A Shift in the Air

by Patricia D. Eddy

  Run. His wolf demanded to be set free. When that failed, he cursed, pleaded, and pulsed against Liam’s tenuous control.

  The decision made, he turned, only to be shoved, hard enough to knock him off his feet, into the front yard. His shoulder rammed into the ground, and the wolf broke free, Liam’s fingers and toes aching with the start of the shift.

  “Peter?” The word escaped as a half-growl, and Liam wrestled for control of his beast as Peter stalked towards him.

  “’Get out there,’ you said. ‘You’ll be fine,’ you said. I wasn’t fucking fine. We got back to her place, and as soon as I took off my shirt, everything went to shit. She was disgusted by me. Physically ill.” Peter charged, driving his shoulder into Liam’s abdomen. The two tumbled towards the street with Peter’s blows raining over Liam’s torso.

  “Stop.” Liam caught Peter’s fist in his palm, twisted, and threw the man five feet. The bitten wolf staggered up, his eyes glowing with amber flames, and growled.

  Liam returned the challenge, a snarl curling his lip. He cracked his neck, letting the wolf shine in his own eyes, and charged. Peter’s elbow slammed into his jaw. A knee cracked against his ribs, pain spiraling through his chest. The smaller man had anger on his side, but Liam wouldn’t go down without a fight. He left his own marks: his fist split Peter’s lip, the back of his head snapped against Peter’s nose, breaking the cartilage in a sickening crack, and he landed on top of the man with his knee bruising Peter’s kidney.

  “Fight, you fucking coward!” Peter flipped Liam over, scraping his cheek along the rough concrete. “You’re holding back!”

  No one called him a coward. Not even his brother. Liam hefted Peter over his head, no longer caring if he hurt him. Visions of another fight, of Bella channeling Katerina’s fire, keeping his wolves from reaching Cade, high atop the tower, consumed him. The howl that rumbled in his throat widened Peter’s eyes a moment before he flung Peter to the ground.

  “Ya don’t want to do this. Not tonight. Not with me.” Liam struggled to his feet, wiping the blood from his eyes. His left arm throbbed with every breath, and he flicked a brief glance to his white shirt, now stained crimson. “Get out of here. Now.”

  Peter took two quick steps forward and then halted when a warm current of air surrounded them.

  “Stop!”

  Liam tried to move, but his feet stayed rooted to the ground. A deep calm wove a net around him, and he blinked at the woman he’d been unable to get out of his head all day. Peter growled, “Bella.”

  “What?” Shite. Bella? The one woman he could never be with. Why her? And why did she have to look so much like Caitlin, the two could be sisters? “You’ve got a lot of goddamn nerve coming here and charmin’ us.” He took a deep breath, preparing to call for his alpha, when the charm faltered, and Bella threw up her hands.

  “Please. I don’t mean any harm, I need you, Liam… I’m—“

  Disgust twisted Peter’s face, and he bounded for Bella with a roar. Liam snapped the last vestiges of the charm. He dove for Peter, sending him sprawling. Fingers tight around Peter’s neck, Liam asserted his place in the pack. “There’s been enough blood spilled because of her and the fire bitch. Get out, and don’t come back until morning.”

  “Cade…needs…to know,” Peter grunted.

  “Yeah, and I’ll be the one to tell him.” Liam gave Peter another shake and tightened his grip. “Understood?”

  At Peter’s nod, Liam rolled off of the man with a groan. Peter spit blood onto the grass in Bella’s direction and took off down the street, his limp more pronounced than ever.

  From his seat on the damp grass, Liam stared at the woman in front of him. Delicate shoulders shook. Her plump lower lip jutted out, so like Caitlin she took his breath away. Everything hurt, and the scent of his blood thickened the air. Fig blossoms wafted on a gentle breeze, and Bella fidgeted with the crystal at her throat.

  “Why are ya here?” Liam’s knee buckled when he tried to stand, and Bella rushed forward, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him. “No,” he snapped and pulled away.

  “Please. You need a doctor. Let me help y—”

  “I can manage on my own.” Liam stalked into the pack’s house with Bella’s lighter footsteps tapping on the hardwood floor behind him. Blood dripped into his eyes, and he stripped off his shirt and balled it up against his temple.

  “Sit down.” The quiet order, delivered with a tenderness he’d not expected from her, shocked him, and he trudged into the dining room and fell heavily into one of the chairs. “First aid kit?”

  “Kitchen. Under the sink. Ye’re takin’ a risk being here. Do ya think I’ll protect ya after ya lied to me?”

  Bella rummaged through cabinets, and water ran before she came back with a bowl of steaming water, a towel, and the first aid kit tucked under her arm. “I didn’t lie.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Bella’s element stirred a lock of his hair. Why did she smell so much like Caitlin? She pulled the shirt from his hand and dropped the sodden material at his feet. “Neither of us wanted names—or recognized each other.” She applied antiseptic to the gash above his eyebrow. “This is going to sting. I’ll try to lessen it a bit.”

  He couldn’t let his wolf free; the animal might rip apart the woman currently tending his wounds. And the man needed her hands on him—more than any drug, more than his next breath.

  “Close your eyes,” she whispered. “Don’t fight what you feel.” A breeze perfumed with her sweet scent and the sea surrounded him. Every ache faded, and a gentle warmth spread from his chest, down his arms and legs, and soothed the beast inside. Under her hand, his heartbeat quickened, and he couldn’t help covering her fingers with his own. He wanted to lose himself in her.

  “There now; that’s better, yeah?”

  Liam didn’t want to open his eyes. Her touch, so like Caitlin’s, and her voice…he could almost pretend she was here, alive, his. He grunted his agreement and let her tend to him, wiping away the blood, pressing butterfly bandages to his forehead, smoothing ointment over his scraped cheek and jaw. Whatever she’d done held the pain at bay, and he wondered why the elemental who’d helped kidnap Mara and torture Cade would want to heal him.

  “I’m done now. You should take something for the pain. My charm won’t last forever.”

  “Liam? What the hell is she doing here?”

  His eyes flew open, and he cursed at the intrusion. Mara stood in the hall between the kitchen and dining room, wearing a pair of blue silk pajamas and a robe, her red hair damp around her cheeks. The humidity in the room skyrocketed. “I couldn’t sleep…and I sensed something. Air. I had to come see.”

  “Bella—“

  Mara cut him off. “She kidnapped me—with Katerina. She helped my sister torture and nearly murder Cade.” She stared at their joined hands. “Holy fuck, are you seeing her? That’s…how could you?”

  “I’m not…fuck me. This isn’t what ya think. We—shite. Mara. Ye’re my family. I’d never hurt ya.” They’d had such a rough start—Liam still carried the heavy weight of guilt over threatening Mara the day they’d met. She’d run to her aunt’s condo, and Katerina had captured her, charmed her, almost killed her.

  “Don’t be mad at him,” Bella said, reaching for the crystal at her throat. “He didn’t know who I was. And I had to see him. I think we…used to know each other. A long time ago.”

  “What?” Liam sprang up and grabbed Bella’s arm. Eyes that had once been purple now glinted sky-blue, and a ghost stared back at him. Each breath came quicker than the last, and the dizzying realization hit him in the chest.

  “Caitlin.”

  “I think so. Yeah. But…” She touched the crystal at her throat again, and Mara gasped.

  “No.” Mara stumbled back, hitting the doorjamb and sinking down to the floor “Get that…thing…away…the fire…no.”

  Liam and Bella—Caitlin?—turned towards the water elemental, and Mara’s eyes flooded
with pinpricks of golden flames. She raised her hand, and her pale fingers glowed until a burst of white-hot power pulsed through the room. Bella screamed as Liam ducked. Shards of crystal flew outward, landing in sizzling, molten drops on the hardwood floor. Bella’s knees buckled, and she crumpled into a ball at Liam’s feet.

  “Get…Cade,” Mara whispered, and then collapsed.

  Chapter Six

  Liam took a step towards Mara, then glanced down at Bella, whose cheeks had faded to the color of fine porcelain. She curled inward, wrapping her arms around her knees and crying softly.

  Cade burst into the room, snarling when he saw his mate on the floor, flushed and gasping for breath. “Mara!” He gathered her into his arms, and she clutched at his rumpled t-shirt. “What the fuck happened?” The wolf shimmered over the man’s face for a brief moment before he clenched his jaw and leveled a steely-eyed gaze at Liam.

  Liam’s duty to his alpha warred with the need to comfort the crying woman at his feet. “Ye’re not going to like it.”

  “Mara’s in pain. You’re damn right I’m not going to like it.” In Cade’s arms, Mara groaned and patted his shoulder.

  “Put me down. I’m okay.”

  “Like hell you are. It’s happening again, isn’t it?” Cade set her down and steadied her with a hand against her lower back.

  “Again? Cade, what the hell?” He’d missed something important. The energy in the room shifted, and Liam took a step towards his alpha. The edge of fear to Cade’s voice worried him. Mara’s pale skin and trembling hands didn’t reassure him either.

  Cade’s eyes shifted between blue and gold. “You need to be around more.”

  Peter’s fists had done less damage. “I know. And I’m sorry. But…” A sob drew his gaze to the floor.

  Bella tried frantically to pry a few shards of the red crystal from the wood. “I don’t want to remember. I can’t...I want to be Bella. Please. Don’t make me be Caitlin again.” Her eyes—Caitlin’s eyes—pleaded with him, and Liam dropped to one knee and reached for her hand.

  “Ye’re Caitlin? Truly?”

  Cade grabbed Liam’s arm, hauled him away from the hysterical air elemental, and shoved him against the wall. “Bella? Katerina’s Bella? You brought her here?”

  Liam stared at the ground. Challenging Cade would only earn him a few extra bruises—even though he probably deserved them.

  “Get her the fuck out of this house. Now. Preferably with a broken bone or two.”

  “No.” Mara helped Bella into a chair, where she dropped her head into her hands and moaned quietly. “My sister had some sort of…charm on her. I broke it. That’s why I had to call my fire—Katerina’s fire. It wasn’t Bella’s fault. And she’s…it hurt her, too. She needs help.”

  “The hell she does.”

  Cade and Mara stared at one another for several tense seconds until Mara rubbed a spot between her breasts, and her brow furrowed. She glanced down at Caitlin. “You’ve been near the house before, haven’t you? I’ve felt you. Your element.”

  Bella nodded against her palms. “I’m sorry. You were in pain.” The muffled words paired with a gentle breeze, and Bella peeked up at Mara. “I had to try to make things right.”

  “What did you do?” Cade’s voice cracked, and he reached for Mara’s hand. When she fitted her body to his, the tension in his shoulders melted away.

  “Burnt sage runes on your door. Quartz at the four corners of your yard to ease pain, settle the spirit. I thought you could both use some peace after what happened.”

  Mara’s hand shook as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Come home with us. I feel better there, thanks to you, and I think we all have questions. None of us more than Liam.”

  “What does Liam have to do with any of this?” Cade asked.

  Uncertainty roughened his voice. Whatever Bella said next could break him or heal him. “Tell him yer name, luv. The one ya were born with.”

  Her tears spilled over. “Caitlin Brannigan.”

  ***

  Every step took her farther from the pieces of the crystal that had protected her for eleven years. The warm, reassuring blanket of Katerina’s charm gave way to an inky, swirling fear that threatened to choke her. Liam walked stiffly at her side. He’d retrieved his bloody shirt and buttoned it over the smooth muscles and the scrapes and cuts she’d tended. Her charm should have faded by now, and he grunted as he climbed the four steps to the alpha’s house.

  “Let me—“

  “No.”

  Fine. See if she’d offer to help him again. She huffed and stumbled on the last step, pitching forward until his arm shot out and drew her against him. Heat, a glimpse of the wolf in his eyes, and she held her breath.

  “I’ve got ya, luv.”

  The promise in those words steadied her, and she braced her hand against the taut muscles of his chest. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “I don’t know.” Fergus’s face temporarily obscured Liam’s, and she gasped.

  “Caitlin?”

  “Don’t”—she backed away, Liam’s concern twisting into shock. “I thought—shit.” The tender moment chased away by a man she could barely remember, she turned and rushed into the house.

  As soon as they passed over the threshold, the runes she’d carefully drawn in white smoke weeks ago closed around them, and a hint of spice tinged the air. Katerina had taught her well. The runes wouldn’t ward off evil—she didn’t know how to cast those—but they could ease pain. Liam took a slow breath and then rubbed his swollen jaw.

  “Did ya—?”

  “No. Yes. I protected this house. You’re feeling the effects. But…I can take the rest of the pain away for a bit longer, if you’ll let me.”

  “If you want to leave here in one piece, no charms,” Cade said as he passed Mara a glass of water.

  “I won’t harm you. I only want to help Liam’s pain. I can do that…for a short time.”

  Mara gestured to the love seat across from her. “Sit. I believe you. No elemental who’d set protection stones around my house is going to try to kill me—especially not with two werewolves in the room.”

  Settling next to Liam took her back to another time, a plush booth, a dark corner, an Irish reel played by a live band. Nothing made sense. Her mind jumbled; sights, sounds, and smells colliding together in a tornado she couldn’t escape. She knew the man beside her, had cared deeply for him. She’d run. Katerina’s voice. A white-hot pain in her palm. Staring down, opening her hand in her lap, she rubbed at the scar—and kicked herself for never noticing that the thickened, reddish skin held the same shape as her crystal.

  “So you’re not Bella?” Cade leaned forward, his hands clenched on his thighs. The knife-edge to his voice sliced through her, and she risked a glance at Liam. Hope lifted his brows, and his breath stuttered.

  “I am…now. Or…I was. Katerina called me Bella. I didn’t remember the name Caitlin until yesterday. Or maybe even today.” She reached for her throat, the tender, flushed skin where her crystal used to be burning at her touch.

  “Why then?” Mara slid her fingers through Cade’s and rested her head on his shoulder. “What happened to trigger your memories?”

  Liam cleared his throat. “Let me.” He explained their first meeting, though thankfully glossed over the details. “She asked about my tattoo.”

  Icy fear spread across her chest, and she shrank into the cushions. “I found a newspaper article.” She pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a few times, then handed it to Liam. “Did I really die that day?”

  “I don’t know, luv.” He passed the phone to Cade and then took her hands. The warmth from his touch quelled the worst of the fear. “Ya sent me a letter. I can show ya, if ya need. Ya said ya weren’t strong enough to escape him. That ya lo—that ya didn’t want to leave me, but he’d never stop, and ya couldn’t risk him findin’ me.”

  “Who?” Cade asked. He straightened. “Is Liam in any danger?”


  Tears burned her eyes. Liam’s arms around her had felt so good the previous night, and she wanted to ask for comfort now, but she’d had a hand in hurting his pack and the old woman, Maggie. Instead, she curled her arms around herself and forced the lump in her throat away. “I can’t remember much. But his name was Fergus.”

  “Can we back up a bit?” Liam draped his hand over hers once more. A calloused thumb stroked back and forth over her wrist, and the soothing motion quieted the storm in her mind. If she could think, she’d be okay. Maybe. “Why can’t ya remember? What happened to ya, Cait—Bella? I don’t even know what to call ya.”

  “I don’t know!” The tears spilled over, full of shame and regret, though for what, she couldn’t say. “I woke up in a hospital in Mexico. Katerina called me Bella. I can tell you everything that happened after that, but almost nothing before.”

  “Shh, easy, luv. Calm yourself.” He tried to pull her closer, but she jerked her hand away.

  “You try to be calm when your world turns upside down! I had a good life in Phoenix. Katerina was like a sister to me. I lived with her; she gave me a job. Now I’m guilty of trying to kill everyone in this room, even though I don’t know why I’d ever agree to such a thing, and there’s a man in my dreams who hurt me, and I just found his picture online. You’re someone I used to know—used to care about—and I died by jumping off some cliffs I didn’t think I’d ever been to before this morning. And I’m supposed to be calm?”

  A swirling breeze lifted Liam’s hair, and Cade growled, “Drop the charm. Now. Before I kick you out of this house.”

  “Wait.” Mara sidestepped the coffee table between them and dropped to her knees. “Take my hand.”

  The invisible thread that connected the two elementals pulled tighter, and Caitlin reached out, clutching Mara’s fingers tightly. Turbulent emotions coursed through her: fear, horror, regret.

  “Breathe. Close your eyes and breathe. Good. Now, I can explain—at least a little—but only if you stay calm and in control of your element, okay? Because I’m not inclined to fight my husband to protect you.”