“We will find her,” Mason assured him. “If we have to stake out her house for the next few days, we can. Fury can run the flights for us.”
Nash nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. She had to be close. Aspen assured him she was only fifteen minutes ahead of him, and if she was driving slowly, he was sure to find her. He just hoped he wasn’t too late.
“So, she’s your mate?” Mason asked after a few moments of silence. “You touched her tonight?”
“I grabbed her to save her from the bears,” Nash snarled. He knew his alpha powers were being felt by everyone, but he couldn’t stop the rage he felt at not having her close. “I have to get to her.”
“Just stay calm, Nash,” Mason suggested, pausing when Nash bared his canines at him. “You are an alpha, and you must keep your emotions in check right now. You will distress every one of us, and if you do that, we can’t help you.”
“She’s my mate!” he roared, echoing his statement in the confines of the truck. He’d do anything to find her.
“Stop!” Mason barked, pointing to the side of the road. “Check there.”
Nash pulled his truck off the side of the road, jumping out as soon as it came to a complete stop. He had to shift his eyes to be able to see in the pitch-black darkness ahead of him.
There, on the elevated curve, tracks led to a mangled hole in the guardrail. The snow was falling hard enough to almost fill the indentions from the wheels of a vehicle. Mason was at his flank as they peered over the edge.
Nash jumped over the busted guardrail the moment he saw the back end of her 4Runner. The headlights were still on, but they were dull from the debris and trees in front of them. She was halfway down the side of the mountain, pinned between two trees.
Mason yelled for him, but his focus was only on the human female. How could she have survived it? Shaking the bad thoughts from his mind, he slid down the incline, grabbing the side mirror to stop himself from hitting the tree that had mangled the front end of her SUV.
His eyes immediately saw her slumped to the side, her body resting over the center console. “Isabell!”
She didn’t respond, and he grabbed the door handle, pulling as hard as his strength would allow, and ripped the door from its frame. Mason’s hands were there to take it from him to toss it aside.
The scent of her blood hit him full force, causing a howl to rip from his human throat. “Isabell!”
“Be careful with her,” Mason warned as Nash dipped half of his body into the car. He unleashed a claw and tore her seatbelt away. “Is she breathing?”
“Barely,” he grunted as he used his enhanced hearing to listen for her heartbeat, too. “She’s alive. That’s all that matters.”
Isabell’s heartbeat was faint. He had to move her; return her to the pack. Fury had some medical training and was the closest thing they had to a healer. He prayed to whatever gods were listening that it would be enough.
“I’m going to move her,” Nash warned. “Be ready in the truck.”
Mason halted for a second, and Nash was sure his brother was judging his sanity. As it was, his wolf was more worried about her living than the need to bite her and make her his mate. In fact, his beast was unusually calm.
And that scared him.
“Go, Mason!” Nash ordered. “I’ll be right up.”
Nash focused on his human mate. Her face was covered in blood from a huge cut to her forehead. He didn’t immediately notice anything broken, but he would figure that out once he removed her from the car.
He slid one hand under the backs of her legs. With the other, he supported her back and pulled; careful of her legs. When he rested her against his chest, she moaned his name. “Nash.”
“I’m here, sweetheart,” he cooed. “I’m going to make you better. I don’t know how, but I will.”
He struggled to climb back up the side of the mountain, but his wolf was there for support. His powerful legs burned as he moved, wishing he had been able to shift. The wolf’s power was unmatched, and the animal wouldn’t have had such a hard time navigating the incline. But there was no way to carry her in his fully shifted form. So, he called upon his wolf to strengthen his legs to make the climb.
Mason stood at the guardrail; his hands visibly relaxed at his sides. His brother knew better than to touch the female. It was the one law they didn’t break, because it would harm them. Touching a mated female that wasn’t blood related would cause that female pain as if she were burned. Only the touch of their true mate would ease them.
He couldn’t think of the mating now, because he needed to focus on getting her home.
Nash carefully slid into the passenger seat of the truck; thankful the interior was still warm. Isabell shifted and moaned, her eyes opening for a split second before closing again. “I think she has a concussion.”
“I’ve already called ahead,” Mason advised as he turned the truck around. Nash couldn’t bring himself to look over the mountain where her SUV rested. They’d have to come back and tow her SUV out on their own or the highway patrol would come looking for her. They didn’t need the law involved. “Fury is waiting at your cabin.”
“Hurry, Mason,” Nash ordered. “Her heart is weak.”
His brother barked out a curse. The drive back took just as long, and by the time they arrived, Nash was a ball of nerves. He slid out of the truck, carrying his bleeding mate. When he entered his cabin, the overhead light showed him more than his enhanced vision ever would.
“Oh, Gods,” he breathed. There was so much blood. Not only her head, but her shoulder was mangled, and it tore at his heart to know she was so close to death she hadn’t even cried out when he’d moved her.
“Get her in the bed,” Fury ordered, reaching into a small backpack. “I have some human pain meds I keep on hand in case we have an injured customer or resident.”
“Do you know what the hell to do?” Nash inquired. Their original healer had been killed in the attack, and they didn’t have anyone else in the area who could care for a human.
“I have minimal knowledge, but we probably need to fly her to Anchorage once we get her stable.” Fury put on a pair of gloves. They kept the thick, medical grade hand coverings on hand even though they didn’t have a mated female who wasn’t blood related on the property. “We’ll have to tell them she was injured while hiking.”
Their rules and magical connections were strange, and as far as Nash was concerned, a flaw from their gods’ creation of the shifters. Now that he’d touched Isabell, no male would be able to touch her without causing his mate pain. It would feel like she was getting burned anywhere she was touched for a very long time. The only way to stop the pain would be for him to touch the spot…or when he died.
No shifter would want that for a female. So, their natural instincts were to avoid any contact with the skin. Mostly, male shifters didn’t even get close enough, and they’d trained themselves from a very young age to avoid it.
“Could we change her?” Nash blurted, feeling her life slipping away. “She can’t be touched by a human male doctor now.”
“I don’t know,” Fury replied. “The information my mother told me was just a myth and stories passed down from my great aunt.”
“What was the information?” Nash growled. He didn’t know how to change a human, but he knew it could be done.
“You have to feed her your blood. A lot of it.” Fury cursed under his breath. “Nash, I don’t know if this is a good idea. She was scared of you…us. I don’t know if she wants to be a wolf.”
“She’s dying!” Nash pushed his alpha powers toward his small pack, making them understand his need to have Isabell saved. He’d never understood the connection until he touched her for the first time. It was only a brush of touch, but it was all he’d needed.
Nash knelt next to the bed while Aspen worked on cleaning the blood from his mate’s face. The bloody rags were piling up in a small trash can next to his sister, and the bed was soaked. He reached ove
r and used the back of his hand to trace her delicate brow as he resigned himself to at least try.
He held his wrist to his lips as Fury warned him again. Ignoring it, Nash bit into his flesh and pressed the bloody wound to his mate’s lips, praying it worked.
“I’m going to save you.”
Chapter 6
Isabell cried out when the pain became too much. Her face ached and the splitting headache wouldn’t go away. The only constant in her sluggish mind was the scent she’d become addicted to over the past day or two. Maybe it was three days. How long had it been?
Nash, the werewolf, was at her side every second of the day. He never left her. She’d been scared to death when she woke up in a strange bed with all of the Ward family standing over her, but they’d given her something to make her sleep.
She’d tried to move away from them and run again, but her body was frozen in place. The last thing she remembered before that was driving away when Nash had shifted into a wolf. How? Why? What in the hell had she gotten herself into?
“Isabell, you are different now,” Nash said when she finally opened her eyes. Everything in the room was clearer, but it held a golden hue like it was illuminated by the glow of a fire. “You’re like me now.”
She started to say something, but instead, a yelp fell from her lips while a howl echoed in her mind. Something was there, pushing at her thoughts. It was weird.
What the hell happened?
Her words were thoughts, because she couldn’t find her voice. Something was taking up space in her head. No, not something…someone.
“I understand it’s scary,” Nash continued. “You were dying, and I had to do something.”
Dying?
Isbell tried to move again, but instead of sliding away from the werewolf, she jerked when she saw white fur and paws, realizing they were attached to her. With a yelp, she scrambled off the bed, landing in a heap on the floor. The scratching sound against the hardwood floors was coming from her own body…her wolf body.
“Easy,” Nash cooed, narrowing his eyes. When he did, she felt a sense of calm come over her. The pressure against her human mind eased, and she relaxed involuntary. “I’m sending you calming powers, sweetheart, but I don’t want to force you to do anything. I need you to understand what happened. Change back to your human side by telling your wolf you want to be a human again. Push away the animal in your mind.”
She was a wolf? That surely explained the space in her mind. It was weird, almost alien-like. She knew it was there, but couldn’t feel it or see it. The being inside her roared when she thought of being human, and Isabell pushed at the sound. She wanted to be human again.
“Ow,” she cried out when her bones reshaped, breaking and forming into longer limbs. Her skin tingled as the fur slid inside her pores. Her face hurt the worst as it shifted; her long snout changing into that of her human one.
“It’s okay,” Nash said, reaching for a blanket on the bed. He didn’t stare at her naked body before covering it. He knelt down and she scrambled backward again. This time, she made it to the corner of the room.
“What did you do to me?” she panicked, looking for an exit. The rest of Nash’s family was blocking the door.
“You ran away before I could explain everything you’d seen,” Nash began, sitting cross-legged on the floor right in front of her. The scent she’d learned to crave lingered in the air as he moved closer. “We are a white wolf pack, but we live out here in peace. The last thing we want to do is to harm anyone.”
“Why did you make me like you?” She tried to remember everything, but she just couldn’t. Tears filled her vision, and she would give anything to go back a week so she could change her mind about taking that hiking trip.
“Aspen said you’d left in a hurry, and I knew the mountain pass was going to be covered in snow from here to Anchorage. So, Mason and I went looking for you so we could explain what we are. I found your SUV down the side of the mountain. You must’ve lost control and crashed.”
“I don’t remember,” she whispered.
“You were almost dead, Isabell,” he choked, and she looked up into his eyes. They were glowing a hazy yellow; a growl rumbled in his chest. The sound was protective, and she wanted to comfort him. “Your heart was giving out, and you were in bad shape. I couldn’t lose you. So, I gave you my blood and saved you.”
“But…I don’t know how to live as a…werewolf,” she stammered. God, she was so confused. One half of her wanted to run away again, but the other half…the one that took up most of her mind…wanted to stay with Nash.
“I can teach you,” he offered.
“I don’t know if I can stay here,” she blurted. “I have a life in Anchorage.”
Aspen and Nash shared a look. “What?”
“You can’t leave here,” Nash continued. “Now that you are one of us, you have to stay close to me. If you are without an alpha for too long, you will grow weak and die.”
Tightening the blanket around her body, she ducked her head. The last thing she wanted was to be a part of whatever the hell was going on with them. Or did she want to stay? “I have to leave.”
“You can’t,” he pressed.
“You can’t hold me hostage!” she screamed, feeling the animal inside her shift and move. Her tongue scraped over her long teeth and she gasped. How was she going to be seen out in public with fangs?
“It’s okay, Isabell,” Nash assured her again. The other members of his family quietly departed, and Aspen laid a pile of clothes on the bed before backing out of the room with everyone else.
“Aspen salvaged your clothes from the wreck,” Nash told her. “Why don’t you come eat? You need some protein.”
The mention of food caused her belly to ache. Nash averted his eyes when she began to stand. If it wasn’t for her need to consume calories, she would’ve run right out the door. But where would she go?
Isabell had only the clothes on the bed. Her SUV was obviously mangled, and she had no idea where her backpack had gone. She was truly stuck there.
“Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen,” he ordered, and she felt a push of power against her mind. She fought it, but the order couldn’t be denied.
“Are you controlling me, too?” she growled, flashing her new teeth at the man she’d come to associate with comfort and home. She didn’t like how she felt.
“I’m the alpha, and since you have my blood in you, my orders are law,” he whispered, but she had heard him clearly. “I don’t want to force you to do anything, but until you are stable, you will need to listen to me. Once you are adjusted, I won’t have to tell your wolf what to do.”
“I don’t take kindly to orders, Mr. Ward,” she warned.
“I’m sorry,” he frowned. “Just dress and come eat. We will talk over lunch.”
She hated him. That much was evident.
When Nash left his bedroom, Aspen was in the kitchen, serving up a hearty meal with loads of caribou meat. It was a stew of some sort, but he couldn’t bring himself to take a bowl from her until his mate ate her meal first.
“You need your strength, as well,” Aspen warned. His beautiful baby sister, with her long, brown hair, walked over and touched his arm. “She’s going to need to run soon. The full moon is in two nights, and she can’t be let free until she understands everything, Nash.”
“I know,” he replied.
He stood at the back of a chair at his kitchen table. The old wood was still steady as if it were new, but his father had built it twenty years prior. The handmade relic was scarred, but who in their family wasn’t?
The distant sound of Mason’s plane firing up was welcomed. At least something normal was happening in their life. There were supplies to deliver to one of the residents, and another couple to pick up at the north end of the pass.
More snow was expected later that afternoon, and his brother wanted to get everything done before the early darkness set across the landscape. They would have time to gathe
r again once he spent a few hours with Isabell explaining exactly why he gave her his blood and changed her into the monster she believed they were.
At the thought of the female, she entered the kitchen. This time, she was more reserved, and thankfully, less angry.
“I know you must be starving,” Aspen announced as she set a bowl in front of the chair Nash had a death grip on while waiting for his mate to return. Instead of speaking to her, he pulled the chair out, offering her the seat. It was to the left of his seat; the head of the table. That would be her spot as a mate to the alpha. “Eat, then I’m sure my brother will answer any of your questions.”
Isabell nodded and took her seat, whispering a soft thank you to Aspen.
“I have questions.” Isabell just stared at her bowl. Aspen set a bowl in front of Nash’s spot and motioned for him to sit down. “A lot of questions.”
“I’ll answer anything,” Nash replied.
“So, am I immortal?”
“No,” he answered. “You can still die, but it’s just going to be a little harder now.”
“Harder how?” She looked up from the meal and her eyes were clear. The golden color fit her better than her human green.
“We are stronger, more able than a human, but we have our flaws,” he paused. “Our kind can be killed by silver, but the only ones who know that, and have the resources, are other shifters.”
“Like in movies?” she pressed.
“Yes.” Nash nodded. It was easy to draw a parallel between the movie versions of shifters and what was real. He didn’t fault her for that.
“What other shifters are out there?”
“All we know of are bears and wolves,” Nash explained. “We don’t communicate with the outside world here. So, our only experience is with bear shifters.”
“And that’s why you shifted out in the clearing?” she continued.
“Our family was once very large, but bears came and killed everyone except us one night about ten years ago.”
“Oh, Nash,” she gasped, covering her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
His Lost Mate (The Ward Wolf Pack Novella Series, Book 1) Page 5