Credo (Scars of the Wraiths Book 3)

by Nashoda Rose

  He shoved away from the doorframe and casually strolled across the tiled floor toward me. Confident. Self-assured. Not a trace of unease.

  “What are you doing?” My voice quivered and he grinned. Jesus, get your shit together, Max.

  He crouched in front of me and my eyes followed his agile movement as he picked up my hair clip. He slowly stood again and took another step forward. He was so close to me his breath brushed across my face when he exhaled.

  My chest tightened as his scent drifted into me. It was fresh soil mixed with a hint of dry cedar—sensual. I tried to ignore it, but when I breathed in, it settled in my lungs and caused a wave of heat to spread across my skin. I quickly lowered my gaze, intending to ignore him; instead, my eyes trailed down his long, muscular thighs.

  I swallowed and curled my fingers into the edges of the towel, pulling it tighter to my body. I kept my eyes glued to the floor, attempting to ignore the new sensations raging through me.

  “Standing right here, best look at me, babe.” His finger came under my chin and I clamped my jaw as he tilted my head up so our eyes met. “And I’m not one for repeating myself.” He held my clip out in his opposite hand.

  I didn’t move until his brows lowered. I snatched my clip from his palm and curled it in my hand.

  He watched me with such intensity I was unsure of what he was doing. And that I didn’t like. He was a Scar and I didn’t know what type. Some were really good at breaking through shields. There was slight heaviness in my head and I knew it was him attempting to read my thoughts, but based on the pressure, he wasn’t strong enough. Fortunately, it was one advantage I’d gained during my captivity: a concrete wall around my thoughts. It took several years before I mastered it, and even Xamien, who was almost as powerful as the North American Taldeburu, Waleron, was incapable of reading my mind.

  “A Scar with unreadable thoughts.” His brows rose and the corners of his lips curved up. “But …” His thumb caressed my chin. “There’s something more to you than that.”

  I stiffened, eyes widening, then I yanked my head to the side, dislodging his hand. How did he read that? Oh, God, he couldn’t know just from touching me, could he?

  “Sunshine, I don’t give a shit what you’re hiding.” He boldly looked me up and down then drawled, “Except perhaps what’s under that towel.”

  I bit my lower lip—hard. So hard I tasted blood. I released the pressure then flicked out my tongue to caress the damaged surface.

  “Liking the tongue action, but best keep it locked away or you’ll be losing that towel. Morals rarely cross my mind.” I yanked my tongue back inside my mouth. He grinned, but it didn’t match the piercing look in his eyes.

  “Just get out of here.”

  He tsked. “Not the way to treat a guy who was concerned for your… safety.”

  “Safety?” Was he crazy? I wasn’t in any danger.

  “I’m a Sounder, babe. Heard your thrashing from my bedroom.” He hesitated as if he was deciding what to say. “I realize some erotic dreams can be rather… vivid, but you might want to keep them under wraps while I’m here. Or…” He grinned. “I’ll be tempted to make them real.”

  I tried to blanket the desire that suffocated me, but he was messing up all my control and I was spiraling into unknown territory.

  “Unless of course, you and Xamien are fucking one another?”

  My mouth dropped open. Bastard. First of all, it was none of his business, and second of all… it was none of his fucking business. I clamped down on my retort, which was going to be my fist belting him across the face, but instead used the response Drake had enforced on me. No confrontation meant I stayed protected.

  “No, sir,” I ground out, and looked down at my feet.

  Suddenly, I found myself shoved back against the wall, his hands gripping my hips with a fierce bite. I gasped, my eyes flashing to his. Gone was any sort of teasing humor as his eyes narrowed in on me, brows low, mouth tight.

  “Sir? Not your fuckin’ sir. Anything but a sir—best you remember that.”

  Just as sudden as it came, the violence in his expression disappeared. The corners of his mouth curved upward and sparkling warmth invaded his eyes. His hands left my hips only to slowly move up my sides until his thumbs were resting just below my breasts. “Fuckin’ beautiful.”

  He pushed away from me, and for a brief second, I wished he hadn’t.

  Then I wished I’d nailed him in the groin.

  He turned and walked out, leaving the bathroom door ajar.

  I collapsed onto the toilet seat and put my head in my hands.

  What the hell had just happened? I’d lost my calm. My control. He’d broken through my shield and had my emotions sparking off like fireworks. He was dangerous to me and what I was hiding.

  XAMIEN ENTERED THE KITCHEN THE next morning as I was texting Jedrik about Damien and Waleron showing up yesterday. “We’re going riding, kitten. I want to show you something.”

  “Whoa, no way,” I said. I hadn’t ridden a horse since… well, since cars were invented.

  He chuckled while holding out his hand. “Yes way. My horses need attention, and since I can’t fuck you anymore, we’re doing another kind of riding.”

  “Ha,” I muttered, but grudgingly put my phone on the table and followed him out the kitchen door. I’d seen his horses from the kitchen window, but had never been to his stables. I knew he’d often go riding before the sun rose.

  We walked down the dirt path to his stable where his two white Lipizzaner horses grazed in a paddock. Xamien whistled and the horses jerked their heads up and whinnied. “Kos. My stallion is the one on the right. The other is a gelding, Xade.”

  Kos was a gorgeous stallion with a thick white mane that reached past his shoulder. He reminded me of Gandalf’s horse in The Lord of The Rings. Xade was also white, but smaller in height and frame, less intimidating.

  The horses trotted over to us and Xamien opened the gate and let them out. “Umm, aren’t they going to run away?”

  He chuckled. “No. Although, if there was a mare around, Kos might think differently.” He picked up a nylon rope bridle from the fence post and slid it on Xade’s head. There was no bit for in his mouth, and I wondered how on Earth I’d ever be able to stop this powerful horse with a rope.

  There were saddles hung over the top rail of the fence and he threw a fleece pad on Xade’s back and then a saddle, It wasn’t a usual leather type, but lighter with a deep seat.

  “A Spanish saddle,” Xamien explained. “You’ll like it.”

  I still wasn’t sure I liked the idea of going riding.

  Xamien finished tacking Xade up and offered his hand to help me into the saddle.

  I hesitated.

  “Xade is gentle. He will listen to anything I ask him.” Xamien waited patiently while I eyed the beast. The gelding lowered his head and snorted while shaking his head back and forth. His long mane danced across his neck.

  “Xamien, I haven’t ridden in forever and I was never really a fan of it.”

  “He’ll look after you.”

  When I still hesitated, Xamien sighed, then nodded to the boy who came out of the stables. “Antonio, would you mind tacking him up for me?” The boy, who looked about fifteen, jogged over with a broad smile and quickly looped a rope around Kos’s neck and walked the horse into the barn.

  “Come,” Xamien said. He released Xade and started walking away from the stable.

  I frowned. “What are we doing?”

  Xamien sighed. “Walk with me and stop asking questions.”

  We walked down a path toward a river at the bottom of a hill, and I was shocked to see Xade come with us without a lead or anything tied to him.

  “He’s following us.”

  Xamien nodded “Yes. You did not believe me when I said he will do anything I ask?”

  Well, no, I hadn’t. This was a horse, not a dog. I glanced over my shoulder again, at Xade who strolled behind, head low, ears half-back as
if listening to us.

  “I’m the same with horses as I am with people. I never lie to them. I don’t ask for what cannot be given, and I’m extremely patient. I demand respect, but first I earn it with trust.” Xamien stopped and the gelding stopped too.

  There was trust and kindness in Xade’s eyes. Comfort. A horse could be forced to do as you wanted with gadgets, but it would never trust you. The gelding didn’t obey because of fear or force. He obeyed his leader because he trusted and respected him.

  Like Waleron. The Scars trusted and respected him. No matter the difficult decisions he’d been forced to make, the Scars knew Waleron had made them to protect us and our oath. We followed him because we trusted and respected him. I trusted and respected him as my Taldeburu. We all did, even if sometimes we didn’t like the choices he made.

  Xamien walked up to his gelding and stroked his solid, thick neck, then down his shoulder to lightly tap on it, as if he were patting him.

  Xade lowered his head farther.

  Xamien winked at me and I watched with amazement as Xade slowly went to his knees and then after a moment’s hesitation, sank to the ground.

  He crouched beside the horse and murmured soft soothing words in Basque to him.

  “Come here, Delara.” He held out his hand.

  Mesmerized by the scene, I walked slowly toward them. Xamien took my hand and with his over top, he stroked Xade’s neck, over his head, muzzle, then back to his neck again.

  “Ready?”

  I nodded.

  Xamien put his hands on my hips as I put my leg over the saddle. I expected the horse to roar to his feet and take off in a mad gallop.

  Nothing happened.

  Xamien tapped on the gelding’s shoulder again and he quietly stood.

  I smiled, leaning forward and stroking the gelding’s mane. “Wow.”

  Xamien pointed to the Xade’s flank and the horse turned on his haunches so he was facing the barn. I picked up the rope and held tight, but Xade shook his head, pulling it from my hands.

  Xamien laughed. “Here.” He took up a handful of mane. “Hold this. You do not need reins with Xade. He doesn’t like it.”

  Xamien brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled. Xade’s ears flicked forward, but he remained still. I gasped as Xamien’s stallion barreled from the barn down the path toward us his mane flying, hooves pounding on the soil.

  God, he was magnificent.

  The horse skidded to a stop several feet in front of Xamien, then lowered his head. Xamien approached him and greeted him, speaking softly to him.

  A true bond between animal and man.

  Xamien vaulted into the saddle easily. “I’ve had him and Xade for ten years. They’re half brothers, as they share the same father.” He stroked his horse’s thick neck. “Shall we?” He urged his stallion forward with a shift in his weight, and we rode down the path.

  “WHOA, BOY,” I URGED KOS, and the stallion halted. I slipped from his back and he pawed the ground with his hoof, uprooting the grass and flinging it backward. I stroked his soft, gray muzzle, and the stallion settled. “Off you go.” The horse shook his thick neck then blew air through his nostrils before he trotted a few feet away to graze.

  Glancing up at Delara, I watched as she stared stunned at the hundreds of almond trees across the land, their white blossoms dazzling as they swept the orchard like a blizzard of petals.

  She swung her leg over Xade’s rump and jumped to the ground. “Wow. It’s beautiful.”

  Her emotions seeped into me and I grinned. She needed this, the simple beauty that nature offered. A breath of life. This land was magic this time of year, when the willowy almond trees blossomed, covering acres, setting a scene as if from a fairy tale book.

  I clucked to Xade and the gelding walked off to graze. “My parents wed right over there.” I gestured to where two trees made what appeared to be an arch with their branches. “It was in January, when they bloomed.”

  “They had a traditional wedding?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yes. My mother insisted on it. She used to bring me here after Father died and we’d sit beneath those trees and she’d sing. She loved to sing here. Said the land was magical. It would give to you, if you gave to it.”

  “That’s where you get the singing from.”

  “Mmm.” I walked toward the arch then sat under one of the trees and leaned up against the trunk. Delara followed suit, her shoulder inches away from me. The thin branches hung low over top, white petals occasionally floating to the ground as the wind blew across the land.

  One landed in her hair and I plucked it from the strands.

  Too much had happened with this woman; her trust in love was blown into fragments and scattered. She was desperate to grab hold, but Waleron kept her from capturing the pieces and putting them back together again. I believed in love, but it wasn’t something I ever wanted in my life.

  “He’s all around you, kitten.”

  “I can’t give up on him,” she blurted.

  I inwardly smiled. No, she couldn’t. And she never had. She may have tried, but there’d always been hope. “I know.”

  Her entire body sagged and it was like the façade finally shattered and lay in shards at my feet. “I can’t get him out of me. It’s like he’s a blanket covering me and it is so warm and protective and yet….” Her voice was quiet, pain filled. “My heart belongs to him whether I want it to or not. He is who I am.” Her eyes reached mine and there was devastation in the depths. “I can’t leave him even if he refuses me. Even if the Wraiths separate us.”

  “Are you sure it’s him refusing you?” She needed the truth, whether she wanted to hear it or not. If she loved Waleron, she had to throw away all her fears and take a chance on losing him again. “That man is terrified of you leaving him when you see who he has really become.”

  “He says he’ll hurt me.”

  “Do you believe that? Do you think he’d ever come near you if he honestly thought he was capable of harming you? That man lives and breathes you. He’d kill himself before he ever laid a hand on you.” I added, “So would I.”

  She met my eyes. “I love him.”

  I pulled her into my arms and kissed the top of her head. “I know. Why do you think you’ve been with me? You’d do anything to have a piece of him.”

  She jerked back. “What?”

  “You were never with me because of me, Delara. You were with me because when I’d brought you back from the depths of despair, I’d masked myself in Waleron’s scent. I didn’t know it in the beginning, but after a while I figured out why you kept coming back. You found a piece of him in me.”

  “Oh God.”

  “It’s time to fight for all of him, Delara.”

  She nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Yeah.”

  “Good. The Wraiths are a problem, but I’ll do what I can to help.”

  She pulled back to look up at me. “He… he can’t lose his Taldeburu. It defines him.”

  I chuckled. “Kitten, you define him. I saw you two together for five seconds and saw it. Come on, we better head back before Jasper pisses off Damien and there’s a war in my house.”

  I whistled to the horses and they raised their heads and trotted toward us.

  After I helped her mount Xade, I vaulted onto Kos. I was about to urge Kos into a walk when Kos’s nostrils flared and he pawed the ground, his ears alert and eyes looking off to the right. His muscles tensed and bunched up, like he were ready to burst into a galloping mass of hooves.

  Kos jerked forward and something flew past me. Kos pranced around in a circle, snorting.

  “What the hell was that?” Delara said as she gripped Xade’s mane.

  The horse suddenly screamed with pain and reared up. Delara tumbled from his back.

  “Fuck.” I leapt from Kos and ran to her, but she was already on her feet and trying to get near Xade and the arrow that protruded from his flank.

  “Leave him!” I grabbed her arm an
d hauled her away from Xade as another arrow came straight for us. Xade whirled and blocked its path with his body, and the arrow pierced his throat.

  “No,” Delara yelled.

  Xade’s white coat slowly turned crimson as the blood seeped from the wound. He squealed a horrid sound then pawed at the ground, swinging his head back and forth.

  Then he dropped to his knees.

  “Oh God, no!” Delara screamed. She pulled toward the horse, but I held tight.

  “Delara. No.”

  “But—” Another arrow hit the beautiful horse in the shoulder.

  “Fuck.” I couldn’t save Xade, but I sure as hell was saving us. “Jasper. Contact Waleron. Tarek knows she’s here.”

  I hauled Delara up and threw her on top of Kos, then leapt up behind her. “Stay down.” I pushed her forward so she blended into Kos’s neck.

  Xade fell to his side, groaning.

  “Xade,” she murmured.

  “Wrap your hands in the mane. We ride hard.”

  I looped one arm around her waist and pulled her snug against me. “Kos, home, boy.”

  The stallion took off in a mad gallop for home, and Xade’s final snort echoed amongst the almond trees.

  AS SOON AS WE GALLOPED into the barnyard, Glunk ran toward us, but he didn’t stop. Instead he hopped, bareback, on a little bay horse the stable boy held and took off at a gallop down the path.

  Xamien leapt off Kos before the horse stopped, and I jumped off after him. We ran to the house. “Xamien, what about Xade.”

  “Glunk will see to him.” He threw open the kitchen door.

  Waleron and Jasper stood waiting in the kitchen. Xamien obviously had been speaking telepathically with them. Jasper leaned his butt against the counter, his hands resting on the edge while his ankles were crossed.

  Xamien glared at him. “You’re supposed to stay out of sight. I told Max you left. She doesn’t like you.”

  He smirked. “She’s not here.” Xamien stiffened. “Don’t worry, your precious pet is fine, she walked into town. She doesn’t know about the package.”