by M. L. Briers
“How long do you have?” Isaac asked him and the Vampire chuckled.
“All night my friend.” He gave him a commiserating pat on the back as they walked away.
Kerry had practically curled herself up into a ball on the bedroom floor with the towel wrapped around her shoulders. What the hell kind of a person just walks into a bedroom when someone is getting dry? This day was just getting better and better. She’d been embarrassed that the damn man had undressed her to her underwear, but now…? Now he had walked in on her doing the damn shimmy with a bath towel…Naked! Naked and practically beckoning him on with open arms.
Oh the shame! Where was the damn earth to open up and swallow her whole when she needed it? How was she supposed to face him again? Like, ever? Oh thank God that I don’t live here, I’d have to move… She wished the damn tree had knocked her out again, anything was better than this… this was just so… wrong.
If there was a heaven she’d gladly go there, right now. Now, now, now. If there was only hell, well she’d take her chances that it wasn’t too damn hot down there, just as long as she didn’t have to look into those puppy dog eyes ever again. His eyes, those eyes that looked…everywhere…and he seemed to enjoy the view… She bit down on another curse. So what if he enjoyed the view? He got to see the view, cherry buns, rug carpeting and all…Bloody hell! Just what did I do to get this kind of Karma? Step on one too many spiders? Kick a damn cat? No, I’d never do that, although next doors cat could be really, really irking sometimes… Oh God, the shame, the humiliation, the mortifying knowledge that he’d seen her bits and bobs. Crap!
There’s only one thing for it. Kerry tossed her other leg out of the window and slowly lowered herself the couple of feet to the ground. She was damned lucky that this bedroom was on the ground floor. She certainly wouldn’t have wanted to shimmy down a drainpipe to reach the ground, she told herself as she looked around at the unfamiliar ground at the back of the house.
Night was coming in and thankfully the rain had stopped. Now all she had to contend with was the cold. It was colder than the blood arctic, she thought as she gently pushed the window as far closed as she could get it and turned to scope the lay of the land. Obviously following the road out a ways would be the best idea, especially as she had no clue where she was, or where she was staying from here, or in which direction that was in…
Bugger, maybe this isn’t such a good idea…Naked, naked and jiggly bits…But it’s a much better idea than staying around here. She told herself as she wrapped her arms around her chest for the extra warmth it gave her and started off across the land, sticking to the edge of the underbrush for cover in case she was spotted. Embarrassed was one thing, embarrassed and busted, well that was the final nail in her coffin of shame.
She’d liberated two extra tops from his wardrobe, one of them a thick hooded top that should give her some protection from the rain should it start again. But right now she was more worried about the cold. With no jacket, no hat and no gloves, the cold was biting already and she hadn’t even gone that far.
The rain water on the ground was starting to freeze over and she cursed the fact that her walking boots were still wet from that little shower from earlier. Bloody monsoon. She cursed out as her foot slipped against the landscape, but she managed to correct her footing before she went down. The three pairs of socks that she’d borrowed, fully intending to return, sometime never, because she never wanted to face him again, were already damp through to her feet. She was cold, damp and miserable, but she supposed it could have been worse.
After the worst day of my life what else could happen?
She felt the first flurry on her nose and blew upwards. Then another snowflake hit her face and she reached up to brush it away. The darkness had really started to close in now and she wished there was some kind of street lighting out here in the middle of nowhere so she could see what it was that was tickling her face. Then as the snow started to fall thick and fast she got the message. Coming to a complete halt she looked up to the darkened sky and spotted the large flakes as they drifted down around her.
Oh, come the hell on!
The scent of a good hearty stew was enough to make Isaac’s stomach growl in anticipation. He’d not eaten anything since breakfast and needed one of Verna’s stews with big thick dumplings that stuck to the ribs to fill him up. His sister could cook, he’d give her that. He just hoped his mate would like a tradition Isle stew. He hoped she wasn’t one of those damned vegetarians, now that would be really awkward… And why wasn’t the woman coming out of the bedroom? Perhaps she’d fallen asleep after all the wailing?
Isaac stalked up to the bedroom door and listened for any sound of her sleeping. He twisted his head on his neck and listened harder, not hearing anything from inside. Perhaps she’d made him slightly deaf with her shrieking? No, he’d had conversations with other’s since then and he would have noticed a loss of hearing.
Isaac winced as he twisted the door knob and slowly pushed the door open, hoping his mate wasn’t still standing there naked. But surely she’d still have a damn heartbeat… Unless she’d died… He rushed into the room and scanned the area. His eyes taking in the open door of the bathroom and the slight chill in the air from… the window.
“Damn it to hell and back. I’m going to kill her, or mate her, or mate and kill her!” Isaac roared out. Turning on his heels towards the hallway as two sets of boots rushed towards him, with two curious men inside them.
“What the hell now?” Joel asked as he noted his brother’s scowl and the fact that the man’s eyes were black and his claws were starting to descend…
“She ran!” The Alpha growled long and hard as his beast signalled the hunt within him…
Kerry looked around at the blackest night she had ever had the misfortune to be out in. Even with the snow now falling thicker on the ground she still couldn’t make out any signs of civilisation around her. Her hands were frosty, her nose was like ice and she was starting to shiver even under the layers of clothes that she’d liberated.
You’re an idiot. He was right, you are a bloody idiot of the worst kind…She cursed herself for being this stupid, and why? Because he’d seen her naked. Wow. In a few more hours she might not be naked, but she’d be blue. Like a little blue Smurf. That was if it took that long. How long did it take to freeze to death?
It hadn’t gone unnoticed that she was no longer on any kind of path. She wasn’t sure when she’d left the path behind, or how. Maybe it had been the snow that had made everything look the same. Maybe she just hadn’t been paying attention. Maybe she was just an idiot. That would be the one. Idiot. So now what? Keep on going? Try to go back? No, where was back? Where was anything? Where the hell was civilisation? She couldn’t even see any lights in the distance. Oh god it’s one of those drop to my knees and give up or grow a backbone and keep going moments in life…I’m not a quitter.
Kerry heard what she thought was a howl in the near distance. Too far away to be certain she wasn’t imagining it and yet too close to dismiss it as something else. Turning on shaky legs towards where she thought the sound might have come from, she squinted against the falling snow and tried to see into the night. Nothing, just snow, snow and shadows. Shadows and blackness…
The sound of another howl made her body at least try to snap to attention through the quivering and shaking. That was a howl… I’m not going insane, not totally…Move…She commanded her feet. The trouble was, one foot started to go one way and the other foot started to go the other. She dragged her left foot backwards and planted it against the icy surface. The sound of something cracking made her look down. It sounded like glass… It took her a long moment to realise that she was standing on frozen water. A second later it gave way beneath her weight…
Isaac saw her through the snow. She was so clear that she could have been standing right before him. That was one of the advantages of being Lycan, damn good eyesight with which to hunt your mate.
�
��Mine.’ His beast growled his claim.
He tossed his head back on his neck and howled again in victory. The hunt had been a success. He had tracked her down and now he was going to claim her so that she couldn’t run from him again. He saw her move, regain her footing and then…
“No!” He roared out into the night. Two sets of feet followed him as he tore through the night towards the last place he had seen her. ‘The lake, she had been standing on the lake, how had I not noticed? How had I not seen the danger that she was in?’ Isaac hadn’t realised that he’d put his thoughts out into the pack link until his brother answered him.
‘Easy, Isaac. We’ll save your mate.’ But Joel knew that most of what came next would be down to the Alpha. His mate was once again in peril and Isaac’s wolf was so close to the surface already that if he or Tobin intervened they wouldn’t exactly be receiving a thank you from him.
They all spotted her head come up above the water and she gasped in a breath on a cry of pain a moment before she went under again. She was panicking and the weight of her clothes was dragging her down. By the time Isaac reached the lake she hadn’t come back up for air.
“Where is she?” The panic in the Alpha’s voice was more than evident. Two steps onto the frozen ice and it gave way beneath Isaac’s large frame. He embraced the cold, embraced being in the water with her, because if he couldn’t find her he would rather die here with her this night than go on without her. When she didn’t resurface he dived below the water. His hands searched for her in all directions, his arms stretched as wide as he could get them, over and over he circled around, going further and further under the ice to try to find her.
The breath in his lungs was all but gone. His heart hurt from the loss of his mate, and when his lungs started to burn with the need for oxygen he decided to let the water claim him along with his mate. His fingertips brushed fabric and his heart jolted within his chest. His brain shot to life with knowing it was her and he pushed towards her. Fisting a handful of clothes, he pushed up towards the surface with everything he had, taking her with him as he dragged her body towards his in the water.
Knowing that they were deep under the ice now, further away from where they had started, made him turn his eyes up towards the surface. He noted the ice above them and punched upwards. The pain shot through his knuckles as his head surfaced first, taking the broken sheets of icy with him as his shoulders found the night air, and he hauled her lifeless body against his.
“Don’t you die on me.” He commanded and started for the water’s edge, battering his way through the layer of ice towards his brother and Tobin.
“Hand her off, Isaac.” Joel begged him. His brother was strong, he knew it, but they’d both been in the water too long. They needed to get her ashore as quickly as possible and he didn’t know if Isaac still had the strength to do that. The long warning growl told Joel that Isaac was in full protective mode for his mate. “She’s going to die, damn it, she’s human!” Joel tried to appeal to his common sense and it worked.
Isaac summoned all the strength within him to haul her body up in the air and away from him. Tobin reached out and snatched her from his arms. Laying her on the ground, he went to work to get the water from her lungs as Joel reached out to grip his brother’s wrist. Hauling him out of the water and tossing him through the air away from where the Vampire was trying to save his mate. Joel couldn’t run the risk that the Alpha would attack, but he couldn’t leave him in the water either.
Tobin was aware of what Joel had done and he kept working. The sound of the Alpha hitting the frozen earth made him wince with the pain that the man must have felt, but still he didn’t look Isaac’s way. She was what was important now, not just because she was Human, or female, but because she was Isaac’s mate, and if they lost her they might also lose him.
The sound of her choking on water was the best damn sound the Vampire had ever heard. He turned her on her side as she coughed and spluttered the water from her lungs. The woman was blue and that meant she was still in danger. He wasted no time in stripping off his jacket and wrapping it around her body for the slight warmth that it might provide.
“Give me your jacket!” Tobin demanded of Joel and the Beta balked for a long second as he faced off against his brother who had climbed to his feet, dripping wet, growling like a rogue and as mad as hell. Joel bit out a curse and shed his jacket, tossing it towards the Vampire a moment before his Alpha came at him.
“Get her out of here.” Joel commanded the Vampire. Out of the three of them the Vampire was the fastest on foot and carrying the woman. She was blue, any idiot could see that, and she needed to get into the warmth of their home sooner rather than later, because later would be just too damn late.
“No!” Isaac roared. He needed to protect his mate, get her home, warm her, bring her back to him…
Tobin snatched the unconscious female up from the floor and locked her body against his. Taking off as fast as he could go, he knew that the Alpha wouldn’t stand idly by as he boldly ran off with his mate. The chase was on and this could end badly for all of them.
CHAPTER FIVE
It hadn’t been the easiest journey that Tobin had ever had to make. Carrying the female and with a pissed off Alpha wolf on his heels and a Beta following, he’d run the race of his damn life. He knew that the moment the wolf caught up to him that he’d bring him down by any means possible. That wouldn’t bode well for Tobin or the Alpha’s mate, but the wolf wasn’t thinking of that. The wolf was hunting his prey, a prey that had stolen his mate and carried her off. The reason didn’t matter.
Tobin kicked open the front door to the house without ceremony and tore through the hallways, sight unseen. He could hear the panting, snarling wolf not too far behind him and deposited her on the bed in a haphazard fashion. The sound of the wolf’s teeth snapping towards his heels as he departed out of the bedroom window didn’t fill him with the warm fuzzy feeling that he would be welcome back any time soon, but he was relieved the wolf hadn’t sunk his fangs into his flesh.
Slamming the window closed behind him, he winced when it made a connection with the Alpha’s nose and the wolf yipped in pain. “My bad.” Tobin conceded that point and then shook his head. Why the hell was he apologising? He doubted very much that the Alpha would apologise for sinking his fangs into his backside!
Joel didn’t enter the house. He knew his brother would be pissed. The only people he wouldn’t attack was his mate and Verna, and that was because Verna wasn’t stupid enough to get anywhere near him. She posed no threat to the wolf’s mate as long as she stayed away.
‘Verna, don’t go near Isaac.’ Joel growled out into the link between them.
‘Well, duh.’ Came his sisters reply and he would have rolled his eyes if he hadn’t of been a damn wolf.
“You owe me big time for this.” Tobin sneered down at him. “This is huge. This is like the biggest thing you could ever owe me in your entire lifetime.” Tobin knew just how to rub the salt in the wounds and Joel growled out in annoyance. He was sure that Tobin would be forever calling this marker in.
Isaac shifted back into his human form. Naked and panting like a lunatic he moved quickly towards the bed and his mate. She was shivering like crazy, but that was a good thing. It meant she was still alive. Blue around the damn edges, but alive.
His hands worked fast to stripe her of her clothing, tossing the items over his bedroom floor until he had her completely naked on the bed. His eyes took her in as he uncovered more and more of her, but it wasn’t out of lust, he wasn’t even hard for her for the first time since he’d discovered who she was. It was just kind of impossible not to look, he was male after all.
Isaac reached for her and lifted her against him. She felt like a damn ice cube against his warmer skin. His body had run a marathon trying to catch up to the damn Vampire and had already started to recover from the effects of the water. But he knew that his body heat was still not back to what it should be.
&
nbsp; He carried her into the bathroom and stood under the shower. Making sure the water wasn’t too hot. He didn’t want her body to go into shock by heating her too quickly. He stood with her under the warming spray. Turning his body from side to side to make sure that the water reached from her toes to her scalp and back again, he whispered words of endearment to her, encouragement. With each long minute that dragged on he reached out and turned the heat up. He’d stand here all night with her if that was what it took to bring her back to him.
Joel couldn’t help but glance in through the bedroom window off and on. He could hear the sound of the water still running in the bathroom and he knew that it would take a while, and yet he couldn’t seem to drag himself away from the window. Tobin stood there too, although the Vampire tried to make out like it was a burden with the odd sigh and roll of his eyes. But Joel knew that the damn Vampire was just as eager as he was to know that the human was ok.
They’d both put their lives at risk to save her. Joel knew that when his brother wasn’t in protective mode over her fate, he’d be grateful for all that they had done, but neither one had done it for this thanks. They did it because she was his mate, because he was their friend, brother. Even Tobin considered himself an honorary member of the pack, although he would never have admitted it.
“Perhaps he’s right.”Tobin looked down at the wolf in front of him and saw him twist his head to the side in a way that asked if he was really expecting an answer to that statement and Tobin rolled his eyes in his head. “Isaac said she’s cursed. Maybe she is.”