Deep lethal growls poured out of Mac’s chest in a constant warning to the soldier, his muscles flexed and rippled, preparing to launch. His paw on Sela’s head tightened. She knew he planned to leap between her and the soldier. To use his body as a shield against any weapons the soldier carried. To protect her.
“Stand up slowly, hands where I can see ‘em.” Gruff and deadly serious, the voice behind her said ‘don’t fuck with me.’
Livie edged the barrel of her gun just to the side of Sela. Her eyes flashed to Sela’s. Sela nodded. A second later she heard a loud, booming echo and felt a flash of heat along her side. Almost immediately Mac pushed hard on her head, forcing her over Livie as his weight slammed over her back, covering them both with his body.
Sela waited to feel a bullet hit for an eternity. Nothing happened. She couldn’t move and didn’t dare at any rate, pressed over Livie like she was.
Mac’s immense body completely protected them. Please don’t let him get shot. She didn’t care that he could recover in minutes. He still bled and he still felt pain.
At last, Mac moved away. He pulled Sela up, rumbling in his chest and petting her hair. He looked down at Livie. “Nice shot.” Livie grinned briefly. In the next instant she arched and hissed in pain. Sela gripped Mac’s paw. They needed to get Livie help now.
“More bad guys, Seals,” Livie whispered.
Sela turned to look as a tall man, holding a sword, stepped out of one of the SUVs and . . . time stopped.
It simply stopped.
Like a clock winding backwards, time rewound, the years disappearing until she was fourteen again. The sounds and sights of the battle vanished, replaced with a cold windowless room. Stone walls surrounded her. A heavy chain rattled and Sela turned her head to see her mother, hands cuffed over her head, imprisoned against one of the walls.
Hatred blazed from her mother’s eyes. She yanked on her chains again, her body a mere skeletal shadow of what it had once been.
“Go to hell, you bastard!” She shrieked. Her eyes focused on someone near Sela. Her ragged and filthy shirt hung in tatters over her rail thin arms. The circular tattoo on her left arm flickered off and on like a light with a short in it.
“You’re pathetic, Mona.” The tall, dark man walked forward. A large sword hung negligently in one hand. “How could you do this to yourself? To your power?” He asked contemptuously.
Sela’s mother flung her body around frantically, rage and spittle flying around her.
Sela pounded her fist against her thigh. Stop, she wanted to yell. Don’t let him do this. Fight. Fight for yourself. Fight for us. Please.
She didn’t say anything. She knew better. At fourteen, Sela knew never to beg her mother for anything.
The tall man stopped in front of Sela’s mother. He reached out and gripped her chin tightly in his hand. Sela watched the skin along her mother’s jaw turn white. “I should have chosen one of your sisters instead.”
Sela didn’t understand. What was he talking about?
Her mother shrieked, jerking in her chains. Without warning she stilled completely. Hatred blazing from her eyes, like a live wire. She drew her head back and spit in the tall man’s face.
He sneered briefly in disgust then withdrew a handkerchief from his pant pocket. He casually wiped the spit from his face, folded the handkerchief and tucked it into her mother’s shirt.
Just as calmly, he raised his sword and before Sela could scream, drove it into her mother’s chest. He pushed forward on the sword until the handle touched her mother’s chest then, without a word or expression, he withdrew the blade. Her mother arched, blood poured out of the wound and down her chest.
Sela did scream then. Loudly, over and over again.
The tall man glanced at her. “At least I have you as a replacement.”
Her mother lifted her head. She laughed - the sound hideous and garbled as she choked on her own blood. She looked first at the tall man and then at Sela.
“I’ll see you both in hell.”
Sela moaned, shaking her head. Why did her mother hate her so much?
Barely sparing a glance for her mother, the tall man carelessly lifted his sword and brought it swiftly down. Her mother’s head dropped and rolled across the floor.
Sela screamed and screamed, her voice turning hoarse until she could scream no more.
“Sela!” Mac grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
The nightmare disappeared as the battle shot back into view in front of her.
Her screams echoed all around her and Sela realized she couldn’t stop screaming.
Livie called to her while Mac snarled and repeatedly shook her.
The tall, dark man stepped away from his vehicle and raised his sword.
Sela stopped screaming.
Without looking at Mac or Livie she said, “That’s the man that killed our mother.”
She felt Livie jerk behind her. Mac’s snarls turned deadly. Sela gripped one of his paws on her shoulder. “No. He knows how to use that sword.”
Mac stilled. “How do you know?”
“He took our mother’s head with it.” Livie gasped and began to cry softly. Mac’s paws tightened to the point of pain. She had to tell them the rest. “While she was chained to a wall in front of me.”
Push it down, push it down.
“He dies.”
Wrenching her gaze away from the monster, Sela turned to Mac and Livie. Silent tears streamed down Livie’s face. She pressed both hands to her side. I’m so, so sorry, she mouthed at Sela.
Sela nodded. She’d never shared her nightmare with her sisters after she escaped. She knew what that memory had done to her, how could she let it kill something in her sisters as well?
Mac straightened. Sela jumped up and stepped in front of him. She latched onto Mac’s fur and yelled at him. “No. I watched him kill her. I won’t watch him kill you too.”
Mac looked down at her. His long muzzle parted on pants as he visibly struggled for control, blood gleamed on razor sharp fangs and she knew more blood coated his claws. His amber eyes swirled with heat and fury.
Thunder boomed and rolled all around them. A steady stream of rain began to beat down on the field.
“Sela.”
She knew his voice. That deep, slightly accented sound still haunted her darkest nightmares.
Keeping a tight hold on Mac, Sela turned back to face the beast. As soon as she looked at his face, her mother’s scream began to echo inside her head.
Push it down, push it down.
He hadn’t moved from the SUV. He stood there sword raised and touched something on his shoulder. When heads lifted and turned towards them, Sela realized it must be a radio device of some sort.
The soldiers on the field quit actively fighting. They engaged the werewolves in self-defense, but otherwise their focus had just changed. Dodging and racing around the werewolves, all of the soldiers began to converge on the spot where Mac and Sela stood in front of Livie.
Their intent was obvious, but Sela still looked back towards the tall man. Several soldiers dragged two cages out of the back SUV. They opened the cage doors. One attached a metal box to the top of each cage.
No guesses as to what that might be, Chickie. Electric charges. Sela’s body jolted. She could feel the electricity humming and pulsing in painful nerve screaming zaps through her body. Just like it had back in that cold cage.
A bolt of lightning crashed into a tree barely thirty feet away.
The light reflected off the raised sword.
Her mother’s scream. The swinging of the sword. The cold metal cage. Alone.
Push it down, Push it . . .
The tall man smiled.
Something inside of Sela exploded.
She tilted her head back and yelled, a long primeval scream, pouring out her rage, venting her anguish, her years on the run, the separation from her sisters, everything she’d suffered due to the tall man.
Beside her, Mac tip
ped his head and howled, she heard the echo of her pain and the vow of punishment in his voice. Her mate beside her, with her always.
All across the field werewolves tipped their heads, joining in the cry with their howls. Her clan.
Sela raised her arms. Her mark glowed brighter than ever, shining down on her with its power.
She looked across at the monster.
“I’m never pushing it down again, you bastard.”
She pulled on her power, clutching the warmth and swell of energy as it surged upward through her body.
She looked directly at the tall man and smiled.
“Go to hell.”
The power exploded out of her, detonating like a nuclear bomb. It called to the rain and heavy clouds surrounding the field, it drew in the water, gathering it in its powerful embrace and flung it back into the Elements.
Her Element. Water.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A faint roar sounded in the air above them, close to the mountains. The werewolves ceased their howling at the same time, noses tipped to the sky, scenting. Their animal instincts on alert.
Next to her, Mac’s immense body tensed and he tilted his muzzle up, scenting the air as well.
She didn’t understand.
Every time she’d called on her power - her Element – before, she’d had instant results. Crushing downpours, giant floating bubbles.
Now, when she needed it the most, when she was desperate to use her power – she got nothing. It didn’t make sense. She’d felt the power. Felt all of that pain and suffering ball together and twine with her Element until it created a force inside of her that wouldn’t be denied. She’d felt her power emerge. More than that, she’d felt it explode out of her so completely she was surprised she stood in one piece.
So, where the hell was it?
Where was her show, her display of muscle? Her ultimate victory over the man who’d killed her mother and traumatized her? Her demonstration of the Element she had been hunted for her entire life?
Where the hell was the water?
The faint roar grew louder.
The tall man smiled coldly at Sela, clasped his sword in both hands and began walking toward her.
The hell with it.
Sela pivoted on her heel and bent over Livie. Livie’s eyes were closed, her skin deathly pale. Sela bit her lip, fighting panic. She put trembling fingers to Livie’s throat, her hand shaking so badly she almost missed the faint pulse. Livie had passed out.
Promising herself she’d end this in the next ten seconds and get Livie to a hospital, Sela pulled the gun from her sister’s limp fingers.
The heavy weight of the metal felt strange in her hand. The grisly image of her mother’s head on the floor and the pain of the gunshot she’d suffered immediately after when she escaped had merged together for Sela. She hadn’t touched a gun since the night her mother had been murdered.
Now, she clenched the handle of the gun. If she couldn’t kill the foul beast with water then a bullet to the head ought to do it.
Sela swung back around, hands gripped to the handle, finger lightly touching the trigger ready to place her shot.
The tall man had stopped, feet planted, long sword held in front of him, swaying slightly.
Her hands shook.
Furious with herself, Sela firmed her grip, but it didn’t help. She tried again and realized that her hands were not shaking . . . the ground was shaking.
In fact, everything around them shook or trembled to some degree. The trees, the vehicles, the soldiers – everything vibrated.
Could it be an earthquake? Although rare, Sela knew that earthquakes did strike southeastern Idaho from time to time. She’d never heard of one this strong before.
Mac barked sharply. The werewolves barked back and took off. They simply ran away. She couldn’t believe it. How dare they? How could they abandon them like this?
Mac’s paws wrapped around Sela’s waist. He pulled her off the ground and tight to his chest. Sela shifted the gun so she wouldn’t accidently shoot him and stiff armed him with her other hand.
Pressing her head back she yelled, “What are you doing?”
“Have to move. Have to get away.”
No.
Sela turned her head to see the tall man stumbling back to his SUV. He was going to get away.
Hell no.
Sela pushed hard against Mac. She twisted and arched her body, trying to swing the gun around to get her shot. “Mac, please,” she cried. “Let me go. I have to kill him.”
Mac yanked the gun out of her hand.
Sela stared at him in disbelief.
How could he do this? How could he stop her when he wanted to kill that bastard too?
Mac shook her hard. “Lupa, we have to go. Don’t you understand?”
The fear in his eyes finally got through to her. She knew in that moment that she had to make another choice. Revenge or Mac. Go after the bastard or stay with Mac.
Split second.
No time to analyze. She had to choose.
Sela chose Mac.
No hesitation, no hemming and hawing. She went with her heart. Able to see past the blood rage that clouded her vision, Sela could see what was in front of her.
Something was very wrong.
The faint growl had grown to an angry, snapping roar, bombarding them on all sides. The air itself seemed to take on a life of its own, heavy with a fierce weight that pressed and promised to crush everything it encountered.
Holy Hannah.
All around them soldiers were running and even crawling on the uneven ground as they tried to reach their trucks.
Now, Sela understood why the werewolves had fled. They hadn’t abandoned them, they’d sensed the threat right away and Mac had barked – told – them to leave.
A gray werewolf charged out of the trees towards them. He jumped the last twenty feet and landed next to them. Chest heaving, Cam crouched next to Livie and cautiously eased her into his arms, mindful of her injuries. Livie moaned, but didn’t wake up.
Mac nodded towards a sloping edge of the mountain, several miles away. “Our only chance,” he said. His fangs chomped down on every word. He tightened his grip on Sela and before she had time to draw a single breath they were off.
Face pressed into a wall of fur, her entire body held within a steely embrace, Sela could only guess at what was happening.
She knew they moved at great speed. She could hear the wind whistling past her. She could feel the strength in Mac’s muscles with every leap he took.
But she still did not understand.
She only knew that something very bad was about to happen. And they were caught in the middle of it.
The roar grew and grew. It thundered, pounding and pummeling around them. And it was around them. Not above them, but suddenly surrounding them - a deafening roar that charged after them, threatening to engulf them.
Encased in Mac’s arms, Sela could not see. She gripped his fur, her pulse racing. His arms tightened around her, desperation in his muscles as his powerful body propelled them forward, forward and then . . . they stopped.
Mac’s body tensed all around her. His heart beat heavily in her ear. The roar approached then encircled them. It beat at Sela, pounding though her until her entire body vibrated with the rage of the roar.
Slowly, she turned her head. Inch by inch, her cheek rubbing across Mac’s furry chest, she turned until she could finally see.
They clung to a wall of sheer rock. Ten inches to the side of her head, Mac pierced the hard rock with the claws. Imbedded to the tips of his fingers, the claws of his one hand held them in place.
How was that possible?
Sela glanced down. She could just make out his toe claws fully inserted into the cliff wall below them. His other paw pressed firmly into the small of her back. Unrelenting and unmoving.
They were not going anywhere.
Which was a very good thing considering the raging river below them.
Only now did Sela understand. Her power had not let her down. It had not deserted her in her moment of need.
Sela had unleashed a flood of near biblical proportions.
Mere feet below Mac’s toe claws, a terrifying amount of pure power battered and scraped and encompassed all that it could grasp.
Sela saw bodies, some still attempting to stay afloat but most of them lifeless, swirl below them. SUVs, trees and a few animals all passed by, caught up in the flood.
A movement to the side caught her attention. Sela realized Cam, still holding Livie, clung to the rock wall next to them.
Livie’s safe. She’s okay.
Sela let her head fall back. Possible death called from below and . . . she didn’t worry. She knew with every part of her being that Mac would protect her. He wouldn’t let her fall. He held her securely in his grasp. He’d fight death itself for her.
Sela glanced at the seething water below them. She gulped. He had.
No more hedging her bets.
She placed her hands along his muzzle. “My mother didn’t love me Mac and it nearly destroyed me to watch her die.” She tugged until he leaned down and she pressed her lips to the edge of his upper jaw, right above his deadly fangs.
“I couldn’t survive if something happened to you.” She looked directly into his beautiful swirls of amber. “I love you, Mac.”
His eyes closed and a great shudder shook his massive body.
He pressed her closer to him. She knew his big paw would be arched, claws outward so he wouldn’t risk scratching her. He leaned down. Nuzzling her cheek he rumbled softly, “I love you, mate”
Mac didn’t want her because of her scent. He didn’t want her because of some nameless thing that made her his mate. He wanted all of her. Her power, her heart, her body and everything else that made up Sela, like she wanted all of him, tall, dark and furry. Forever.
The last few screams from the soldiers caught in the flood faded.
And with them her mother’s screams finally died too.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Are you sure you don’t want some more pasta?” Sela sat on the bed next to Livie.
Tall, Dark and Furry (The Elementals Book 1) Page 23
