Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: ShadowmasterRunning with Wolves

by Susan Krinard

  “Lost. Yes. You could say that. And—”

  “Scared.” The woman took off her bag, placed it on the ground, squatted over it and started rummaging inside.

  “Yes, that, too. I’m so glad I found you. I’ve been frantic. I need help. I have to find the way to my grandparents’. Can you—”

  The woman pulled a large reddish crystal out of her bag, followed by a black and then a green one. She closed her eyes and started mumbling over them.

  “Please,” Shay said. “I need—”

  The woman held up a hand stopping her, then continued chanting.

  Shay swallowed a deep breath, trying to hold back the anxiety threatening to consume her. If she lost it, if she became a babbling idiot, she wouldn’t be able to help Jason. She had to stay calm. Rational. Reasonable.

  Oh, the hell with it.

  She bent toward the woman, reaching for her, but before she could touch her shoulder, the woman stood and turned to her.

  “How can Jaya help you?”

  “My friend fell. He’s hurt,” Shay blurted, afraid the woman would stop her again.

  “Then your instincts led you right, Shay Mallory.”

  They did? “How do you know who I am?”

  The woman laughed, her deep voice rumbling through her chest. “Everyone knew you were coming. You’re the only stranger we’ve had ’round these parts in years. Who else could you be?” She bent back over the rocks, her hands moving, hovering, palms down, almost touching the crystal surface as words, rich and guttural, rose from inside her.

  Impatience reared its ugly head and had Shay bouncing up onto the balls of her feet. Was this woman going to help her or not?

  “I’m sorry to interfere with—” Shay threw her arms out “—with whatever it is you’re doing, but I need you to tell me how to find my grandparents’ house.”

  The woman continued to ignore her, swaying back and forth, her eyes screwed shut.

  Unable to wait any longer, Shay stepped forward and tapped her on the shoulder. “Please, if you could just let me use your cell phone so I can call—” She stopped, realizing she had no idea what their phone number was. Or if they even had a phone.

  The woman’s dark eyes shot open and pinned her with a steely glare. “Cell phone? You think I have one of those modern contraptions that spread radiation all over this beautiful green earth? Those people who use those things without thought to the delicate balance of nature are destroying this wonderful place we live in. You will never catch Jaya using one of those things.” She closed her eyes and started swaying again.

  Shay looked around her, searching for a truck or a car or even a motorcycle, anything this woman could have used to get way out here on this mountain.

  “I walked,” she said, staring at her through an eye opened just a crack. “The same way I do every day.”

  “I need help. Please. My friend—”

  “I wouldn’t lift a hair off my dog’s head to help that Malcolm Daniels.” She spat his name out of her mouth as if it burned her tongue. “Not after what he done to my Celia. I told my girl to stay away from him, that he was bad news. He let the power go to his head and he got lost, that one. But she has never listened to me, not since she was old enough to crawl. No matter how many times I warned her to stay away, she didn’t. And now she got burned.”

  Leaving the crystals on the outcropping, the woman picked up her bag and started to walk down the path, still mumbling about Celia and her heartbreak at the hands of Malcolm. Geez, did everyone hate that man?

  “But it’s not Malcolm who’s hurt,” Shay called, hurrying after her, surprised by the older woman’s speed.

  “Of course it’s Malcolm. Celia left because you were coming. Because he insisted he was gonna marry you.”

  “But I’m not going to marry Malcolm. I’m with Jason. He’s the one I’m going to marry.”

  “Jason?” The woman stopped and turned. Her eyes grew wide.

  “Yes, Jason is the one who needs help.”

  “Oh, this is bad. Very bad indeed.” She started walking back the way Shay had come. Back toward the trees and the deer path that led to the pit.

  “Why?” Shay asked, confused and frustrated all at the same time. “I mean, I know why it’s bad but why do you think it’s bad?”

  “Bad for Jason,” the woman muttered, holding up a purple rock hanging from a long chain around her neck and kissing it.

  “Very bad,” Shay agreed. “He fell in a large hole in the ground and landed on his knife. He’s hurt and bleeding right now. I need to get him help and I have no idea where I even am.” She was beginning to shriek, her words echoing through the trees around her.

  The woman stopped walking. “Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

  Shay blew out a deep breath. “I can’t imagine.”

  “Show me where he is.”

  “No offense, but he needs a doctor and someone who can get him out of that hole. I need to get to a phone.”

  “No. You need Jaya or your instincts wouldn’t have brought you to me.”

  Shay sighed. “Fine. Follow me.” She hurried back into the forest hoping she was doing the right thing. Because if she wasn’t, if she was too late...

  When they arrived back at the pit, Shay peered inside. Buddy stared up at her and whined. Her stomach dropped. “Jason’s not there.”

  “Over here, child,” Jaya said, her tone heavy.

  Shay turned to find her leaning over a wolf’s body lying beneath a tall Redwood. Her heart caught in her throat. “Is he—” She couldn’t form the words, couldn’t stop the fear reeling inside her, sending her staggering toward them.

  Jaya didn’t answer, just started running her hands over his body, her eyes closed, her lips moving in a low chant that Shay could barely hear. The woman pulled more crystals out of her burlap bag and placed them around Jason, resting the palm of her hands over each one as she repeated words over and over in a language Shay didn’t recognize.

  Shay dropped to the ground next to them and gingerly lifted the wolf’s head onto her lap. He whimpered and Shay’s heart broke at how weak it sounded. “Please, don’t let him die.”

  “Here, put this on his wound.” Jaya handed her an amber jar.

  Shay twisted open the lid and found green paste inside. She stuck her finger into it and scooped out a thick glob that spread easily across the open wound on Jason’s upper leg.

  “His pulse is weak,” Jaya said. “He’s lost too much blood.”

  “We need to get him to a hospital,” Shay insisted.

  Jaya didn’t acknowledge her words; instead she took the purple crystal from around her neck and placed it around Jason’s, whispering more of her healing chants.

  Shay rested her hand on his shoulder as tears welled in her eyes and fell onto her cheeks. “Don’t die on me, Jason. You promised.”

  Footsteps approached on the path beside her. She turned, hoping help had finally come. Instead, Malcolm stood at the edge of the pit, his face a blank mask, blood smeared across the front of his shirt.

  Jason’s blood?

  “If you want Jason to live, Shay, you will marry me right now.”

  “What?” Shay stared at him, disbelief muddling her mind as she tried to comprehend his meaning.

  “After the ceremony, I will get him the help he needs.”

  “You did this to him?”

  He shrugged, his eyes narrowing.

  Fury surged through her, tightening her muscles and quickening her heart. “Jason believed in you. Stood up for you. He was your friend.”

  “As I am his. That is why I’m hoping you’ll do the right thing for him, for the pack, for all of us and marry me.”

  Shay got to her feet, not wanting her tension and anger to touc
h Jason. “You mean the right thing for you.”

  “I’m sorry it has come to this. I tried to send him away, to distract him, but he wouldn’t do as he was told.”

  “He needs to get to the hospital now.”

  “Jaya,” he said, looking past Shay and ignoring her pleas. “You will officiate the ceremony and bear witness of this marriage to the council.”

  “And if I don’t?” Jaya said without leaving Jason’s side. Without taking her hands off his shuddering body.

  “You mean other than watching Jason die?” He shrugged his imperious shoulders.

  Jaya’s eyes narrowed into fine slits.

  “Jason needs help. Let Jaya heal him,” Shay demanded, even as panic and desperation clutched her by the shoulders. There was no use reasoning with the man. He was crazy, he was...unreachable.

  “As soon as we get the marriage ceremony over with, Jaya can do what she does best and heal him. I’m confident she’ll pull him through.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” Shay countered.

  “Then you’ll at least know you did everything you could. Now get over here, old woman, and marry us or I’ll end his suffering right now.”

  Nausea turned Shay’s stomach as Jaya rose, leaving Jason and walking toward Malcolm. Shay followed, knowing he was telling the truth, certain that if she didn’t do exactly what he wanted he would let Jason die, or worse, kill him in front of her. How could anyone have followed a man who looked like this? How could Jason have trusted him?

  “All right, Malcolm,” she said as she stopped in front of him. “I’ll marry you.”

  * * *

  In a hazy pain-induced blur, Jason watched Shay walk toward Malcolm. No! Shay. His words reverberated in his head as frustration grew within him. He saw Malcolm put his hand on her back. Claiming her.

  Jason wanted to scream, would have screamed if he could have but the only sound he made was a pathetic whimper. The paste Shay had put on his wound was cooling the burning fire in his leg. But it wasn’t enough. Helplessly he watched Shay agree to give herself to Malcolm. To voice his biggest fear. I’ll marry you.

  Once she married Malcolm, there would be nothing he could do to protect her from his every whim. To be with her. Fury and despair comingled and surged through him, fueling his adrenaline. Vicious snarls erupted from his throat. Desperately, he tried to get to his feet, but his leg wasn’t strong enough to hold him and he collapsed back to the ground, his heart pounding painfully in his chest.

  “Jason!” Shay cried, and tried to come back to him, but Malcolm pulled her away, whispering in her ear something he couldn’t hear.

  The acrid scent of her fear was so thick Jason could taste it in the air. He had to help her. He tried to move again, to crawl to her on his belly. He made it maybe a foot when his leg caught on a root rising out of the ground. He yelped as agony shot through him. The roaring of his blood though his veins and the pounding of his heart drowned out all sounds, even the frantic barking of Buddy still trapped in the pit.

  Jason tried to move again, desperate to reach Shay, but the pain was so severe, blackness folded in on him. He fought it with what little strength he had left. He couldn’t leave her now. Not like this. He’d promised. He said he’d protect her. He’d said he’d hold her in his arms each night, if only she’d marry him.

  Marry him.

  He tried once more to move, before the darkness claimed him and he saw no more.

  Chapter 18

  A numbing calm inched over Shay, seeping into her bones until she was so cold she could barely feel Malcolm’s hand at her back, nor notice Jaya until she was standing in front of her.

  “I do not abide by this, Malcolm. And neither will the council,” Jaya said.

  “Who will tell them? All they are going to find out is that you married us. Right here in the forest on her daddy’s land. It’s what Shay wanted, and we didn’t want to wait another moment to be together.”

  “And what happens when the council sees what you’ve done to Jason?”

  “What makes you think I did anything to Jason? He fell into a hunter’s pit. Who knows how long that pit has been there? Hell, Shay’s daddy probably built it. No one has been on these lands since then, no reason for anyone to be.”

  Shay glanced back at Jason lying under the tree. He was no longer moving. She had to do something to help him.

  Malcolm followed her gaze. “Let’s get started, Jaya, before our friend bleeds out all over the place.”

  Shay couldn’t let Jason die on her. Now that she’d found him, she couldn’t lose him. But what could she do?

  “Do you, Shay?”

  Shay looked blankly at Jaya. What had she been saying? “I’m sorry?”

  “Do you take Malcolm as your husband? To respect him always, as your leader, as your master?”

  Revulsion stirred thick in her chest. No! She wanted to scream her denial. But she couldn’t. Her mouth went dry as she tried to say the word Malcolm wanted to hear. But her tongue thickened and her throat closed up. All she managed to do was nod.

  “What was that?” Malcolm asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered, and stole another quick glance at Jason.

  The sooner they got this over with, the sooner Jaya could get back to him and they could get him to a hospital.

  Malcolm’s hand tightened on her back as he tried to draw her attention back to him. Shay stared straight ahead. She refused to look at him. He was beyond reprehensible. He was a beast.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Jaya said the words but Shay barely heard them. Even as Malcolm tried to pull her to him, she turned, pushing him away. She had to get back to Jason, to get as far away from this animal as she could. But she couldn’t. He wouldn’t let her go.

  She swatted at his hands, twisted and turned, trying to break free. “Let me go!”

  She might be married to him, but that didn’t mean she had to have anything to do with him. Before she could tell him so, Scott and two men appeared from out of nowhere.

  “I’m afraid I can’t let you do this.”

  Shay recognized him as one of the men from the cave.

  Malcolm stepped in front of her. “What are you talking about, Mitch? And what are you doing here with him?” Malcolm gestured toward Scott.

  “You have to help Jason,” Shay said to her cousin. “He’s hurt really bad.”

  “We will. But first, tell me what’s happened here.”

  “My wife doesn’t have to tell you anything,” Malcolm said, stepping forward, chest out, shoulders back, fury glittering in his eyes.

  “You’re already married?” Scott’s mouth hardened as he looked accusingly at her.

  “I had no choice,” she insisted. “And it doesn’t matter. Jason is what matters. You have to help him,” Shay pleaded when Scott still didn’t move. She took a step back toward Jason. She had to get to him. Jaya was leaning over his body, her eyes closed, her lips moving.

  “You’re too late, Scott. It’s over.” Malcolm reached back and grabbed her hand before she could get away, then started pulling her toward the path to her father’s house. She tried to resist, but he yanked harder.

  Before she could protest, Mitch and his friend stepped forward, blocking the path. “We can’t let you leave.”

  Thank God. She tried once more to pull free from Malcolm’s grasp.

  “How do you plan on stopping us?” Malcolm sneered as his grip tightened, his mouth an ugly misshapen hole in his face.

  Scott stilled, a calculating smile lifting the corners of his thin lips. And then they attacked, all three jumping on Malcolm at once. Finally free, Shay turned and ran back to Jason and Jaya. The shouts of more men arriving surprised her. Malcolm’s or Scott’s, she couldn’t be sure.

  “You need to go,”
Jaya whispered to her when she crouched next to them. “It’s not safe. I’ve never seen so much bad energy in one place.”

  “Seen? Can you see the auras, too?”

  Wonder widened Jaya’s eyes. “You are a surprise, Miss Shay. Remember you have good instincts. Just like your daddy did. You can trust them. They come from down here.” Jaya pointed at her stomach. “Never will they lead you wrong.”

  Shay put her hand on Jason’s cheek, stroking the soft fur. “He looks worse.”

  “You can’t help him here. Transform and run like the wind. Go get help. Tell them what happened,” Jaya insisted. “I’ll stay with him.”

  “I can’t leave him,” she insisted.

  “Girl, you’re married to Malcolm now. You have no choice. If you want to save this wolf then get out of here and get help. I can’t do what I need to to save him here. I need him back at my house with my herbs and my crystals and, as sure as the moon rises, I can’t get him there on my own.”

  Jaya’s words dropped like a lead weight to the bottom of her stomach. You’re married to Malcolm now. “All right. Tell me how to get to my grandparent’s house.”

  “Follow the sun.”

  Shay stared at her, swallowing a groan. “Okay, when I get to the cliffs, right or left?”

  “Left.”

  Suddenly a shot sounded. Surprised, Shay looked up and saw even more men than before fighting one another. Mitch fell to the ground bleeding.

  “Go. Now,” Jaya demanded. “They would rather see you dead than give the evil one more power.”

  Shay leaned down and pressed her lips against Jason’s head. “Don’t forget your promise. Don’t die on me. I love you, dammit!”

  She’d finally said it. She only hoped it wasn’t too late. Choking back her tears, she started to stand. A shot cracked the air. Something whizzed by her. Hot pain seared her arm. She looked down. Blood seeped from a wound where the bullet had grazed her. She spun round. Jaya was lying on her back, blood spreading across her chest.

  “No!” Shay dropped, crouching over her, pressing her hands against the wound in Jaya’s chest, trying to stop the bleeding. The woman didn’t move. “Jaya! Please, don’t die. You can’t die.”