The wolf halted, somewhat disturbed by the pup idea. She welcomed it, yet did not. The silly human side wasn’t certain, but the wolf was. She would keep the mate. They would find a den and have pups. Simple as that.
Maybe she wouldn’t run so far tonight. Her mate had stayed back at the roadside. He wasn’t as strong as her, nor, she suspected, as ruthless. Though she hadn’t found any scents marking the territory, this was not their land. And she missed him. He should be running alongside her. There was satisfaction about that idea from both sides.
She would just go a little farther and catch the mouse she could sense under a nearby bush, because, okay, she liked the crunchy little things. She ran on, hunted and snacked and howled. It might be a while until her wolf ran free again.
And that seemed a little sad for both of them.
The man, David, stood guarding their…den? Their car. The words weren’t as hard tonight, a surprise and an interesting point. Words were human but she remained a wolf. Standing in the shadows and watching her mate. She waited for him to notice her, but his eyes were weak human eyes and couldn’t see her in the darkness despite her light color.
She stepped out from the trees and walked toward him. He startled, but didn’t point his gun at her. He knew her. Unafraid of what he would see as she changed, at least not afraid in her wolf form, she began to work backward into her human skin. Since this was the way she had begun life, as human, it hurt less. But there were no surges of power to bring pleasure, either.
David watched it all. And when she was done, he was there to hand her the clothes she’d discarded earlier, folded neatly and warm from the car. What he didn’t do was offer her a hand up, or an embrace. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she realized he avoided touching her at all. She’d been so right. This would be the end of them. He’d seen the curse and couldn’t get past the physical reality of it.
If he left she would be lost. She did need him. She had to end the curse. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she turned away from him so he wouldn’t see it. She would lose the wolf or lose him.
Shit. She was crying. She was hiding it, but she was crying. The pain of her return from wolf form must have been even more painful than becoming the beautiful wild creature she’d shown him. What the hell was he supposed to do about her crying?
“Do you want some ibuprofen?”
She shook her head. Crap, he was an idiot. Like what the hell was ibuprofen going to do for broken and then magically healed bones? How long did the pain last? Why didn’t he ask her all this stuff before?
“I just want to go to the hotel room and lie down, please.”
He nodded, but she wasn’t looking at him. She stared out the window as she had on the drive after meeting Grandmother Eva, lost in thought. Why had the old lady asked if Helen was sure she wanted to get rid of the curse? Who would want it if it led to pain like he’d just seen? A tiny voice inside reminded him of what had seemed like pleasure at the beginning of the shift. That had to be wrong.
Going back didn’t take as long as going out to the woods. This time he knew where he was going. And if he sped, well, he was a little keyed up by the events of the night. Who could blame him? Soon enough they found their way back to the motel and he’d parked. She kept silent and simply climbed out of the SUV without a word. He followed, and they walked to the door. At least it was on the outside of the building and there was no need to cut through long hallways that could be full of people.
He put his hand on the knob, ready to key it open when she grabbed his hand. He glanced at her and froze. Her eyes were open wide and a snarl curled the corner of her mouth. “Get back. They’re here.”
The wolves. Did she mean the wolves who’d attacked her and tried to run them down were back and in their room? He didn’t wait but dashed back to the car and grabbed the shotgun from the back seat. He headed back but she held up a hand, cautioning him to stand back. She gripped the knob and twisted. He could hear a crack from the door even from where he stood as she broke the lock with a single hand.
The light from inside streamed out into the parking lot. Inside the place was completely trashed. The bed torn apart, the TV smashed, the mirrors and painting dangling in broken bits. Their clothes were strewn across the room, most shredded. But there was no sign of the wolves.
“They’re gone.” She stepped inside and took a closer look. Her nose wrinkled and even he could smell the strong scent of urine.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, but they sure left a message. I’d say it was ‘go away or else.’ Maybe with a bit of ‘we fucking hate you,’ thrown in.” He quipped and she rewarded him with a tiny smile.
“Okay.” He couldn’t deal with her tears, but he could handle this. He leaned the shotgun against the wall just inside the door. “You think you can look this mess over, see if there’s anything we can salvage? We still have the camping gear in the SUV. I’ll go and talk to the manager, complain how we were broken into and pay for the mess. No cops.”
“Fine.”
She looked like she was going to say something more and he waited, but she shook her head. He turned to leave.
“Wait.” She walked over to him and gave him a long, long kiss. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She nodded and looked back at the room. He stepped out and headed to the motel office.
David didn’t hear her when she followed him out of the room a few minutes later, and he was inside the office when she started the SUV with the spare keys she’d kept in the motel safe along with her purse, one of the few things not destroyed by the wolves. They’d yanked it from the wall and smashed it to the ground, denting it to the point where she had difficulty opening the lock, but she got what she needed.
The wolves could have killed them both if they had found them in the room, or killed David in the woods where she’d chosen to complete her change. And what would she have done with him dead? What would she have to live for? Nothing. No family, no friends and who cared about career. Jesus. All she wanted was him.
Her blood had run cold when she’d smelled them at the motel. Three big males, angry and spoiling for a fight. She’d been right. Just like everything she’d done over the years to prove her father wrong, to prove she was as strong as any man, she had to do this on her own. David couldn’t handle her change and he certainly couldn’t handle the kind of danger she brought to his door. And he shouldn’t have to.
She drove through the night, ignoring the constant buzz of her cell phone. Eventually, she just shut it off. Hopefully he’d take the hint and go home. Even if he somehow got a car in the tiny town she’d left him in, it would take him some time. She would have this resolved, one way or another, before then.
When she reached Blowing Rock, it was nearly ten in the morning. She parked on the side of the road just past the town sign and got out of the SUV. The power and magic in the ground surged up from what the grandmothers called the path. Unlike the weak tingle she’d felt before, the magic here roared, its rush untamed and wild. Google told her she stood on the edge of a series of wild National Parks and forests. The wolf, quiet until now and usually silent between moons, pushed to escape and run free.
She gasped for breath and held on to her control. She couldn’t change, not now when there were bound to be wolves nearby, ready to defend their territory. Not to mention Gypsy witches who threw curses. She needed to be able to use her words and convince these people to let her go. To release her from the spell. Then David would be safe and maybe he would be able to accept her again.
She climbed slowly back into the car. Once her feet were on the ground and the door was shut, the power became muted, reduced to a slight rushing sound in the back of her skull. She leaned forward against the steering wheel and shut her eyes. For a while, she focused on breathing. Eventually, she slept.
Chapter 14
Helen awake with a start. She didn’t really have time to decide what had woken her, or even how lon
g she’d been asleep when her door was wrenched open and someone reached inside and grabbed her arm. She didn’t have her seatbelt on and they dragged her out of the vehicle despite the attempts she made to cling to the steering wheel and the door. The ground met her face with a sickening thud but she barely had time to accept that before a boot snapped into her side in a vicious kick.
Another kick followed the first, and another. She clawed at her attackers, grateful for the ease in which her wolf claws formed. She slashed a pant leg open and was rewarded with more kicks, enough to leave her writhing in pain on the ground, unable to fight any longer. When she stopped resisting someone grabbed her under the arms and dragged her upright. Vertigo forced her to her knees once again and she retched in the grass and spat blood.
Something cracked her in the back of the head. Despite the bright sunshine, her world went gray. Someone grabbed her wrist and they dragged her to a strange vehicle. The scent of the wolves surrounding her made her want to gag and she growled, only to be met with a backhand across the mouth.
Voices buzzed around her. “Should we take her to Grandmother?”
“Let’s just slit her throat and be done with her. That’s what she deserves. She’s disrupted the path for months.”
“No. You heard what Grandmother Donceanu said, if we kill her, her mulo will be powerful and haunt us.”
Muttered agreement made it clear that no one in the group wanted this. Helen did her best to breath shallowly. No need to draw attention to the fact that she was awake and listening.
“Ruv Danior will know what to do with her.”
Someone had the foresight to bring duct tape, the sadistic bastards wrapped it liberally around her wrists behind her back and around her head, closing her mouth but also catching her hair. The pressed her face-first into the nasty seat covers in the back seat and threw a blanket over her. She did her best to breathe, but it grew more difficult when someone sat on her, laughing as she struggled to push them off.
“You shouldn’t have come here, little wolf. And where is your man? Did he run away when he saw how we marked your room?” The person on her back mocked her. This was not how she’d imagined meeting the Donceanu band, but it didn’t really surprise her that the vandals from last night were part of the family that cursed her. Were any of these the wolves that had crashed her work party months ago? Or tried to run her off the road?
It wasn’t long before they arrived. Helen was unceremoniously dragged from the car by her leg, but at least the caught her up by the shoulders before knocking her unconscious by dropping her on her head. She scanned the area but of course nothing was familiar. Except there were three RVs, similar to the last Romany bands, parked together near an old barn. No one walked nearby and no cars drove on the road. No real surprise there, this was a tiny spec of a town and there were likely more Rom here than locals.
“Sastipe, Danior. Look what we’ve brought you!” One of the men shouted. There were no women. The wolves laughed and dragged Helen closer to the middle RV. “A puyuria who just can’t stay away from us!”
A big man swung open the door of the RV and cocked his head at them. “Ah, Gypsy groupies. What can you do?” He was handsome enough with a thick head of black hair. He grinned and she caught sight of the white gleam of fangs. “But this is more than a groupie. Hello, Miss Mathews.”
One of the wolves beside her caught the edge of the duct tape on the back of her neck and ripped. She shrieked as it pulled hair and skin from her lips. But she wasn’t done. They couldn’t take her down with a few blows. “Hello, Ruv Danior.”
He smiled wider, showing a number of teeth that were definitely too long for a human mouth. “Hello indeed. Come looking for more land to steal? A new dose of magic, perhaps?”
She struggled to stand on her own without the grip of the wolves beside her. The let go at a small gesture from Danior. “I didn’t steal any land. You used it, but it wasn’t yours. And I didn’t know about the path. I didn’t understand.”
He took the three steps down from the RV with a leap that put him too close to her. “It is far too late for apologies. We suffered from your actions. The ruva especially. We take our magic from the path and the moon. Because of you we had to shift the path. Several members lost the ability to change.” He grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her toward the doors of the old gray barn. “And because Grandmother chose to illuminate you in our ways, you stole even more power. You don’t deserve the wolf.”
He pushed her through the door and she stumbled on the uneven floor inside. Her eyes had just adjusted to the dim light of a fire when the room flooded with light and she blinked. A workshop of sorts had been set up in the corner, a long bench filled with tools and materials she couldn’t identify, and what reminded her of a blacksmith forge and anvil but smaller.
“Fire it up.” Danior dragged her closer to the bench and then threw her to the cool stone floor. One of the other wolves hurried to the forge and began stacking it with coals from the fireplace.
“I hear you have been spending some time researching the Rom and visiting one of our bands.” He didn’t wait for an answer, busy with fitting a long pair of gloves over his hands. “You will have realized the talents we have. We are makers. Each of us has a way with a craft. We feel it is a gift from the powers in return for the loss of our land.”
Very carefully, he drew a long, thin bar of metal from a chest beside the workbench, then continued his lecture. “For me it is metal smithing.” He walked to her and tapped the bar against her pant leg. “My favorite is silver. Ironic, no?”
There was a small hole in her jeans. She’d noticed it when they did the laundry but hadn’t been concerned. Holes were the fashion and if it got too bad she’d simply throw them away. Now she wished she’d done that sooner. With a precision that said he might have done this before, he probed that tiny hole, only the size of a bottle cap, with the silver bar.
The moment the metal made contact with her skin, she burned.
Several agonizing moments later, in which she had screamed and begged for him to stop, he stepped away from her. Air came in quick pants between sobs. Danior clearly didn’t care if she begged and she vowed not to do it again.
He worked at the bench and her stomach rebelled at what he might be planning on doing next. “Why are you doing this?” Her voice shook. “I didn’t mean to hurt you or your people. I just didn’t understand.”
“And now that you do? Will you give us our land back?” A feminine voice came from the doorway and Helen squinted to make out who was there, silhouetted in the afternoon light.
“Christ. I cannot believe she did this.” David muttered for probably the tenth time. The old car shook and shuddered underneath him as he continued to push the speed to the maximum. He’d bought it from the guy who owned the motel and he hoped to hell it would make it to Blowing Rock. His hair fell in his face again and he pushed it back. “At least there’s been no cops.” And he was talking to himself again. “I ought to get a dog. At least then I could say I was talking to someone.”
What would having a dog be like with Helen around? Would they fight? Would she be dominant and the dog, his dog, become hers instead? Probably. “Why am I even thinking about this?” He blew past a sign that said ‘Blowing Rock 10 miles’ and groaned.
The woman was unbelievable. She’d left him behind, again! This was getting ridiculous. She likely thought she was protecting him, rather than ditching him, but being left felt the same either way. They were seriously going to have to work on some trust issues.
Lots of thoughts about the future, but not many about right now. What was he going to do when he got to the town? Look for the Rom and their usual gathering of RV campers and her car. That part was obvious. But what if he couldn’t find them? She wasn’t answering her phone. He had his gun, but only a few shells. The rest had been in the SUV.
The car shuddered again. “C’mon baby, just get me there.” He patted the dashboard and immediately regret
ted it. The surface with sticky with something he didn’t care to analyze.
The exit came up quickly and he almost missed it. He’d already left the main highway and the smaller ones weren’t marked as well. The speed limit dropped drastically the moment the sign appeared and he had to put the brake pedal down hard to stay under the limit. The last thing he needed was for some local to pull him over in a car that wasn’t properly registered, carrying an unsecured and loaded weapon in the back seat.
The best place he figured the Rom to be gathering was near the river. Google Earth showed several large clearings there. From what he’d seen there weren’t a lot of houses. Farms mostly dotted the riverside. The town had a quiet feel, but nothing unnatural, at least that’s how it felt to him. More like there weren’t many young people here any longer, and the aging population left had somewhere else to be on a sunny afternoon.
Driving at this pace during an emergency, and not being sure where to go was enough to make a person crazy. Finally, he reached the slow-moving river and began to trace its path upstream toward the National Park. On the outskirts of town, he found the Rom gathering. There were nearly three times as many campers and their arrangement was more like a triple set of rings than a large circle. He parked on the side of the gravel road leading to the clearing where the majority of the RVs sat.
Getting out of the car took less bravery than he’d imagined and more energy. Driving all night, with stops only for bathroom breaks and coffee, was certainly taking its toll. But this time he was going to catch up with her. This time he’d be there.
“Excuse me, but I’m looking for someone.”
The young woman who had been staring at her cell phone as she walked across the road stopped and stared at him. “Most people are.”
20 Shades of Shifters_A Paranormal Romance Collection Page 179