Release Me (Storm Lords Book 3)
Page 23
“Did you come here to gloat? To punish me more? I paid. Rachel paid. There is no more due.”
Gabriel ignored the interruption. “You broke the Covenant, and her life is forfeit. I can’t change that.”
Finn looked up at the angel. There was something in his tone. Regret perhaps. “Would you?”
“Perhaps. Seeing you and your brothers fight for your women, give up everything, has made me wonder…” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. If I break faith with the Covenant, Lilith will gain in power. We can’t risk that.”
“So what the fuck are you doing here?” He wanted to be alone.
“She’s fading. I can’t do anything. But you can. You have the power to give life to the dying. Albeit not perhaps the life they had before.”
Then he was gone.
Finn sat staring at the spot where he had stood. Shock froze him in place. His mind whirled. Could it work?
He moved closer, stroked her face. Her eyes remained closed. Shit. She was unconscious.
Could he do it again? Make a decision for her? He’d spent two thousand years living with regret for his betrayal. He’d given something she had never asked for, never even been offered. And she’d died for it.
The sun was now almost overhead. He was running out of time. Soon she would be beyond his reach.
Then he remembered her words: If you’d offered me eternity, I would have said yes.
Hope whispered through him. Insubstantial but present where there had been none for so long.
Rising to his feet, he willed the change to come over himself. Within seconds, he stood on all fours, sniffing the air, scenting the fresh blood, the odor of death. So close. Everything always seemed simpler in wolf form. He knew now what he had to do. He padded toward her, buried his nose in her throat, breathing her in. Licked her face.
He sat back, studied her for a second, and then lunged, sinking his fangs into the tender flesh where her shoulder met her neck. Her warm blood filled his mouth, trickled down his throat.
He lay by her side for a long time. Noting the passing of the hours and the continued rise and fall of her chest with each breath as the deadline passed and she wasn’t taken from him. He watched the wound heal over to leave her skin unmarked, and still he held his hope in check.
At one point, Killian appeared at the edge of the forest. Finn growled, and he went away again. But he was aware they watched from a distance.
When the sun went down, and the full moon rose over the horizon, she stirred.
He shifted back into human form and gathered her in his arms.
As her eyes opened, he whispered the words. “I love you. I will love you for eternity.”
She opened her mouth to answer, then her eyes widened, and her spine arched, her head fell back, and she screamed.
The moon was full, and the night was bright, the ground soft under her feet, and she dug her sharp claws into the earth.
Twisting her head, she stared at the midnight black fur that covered her skin. Around her the world was sharply defined. Her ears pricked, picking up the sigh of the wind through the pines, the cry of a kestrel somewhere high above her. The air heavy with the scent of growing things, of rich, damp soil, decay, and the musky aroma of wolf.
Her muzzle twitched, and she searched the trees. He stood close by, a huge golden wolf, watching her with his silver eyes. He caught her gaze, yipped once, then turned and headed into the darkness of the tall trees.
They ran through the forest, the pads of her paws making no sound on the soft pine-needled floor. She splashed through the shallow ford of the river, no longer afraid. Effortlessly, she weaved her way between the tall trunks of the pines, chasing the golden wolf. As the trees thinned, she picked up speed, running ever faster, until she was aware of nothing but the wind flowing past her, the wolf just ahead.
They reached the edge of the forest and raced side-by-side under the full moon, filled with an excitement she had never realized existed. She felt wildly alive, filled with joy. She sat back on her haunches and howled to the moon. The golden wolf sat beside her, and together they sang.
When Rachel opened her eyes, she lay naked on a bed of pine needles, under the cover of a huge overhang of rock. Despite her lack of clothes, she was warm, heat radiating out from the equally naked man lying behind her, his arms and legs wrapped around her, holding her close.
She’d been dying. Shot. She looked down at her stomach, where she had taken the bullet, a shudder of remembered pain running through her. But the wound was gone, vanished as though it had never existed. She’d known it was over, had felt the life force leaving her. She hadn’t wanted to go. And somehow, he’d saved her.
It seemed unbelievable, but she was a werewolf.
Poor Papi was going to have a fit. And she didn’t want to think what the Council of Elders would say if they ever found out. The thought made her smile. She was pretty sure if Papi believed in werewolves at all, he would consider them creatures of Satan. When in fact they were Finn’s creatures. Did that mean she would have to do what Finn told her? As Dawson did? She wasn’t sure that was going to work. But they’d figure something out.
She was alive.
So was Finn and Jacob. Papi. A wave of sadness washed over her—some of her wolf protectors hadn’t made it; she’d seen their bodies strewn around the house. They’d died still protecting her. She would mourn them later.
She pulled free a little and turned so she was facing her guardian angel—he would always be an angel to her—and searched his beautiful face. Her husband. Her werewolf. Her angel. He was watching her in return, his expression wary. They hadn’t had a chance to talk last night. Almost as soon as she had regained consciousness—something had happened. Something she’d thought at first was proof that she had, in fact, gone to Hell. Her body on fire, wrenching pain, as though she was being torn limb from limb.
Finn had told her to relax, to let it take her, and she’d trusted him, and the pain had gone.
“I’m a werewolf then?” she said. “How? Why?”
“It was down to Gabriel. I prayed—the first fucking time in two thousand years—and the bastard came. He reminded me that I had the power to bring the dying back to life. The idea had never occurred to me.” Reaching out, he caressed her face with his big hand, and she leaned into his touch. “Christ, it was so close. I nearly left it too late. I wasn’t sure I had the right. That maybe you wouldn’t want to live like this. I hope…” He sat up and ran a hand through his short hair. “Tell me I haven’t fucked up again.”
She sat up and took his hands. “Well, we’re both still alive. So a vast improvement on last time.” Leaning forward she took his mouth in a long, lingering kiss. It was starting to sink in. She wasn’t dead. She didn’t know how long she had, but she would live every second as though it mattered.
She’d see Jacob grow up, hopefully grow old and maybe die. See his children.
And she would have Finn to help her through the hard times. Maybe God had forgiven them both. “Thank you for my life,” she said, and the tension drained from his face.
“My pleasure. Always and forever.”
“What will happen?” she asked. “With Lilith? Are you not still obliged to return to her when the Covenant ends?”
“As it stands, yes. But we’ll find a way. There’s a war coming. Things will change. Old allegiances will be overthrown. Who knows what the world will be at the end of it all. But whatever, I promise that we will face it together.”
She’d been given another chance, and she wouldn’t squander it. And the first thing, the most important thing, was making sure her man knew how she felt. She needed to say the words and say them often.
“I love you,” she said.
He gave her a long smoldering kiss. “I know.”
The End
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About the Author
Growing up
, Nina Croft spent her time dreaming of faraway sunnier places and ponies. When she discovered both, and much more, could be found between the covers of a book, her life changed forever.
Later, she headed south, picked up a husband on the way, and together they discovered a love of travel and a dislike of 9-5 work. Eventually they stumbled upon the small almond farm in Spain they now call home.
Nina spends her days reading, writing and riding under the blue Spanish skies—sunshine and ponies. Proof that dreams can come true if you want them enough.
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