’s not like I can keep her … she has to go out on her own at some point, and she’s probably safer with him than me…
Maybe not … at least, not if he’s hunting her…
Damn it … why’d I have to get involved?
Not that I had much choice … damn stowaway!
I have a choice now…
I can’t leave her on the side of the damn road…
I can take her to Isobel … maybe the witch will know what to do…
Maybe that will just be bringing trouble to the pack…?
My loyalty should be with my new pack … and yet … damn!
Shawn kept his foot on the accelerator and climbed the mountain road, trying to keep the stupid truck as even and steady as he could so as not to wake her from the sleep that she obviously needed…
His beast whined inside of him, and he had to wonder what that was all about. The wolf was normally fangs down and clawing to be set free…
Maybe having a docile human female around that needed protection was good for the beast … maybe not.
Maybe the wolf was just biding its time until they were home so it could go all fur and fangs…
Whatever it was, Shawn had made the decision to take her home.
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By the time that he’d driven up the mountain and pulled into the turn off for the packs land; the road had turned into a track, and he’d tried to miss every damn pothole, but there were so many of them along the way that he couldn’t keep from dropping a wheel into one every few seconds.
He could hear the chink of glass on glass from the bottles of Scotch that she was sort of cuddling as she’d wedge them against her body, but still there was no real sign of life from her.
She slept the sleep of the dead, only stirring slightly every now and then before falling right back to sleep again.
When he drove by Dexter’s cabin; he had the urge to stop and go to get Isobel to deal with the witch. At least that had been his intention on the way up the mountain, but now that he was there; he only slowed down briefly, paused for thought a little, before carrying on up the track towards his own cabin.
He’d have to tell Dexter about the witch, of course he would, just not right then. He’d wake her up, take her inside, and get her settled first. Then he’d explain himself to his stowaway and to Dexter.
Half of him was already regretting the danger that he could have been putting his pack in by bringing her home, and half of him embraced the thought of the Warlock coming up the mountain to get her.
He wanted nothing to do with the situation and yet he wanted to kill the man to keep her safe. It was the strangest damn feeling in the world, to be torn like that for a stranger and not have a clue why.
If he had to guess, it would be that his wolf wanted an excuse to kill something.
Yeah, he needed to let his alpha know what the hell was going on and fast…
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Shawn eased open the back door to the truck and reached in for her. His eyes fell to the bags that she was practically cuddling to her body and he groaned inwardly; he knew that he’d have to move them before he could move her.
He wrapped his hand around the first bag and grimaced at the rustling sound that sounded so loud to his ears in the deafening silence of the truck with only the sound of her breathing for company. He lifted and pulled, but she had some kind of a death grip on them and didn’t seem to want to let go…
His free hand wrapped around the jacket of her arm and he pulled; the sight of her stirring made him pause for thought. In the grand scheme of things there didn’t appear to be a way of getting her out from those backs seats without waking her.
He guessed he was going to have to bite the bullet to get the job done…
It was only then that he realised that he didn’t know her name. He berated himself for that mistake.
“Hey … come on now…” He shook her a little, but he guessed that just a little was probably less than what she’d felt from the trucks motion up the mountain. “Damn it, woman, wake up…” he grumbled and saw her stir, just a little, but was it enough?
His beast was antsy. The wolf was clawing under his skin and he didn’t like it.
From the looks of her the woman had been through enough lately. He didn’t need to add a damn crazy wolf to her troubles.
Shawn reached for again, but it made his heart jump inside of his chest when her eyelids snapped open and her hand came up to ward him off … only she wasn’t warding him off; instead she hit him with the kind of magical blast that took him off of his feet and sent him down on his pride on the frosty ground…
Damn it to hell … I guess that’s what I get for my damn troubles… should have known that you can’t trust or help a damn witch…
I should have dumped her backside out when I left town…
I don’t need any more hassle in my life…
Shawn’s wolf growled a warning at him. It seemed the beast had taken something of a liking to her in a strange sort of way, but the man didn’t see things the same…
He pulled himself to his full height and drew in a long, calming breath…
I’m not going to damn well hurt her so stop your yapping!
He berated the wolf. He berated himself for getting involved with an unpredictable female.
His nose twitched at the scent of witch in the air.
Her scent.
It smelled like snowdrops and cinnamon, and he couldn’t say that it didn’t get his attention … that it didn’t smell damn good … but his eyes locked with hers as she pushed upwards in that small space between the seats, and it took her a long moment to truly focus on him…
“You…!” It sounded like an accusation of sorts, and he didn’t like it. Neither did his wolf. She made it sound as if he’d done something wrong when all he was trying to do was to help her.
Stupid witch.
Stupid woman…
Stupid wolf … his beast was back to being antsy again. He guessed the wolf didn’t like her quite so much now…
“Get out the damn truck…” Shawn growled out and his beast growled within.
“I fell asleep…” she offered by way of what sounded like an apology.
“I noticed.” Shawn growled. “Get out of the damn truck…” he grumbled this time.
It wasn’t like he was hurt. His pride could stand a few of those falls. His body could stand a few of those witch blasts … he was just annoyed for the sake of being annoyed.
She’d taken him by surprise with her antics. He guessed it was a witch gut reaction to shoot first and worry about the consequences later. Hell, he got that – he acted on instinct all the time – but something was stomping all over his nerves and she was in the firing line.
I should just take her to Isobel now…
Wash my hands of the whole damn mess before she zaps me to the point where my wolf takes a big bite…
His beast growled long and hard at that. He guessed that his beast wasn’t interested in a nice tasty witch either … he also guessed that should have been a good thing.
Eva went to move, to shimmy forward and climb out of his truck, but the bottles jangled and she frowned, remembering that they were there.
Shawn stalked
forwards and reached out a hand to take the bags from her.
How he wanted a nice nip of Scotch to ease his fried nerves … hell, he wanted to unscrew the damn cap and guzzle down a half a bottle right off the bat.
“Sorry.” Eva said in a quiet voice that brought his eyes up to hers and his hand hovering out in front of him…
“Forget it,” Shawn offered back in the kind of gruff tone that usually sent people running in the other direction.
Mine… His wolf growled out its claim on her, and every inch of Shawn’s mind, body, and soul reeled with the ramifications of that one word.
CHAPTER FOUR
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Disbelief shattered his world and for what felt like the longest time; he just stood there and starred back into the eyes of his mate. All rational thought had been snatched away from him with that one word, and his wolf was acting on pure instinct.
The beast wanted its mate.
He wasn’t so sure.
It was true that a mate was the top priority for any shifter, but he wasn’t just any shifter – he was one that had lost his way. That was why he was at Dexter’s pack, to find himself before it was too late and he went rogue, or if the worst happened then there would be someone there to end him before he hurt anyone.
But a mate … now … that thought worried the hell out of him.
“Why are you looking at me like that? I said I was sorry…” Eva felt like a damn fool for falling asleep. Anything could have happened.
It was bad enough that she’d let her guard down, allowed her shields to drop low around her, but to zap the poor sap that had given her a lift out of town …
She wasn’t just a fool, she was an damn idiot.
Now the guy looked at her as if she’d just stolen his last chocolate bar and scoffed it down. How she hated that guilt switch inside of her and just how easy it was for something to trigger it.
“It’s…” Shawn bit down on his beast’s need for him to say the claim.
True, she was a witch and she’d know just what it meant, but still … he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to trigger that claim on her.
What the hell do I know about her?
She’s my mate, dumbass…
She’s a witch on the run from a … ah, crap!
His beast reacted to that knowledge. It had completely slipped his mind there for a moment that she was in danger, for the horrible, amazing, blindsiding moment that he’d realised who she was to him.
His mate.
The love of his eternal life in this world and the next.
The woman that he’d been split apart from.
Why did it feel like someone had just dropped four bags of concrete mix onto each shoulder?
How the hell could something feel so right and so wrong at the same time?
He’d wanted a mate. He’d dreamed about the day that he had a family of his own, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes his father had, and yet now that day had come …
“You need to eat and sleep…” Shawn felt the rumble of a growl deep within his chest and tried to hold onto it, but it wanted out, much like his wolf since he refused to stake his claim on her.
The damn beast was scratching at his soul and clawing at his body to be set free. He needed to hold that wolf in its inner cage.
The last thing either of them needed was for his wolf to burst free and say its hello…
“I need to get going, I’ve been here too long already,” Eva said, as she pushed up onto her elbow.
“No!” His beast didn’t like that idea, and quite frankly, neither did he.
The thought of her alone out in the darkness with someone hunting her down made his stomach knot and his protective gene kick in.
The look on her face said that he’d better kick his brain into gear and think fast.
“It’s dark. It’s dangerous on the mountain at night. There are three different shifter communities up here, and then there what’s hunting you…” he turned his head towards his cabin that sat in darkness behind him, but his eyes never left hers. “You’ll be safe here.”
“Says…?” She didn’t get a sense from him that anything was majorly wrong, and yet she knew that there was something that he was holding back.
Either way, she needed to keep moving.
“Just for a little while. I can protect the cabin while you sleep…” Shawn offered and hoped she wouldn’t refuse. He didn’t relish the thought of explaining himself to her, but if he had to then he would.
“Why would you do that?”
Shawn felt the need to say the word. It was mainly fuelled by his wolf, but it was on the tip of his damn tongue all the same. He held out his hand to her and she eyed him for a long moment…
“Let me help you.” Those words were heartfelt. Maybe because he’d felt that need within him from the moment that he’d laid eyes on her.
Eva reached out her hand and her palm slipped into his, the whole of her hand was swallowed up when he closed his fingers around it … and there it was, the strangest of feelings that tingled over her skin and travelled the length of her body…
In a rush of understanding as her eyes met his, Eva got it – the reason that the shifter was so gung-ho to protect her – the reason she’d felt safer in the back of his truck than she had in a long while – the reason that her body had rushed to sleep with her mind safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
“Mates.” She said it on a barely a whisper and yet his ears had locked onto that one word and his heart had taken to hammering in his chest.
The touch of skin on skin was almost too overwhelming a sensation for him in his hyped up state. His beast wanted out, especially now that she had recognised him for what he was.
His muscles were tense and his length ache to be released from the confines of his jeans.
“Mine…” Shawn growled, telling her what she already knew, stalking his claim and making his beast roar within his very soul.
Eva had the urge to snatch her hand back from his; as if that could save her from her fate, but he was already easing her out of the truck. Short of using her magic to stop him there wasn’t much that she could do to halt that forward motion that was bringing her body towards his.
It was the strangest feeling to know that in that one moment in time fate had led her to her mate. Her split apart. He was the other part of herself that made her a whole, and she believed that, but that didn’t mean that she had to like it.
She knew the shifter personality. She knew that he would willingly die to protect her, and with Kal looking for her that instinct just might get him killed.
She rued the moment that she had made the decision to climb into the back of his truck, because that moment of insanity just might get the man killed.
This wasn’t his fight, but he’d make it his.
He’d take on her enemies as his own, and she couldn’t allow that.
If she’d found her mate with a clean slate then things might have been different, but Kal wasn’t going anywhere until he found her and made her suffer for her actions, and the Warlock’s dark magic could put everyone around her in mortal danger.
Shawn wrapped a strong arm around her body and lifted her towards him. The fact that she allowed it, that she let it happen without thought or question was purely selfish. She wanted one more moment to know her other half, and she took it…
Then she summoned her magic and whispered the incantation that dropped him to the ground at her feet, almost pulling her down with him under his weight.
“I’m sorry…” Eva whispered, and she meant it.
Then with a quick look around her; she took off running into the darkness of the night.
CHAPTER FIVE
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George had been watching from the shadows of the tree line. He’d seen the new guy’s truck roll in and he’d almost dismissed it as he headed back out in search of his brother.
He’d picked up his kin’s scent on the br
acing winds the night before, but just as he had found it so it seemed to disappear as quickly as it had come. Now he was hoping to find it again, stronger this time now that the winds had eased.
But what he’d found instead was Shawn’s mate, a witch, zapping the poor sap and leaving him in the dirt as she fled. A mate that ran was the worst thing that could happen to man and beast, and George knew exactly what would happen when Shawn woke up.
He kept the witch in his sight. It would be an easy job considering the fact that she was human and on foot…
‘Dexter, we have a problem…’
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ Dexter grumbled back into the pack link.
‘Shawn’s been spelled unconscious and his mate is running…’
There was a long pause when George wondered if there was something wrong with the link. If he’d travelled out of range, and yet, he hadn’t gone that far into pack land because the woman was so slow.
‘Okay, you got me there… I’m on my way.’ Dexter offered back on a grumbled growl of pure annoyance and disbelief.
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“What’s going on?” Isobel asked as Dexter pushed up from the end of the sofa on a growl.
“Shawn found his mate and she’s running…” Dexter watched his mate’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Running…” she spat out. “Oh that’s…” she shook her head as she pushed up to her feet.
“She’s a witch … you’d think she’d know better…” Dexter grumbled as he stalked towards the front door. “George said she spelled Shawn asleep…”
“I can see what I can do…” Isobel grabbed her jacket on the way out of the door. She had to run to keep up with Dexter’s fast pace as he strode on long legs across the land, because she didn’t want to hold the man back.
“Remember what you’re dealing with. When Shawn wakes to find his mate gone…” Dexter warned her.
“Hey, if anyone knows that I do. You just go find his mate…” Isobel was breathing in pants that filled the air in front of her with clouds of water vapour.
