One True Mate 3: Shifter's Echo

by Lisa Ladew

  The wolves whined and spoke in a rush, their voices overlapping each other. He touched each of their minds in turn, ensuring they all meant to uphold their vow. When he reached a young wolf who still looked relatively strong and healthy, something in his mind made Crew take notice. A scent carried on the wind of his memories of lavender and citrus. He shifted through the wolf’s remembrances until he saw what he was looking for. He showed the wolf its memory of the scene.

  What is this?

  Humans. Outside cave of basilisk.

  Crew grew panicked. In the wolf’s mind he’d seen a throng of humans gathered around something and could not discern if Dahlia was among them. Why would she be at the cave of a basilisk? But it was the only lead he had. When?

  Today. When sun high in sky.

  Where?

  Four howls to the setting sun.

  Crew thought quickly, then decided on his plan. He crossed the room to the metal door and tested the strength of the bars, then tested the strength of the setting of the door in the concrete. Both were strong. As he tested, his eyes fell on something laid on a ledge on the far wall of the hallway.

  The key.

  ***

  Dahlia crouched behind a large boulder in the putrid-smelling cave and stared at the basilisk, which was almost a hundred feet away, socked into its inner chamber, sleeping. It was terrifyingly large, twice as large as a moose, like the king had said, with iridescent scales instead of fur, and jagged, clay-brown spikes in a ridge along its back. It’s face was a lizard face and it gave Dahlia the creeps, especially as venom dripped out of its slack mouth and sizzled when it hit the floor.

  She’d gotten permission to enter the quest, not exactly proud of the way she’d done it, but heartened that she’d been able to, all the same. WWWWD was working for her.

  She’d gotten the king drunk, pouring him glass after glass of the thick, sweet wine his maids had brought out after dinner, all the while asking questions about his life.

  When she’d learned about his late wife and his two younger sisters, she’d finally had the courage to ask him, “Do you really believe that women are less clever than men?”

  He’d faltered, then shook his head. “Not all.”

  An hour later, she’d had her promise, and another she hadn’t even realized she was going to ask for. He’d agreed to put two women on the parliament if he could find two who would agree to it. She didn’t think he’d have the trouble he seemed to think he would.

  She’d returned to her room high on her victory and managed to fall asleep only when the sun had brought first light to her window. She hadn’t slept long before being awoken to dress for the quest, and as far as she knew she’d had no dreams and didn’t wake in another world.

  The quest hadn’t started till noon, giving her plenty of time to fight with her lady in waiting about the dress everyone thought she was going to wear. Dahlia insisted on wearing either her own clothes or clothes meant for a man, but King Caius wouldn’t allow it and his tight expression when he told her so made her think he was not happy about the promise she had wrung from him, even having him sign a piece of parchment that said so. She’d known he wouldn’t break his word once given, even if he had been drunk and coerced, and she’d been right.

  She knelt on her heavy, stiff dress and cursed it’s cumbersome nature. The soldiers had told her if even one thread of her clothing grazed the basilisk venom, it would travel to her skin along the cloth and she would die screaming. So much for her plan to get the basilisk out of the cave somehow, then tiptoe over to the egg. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. She could scarcely find one inch of un-slobbered-on ground. She’d entered through a back entrance that was too small for the basilisk to fit through, which was the only reason she’d been able to get so close.

  She looked up the walls of the cave, wondering if she could perhaps scale them somehow, but they were smooth. If she had rock climbing equipment maybe she could do it, but she wasn’t a rock climber.

  As the shadows in the area she was crouching in lengthened, Dahlia began to panic. She was no closer to getting the egg than she had been when she’d first arrived at the cave. She knew she could get the basilisk off the egg, but then what? There was absolutely no way possible to get to the egg without risking her life. A discarded wooden box that had once been a wagon across the large cavern attested to that. The venom had eaten through the metal wheels, then the wooden seating, and sealed the fates of the men inside.

  She’d had visions of returning victorious within only a few hours, wowing even the king, but unless she could create a tornado that would pick up the egg and bring it to her, she would face the same defeat everyone had before her.

  She chewed on her lip and thought about that. A tornado wasn’t a good idea, it would whip the venom everywhere, but what if she could create a being of some sort that would pick up the egg for her? Could she do that? Or grow vines from the ceiling and drop them to the egg, have them grasp it, then somehow move to where she sat? Did she have that kind of control over the objects her imagination spawned? Only one way to find out.

  Dahlia closed her eyes and concentrated, jumping when a familiar male voice spoke from behind her.

  “If I had known one of your skills was basilisk slayer, I wouldn’t have worried about you so much.”

  Chapter 27

  Dahlia whirled around, heedless of the dangers of the cave. “Crew!” she shouted, shooting to her feet and running into his arms.

  He lifted her, twirled her, and their lips met before her feet landed back on the ground. He was here! He’d found her!

  In his kiss, she sensed all the worry and fear he’d gone through, thinking he would never see her again. He kissed her like he was marking her, claiming her, memorizing her. The cave disappeared, as did all of her worry and planning. Crew had found her, and that meant everything would be right from now on.

  He lifted her again and walked her forward to sit her up on the rock she’d been hiding behind, so she had to angle her face down to kiss him and he had to angle his up. He kept one hand anchored on her hip to steady her and pulled off the scarf covering her hair with the other, pulled out the tie around her simple chignon, then shook her hair free, pulling it around his face.

  “Dahlia,” he murmured. “I missed you.”

  Her heart light, she smiled against his face as his lips planted tiny kisses over her top lip, bottom lip, cheekbones, chin, and eyebrows. “I knew you’d find me.”

  “How could you possibly have known that?”

  “Angel told me you would search for me.”

  He pulled back and looked at her? “Angel?”

  She placed her hands on his shoulders, feeling the muscles there, then running her fingertips over his skin just to make sure he was real. “It’s hard to explain, but there’s this bobcat who─”

  “Oh, the echo.”

  Her brow furrowed in confusion. “The what?”

  He smiled at her and she loved how it turned his face from sexy-intense to sexy-sweet. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  She smiled back. “We do.” She kissed him again, heat building inside her, regardless of the danger of the situation.

  He maneuvered her head back with the hand in her hair and kissed his way down her collarbone to her overflowing breasts. He pulled back and drank in the sight. “I love this dress on you,” he said, “but I’m surprised to see you in it.”

  “King Caius wouldn’t let me wear pants. He says it’s not proper for a lady. He’s the reason I covered my hair, too.”

  Crew’s eyes flashed. “This king no longer has any say or sway over you. ”

  Dahlia laughed and patted his cheek. “Don’t hurt him. He’s been very helpful.”

  Crew frowned. “Then how is it that you are in this cave contemplating that beast?”

  Dahlia wrapped her legs around him. “I’ll explain later; right now, I just want to tell you hello properly. If there’s one thing I regret from our night together, it’s not s
leeping with you.”

  Crew growled and kissed her harder, his free hand moving from her hair to her skirts, trying to find its way underneath them. “And you would do that here, in the basilisk’s lair?”

  She pouted. “I guess I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I just realized I can’t get this undergarment off without taking the entire dress and corset and everything off.”

  He growled again at the thought. “That’s because you don’t have claws.”

  Dahlia giggled. “Ooh, don’t, they aren’t mine, and I don’t think the lady I borrowed them from has many pairs,” she said, thinking of her strict and dour lady in waiting who had worn the same dress both days Dahlia had seen her. Besides, did she want their first time to be in this rank-smelling hole?

  She stared at Crew as he stared up at her, his lips turned up in a smile, his eyes saying everything she felt. She leaned forward to rest her forehead against his, unable to touch him enough. “I’m so glad you found me.”

  He stiffened, then spoke quickly. “I owe you an apology.”

  “For what?”

  “It’s my fault you died.”

  Dahlia pulled back and frowned, trying to imagine how he could possibly think that. There’d been no way out of it. If he had fought, the little girl would have died.

  He took a deep breath. “That being who killed you?”

  “Khain, the demon.”

  “How did you know that?”

  “Angel told me.”

  “Right. Of course. Khain did it because I challenged him many years ago, when you were just a little girl. He marked me and used me to find you, after he promised me that he would kill you.”

  She stayed quiet for a few moments, thinking the words over, staring into Crew’s eyes as tension kept him stiff. She finally spoke. “I know that you believe it’s your fault, Crew, but everything that’s happened to me in the last few days tells me otherwise. Just like you told me you believe in fate, I’m now starting to believe that everything we do serves something greater than us, whether our actions are what that something envisioned or not. I think you’re innocent.”

  He frowned. “I’m not innocent, Dahlia.”

  “Ok, then, what if I told you that if I had to do it all again, and I could choose not to die, but that would mean I would never meet you or could never have you, then I would choose for Khain to kill me again, exactly as he did.”

  “You would?”

  Dahlia nodded, seeing the loosening of something behind Crew’s eyes. Something that had been there for a long time. “Yes, he could even kill me a second time if it meant─”

  Crew’s eyes went wide and he covered her mouth. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say something like that.”

  Dahlia remembered what Angel had said.

  Your imagination is strong, ayasha. Never feed it that which you do not wish to see.

  She shook her head hard, then whispered into his palm, “I take it back.”

  ***

  Crew knelt behind the rock with Dahlia, smelling her scent and thrilling at her nearness. When he’d spotted the guards outside the cave he’d had a momentary panic when he’d wondered if they could have done something as barbaric as sacrifice her, but as he’d snuck past the incompetent youngsters, he’d scented her and known she was alive and in deep thought, her mind worrying a problem, but in no immediate danger.

  Then when he’d seen her, waist tiny over flaring skirts, shoulders bare and tempting, hair covered, he’d had a hard time believing it was her, but there was no mistaking her scent and the way it made him feel.

  “Aren’t there others trying to do whatever you are doing?” he whispered, wondering what mad king would send a female up here by herself.

  “I sent them into another part of the cave after a fake basilisk.”

  “You… How?”

  She grinned at him, running her hand along his leg, seemingly unable to stop touching him. It gladdened his heart even as it made him unable to concentrate.

  “Ah, we really do have a lot to talk about. I’ll try to explain later, but right now, just help me think of a way to get the egg that’s under that basilisk. Those green piles on the floor, they’re venom and it’ll go right through your shoes and clothing. Besides, if you get too close to the thing, it’s scent will kill you, or if it looks right at you that will kill you, too.”

  Crew stared. “How big is the egg?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet. Don’t you want to know why I need it?”

  “I’m sure you have a good reason,” Crew said absently, his mind racing.

  “I know I can get the basilisk out of the cave, if we just had a way to get to the egg.”

  Crew grunted. “I think I have a good shot at getting the egg over here, if you can get the basilisk off it.”

  Dahlia turned to him, her eyes wide. “Crew, you can’t go in there. I mean it. What if you can’t heal yourself in time?”

  He gave her a gentle smile. “Trust me, Dahlia. I won’t go in there.” He nodded at her. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Her lips quirked at the challenge and a glint entered her eye. “Ok, big boy, you asked for it.”

  She turned straight ahead again and Crew watched her curiously as she closed her eyes and her brow furrowed. Her right hand raised to her bare throat and twisted at nothing there, making Crew grin. He had to lean forward when she started whispering to herself to make out the words, but still they didn’t make any sense.

  “Now what would a female basilisk find sexy in a male? Big? Scaly? Mean?” Her face tightened and he could see her eyes moving behind her eyelids. He didn’t dare interrupt her as power flowed out of her, more mental power than he’d ever felt in his life. She was more powerful than ten citlali! More powerful even than he was?

  Across the cave, a mighty roar rent the air, jerking Crew’s head that way. The basilisk woke up, lumbering to its feet and shaking its head, venom flying, as another one, slightly bigger, slogged into the entryway of the cave, gave his head a shake, then turned and exited. The first basilisk followed with a roar of her own, but Crew thought it was an eager noise.

  “How…?” No. He knew how, or suspected. He changed his question as Dahlia opened her eyes and grinned at her work. “Is it real?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “How long will it last?”

  She met his eyes. “I don’t know.”

  He turned to the egg, that lay within a dirty, messy nest of sticks across the poisonous cavern. It was about the size of a football. He hefted it with his mind, lifting it an inch off the surface it lay on. Heavy, but doable. “We better hurry then. Try not to interrupt me.”

  He moved the egg over the ledge of its nest, then down off the platform and across the room, keeping the speed steady and slow, so he didn’t wobble it or drop it in a pile of deadly drool. He ignored Dahlia’s gasp as she realized what he was doing, breathing only in tiny, shallow gasps until the thing was close enough to grab.

  He wanted to float it directly into Dahlia’s hands, but he couldn’t take the chance it would hurt her. He plucked it from the air instead and examined it until he was satisfied it was safe.

  “Your egg, my great basilisk conqueror,” he said, holding it out for her to take, feeling the silly grin on his face, glad it was back.

  It felt right.

  Chapter 28

  Ella walked on the path through the forest, hand-in-hand with her mate, her soul light with the beauty of winter. Heavy snow weighed down the branches around her, absorbing all the sounds in the area, making her feel like she and Trevor could be alone on the planet, until a fat bird landed on a branch above her and scolded her. She looked up and smiled at it.

  Heather and Graeme’s cabin appeared as they rounded a bend. Ella heard banging from behind the cabin and assumed they were working on the reptile atrium Graeme was building for Heather off the side of the cabin. Ella shuddered, thinking of all those lizards having free run of
the house, even though Heather had assured her they would prefer to stay in the atrium.

  Movement caught her eye to the right and she spotted Graeme walking through the woods, his head down, as if in deep thought. The ground beneath him was bare of snow. As she watched, the snow on the ground six feet in front of him melted as he drew close. Even the snow above him melted instantly and dropped to the ground as rain as he walked, but the heat coming off him evaporated much of it, making him look as if he were walking in fog. She wondered how much heat was coming off him.

  Trevor also watched him as they continued to follow the path around the back of the cozy cabin. Heather was there, her hands clasped tightly around a metal container the size and shape of a thermos.

  Heather placed it down on a metal work bench in front of her and ran to greet them, a smile on her face.

  Trevor lifted his chin towards Graeme in the woods. “Is he ok?”

  Heather’s face grew worried. “He’s been like that since we returned from Dahlia’s house last night. He hasn’t slept. He’s convinced we’re missing something big and if he doesn’t figure out what it is, we won’t be able to bring Crew and Dahlia home.”

  Trevor headed that way. “I’ll talk to him.”

  Heather gave Ella a hug. “Good to see you.” Then she put her hands out, indicating everything on the workbench. “Don’t touch anything, it’s all hot enough to burn you.” She indicated several pieces of opaque glass at the end. “Except for those. Those are cooled now.”

  Ella picked one up. It was small, and square, only about the size of a piece of paper folded in half, but over a half inch thick. She examined the air bubbles and swirls within it, then held it up to the sky trying to see through it. She could, but everything was distorted on the other side. “What is it?”

  “It will be a part of the walls of the atrium. Graeme is going to make it almost entirely out of windows that he makes himself from sand and limestone.”

  Ella’s mouth dropped open. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Heather giggled. “I know, right?” She ran to a heavy-duty shelf and pulled it open, lifting out a windowpane that looked to be about two feet wide and two feet high. She held it up. “Look how gorgeous.”