“Why are you so eager to go?” Penny asked suspiciously.
“I need some time to process all of this and I’m sure you and Logan need time to talk.” She smiled brightly and Dario suspected there was more to this than Helena was saying.
“We do, and Milo needs a bath and some rest.” Penny held up her hand when Milo protested. “You need a bath and some time in the warm. After lunch, we can come back out in the snow. Deal?”
“But I wanted to go with Aunt Helena. I want to ride on Dario’s back, just like I rode on Ivan’s back.” Milo’s pleading puppy dog eyes were almost too much to deny.
“Another time.” Penny’s firm tone was met with a resigned sigh.
He’s a good kid, Dario’s horse said.
He is. Dario went to the boy and placed his large hand on his shoulder. “I will give you a ride soon. I promise.”
“Into the mountains?” Milo asked hopefully.
“We’ll go over the mountains when the weather is warmer.” Dario nodded and then released the boy. “We will be back before sundown.”
“We’ll see you then.” Logan guided Milo back inside.
“Take care,” Penny hugged her sister before turning away and running to catch up with Logan and Milo.
“That just leaves us.” Helena held up her car keys. “Shall we go?”
“After you.” Dario inclined his head and turned to follow his mate as she went around the side of the hotel. When they reached the parking lot, she pressed the button on her keys and a set of lights flashed on a blue SUV.
“Recognize it?” Helena asked.
“Of course.” He placed his hand on the roof. “That first glimpse of you will be etched in my mind forever.”
Helena groaned. “Really? I suspect I had my mouth open in shock as you ran out in front of me and tossed your mane as you reared up.”
Dario laughed. “To me, you looked completely serene and beautiful.”
“Oh, I see how it is, you have a silver tongue.” She cocked her head to one side. “I am going to need a filter, so I get to see the real you.”
“This is the real me.” He held his hands out to his sides. “I won’t ever lie to you, Helena.”
She turned to face him, the humor was gone from her expression. “You’re serious.”
He nodded. “It’s part of being a shifter. I want you to be happy and I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy. And if there’s one thing that is guaranteed to ruin happiness between two mates, it’s lies. Trust is important to me. I know only too well that once trust is lost, it’s impossible to regain. Not completely.”
“Trust can be rebuilt,” she told him.
“But never fully restored.” He pinched his thumb and fingers together and held them up. “There will always be that seed of doubt and I never want you to doubt what I feel for you. I never want you to need to question my words or my actions.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“I have lived among horses more than humans for the last couple of years. Do you know horses never lie? They can’t talk, they communicate with body language and there is an honesty there that has taught me so much.”
“You have lived with horses more than humans?” Helena asked, then blinked. “Sorry, I know that wasn’t the point.”
“Don’t worry, I am house-trained.” He winked and went around to the passenger door. “I would rather travel on four hooves than four wheels.”
“I thought the car made more sense because we don’t know how much of Logan’s stuff we will have to bring back down with us.” She slid into the driver’s seat.
“Why did you agree to do this? It wasn’t just to help Penny and Logan. There was something more. I could see it in your eyes.”
“Okay, since you have sworn never to lie to me, and I am all about honesty...” She inserted the key in the ignition and started the engine. “We’re going to the place where the witch was yesterday. We’re going to the place where she tried to take Penny’s body.”
“Yes.” His forehead creased. “Why is that important?”
“Because...” She drove out of the parking lot. “You’ll have to give me directions.”
“Left.” He held up his hand to the left. “Because...” He prompted as the car followed the worn tracks in the snow.
“Because it’s proof that what Penny told me happened.” She glanced sideways at him. “I have seen you shift. But that’s not really magic, is it?”
“Isn’t it?” Dario asked. “What is it, if not magic?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I just need to go to Logan’s cabin and for all the bits and pieces Penny told me happened to be there laid out in the snow.”
“And that will be proof that there is magic?” His forehead furrowed then he leaned back in his seat. “I don’t understand why you need this proof, but if that’s what you need.”
“That’s what I need.”
“Turn right here.”
“There’s one other thing I need.” Her fingers flexed on the steering wheel.
“Ask me.” Whatever it was, she was nervous to ask. Was she worried he would say no?
“Okay. Penny told you about what happened at my apartment.”
“Yes, she did. She told me about the man who bumped into you on the street and then the smell in your apartment.”
“I need you to come back with me. I want you to help me track down this guy and force him to tell me what he knows and why he did it.” Her jaw tensed.
“I had already made up my mind to do so.”
“I figured as much. But here’s the thing.” She inhaled deeply. “I want us to go alone. I want you to persuade Logan that Penny and Milo are safer here. I don’t want them in any danger. Penny deserves the happiness she’s found here.”
“And don’t you deserve the same happiness?” Dario asked.
“I don’t know.” She pressed her lips together. “Penny has been through so much. Her ex-husband broke her heart, he chewed her up and spat her out. Logan can put her back together again.”
“You think because you haven’t suffered like your sister that makes you less worthy of being happy?” Dario shook his head. “That’s not how happiness works. You don’t have to suffer to experience it.”
“I know. But Penny and Milo are the only two people in this world that I love. And in the same way that Logan wants to protect them because he is their mate, I want to protect them because they are my family. I figured you’d understand.”
“I do.” He nodded. “Left up here and then follow the road into the mountains.”
“So we’re agreed?”
“We’re agreed. As long as you also understand that the same fierce love and protection Logan feels for his mate and you feel for your sister and nephew...that is how I feel for you, Helena. It’s unconditional.”
Helena swallowed hard. “I think I’m just beginning to realize that.”
Chapter Five – Helena
Despite Helena’s new snow tires, the car couldn’t maneuver the road leading into the mountains. One steep curve left her wheels spinning as they tried to gain traction in a deep pocket of snow.
“This is where we get out and walk.” Dario looked sideways at her and half-smiled.
“You mean ride.” She switched off the engine and pocketed the keys. “You couldn’t wait for me to get stuck, could you?”
“I can’t deny the thought of your legs wrapped around me as we climb the mountain is exciting.” He cracked open the passenger door and shoved it open against the snow. “Is there anything you need from the car?”
“I was going to grab my purse plus some snacks and water.” She turned around in her seat and reached into the back seat. “It’s always better to be prepared in case you get stranded in the snow.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting stranded with you,” Dario told her before he straightened up and slammed the door closed, leaving her to simmer in the warm glow he coaxed out of her body.
Each look, each word he spoke to her, ignited a deep desire to know him more, to learn about him and what made him tick. He wasn’t like any man she’d ever met. He wasn’t driven by money or a career, he certainly had no desire to climb the corporate ladder, unlike most of the other men she’d dated.
She yanked a small backpack off the back seat, it contained her emergency kit. The dangers of driving in adverse weather conditions were all too real. Before she left her snug warm apartment, she’d checked the weather forecast and seen the threatening snow. Usually, she’d have put off traveling but this journey was too important.
Determined to get to Penny, and away from the danger that might lurk in her apartment, she’d gone to the local outdoor sports store, bought a small backpack, and filled it with a small medical kit, plus food and water. Adding in a flashlight, and a thick sleeping bag, Helena was satisfied she could survive for a couple of days if she got stranded in the snow.
“Coming?” Dario called, he stood a couple of feet away from the car, watching her.
Heat flared in her belly and fanned out as tendrils of desire unfurled, warming her like no fire ever could. There was a connection between them. This was as close to love at first sight as she was ever going to get.
Helena paused, her hand on the car door. If Dario was her mate, this was it. This was the man she was destined to be with for the rest of her life. There would be no other man. There would be no other lover in her bed.
She swallowed down that thought, ignoring the thrill of excitement that threaded through her veins. The idea that there was some higher power who had decided that Dario was her mate scared her. She liked to be in control of her life. Helena wasn’t the kind of woman who went with the flow, she wasn’t happy to sit back and let life happen to her.
Yanking on the handle, she opened the car door, a blast of cold air reminding her they were at the mercy of the mountain and the weather.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She got out and looked at her car. “How are we going to get back down?”
“When we get to the cabin, we can find some rope. When we come back down, we can make a makeshift harness and I’ll pull the car around.” He grinned as her eyes widened. “You’d forgotten you had a stallion at your service.”
She put her hand to her face and shook her head. “I didn’t exactly forget you were a horse. It’s not the kind of thing you can unsee. But no, it didn’t even occur to me that you might be able to pull the car around. It’s going to take a while for my brain to think in terms of shifters.”
“Well, we’d better get started on that.” He beckoned to her. “Come on, there’s a boulder over here you can stand on. If I get really close, you should be able to swing your leg over my back.”
“Can’t we walk from here?” Helena was having second thoughts about riding Dario’s horse. “I’ve never been on a horse before.” She turned around and looked down the steep mountain road. They’d been lucky her car had gotten them this far.
“I’ll keep you safe.” He held out his hand to her. “Come on. Trust me.”
Helena shuffled through the snow, when she reached him, she placed her hand in his and he drew her toward him. “Trust doesn’t come easy.”
“I know.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand and warmth flooded her skin.
“You’re so hot.”
“I know.” A small teasing smile flickered across his mouth.
“You are extremely disturbing.” She kept hold of his hand as she surveyed the boulder. “You’re going to need to...”
Before she finished the sentence, he scooped her up into his arms and lifted her onto the boulder. “Steady.”
“Some warning would have been nice.” She shuffled her feet around on top of the boulder until she found level footing and then straightened her clothes. He’d robbed her of her breath, and she took a moment to compose herself.
None of this went unnoticed by Dario. It was as if she were a fascinating bug he wanted to study.
“Ready?” he asked when she stood still, the pack on her back and her gloved hands by her sides.
“As I’ll ever be.” She sighed. “Go shift.”
He took a couple of steps away from her but didn’t take his eyes off her face. Everything about him unnerved her. She was beginning to enjoy it. Dario was anything but predictable.
For a woman who had spent her life clinging to being normal, he was a revelation. He opened the world up and filled it with wonder, filled it with potential.
Filled it with danger. The monsters in the closet were real.
Was the man who entered her apartment and filled it with his scent a monster? She shuddered, a sense of dread filling her.
But then the air around Dario sparked and popped and the man faded from the world to be replaced by a horse. A magnificent freakin’ horse, with a long flowing mane that cascaded down his neck. The horse threw his head up and down and snorted, his breath a cloud of steam on the cold air.
The horse stared at her and she stared at it. The connection between them was undeniable. This was Dario, only now he took the form of a horse.
“Okay, let’s get this over with.” She swallowed her nerves as the horse circled around before sidling up to the boulder, his back as close to the rock as he could get without risking injury to his legs.
Helena leaned forward and grasped hold of his mane before letting it go. “Sorry, I don’t want to pull your hair.”
The horse looked around at her, his eye patient and kind. Helena took this as permission to hold his mane and she grasped a large tuft, before raising her right leg and sliding it over the horse’s broad back.
It wasn’t exactly dignified, and she’d do better next time, but with some wriggling, she ended up seated behind the horse’s shoulders, one leg on either side of his broad back with both hands holding clumps of his mane.
The horse turned to look at her again, tossed his head, and then took a step forward.
The movement came as a surprise, she’d never experienced anything like it. A real living creature beneath her. As he took one more step and then another, a deep sense of regret settled in Helena’s chest.
“I wish I’d ridden a horse before,” she told Dario and let go of his mane with her right hand. Patting his shoulder lightly, she stroked the soft hair covering his shoulder. “Thank you.”
The horse looked around at her one last time before he forged forward through the virgin snow, following the half-hidden road up the mountain.
The horse’s muscles bunched beneath her as he climbed higher. Helena relaxed, her body working as one with the beautiful animal who had captured her heart in the same way Dario’s human form had. They were one and the same, both caring and capable of loving her.
When she was a girl and her mom was acting strange, Helena hated the idea of magic, she wished her mom would just be normal, like all the other mothers. With each stride the horse took, Helena celebrated the knowledge that shifters were real and there was magic in the world.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered on the mountain breeze. Dario’s horse’s ears twitched as they heard her speak. It didn’t matter, there would be no secrets between them. If their lives were going to be built on more than fate, they would both need to open up about who they were and where they’d come from.
Dario must have stories of his own to tell. He’d been adopted by Valerie, that was a story in itself. What had happened to his parents? How had he ended up under Valerie’s care?
Helena switched off her analytical brain. The journey up the mountain was incredibly special, she needed to learn to live in the now. The future might be filled with hidden danger, secrets of her past might be revealed, clues as to who her mother really was.
But for now, the cold on her cheeks, and the warm body between her thighs was all that mattered, all that was real.
Tears trickled down her cheeks, drying instantly, leaving salty trails. She was blessed.
They crested a small rise
and Helena caught a glimpse of a small cabin, surrounded by bare trees. In the spring and summer, the place must be surrounded by new life and birdsong but today it was a barren snow scene. Except the snow looked different here. As they drew closer, the branches of the trees weren’t weighed down with snow.
She shivered and Dario half-turned his head, his eye on her for a moment before he turned his full attention to the area around the cabin. Beneath her, he tensed, his muscles bunched ready to run. Or maybe he’d stand and fight if danger approached.
Helena placed her hand on his shoulder, soothing him. He tossed his head and slowed his pace, snorting as he lowered his head and sniffed the ground.
“What’s that?” Helena swung her leg over his back and slid to the ground. Her feet didn’t sink, it was as if the snow here had been turned to thick ice.
She ran toward the large indent in the snow and stopped dead. As she stared at the ground the cold air popped and fizzed as Dario shifted back to his human form. But Helena could not tear her attention away from the icy ground.
“It’s a dragon footprint,” Dario said from right behind her. “Ivan was here.”
“So there really was a witch and they did fight her here.” Helena swayed on her feet and Dario put his arm around her and held her close. She leaned into him, welcoming his presence and the warmth of his body.
“Did you really think they’d made it up?”
“No. But to see proof.” She turned to face Dario. “Ivan is a dragon shifter?”
“He is. And no, he’s not one of a kind, there’s a whole bunch of them over the ocean but they keep to themselves.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Believe, Helena. Let down the barriers you’ve put up and believe, see the world with new eyes and embrace the wonder of it all.”
“I can’t not believe, can I?” She pulled away from him. “Do you know what happened here?”
“Ivan told me Sophie melted the snow to destroy the talisman Jeremy had drawn in the snow to protect him and Milo.”
“Milo.” She put her hands to her mouth. “He was in so much danger.”
“He’s safe now.”
The Horse Shifter's Mate: A Wishing Moon Bay Shifter Romance (The Bond of Brothers Book 2) Page 4
