by Kresley Cole
For twelve years.
A dull crack echoed through the forest, and Lobo stopped so suddenly that she nearly bumped into him. “They’re at my cabin,” he growled. “We need to run.” He shoved her in front of him. “Go! Head toward the river.”
She took off, running as fast as she could on bare feet, but damn, the sticks and rocks were sharp. Her wolf paws had been so much tougher. Still, as painful as the bruises and punctures were, this would have been much worse if she’d still been human.
They ran for miles, slowing only occasionally to judge the distance between them and their pursuers. It seemed to her as if the MoonBound people were getting closer, but every time she asked Lobo to confirm her suspicions, he only told her to run faster. And once, when a rabbit dashed across their path, she’d automatically darted after it.
“Damn it, Tehya, get back here!” he yelled. “Come here! Heel!”
“Hilarious,” she muttered, swinging back to run with him. When he smirked, she wanted to both kiss him and bite him.
The rush of the river grew louder ahead, the most welcome sound she’d ever heard.
“Bear left,” Lobo called out as they raced along the edge of a meadow populated by wild turkeys that kept wary eyes on them as they passed. “Take the path down the canyon that lands us on the south side of the rapids.”
Smart. They could use the water to eliminate tracks, and the noise of the rapids would cover the sounds of their escape.
They leaped the remains of an old split-rail fence and charged up an embankment that ended abruptly on a rocky ledge. Far below, a wide, deep section of the river created a relatively calm spot where animals on the other side came to drink. Even from this distance, she could see deer and elk tracks interspersed with a few canine and big-cat paw prints.
“This way.” He started down the narrow, winding trail along the edge of the river ravine. “We’ll swim downstream to—” He broke off with a grunt. Stumbling, he wheeled around, and Tehya watched in horror as blood bloomed on his chest around the head of an arrow that had punched through his back.
“Lobo?”
His eyes glazed over as his knees buckled. Tehya caught him around the waist before he hit the ground, but his weight knocked her off balance. Her foot caught a root, and he pitched to the side, his momentum tearing him from her grip.
No—oh, God, no!
Her heart stopped, the blood congealing in her veins, as Lobo disappeared over the side of the cliff. A scream lodged in her throat as she scrambled to the edge in time to see his body splash into the river below and disappear beneath the surface.
“Who shot that fucking arrow!” The deep, masculine voice echoed off the surrounding mountains, seeming to come from everywhere at once, making it all the more terrifying. “I wanted him alive!”
They were coming closer, their feet booming like thunder on the forest floor.
Please, please, Lobo. Be alive. Tehya watched the river in desperation, her fingers digging into moss and damp earth as she clung to the edge of the cliff. Surface, damn you!
“You!” a male voice, different from the first, called out to her. “To your feet. Turn around slowly.”
Fury like she’d never felt before welled up, and she disobeyed both orders, spinning around on all fours with a snarl. She was going to rip out their throats for this. She’d almost certainly die, but not before taking out at least one of the bastards.
A blond male and a dark-skinned female emerged from the forest, both armed with bows, the arrows pointed at her head. Another male, sporting a crossbow, came at her from the side, while yet another male, this one empty-handed, strode toward her with the arrogant confidence of an alpha leader.
Although she didn’t know their names, she’d seen all of them from a distance, had once even spent a full day tracking the blond one out of boredom and curiosity. But the guy coming at her didn’t need an introduction. He must be MoonBound’s chief, Hunter. And she had no doubt that despite his lack of a weapon, he was just as deadly as the others.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
As if she was going to reply to people who had just shot Lobo. Hell, she was shaking so hard she doubted she could speak even if she’d wanted to.
Still growling, she inched backward, until her knees hit the edge of the cliff and her feet dangled over. Dislodged pebbles and crumbling earth bounced off the cliff face, the sound abnormally loud in the hushed, tense silence.
“Get away from the ledge,” the guy said, his voice dripping with warning.
Twisting, she peered into the pool below, and her heart stopped when she saw the body floating in the bubbling waters.
She didn’t waste another second. Figuring she had nothing left to lose, she shot her pursuers the finger and jumped.
7
The sound of a female voice humming a classic Johnny Cash song was something Lobo had never awakened to. What he had awakened to, several times, was intense, throbbing pain. Not often, but enough to know it always meant that something had gone terribly wrong during a fight.
What had he done to deserve it this time?
He peeled open his eyes as his brain tried to crank out an explanation as to why he was wet, in agony, and lying on his back in some sort of . . . room? Shack? What the hell?
“Lobo!” Tehya filled his field of vision as she stood up from a booth covered in cracked, ugly-ass avocado vinyl. “You’re awake.”
“What . . .” He cleared his raw throat and tried again. “What . . . happened?”
Tucking her damp hair behind her ears, she sank down next to him on what appeared to be an elevated mattress. Mildewed, frayed gingham curtains hung near his head and at his feet, and it took him a few precious seconds to realize they were inside an old camper.
“You were struck by an arrow. I thought you were dead.” Very gently, she peeled back a bloody, folded towel from the wound just beneath his left collarbone. “Do you remember being chased?”
Now that she reminded him, he did. They’d reached a cliff on the edge of the river, but he didn’t know what had happened after that.
“Yeah,” he croaked. “Sort of. But how did we get here?” Wherever “here” was.
“You fell into the water.” Her voice faltered with emotion, and he knew exactly how she’d felt. It had torn him apart when he’d seen Tehya suffering from the poacher’s gunshot wound. “I went after you. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead, but I held your head out of the water and floated us downriver until I was sure those people weren’t following.”
So she was beautiful and smart. The river split into several streams, creating multiple escape routes for their pursuers to have to check out. “Where are we?”
He sucked air as she replaced the dressing on the wound. “Sorry,” she murmured, before folding her hands in her lap. “Remember that rusted-out camper we found a couple of years ago?”
It took a second for his brain to kick in, but he finally remembered. They’d been tracking an injured deer that had likely been hit by a car, and they’d found the abandoned camper deep inside state forest lands. If this was that same camper, they were a good ten miles downriver from where he’d gone into the water.
So, yep, he remembered, and he grinned. “I seem to recall that you peed on it.”
Her cheeks flamed red, the bright color spreading all the way to her ears. “I had to mark my territory,” she said, adding a haughty sniff for emphasis. “Be glad I didn’t pee on you.” The crimson in her face deepened. “I mean . . . you know, I was a wolf. . . .”
He chuckled, but a stab of pain ripped through his chest, turning his laugh into a moan.
“Shouldn’t you be healing faster than this?” Her gorgeous eyes darkened with concern. “Vampires are supposed to have super healing powers, right?”
His gaze slid to her mouth and the pearly fangs that peeked between her slightly parted lips, and to his annoyance, his cock stirred.
“You’re a vampire too,” he pointed out as he c
asually adjusted his hand to cover the swell in his damp jeans. “You tell me.”
Windblown tree branches scraped the top of the camper, something that would have freaked out wolf-Tehya, but vampire-Tehya didn’t so much as bat an eye. “I wasn’t a vampire for very long before I turned into a wolf.”
He blinked in surprise. “How is that possible? You must have been born a vampire. If you were turned, you’d have silver eyes.” Plus, she clearly had native blood running through her veins, and because the vampire race had begun in native tribes, most people who were born vampires tended to have at least some American Indian blood.
“I don’t know why my eyes remained this color after I was turned,” she said, “but I assure you, I was born human.”
A human had been born with eyes the color of golden amber? Eyes that belonged only to wolves . . . or skinwalkers? Huh.
He had a lot of questions for her, but he figured they could start with the basics. “I should have asked this sooner, but what’s your name? Probably not Tehya.”
“It’s Kristen.” She looked at him almost shyly. “But I prefer Tehya. What’s it mean?”
His face grew so hot he actually looked around for a furnace. “Precious,” he said, feeling like a fool. He had few memories of his mother, but he remembered her calling him “Tehya,” so when the wolf he’d rescued had survived, he’d given her a name he associated with his very best memories.
“Precious.” She said it like she was tasting it on her tongue and was pleased with the flavor. “I like it.”
Silence fell, made awkward by the fact that they were both in foreign territory. Literally and figuratively. How could he know someone for years and yet not know her at all?
“So what made you turn back after all this time?” he asked, as much to break the silence as to learn more about her. And was it weird that he missed the wolf?
Yes, he knew the wolf and the person were one and the same, but they were also very, very different. He knew the animal, understood her. But the female sitting next to him was a stranger. A beautiful, sexy, long-legged stranger.
“I don’t know.” She sighed, her full cherry lips parting slightly. “It wasn’t like I didn’t try to turn back. I did. For years. But I didn’t know how. I have no idea why it was different this time. I just woke up in that lab, and I was like this.” Her gaze met his, and in their jewel-toned depths, he thought he saw a glint of accusation. Or maybe it was his own guilt being reflected back at him. “You said you took me there. Why, if those people hate you?”
Damn, she must have been terrified. Remorse racked him at the thought that she’d awakened in a strange place all alone.
“You’d been shot,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “MoonBound has a doctor. It was your only chance of survival. How did you get out of there?”
“I ran until I found an exit.” She looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. “But I think I hurt one of their females.”
Ah, shit. He was already up to his eyebrows in trouble. This was going to be the final stitch in his death shroud.
“And she was pregnant.”
Double shit. A sinking sensation made his gut feel like it had dropped through his spine and was sitting on the mattress beneath him. Tehya was now in nearly as much danger as he was. Had he saved her just so they could both be dumped in the same shallow grave?
Closing his eyes, he tried to work out all possible scenarios for how this could play out, but every one of them ended badly. Worst of all, he couldn’t see how they could escape from any of them. Hunter might have given up the search eventually—if one of his clan members hadn’t been injured. But now . . .
So. Much. Shit.
“You said I was shot,” Tehya said. “How bad? Because I woke up healed.”
“It was a critical wound. Probably fatal for any other wolf.” He opened his eyes and stared up at the sagging, mold-dappled ceiling. “But shifting can repair most damage, and it’s probably what saved you.”
Leaning forward abruptly, she gripped his hand in a bruising hold. “Then you need to shift. Your injury—”
“I can’t.” He interrupted her before she got her hopes up. “In order to sneak you into MoonBound, I had to take the clan leader’s form. It takes a lot more effort to do that than it does to shift into an animal, and it temporarily drained my ability to shift into anything.”
She took in a startled breath. “You can assume someone else’s identity? Can I do that?”
If not for their dire circumstances, he’d have laughed at how eagerly she sat forward, reminding him of her wolfy counterpart. If she’d had a tail, she’d have been wagging it.
“I doubt it,” he said, hating the disappointment in her expression. If she’d still been wolfy, he’d have given her a treat and a pat on the head. “The ability is among the rarest of all vampire gifts, and it only manifests in born vampires.” At least, that was what he’d been told by the tribal elders in Sedona after he’d made a pilgrimage there half a century ago. “Even if you could do it, it’s forbidden.”
“Is that why the clan is after you?” She leaped to her feet and peered out a couple of dirt-caked windows, as if speaking aloud about the clan would summon them like demons. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that they didn’t need to be summoned; they’d be here soon enough all on their own. “Because you shifted to save me?”
The devastation in her voice was like a punch to the heart. He didn’t want to lie, but he couldn’t let her think this was her fault either.
He settled on a sanitized version of the truth. “Not entirely,” he hedged. “There’s bad blood between us. This would have happened eventually.”
“Why the bad blood?”
Because MoonBound is full of assholes. He contemplated telling her everything, but time was at a premium, so the abbreviated version would have to do.
“MoonBound’s old chief led an assault against my clan that wiped it out. His warriors found a wolf cub in the bushes, and they tied it up while they finished raiding my clan’s camp. When they came back for the cub, there was a toddler there instead.”
“You?”
He nodded. “Me. Some of them thought it must be a trick, but others wanted to slaughter me right then and there.” At her uncomprehending expression, he elaborated: “Skinwalkers and people who can speak to animals are considered evil by some.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yeah, well, some vampires are superstitious fools.”
She looked out the windows again. “Obviously they didn’t kill you.”
No, but there were many times when he’d wished they had. “They took me back to MoonBound. Named me Lobo and kept me like a dog, even though I didn’t shift again. Not until I was an adult.” He hadn’t known he could. No one had told him about his past. All he knew was that they’d slaughtered his parents and then literally treated him like a dog, keeping him on a chain at night and forcing him to do all the shit work around the clan. It wasn’t until a staged battle for position among MoonBound’s young males that he’d shifted into his totem animal, a wolf.
“What happened when you shifted? Were you afraid?”
“Of shifting?” He shook his head. “I was more afraid of what they were going to do to me.” He closed his eyes, but the memory of being nearly beaten to death played out right there on the back of his eyelids. “It was Bear Roar’s son, Hunter, who talked his father out of killing me. Convinced him I’d be useful. Animals could go places vampires couldn’t, like into other clans’ territories, you know?”
A year later, Hunter had killed his father; and not long after that, Lobo had discovered that he could shift into people and not just animals.
“So what went wrong? Why are you not still with the clan?”
“Because as bad as they think shifting into an animal is, shifting into another vampire is far worse.”
“They kicked you out for that?”
“They could have killed me,” he said. “M
ost of the clan members wanted to.”
“Those bastards.” Brow furrowed with worry, she hurried back to him, taking his hand once again. God, she was warm. He hadn’t felt a female’s touch in so long—at least, not a female who wasn’t covered in fur. “So what can we do? We can’t just wait here for them.” Scowling, she nibbled on her lower lip. “Wait. You need blood, right? I remember reading somewhere that vampires heal faster when they drink blood.” She flipped her hair away from her slender throat. “Do it.”
There was no hesitation, reminding him once again how brave she’d always been. She’d once gotten between him and a cougar, had been ready to defend him to the death. Her loyalty and willingness to sacrifice herself had always humbled him, and nothing about that had changed.
“Please, Lobo, take it.”
His mouth watered and his fangs punched down, but even as the primal urge to draw her against him and sink his fangs into her rose up, his brain countered with a depressing dose of reality.
“I can’t.”
“Of course you can. I’ve seen you bite plenty of women.”
Was it his imagination, or did she sound a little—or a lot—jealous? It shouldn’t surprise him, given that, as a wolf, she’d barely tolerated the females he’d met for moon feedings. And if things started to get sexual, as most feedings did, her snarls had put a damper on the situation, fast. She’d been so aggressive that he’d even left her locked in his cabin once while he met with a MoonBound female. Hunter might hate him, but there were more females than males in the clan, so he looked the other way when it came to the bimonthly moon fevers.
Lobo had returned home to destroyed furniture, ripped bedding, and a chewed-up door. And when Tehya had smelled what he’d done with the female, she’d bitten him. Hard.
“I won’t take your blood, Tehya. There’s no time. You’re going to need your strength.”
