Wolf whimpered.
Like he wanted to go back to the cabin.
Go to sleep, Wolf. I turned back to the horizontal lines of the lodge protecting Beauty.
Protect, Wolf insisted.
The drive surged through me to go lean against the wooden door.
To ensure nothing bothered Beauty.
Almost made me take a step. Almost. But Wolf wouldn't win. Wouldn't make me buckle to claim a Normal. Only a fool would get himself tied to one of them.
* * * *
Sunrise didn't come soon enough. Brutus shoved off the hard wood of Beauty's door that had bitten into his shoulder blades throughout the night then rubbed his stiff neck.
Not much to see but the massive closed gate. Good. The way my body felt, I didn't need to
Shift at dawn to save a princess.
Stiff legs. Stiff ass. Sleeping sitting on the hard ground without a pillow had to be the worst reward received for saving someone from a fate such as Beauty's among the extraterrestrials.
But I would have slept far less inside the cabin with Wolf sniffing her direction with each of her breaths. What would Wolf have done if she spoke in a dream?
Thinking about that might get me into trouble. I got my boots beneath me and walked three steps to the corner of the cabin until I could see Trance looking for me.
He neighed.
Probably laughing because I slept leaning against the Gods-be-damned door Wolf insisted upon opening. Even in my dreams.
A cabin's door squeaked across the trade post. Tom Rose stepped out the door in the red-andblack shirt he wore yesterday, shot me a curious look, and strode my direction.
Time to hear whatever the traders have to say. “Tom.” I nodded.
The Normal babied a steaming cup of coffee. “Brutus.” He nodded back and raised his brew.
“Coffee?” He sipped the liquid quickly and waited for me to respond.
“No.” Like I'd make the mistake of being drugged or poisoned. Leaving Beauty in the clutches of these Normals. Especially one who had such broad dishonest features. Or something dishonest about him.
He barely shrugged and peered, turning his bulbous nose toward the gate. “Any idea what happened at New Pittsburgh?”
What a waste of time. I already answered that question last night. “No.”
The Normal's blue eyes anchored back on me. “What do you think about staying on here? We could use someone with your abilities.”
All Normals could when it boiled down to live or die. Lies worked best in those situations.
“She wants to see her father.”
“You'll be heading out then? With the missus?”
Normals were full of redundant questions. I nodded. “Shortly.” I turned my shoulder to him.
He placed a palm on my arm.
Goose flesh crawled down the limb beneath my sleeve's lightweight fabric.
“Since she isn't your mate, you up for trading her for food or weapons? We'll pay you twice what she's worth. Twice what a woman like her can bring.”
Normals and their bargains.
Wolf snarled.
So loudly that I bared my teeth in a menacing grin. Or I'm the one who growled.
The man's hand fell away. “Sorry, Guardian. I meant no disrespect. But a man can't know unless he asks.” He managed a pitiful chuckle.
Fear. I didn't even need to inhale to smell for the tattling aroma caused by the rush of his panic-driven blood suddenly coursing through his body. “Open your Gods-be-damned gate.”
“John will be there by the time you get your mount ready.”
Nobody tells me to wait. I turned to face him squarely. “Open your fucking gate.”
The man held up a palm. “No games here, Shifter. We're on a strict schedule. John will be here in a few minutes. There's no need to get upset.”
Wolf growled and snapped.
Or I did.
“Whoa, friend.” The man took a step backward and glanced behind him. “There's John. He's coming now. No need to worry. Take it easy.”
“Nobody tells me what to do.”
Something clicked.
The sound of a gun cocking. Behind me. Who?
The hairs on my neck prickled to chilly attention.
The Normal leaned a bit to my right.
Who in the hell stood behind me?
The Normal's face winced. “Whoa. Whoa, there little lady. Ma'am we don't want any trouble.” He pointed toward the lanky Normal, who needed to shave a six-inch scraggly brown beard, back near the lodge he'd come from. “John is coming right now to open the gate.”
Good to see Beauty bonded with the pistol. I stepped toward the cabin and turned my back to the wall where I could see Lorelei and the Normal.
“What did he want, Brutus?” The gun never wavered in her steady grasp.
Like she knew how to shoot it.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Brutus.” The man dropped his coffee.
Brown liquid splashed all over his boots and blue jeans.
“John,” he turned to the approaching Normal, “open the fucking gate.”
Well, it wouldn't be the first time I'd worn out my welcome the minute someone learned my name.
The Normal waved both of his palms. “Brutus, sir, would you like me to saddle your horse?
Maybe you could use some ammo. Or travel goods? John!” He snarled over his shoulder to the lanky man who had almost reached us. “Yell down to Bill to bring a bag of ground coffee and sugar, a pot, and two cups. Hurry now!”
Both Normals studied me with wide eyes.
Then they vanished.
“Brutus?”
Time to go. I waved her over.
She bumped into my elbow, almost stepping behind me. “What happened?” she whispered.
Worried and mindful enough to stay close. I shot her worry lines a glance and studied the quiet trading post. “I told you to stay inside.”
“I didn't like the tone of the conversation.”
Smart girl. And one with the initiative to use a weapon that she had refused earlier. To save my tail. “Come on. Let's get the hell out of here.”
* * * *
My Shifter led the horse I rode through the gateway without so much as a word from the men he'd protected last night. The scrawny one who passed me when I pointed the gun at the stockier one tossed a burlap sack my direction.
A clanking sack when it hit my hands. Hopefully cups, a coffee pot, and coffee. God, sugar.
What a treat. Could we trust it to be safe to use?
Brutus guided the animal down the winding road, his hand grasping his black stallion's halter.
So, I followed instructions. Held the reins. I suppose, to be in control, if anything happened to my Guardian. That's if those fools at the trading post decided to pull some trick and force
Brutus to shift to defend me.
Defend me?
Well, that's what he claimed to be doing. And he did. I'd heard every word of that bastard
Normal's proposition. The cabin walls may have been thick, but they didn't block out the details. If Brutus wasn't going to trade me for whatever he could get, what was he planning to do with me? And what good would it do to ask? The Normals immediately feared Brutus once learning his name. I would be wise to walk softly also. But he'd saved me. That was significant in itself.
Brutus turned to his stallion, petting the beast's shiny black neck.
The horse halted.
“Dismount. I'll take the lead,” he said with his commanding stare.
Fine. I swung my leg over the saddle and bent a knee.
Hands grabbed my waist.
Strong hands. That gently lowered my boots to the ground. What was he thinking? I could step down from a horse. I stepped sideways and studied the ties knotted tying his saddle bags shut.
“Have you ever carried a pistol before?” his voice practically vibrated.
“No.” I shook my head and focused on the corded muscle along his wrists wh
ere he'd rolled up his camouflage sleeves.
He pulled out the pistol. “Turn around.”
What?
My heart raced.
“Look at me, Lorelei.”
Hell, why? But what choices did I have? He held the gun. And he had all the extra perks of shifting. I slid my gaze up the long stretch of his shirt to the red circle beard ringing his mouth, and up the rounded tip of his nose, to somehow meet his gaze.
“You overheard that Normal's proposition?”
He knew I had. I nodded.
“This,” he tapped the gun into his empty palm, “probably got us out of that fortification without losing a drop of sweat or blood.” He wagged the long cylindrical barrel at me.
“Because you had the sense to use it. Well, I'm going to find some place for you to carry this weapon. If only for you to protect yourself. Now, turn around.”
Okay. Whatever. I either wind up in a not-so-pretty situation. Or I pack his gun. I turned.
He yanked at the waistline of my jeans, thrust the gun into it, and wriggled it quite a bit.
Like he was pressing his body next to mine. But I couldn't feel it. Just sense the presence.
“We'll try it there. Tell me if you feel like it's falling. We'll have to think of something else.”
Brutus sat in the saddle extending a hand to me before I could even think another thought.
One of those nice strong hands. Just what did he offer in it? The only way to discover was to accept the help. And I had no choice. One way or the other, I'd learn. Probably the hard way.
He hefted me into the saddle behind him.
Behind that back that seemed to shield me from whatever we headed into. Or was I naïve for thinking the Shifter who despised Normals welcomed the job of guarding me?
“Hold on,” he barked.
The horse's legs knifed.
Into a hop. I grabbed an armful of the iron chest hidden beneath the camouflage shirt before me.
The jogging motion smashed my breasts into the tight curves of his hidden chest.
What man wouldn't favor riding like this?
Thankfully, the gait smoothed into a steady roll of a walk.
“We need to keep moving. Just in case.” His chest rumbled against my arms.
“Of what?” Would he even bother with a reply?
“In case Yale is following. As long as he didn't pick up our trail right away, we have the chance to put a lot of distance between us.”
Why would Yale follow? “New Pittsburgh is gone. What does he want with me?” And what are your plans with the female Yale wanted?
His profile turned left, panned right, stopping as far as his head would move in my direction.
Surveying our surroundings as his elbows jutted out, holding the reins. On watch. Hopefully, he wasn't thinking about how closely I had to sit just moments before when his stallion jolted to life.
Heat burned up my neck.
Worrying about embarrassment now was wasted energy. If Brutus wanted to know anything else, he could just take the information. Force my compliance.
He continued scanning the adjacent wall of tree trunks. “Yale isn't the kind of warlord to give up easily. If he thinks you're alive, he'll pursue.”
To hand me over to the aliens? “But he's lost his empire. Why would it benefit him to hand me over to the aliens now?”
“His wife's dead.” He paused for two breaths. “His daughter probably is too. He doesn't have an heir.”
Yale would use me to create another heir?
My heart stopped.
“Powerful Normals do irrational things to maintain their power,” Brutus concluded.
And what about Shifters? Did it matter whether a man was Normal or not when it came to rational male behavior? My Guardian's reputation certainly didn't make him the best Shifter to use for an example. “What about Shifters? Just what would they do to maintain their power?”
He snorted. “We stay as far away from Normals as possible.”
Who could blame them? “But what about my friends back at New Pittsburgh?”
“As far away as possible often lands a Shifter in the middle of Normal activity.”
I guess I'm fortunate in that respect given I had to run for my life and wound up here riding double with Brutus. Whatever that equated to.
“Hold tight,” he blurted. “We're going to move fast.”
* * * *
No matter how long Brutus kept Trance galloping, the steady rocking motion didn't dislodge the female's curves from his back. Not Beauty. She was everywhere. A constant. Heat.
Pressure. Under my arms. Rooted in my nostrils. Wolf's damned nostrils. The only blessing in the situation was the back of the saddle's seat blocking her hips from wrapping around my ass. Stopped the only part of our body's grinding movement from truly feeling like mating. Or
Wolf wouldn't have allowed me to drive Trance hard and fast. Wolf would have clawed free to have his way with Lorelei. To drive his seed home, hard and fast.
Not yet. I hadn't lost control. Yet. What Shifter was worth his weight in ammunition who couldn't keep a leash on his Wolf?
“Brutus, please. Have we been running for an hour? I can't hold on any longer.”
Fine. I had ridden the determination out of her if she intended to seduce my Wolf with her touch. I yanked back on the reins.
Trance slowed into a walk through the shade cast by the untouched hardwood forest.
Her arms loosened. She leaned backward, the heat of her body easing away. Her hands sliding to my waist.
Wolf whimpered.
Stupid animal. He'd get me killed if he didn't get his shit together.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked a little too softly.
Weak vulnerable words reflective of how she felt. I needed to put the Normal in her place.
Show her who was in charge. So her question didn't deserve an answer.
Her hands slithered off my body altogether.
Silence. Blessed silence. A man could think without a woman's hands on him.
* * * *
Something changed. My Guardian had been explaining things. Then he stopped. He just quit speaking. No riddles. No biting words. He just stopped talking. What did that imply? I curled my fingers around the seat of his saddle and tried to concentrate on not squeezing my grip too tightly my knuckles remained pink.
No sense in wearing myself out clutching the saddle when he warned me to hold on before prompting his mount into jerking movement. And no sense in wondering about the unknowable future. He hadn't traded me to the traders. What did it matter why at the moment? Brutus saved me. From the extraterrestrials. From Yale. From the traders. And gave me a gun. I could put a bullet in his head right now. Just like that. Then where would I be in the wilderness right beyond Yale's barbed-wire palisade? Facing creatures far worse than the aliens’ Bounders and their yearning for human flesh. Facing the AEI human world a woman dare not face alone. A world run by males who use women like a saddle or a horse. Where
Brutus is the only male I had. The only male I could believe in at the moment.
The soft thump from the horse's placement of hoof, a snap of twig, or the horse's snort was all we heard as the sun quietly climbed overhead. At last, the glittering surface of a small pool sparkled between distant tree trunks. Calling to the stallion. Before I knew it, Brutus stood on the ground, reaching up for my waist, lifting me from the saddle.
Thank the stars. I couldn't have shifted a leg over the rise of the horse's hind quarters for the life of me.
My boots hit solid earth.
But my legs weren't cooperating. I tried to straighten them. To make them work.
I wobbled.
Brutus just stood there, his fingers curled around my waist.
I must have looked pathetic. Incapable of riding a horse.
“Walk around,” he said firmly. “We'll stay here a while until your legs feel better.”
That would be a long time. At l
east he showed some concern about my wellbeing. Or was his concern more for a highly-valued commodity of a female he transferred to the place he'd make the best profit?
My gut flopped.
Fear. He could read my reaction. Sense it. Better to walk than stand around sending messages that could get me more unwanted attention. I began pacing, stretching the soreness out of my thighs.
He went on about his business washing his hands and the back of his neck with the murky dark water.
Like he could wash away the morning's stress. Thank goodness I had used the damned gun. He probably had a little more respect for me. Or knew to be wary of his charge now. But a
Normal could trust a Shifter. That was the way of things. They protected us if we asked for help. Always. It's how humans survived the alien invasion. It's how I would survive the nightmare of Yale planning to give me to the extraterrestrials.
Brutus might ration out his words and stare at a person like he would kill him if he wiggled.
But Brutus was all I had going for me. I had to just keep quiet, follow instructions, and try not to be a hardship. I stopped at the pool's still edge and studied the clouds and blue sky mirrored upon the flat surface.
My gut snarled.
The whisper of approaching boots in the grass came up behind me.
Brutus.
He claimed a spot next to my elbow, worked the end of a small leather pouch open, and passed the gaping opening over to me with one of those strong hands. “Eat.”
His skin wasn't pale like other redheads. More like almost olive. But not quite. No freckles.
Flawless? Maybe the color was a Shifter thing? Better than simply Normal skin. Flesh capable of changing in an instant, allowing him to turn into a werewolf. Something about it had to be different. And he'd prepared for travel by bringing food. “Thank you.” I took the pouch.
More dried berries. Walnuts and pecans. Spring had yet to produce the same treats this year.
Brutus studied the distant side of the pool.
My gaze followed his line of sight to some small dead young trees.
Leafless. Unattached to the rest of their surroundings. Existing without consuming anything in the area. Like us. Passing through.
“When can you ride?” he asked without looking away from the scraggly tree trunks.
“I'd rather go than stay here.”
Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III] Page 5