Leisl Leighton - [Pack Bound 01]

by Pack Bound (epub)

  Skye watched as his last spring and yip brought him closer to her and Tom.

  Call Jason.

  ‘What?’ Was her grandpa insane? She didn’t have time to make a call.

  In your mind. You are linked to him. Call him.

  She didn’t question him, but screamed inside her head, Jason! Jason!

  Skye. Jason’s voice in her mind was a mere whisper, but then it strengthened. I’m coming, Skye. Get back inside.

  ‘I’m trying.’

  ‘Mikey!’ Tom whispered. ‘Mikey, please come.’

  Mikey yipped again, his motion taking him towards the dogs.

  ‘Mikey. Bad dog. Come here.’

  The larger darker wolf growled, leaning forward in a truly menacing manner while his mate made that sound like a chuckle. Mikey yipped and hopped back.

  ‘Come on Mikey, just a little further and I’ll be able to grab you, you annoying little ball of fluff,’ Skye said in a sweet voice. She reached out as Mikey yipped again, coming within an inch of her outstretched hand.

  The biggest wolf growled viciously and leaned back, about to pounce. Skye took a quick step forward, grabbed up the fluffy bundle, who was still snapping and snarling at the shapeshifters, and began to back up, herding Tom towards the door, her gaze firmly fixed on the menace in front of her.

  Her fingers sparked and burned, but she didn’t dare look to see what was happening there because her movement seemed to have freed the biggest wolf from its crouch. She saw the dark movement of it as it flung itself forward, the whites of its eyes and its flashing white teeth reminding her of how a shark looked as it lunged to feed.

  Arms wrapped around the little dog, she twisted, pushing Tom back through the door.

  Jaws clamped onto her leg, sharp teeth tearing through denim and flesh. Adrenaline pumped through her too hard and fast for her to register the pain as she kicked out. The wolf let go. She lost her balance. A thousand images pulsed through her mind as she fell; time slowed so that she saw everything at once.

  Tom had staggered back at her push, but managed to stay upright. He now stood just inside the door, looking past her, his eyes fixed on the wolves, face pale as death, lips pulled up into something that looked like a snarl, his little body vibrating as if he was about to have a seizure.

  A door slammed in the distance and someone shouted, but she couldn’t see who had arrived because she hit the ground. Her breath punched out of her lungs as her head smacked against the paving stones with a sharp crack. Blackness rushed forward but she pushed it back. Time returned to full speed.

  She needed to get up, move, crawl back inside before the wolf continued its attack. Holding Mikey in one arm, she pushed herself up and lurched forward. Her right leg didn’t seem to want to work and she fell forward, hitting her chin. Stars spun in her eyes and shouts erupted all around her.

  She pushed herself up again but was flattened as the wolf landed square on her back. Fear paralysed her for an awful, timeless second, but then she felt its hot breath on her neck, spittle from its snarl landing on exposed flesh. The sensation triggered movement. She would not die like this—not lying on the ground, exposed and weak. She tried to kick, to flip up, but it was too heavy.

  Expecting any moment to feel its teeth sink into the skin of her neck, she looked up, hoping Tom had run to get help. But he still stood there, vibrating.

  She didn’t want the little boy to watch her die. Didn’t want him to be next. She had to protect him.

  Without any thought for what she did, becoming a creature of instinct, she flung her arm out. White light sparkled from her fingers and shot out towards Tom, the power creating a barricade at the door.

  The wolf snarled, the sound a vibration against her skin and the power sputtered and died. ‘No!’ she cried. She wasn’t strong enough. She didn’t know enough to protect those who needed protection. Her power wasn’t hers to tap into—perhaps it never would be.

  Time seemed to suspend again as she waited for the sharp bite of pain that would bring death.

  Then bright light enveloped the little boy, his body convulsing so violently she couldn’t understand how it was he was still standing.

  ‘Tom!’ Jason’s cry tore through the air. She looked up. He was running across the room towards them. Light streamed from him, wrapping around him as he ran. He sprang over Tom’s head, careening right for Skye and the wolf still standing on her back, ready to rip her throat out.

  But it wasn’t Jason that descended on them. In mid-air, he turned into the large gold and silver wolf he’d shown her the day before in her bedroom.

  Images overlaid the reality of what was happening; her mama and papa dancing in the moonlight, her mother dancing backward, glowing as if she was lit from within, head flung up to the sky as the glow took her over and, moments later, a silver wolf stood baying at the moon; a silver wolf—her mother—nuzzling at her hand, brushing her head against Skye’s face in the softest of caresses; River jerking and quivering in the car, his eyes wild as moondust danced on Skye’s fingers; River laughing as he raced out the door in front of her, light pouring from him as he changed forms before she had the chance to breathe and fly out into the light, running behind him shouting, ‘Cheater!’

  It all seemed like a dream. But no dream she’d ever had felt so real or so goddamned painful.

  Jason-the-wolf slammed into the attacking wolf-shifter on her back. They tumbled away. Howls of pain, snaps and snarls lit the air.

  Stunned, Skye lay there, unable to move even when she remembered the other wolf-shifter, the laughing one. It could attack while Jason was fighting the snarling one. Then a sound in front of her caught her attention. She looked up to see shreds of material fall from Tom, his pyjamas now rags, as he transformed into a miniature sandy-coloured wolf. His howl tore through the night air and he leapt over her, taking up a protective stance between her and the laughing wolf-shifter.

  Dumbfounded, Skye didn’t even react when Adam joined them, jumping in front of Tom with a snarl, his own clothes falling in a kind of fabric snowfall as he transformed, almost blinding her with the golden wash.

  Adam-the-wolf, hair as black as night bristling like a mane around his head, snarled and snapped at the laughing wolf-shifter, a definite threat if ever she’d heard one. The wolf-shifter’s lip curled. Adam leapt at it. With a yelp, it turned tail and ran into the darkening night.

  Adam-the-wolf gave a wheezy laugh and turned back to her, one eye winking.

  Winking! How could he find this funny? Any one of them could have been killed by those shapeshifters.

  A howl tore through the night nearby and Adam-the-wolf tensed.

  ‘Jason!’ she cried. Had Jason been hurt, or had he hurt the wolf-shifter?

  Adam-the-wolf turned back to look at her and whimpered as if to say, ‘Don’t worry’. Tom-the-wolf whimpered back at him and they nudged noses, then Tom came and sat down next to her, burrowing his nose under her arms to sniff at Mikey. The puppy squirmed out of her numb arms, licked Tom-the-wolf’s snout and then burrowed into the ruff of fur in the little wolf’s neck.

  Eyes locked on the little wolf and his puppy and the bigger wolf just beyond, Skye pushed herself onto her side, the effort bringing a grunt and a swaying bout of pain that rushed from her head to her jaw, her elbows then her leg and then back up again in an agonising surge. She groaned, not sure which part of her to clasp first. Her leg was on fire, her back clawed and bruised, her forehead and chin felt like someone was still taking to her with a sledgehammer, and blood—her blood—was splashed on the paving stones under her.

  A wet nose on her arm made her jump. Jason-the-wolf stood before her, taller and larger across the shoulder than Adam-the-wolf, his piercing blue eyes full of worry.

  Her breath shuddered painfully in her throat.

  She glanced sideways at Adam and Tom. They whimpered in greeting and almost seemed to smile at her, encouraging. Jason-the-wolf made a strange soft yowling sound and Adam nodded and trotted of
f into the dark. Jason looked at Tom and Tom yipped, the sound defiant. Jason made a different guttural yowl, similar to the tone she used when admonishing a disobedient child, and Tom dropped his head to his paws, green eyes wide as he looked up at his Alpha in submission.

  ‘Wh—what’s going on?’ Her voice sounded so strange, at first she didn’t recognise it as hers, but thought maybe someone else had spoken her thoughts with some strangled voice.

  Jason’s gaze swung back to her and before she could move, his head dipped towards hers and his tongue, like soft, damp sandpaper, licked her face.

  You okay?

  ‘Jason?’

  I’m right here. Are you okay? You’re bleeding.

  Skye’s heart stopped, breath backed up in her lungs as the wolf edged closer.

  Skye?

  Jason’s voice in her head acted like a defibrillator. Her heart restarted and raced like a galloping horse across hard turf, returning life to her limbs. A fragment of memory pierced her, of a wolf-like grey dog, just like the ones who’d attacked her a few moments earlier.

  Gasping, she skittered back, gaze searching into the dark beyond the huge gold and silver wolf, right leg dragging behind her until she’d wedged herself between a terracotta pot plant and the glass door.

  A flash of golden light made her duck her head and close her eyes.

  ‘Skye? Are you okay?’

  She opened her eyes. Jason crouched before her, blue gaze capturing hers as if he looked into her soul. Fear galloped up from her chest to choke her, making it impossible to answer. He reached out.

  Words spat out of her then. ‘Don’t touch me. Please. Just give me a moment.’

  ‘There’s no need to be afraid. They’re gone.’

  She choked on a laugh. ‘It’s not that. Well, it is. It’s just … the wolf-like dog that attacked me when I was younger—it looked like them. And a dog exactly like that was watching me up at the snow.’ Her eyes widened as she stared at him. ‘It was the rogue coven following me up at the snow. And they must have attacked me when I was younger.’

  His hand hovered in the air above her leg, his gaze raking her face.

  She flinched from his touch. ‘Please, don’t. I need a minute to process.’

  ‘But you’re hurt.’

  She laughed again, the sound nothing more than a bark. ‘And you’re naked.’ What that had to do with anything, she had no idea. But words now seemed to be tumbling out of her mouth, beyond her control. ‘You can’t be naked. It’s getting cold. Aren’t you cold? You’re naked.’

  A quizzical smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. ‘I know. The downside of transformation, remember?’

  She nodded slowly, her thundering heart changing to another kind of beat as her gaze skimmed over him. ‘Not so much of a downside. It depends on where you’re sitting.’

  He stared at her for a moment and then laughed. ‘That’s my girl.’

  Her mouth twitched. ‘I don’t know why I say things to you I’d never say to anyone else.’

  ‘I don’t mind. In fact, I like it.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘I do.’

  She stared into his eyes, her heart thumping, but no longer from fear. How could she be afraid of the man standing in front of her? A man who had done nothing but try to protect her. A man who held her heart, even though he didn’t know it. There was so much she needed to say to him. He still didn’t know that she’d decided to stay, and not just until the Curse was broken.

  But instead of saying any of that she murmured, ‘Beautiful. Your wolf is beautiful.’

  His mouth turned up into that lopsided smile that made her insides curl with desire, her blood turn molten and her heart thump thick and heavy in her chest.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘That golden-rainbow glow. I remember that. I remember River and Mama changing.’

  ‘Do you remember anything else?’

  ‘No. Not much. Just the occasional flash, but enough to tell me that hearing you in my head is not usual. How did you do that?’

  He hesitated before saying, ‘The Alpha–Pack Witch bond gives us the ability to mind-speak when needed. It also does so much more.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘When you connected your mind to mine and called to me, you shoved power through the connection and into me, enabling me to control the change. I sent power through to Adam so he could change. I still had residual power left over from when we bonded at the snow and could probably have changed for a while without more, but Adam’s connection to you is not as strong and the extra boost helped him to change quickly so as not to be left vulnerable to whatever those things were.’

  ‘Shapeshifters. Warlocks and witches using dark magic.’

  He nodded, not asking how she knew, simply accepting that she did.

  A whimper from the left had her head snapping around and she gasped as her gaze fell on the little sandy wolf crouched on the paving tiles, Mikey curled into the ruff at his neck.

  ‘Tom.’ Jason’s tone was low, firm. ‘Take Mikey inside. I told you I’ll talk to you later.’

  Tom whimpered, his liquid green eyes dripping with worry as he glanced at Skye.

  Jason inclined his head, his expression inscrutable. ‘I’ll take care of her. You do what you’re told. Now go up to your bedroom. Suzie will help you to change back. You’ll need guidance the first time.’

  Tom clattered to his feet, nudging Mikey with his nose, and headed inside. At the door, he stopped and looked back, whimpering again.

  ‘She just needs a moment. I promise, I’ll tell her.’

  Tom nodded and headed through the door, Mikey a scrabble of little legs behind him.

  ‘Did I turn Tom into a wolf?’

  Jason smiled, his hand hovering over her again. ‘Yes. He’s never changed before. It’s a bit of a shock.’

  ‘I thought I could only channel my energy into you and you channelled it into the others.’

  ‘You wanted to protect him. You gave him what he needed to make him less vulnerable to those who attacked.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to frighten him. Or hurt him.’

  Jason’s eyes creased with his laughter. ‘You didn’t. You did what only a Pack Witch could do. He’s exhilarated. He thought there was something wrong with him because he’s never been able to change, not even under influence of the moon. He knows about the Curse, that it affects the young, the old and the weak first, but he doesn’t truly understand. All he knew was the wolf inside him wanted to get out, to run, to bay at the moon, to play, and he could never manage to let it. It’s been killing him by slow increments, turning him from a laughing, happy boy into someone so shy and withheld, he no longer seems like a child.’

  He took her hand, fingers twining around hers, thumb brushing over her skin in a way that made her insides heat with a slow burn.

  ‘What you did tonight, it was a gift. The greatest gift you could have given him. It’s a gift you give to all of us. You have no idea how special you are.’ Staring into her eyes with a solemness that felt like a vow, like a promise he would never break, he said, ‘I will never stop trying to show you how special you are to us. To me.’

  Chapter 18

  Skye’s free hand clenched on the pavers, the roughness tearing at her fingernails, her skin. But that little pain wasn’t enough to take her attention off the ache his words caused. She wanted them to mean so much more, but knew they never could. She couldn’t let them.

  ‘Don’t say that to me,’ she whispered, the words torn from her throat.

  ‘Why not?’ he asked, taking her bruised hands in his. ‘It’s true.’

  ‘For the pack. I’m special because the pack needs me.’ She said the words, trying hard not to see the light shining in his eyes that spoke of something else entirely, something she wanted with every fibre of her being, but could never have. ‘No more.’ She tried to free her hands from his, but he wouldn’t let go.

  ‘It is more. You know it’s more than tha
t. I would never have slept with you if it wasn’t.’ He sighed. ‘But now isn’t the time for this conversation. You’re hurt. We need to get you inside and patched up.’

  ‘Where’s Shelley? She was in the lounge room.’

  ‘She’d gone into the study to Skype Cordy—she had some questions about what she was reading—and because she had headphones on, she didn’t hear the attack. But Adam’s taking her to your house to get her first-aid kit. Bron is at her shop—she’s getting some of her healing powders. They’ll be back soon.’

  ‘That’s good.’ Bron and Shelley would act as a barrier against these unwanted feelings his presence created. She tried to stand, but her leg gave out. He caught her, held her upright against his naked body.

  It was too much.

  She leaned into him, couldn’t seem to help it, and words exploded out of her mouth as she stared up into his beautiful eyes, words she never meant to say. ‘I feel you inside of me …’ Her fist curled over her chest. ‘I feel you inside of me here and I can’t get you out.’

  ‘I feel you inside me too,’ he whispered, head lowering to hers as his arms went around her. ‘I don’t want to get you out.’

  She pushed back against his chest so that he stopped, her fingers leaving bloody smears on his smooth, golden skin. She couldn’t let him kiss her. If his lips met hers, then she’d be gone. ‘I have to hope that you do,’ she whispered, tearing her gaze away from his so she wouldn’t be tempted to caress his face, his body.

  He looked down at her, puzzled, but before he could ask, she tried to move away.

  She’d forgotten about her leg. Pain shot through her and she began to fall, only to be caught by him again.

  Jason hissed, ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ and scooped her into his arms. She stiffened as she slammed against his muscled chest; tried to push away. But he held her too tightly and as he moved, her head spun nastily, so she had no choice but to give in and let him carry her inside. She closed her eyes against the rising nausea the movement caused. But she refused to lay her aching head against his shoulder.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’

  He made a huff of exasperation. ‘To the study. It’s the most protected room in the house. Your leg needs to be taken care of. And your face. You’re bruised and bleeding.’