by Dianna Love
The Guardian was never in danger.
Everyone here knew that at the last moment the Guardian would have lifted a hand and used his power to slam the wolf down. His next move would have been what he considered a mercy killing.
To some degree, the Guardian would be right.
Eli’s vision had been accurate.
If Herc didn’t stop Adrian’s wolf, Justin would lose a part of his soul that he’d never get back. His world would never be the same.
With only one option, Justin turned Herc loose to give that wolf a beatdown.
Fur flew, claws slashed and blood spilled.
In minutes, Herc faced a badly wounded wolf that continued to snarl even though he was clearly beaten.
The Guardian said, “Enough. Stop.”
Herc took a step back, showing he had heard and obeyed their leader.
Adrian’s wolf didn’t have the sense it took to pour piss out of a boot right now.
Good job, Herc, Justin told his bear, who had run and fought hard in spite of the titanium draining his energy.
He felt for Adrian, who no longer had what Justin and Herc shared. If they could keep the Guardian from taking action this minute, Justin would plead for one last chance to get Adrian back to where he’d once been.
A man tightly bonded with his wolf.
That would happen only if the Guardian hadn’t already decided that a few more days would be dragging out Adrian’s misery.
Guttural sounds crawled up Red’s throat.
Adrian had no control over that wolf.
The Guardian came into Justin’s head. I have tried to reach Adrian to help him return to us. I can hear him only in bits and pieces now. He’s fought a hard battle, Justin. You all have, but I have to end this as I would for any of you.
Justin begged, Give me one minute in my human form first, Guardian. Please.
The Guardian took in Justin and turned his head to where Eli stood quietly, staring at all of them. He asked Justin, Is that the Romanov daughter you were tasked with delivering to Clan Boudreaux?
Yes, but I can explain.
I will afford you the opportunity.
Then Herc told Justin, Mate touch wolf.
Mishka?
Not bear.
Herc had to be relaying a message from Eli.
Possibly thinking Justin’s delay in replying was due to worry about Adrian going wild again with Eli near, the Guardian said, Shift back, Justin. I’ll watch Adrian’s wolf.
Justin did as told, standing at his full height once he was bipedal again, though his bad leg felt like it was ready to fall off. A set of clothes magically covered him as well, thanks to the Guardian.
Hurrying to get a handle on this disaster, which was all he could call it at this point, Justin said, “I will explain about the delivery, sir, but I need Eli ... Elianna here for that minute I’ve requested.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, the Guardian asked, “Why?”
“I think she can tell us something about Adrian that none of us are able to see, but ... she’ll need to touch him.”
“You would risk Adrian’s wolf attacking her?”
Hitting the Guardian with a gaze that left no question of his intentions, Justin said, “I will not allow anyone to harm her. Ever.”
Giving Justin a narrowed look in return, the Guardian appeared on the verge of dismissing all of them.
Then Eli said, “Please, sir.”
That must have changed his mind. His boss signaled to her. “Elianna, please join us.”
When she stepped up close, Justin immediately went to her side. He noticed Cole’s congratulatory look, which he appreciated, and Rory’s curious expression, which he’d expected.
Justin told the Guardian, “If you’ll order Adrian’s wolf to sleep, she can put her hands on Red.”
Cole and Rory stepped forward to join the circle. Cole asked, “Is she a healer?”
Eli said, “No and she has voice.”
Cole’s eyes opened wide, surprised at her assertion.
Rory said, “Okay, then. What do you plan to do?”
“I have vision of wolf. Is why we come. Justin stop attack. Must see inside.”
Clearly intrigued, Rory said, “What is it you expect to see inside?”
“If human there or ... all dark.”
Justin smiled with pride at how she backed away from nothing, but that didn’t mean Red and Adrian could still be saved.
She explained further. “I tell what I see. Maybe good. Maybe bad. Think vision important. I am here for reason. But only tell truth,” she said, glancing at Justin.
He nodded, letting her know he understood that she would share exactly what she saw.
The Guardian had been observing Eli the whole time she spoke, but showed no sign of relent in his position on Adrian’s fate.
Red chose that moment to make the sound of a demon ready to attack. His growls rumbled with fury.
Addressing Eli, the Guardian said, “You may place your hands on the wolf once I order him to sleep, but he will not sleep long. When he wakes, he will still be a vicious animal. I will still have to do what is best for him and this world. Understand?”
Nope, no second thoughts on Adrian’s wolf.
“Yes,” Eli replied.
All eyes were on the Guardian as he studied both her and the wolf for a long moment before asking, “Are you three willing to accept whatever she shares, even if it confirms what I’ve been saying?”
Cole and Rory exchanged guarded looks then turned to Justin, who had just as much trepidation in answering that question. His buddies waited to see what he said and would trust his judgment.
Justin clarified, “What if she indicates he can be saved?”
“We will discuss it,” was all the Guardian would allow, which meant he had probably made up his mind and was just allowing Justin and his two friends time to accept the inevitable.
With a quick check of Cole and Rory, who sent him your-lead hand signals, Justin said, “Yes, we agree.”
Turning to Adrian, the Guardian ordered, “Red wolf, look at me.”
Adrian’s wolf pulled back his lips and upped the crazy wolf sounds, but his eyes slashed at the Guardian who told him, “Sleep now, wolf.”
Power rushed across Justin’s skin. Eli gasped.
Justin held her anchored to him, but they both took a step back, pushed by the Guardian’s energy.
Mad Red’s snarling slowed. His eyelids drooped and he seemed to fall asleep standing up.
Turning to Justin, the Guardian said, “His wolf fights everyone even now. You must hurry. It may last one or two minutes at most.”
Eli didn’t hesitate, stepping past Justin, who rushed around her, dropping to one knee on the opposite side of the wolf.
“Your boss make sleep. No danger,” she said pointedly to Justin.
“I’m making sure he can’t be.” Justin’s heart pounded like a maniac on crack.
If Eli saw no hope for Adrian, it would be the last nail in the wolf’s coffin.
CHAPTER 36
Elianna could understand Justin trusting her, but why had his friends?
And why had that eagle put this wolf’s life in her hands?
Seconds were ticking away, but she would need less than one fourth of that minute if all went well.
If not, she would trust Justin to keep her head from the wolf’s jaws.
Kneeling close, she wrinkled her nose at being near the tang of fresh blood that had already begun to dry across the wolf’s coat after the fight with Justin’s bear.
Giving Justin one last look, she tried to appear confident to answer the hope in his gaze, but knew she failed when he said, “I won’t blame you no matter what, Eli, babe. Just tell us what you can.”
Her eyes blurred for a moment with unshed tears.
She didn’t know this Adrian, but she did not want to be the reason he received a death sentence.
Mishka said, We see wolf. Not kill.
Her bear wa
s telling her they had not created this issue and they had no power over Adrian living or dying. Elianna wasn’t quite ready to accept a lack of responsibility, but she had wanted to touch him to see what was inside. If he had only darkness and no glimmer of light, then perhaps letting him go would be better than forcing him to continue living a nightmare.
She finally realized how truly unfair she had been to Mishka by keeping her distance. I am sorry, Mishka. You are good bear. Was not good shifter.
You good. Me love.
Tears spilled at that.
Love you, too.
Justin frowned, “Eli, babe?”
She smiled. “Is fine. More later.”
He nodded, still looking concerned but understood she’d explain when they were not here.
Extending her hands, she placed one on the wolf’s head and one on his heart and closed her eyes to the outside world.
At first touch, waves of anger, hurt and chaos bombarded her. The wolf and man battled viciously. Images and thoughts flew at her in flashes of bright light and boiling black.
Her energy boiled up and flooded her hands, then left her fingers.
It was all too much.
She was kneeling by the wolf one moment and lying on her back the next, listening to Justin shout at her to wake up.
Opening her eyes, she lifted her fingers to his lips. “Too loud.”
He pulled her up, so she sat with his arm around her back, but he breathed as though he’d run up a mountain carrying her. He dropped his forehead to hers. “I can’t let you do that again.”
“Yes. Will do again.”
Sighing with resignation, he said, “I probably will, but not today.”
“I am good. Must stand.” She didn’t like being on the ground as if she were a weak female.
When she was on her feet again, Elianna dusted herself off and took in all the expectant faces. All but the Guardian’s. He seemed to wait for confirmation of his verdict.
Red started twitching and showing signs of coming out of his sleep state.
“Justin, your minute is up,” the Guardian said quietly. “I’m sorry. I know the history between you two—”
Elianna shouted, “No!”
Cole muttered, “Oh, shit.”
Rory’s mouth gaped open.
The Guardian looked shocked that anyone would interrupt him. The other three had similar expressions.
Justin would be angry with her.
The Guardian said, “Pardon me?”
Mad Red snuffled and made some garbled sounds.
Elianna crossed her arms. “Mistake to kill friend.”
Justin winced when she said his boss intended to take Adrian’s life, but that was the truth.
The wolf shook his head and sidestepped on wobbly feet.
Cole said, “Heads up, everyone. Red is going live in seconds.”
Elianna rushed to explain, “Wolf and human have terrible time. Much pain inside. Two life not happy.” She looked to Justin who had to know she was talking from experience when she said, “Wolf and man must be one.”
His sad smile encouraged her to continue.
She faced his imposing boss. That man had eyes too much like an eagle for his nice human face. Looking at his chin instead, she said, “Not have words.”
“It’s okay, Eli, babe,” Justin said. “I’ll explain anything they don’t get.”
Thinking hard, she said, “Man and wolf angry. Wolf not forgive man and man not forgive self. Wolf feel ... abandoned.”
She noticed Justin staring at Red, then at her, because when the wolf’s gaze finally lifted, those eyes searched for Eli. The wolf shivered as if in freezing cold, but the temperature was mild.
No fur stood up on his back. No snarling.
That was a hopeful sign, right?
Cole said in a half-joking voice, “You think she’s a wolf whisperer?”
The wolf swung his demonic gaze to Cole. Back came the crazy sounds and he started forward.
The Guardian lifted his hand and the wolf ran into an invisible wall, which he hit several more times before backing off, still glaring at Cole.
Elianna asked Justin, “What is wolf whisperer?”
He explained, “Sort of like a healer who can reach inside a damaged person, or animal, to calm them and bring them back to control.”
“Not healer,” Elianna told Cole.
“But you think he can be saved, right?” Justin asked with so much longing it hurt her heart.
Elianna said, “Not what I say.”
Cole and Rory cursed.
Justin called over, “Language, dammit.”
She looked at Justin. “How is that make sense?”
He gave her a sheepish grin.
The Guardian barely spoke, but power drove his words. “Silence. Let her finish.”
Gifting this eagle boss with a short nod, Elianna said, “What I say is not maybe save wolf. Must make live.”
Drawing his brow down in tight lines, the Guardian asked, “Why must he live?”
“You are ... special shifters. Yes?”
The Guardian nodded, but cut a questioning gaze at Justin that Elianna read as Justin being in trouble, but she could not stop now. She said, “Have new vision when touch wolf. His life is much ... uh, need ... no, wrong word.” She dug around for the English word and muttered it in Russian to jog her mind.
“You’re saying this wolf is very important for us?” the Guardian asked.
“Yes. Speak Russian?”
“It’s one of my languages,” the Guardian said.
She finished her explanation in Russian, then the Guardian interpreted. “She says Adrian is the key to our future.”
Rory asked, “All of us? Even you, Guardian?”
Frowning, their boss said, “Not me.”
Elianna argued, “Yes. You. Wolf dies, key gone. Wolf alive, very good for special shifters.”
Even the wolf quieted as everyone digested that.
Justin found his voice. “Are you saying he can go back into the world?”
Frustrated that they weren’t grasping her point, she said, “Is simple. Wolf must live so wolf save life. Must save person necessary to shifters.”
“You mean all shifters?” Rory asked.
“No.” She pointed at each one of them as she said, “You, you, you, you. Gallize. Is what wolf call you.” Justin had told her that name, but so had the wolf, which she hoped saved Justin from being in trouble.
Even Justin’s boss had no words.
She turned to the wolf. His insane eyes relaxed and the wolf put his front legs out, sliding to the ground.
Justin asked his boss, “What’s your decision, sir?”
The Guardian waited until the wolf looked up at him. “I will allow you the time you need to heal, Adrian, but I will also honor your request at any moment if you ask me to change my mind.”
The wolf whined and dropped his head on his paws.
Justin kissed her cheek and said in a hoarse voice, “Thank you, Eli, babe. Thank you for saving our friend.”
“My appreciation, too,” the Guardian said. “I do not want to lose any of my flock.”
“I did not much.”
The Guardian corrected her. “You did quite a lot, Elianna, and I will not forget it. Now, we need to get you to Clan Boudreaux.”
“What?” Justin shouted.
CHAPTER 37
Justin had a moment of panic at the Guardian’s announcement that Eli needed to go to the Boudreaux Clan, but he had yet to inform his boss of all that had occurred.
That would be the same Guardian who currently stared at Justin with enough force he felt the ground tremble.
Cole and Rory stepped away from the Guardian, probably expecting an apocalyptic explosion.
Shit, I so fucked up. “My apologies, Guardian. I haven’t given you my report and should have asked for you to hear that first.”
“Ah, yes. Your explanation.”
Justin caught them all u
p on what had transpired, leaving out the part about being intimate with Eli, which he’d never embarrass her by mentioning in front of her. But if the Guardian pushed the point, Justin would ask to speak to him in private and share that development.
As he wound down, feeling tired by recounting every moment of the last days, he said, “Bottom line is that Clan Boudreaux is responsible for the attacks on her and I have asked Eli to be my mate. She has accepted, but we are not bonding until we have assurance of Nico’s being sent here. I would like to propose that if Clan Boudreaux makes the bear responsible pay for his actions and they tell Alexandre Romanov they’re okay with Eli staying with me, that we are all willing to forego any vengeance.”
In thinking through all he’d said, Justin felt like he’d laid out a perfect case.
Something about the Guardian’s lack of surprise over this information bothered Justin. Why wasn’t the Guardian up in arms over what Clan Boudreaux had done?
“The San Francisco wolf alpha tried to reach you, Justin, but it was evidently during the time you were on the mountain and without a phone. His message indicated two rogue wolves scented in the area of an attack on Elianna in San Francisco were traced to the Black River pack.”
Justin grimaced over not being the one to inform his boss first about that attack, which seemed forever ago now.
Not slowing down, the Guardian continued. “I spoke to the Romanov alpha who convinced me he was not behind the attack and even offered to send a team to hunt down her pursuers. I was able to dissuade him from that action and convince him we could handle this. Upon my contact with the Clan Boudreaux alpha, he sent spies out among his people and discovered the person at fault. It was the shifter he’d offered Elianna to as a mate. The same man who had been put in charge of the Boudreaux warriors.”
“T-Bone? The alpha promised her to T-Bone?” Justin’s insides boiled at that thought. T-Bone was the worst kind of man whore.
Eli stood like an unhappy statue.
Nothing showed on her face for those who didn’t know her, but he could feel her anxiety mounting.
Justin wanted to hug her and tell her all would be fine. That he would fight anyone and everyone for her.
“Yes, T-bone,” the Guardian acknowledged. “The alpha felt it was time for him to settle down and figured the shifter would be honored to have someone like Elianna. Never did he expect the bear to be so dishonorable as to put her life in danger. He found out when one of his scouts reported back that T-Bone had secretly told some of the men to allow the Black River pack access through Louisiana to distribute their mind-altering drugs. It all unraveled at that point and T-Bone confessed.”