by Jory Strong
It took several moments for Caius to gather his courage and determination. Finally he stepped away from her and shed his clothing with the same unconcern over nakedness she was used to in the brothels.
His change wasn’t as fast or graceful as Aryck’s had been. It was accompanied by mews of pain before it was done.
Joy filled Rebekka at having the white Tiger cub with blue eyes brush against her legs and purr like a giant kitten. She knelt, scratching his neck and behind his ears. “Go. I’ll stay for a while.”
Rather than invade Canino’s space, Caius padded over to the edge of the pond. He swiped at the water. Pounced on fish or shadows or nothing at all, making Rebekka smile.
Curiosity got the better of Canino. He leapt from his resting place and landed with a giant splash, then swam over to stand in the shallow water and shake next to Caius.
With a laugh Rebekka picked up the cub’s discarded pants. She folded them as she walked over and claimed Canino’s place in the sun.
Contentment came with the feel of the sun’s rays against her skin, lowering her guard so a daydream crept in. Of Aryck and a little boy who looked just like him.
The Watcher
TORQUEL en Sahon took flight as Rebekka drowsed in the sun. This daughter pleased him greatly.
Her strength lay not only in her gift but in her compassion for others. She was a survivor, and yet it hadn’t hardened her.
There was worse to come now. Death that couldn’t be prevented.
For the first time he wished he could call a halt to her testing and reveal himself to her. He wanted to acknowledge her with the writing of her name in the Book of the Djinn.
He couldn’t. Despite his standing in the House of the Cardinal.
This test of value to the Djinn wasn’t Rebekka’s alone.
Torquel landed on a branch close to where the shaman, healer, and pack alpha stood near the challenge circle. He ruffled red and black feathers as he settled to listen.
“It won’t anger the ancestors if she remains on our lands,” Nahuatl said, and Torquel smiled inwardly.
There were ties to the Djinn among the Were ancestors, just as Djinn blood ran through many of the alpha lines. It had been diluted over time, but it still manifested in the ability to speak mentally to those sharing a family bond, to shift form quickly and have greater endurance.
Addai had done his work well in convincing the shaman to listen and accept what must have seemed like the words of malicious spirits. Death didn’t necessarily change the nature of those who crossed over to live in the Were shadowlands. Troublemakers existed, those who took delight in meddling.
The alpha’s expression didn’t change but Torquel could read Koren’s tension. He worried for his son’s fate yet he was trapped by duty to the pack. “How long do you need?”
Phaedra pursed her lips. “A day, perhaps two, to memorize what’s in the journal. That assumes she won’t be called away to heal or her voice doesn’t fail her from reading the passages.”
A muscle twitched in Koren’s cheek. “Two days. She leaves our lands sooner if you finish before then. She remains longer only if it’s absolutely necessary.”
Wolf howls drifted into the clearing from nearby, a song of woe and entreaty that rose and fell without cessation to become a haunting melody.
It brought Aryck to his father’s side. “Go,” Koren said. “Choose two others and take them with you.”
Torquel let his physical form dissolve in a swirl of air that made the oak leaves rustle softly. So Caphriel’s moves in this game begin to play out.
Seventeen
ARYCK couldn’t stop thinking about Rebekka. Her scent, her heat, her soft, lush body as it lay beneath him.
He’d intended to wake in his furred form to avoid temptation and another argument about the outcast. But whether it was beast or man that initiated the change as he slept, the moment he’d awakened and felt her against him he’d wanted her more than he’d ever wanted another female. He’d felt whole, his two Earth-bound souls in perfect harmony.
It broke no laws to couple with her. The trouble lay in what could happen afterward, what lengths he might go to to keep her, and how quickly he would be made outcast because of his actions.
His stomach knotted at the prospect of facing his father or a new enforcer in the challenge circle. Of being brought to the ancestors’ attention for judgment, though he could be cast from the pack by the alpha’s word alone.
What made worry congeal in his gut was suspecting the Jaguar might not care. It hated being away from Rebekka, had raged and clawed and fought to dominate until the wolf song brought unity to human and Jaguar souls. And still Aryck felt edgy. Out of sorts.
He wanted to finish what they’d begun. He could no longer deny the need driving him, leaving him constantly hard and aching. Nor could he pretend he would be able to give her care over to Levi, not without paying the price and becoming rogue, the separation between human and Jaguar souls nearly irreparable.
When he wasn’t thinking about tearing away the barrier of her panties and thrusting into her, he was remembering her words and questioning his beliefs about outcasts. What if not all of them had been judged by the ancestors? What if sometimes they were simply the product of genetics, as Rebekka claimed?
Fear expanded in his chest at the image of her heavy with his child. That was what the Jaguar’s choosing of a mate meant. But what if their offspring weren’t pure of form?
Aryck pushed himself to go faster, trying to outrun the questions and the implications. Instead new ones found him.
Was he being tested by the ancestors? Or did they want to bind Rebekka to the Jaguars?
The pack knew of her existence only because of the ancestors. And while there were others who had the strength and ability to retrieve her, they’d ensured he was the one sent.
Deep inside his psyche the Jaguar purred in approval at the thought, absolutely convinced she was meant to be its mate. Fear lost its grip on Aryck’s heart, though there was no time for further contemplation.
The wolves came into view. Five of them paced in their furred forms while their leader stood, legs apart in buckskin trousers with knives strapped to his thighs.
They were trespassing well within Jaguar lands. It was a challenge that wouldn’t have gone unanswered previously. But coming on the heels of what happened to the cubs, their song containing such heart-felt entreaty allowed an opening for peace rather than violence.
“You dare much,” Aryck said, meeting the Wolf’s gaze and holding it.
The Wolf’s lips tilted upward in a slight smile. “As did you when you crossed our lands with a human. Had it been left to me, you wouldn’t have been allowed to pass without losing fur, blood, and possibly your life. But wiser heads prevailed. Or so it would seem. We have need of the healer.”
So I was right, Aryck thought. Crossing Wolf lands he’d felt watched. He’d wondered at the ease of doing it. “Why do you need Rebekka?”
“A family group became suddenly ill. Seven of them in all, a mated pair with three of their adult offspring and two young pups. They returned to the village and began convulsing, then quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.”
“Poison? Humans from the encampment have driven into Wolf lands.”
“Our healer can find no trace of poison. And like your alpha, ours has decided to play a waiting game in the hopes the humans will leave after they’ve finished their salvage operation. We followed the tracks left by their vehicles but found no evidence they’d done anything but look for ruins to excavate.”
The Wolf’s answer felt and smelled like the truth to Aryck. He sought his father out mentally, replaying the conversation.
Turn the healer over to them if they will agree to two conditions. She must be returned to us after she is finished seeing to their sick. And both she and the Lion outcast must be safely escorted through Wolf territory when it is time for them to return to Oakland.
Three conditions, Aryck said
, fighting to keep the growl from his mental voice. I will accompany her when she goes to heal the Wolves.
A long pause filled with disapproval followed. Three, his father agreed, voice terse.
Aryck conveyed his father’s terms. The Wolf didn’t hesitate to agree to them.
“Remain here,” Aryck said. “I’ll go get Rebekka.”
He returned to the cabin given to Rebekka. Entering after a knock, a smile formed at encountering Caius’s scent mixed with that of flowers.
Delicate purple blossoms drew him to the makeshift vase on the small table. He touched a petal with his fingertip, stroked its softness, and thought of Rebekka’s skin before turning away and leaving the cabin.
Around back the fire in the pit no longer held heat, though the smell of sausage grease lingered. His smile faded when instead of heading in the direction of Phaedra’s house or the small clearing serving as both formal and informal gathering place, Rebekka and the Tiger cub’s scents went into the woods.
It wasn’t dangerous, not this close to camp, but he didn’t like her wandering with only the cub for protection. He followed, his frown turning into a pulling back of lips accompanied by a low growl when he realized their destination.
Canino. He should have anticipated Caius would seek Rebekka out and ask about the Tiger male.
Remembering all the times Canino had bumped and rubbed against Rebekka as they traveled set Aryck’s teeth on edge. The Jaguar stirred, its desire to reach Rebekka melding with the man’s.
Aryck slipped into a lope. With no human form, Canino had been settled temporarily near a small pond.
The path opened up and Aryck saw Rebekka. She was sitting with her face lifted to the sun and her eyes closed. Caius was draped over her lap in tiger form, biting and batting Canino’s tail as it flicked back and forth.
A furious tide of emotion roared through Aryck. A swirling mix starting with the desire to mate but settling into jealousy as Jaguar and man both seethed.
He didn’t dare give in to the urge to shift forms, though he couldn’t stop himself from stalking toward her. On some level he knew it was perverse to want her to startle in guilt and jump to her feet, to hurriedly put distance between her and the Tiger. Without a human form, Canino wasn’t competition.
But knowing it didn’t change anything. Didn’t erase the image of her lounging next to another male, a cub with them as though they were a mated pair.
It did nothing to calm him when she opened her eyes, offering a smile in greeting even as Canino rolled to his back and she casually scratched the big cat’s chest. If not for Caius lying across her lap, Aryck would have picked her up bodily and hauled her off. He had to settle for a terse, “You’re needed. Seven Wolves lie unconscious after suffering from convulsions.”
Caius scrambled off her lap and Rebekka rose to her feet, hand going to the pocket of her pants to touch the journal in a gesture Aryck was well familiar with. “I’m ready,” she said.
Two steps and she was within his reach. His fingers closed around her wrist and touching her, taking possession, soothed him, though not enough to keep him from meeting the Tiger’s gaze and baring his teeth in warning.
Canino yawned.
Aryck nearly shifted.
“We need to hurry,” Rebekka said, snapping his attention back to her.
The amusement lurking in her eyes broke the leash of his control. If she hadn’t hurried to keep up with him, he would have dragged her onto the path and out of the Tigers’ view. He managed a little more distance, so sound wouldn’t carry and bring Canino and Caius running to investigate. Then he trapped her against a tree, his hand pinning hers above her head, holding her in an open, defenseless position as his mouth slammed down on hers.
He’d agonized since Phaedra ordered him away from the cabin. But instead of pining for him, seeking him out, Rebekka had sought the companionship of other males. It was infuriating, challenging—
It was an excuse to do the very things he’d been fantasizing about.
His tongue battled hers. His arm snaked around her waist, pulling her lower body tightly against his.
He ground into her. Rubbing his cock against her mound, her clit, until she smelled of pure, feminine arousal. Until she softened, whimpered, grew compliant and submissive.
The Jaguar urged him to take her to the ground. To use human fingers to rip and shred her clothing so it would never again be a barrier to mounting her, mating her.
The man was more than willing. Since Phaedra sent him away he’d relived those moments of having Rebekka beneath him, her thighs spread and her body receptive, needy.
He growled low in his throat, frustrated, not wanting to free her hands or to remove his arm from her waist. His mouth left hers and the growl deepened when she whispered, “The Wolves.”
A flash of guilt made him bare his teeth. He remembered the urgency he’d felt, the fear he wouldn’t get her to Jaguar lands in time to save the cubs.
“We’ll finish this later,” he said, nostrils flaring at her shiver of erotic fear and the look in her eyes that said she still needed to be convinced.
He stepped back but couldn’t bring himself to release her completely, not when they would soon be in the presence of other males. Wolves. Enemies.
Rebekka allowed Aryck to lead her to where the Wolves waited. Her thoughts and emotions were in too much chaos to protest the hand shackling her wrist as though she were a prisoner—or a prized possession.
Her channel spasmed. No man had ever reacted to her the way Aryck did, as if she belonged to him and it was all he could do not to take her.
She shouldn’t let it go further. Couldn’t. She knew it, but the minute he touched her, her mind shut down and her body ruled.
They were wrong for each other. He was pure Were and she was a healer who lived in the outcast brothels. They had no future together.
You don’t know that, a small internal voice claimed. You’re gaining allies. Phaedra. The parents of the Jaguar cubs. Aryck, whose father is alpha. Perhaps even the shaman and the Were ancestors.
Hope fluttered through Rebekka’s chest with the memory of Phaedra’s words. Nahuatl has spoken to the ancestors and your continued presence on Jaguar lands won’t anger them.
There’d been no talk of a time limit when she agreed to stay and share knowledge. And now, she was proving herself useful, an ambassador of sorts. What if—
A cold weight settled in her chest. There were other considerations besides giving in to lust or chasing the dream of having a husband and children, a true home.
“What do you know about the sick Wolves?” she asked.
“Little more than I already told you. A mated pair with three grown and two young pups returned to the Wolves’ village and began convulsing. They quickly lapsed into unconsciousness. Poison was suspected but the Wolf healer found no trace of it. Their trespassing so boldly onto our lands means the healer can’t save them and the alpha worries for his pack.”
They reached the gathered Wolves a short time later and, despite their coming in peace and asking for her help, Rebekka couldn’t suppress a small shiver at the sight of those in their furred form. Too many times she’d witnessed ferals running in packs and ripping humans apart in the red zone.
“You have nothing to fear,” the man with them said, stepping forward. “I am Jael, the pack’s enforcer. Your safety is guaranteed.”
A smile played at the corners of his mouth as his gaze flicked between her and Aryck, glancing down to the possessive hold on her wrist. His nostrils flared, taking in the scent of desire that no doubt still clung to them. But his expression quickly grew somber. “We need to hurry. I’m not sure even now we will make it back in time.”
Eighteen
AT least thirty Wolves milled around a home constructed of hides. All of them were in animal form. They bristled with hostility and suspicion, circled, some of the braver ones showing their teeth.
A glance from Jael sent them backing away. He op
ened the flap and stepped aside to allow Rebekka and Aryck to precede him.
It was roomy inside, large enough to house the family it belonged to. They lay clustered together. A man and a woman in human form, and from the looks of them Rebekka thought they were two of the adult offspring instead of the mated pair. The rest were furred.
The Wolf healer was there, along with a shaman. Both were crouched on the opposite side of the unconscious family.
The shaman wore a cape made of wolf hide. His hair was braided with beads made of bone. Scars marked his chest, as if a giant eagle had dug its talons through flesh and muscle and risen in flight with him, leaving him hanging, suspended in the air.
The drum he held between his knees was stretched hide trimmed with wolf fur and decorated with bone beads. He struck it with his fingertips, pounding out the steady rhythm of a heartbeat as the Jaguar elders had done in the presence of the dying cubs.
With matching yellow eyes, the Wolf shaman’s face so closely resembled that of the healer next to him that Rebekka thought they must be brother and sister. Neither spoke as she knelt beside the female who’d been in human form when she slipped into unconsciousness.
The scent of urine and released bowels was strong, clinging to the sick, though they’d been washed by the healer.
Aryck crouched to Rebekka’s right, Jael to her left.
“The family returned to their home in wolf form after being gone several days,” Jael said. “If they were showing signs of illness, no one noticed. They weren’t here long before the pups began convulsing. By the time our healer answered the call for help, only one of the adult offspring remained standing, and he wasn’t able to shift to human form to answer her questions. He appeared disoriented. Within minutes he seized, then lapsed into unconsciousness. Since then there have been other seizures, milder than the first one.”
Rebekka moved closer to the two pups. They were the same size. Twins. She had no experience with Were young other than the Jaguars, but based on their appearance she guessed they weren’t much older than Caius when in human form.
The only hint they were alive came with the slight rise and fall of their chests. As she watched she saw pausing in their breathing, as if their bodies forgot it was necessary to sustain life.
