by Amelia Jade
A crazy idea came to her.
She took the same free hand and pressed it to her chest.
“Grow!” she shouted.
The ground flew away from Nina at dizzying speed as her body expanded in size in the blink of an eye.
All of a sudden the proportions were right again.
Except for the fact she was staring the bear right in the eye. It was no longer massive, but it was angry.
Okay, Aksel. Could use some help here.
The mention of her shifter’s name—her shifter?—brought a memory to the surface. A recent one, of him. Talking to her.
“…your animal will manifest itself in your mind, Nina. It will be another entity within you. You must build a prison in your head, a cage, a container. Something to lock it away in. It has to be big, and it has to be strong!”
Right. A cage. She needed to build a cage.
Looking at the bear, she imagined a square metal cage surrounding the beast.
As if by magic, a wire-mesh wall appeared, trapping the bear.
The animal looked around once, and then snorted in something that could only be contempt. A single paw rose, claws gripping the cage. With a yank, the bear tore the whole thing down.
“Oh, so you’re smart. Well that’s not good.”
But Nina was learning now. She was in her mind. That was the only thing that made sense. Aksel had told her this would happen. But her prison wasn’t strong enough. She needed to try again.
The bear snarled at her and charged.
“Oh shit,” she yelped and ran.
The bear came after her, and it closed the distance swiftly. Nina needed something else. Something that would help her, and hinder the bear.
Another idea came to her.
Blades sprouted from her shoes and the ground beneath her, previously just an insubstantial black, turned to the smoothest ice.
Nina shot forward as the metal dug in, propelling her forward with more speed than she could ever have managed on foot.
Behind her the bear yelped and wiped out.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw it spinning helplessly.
Digging her blades in at a ninety-degree angle, Nina slid to a sharp stop and set her mind to building a new construct to cage her bear.
Instead of steel, she conjured up rocks and boulders, piling it around the bear in a huge circle, layer upon layer of it. She built it up and smoothed it together, forming a massive cave around the prostrate beast. The bear roared and got to its feet, trying to tear it down, but she was in her element now. Rocks and boulders appeared faster than the bear could swat it away, forming a roof now.
Nina waved her hand around it, thickening the rock, making the walls deeper and deeper, piling more and more on top of it as she went. The bear’s howls became more desperate, but it was too late.
“You’re mine now,” she snarled, hurling her anger, her fear, and her pain at the construct, using it to strengthen the rock beyond natural levels.
The bear’s struggles stopped.
And Nina awoke.
Light seared her eyes and pain blasted through her body.
She screamed.
“Nina!”
She heard the voice over everything else assaulting her mind. The one voice she’d thought she would never hear again.
Aksel.
***
Aksel
Nina began to thrash and scream as she clawed her way back to consciousness.
“Did it work?” he asked in astonishment.
Her mouth split open and she screamed his name.
“Nina!” he roared, bending over her.
The cut on her lip was already beginning to heal.
“It worked!” he yelled happily. “It worked!”
She was healing. The Turning had worked. The wounds she had suffered, while still painful, were easily healable for a shifter.
Nina was going to survive.
“Boss, her bones!”
She was still thrashing about, screaming in pain.
“Shit, hold her still, we need to set them!” he said.
The men who had taken Nina had worked her over, breaking bones all over her body. With the quick healing of her shifter now in place, if they didn’t get the bones set properly, they would heal in improper fashion, and they would then have to rebreak them all over again. Aksel had been through that before. It was not a pleasant experience, and one he would prefer to spare Nina from.
Two shifters leapt forward, reaching for her shoulders.
“Careful, they’re dislocated!” he snapped, remembering those injuries as well at the last moment. “Shit. Okay, reset them, then we deal with the rest of her.”
Together they popped her shoulders back into their sockets, eliciting a fresh round of screaming from Nina. Then Aksel and his team went to work setting her various bones back into place, so that they could heal properly.
Both arms went first, and then her left leg. They worked frantically, racing against her own newly turbo-charged healing powers. Her right leg was already beginning to heal, and Aksel winced as he heard some rather stomach-churning sounds as he was forced to pull the weak bond between bones apart to set them properly.
As each bone fell back into place, Nina seemed to subside a bit, calming her screaming, until she just sort of sagged, lying on the ground. The swelling around her eye was receding rapidly. Even as he watched the eyelid flickered open, both pupils looking agitated until they settled on him.
“Hi,” he said softly, reaching out to brush some of her hair from her face.
“Hello,” she said, the word focused and clear.
“How do you feel?” He was trying not to shake as it sort of dawned on him that he was talking to Nina. That she was already looking better than she had since he’d found her.
Best of all, she was looking alive.
“Sore,” she said with a chuckle. “Really, really sore. But, other than that, this, umm, thing in my head, and a desire to sleep for three days straight, I feel good. Strong.”
“You are strong,” he told her. “Much stronger than you’ve ever been.”
“I feel like I could eat half a cow right now,” she grumbled.
“Might not be much of an exaggeration,” he said with a laugh. Then he sobered. “There are a lot of changes we’ll have to talk about. Things you need to know.”
“Like the fact that I’m a shifter now?” she asked.
“Like that,” he said with a nod.
Nina’s proud face seemed to crumble at that admission. Aksel nearly panicked. What had he done? Had he screwed up by saving her life this way? Nina hadn’t said anything when he’d done it, but then again, she’d barely been coherent. Was he supposed to have just let her die? Why was this so terrible?
Then the realization of why she was upset washed over him.
Her family hated shifters. The huge family, with six siblings and dozens of cousins that lived just a few hours from here. The family she loved and cherished and missed more than she was willing to admit. It was all gone to her now. They would never want her back once they found out what she was.
And it was all his fault.
“Oh Nina,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t think about that. I was just…” he stopped speaking, unsure what words, if any, could be of help at a time like this.
He’d just ripped her from her world, without giving any thoughts to her own views on it. Aksel had been so dead set on saving her for himself, that he hadn’t realized what he was doing. Nina might not be a corpse, but she was just as good as dead to everyone she’d ever known. But it was worse, because she would be alive to feel the rejection and abandonment that would come.
And it’s all your fault, you selfish prick! You ruined her life by saving it. She’ll never forgive you now.
“Aksel,” she began to say, but he shook his head.
“I had no right,” he said, interrupting her. “None at all. You have my apologies, for whatever that is w
orth, but this is not something I can ever atone for.”
Nina frowned.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
He hoisted himself up. “You’re a shifter now. And your family…I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing by saving you. But I see now that I wasn’t.”
Nina’s beautiful faced scrunched up in a frown. Then her eyes went wide.
“Are you apologizing for saving my life by turning me into a shifter, because you’re afraid my family will hate me?”
He nodded, ashamed.
Slap!
Aksel tumbled backward, rocked by the slap of a full-fledged shifter who didn’t realize how strong they were. His cheek stung and was already beginning to bruise as he got back to his feet, still squatting back on his heels to stay low to the ground.
“I suppose I deserve that,” he muttered.
Around him his squad was backing up discreetly, giving the couple—no, former couple, he corrected—some space.
“Yes, you do,” she snapped. “How dare you?”
He bowed his head.
“How dare you sit there and apologize for saving my life, you stupid, ignorant, idiot!”
Aksel’s eyes blazed as his head jerked upright.
“You do not get to feel bad for preventing me from dying. If my family won’t accept me, that is their problem. I’m alive because of you. If I wasn’t, I’d be dead, and that’s all they would know. But now I’m at least here. So don’t you dare try to apologize.”
Then she smiled at him. “Sorry for the bruise. I don’t know my own strength.”
Unsure of himself, and startled by the ferocity of her response, Aksel just continued to look at her.
She started to sit up, but he placed a hand on her chest and pressed her back down. Doing so took a lot more force than he would have ever had to use on her previously human form, but she was still weak. Eventually Nina didn’t resist, subsiding back into the snow.
“Just hold on a minute, okay? We’re not in any danger here. You’re surrounded by friends, so you can stay calm.”
Nina shook her head, her eyes going wide. “No. No I can’t.” She moaned. “Oh Aksel. I fucked up. I fucked up so badly. I’m the one who should be apologizing here. Not you. Not you,” she repeated.
His eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
She looked away, avoiding his gaze. “I’m sorry. I really am. I should have trusted you. I should have done the right thing. But I didn’t. I should have told you.”
“Nina,” he said, resorting to his command voice to gain her attention. “What didn’t you tell me?”
His fingers gripped her chin and forced her head to turn back toward him. She winced as he did, and he belatedly remembered her jaw had been fractured as well.
“Sorry,” he muttered, but his tone didn’t ease.
“I knew why they were after me,” she whispered.
“You did?” he asked, surprised, but also hurt.
He’d defended her to his superiors, to any challengers. Told them that Nina wouldn’t lie to them, that if she knew why they were after her, she would have said so. He’d believed her when she told him she didn’t know why. And now, it was revealed that all this time she’d been lying to him.
It hurt. Deep within, where some of his defenses had begun to erode while around her, it began to ache. She’d betrayed his trust, after he’d gone to such lengths while believing her. He’d been opening up to her, his mind, body, and heart. Now he found out she hadn’t been truthful with him. Aksel didn’t fight Nina this time as she sat up.
“Please, Aksel,” she said, reaching out to touch his shoulder.
He pulled back.
“You lied to me,” he said. “And not just once, either.”
“I know,” she said, her voice shaky. He could almost hear the tears in it, but he wasn’t sure he cared just then. “I’m sorry.”
He just shook his head.
“Aksel.” Her voice was sharp and pointed, driving through his cloud of self-pity.
His bear roared within him as he looked into her face, letting his anger show.
Nina flinched, and he almost felt horrible about turning his temper on her, even if she was the cause of it. Almost. But Nina only flinched; she didn’t shy away. Her eyes bore into his, and she continued to speak. And as she did, Aksel found he couldn’t ignore her.
“I am sorry for what I did, Aksel. But right now, we don’t have time for you to pity yourself and hate me. That will have to wait.”
“Why?” he asked, uncaring.
“Because. I know what it is they wanted. And this time…” her voice quieted, and when she spoke again, it was filled with shame. “This time they got what they were looking for.”
“And what was that?”
“The location to a mineshaft south of here,” she told him.
“And?” he asked. What the hell did he care about some mineshaft?
“The mineshaft leads directly under Cadia. By our best estimates, it terminates about ten feet from the surface of a hill within a mile of the center of town.”
Aksel’s blood ran cold. Impossible. If there was a mineshaft that ran that close to town, they would know about it!
Wouldn’t they?
Not if the entrance is outside of Cadia.
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“I’m an archivist for Cloud Lake,” she reminded him. “One of my primary projects is digitizing our old records. About a month ago, maybe a bit more, I came across some old maps. As I was recording them, I found the map of that mineshaft. The entrance had long since been hidden, but I was part of a three-person expedition that went out there and verified that it does still exist.”
She fell silent, eyes downcast as Aksel tried to maintain his composure.
“Why did nobody tell us?” he demanded, referring to Cadia as a whole.
“I’m not completely sure,” she admitted. “I think they were planning to try and use it as leverage, probably for some sort of monetary payment. Cloud Lake isn’t exactly swimming in excess funds, and it’s fairly well known that shifters have amassed large fortunes.”
Aksel snorted. It was always about money.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said instead, wanting to know why she’d lied.
“I should have,” she replied. “But Aksel, when they found out what I knew, they came for me. They threw me in a room on my own for hours. Threatened me with prison and worse. Said my entire family would got thrown into a jail and forgotten about if I so much as pretended I knew. I’m the only one with the password to the file. If it got out, there was nobody else it could have been. When you first found me, I didn’t know who you were. I had no idea. So I wasn’t going to tell you then either. But by that point, I’d denied it to you, Captain Klein, and the major. I was caught in my own lie, and I didn’t know what to do. I was torn, between believing their threats and my feelings for you. I’m so sorry!”
Aksel bit his lip.
“Perhaps we’re not so different after all,” he told her with a sad smile.
“What do you mean?”
“I was ordered to spy on you, to see if you knew the truth. Major Eidelhorn didn’t entirely believe you it seems,” he revealed. “So he forced me to use my feelings for you to try and get you to trust me.”
Nina gaped.
“You faked this whole thing with me just to try and see if I was lying?!”
Aksel shook his head violently. “Absolutely not! I didn’t fake a damn thing. Everything you saw, felt, or heard, was one hundred percent me. The way I care for you, the way I held you or touched you. What I told you. That was all real and unaltered. But my orders forced me to ask you if you knew.”
“But you didn’t,” she said, confused.
“No, and because of it, the major asked you instead. Which I gather sent you out here into trouble in the first place.”
Aksel didn’t know that for sure, but he’d been piecing the puz
zle together on why Nina had fled the motel, and this seemed the logical conclusion.
“So, I lied to you, and your orders got me turned into a shifter. Does that make us even?”
He looked at her in awe. “How can you forgive me, just like that?”
Nina smiled. “That’s what you do when you care for someone, and they make a mistake. You forgive them.”
“So what do you do when you love someone?” he asked quietly, his voice so low it was barely audible.
He watched her face as the implication of his words worked their way through her mind. Her eyebrows narrowed, but the progress slowed, and then they began to rise as her mouth opened and then closed in shock. Nina’s eyelids blinked rapidly and her lips pursed together in thought.
There was a long period of silence, broken only by the frantic, nervous beating of his heart. Though it seemed only he could hear that.
Then Nina spoke at last. “You forgive them, and then you kiss them. I think.” Her lips twitched.
“I can do both of those,” he told her, and proceeded to demonstrate.
Her lips were salty-sweet, and he longed to be able to taste the rest of her. But Aksel had a duty to perform. With a regretful grimace, and far more mental effort than he wished, he pulled away.
“I promise to be much, much more thorough on that later,” he began.
“But we need to tell everyone,” she finished.
He nodded. “Fenris wouldn’t want that information if they weren’t ready and willing to use it.’
She frowned. “But they would need an army to invade Cadia itself, wouldn’t they?”
Nina tried to get to her feet, but her legs weren’t healed enough to hold her just yet. Aksel bent over and scooped her up into his arms. She tried to put hers around his neck, but the bones just weren’t up to the task yet. It would be another hour or two before she could move on her own without hindrance, he knew.
They began the run back to headquarters. As they did, a sinking feeling swept over Aksel.
“You know,” he said to his entire team. “We found a lot of stockpiled supplies around town. Supplies to feed a much, much larger force. Several times the size of the one occupying Cloud Lake. And we never did find who it was for.”
He exchanged looks with several of his squad.
