by Dianna Love
Simple task. One the Guardian expected to be performed without any drama.
Now, he just had to get that across to one misbehaving princess.
Justin more often spoke to Herc with his voice instead of his mind, but either worked. Keeping his voice down, he said, “We need to keep this woman safe and deliver her on time. Once we drop her at the Boudreaux Clan, we’re free to get back to Adrian’s land where you can have your way.”
Bad clan. Wrong.
Not that Justin disagreed, but getting off on that topic would not solve anything. “Not up to us. We’re just the delivery service.”
Not go.
“Herc, why are you fighting me on this?”
Follow scent.
Justin snapped his head up and inhaled.
Herc was right. He’d gotten off track, because he’d assumed she would be headed toward all the lights and crowd noise. Swinging to his left instead, Justin wove his way through a loose trail of humans walking in the opposite direction toward San Francisco’s famous Fisherman’s Wharf.
He was headed toward the bridge.
Twilight eased in from all sides with the sun now out of sight.
The boardwalk ran east and west, fronting San Francisco Bay where it reached the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate Strait. The smell of fried fish hit Justin in the next block and his mouth watered.
When he did find his missing body-to-protect, first they’d eat, then he’d have a talk with her.
He continued west on Bay Street where the Golden Gate Bridge stood tall in the distance.
Maybe she’d stayed near the water and hadn’t gotten off into some dark side street.
In the next four blocks, his nose pulled him to the right, where he crossed an acre of groomed land between the road and a marina further west than the one where she’d arrived. Gravel and dirt gave way to a paved surface that eventually ran parallel to the water.
She had been keeping on the path that ran closest to the bay.
He searched ahead. Where had she gone?
But that wasn’t the only thing bothering him.
Why hadn’t she waited for him?
Was she trying to get away from him? He rarely had an increase in heart rate, short of being in a tight battle, but that organ was pumping extra hard.
Don’t overreact, he reminded himself.
Maybe she just needed to walk after being on a boat for so long.
With the bay on his right, he picked up his pace.
He couldn’t explain it, but he felt that odd sensation he had when he’d grabbed her arm. His skin had tingled as if he’d touched a live wire. An odd energy he hadn’t forgotten.
It was buzzing through his chest right now.
Elianna’s scent still floated on the salty breeze, brushing across his face and bringing his dick to life. That part had no business in any of this. He could handle being turned on around a client as long as he kept his head straight.
Wolf, Herc huffed.
Justin caught the new scent at the same moment he felt Herc growl. Another shifter was on this path.
That local alpha had better not cross the Guardian.
If any of the wolf’s shifters bothered Elianna, the alpha wouldn’t have to worry about meting out punishment.
Justin wouldn’t leave enough of the wolf to face his alpha.
Herc growled again, letting Justin know they were in full agreement. Justin wasn’t about to ask his bear why he was playing nice with this female bear shifter. He would just thank his stars that he might not have to deal with a grumpy Herc while they were around her.
Some wolf was about to get his ass handed to him.
Rules were important in the shifter world, especially in the powerful packs and clans that wanted no part of being sent to an enclave.
That was a nice word for the equivalent of a reservation. When humans found out about shifters, they did not want those abnormal beings living around them.
Justin ground his teeth. Abnormal beings. They were supernatural beings.
Yes, like, Herc said, which meant he agreed.
When Justin reached the west end of the marina, he noted the humans out and about. They were all calm, which meant nothing noisy had happened like an attack or kidnapping.
The two scents he followed twisted together on the next breeze that slid past his nose. Overhead lights had come on by the time he exited the hotel, but they did little to illuminate where the shore met black water.
Fog continued to build until half of the bridge was nothing more than a translucent looking shape.
He picked up his pace, staying alert to everything in his field of vision. He could not shift around all these humans.
Neither could the other shifter if he was part of the local pack. Rogues followed no rules, but neither did they survive long when they trespassed into a local pack’s territory.
Even worse if they crossed into this particular territory.
Didn’t matter.
As a Gallize, Justin packed more power than the shifters most humans knew about, and he could actually handle those shifters in his human form.
Herc snarled, Hurry.
While in human form, Justin’s bear came up hard and strong when he sensed danger. As the trail passed the end of the marina, Justin reached a small park with a parking lot and trees casting long shadows.
He had an idea where she might have gone.
San Francisco had an attraction created at the end of a jetty called the Wave Organ. An artist and master stone mason had created an acoustic structure made of material from a demolished cemetery, and organ pipes made of PVC. When waves struck the structure, it emitted different sounds.
With darkness swallowing him, he pushed his speed. If a human saw him, they wouldn’t see him long enough to identify him.
Herc growled a warning. Two wolves!
When he got Elianna back to the hotel, he was packing her up and driving her straight to Louisiana.
CHAPTER 10
Swim now.
“No. How many times must say that?” Elianna asked her bear out loud, but not loud enough a human would hear her. She should have walked into the city instead of here around San Francisco Bay, but she’d wanted to smell fresh air and enjoy some peace before her world got complicated.
On the streets, she’d heard a woman talking about the nearby rocks that made music.
Shifter hearing could be very handy.
After asking directions of a uniformed man working at the front door of a fine hotel, she found her way with no trouble to their Wave Organ.
Even with her bear complaining, Elianna found her little adventure enjoyable.
The marina had been right where the gentleman had said. Once she reached it, she continued all the way down until she made what he called a big U-turn that brought her to this jetty.
Odd musical sounds were definitely coming from the rocks below. Somebody had constructed this with stone steps and parts that reminded her of cemetery stone.
She sat on the top step, finally alone.
Leaning back on her elbows, she turned her face into the breeze blowing off the water. Lights glowed through fog hovering around the beautiful bridge. She had seen pictures of this city often in magazines left in the hotel rooms she cleaned on weekends.
She should head back soon. Her bodyguard would be upset when he had no body to direct. She wished she’d brought her sunglasses, but they would have looked stupid in this dark.
Once Justin saw her blue eyes, he’d be done with her. He might even call in someone to take his place.
She didn’t care.
Do care, her bear argued.
“Would like some peace. You mind?” she asked her bear, but still kept her voice soft with the wind blowing in her face. Someone walking up might hear her and think she was crazy.
Yes. Swim.
There was no winning with her bear. She tried to placate her animal. “Be good five days and you run in woods. Promise. I have plan.”
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Her bear made a sound Elianna recognized as her sigh of impatience. She did that often, because her bear was never patient with Elianna.
Feeling guilty, Elianna said, “I tell truth. If you—”
Her bear said, Wolf.
That was the only warning Elianna got before a rough hand covered her mouth. Her attacker’s other arm wrapped around her chest, yanking her up to her feet. She jerked and fought, trying to get her feet on the ground where she could better deal with the attack.
He yanked her up higher, keeping her off the ground, which was not easy at her height. He ordered, “Stop it or I’ll knock you out and drag you over these rocks.”
She didn’t care if she got banged up and bruised, but she couldn’t escape if he knocked her out. If he took her out of here asleep, she’d have no idea where she was upon waking.
At least here, she had Justin.
Now, she regretted the trouble she’d given her bodyguard over not needing protection, but she was supposed to be safe from shifters in this area.
Or had she left the boundaries of her safe area?
Her kidnapper must have believed her act of compliance, because he put her feet on the ground again and turned her to walk ahead of him. “Make a sound and I’ll knock you out, then kill anyone who interferes.”
She would not harm an innocent, but she would not concede either. If this man wanted money from Alexandre, he would get none and kill her when he found out.
In three steps, she let her leg fold as if she’d stepped in a hole.
He hadn’t expected that. His weight fell forward with her.
She reached over her head, grabbing for shirt, hair, anything she could find. She bumped her butt into him and yanked hard, using momentum to roll him over her as she ducked forward. He cursed as his shoulders and back slammed the ground. She jumped up, ready when he also leaped to his feet. She hadn’t thought flipping him would harm the wolf, but it now put her equal to him.
His face was covered by a stocking cap, barely. She’d nearly torn it off.
He lifted hands with human fingers that ended in sharp claws that could slash her open.
How could he show those claws in public?
The wolf shifter started forward, eyes glowing more yellow than amber in the night.
“You make mistake,” Elianna warned the wolf as she circled defensively. He would not kill her if he had plans for ransom.
She considered the spot she was in and did not want a repeat of what happened during her last night in Russia. For that reason, Elianna grasped at something her mother had tried to teach her, but that she’d never attempted with her animal in a defensive situation.
Elianna asked her bear, Give me power, yes?
Want out.
No.
The wolf lunged and slashed a claw at her.
She jumped sideways, but still could not get past him.
This was why she never involved her bear. Her mother could call her bear’s power forward in human form. As an adolescent, Elianna had tried to get her bear to lend power the way her mother had explained many times. Her bear always refused unless Elianna agreed to shift.
Desperate to survive this wolf attack and tired of being vulnerable to other shifters, Elianna warned her bear, I die, you die.
Still nothing. This was why she hadn’t asked her useless bear for power back in Russia.
She kept moving her feet side to side, but she had no chance of getting past that wolf with the crazy eyes.
This would not end well for her.
The wolf shifter swiped at her and she dodged again.
She wanted to scream in frustration, because this wolf was strong. Not weak or thin like the ones back in PK. This one would win unless she had help. So she prepared to fight to the death.
Her eyes must have glowed bright blue, because the wolf hesitated and stared at her face.
She took advantage of the distraction, spun around and ran toward the water.
Two steps from the edge, the wolf shifter caught her and yanked her back.
She came around slamming fists one after another and twisting her body to break his hold. In their moving back and forth, he ended up on the end of the rocks with his back to the water.
Perfect. She relaxed her arms and breathed as if beaten. His grip eased a tiny bit.
She yanked her arms free and put all she had into knocking him backward with both fists. With any luck, he’d hit a few boulders in the water, six feet down.
He lost his balance, waving his arms.
It was a good plan. A sound plan.
Until he locked the fingers of one hand tight around her wrist and shot the other hand out with claws extended, digging a gash across the shoulder she had leaned into him.
No wolf was that fast.
Pain lashed through her shoulder.
Claws ripped shirt and skin, burning a path across her shoulder. She shoved him harder while leaning her weight away from him, struggling to stay out of the water.
His clawed fingers clamped harder around her wrist while he tilted backwards more and whipped his free arm around, trying to regain his balance.
She pushed her heels down, struggling to break free and stay upright. In spite of the pain, she slammed a fist at his jaw, cracking it.
He still held on and dragged her over with him.
They both went over the side and hit the water with a loud splash. People probably thought they were fighting a fish or feeding them.
She broke loose from him and lunged for the low-water side of the rocks.
Splashing followed her.
Not slowing when her foot hit the first stone above the water, she scrambled up the steps. Water ran down her face and her soaked clothes clung to her. She jumped up the last two steps and landed forward on her knees. Breathing hard, she pushed to her feet and took a step.
He grabbed her ponytail and yanked her back to him. She struggled, hammering fists when she could, but he finally wrestled her into his hold. When she looked up through wet hair, she was staring out to the bay. He stood behind her with her body and arms locked in his grip.
Never had she heard of a lone wolf shifter that could overpower a bear shifter in human form.
His gritty voice snarled into her ear. “I gave you a chance to do this nice and simple, but no. When I knock you out, I’ll let you make it up to me. I’ll take my time and enjoy you.”
Chills ran up her spine that had nothing to do with the cold air hitting her wet body. What was it with men who thought a woman should go along quietly to be mauled and raped?
She heard a roar of fury right before the wolf was snatched away. She stumbled backwards before he let go. When she turned, she heard the distinctive sound of bones breaking right before he went airborne, and landed far out into the bay.
Justin’s strength stunned her.
She’d been around powerful bear shifters, but she wasn’t sure her alpha father could have thrown a wolf shifter that far.
After some splashing, everything got quiet.
She asked, “Did you kill him?”
“No.” Justin covered his eyes. “Maybe. I shouldn’t have thrown him out there, but my bear was too furious. I had to do that or turn my bear loose.” Justin dropped his hand, stepped over to her, and turned her face to the ambient light bleeding off the shoreline. “You’re gonna have a bruise.”
Why did he sound so disappointed?
He knew she could heal. Not as quickly as when she shifted, but she would survive. Besides, her shoulder was far worse.
He touched her so carefully it stole her breath. No one except Nico had touched her with care since she’d first shown her bear.
“I want to turn you around so I can make sure you’re not hurt worse.”
Before she could say anything, he placed a hand on her shoulder as if to turn her, but touched her wound.
She hissed at the pain.
His eyes widened. He pulled his hand back, which was covered in dark liquid
. Her blood.
“Shit, Eli. Why didn’t you tell me he clawed you?”
“I will heal.” Eli? Her name was not Eli, but she did not want to sound unappreciative at this moment.
A look of concern flowed over his face. “I know you will, but you can’t shift until we get back to the room.”
“No shifting.”
“Not out here with humans, but you can do it in the room. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
She sighed. This was when the complicated part started. “I do not change to bear.”
That seemed to throw him. “Not at all?”
“No.”
“I don’t understand why ... ”
To stop a string of questions, she leaned into him as if she were faint. She had never been faint in her life, but she understood decent men, at least the few she’d met. Justin was one.
And to be honest, she was not at her best strength.
“Hold on, Eli.” His big arms went around her and pulled her close to his chest without hurting her shoulder. No more than it already ached. She put her hand up to keep some distance, but her fingers had no sense.
They tangled in his shirt, gripping him.
Something strange happened that she’d never experienced anywhere else. Never with a man.
She felt safe in this Justin’s warm embrace.
It was then she noticed how very tired losing blood had made her. If she did not start walking, she would not make it back on her own.
Lifting her head, she looked up at his nice face. “I am good.”
His eyes wouldn’t give up their hold on hers.
Her bear made noises she didn’t recognize. What was her bear up to now?
A sizzle of energy buzzed in her chest.
No, not only in her chest, but also between her chest and Justin’s. He finally broke that endless gaze and glanced down to the spot where she could feel the hum building.
This had to be her bear’s fault.
Elianna pressed a little against Justin’s chest to make more space between them and he eased his hold on her.
Now she wanted to swat her bear.