Wolf Bound

by Leisl Leighton

  ‘Me? Why me?’

  ‘You have blood from the gods running through your veins. The banshee is of them. It is unique and powerful and when combined with your other gift, has power to rival a god.’

  Shelley’s breathing was coming hard and fast—she’d known, she’d known ever since Adam had told her what the Goddess had told him, and yet hearing confirmation wasn’t a simple thing. She didn’t want it. Didn’t want it.

  ‘You are also part of the triumvirate.’

  ‘The triumvirate?’ Adam asked. ‘The Goddess mentioned that too, but I still don’t truly know what it means.’

  ‘I do not have time to explain now, other than to say it is something we have been waiting a very long time to come into existence. And now that it has, I must teach you, Adam, what you must know to bring it all together. Your tie to the pack, to the witches, to the banshee through your Trickster power, makes you key.’ She turned to Shelley. ‘And you must stop fearing what you are and embrace it. You must learn to see what a wonderful gift it truly is.’

  ‘It’s no gift. I see death.’

  Morghanna looked at her sadly. ‘You see so much more than that. You see the past and all that it offers for the future, and through the banshee, you see the future and what should or should not be avoided. If you learn how to master it, your power will be a gift beyond compare, one others will envy you for.’

  ‘It will make me go insane. Like others in my family.’

  ‘Only if you refuse to embrace what it is to be medium and banshee. The key to your fears is knowledge—which is much more than most other people have. You are so close to …’

  Her words were interrupted by a shriek. The lights in the room flickered, and then came back on, dimmer than before.

  ‘It is nearly here.’ Morghanna reached out towards Adam. ‘I have spent more time here than intended. You must come, now, before it catches up with me.’

  Adam stubbornly shook his head. ‘No. I said I’m not leaving.’

  ‘Adam, you must,’ Shelley said. Cold was creeping into the room, a sense of doom about to crash down on them, overwhelming them all. In reaction, her banshee was waking up, a low hum rising from her stomach, making her teeth chatter. Evil was coming, and if it entered this room, if it got Morghanna, or worse, Adam, then everything she knew and loved would be destroyed. If this banshee wail came into full effect, she might never recover the after effects. She had to make Adam go. It was the only way to stop the coming death. The only way to save him from the Darkness. To save him from her.

  ‘Sorry, Adam.’ She reached up, pressed her lips to his in an agonising kiss and then grasping her powers in a way she’d only just realised she could do thanks to him, she slammed them out at him, pushing him back across the room to Morghanna and the doorway.

  ‘Kitten, no. Don’t push me away. You need me here.’ He fought, shouting at her over the sound of the wind in her ears, each word a slash to her heart. But she couldn’t listen. She had to make him go. It was the only way. The dark thing that was chasing Morghanna was getting closer and closer. The feel of it was a scrape along her skin, hard fingernails down her spine, a cloying presence that made her want to cringe, to gag. She had to get Adam through the door before it came otherwise everything, all of this, would be for nothing. She didn’t need to see the fear and desperation in Morghanna’s eyes to know that was true.

  ‘I won’t leave you. I won’t. You need me. You need me.’ He leapt towards her, but her power pushed him back towards the door of light. As he fought, his body began to buck and slam hard against the bed.

  ‘Bron!’ Jason cried.

  Bron raced over to his body, grabbed an injection and pushed it into the port on the drip. His body jerked harder. She looked up, eyes wide. ‘That should have worked.’ She looked at the monitor—his heart rate was climbing too fast, the heart monitor a screech. ‘If he keeps this up, he’ll crash.’

  Adam’s body slammed onto the bed over and over, so hard it made Shelley’s teeth rattle and her bones ache. ‘Oh god! Adam, stop fighting.’ Tears were streaming down her face. The evil coming closer was pressing heavier on her, making it hard to think, hard to breathe.

  ‘Do it. Do it now!’ Morghanna shrieked.

  Shelley nodded, then grasping hold of all the power she could, looked Adam in the eye, whispered, ‘Forgive me,’ and shoved everything at him.

  The power hit him, picked him up and carried him towards the door of light. He cried out, the sound tearing at her heart.

  Morghanna grabbed his hand as he flew past her and just before she was pulled through with Adam, shouted, ‘Thank you. We will return to help you all.’

  The door of light slammed closed.

  Adam was gone.

  Chapter 15

  A scream lit the air with its fury. The lights flickered and then went off and there was a loud whooshing sound. A swirl of foul-smelling air whipped around Shelley, shoving at her, pulling at her hair.

  ‘Weak. You are weak and you are mine!’ a voice screamed in her mind as claws raked down her spine.

  She cried out at the pain, at the terror of the voice in her mind, and crashed to her knees.

  ‘Shelley!’ Bron screamed.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Jason.

  ‘It’s the Darkness,’ River said, his voice strong despite the thread of terror there. ‘It’s here.’

  ‘You can’t have them!’ A brilliant blue light flared in the black.

  There was a high-pitched screech as the blue light flared out, becoming more brilliant, pushing out to light more of the room.

  ‘I command you to leave this place.’

  A final screech and then an explosion of air that knocked everyone in the room backwards and sent furniture and medical equipment and papers flying.

  The blue light flared again and pushed into all corners of the room. Shelley covered her eyes, blinded.

  The light faded.

  Silence.

  ‘Jason. Are you all right?’

  Shelley lifted her head to see Skye racing towards Jason, who was picking himself up off the floor next to Adam’s bed.

  ‘Adam?’ she muttered. His body was still. Bron was scrambling to her feet, checking him over.

  ‘He’s okay. He’s okay.’

  Relief flooded through her. Adam’s body was okay. If only she knew Adam’s spirit was equally okay. Would he ever forgive her for what she’d just done? He’d have to know why. Morghanna would tell him. Surely she would. He would have died if she hadn’t done it. The banshee scream had been building inside her, telling her that he would die if she didn’t make him go away. Something about what he was, what Morghanna was, made them more vulnerable to the Darkness than any other spirit, or human for that matter. She didn’t know how she knew that. She just did.

  ‘God, Skye.’ Jason’s words were full of awe and relief as he held Skye’s face in his hands and kissed her. ‘Are you okay?’ She was trembling so hard, Shelley could see it.

  She looked around her, eyes a bit dazed, teeth chattering as she spoke. ‘I’m fine, I think. I haven’t used that much power since the night I bonded with Bron and Shelley and mated with you to defeat Morrigan.’ She leaned against him. ‘It took a bit out of me.’

  He held her close. ‘Take what you need from me.’

  She looked up at him, touched his face, the gesture making Shelley’s eyes sting, gaze blurring. She blinked rapidly, but it didn’t help. The room stayed blurred. Her breath was a shallow rasp in her throat. The voices around her ebbed and flowed in the rising sound of wind that roared in her ears. Her back stung. She reached around to touch it, but the movement hurt, so she stopped.

  ‘I’m just so glad it worked,’ Skye continued, her voice drifting in the distance. ‘I felt the Darkness before, but never as strong as that. When it came after Shelley and River, something inside me flared. I was furious that it would dare try to touch those I loved. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I just did it.’

  ‘You w
ere brilliant.’

  ‘Yes, you were,’ Bron said, reaching over to take her hand. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Yes, thanks sis.’ River snatched her from Jason and into a great big hug, making her laugh.

  Laughing, voice muffled against his shoulder, she said, ‘I’m sure you would have managed without me.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Bron said as River released her. Jason took her hand again and pulled her against him.

  Skye shook her head. ‘Of course you could have. You’ve fought the Darkness before. You and Shelley together could have done it.’ She turned to look at Shelley, her eyes going wide. ‘Shelley!’

  Shelley tried to say something, but the room swung around her and she crashed onto the floor.

  ‘Shit!’

  Bron raced over to her side.

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’ Skye said, coming down beside Bron.

  ‘I don’t know. River, Jason, can you pick Shelley up and get her onto that bed over there.’

  They did as she asked. Shelley moaned again as they lifted her, eyes fluttering open. ‘It hurts.’ She tried to indicate her back.

  ‘Roll her over,’ Bron said as they lowered her to the bed.

  Hands grabbed her gently and rolled her, but the movement made the pain rip through her like lightning. She screamed.

  ‘Fuck. What’s wrong?’ Jason said.

  ‘Oh, Goddess.’

  Deep inside her mind, Shelley heard those words and thought to herself that for Bron to sound like that it couldn’t be good.

  ‘Skye, get me the morphine. Over there in that drawer. Yes. And River, I need the saline and bandages in that drawer there. Jason, keep holding her still.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Her back is torn open, like she’s been clawed by something burning.’

  Shelley heard whimpering and realised it was her. She tried to stop, but the noise didn’t seem to be within her control. Nor did the shaking.

  ‘She’s shaking.’

  ‘She’s in shock. She used too much power getting Adam and Morghanna through the door and safe from the Darkness.’

  ‘Oh goodness,’ Skye said, fingers trembling over her mouth. ‘Her shields. She’d dropped them. She had nothing to protect herself from it.’

  Bron nodded grimly. ‘I’ll do a healing, but we need to clean out this wound first.’

  There was more scurrying, the sound of metal sliding open and closing, shuffling steps, packages being torn open. ‘Here.’

  ‘No. With magic. And then we’ll have to erect some shields around her until she can do it herself. Skye, do you think you can help me?’

  ‘Just tell me what you want me to do.’

  The voices were now so far away, Shelley could barely hear them. Then a feeling of rushing cold and warmth flowed through her and she was floating away. It would have been blissful except that a wolf’s piercing howl of distress punctured her bubble of happy and dug claws deep in her heart.

  ***

  ‘He won’t stop howling. I can’t seem to get through to him,’ Jason said to Bron as she and River came back into the room after leaving to pick the herbs and plants she needed. Bron rushed over to where he was sitting next to Adam’s bed, holding his brother’s hand. Skye sat at his side, and Bron noted the haunting worry in her eyes.

  ‘We’ve tried everything,’ Skye said. ‘I’ve tried to reach Adam’s wolf through my pack bond. He quietens a little at my touch combined with Jason’s but then he kind of pushes past us through the bond, like he’s searching for something and when he can’t find it, he starts up again worse than before.’ She looked up at Bron, eyes beseeching. ‘I feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do.’ She glanced over at Cordy.

  Bron reached out and pulled her into a hug. ‘I know. I wish Cordy was awake too. She’d know what to do.’ She took in a deep breath and blew it out, fringe ruffling. ‘I could try to waken her.’

  They looked over at her, a heavy silence of pain and grief stilling them. ‘No,’ Skye said after a moment, her voice husky. ‘It would be cruel to wake her before she’s ready.’

  ‘I don’t know if she’ll ever be ready,’ Bron said.

  They both nodded, looking over at their mates, and Bron knew that if either of them lost their mates, they wouldn’t want to be awake to face the pain either.

  ‘I’m not sure Cordy would be able to do any good anyway,’ River said. ‘The wolf started howling just after Adam went wherever he went with Morghanna. I think Adam coming back is the cure.’

  ‘No,’ Jason said, brow furrowing. ‘I know I was a bit distracted with everything going on, but I’m pretty sure his wolf wasn’t howling then. I can’t remember hearing it start until Shelley was hurt and Bron and Skye used their magic to put her under and erect a shield around her.’

  ‘You know, I think you’re right,’ River said. ‘That’s when I truly noticed him howling too. I just thought that maybe in the commotion I’d missed something.’

  ‘You’re saying he’s distressed about Shelley?’ Skye looked over at their friend lying still on the bed on the other side of the room. ‘Is that because he’s her Shadow?’

  ‘Maybe.’ Jason rubbed his hand over his chin, scraping the bristles. ‘Although, I wouldn’t expect this amount of distress. He’d more likely be angry with himself for not protecting her. I’d expect strong waves of determination not to let it happen again, but not this … pain.’ He rubbed his knuckles against his chest. ‘It’s extreme. Almost as if …’ His eyes widened.

  ‘Almost as if what?’ River asked.

  Jason turned slowly, eyes wide, shocked.

  River slowly shook his head. ‘No. There’s been no sign in the pack link. Surely we would have felt it if that had happened? You would have felt it at the very least. You’re not only Alpha, but his brother.’

  Jason walked slowly over to Shelley. ‘I know. But maybe …’

  ‘Are you talking about a mating?’ Bron asked.

  ‘Holy cow!’ Skye said, joining Jason, brushing a stray hair off Shelley’s face. A laugh choked out of her. ‘Shelley will hate that.’

  Bron laughed too. ‘That’s an understatement. She’s been fighting her attraction to him ever since they met.’

  ‘I thought she hated him,’ River said.

  Bron touched his face. ‘That’s what she wanted everyone to think. It was easier for her that way. A defence mechanism against being hurt again.’ She stroked Shelley’s hair. ‘She was hurt so terribly by her family. They should have protected her, loved her, supported her. Instead, they used her, caused her pain and kept the truth from her of what happened to those in their family who used their talent. When she found out and refused to do their bidding, they outwardly ostracised her while secretly working with her fiancé to force her back to them again.’

  ‘Her fiancé was working with her family? Is that why they broke up?’ River asked.

  ‘Mostly,’ Skye replied. ‘Despite her best efforts to keep the spirits at bay after she left her family, sometimes they got through. One came to her and told her something horrible was happening with her fiancé. She dropped everything at work and rushed home, only to find her fiancé in bed with her cousin.’

  ‘Why? If he was working with her family, why would he have done that?’

  ‘Because she wouldn’t use her powers and he needed them to raise his profile in the coven, so he went to someone who would,’ Skye said flatly.

  Jason’s eyes filled with disgust. ‘Her cousin. She was a medium as well.’

  ‘Her family’s coven believed those with the power to talk to the dead gave strength to the rest of the coven through using their power. The men believed it gave them virility to be able to create life with someone who dealt in death.’

  ‘Did Shelley know why he was with her?’

  Bron shook her head. ‘He came from oversees after she’d turned her back on her family. She’d never met him before and had no idea he was from the European branch of the coven. He
went straight for her, wooed her and made her feel loved and special. She had no idea he was using her or working with her family.’

  ‘Fucking arseholes.’

  Jason nodded his agreement at River’s words. ‘I want to tear them apart. How could they do that to her? It’s no wonder she’s kept herself so separate from us.’

  Skye nodded. ‘When she saved me by linking with my power and linking herself with the pack, it hurt her in ways I will always be sorry for. She hates that she’s linked by blood to her family, but this is even stronger than that and she’s struggled with it a lot. She doesn’t trust the bonds of family. The only reason she trusts the bonds of friendship with Bron and myself is because she met us before her family had truly destroyed her trust in love of any kind. But trusting Bron and me is as far as she’s able to stretch her love and trust, especially since her bastard ex did what he did. I don’t think she’ll ever come to terms with the bonds of pack, of being tied to us all by something she can’t bring herself to trust not to hurt her.’ She blinked hard, her voice thick with tears when she continued. ‘If I could find some way to release her from it, I would. I hate that helping me hurt her so badly.’

  ‘Fuck,’ River said.

  ‘Come here.’ Jason wrapped his arms around Skye, stroking her hair. ‘Why didn’t any of you ever say anything to us?’

  ‘Shelley wouldn’t want us to. She knew Bron and I needed her and that you needed her. She said it was nice to be needed and she’d be happy with that. We asked Cordy if there was some way to release her, but she didn’t know of any. She said Shelley could live away from the pack if she wished, like my grandmother had, but that she’d always be linked.’

  ‘If she’d wanted to go, we wouldn’t have stopped her. We would have helped her,’ Jason said, looking at River, who nodded.

  Skye leaned back and stroked her hand down his face. ‘I know. But despite thinking that she’s a runner, running is not in Shelley’s nature. Especially when those she loves need her.’ She looked back at Shelley. ‘Maybe it’s that loyalty that’s allowed a mating bond to come into existence between her and Adam. Although, I would have thought it impossible.’