by Riley Storm
The wolf was dead and didn’t even know it, trying to get to its feet to follow as Kincaid kept going, only pausing to clear his mouth of the nasty fur.
Three down, three to go.
A huge creature leaped onto his back out of nowhere. Kincaid trumpeted in pain as claws dug deep into his fur. Shaking violently, he managed to dislodge the beast, realizing then that the wolf he’d just killed hadn’t been the massive black wolf from earlier, but a smaller one.
The white wolf that rivaled the huge midnight furred beast came at him from the side and worried at his flank. Kincaid spun to drive it off, but the third and final wolf hit him from the other side, staining its brownish-gray coat with his blood.
The trio worked flawlessly. No matter what Kincaid tried, they were ready for it, always one step ahead of them. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds within seconds. In his haste to dispatch them all, he’d inadvertently moved into an open area on the floor. That was a killing zone for the wolves.
His eyesight penetrated the dark, picking out the nearest machinery. The massive off-white bear moved as fast as he could make it, but his strength was fading, aided by the trail of thick red liquid he left behind as he moved, his blood spilling onto the floor, making it slick.
“Kincaid you had better not lose!” Haley called out from her hiding place just as he made it to the relative safety of the machinery. He wasn’t safe, but it provided him shelter from their constant attacks, buying him a respite as he sought to recover, to come up with a plan for dealing with this last trio.
I’m working on that part.
“I didn’t escape and crawl through the damn ventilation shaft like some sort of super-spy just to fall this short of being rescued. Now, you send these rabid pups running, you understand me? Are you going to let these ass-licking motherfuckers take you out?”
Energy coursed through him anew. Kincaid had never heard his mate talk like that. The anger, the fury was so palpable he could feel it radiating off her.
I can’t let her down. Winning was the only option, the only way forward. There was no time for games. Haley was still in terrible danger as battle raged all around her. The only acceptable course of action was to take out the trio of remaining Canim. Nothing short of complete and total victory would stop him.
Because only after he was done with that, could he tell Haley how he truly felt. And that was what mattered most. Her.
Kincaid bellowed his challenge to the Canim and went on the offensive. He charged at every wolf, scattering them, never allowing them to let up as he chased them halfway across the warehouse. Over machinery, through makeshift walls and even into a sunken pit. There was no rest, no respite. One of them would make a mistake eventually. When it did, he would capitalize on it.
Plain. Simple. Deadly.
The first wolf to screw up was the white one, its fur so bright it was nearly albino. Even its eyes were tinged with red. It darted in at Kincaid from the side, but as it lunged forward, it planted its rear leg on something on the floor. The metal tube, perhaps two inches in diameter, rolled back under the weight and spilled the wolf to the floor.
Kincaid pounced. Literally. His mighty paws came down with nearly a thousand pounds of weight behind them. There was nothing the wolf could do. Its bones collapsed under the blow and it died instantly.
Wasting no time, he dug the claws of his left paw in deep, gripping the corpse and whipped it around, letting it fly at the tawny beast, the smaller of the two remaining Canim. The corpse missile glanced off the side of the smaller wolf, knocking it back, but outside of Kincaid’s immediate reach.
It didn’t matter. Kincaid hadn’t been after that one anyway. He was after the huge onyx wolf. It was the leader. He would be thinking of Laurent when he took it down. The former Canim Title Holder would probably go free after all this. It would look too bad on Ursa if they killed him so quickly after stripping him of his position. That bothered Kincaid, and he took it out on the leader of the men who had abducted Haley.
Or he would, once he caught the slippery fucker. Whoever the wolf was, he was agile, faster than Kincaid and seemed to instinctively know which way to go to avoid the massive bear. Their fight took them all across the factory floor, neither one able to land any serious strikes against the other.
His break, when it came, wasn’t anything groundbreaking, no huge trap laid by Kincaid that he’d slowly been working toward. Instead, it came from the simple method of Kvoss showing up at the hole he’d blown in the wall and calling his name.
The wolf’s head snapped around at the sudden, unexpected noise. Kincaid’s didn’t. He kept laser-focused on the matted black fur, and the instant he realized his foe was distracted, he charged right at him. He only had a split second, no time for anything fancy.
Ursidae met Canim and the pair slammed into a piece of heavy machinery. Kincaid had expected the huge block of steel to give way or slide across the floor like the others, but this one was firmly rooted, and he came to a sudden stop. Unfortunately for the wolf, it was between Kincaid and the metal, acting as a cushion.
All it took was a casual swipe of his paw to open the wolf up and spill its life fluid onto the floor, a mortal wound the instant it was struck.
Kincaid backed away, just in time to hear another wolf charge across the concrete. He readied himself to meet the charge of the tawny gray-brown werewolf, but it wasn’t coming at him. It was going at Kvoss. The Assassin saw this, judged the distance, and at the last moment angled himself to the side in a crouch, whipping his sword out of its sheath and around in an arc that followed his body.
The uranium-coated blade sliced open the wolf from neck to mid-stomach, the radiation emission canceling out the shifter’s altered DNA. The corpse hit the ground in a squishy mess, sliding to a halt just at the foot of the pile of debris that marked where Kincaid had burst through.
He barely noticed, too busy going through the shift to even care. His body blazed with agony, from dozens of cuts to the usual pain of the change that was always amplified after a fight. It didn’t matter. None of it did.
All that mattered was Haley.
He stumbled forward even before he was fully human once more.
“Haley!” he called, looking around wildly. “Haley!” She was there somewhere.
“Kincaid!”
Joints cracked as his head whipped around to focus on the sound of her voice. There! Emerging from behind the biggest piece of machinery in the entire factory came his chestnut-haired beauty. He lunged forward, ignoring the pain in his leg, his abdomen, multiple ribs and most of the rest of his body. It was easy when he saw her.
“I can’t see you,” she called again.
“I’m almost there,” he repeated, no more than ten feet away. “I’m here, Haley. I’m here.”
He swept her up into his arms, spinning around, kissing her more furiously than any intimate moment the two of them had shared. She was safe.
“I’m sorry I took so long,” he whispered between kisses, having to pause between the words. “I’ll never let this happen again.”
“You had better not,” she teased, stroking his face, either not noticing or not caring about the blood flowing from at least one good cut.
“Haley, there’s something I need to tell—”
“Kincaid, I need to tell you—”
They both stopped short, speaking at the same time, then burst into laughter.
“You first,” she said, sneaking in another kiss.
“Haley, I’m not very good with words,” he began. “That makes what I’m trying to say so much more difficult, but it needs to be said anyway. So I’m going to just say it. There’s no flowery speech, no grand gesture. There’s just…me, in a factory, surrounded by a less than romantic scene that I’m very glad you can’t see, and also Kvoss and possibly the Queen and—”
“I thought you said there was no flowery speech?” she interrupted, still touching his face.
“Right. Haley Meynard, I love you.”
The room pitched wildly for a moment as his legs grew wobbly and unstable, as the nerves he’d so long kept penned up came rushing forth, mixing with his weakness and injury.
“You good?” she asked as he steadied himself against her.
“Yes. Sorry. I’ve been wanting to say that, and now that I have it’s just…” he smiled. “It feels good.”
“I bet you it doesn’t feel as good as hearing it,” she said, stepping closer.
Kincaid shrugged. “I…I wouldn’t know. I’ve only said it.”
“Let me help you out,” she said, reaching up to her tiptoes to get as close to his ear as she could. “I love you, Kincaid Ursa. I love you so much.”
He shuddered. Once. No more, because now wasn’t the time nor the place for it.
“Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?” Haley teased, kissing him softly, slowly.
“It feels really good,” he murmured, returning her kiss. It did. It felt amazing, knowing his mate well and truly did care about him. That the feelings he’d been slow to realize and accept were reciprocated. It was perhaps the most wonderful non-physical feeling he’d ever experienced.
“You know, I’m inclined to believe you,” she said in a strange voice.
Although it was almost pitch black inside the building, his vision picked up enough of her face for him to know she was struggling to contain a laugh.
He frowned, looking down at Haley. “What do you mean?”
“Kincaid, my love, you should probably put some pants on.”
38
“It’s weird,” she said, staring out the window at the beautiful manicured lawn and gardens of Ursidae Manor from the window in Kincaid’s bedroom.
A giant lump under the covers stirred, emitting a sound that she chose to take as being curious.
“How long were we actually on the run for? Three or four days? Something like that.” It was all a blur still. “Such a short period of time. Some people are on the run for weeks, months, even years. A few days, and yet it feels like a lifetime. Going back to normal now, not having to avoid anyone, being able to walk about your house openly. It’s weird, don’t you think?”
“If this is your way of telling me you want to go pull some Bonnie and Clyde shit, I’m gonna have to say no,” Kincaid moaned, exhausted.
She turned just in time to see him pull back the white duvet and stick his head out.
“Why do you have the curtains open already? Do you really hate me that much?”
Haley snorted. “It’s ten-thirty in the morning. Aren’t you big beasties supposed to get up with the sun or something?”
“Oof. That’s cold-blooded.”
“I’m hungry,” she said, letting the littlest bit of whine enter her voice.
“You know perfectly well where the kitchen is. I’m sure there’s food made. Wanna be a doll and grab me some?”
Haley lifted her eyebrows, placing both hands on her hips at the same time.
“Okay, okay. I’m getting up!” Kincaid yelped, tossing the covers down to reveal his naked body.
Muscles tightened and popped into definition as he sat up and stretched, providing her with more than an eyeful.
“My eyes are up here,” he muttered.
“I know.” She kept staring.
He finally left the bed and came over to her, wrapping both anaconda-like arms around her and holding her tight. Haley didn’t bother to hide her contentment, snuggling back into his embrace with unabashed glee. She loved when he held her like this. It was so calming. She felt safe and secure in a way she did at few other times.
“Haley.”
She stiffened. There was something in his voice… “Yes?”
“I think we need to talk.”
For just an instant, a crack appeared in the perfect little world she’d spent the past two days constructing while staying with Kincaid. She’d known it would never last, that she would have to go back to reality and her job eventually, but Haley had always expected Kincaid to still be in the picture. They loved each other after all and had said so repeatedly.
“A-about what?” she asked nervously, unable to force herself to turn and look at him, choosing instead to remain staring out the window.
What was he going to say? Haley had just about had her fill of surprises and revelations to her world. What more could he possibly tell her besides the fact that shapeshifters of all types from wolves to dragons existed alongside magic users that could cast real honest-to-goodness spells on people?
Maybe it was a more personal thing, some sort of confession. Was there someone else? Was that it? Had his House decided that he couldn’t be with her because he had to be with someone who could provide shifter children?
“I need to ask you how you’re doing.”
She frowned. This wasn’t what she expected. Not at all. The focus had suddenly shifted from Kincaid, to her, and she wasn’t ready for it.
“What?” It was the best she could manage.
“Listen,” Kincaid explained, gently taking her hand and spinning her in place so that they were looking at one another. “You’ve been through a lot the past week. You’ve learned things that you never knew existed are real, that the world you thought you knew, you didn’t. You’ve seen horrific things, you’ve done things you never thought you would do.”
“Yes.”
“Nobody takes that sort of thing without flinching. Without having a moment of panic or fear. So far, you’ve taken everything that’s come along in your stride, without seeming to be fazed by it, and that’s got me worried.”
Haley blinked. “I’m doing okay, and you’re…worried because of that?”
“Yes,” he said, staring at her, imploring her to speak. “I’m scared you’re bottling it up. Not letting your emotions properly show.”
“I…” she went silent, thinking. “I’ve learned a lot about myself this past week,” she said slowly. “I don’t want to repeat what we’ve just been through. It was quite enough, thank you very much. But buried in it, I think, are some lessons that I desperately needed to learn.”
Kincaid didn’t say anything, giving her time to speak, to explain why she wasn’t having a meltdown or freaking out over what she’d seen. The more Haley talked, the more confident she became that what she was saying was the truth of her emotional and mental status.
“I won’t lie, it hasn’t been easy. I freaked out. But I didn’t do anything wrong. I was never the criminal. The people who did the bad things, who tried to frame you, they got punished. It’s not the punishment that I’m used to, but I suspect that the civil authorities would never have apprehended those men. They would have been free to keep doing what they were doing. It’s a different world, but Kincaid—it’s not my world, so therefore, it’s not my place to judge.
“Why should I be able to dictate your world by my world’s standards. That’s not right, nor is it fair. You look human, but at the core of it, you aren’t human. You’re kind of my little alien boy,” she teased, running a hand playfully along his stomach.
Kincaid laughed and hugged her. “Thank you for talking to me about it.”
But she wasn’t done. “I also learned a lot about myself during this time. I learned that I was so wrapped up in following the rules, I wasn’t letting myself do anything. I had no friends, no love life, nothing at all. I was tied up in a locked room and I calmly thought my way through it and escaped!” she said proudly. “Do you have any idea how foreign a concept that would have been to me a week ago? If you’d suggested that would happen, I would have had a meltdown or something. This was good for me, Kincaid. I didn’t know it, but I needed it.”
“Glad I could help,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
“You did. You pulled me out of my shell. But I can’t stop now. I need to keep going. I need to call Danielle again. To see if maybe she wants to hang out, outside of work. I have a man, now I need friends.”
Kincaid growled and lifted her clear of the floor, spinning her around and kis
sing her.
“Damn right you have a man,” he said fiercely.
39
“Hey.”
Shaking her head, Haley pulled her gaze from the window. “Sorry,” she apologized with a smile. “Just thinking.”
“About Kincaid?”
Haley stuck her tongue out at Dani. “No, actually. In what I swear is a totally non-creepy way, I was thinking of you.”
“Me?” Dani leaned forward. “Why me?”
“I’m having fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve had fun.” Haley looked down briefly. “You’re the first friend I’ve had in quite some time.”
Dani smiled. “Aww, you’re gonna make me cry!”
“Really?”
“No!” Dani laughed. “I’m just glad to see you finally open up. I knew there was a fun person in there. I just didn’t expect it to take years to happen.”
Haley laughed, sitting back into her seat. They were having coffee at a little café that Dani had recommended when she’d asked to hang out. The cozy little atmosphere was helping her to feel relaxed and open up.
“If I’m honest, it all happened so slowly over a period of years, I never even realized how I was detaching myself from the world. It just became so normalized to me.” She took a sip from her mug. “Looking back on it now, I can’t believe how numb to the world I’d become. It’s crazy. I feel like I was living in a bubble, or black and white. Now I look around, and everything is just so vibrant.”
Dani nodded. “You feel alive again.”
“Do I ever! Friends. A man.”
“Yeah, speaking of your man,” Dani said slowly. “I was wondering something.”
Haley focused on her new—and still only—friend. “What?”
“Things seem to be going well there between you two.”
“I think so,” she said happily.
“Well, um. This is kind of embarrassing, but does he maybe have any friends?”
Haley was mid-sip when Dani finally spat her question out, and she nearly spewed coffee everywhere.
“Hey, come on!” Dani pleaded. “This is embarrassing enough that I can’t meet guys on my own, okay? You don’t need to laugh at me in public.”
