by Tamar Sloan
Just like Willow…although no one has told her mother how to help her get better. Her mother is tied up trying to earn a living seeing as the father of her child skipped town. But now isn’t the time to have that conversation.
“Orin!” Harold’s voice is pitched and panicked. “There’s more.”
Orin is already at the gate. “Harold had a health scare recently. I need to see to him.”
I nod. “We’ll be here.”
With Orin gone, I point to the metal door of the aviary, which is very much shut. “Someone let him out.”
Mitch crosses his arms. “Yes, someone did.”
And we both have a pretty good idea of who that someone is.
I make a split second decision. “We need to do the same thing Kurt has.”
“Ah, venison isn’t my thing.”
“Hilarious. I’m going to head back to the car, you let our friend here out and I’ll follow it. Kurt is banking on her taking him straight to Avery. This guy will take me straight to Kurt.”
Mitch’s dark brows power down. “That’s not something you should do on your own.”
I sigh. He’s probably right. “I’ll wait in the parking lot. We’ll go together.”
Mitch relaxes a little. “Okay.”
Orin is back, and the missing eagle looks like it may be down the bottom of his to-do list. “I’m going to have to deal with this before the sanctuary opens.”
I grab his shoulder and squeeze before heading past him to the gate. “We won’t get in your way. I’m just going to call Dad and let him know what’s happened.”
Orin nods, distracted. The guy has got a tough day ahead of him. “Tell Eden I said hello.”
I’d like to say hello, except my stupid phone is flat as a tack. “Sure. I’m looking forward to getting home tonight.”
Which is an understatement. The longing to be back beside my mate is overwhelming.
As I head to the exit, I pull my car keys out of my pocket.
Kurt’s bloody threats are about to stop.
Chapter Eleven
The engine is idling as I wait for Mitch. If Avery has stayed in the area, we’ll need to follow as much as we can in the truck. If he’s headed to the forest, then we’ll get to shift.
I hear the cry of the eagle, its call of freedom, before I see it. High up in the sky, its massive wingspan circles the sanctuary, and I can relate to its sense of anticipation.
You want to find your mate. Believe me, I know the feeling.
It soars up, finding the warm updrafts, and flies east. I drop the truck into gear and start driving toward the entry. Mitch, where are you?
Now that the eagle has set his course, he angles like an arrow. I accelerate, but Mitch isn’t even in my rear vision mirror. I power out the gates, I can’t wait. This is too important.
The bird seems to be on a mission, because it flies due east, straight into the sun if it wasn’t so grey. I squint up at the low lying mass. It’s going to be harder to see him in these conditions, but I’m determined. I’m not going to lose him.
I accelerate again, glad to see the eagle is heading away from suburbia. It would suck to be stuck at a red light like the law-abiding future cop I want to be and have to watch our one lead disappear into the grey horizon.
The road starts to wind north, so I find the next right—some unnamed track—and turn. The eagle coasts high above me, probably loving the feeling of slicing through the wind.
Suddenly, he banks, subtly but definitely taking a southerly shift. I watch, our trajectories no longer parallel, as his new direction starts to move away. Pine trees line the road, which turns out to be a lazy, winding strip through the forest. There’s no way to tell which way it’s ultimately going.
The eagle’s wings twitch again, and it definitely takes a south-easterly course. I lean forward over the steering wheel. Damn it. I’m at risk of losing it.
Making the call, I pull the truck over. Jamming my phone in my pocket, I jump out. The eagle is reaching the horizon where evergreen tops meet charcoal sky. He’s not waiting for anyone.
With a quick glance over my shoulder, I shift. I can’t afford to lose him. I need to know where he’s heading.
The moment I’m in wolf form, I connect with how the eagle must be feeling. Wind whips at me, carrying the promise of what’s to come. I breathe in the scents; freedom, wilderness, possibilities. Just like the eagle, the barriers between me and what I want have just been shattered by the potential of Mother Nature.
Powering through the trees, I watch the bird overhead. It cries out once, then twice, and I wonder what it’s trying to communicate. Maybe we’re getting close, it would be logical for Avery to have one of his bases nearby.
Maybe he’s calling out to his other half, knowing she’s not far away.
Thirty minutes later, I’ve decided the eagle’s call was a heads up that this would take a while. The forest grows denser and wilder, the ground touched by nothing but the paws of the scampering animals I hear.
Just the way I like it.
Without warning, the eagle banks again, then swoops down and lands amongst the branches of a towering pine. From his perch, he angles his head, looking down and around.
I slow, then halt. Is this some kind of pit stop? Did he need to catch his breath?
He launches up into the air and I get ready to sprint again, but a moment later I see why. A matching eagle, deep brown and crowned in gold, meets him mid-air. They swoop and swirl amongst the grey sky, the heavy clouds seeming to come down and meet them so they can be part of the joy.
I feel my smile curve my lips. Now that’s an impressive reunion.
I look back down, scanning among the trunks standing guard. Which means one of my targets is nearby. Either Avery or Kurt must be in the area.
I move forward cautiously, paws softly crushing the damp pine needles, breath shallow and quiet. The trees open out to a grassy area, a squat, haphazard mountain of rocks on the other side. Squinting, I see what could possibly make this hill special. A crack, created by drunken rocks, stares at me several feet away.
I wait, but the cave remains a silent, black opening. Is Avery actually here, or are his eagles waiting for him?
I sniff the air, but the breeze coming from behind me gives me nothing but resinous pine, rich earth, and the promise of rain. I sniff again. And those waterworks will be soon.
Investigating the cave is the next logical step, but I hesitate. Usually, holes in a hill only have one way in and one way out. If I go in there I’ll effectively trap myself.
I circle around, keeping to the edge of the trees. The first drops of rain start, dragging the air temperature down with them as a mist draws in. If Avery is here, surely he would have come out by now. I hear a cry high above and glance up. The eagles have lifted into the air and angled south. Great, this was just a pit stop.
The rumbling growl is so low it takes a few precious seconds to register. But the baritone snarl reaches me with its hate and message—I’m about to start…and this won’t be ending without bloodshed.
I turn, and Kurt is on the other side of the clearing; a ragged, russet wolf. His fur is a little longer, his eyes a whole lot more hateful since last time I saw him.
When his throat was between my jaws.
I don’t growl, but I sure as heck ain’t smiling as I straighten. I stare, and stare hard, communicating my own message—you aren’t walking away without justice being served.
Kurt steps right, circling the clearing. I mirror him, happy for him to dance with his inevitability. Another few steps as we continue the waltz and Kurt moves closer to the hill. When I see something move in the darkness of the cave, I pause.
Avery.
The eagle brought me straight to him, but they also brought Kurt. I watch Kurt step sideways again, now standing outside the mouth of the cave.
He grins in a godawful, glowering kind of way. I keep my eyes zeroed on him. Does he know Kurt is there? But he steps sideways ag
ain, relinquishing the place as guardian of the cave.
This time, I make my own sharp movement to the right. Kurt instantly mirrors it, all growls and threats, but obviously maintaining his distance. Good. He knows I’m no longer the inexperienced Were he challenged to a Claiming. With Eden, because of Eden, I’m now the Prime Alpha.
Eden. The one Kurt blames for all this.
Anger, cold and determined, has my head dropping. I make another sharp movement, this time forward, but Kurt doesn’t come to meet me. His muzzle serrates, his teeth baring, as he takes another step to the right.
Satisfaction adds to my steely resolve. He knows he has one shot, and if he misses, he’s either human or lacking a pulse.
The rain picks up in intensity, but I don’t care. This is my opportunity to end this. Another step to the right and I’m almost outside the cave entrance myself. Once I’m between Kurt and Avery, then I’ll attack.
Two more steps and the rocks of the hill come into my peripheral vision. The ground squelches beneath my feet, its fullness telling me it probably rained not long ago. This place is about to turn into one giant puddle. Two more steps and I can feel the solidness of the rocks behind me. The mouth of the cave isn’t far away.
Without warning, Kurt leaps, and I cover the last few feet. I’m now the force Kurt will have to go through if he’s realized Avery is in there. I straighten. The anger and the determination pour out of me in one mighty roar.
My head drops as the sound dies, eyes lazering in on the Were who stands for everything we are not. I growl, low and hard.
Bring. It. On.
It’s all the invite Kurt needs, because triumph sparks in his hazel eyes as he surges forward. Water splashes out as his paws power into the ground, the mud splattering his russet fur.
My heart rate quickens as time slows. Kurt’s wild eyes, angry and hate-filled, tell me how he wants this to end as he comes closer and closer. I don’t move. He’s about to find out who decides what tomorrow looks like.
The light that sparks his eyes, unholy and manic, almost makes me smile. Kurt is celebrating too early. He leaps, and I rear up to meet him, mouth open, ready to show him what the Prime Alpha can do.
But Kurt arcs high, higher than I expected, and my jaws clamp hard on air. He sails over and behind me, landing on the rocks above. I turn, facing the mouth of cave, rain obscuring what I’m seeing.
What the hell is Kurt doing?
This time, the rumble that starts doesn’t stop. It starts above me, then comes from beneath me. I watch as a brown wall of sludge starts to shift, its intent to crush the distance between us. There’s a shaking of the air, a muted roar, the knowledge that thousands of pounds of weight are about to pay homage to gravity.
As the avalanche of soil and rocks comes at me, I have no choice. I leap forward and the blackness of the cave swallows me.
Chapter Twelve
I’m roaring long after the mud has stopped laying a massive wall of earth and rocks across the entry.
I did not just get trapped! Kurt is not still out there!
As my lungs roar my fury, my heart screams one word. Eden.
I’m ripping at the soil, massive paws not big enough as I tear at the dislocated earth. Beneath the veneer of sludge, I start to get a sense of the size of the boulders that have come crashing down. But I can’t afford to stop. Every moment is another one that brings Kurt closer to Eden.
I jam my shoulder into the rock before me and push. The cold, wet surface is determined to remain where it just landed, but I’m determined too. Nothing will keep me from Eden.
“I doubt even the Prime Alpha can move those monoliths.”
A muted glow fills the room and I turn, squinting in the gloom, surprised but not shocked when I see the figure of a man shrouded in the blackness. Avery, King of the Fae. Eden’s father is sitting at the back of the cave, only a few feet away.
But I don’t have time to bond with my father-in-law. Kurt is out there. And so is Eden.
I turn back to the mountain I now have to move, shifting back to human. I need to get my bearings, come up with a plan. I’m scratching at the mud and sludge, not caring as the sticks and gravel tear at my nails. “We have to get out of here.”
“Yes. We do.”
Frustration is firing through my body so I use it as fuel. I step one way then the other, hands feeling the wall of earth that is keeping me here. I just need to find a weak spot, one I can exploit. Then Kurt is going to pay.
“But it won’t be today.”
I spin, frustration bursting into anger. “I can’t afford to sit around and wait.”
Yanking my phone out of my pocket, I hold down the power button. All I need is one phone call. I’m not some passive Fae who’s going to sit around hoping this will turn out okay. It’s a relief to see that I have reception down in this rock hole, but Eden’s number goes straight to message bank. Helplessness starts to swallow the anger, and it’s not a sensation I enjoy.
“Do you not trust your pack?”
That has me pausing. The fact that I trust those I love to keep Eden safe meant I followed Dana in the first place. “They will protect her with their lives.”
Avery nods in the gloom, his dark hair pulled back the way Eden’s used to be. “Then we wait.”
I let the anger take over, blazing and violent, as my fist powers into the stone next to me. “I don’t leave the ones I love!”
Pain shoots up my hand, a lightning shaft spearing through my bones and exploding along my nerve endings. Damn it!
“I never left.”
Cupping my bruised hand, I slide to the floor, the stone scraping my back. I welcome that pain like I do the agony in my throbbing knuckles. “Bull crap. I’ve seen what you left behind.”
I look up, now that my eyes have adjusted to this tomb, and notice that Avery is not only sitting, but half-lying back in some sort of knobbly, wooden recliner. As silence finally settles, I notice his short, raspy breathing. Orin’s words come back to me. “You’re sick.”
“Only as sick as the earth. I come here to heal and rejuvenate when I can.”
I listen to the labored breathing for a few seconds, take in the paler than pale skin. I don’t point out that it doesn’t look like it’s working. I frown. It seems the Fae really are closely connected to the earth.
I look around, thinking maybe there’s some miraculous back door. But the cave is small and compact. Someone has chiseled out a couple of shelves above Avery’s head, where two jars sit along with a container of water.
I squint, after growing up with Mitch and his woodworking passion, I can recognize hand hewed furniture anywhere. “This place is pretty well set up.”
“It is not mine.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Someone else lives here?”
Avery inclines his head. “At times. A man named Reed comes here often.”
I wait, wondering if catching his breath is the only reason Avery is hesitating.
“He is a Changeling who needs a break from the man-made world sometimes.”
I look around at the rough home Reed has built. “So he’s a bit of a hermit.”
“Yes.”
“Who can’t cope with the real world.”
Avery sweeps an arm to encompass everything around and above us before dropping it back in his lap. “This is more real than the world you speak of.”
“But he struggles to survive in the world you dumped him in.”
There’s silence in the cave. I snort, muttering my next words knowing full well they can’t be escaped in this small space. “Because he doesn’t know where he belongs.”
There’s a raspy intake of breath a few feet away from me. It may be the alarming situation I find myself in, or maybe it’s all the fallout I’ve seen of the Fae’s choices, because I don’t feel remorse. Avery needs to know what his actions have meant for those he says he loves.
“It wasn’t always like this. Alexis felt like she belonged, and she knew where she
was going.”
So we’re justifying, are we? “She certainly does.”
Avery shakes his head. “The woman I fell in love with isn’t the one you see now.”
“A woman with a rock for a heart?”
“Alexis was the warmest, most loving soul I’d ever met. There was no one else I wanted more to have a child with.”
Man, he does sound like he had it bad. Or still does… “You said you never left.”
“I had to leave. But I couldn’t stay away. The irony that she remained in cities has meant that my ailing health has been my penance.”
I think of Eden and our connection. How would I be if she upped and left with no explanation? “Well, what you did changed her. Maybe she felt like she belonged when she was with you.”
And once that link was severed, she found the next lifeline she could grasp. The safety of mergers and ledgers.
Avery is silent. Even his rattly breathing is muted. I don’t bother wasting time trying to see what effect my words have. The Fae can be pretty unreadable when they want to be. Not to mention now isn’t the time to delve into family wounds. That trajectory was set the minute Avery left, and my loyalty is to the girl who ended up being his collateral damage.
Tension winds tightly through my muscles as I realize something. “Mitch doesn’t know where I am.”
“Orin has not been to this place.”
I have to consciously unclench my hand from around my phone. “Freaking great.”
“We have friends who can get us out.”
“I’m the strongest Were there is, if I can’t move these rocks, then whoever or whatever you call, isn’t going to shift them either.”
“Ah, but there’s one of you. Strength comes in many forms.”
I squint, taking in this man who looks so weak and speaks with such strength. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve pointed out yourself. Working as a silo hasn’t worked…”
Avery raises his hand, and my Were sight sees the tiny insect crawling on his palm. He lifts it to the wall behind him, and the ant scampers onto the granite. I watch as it taps and tests with its antennae, then stops when it finds dirt. “First, we’ll need oxygen. Then, as my strength regains, we can call the others we will need to help.”