“I can see why you wanted to avoid telling me that, Nashoba, but I really wish you’d mentioned it sooner.”
“Why? Is it relevant?”
“It’s the part about her not being able to seduce you that intrigues me. A witch of her power and superficial beauty should have no problems bending a man’s will to her every desire. The fact that you resisted her so completely while she still held power over your body is something I’ve never heard before.”
“Can we use this in some way?” Nashoba leaned forward in his seat. “Could this be the key to freeing Akala and the other girls from their curse?”
“I’ll have to consult with the medicine man,” said the healer. “He was just as troubled by this plague as I was when last we talked, but this is something he may know more about. I will go immediately and hopefully return with answers.”
“Shall I come with you?” asked Nashoba, rising to his feet along with the healer.
“No, dear. The medicine man is a touchy person and I fear your eagerness to press on might cause him some distress. Best to let me deal with him. What we need to do now is to talk and think, and what you need to do is to be here for Akala.”
“I can do that,” said Nashoba. It pained him to have to sit aside while there was a possibility something could be done to save the one he loved, but he recognized all to well the tone of voice the healer had used to make her suggestion sound more like an order.
“Please hurry though.”
The healer turned but on her way out the door she said, “I’ll do my best, Nashoba, but we must be smart about this. If I’m right about my theory, then we may only have one shot at this.”
Nashoba climbed the stairs to his room and nudged the door open. Akala sat upright, a wan smile on her lips as she talked quietly with Haley about inconsequential things. The tension in the room was high, and Nashoba’s wolf senses picked up the air of fear that lay over everyone like a heavy down blanket.
“I’ll leave you two alone for a bit.” said Haley, rising to leave.
“Thanks for watching her while I was gone.” said Nashoba.
No more words were exchanged between them. Haley knew by Akala’s condition and the look in his eyes that Nashoba had failed them. Had he managed to recover the items or break the source of the spell, Akala would be much recovered and he would not be entering the room so hesitantly. Forcing himself to be strong for his love, Nashoba sat with Akala and took up her hand.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“A bit better actually.” Akala shrugged. “I still feel like I have a bad flu or something, but the cramping has stopped. Haley says that’s pretty much what the other women experienced.”
Nashoba nodded. He stared down at Akala’s small hand resting in his. She’d come to him as an innocent girl, so blissfully unaware of the undercurrents of magic that ran throughout the world. She’d known nothing of werewolves or witches, or the ancient grudges that caused them to fight. A girl like Akala should never have found herself in a position like this.
He silently reproached himself for dragging her into his problems. He’d been thinking only of the tribe and his need for pups when he’d placed his ad and sought a mate from outside his kind. Others had done it, so why not him? Now he was learning the answer to that question he’d not spent nearly enough time contemplating. His life as tribal alpha demanded more than the others. The stresses he had to deal with each day would need to be shared by his partner. He’d thought only of the relationship and possible romantic feelings between two people, and it was only now that he truly understood Akala’s hesitancy to stay with him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You seem far away.”
“It’s all of this bullshit.” He replied. “You would never have ended up like this if it wasn’t for my selfish needs. I had no right to drag you into this.”
“Nashoba,” she reached out and laid her hand on his cheek, tilting his face up to look into his eyes, “you shouldn’t feel guilty about that. I made my own decision to come here, and I’ve made my own decisions to stay.”
“I brought you here under false pretenses, though. Would you have come had you known the truth of any of this?”
“I can’t pretend that I didn’t feel betrayed when I finally found out that you were a werewolf, but I don’t blame you for keeping it from me.” Akala smiled. “I would have laughed you off as a lunatic had you told me in your emails. Who would believe that magic like this is real without seeing it with their own eyes?”
“You’ve experienced nothing but hardship since coming to this place. If I could take it all back from you, I would.”
“No,” Akala shook her head. “Don’t say that. Don’t wish to take what we have away from me. It’s true that I’ve battled with the demands placed on me here, but I love you as you are, and I don’t regret any of it. I hope to come to get to know you and your tribe, and in time, to see if this can be a long term thing between us.”
“Truly?” He asked, astonished at her resilience. “That is a thing you would consider?”
“I need time, but yes.” Akala leaned forward and kissed Nashoba on the lips. “I want to get better so you can show me your ways. I want to understand what it would mean to be your mate, and maybe then I’ll be ready to take the responsibility of that role upon myself.”
“This makes me so happy.” said Nashoba, pulling Akala into an embrace. “I fear that I’ve let you down in so many ways though. I went to the witch’s shop today but I could do nothing against her.”
“You’ll figure something out.” She said. “I have faith in you and your tribe that you will find a way to end this torment for all of us.”
“Akala?” said a voice from the door.
They turned to see Haley standing there.
“The healer is back and wishes to speak with you, Nashoba. Is now a good time?”
“Yes, of course.” He said. “Send her in.”
The old woman entered and moved to take a seat in the chair next to the bed. She looked bone weary, and it was only then that Nashoba realized she hadn’t slept since she’d arrived at the house.
“What news have you?” he asked.
“The medicine man sent this.” She said, producing a small leather pouch. It smelled strongly of herbs and the iron tang of something visceral and alchemical. “It’s a ward against the spells that are directed specifically against Akala. It won’t heal her or stop it completely, but it should deaden the pain somewhat.”
Nashoba accepted the pouch and used the long leather ties to fasten it around Akala’s neck. Her jawline relaxed instantly and there was a softening around her eyes. She sighed as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“How does that feel?” asked the healer.
“Better,” said Akala. “I still feel queasy and cold and hot all at the same time, but it’s not so bad as it was just a few seconds ago.”
“The medicine man could not say how long the effect would last,” continued the healer. “But there is more to the plan than just this spell ward.”
“Tell me what I must do, and I will do it.” said Nashoba.
“The medicine man is to frail too undertake so dangerous a mission, but he has sent his son, Traver to aid us. You and Traver will seek out where Issie’s spell is being kept, and then you will attempt to destroy it.”
“I looked everywhere in that shop,” growled Nashoba. “It’s not there. It can’t be there.”
“No,” said the deep baritone voice of Traver. He was younger than Nashoba by several years, but he bore a seriousness of demeanor that made him seem much older. “My father and I worked hard and we think we’ve discovered the source of the spells. Something Akala told the elders after her ordeal with Herbert Johnson made us look beyond the shop, and we think we’ve discerned a spot in the forest that might be ideal for Issie to hide her casting.”
“Then we must go immediately.” said Nashoba.
“No,” replied Tr
aver. “Not while the sun still sleeps. Issie will return to her shop during the day, and we will seek this place in the light rather than when Issie can draw power from the moon. She uses our source against us, and is far less powerful during the day.”
“I know you seek vengeance and resolution, Nashoba,” said the healer, “but what Traver says is true. Be wise and wait for the day.”
Nashoba looked to Akala and saw her encouragement. She seemed remarkably better with the medicine man’s pouch around her neck, although the strain of the magical illness clearly still strained her dearly.
“Very well,” he conceded. “We shall hold off until it is light.”
“And until then,” said Haley, her voice taking on the authoritative motherly tone she worked so well to perfect, “I think it’s best if we all get some sleep.”
Traver and the healer nodded their assent and rose to leave the bedroom. Nashoba still sat with Akala and made no move to go anywhere.
“That means all of us,” said Haley, her glare directed at Nashoba. “I don’t care if you stay here, but both of you better get a few hours sleep before it’s time to leave.”
“I promise I’ll make him sleep.” said Akala.
Haley closed the door, and they were alone again.
“Sleep seems so far away to me right now,” said Nashoba.
Akala cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply. She pulled back and lifted her shirt away from her body, her bare breasts spilling down invitingly in the dim light of the single bedside lamp.
“Then allow me to give you what comfort I can so that you might relax and sleep afterward,” she said.
Nashoba frowned uncertainly, his mind telling him that Akala was still ill and needed her rest even more than he did.
“Fear not, my brave warrior.” She said, drawing him down onto her. He felt her body warm and supple beneath his, her soft lips inviting and sensuous beneath his. “I give my body freely and willingly, to you and to no other.”
“I will do whatever it takes to fix this, Akala. This I promise.”
“Shush now.” Akala reached down and slipped her hand into Nashoba’s pants, gripping his manhood tightly and feeling him rise to her touch. “There will be time for words tomorrow. Now let us speak with our bodies.”
SEVEN
Nashoba was as close to happy as he’d been in quite some time. Akala slept soundly and her skin had regained some of its color overnight. She seemed much healthier in her sleep than she had since she’d fallen ill, and Nashoba said a silent thanks to the medicine man for the ward he’d provided them. The sun was only just rising when he slipped out of bed and kissed Akala on the cheek. While he might have failed in his last attempts to fight the witch, they had a new plan now, and he told himself that he couldn’t afford to beat himself up over past failures. What mattered now was how he proceeded to save his tribe and the woman he loved. So long as he drew breath and had a beat in his heart, he would fight against Issie and her vendetta against his people.
The healer was still asleep when he came down to the breakfast table, but Haley had clearly been awake for some time based on the amount of food that waited for him. Traver already sat with a plate full of bacon, eggs and pancakes; and he ate like a man who knew it might be the last time he saw food before a great physical trial.
Nashoba sat and joined him, pouring himself a cup of dark black coffee and savoring the bitter caffeinated blast it delivered him. He too tucked into a sizable portion of food, and for a while they sat and ate, sharing the silence that spoke of their individual determination.
The table was cleared and Nashoba was working on his second cup of coffee when Haley sat across from him.
“Whatever happens out there today,” she began, “promise me you’ll be careful.”
“Of course, Haley.”
“I know what’s at stake for you, and I know you well enough to see that you’re prepared to do anything it takes to fight Issie.” Haley twisted a napkin into tiny shreds that fell onto the tablecloth. “It’s important that you don’t forget that this issue is bigger than you and Akala. I know you love her, but your tribe needs you. We can’t afford to lose our alpha at a time like this.”
“Haley,” he replied. “It’s my fault she was dragged into this. I have to do everything in my power to save her.”
“Yes, you do,” said Haley. “And that includes living to fight another day. Sacrificing yourself for nothing doesn’t help anyone, so I’m asking you to be careful in how you choose to risk yourself out there.”
“If the witch is not present, we should encounter no difficulties.” said Traver.
“The area will be warded,” said Haley. “Don’t expect to waltz into Issie’s territory without her knowing about it.”
“From what Traver has told me about the location of Issie’s spell casting location, she will be nearly an hour away if she is at the shop,” said Nashoba. “I’ve arranged for Machk to watch her and let us know when she’s there. He’ll alert us the second she leaves the shop.”
“Still, I hope you’ll be smart today.”
Nashoba stood and went to place a strong hand on his cousin’s shoulder. She looked at him with worried eyes, and he wished he could go a single day without feeling like he was letting someone down or setting them up to suffer for his actions. He had no way to assure Haley that he wouldn’t take unnecessary risks, because he didn’t even know himself if he could do the safe thing should the situation come to that. He didn’t know where he’d draw the line if it came to risking his own life on even the slight hope that it might save Akala.
“I’ll do my best.” He said, and then he turned and walked out the door, Traver following close behind.
“About what Haley said back there,” began the medicine man’s son, pausing to pull open the truck door and hop inside. He waited for Nashoba to shut his own door. “She makes a valid point. We don’t know what to expect out there, and I don’t think I have to tell you just how powerful this witch is.”
“No, you don’t. I know we need to be safe and smart about this, but I’m tired of letting everyone down. Today we end this thing once and for all. Now where are we heading exactly?”
Traver looked as though there was more he wanted to say on the subject, but instead he simply told Nashoba where they needed to drive. The trip didn’t take them very long, and they hadn’t been driving for more than twenty minutes when they ran out of road.
“We’ll have to walk from here.” said Traver, slipping out of the truck and heading towards a gap in the dense underbrush that surrounded them.
“How do you know where to go?”
“Growing up as the son of the medicine man, I’ve had something of a different education than you had as son of the tribal alpha. Through years of practice and magic working, I am attuned to the vibrations that are cast off by a spell such as the one this witch has cursed our females with. I am not as strong as my father who sensed Issie’s spells from his hut once he knew what he was looking for, but now we are in the area, I can feel where we must go. It is not far from here.”
“After you then,” said Nashoba, gesturing for Traver to continue on in the lead.
They walked in heavy silence, pushing their way through the dense scrub brush with no evidence of a path of any kind. Nashoba knew that Issie must have any easier route to travel to her spell casting location, but he also knew that it was just as likely to be booby trapped. He’d received a text message from Machk informing him of Issie’s arrival at her shop, and the last thing he wanted to do was alert her to their presence before they even got to the heart of the spell.
“The energy flow is thick here. Can you feel it?”
Nashoba closed his eyes and thought he heard a faint humming, like an electrical power line crackling far overhead. The hairs on his arm stood slightly in response to some charge in the air, and as they moved deeper into the forest, he could taste a dull metallic tang in the air not unlike what he’d sensed from the medi
cine man’s ward for Akala.
After a tricky stream crossing, they climbed up a short but loose embankment to enter a small clearing where a thin trail of smoke drifted lazily from the remains of a fairly large fire. Nashoba crept cautiously towards the ring of rocks, his senses on full alert, and he could tell by the warmth radiating off the rocks and coals that this fire had been burning strong just hours ago.
“There.” said Traver, pointing to a partially concealed opening in a rock face at the edge of the clearing. “That cave is where we need to go.”
“I don’t like the look of that place,” said Nashoba. “Surely the entrance will be warded against intruders.”
“Allow me to inspect it.”
The Alpha's Mail Order Bride- The Complete Series Page 17