I stared at him, speechless, and pulled the trinket to my chest.
“Thank you,” I eventually squeaked.
“It’s nothing.” He started walking once more. “Come, we’re almost there.”
“It’s not nothing.” I raced to keep up. It was only then that I realized I wasn’t panicking anymore. My heartbeat was even, and so was my breathing. All I’d needed was a distraction. And Thorn had given it to me.
He stopped in front of a metal door. It was like the one that had led to the tunnel, with intricately carved spirals that looked like vines.
“One of the coyotes who surrendered during their assault on Lycaon is behind this door. He claims to know you,” Thorn said. “Would you like me to open it?”
A thread of hope spun in my stomach. I nodded. “Yes.”
He put his palm on the handleless door, much in the way he had held it over the stone that he’d transformed, and the door opened.
There was someone inside, sitting on the floor. He stood when he looked at us. He was thin with fiery red hair and hollow cheeks.
“Flint?”
I ran in and threw my arms around my brother. He felt fragile, so unlike usual.
“Briar, what are you doing here?” he asked, gently squeezing me back.
“I came here to get help.” I pulled back and looked over his face. “What are you doing here?”
“I came with Herrik,” he said.
“Are you eating? Tell me you’re eating.”
His eyes dropped. “I’m eating.”
My stomach clenched. I was tired of feeling like this. So tired of everything being a struggle. “You don’t look like you are.”
I was afraid for him to say another word. Afraid of the truth.
Flint lifted his shirt. His chest was black—the affliction.
I bit back tears.
“Tell me he’s not keeping you in a cell,” Flint said.
I shook my head. “No.”
I looked back to Thorn, who was standing in the doorway leaning on the frame, his eyes cast down.
What was wrong? Why was he upset?
“You have to do something,” I told Thorn. It was a hopeless plea, I knew. But Flint was my brother. I couldn’t lose him, not after everything else.
Thorn said in a quiet voice, “Healing illness is beyond my power.”
“You’re Warrior to one of the dragons,” I said. “What you did with the stone—”
His face was a mask. The warm comfort he’d offered me in his home and again in the tunnel was gone. Had I done something wrong?
“It’s different magic,” Thorn said. “I’m sorry.”
Legend said the Guardian of Land and his warrior wielded power over the plants and earth. I knew this, though I’d never seen the magic firsthand before today. It was said that the Guardian of Water and his warrior were the ones with influence over animal and shifter life.
“You said you’d help me restore my village.” I raised my chin and squared my shoulders. “You’ve granted me a request. If I can have just one, I’d like to exchange it for something more pressing.”
Thorn stared at me.
There was no village without its people. I squared my shoulders once more. “Help me convince the Warrior of Water to cure my people.”
Flint touched my arm. “Briar, you can’t speak to him like that and expect—”
“I make no promises,” Thorn said.
I nodded, resigned. It was too much. He’d already given more than I had any right to ask for. “I understand.”
Thorn took a step into the hall. “We leave at once.”
“What?” Did he just say yes?
Flint grabbed my wrist.
I looked up at him.
“You’re not the same scared girl that I remember.”
I shook my head. “Of course I am.”
“No,” Flint said. “You’re different. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
I nodded. “Promise you’ll eat. Promise you’ll wait and stay strong. I’m coming back for you. I’m going to get you better.”
“I know you are.”
I heard the lie in his words. I squeezed him in a big hug before turning to go. My brother was alive. I’d do whatever it took to make sure he was healed. And I’d prove him wrong.
Chapter 8
Thorn
By the front gate of the village, Forrest awaited my instructions.
Briar had requested to see one of her people as I went to speak with my second. She told me that letting the coyotes know we were leaving was as important as telling the wolves. If she didn’t, they would fear that something had happened to her.
I saw no harm in granting her request, and agreed that reassurance on both sides was the best way forward.
My thoughts remained on the reunion in the tunnels. I’d hoped that I was wrong, that Flint wasn’t her mate. But she’d been so happy to see him.
When I blinked, I saw her smile on the back of my eyelids, the smile that wasn’t for me, but for him. Selfishly, I could have said no to her request to find a cure. I could have let fate decide what happened to Flint and the others. But I wouldn’t. Helping was the right thing to do.
More than that, I couldn’t hurt Briar.
“We won’t be gone for long,” Briar said to an older woman with a child hanging onto her skirt. “If there’s a possibility that we can cure the affliction, I have to take it.”
Sylvie nodded. “I’ll look after everyone. Don’t worry.”
“I know.” Briar smiled.
The girl threw her arms around Briar’s waist.
I watched the interaction, astonished that Briar could not see the truth that was so obvious to me. She was alpha of her people.
“What are your instructions?” Forrest’s arms were crossed, but the sparkle in his eyes betrayed his cool demeanor. He was looking forward to taking charge, if only for a short time.
“Allow our guests time together for meals,” I said.
“Guests.” He said the word with a touch of disdain, but the corner of his lips quirked up on one side.
“Stay out of the tunnels.”
His chestnut eyes hardened, as did his tone. “I don’t have a key.”
We both knew that already. Aside from me, only Dahlia had access to the tunnels, to care for the prisoners. I also knew that Forrest was still bitter about the assault, and it was best if he was kept away from the prisoners.
“Anything else?” he asked.
He knew how to run the village. Aside from diplomacy, he would make a strong alpha, and I was fortunate to have him as my second. “I trust you’ll do what’s right.”
“I’ll always do what needs to be done.”
I stared at him a moment, weighing his words. At some point, he would challenge me to try and claim alpha. But that day wasn’t today.
I offered my hand. He accepted and we shook. He slapped my back in a good-natured embrace as I turned to go.
“Good luck, Warrior.” He gave me a nod, and a smile spread across his face.
I would need it. Winning the favor of the Warrior of Water would be the easy part. There was no way to know if he could help us, though. And the most difficult task was being close to the woman I knew without question was meant to be my mate, yet she could never be mine.
Briar was waiting for me. We headed into the forest side by side, and already there was a strange energy between us. For a time, we didn’t speak. We left the village path behind and walked on game trails.
Roots and rocks made the terrain uneven, and at times the path was too narrow to walk abreast. With Briar behind me, the silence felt more natural.
A woodpecker hammered a far-off tree, pine needles bristled in the gentle breeze, and the tranquil sound of water rushing over rocks combined into a lulling melody.
“How far is the Warrior of Water’s village?” Briar’s voice was soft, but carried easily over the gentle sounds of the forest.
“We will arrive at Cas
cade Village soon after nightfall.”
The burble of the stream ahead grew louder as the path curved and widened.
Briar stepped up beside me. Her closeness bit, a fanged jaw clamping down over my heart. It was a shot of adrenaline and a gnawing in my chest.
She wore the clothes of Lycaon, but her scent and scarlet hair gave her away as an outsider. I’d never considered coyotes exotic, but I was drawn to those differences in her. I loved the curls that fell over her shoulders, the freckles scattered on her cheeks, and the way her amber eyes seemed to brighten when she looked at me.
The cut of her white dress flattered her thin neck. There was no scar, no bite mark declaring her bond to her mate.
He didn’t have to leave a mark for her to be mated.
“What’s the Warrior of Water like?” She looked to me before hopping onto one of the stones that stood out over the surface of the water. She held out her arms for balance, swaying slightly as she leapt to the next.
“Hale is—” I considered my words. “The Guardian of Water is more involved in the lives of his chosen people than The Guardian of Land. As such, he personally selected his warrior.”
She looked back over her shoulder and wrinkled her nose. “I have no idea what you’re saying.”
I wanted to nip her tiny nose, her rosy cheek, her neck as I marked her as mine.
“He’s cordial, and earnest,” I said. “Warmhearted.”
She landed on the other side of the stream and smiled back at me. “That, I understand.”
I smiled back. “I fought for my position. I hold it until a challenger is strong enough to defeat me.”
“Is that why your second is so hostile?”
I followed her across the stream, hopping from stone to stone.
“Yes,” I said. “Forrest is both loyal and defiant. He pushes to see where I’ll bend, where I’m weak.”
I landed beside her and tried to ignore her intoxicating vanilla and ginger scent. I tried to ignore the desire to run my fingers over her skin. And I tried to ignore the wolf inside of me who howled that this was our mate.
“That doesn’t sound like loyalty,” Briar said.
“Like me, he wants what’s best for the village and our people,” I said. “Which is all that I need from him.”
We walked through the trees a while longer before Briar looked up at me again.
“Thorn?”
“Yes?” I glanced at her, then forced myself to look away. Every moment we spent alone together made it harder to ignore my desire for her. It was easier when we didn’t talk. Now that we were speaking again, I was beginning to believe this journey was a mistake.
“Wouldn’t it be faster if we shifted?”
Faster was good.
“Yes.”
I reached to the hem of my shirt and lifted. Briar stared. Her pupils dilated and the scent of her desire fell between us. My cock pressed hard against my pants. Was this a mistake?
It was her idea. We could shift without touching. I ignored her scent, ignored the clawing of my wolf to claim his mate, and ignored my own desire.
I tore my eyes away from her, shucked my clothes, and shifted. And I didn’t dare look at her again until the glow of white light told me she’d shifted, too.
My clothes lay in a pile on the soft soil by the base of a Ponderosa pine. I lifted them gingerly into my mouth and looked to Briar.
Her coyote was slight of frame, just like her human form. Her fur was strawberry-blond, and her eyes were the same amber shade as always. She was beautiful.
She stood completely still, watching as I approached.
The tension was gone, washed away with the heightened senses of my wolf. We’d run, and I’d forget. Or at least I’d try.
“You mentioned challenges in your tribe,” Briar said in the shifter tongue. “No one ever challenged Herrik. His father was alpha, so the line naturally followed from father to son.”
I dropped my clothes to respond. “Do you think that’s a better system?”
“We never doubted his rule, even if the path he led us down made us uncomfortable. It’s all any of us ever knew, including the soldiers you cage below the ground.” Her gaze darted to me, then away, and her tail flicked back and forth in short agitated bursts. “But given what has happened to us, no, I don’t believe it’s necessarily better.”
“You disapprove of the tunnels,” I said.
“I don’t like seeing Flint locked up and withering away.” Her voice rose a bit, but this time, she wasn’t quiet when speaking her opinion.
My chest clenched and I turned to her. “Neither do I.”
She shook her head. “Then why? Why lock him up? There are others, too, aren’t there? Why bury any of them down beneath the earth?”
Celedon had made the tunnels. I hadn’t come to any better solution, so I’d followed my guardian’s direction. I hadn’t liked it, but it was what it was.
Briar’s frustration riled me. I wanted to soothe her, which only exacerbated my discontentment.
“What would you have me do?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Her voice softened, but her amber eyes still burned. “Treat them like you treated me.”
They’re not you. No one is like you.
“They broke down our wall, burned our homes, and shot flaming arrows at the square where our children were eating.” My wolf voice came out harsher than I’d intended.
Briar flinched, as if I’d struck her. “I didn’t—”
“I don’t want to watch them wither with affliction, to know there are shifters being kept in cells away from sunlight on my watch. But I can’t let them go, not while they pledge their loyalty to an alpha who has gone completely mad. What stops them from attacking again? What assurance do my people have if I set Herrik’s soldiers free?”
Briar said nothing.
Silence.
I hadn’t intended to be harsh with her. I wanted to grant her every desire, but this—I couldn’t waver. I would do what I could to see them healed, but they would not be freed until I was certain they were no longer a threat.
“We should keep moving.” Briar scooped her clothes up into her mouth and started walking.
She was right, we should keep walking. But the tension between us had returned, and this time it was different.
The forest transitioned into jungle. Pines were replaced by palms, along with rubber and gum trees. The air was different, too. There was a richness coming from the sandy soil and a sweetness from the tropical fruits. Even the birds and insects were of different varieties, creating a cawing, buzzing ambiance. Sunlight was quickly fading.
I spotted a pebble with a unique vein of blue running through it. I dropped my clothes and nudged it with my nose. The underside was damp. Briar watched with interest and dropped her clothes as well.
“What’s that?” she asked in the shifter tongue.
“Limestone.” I took a step back to let her see.
She looked at me with a blank expression.
“I collect stones,” I said. “Like the one I gave you. I use them to create sculptures.”
“Do you give magic stones to all the girls?”
I was taken aback. “All the girls?”
She looked me up and down, as if searching for something. I was an open book. Anything she asked, I would tell her.
“No,” I said. “Only you.”
She looked away. It was the truth, whether it made her uncomfortable or not. Even if she’d already chosen her mate, there was only Briar for me.
In the silence that fell between us, I noticed the gentle babble of rushing water in the distance. I shifted back to human form, dressed, and plucked the limestone pebble from the dirt.
“We’re almost there.”
Briar didn’t look at me while I shifted or dressed. She didn’t look while she did the same, either. Darkness fell, another indication that we were close.
We started walking once more. Before long, I caught my first glimpse
of Cascade Village. The giant waterfall was always the first thing I noticed, a towering cliff that poured and bubbled into the river below. Even during the night, it was a sight to behold. Torches lit the stone buildings that lined the banks.
There was movement in the trees, a scouting party closing in. Briar grabbed my hand and squeezed. Her touch surprised me. She felt good, right. I squeezed back, offering reassurance.
The scent of bear mixed with that of the river.
I would protect Briar with my life. But I couldn’t protect her from the hurt if Hale refused to help us.
Chapter 9
Briar
Flashes of dark fur wove through the unfamiliar landscape. Instinct pricked at me, a clawing demand to run.
I didn’t recognize the broad-leafed trees, nor the colorful bladed plants that grew along the ground. I didn’t recognize the sounds of the jungle and its life. I didn’t recognize the scent of the air, or that of the shifters who approached.
This was far from coyote territory or any sense of comfort.
Their massive shapes stalked closer and closer still, camouflaged in the terrain. Bears. They had to be bears.
I held tight to Thorn’s hand, drawing strength from his endless pool of assurance.
He knew the bears, I told myself. He knew what he was doing.
The twists and wrenching in my gut betrayed my uncertainty. The only contact my people had ever had with another tribe had been with the wolves. That relationship was strained at best, prickly as a rosebush.
Years ago, I once caught a glimpse of a bear, in the plains by the canyon. He had been so far away I didn’t catch his scent. I’d known I could escape if I needed to.
As these beasts closed in, I could see they were just as large and just as intimidating as I remembered. There were two that I could see. By the scents in the air, I knew there were at least two more.
“I am Thorn, Warrior of Land,” Thorn announced. “I’m here to speak with Hale.”
In a glow of white light, one of the bears shifted into a man. His hair was long and flaxen, and his eyes were a pale blue. He bowed to Thorn. “Welcome, Warrior.”
“Thank you,” Thorn replied.
Wolf Warrior of Land (Alphas & Alchemy: Elemental Shifters Book 2) Page 5