It took only moments for the large white wolf to work her way free, nudging Sarita back as they worked their way through the narrow channel and into the cave. Sarita felt awe bursting out of her, that her Goddess was standing at her side, but then a hot slice of shame drew her attention away from the white wolf beside her. She looked up to see her mate pushed against the wall, his blood flowing into the vessel she had made.
She didn’t even feel herself shift, but she definitely felt her human fingers slipping into cold, white hair and yanking backwards.
“Your mate, he’s so sweet, little wolf.” The Krönen smiled at her, wiping her mouth as she slid the bowl away from Angelo’s wrists.
“Close the wounds,” she whispered, yanking harder on the other woman’s hair. She saw the woman’s tongue flicker out, red with Angelo’s blood, licking over one of the dripping wounds.
“The other one too,” she snarled.
The Ahne moved so quickly then, Sarita didn’t have time to react. She felt her hands fly back away from the other woman’s hair, and then a cold hand around her throat was pressing her to the wall next to her mate.
“I do nothing for free, little wolf. You want me to close him up? What will you pay? Would you give up your Goddess in place of your mate?”
“No, Sarita!” Angelo cried out, and she felt his shame burst hot and red against her mind.
“You wanted me before. I’ll let you have me. Fix him and let him go.” She felt the moment the weight slipped away from her, realized the choice she had feared had been made. She saw the smile of victory on the Ahne’s face, and she prayed she had enough time for what she planned to erase that smile.
A white flash of movement and Angelo’s wounds were healed, the Ahne crowding Sarita back against the wall.
“Wait,” Sarita pleaded. “I don’t want him to see this. Can we give my mate that, at least?”
“Where?” The cold voice shook with restrained lust. With a smile, Sarita took the Ahne’s hand and led her to the crevice where the Goddess had been trapped. She chanced a glance then at the large white wolf who watched her with sad, golden eyes. A barely perceptible nod.
She squeezed into the crack in the wall with the other woman, trying to get into the spirit, caressing her face, and looking up into bewitching green eyes.
“You are ready for my friendship now, little one?” The cold breath tickled her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered, shifting her teeth. The cold bite of the Ahne’s teeth was harsh, not at all sweet like a lover’s, but she felt the pulsing of her blood flowing into the other woman’s mouth, and it seemed to tug up a distant longing. She felt her hips rocking forward against a cold thigh, felt something almost like arousal, and felt the echo of Angelo’s shame.
I understand, love, I understand. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
Querida, don’t, please don’t...
Oh, that voice! She could feel his worry, his panic at the thought of what was happening behind the wall of rock she’d slipped inside. Shutting it out as best she could, she took the Ahne’s hand and pressed her wrist to her own lips. Meeting those green eyes, she leaned forward and bit.
The ground started shaking around them. The end of the eclipse, forgotten by those struggling in the cave, was her stopwatch, and zero was approaching. She felt rocks and dirt tumbling around her, and she gave a sharp tug against the other woman’s arm as she drew the Ahne’s blood into her mouth, trying not to gag. Clumps of earth were falling heavily on them now, and the Ahne pulled back from Sarita’s throat.
“What have you done?” the other woman gasped. Sarita dropped the Ahne’s hand and shoved her back as hard as she could toward the darkness in the back of the crevice.
“I betrayed a friend.” Sneering the last word, Sarita turned and pushed back against the barrier she felt swelling and pulsing around her. The air was thickening, and this space, this little crack in the world, was closing again. She felt the hands clasping her arms, felt her mate’s warm grip and that of her Guide, felt them tugging, pulling.
The air was thick, it felt like she was moving through a heavy liquid, but she let her mate and her Guide pull her through it. She felt Angelo’s arms tugging her into an embrace, felt the wall’s heat closing behind her, felt a sharp, strong tug on her hair—the Ahne’s last grasp—just before it was caught when the doorway closed.
She felt another presence then, and she looked up into the face of the Goddess, in human guise now, long dark hair flowing back from bronzed skin and golden eyes..
“Thank you, Sarita.” The Goddess smiled, taking her hand. “I can return to the Spirit world now, where I belong.”
“Mother,” Gerard rumbled.
“Bear.” She grinned, hugging him tightly.
“I hate to break up the reunion.” Sarita peered around her mate at her Guide and the woman he called mother. “But I’m kind of stuck.”
“I have an idea.” Angelo fetched the bowl from the hands of the Blood-Drinker Lukas, who sat staring at the wall in horror. Using the sharp edges, Angelo sawed through the hair, cutting her free from the wall. She took the bowl in a trembling hand and smashed it against the wall, then threw her arms around Angelo.
“I love you so much,” she whispered.
“Your neck, Sarita, did she bite you?” Angelo brushed dried blood from the site of the bite.
“She did, but she opened the wound with her mouth, the saliva was already present—it’s healing. Slowly, but it’s closed up, and it will be nothing but a bruise soon.” She smiled at her mate, “I’m really okay.”
Sarita made her way over to Lukas, helped him to his feet. “Are you all right?” She asked, noting how he flinched from her touch.
“The Ahne…” He shuddered in horror.
“What happens now, with your people? Without her?”
“She may live a very long time in-between the worlds, little wolf.”
“And will another Krönen take her place? Will my people need to fear yours?” Sarita pressed.
“While she is alive, there can’t be another Ahne. She is our…” He looked up at the Wolf Goddess, whose eyes were all too understanding. “Our Mother.” He finished with a weary shrug.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could have made another choice.” Sarita bowed her head. “If I had killed her…”
The Blood-Drinker hissed in fear and disgust. “You wouldn’t have.”
“No. I wouldn’t have. And I wouldn’t have given our Mother to her—to enslave my own people, my pack. I couldn’t do that either.”
“I see.” The strange man hissed again.
“So, the way I see it, you all have a few thousand years to grow yourselves a new Ahne. Our people will not hunt yours down, and we’d appreciate if you would leave us be.”
“I think we can agree to that,” Lukas nodded.
Chapter Twenty-One
As the weary group emerged from the tunnel into the pool in the first cave, they were greeted by the sight of a haphazard triage center. Injured wolves and Blood-Drinkers lay together on the floor, and more were being brought in as the wounds that could heal, did, and room was made for newcomers. The Blood-Drinkers, with their strange, hive-like society seemed stunned and confused as they moved about in the dim light.
“They cannot fight without her strength,” Lukas explained. “It’s from her power that we are strong.” He moved to help the healers.
Angelo shuddered as he remembered the healing process that Mac had undergone after being attacked in New York. He turned and took Sarita in his arms again, murmuring into her hair.
“Are you certain? Absolutely certain that you’re all right?” he asked.
She nodded, a ghost of a smile on her lips as she teased, “No vampire bump-and-grind for me, love.”
“Thank the Goddess.”
He smiled back, relief flooding his features.
“Thank your mate for her quick thinking.” The Goddess leaned toward him with a smile, caressing his face. He shuddered at the flash of joy that worked its way through him at her touch.
As the wolves in the cave became aware that their Goddess was standing among them, they all seemed to quiet suddenly.
“Please, don’t…” The Goddess actually blushed. “Don’t look at me like that, please. Sarita, she’s the one who did all the work.” She reached out to squeeze Sarita’s hand. “I need the Murphy family…and Kathy Kirk, Cat, and Bear, and someplace we can talk.”
Angelo helped gather the Murphys, relieved to see that none of them were injured, or if they had been, they had already healed. Kathy, on the other hand, had thrown herself back into the fight with enthusiasm, as if she had made a choice to die there, and bore several deep slashes from a Blood-Drinker’s claws. Ted sat with her, holding her hand, tears flowing from his eyes. Angelo felt a wrench in his gut, knew it was coming from his mate.
Querida?
She’s his mate, love. Kathy is Ted’s mate, and they never created the bond.
Angelo closed his eyes in grief at what the two wolves must have been feeling in that moment. All those possibilities dwindling to nothing.
The Murphy family gathered to sit beside Kathy; Bianca took her other hand.
“I need to return to the spirit world. I can’t stay here,” the Goddess said, commanding their attention. “I was never supposed to live among you, and after these millennia, I don’t think I should.
“But first—Cat…something I have had centuries to regret.” She took Annie’s hand and smiled, “Your species will continue through you, dear one. Your children, with whomever you choose as your mate, will be panthers, and the children they make from here on will be panthers.”
She turned to Bear. “I can offer you this. But I don’t think that’s what you want.”
Gerard shook his head. “I just want Mac.” He pulled the other man close. “He’s the only family I need.”
“That’s your choice, of course, Son,” she nodded, smiling.
She turned to Fionn. “All children born of wolf parents, father or mother, should be wolves. I am sorry that your children were used to hurt you. Devon and Rose can make that choice for themselves, to remain as they are, or to take a wolf.” She looked over Angelo’s shoulder to where the FBI agents stood, observing. “As may you, Agent Poulton.”
“Yes,” the agent smiled. “Yes, absolutely.”
The Goddess moved toward him, took his hand, and sank shifted teeth into it. “Your wolf will come to you at the next full moon.”
Turning back to Fionn, “If Devon and Rose choose to take a wolf, mark their palms, and their wolves will come.”
Fionn nodded, “Thank you.”
“Bianca.” The Goddess reached out and took the Albina’s hands. “I can’t give Sara back to you. I wish I could, but resurrection, even if it were possible, is never advisable.”
“I know,” Bianca smiled. “I miss her every day, but she made her choice too.”
Finally, the Goddess turned to Kathy, whose skin had gone gray and ashen. “And are you ready to make your choice, little one?”
Kathy looked up at her with watery blue eyes. “What exactly are you proposing, Chief?” A smile quirked the little wolf’s lips, and the Goddess laughed with her.
“You have sacrificed perhaps more than any other wolf in my name. You sacrificed your family, your friendships, your pack, and your mate.”
Kathy’s eyes fluttered to Ted, who squeezed her hand.
“Would you give me one more thing?” the Goddess asked.
“Good grief, will the demands never end?” Kathy rolled her eyes theatrically, laughing weakly through shallow breaths.
“I need a ride home.”
“Take it,” Kathy sighed, closing her eyes and sinking back against Ted’s lap.
She leaned over Kathy, a smile on her lips. “It might pinch a little,” she whispered as she took Kathy’s face between her hands. She pressed her mouth to Kathy’s throat, biting. The others watched curiously as Kathy took the Goddess’s hand to her lips and shifted her teeth. With a shudder, she sank them deep.
When the Goddess pulled away from Kathy, she actually giggled. Then she leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Goodbye. Thank you,” she whispered.
The gray-haired wolf took one last shuddering breath, and she slipped away.
“So, Big Boy.” The woman they thought of as the Goddess turned to Jack. “Am I forgiven yet?”
Surprised whines and snarls tore through the Murphy family as the tall wolf laughed the familiar throaty laugh of everyone’s little sister. Ted stood, smiling broadly, taking her hand. “Thank the Goddess,” he whispered, drawing her into a kiss.
Angelo felt a blush creeping up his face as Ted and Kathy’s kiss grew lush and passionate. Finally, he turned away, taking Sarita’s hand.
“You made this possible, querida.”
“No” she shook her head, looking back over her shoulder at her family. “I just helped a little.” She smiled at her parents and tossed them a little wave. Jack nodded, winking back at her, and Bianca wiped a tear before adding her own nod.
Sarita turned back to her mate.
“Take me home to the city, viejo. It’s time.”
Epilogue
Returning to the Amazon compound always made Sarita feel as though she were a minor celebrity, but she still didn’t think she’d done anything that spectacular. Honestly, she was a little embarrassed at the attention.
She and Angelo had settled into their new routine in the city, and she finally felt as though she were living a life of her own. His work kept him traveling, and she followed, bringing sketch books and cameras and reveling in the freedom of it all. She’d become used to helping Angelo advise the FBI—really!—on lupine relations, even though the now-lupine Agent Poulton was taking over Angelo’s duties as a go-between.
Ted and Kathy had wasted no time—at least, not any more time—in forging their bond, so here Sarita was, back at Amazon for a baby shower.
Querida, you should have gone up without me. She felt Angelo’s touch across her mind a moment before his arm slipped around her waist, and he kissed the back of her neck.
“And miss Auntie Mo’s face when she sees you walk in the door wearing jeans and a T-shirt?” She grinned over her shoulder at him before reaching to press the elevator button. She felt his love pulsing through her as surely as her heart pumped blood in her veins. It wouldn’t take long for Monica or the rest of the family to realize why Angelo’s wardrobe was at risk. Sarita was expecting a pup of her own, and his wolf would do nearly anything to protect his mate and their pup.
The Murphy family was as loud and raucous as ever, their smiles and hugs warm as they pulled Sarita and Angelo back into the fold. Following the laughter deeper into Monica and Fionn’s apartments, Sarita wondered if she’d ever get used to seeing Kathy in her new body, no longer petite like herself, but tall and bronzed.
“Don’t be petulant, Sarita.” Kathy looked up at her and winked, rubbing at her rounded belly.
“Never.”
She looked down at the wrapped gift in her hands. The painting wasn’t the most practical gift, but it was a gift from the heart. She remembered what she’d said to Angelo about her art: It’s about destiny. A sense of being confined, restrained, trapped. But her muse had changed, that night in the caves.
Now her art was about opening the cage and letting freedom come tumbling out in a glorious animal mess.
About the Author
Vanessa North was born in New England, but moved to the South as a teenager. She reads voraciously, writes obsessively, and takes thousands of photos of the people she loves.
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She lives in Northwest Georgia with her husband, twin boy-children, and a very, very large dog. Find her online at http://www.vanessanorth.com
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