by Maia Dylan
Yeah, that would be hard to fake your way out of, Casey admitted. Well maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing if her dad knew that they were aware of each other and in contact. So I guess the prophecy has started, huh?
Ariana sighed. Looks like it. I was actually going to speak with you soon. I have this increasing need to be where you are. Not just because it’s you but because of where you are. Casey had felt the same thing. Three weeks ago she had been in California, filling her days researching the prophecy, honing her ability to manipulate the earth, and writing erotic romances. As an author she could write anywhere, but early on in her career she learned that she wrote a lot better when she was out camping, for the woods had always felt like home to her. She had found herself packing her camping gear before she even realized she had made the decision to go camping. Once she was in her truck, she had this sudden and intense urge to travel north.
As soon as she neared Freedom Springs and spotted it on a road sign, she knew that was where she needed to be. She had checked into the park, put up her tent, and was enjoying daily hikes in the forest. She hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that something was coming and coming in hot and fast, but she knew she was in the right place.
So what are you and Dad going to do? Casey asked even though she had a bloody good idea what the answer was going to be.
It will take us a few weeks to get everything sorted. We’ve decided to move over for good, so there are a few loose ends we need to sort out on our end before we head on over.” There was joy and excitement in Ariana’s voice that was mirrored in Casey’s. To have her family together whole again? That would mean the world, and potentially the end of it if they weren’t able to find the other two Elements and decipher the prophecy in twelve months, but hey, no pressure, right?
They spoke for a few minutes more along their link, making plans. Casey gave Ariana their mother’s phone number so she could warn her and let her know they were coming. And wouldn’t she be surprised when her oldest daughter called her on her cell phone? Casey said good-bye and smiled. She was going to be meeting her sister and father for the first time in twenty years!
“Wish I knew who you have just been talking to, and why they put such a beautiful smile on your face.” A man’s voice growled from beside her.
Her eyes flew open and she winced as the light stung her eyes. “Ow, ow, ow,” she groaned, blinking until it felt like her retinas weren’t in fact burning out of her skull and breathed deeply through her nose to settle her stomach.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” came the voice again. She turned her head and looked into the eyes of her wolf. Well, how in the hell had she forgotten that delicious portion of her story? She had dreamed for many years of this man and his wolf, knowing that she was his mate and the other half of his soul. And in all fairness he was hers, or at least had the potential to become so.
“That’s okay, thanks for coming to get me.” Casey’s voice was raspy and she definitely had that metallic aftertaste in her mouth that always came with anesthesia, so she knew she had been operated on. No doubt to remove the bullets from her body. Yeah, that was going to take some explaining. Her wolf frowned at her and then moved over to the table to pour her some ice water.
She took that moment to secretively look him over. He was tall, had wide muscular shoulders, back, and chest, a trim waist, and strong legs. His jet-black hair was cut short at the back and sides but was long enough to tangle your hands in at the top. Now didn’t that just bring up some yummy mental visuals that made a girl go mmmm? When he turned, she saw that his eyes were gray, but she knew they would turn into the blue-white of a wolf shifter when his wolf was near the surface or he was fully shifted.
He handed her the water glass and then stood by the bed with his hands in his jeans pockets. “It appears you have me at a bit of a disadvantage.” His voice did interesting things to her pulse rate. “You know I’m a wolf shifter, but I don’t know what you are.”
“What I am?” Casey repeated, feeling slightly insulted by that. She arched an eyebrow at him as she sipped on her water. At her look, an adorable bloom of color washed over his cheeks. Aww, too cute, he was actually blushing!
“Well, no, I know you’re a woman. I mean I can see and smell that.” A look of horror fell across his face as his words registered and Casey squeaked in surprise.
“No! Shit! Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I mean you don’t smell bad, you smell delicious—shit! Good! I mean you smell good! Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He closed his eyes and wiped a hand across his brow as if he had started sweating. Casey thought he was adorable, stumbling through that and digging himself in deeper.
“Dude, really! Jesus, I’m cutting up your man card. You stand there in front of a beautiful woman and tell her that she stinks?” Casey looked over at the door and smiled when she saw a uniformed police office standing in the doorway. His eyes were so like her wolf’s that they had to be brothers. He had blond hair though, and he wore it spiked up.
He winked at her as he entered the room and then froze when her wolf—and she really must find out what his name was because calling him her wolf was seriously doing funny things to her heart—started a low continuous growl. Casey watched as the newcomer’s eyes changed color as obviously his wolf jumped close to the surface when her wolf laid claim.
“Hey! Wolf men! Let’s not go all furry in my hospital room and make a mess now, okay?” Casey sighed and indicated her side. “Because, hello? I’ve had a really shitty day already and I seriously just don’t need the stress of having to break up a dog fight.” The room went deadly silent and both sets of eyes, now back to being gray, flew to her.
Yeah, she totally had that effect on hot men. Smiling at her little joke, she looked back at them, all innocent and wide green eyes. As everyone in the world knew, there was a race of people who could shift into wolves. Hell, there were shifters of all types around the world, but not everyone knew that.
“Again, green eyes, you have me at a disadvantage.” Casey shivered a little at the tone of his voice. He really did have a sexy-as-all-hell voice.
Taking pity on them, she waved her hand nonchalantly between the two hotties. “You two are wolf shifters, and have the ability to shift into a wolf at will. You are not werewolves as in—howl at the moon, rip people to shreds, or fight with sparkling vampires—as books and movies have let us all to believe. You are wolf shifters by birth. Your shifts are fast but painful until you find your mate.” Her gaze shifted to look directly at her wolf. “And when you do, your wolf merges with you completely. Giving you more speed, more strength, and all the other cool wolfy type benefits.”
Both men looked at her with shock in their eyes. She guessed it would be quite a shock to them to encounter someone who wasn’t a shifter but knew everything about their world. That could be a little shocking. “Who are you?” her wolf asked.
“Why? Haven’t you worked it out yet?” She smiled at him and enjoyed watching his eyes darken with desire. How heady was the power of knowing you could turn a man on with your smile? “I’m your mate.”
* * * *
Micah felt his heart turn over, and a wave of possessiveness, the likes of which he had never felt before, washed through him. This beautiful woman had just claimed him as hers in front of his brother. He felt invincible. He felt like he could take on the world and win. He felt…well, confused and somewhat pissed off that he had more questions than answers when it came to his woman, and of course he was more than just a little pissed off at himself for stuttering like a fool and blushing like a virgin.
He glanced over at his brother and saw amusement flash in his eyes, so Micah bared his teeth at him in response. Yeah, the bastard would be enjoying the hell out of this. “Yeah, darlin’, I get that you are my mate, and judging from your reaction by the river, I am guessing you recognized me as yours.” He reached out and placed a hand on top of hers where it rested on the bed. He felt a warm tingle of electricity shoot up his arm
from their point of contact. “But what I need you to explain to me is how you know you are my mate, how you recognized me when I sure as shit would have remembered you from any place at any time, and how you know about shifters?”
She grinned back at him, green eyes sparkling. “That’s a lot of questions, but how about we tell each other our names first, so I can call you something other than just my wolf?” Micah quite liked the fact that she called him her wolf and wasn’t sure he wanted her to stop. Not to mention whenever her possessive streak came out to play, his dick would get just that little bit harder.
“I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one. I like you calling me your wolf, but I can see how it would be a little odd in non-shifter company.” He smiled at her. “My name, mate, is Micah Winters and it is definitely a pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand and when she placed hers in his, he held it waiting.
“Nice to meet you, Micah. My name is Casey Rika.” She had a beautiful way of rolling her Rs that spoke of an accent of some kind. His brother made a noise, and when he glanced back, his face was expressionless. Interesting. He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
“Casey Rika.” He rolled the R just as she had. “What a beautiful name.” He stared into her eyes and watched them darken.
“Ahem, sorry to interrupt this touching but extremely nauseating moment.” Ryan spoke from behind him. Micah rolled his eyes at Casey and enjoyed watching her laugh. “Casey, my name is Ryan and I am Micah’s younger and much better-looking brother, which obviously you can see for yourself! Now, I need to ask you a few questions. Not least of which is do you have any clue as to who shot you, and why?” At the reminder of how close he came to losing her, Micah felt his wolf leap for the surface. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, not wanting Casey to see how close his wolf was.
“It’s fine, Micah, your wolf is a part of you, and I look forward to getting to know him as well.” She squeezed his hand, reminding him that he hadn’t let her hand go. He decided he was just going to keep holding it until she needed it again. He liked the feel of her hand in his.
Ryan moved around the other side of the bed, notebook out and wearing what Micah liked to call his Hawaii Five–O face. “So, Casey, what were you doing in Bighorn?”
“Camping. And writing, but mostly camping,” Casey answered.
“I’ve recovered your stuff from a campsite near where you were shot, and I have it all in my car. You can have it back once you are out of hospital.” Micah knew that it would definitely come back to Casey, but he had a feeling it would be after Ryan had his team go over it with a fine-tooth comb. “I’ve got one of my guys bringing your truck out of the park as well.”
“Thanks!” Casey nibbled on her lip, which had him thinking about her nibbling on his lip, which led to him thinking about him nibbling on other delectable parts of her body. He stopped that train of thought for fear of throwing himself on top of her. “Do you think I could get my laptop back sooner? My publisher is expecting the first three chapters of my latest work and I had promised to get it to them by tomorrow.”
“I’m certain that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll make sure to get it to you tomorrow. Now, tell me about what you were doing when you were shot at.” Pen poised, Ryan watched Casey intently, no doubt looking for any facial clues that might trigger a different round of questioning.
Casey pushed herself to sit up, grimacing a little, and placing a hand against her side. “Well, I got up yesterday morning and was feeling great! I love your woods here, they are just magical! I had a quick breakfast and decided to walk down to the river before I got stuck into some writing for the day. As I neared the edge of the riverbed, I heard this crack that vibrated through the air. I stopped and listened as the sound echoed around and sounded almost beautiful.”
Micah knew what a gunshot sounded like in the woods. It must have been a small caliber rifle because if it was anything bigger, he would have heard the initial blast at least. Especially with his enhanced hearing. “It sounded again and I noticed dirt flick up at my feet. I may not be the sharpest pencil in the case, but it clicked that someone was shooting and it seemed to be in my direction. I scrambled down the rocks to get to the riverbed and was lucky enough to find a gap in the rocks. He shot me in the shoulder as I was looking for a place to hide. He hit me in the side when I was trying to squeeze my ass into that gap.
“Well, I say he but I don’t know for sure if it was a he. It could just as well have been a she, I guess. Either way, let’s just call them an asshole and be done with it.”
Ryan was nodding and writing furiously in his notebook, but Micah sensed that she was lying about something. And whatever it was, it was something big. He narrowed his eyes at her, and it didn’t go unnoticed that she wouldn’t meet his gaze. What are you hiding, Casey? Why won’t you tell us what really happened? And why the hell won’t you look at me?
Her eyes flicked to him and then back down to her bed. What the fuck was that? Ryan asked a couple more questions, then finished up, said he’d be back in the morning, and left. Micah followed him out into the hall. “So, I’m assuming that you’ll be here with your mate for the foreseeable future?” Ryan asked dryly.
“That would be a yes. Someone took potshots at her down by that river yesterday and I won’t rest easy until that son of a bitch is found, and I have removed his spine,” Micah vowed.
“Micah, you dumb ass! What the fuck have I told you about not mentioning murdering or harming anyone in my presence?” Ryan shook his head at him.
“Not when you are in uniform and to tell you before I did it so you can help me establish an alibi,” Micah deadpanned.
“Exactly! So, how fucking hard is it to follow those instructions? Jesus Christ, I’m the only one with a brain in our family aside from Mom and Dad,” Ryan muttered as he walked away. Micah grinned as he watched his brother leave. He was still smiling when he went back into his mate’s hospital room. As he neared her bed, he saw that she was asleep. God, she was gorgeous.
He pulled the chair over and sat next to her. He had often thought about what his mate would look like, but he had never even been close to how beautiful she actually was. He needed to protect her, that was a given, he was her mate and that was his now his purpose in life. Apparently his dad hadn’t exaggerated that possessiveness that came with having a mate at all. But in order to do that, he needed to get her to trust him enough to tell him everything she knew about the attack today. He settled in for the night, thinking about how to win her over even as he fell into a light sleep.
Chapter 3
What in the hell was that noise? Casey jerked awake at the sound of what might well have been some sort of power tool being operated in her hospital room. She lay there for a moment, breathing deeply, and caught the scent of spicy cologne, the forest and man. Micah. He was still in the room. Taking a moment to run a little check over her aches and pains before she moved properly and probably woke him up, Casey was pleasantly surprised!
The pain in her side and shoulder had dropped to a dull ache. Yay for modern medicine! Still there and painful enough that she would gasp if she moved to fast, but not enough to stop her from moving at all. She turned her head toward the power tool-like snoring coming from her wolf, and her heart melted at the sight of him.
He was asleep in the armchair beside her bed. Not any easy feat at the best of times but a bloody miracle considering his size and build. His head was against his chest and slightly to the side his entire body slumped in sleep. “Micah.” She said his name softly, but he was obviously a light sleeper because he immediately sat straight up, blinking to clear his beautiful gray eyes, searching the room first before looking back at her. “Hey.” She smiled at him. He was adorably all confused and sleepy.
“Hey.” His voice was all croaky and he cleared his throat before he stood up. Or at least he tried to stand in one movement, but because he had been pretzeled into that chair for the ni
ght, it was a couple of different moves combined with a few groans and a couple of cuss words. Then he was finally standing tall, muscular arms moving from side to side above his head, no doubt realigning his spine.
Casey grinned as she enjoyed the floor show. His tight T-shirt molded to the muscles in his chest and arms that rippled as he flexed and moved. When he moved his arms above his head, his shirt rose up to give her a tantalizing glimpse of chiseled abs, which she had seen in all their glory in the forest briefly before she had passed out. It went towards the quality of those abs that she remembered them despite the condition she was in at the time.
Her gaze worked back up his chest to his jaw, which was covered in a sexy amount of stubble that made her want to rub her face and…er…other parts of her body against it. Then she got to his lips. And what beautiful lips they were! Full, red, and bitable. Yum. She moved on to his eyes, which now sparkled with amusement. “See something you like, Casey?” His voice was amused and threaded with heat that had her girly bits tingling. Damn.
Grinning, totally unashamed at being caught ogling, she winked at him. “Hell yeah, there’s whole lot there that Casey likie.” He laughed as she knew he would and then came over to take her hand, running his thumb against her inner wrist. His eyes flew to hers and he smirked when he felt her heartbeat speed up at the move. No one could blame her. The man was scary hot and sex on two legs as far as she was concerned.
“Ryan dropped off your laptop as well as some toiletries and girly stuff you might need. He’s still just outside your room on the phone.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You feel up to eating something? I can attest to the fact that the food here is…well, really shitty. But the diner across the street does amazing breakfasts. I could run and grab us something while Ry’s still here?” Food did sound kind of good, and getting to the bathroom sounded even better!