The Wolf and His Earth Goddess

by Maia Dylan

  Ariana. Such a beautiful name. And the way she rolled that R had another spike of lust course through his body, damn!

  With a growl, his eyes snapped open as he realized something else.

  He had never told her his first name…

  * * * *

  Having shifted into his wolf, Micah made swift time covering the ground between where he’d had to leave his truck and the area that Ryan had described on the radio. He reveled in the stretch of muscles as he swept through the trees. Micah loved any chance to run, and he could feel the pleasure it brought his wolf. He and his brothers were wolf shifters. They carried the spirit of the wolf within them and could change into wolves with just a thought. They were all unmated, which meant that they were not fully merged with their wolves, so shifting was painful and they had no ability to partially shift, but the end definitely justified the pain!

  The other side effect of not being completely merged with their wolves was that they needed to let their wolves have free rein every now and then in order to maintain control of them. It didn’t take much, but if they neglected to take the time to let their wolves’ spirits run free, then they had difficulty controlling their own anger and emotions. The ultimate control came when wolf and man met their one true mate and merged completely.

  He would recognize her by her scent. A mating bond would form between the two of them, binding their hearts, lives, and souls together for all time. Micah’s dad talked about it as being a life-altering moment where the power of the Fates and draw him and his wolf spirit together, and that would so strong it would drive his to his knees. At that point his purpose in life would be to love, cherish and protect her. It sounded all good, but Micah thought that perhaps his dad over-exaggerated a little.

  He was only slightly hampered by the small custom-made harness he wore that carried his sat phone and running shorts. One of the only real downfalls of being a shape-shifter was that you had to carry clothes with you unless you were happy to get around nekkid with your happy bits hanging out for all to see once you shifted back into your human form.

  Giving his wolf a little more freedom, Micah thought back to the radio conversation with his brother as he ran. The information on the location of this person was extremely specific, yet he had hadn’t given them a name or a description. That was unusual to be sure, but Ry’s obvious avoidance around talking about the informant also raised questions for him. He recognized his brother’s usual avoid and distract tactic so knew that he was definitely keeping something from them. What, he wasn’t sure, but once they were face to face you could sure as shit bet that he’d get it out of his younger brother. Even at thirty-two there had to be some advantages to being the eldest.

  Ryan was a year younger than he, and the twins, Travis and Cole, were a year younger than that. His mom had always joked that she had spent the first three years of her marriage to his dad barefoot and pregnant. Micah didn’t like to think about that at all, it made him feel extremely uncomfortable thinking about his parents and sex. Hell, his parents were still a little too touchy-feely in front of him and his brothers for his liking, and that was just wrong!

  The Winters were an extremely close family. They all still lived in Freedom Springs, and as far as Micah was concerned, he would die there, probably in these very woods. His brothers all felt the same and had taken jobs to serve and protect their pack and the people who lived in their town. Ryan had always been the peacekeeper between him and his brothers. There were always fights and plays for dominance, but Ryan would be the voice of reason if things got out of hand. It surprised no one when he ran for and was elected as Sheriff.

  Cole’s vocation however surprised the hell out of the whole family. He became a fireman. Micah lost count of the times that his parents had punished Cole for setting something on fire. As a child, he had been obsessed with fire. He would talk about how flames looked to be alive and have a life of their own. He managed to set his father’s favorite lounge chair on fire when he was just ten years old, and that resulted in a fairly lengthy punishment. His mother would often hypothesize that perhaps that punishment was the catalyst that drove Cole into the role he now loved.

  Travis was the only one of his brothers who had ventured out of the Springs for any length of time. He had trained as a medic and could have gone on to be a doctor, but instead he had gone into the military and served two tours in Afghanistan. He came back whenever he was on leave, but every time he did, he was quieter than the last and not as quick with a smile as he used to be. He never spoke of his time there, but Travis hadn’t signed up for another year, telling them on his last leave trip that he needed to come home, and Micah was ecstatic because his youngest brother was due back this summer for good.

  Nearing the site where Micah thought he would have the best chance of getting down into the gully, he brought his wolf under control, grinning at the disgruntled growl he gave as he ceded control. Micah made a mental note to ensure that he got out soon and gave his wolf the opportunity to run free and hunt. If he didn’t, he risked some major mood swings, not to mention that the last time he had left it too long between runs for his wolf, he had almost lost the ability to control when he shifted. This had the potential to be very dangerous, especially if he happened to be driving at the time!

  Making his way down into the gully, Micah suddenly felt a sense of urgency he had never felt before. An urgency that drove him to move faster—to what end he didn’t know, but he was struggling to keep his wolf in the background. His heart started to pound heavier and faster than it had during his run, and he felt lightheaded. He paused for a moment, shaking his head to clear it. He breathed deep, and then froze. A scent so alluring it had his whole body shuddering and his mouth actually watered.

  Mate! Micah gave a whimper in wolf form as he felt pain ripple through his body, followed by a huge surge of power and strength. Confused and, if the truth be told, a little frightened by the speed and power of the whole thing, Micah forced himself through the change, embracing the pain that came with the shift and ignoring the growl of rage that echoed through his head as his wolf fought the change.

  Suddenly standing naked in the rain, heart still pounding and breath still heavy, Micah dropped to one knee. Holy fuck! He had scented his mate. Only his mate, the one woman in the world meant for him, would have enabled the full merge of Micah with his wolf. The merge brought with it an increase in speed and strength, and Micah could almost feel the muscles in his body swell with power. It also meant that he would now be able to call upon the change without any pain, and partially shift at will.

  Micah leaped back to his feet, his senses heightened. He could see farther into the forest than he ever could before, and even though darkness was rapidly falling, he could make out the individual leaves moving in the trees almost a hundred yards away. He could also smell his mate’s blood on the air, and by the strength of it, a lot had been spilled.

  He searched around him for the remains of the harness he had failed to slip free of before shifting. Spotting it, he pulled on his shorts and searched for the sat phone. Micah could sense his wolf’s frustration at the delay. A frustration he shared, but she was hurt and he would need the phone to call for help. And of course meeting your mate for the first time with your boy bits dangling out was probably not what he wanted to tell his children about.

  Micah sent out his senses. He could hear his mate’s heart beating erratically, and it wasn’t as strong as he would have liked. It sounded weak and it made Micah’s own heart stutter. He moved toward it, the scent that triggered the merge becoming stronger with each step. He didn’t bother searching under the rock ledges as Ryan had suggested. Micah simply moved rapidly to where he could scent her blood.

  Micah came to a stop when he noticed a small hand sticking out from a small gap in the river bedrock. Lunging forward, he grabbed that hand and fell to his knees as he felt a sudden and sharp jolt slam through his body. A connection older than time and stronger than anything he knew sn
apped into place within him. A connection he followed with his mind that led directly to her.

  He could feel her pain, and her fear. He felt his rage boil within at what she was feeling, and a growl came from deep down in his chest. His need for vengeance was almost as strong as his rage. At the sound of a small, pain-filled feminine whimper, he let it all go and moved as far into the crevasse as possible, trying to assess the injuries that had been inflicted upon his mate.

  The woman was tall, wearing sturdy and well-used walking boots, jeans, and a thick padded jacket that hid any obvious wounds from his view, but he was horrified to see the amount of blood that seemed to be pooled around the right side of her body. He had to get her out. But first he had to call in the cavalry. Grabbing his sat phone, he dialed Ryan’s number.

  “Where are you, bro?” Ryan’s voice was a welcome sound and just hearing it helped him dial his panic back a little

  “Ryan.” His voice was so gravelly and harsh that Micah almost couldn’t recognize his own voice. “I’ve found her. She’s injured and she needs help.”

  “Fuck me, she exists,” Ryan whispered in a shocked voice down the phone lines.

  “Of course she fucking exists!” Micah yelled back. “She’s hurt Ryan and she needs help. Now.”

  “Okay, I’ll call it in, and then I’ll shift and come to you.”

  “Hurry, Ry, she’s hurting and she’s—” Micah paused, almost too afraid to voice it out loud.

  “She’s what?”

  “She’s my mate,” Micah whispered into the phone. As soon as he had said the words out loud, he felt the rightness of them in every cell of his body. She was his mate.

  “Holy. Shit!” Ryan screamed down the phone, Micah almost smiled in spite of the dire situation.

  “Just get here, Ry, we are right where you said I would find her.” Micah quickly hung up, shoved the phone back into the harness, and then began to ease his woman out of her hiding place. Hiding place? Was she hiding? And if she was, from whom? Micah froze with his body in front of the opening, suddenly nervous about bringing her out into the open. He sent his senses out again, listening and scenting the air, trying to differentiate the different sounds and smells of the forest to see if there was something there that shouldn’t be. Nothing. He sensed nothing out of the ordinary. Taking the risk, he began to move her again.

  Concerned that she had not even uttered a peep at the move, Micah rolled her more firmly onto her back, hunching his body over her face in order to protect her a little from the light rain that continued to fall. He unzipped her jacket and growled at the large bloodstain that marred the light gray jersey she wore beneath it on her right shoulder and farther down near her hip on the same side. Lifting her jersey aside, he saw that she had been shot. Twice.

  Somebody had shot her and left her here to die? His wolf raged with the need for vengeance. Micah didn’t even attempt to stop the howl of rage that ripped from his throat. When he had calmed enough, he took the med kit from the harness and applied pressure bandages to the wounds, praying that his brother wouldn’t take too long.

  She had long dark hair that was a pile of tangles and fell all over her face. In this light it was hard to tell the exact color, but it was soft to the touch as he pushed the wet mass away. His breath caught in his throat as he looked into the face of his mate for the very first time.

  Beautiful simply didn’t cut it. She was fucking stunning! She had high cheekbones and full lips that begged to be kissed, and her skin was a light coffee color and absolutely perfect. Micah pressed his palm to her cold cheek, wishing that she would open her eyes, betting that they were just as beautiful as the rest of her face.

  As if she had heard his wish, her eyes fluttered open and even though the light was fading, her green eyes glowed as she blinked and focused on him. Not knowing what to do or say, and to be honest he wasn’t entirely sure he could form a coherent statement at that exact moment given that his mouth had completely dried up and his tongue was stuck to the roof of it, so he opted to just stare at her.

  Her tiny hand lifted and pressed to the right side of his face. The sizzle of awareness that coursed through his body at her slight touch was not a surprise now that he knew she was his. The scowl that appeared on her face was though. As were her first words to him before she passed out again. “Well, where the hell were you when I needed you? Bloody wolf.”

  Chapter 2

  Casey Rika opened her eyes and shuddered against the shards of pain the light in the room that drove maliciously into her brain. Her head hurt, and so did her side, shoulder, and arm…oh shit, let’s be honest. Every fucking bone in her body hurt! She thought back to what she had been doing that might have caused the pain. Had she fallen? Ah, no, that’s right she had jumped. Why? Because some crazy son of a trigger-happy whore had taken a shot at her.

  Then when she had tried to shelter in the rock overhangs of the river she had been following, he had kept taking potshots at her until eventually he actually shot her. Twice! As soon as she remembered that she felt the odd tingly feeling in her side that signaled an anesthesia of some description. The feeling was not unlike the result of a shot of Novocain when she went to the dentist. Boy, oh boy, she was not looking forward to what was to come when that wore off.

  As soon as Casey knew she was going to swan dive into a riverbed, she had reached out telepathically to her sister, Ariana. It had been her strength and skill that had kept Casey from getting killed. It had been at least a twelve-foot drop and onto some very unforgiving rocks. Yeah, that could have killed her. She was still stunned by the speed and strength of her sister’s powers, to reach through their bond and then through her to see what was going on and to call on her element, Air.

  Just before Casey landed in that riverbed, a huge updraft of air cushioned her fall, and she hardly felt the impact of the rocks. When she had rolled to get up to run, she took the first shot in her shoulder. Knowing that she was sitting out in the open, she ran to the rock outcroppings of the riverbed and drew down her own power to manipulate her element, Earth. She parted the rocks to make a hole large enough to clamber into. It was as she was scrambling to get in that she took the shot to her side. Before she passed out, she was able to close the opening to her hidey-hole.

  Casey and Ariana were sisters by birth, but they had also been chosen as daughters of the elements by the goddess Olwen. Both of them were Elementals and carried her magic and blessings within them. They were warriors for her in her war against carnage. It had come as quite a shock to her parents that both Casey and Ariana had been chosen and what that would eventually mean.

  On Ariana’s fifth birthday, a birthmark appeared on her inner right wrist, a Celtic knot that her parents had never seen before. Nor had they any idea what it meant. That night Olwen appeared to their parent’s in a shared dream, telling them of an ancient prophecy that spoke of warriors who would weld great strength and magic to destroy an evil hell-bent on bringing carnage and destruction to Earth.

  They began to follow Olwen’s teachings in their dreams to help their daughters on this most dangerous but important life journey. One that would lead her and three others, as far as they could tell from the prophecy itself, to fight a war against Lord Aeron, a god whose very name meant carnage. Aeron wanted only two things, the goddess Olwen as his wife and Earth as his domain, to rule over as he saw fit.

  A year later, Casey celebrated her own fifth birthday. When the mark suddenly appeared on her inner wrist, her parents were shocked that both their children would be one of the chosen. Olwen warned them that Aeron would stop at nothing to ensure he got what he wanted, and that meant striking out at the Elementals as he grew stronger.

  Her parents then made the very difficult decision that the girls would need to be separated for their own protection. They would come together again when the battle was imminent, but until then it would be safer for them to be separated. So for the safety of their children, her mother took her to the United States and her father
kept Ariana in New Zealand. They never contacted each other as far as Casey knew, wanting to keep their faces and identities a secret.

  What they hadn’t counted on was that due to the powerful bond of sisters who held within them the Elemental magic bestowed by a goddess, they had other skills and abilities their parents knew nothing about. One of them was that they were very strong telepaths, and the link between the two was especially strong.

  Thinking about her sister brought a sadness that had her reaching for her again. “Ariana.” She spoke in her mind to her sister, calling to her down their link.

  “Casey!” Ariana’s relief was audible in her voice, and Casey could feel it down their bond, immediately sending back her reassurance that she was fine. God, I have been so worried! Are you okay? I saw that you were hurt, but I couldn’t see you once you passed out. Casey felt the warmth and healing power Ariana sent her through their bond. Knowing the toll it took on them to share that over such a distance, she shut her off.

  Hey! You’re in pain and I can help. Ariana grumped down their link and Casey sent a smile back to her.

  I know, but I’m okay and in a hospital by the smell of antiseptic and sick people all around me. Casey had always hated hospitals. I don’t want you putting yourself at risk. I’ll be fine. I’m just checking in.

  Well, it’s good that you did, I have something I need to tell you. Ariana’s voice became hesitant. Never a good sign really. I had to tell Dad about what happened to you, so he knows that you and I have been in contact for all these years. Casey groaned.

  “You passed out after you helped me with the fall and everything, didn’t you? Are you okay?” Whenever they used their powers across that distance, it always took a physical toll. Usually a huge nosebleed, unconsciousness, and one hell of a headache when you came to.

  I’m fine, but my head is still killing me though. Ariana’s voice was tired. I was on a date. He told Dad it looked like I had gone into a trance, I screamed out in pain, my nose started to gush blood all over the interior of his car, and then I passed out. So, it becomes pretty hard to hide all that when you are rushed to the hospital and they call your father! But, on a positive note, I don’t have a brain tumor or cancer, which is what they tested me for based on the symptoms I presented with.