by Anna Lowe
She closed her eyes and held Jake tighter, letting the tears flow. How could she tell him? What should she tell him? He seemed so strong now, but shifter essence was already circulating in his bloodstream, ready to get to work.
Mate, her fox whimpered. My poor mate.
“Hey,” he whispered, stroking her bare skin. “It will be okay.”
She shook her head against his uninjured shoulder, smearing it with tears. Her mother’s mate, Brian, had said that too.
“Jake,” she mumbled, still not knowing what to say.
Something warmed against her hip, and she glanced down.
Jake grimaced and wiggled his hand into his pocket. “I know. That thing burns.”
She stared at the little white pouch he withdrew. “What thing?”
“This.” He worked the pouch strap loose and pulled something out. “I have no idea why. It didn’t feel warm when I found it.”
Ella gaped at the smooth, oval stone in his hand. Flecks of blue, red, and green glittered over a black core, like so many jewels all pressed into one.
Like this, Silas had said that day he’d shown her the illustration of the creation of the Spirit Stones. This is what we’re looking for. An opal. The Keystone. The stone with magic powers. The mother of all Spirit Stones.
She cupped her hand around Jake’s, afraid to speak, to touch. Too overwhelmed to think clearly. The opal was hot and throbbing with energy.
Throbbing with power, her fox said.
“It’s weird, but I felt like it was giving me strength. See?” Jake said, rolling it into her hand.
The second he did, a surge of energy electrified her body, but Jake collapsed at the same time.
“Jake!” she cried.
His eyes rolled back, and his hands shook. His voice became a hoarse whisper, his face, ash-white. “Ella… Love…you…”
“Jake!” For one terrifying moment, all she could do was hold him.
Give it back to him. Give it back, quick! her fox screamed.
She shoved the opal into his palm and squeezed it closed. “Can you feel that? Tell me you feel that. Jake, please…”
His blue eyes dimmed, then slid shut, and he went deathly still.
“No…” Ella fought back her rising panic and held his hand in both of hers, keeping the opal tight in his fist. “Please,” she whispered. Not to Jake, but to the gem. “Please protect him.”
Spirit Stones were supposed to have incredible powers, right?
“Get to work, damn it!” she screamed at the gem.
The deepest, faintest bass she’d ever heard whispered in her mind. I have great power. But those wounds are severe. If this warrior is to live, he must summon the power within him. You must do the same.
She nestled close, pushing her remaining energy into Jake — every last scrap she had with every breath she took. She closed her eyes and thought of all the experiences they had shared — all the I can’t haves, all the shouldn’ts. For months, frustration had eaten away at her, but now, she let it fuel her anger and determination to hang on.
Destiny, you are a bitch, she wanted to scream.
The ancient voice tut-tutted in her mind. Destiny rewards the worthy.
Jake is worthy! she snapped.
There was no answer, just a grim silence that said more than words. He is worthy. Are you?
Ella hugged Jake, keeping the opal tight in his hands. Wishing another couple of tigers would come prowling out of the underbrush so she could lash out in rage. Destiny wanted her to prove herself? Fine. She would.
But there was no foe to outfox, no battle but the one within. And then it hit her. She had to prove her love, not her fighting prowess. But how? She loved Jake with all her heart. She always had.
We rejected him too, her fox cried, ashamed.
That was for his own protection!
Protecting him or protecting yourself? her fox whined.
The thought knocked her back on her heels. Hadn’t she loved Jake unconditionally?
You wanted him unconditionally, but that isn’t the same thing.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push the pain away until it dawned on her. Maybe that was her problem. Maybe pain was part of love, and she had to accept that.
But I don’t want to accept that, she wanted to yell. Why would love be intertwined with sorrow?
Her mind raced over the past year and a half. Every time they’d parted, it had been at her insistence. Jake was the one who’d looked at her with puppy dog eyes that said, I believe.
Did she believe too?
Of course, I believe, she wanted to say.
Then show it, her fox urged.
But, shit. She hadn’t shown emotion to anyone in years. A woman who worked in the toughest military corps didn’t do emotion, and she couldn’t just turn it on like a switch.
The owls fluttered in the trees, and one hooted sadly, bringing her further back in time. Back to her teenage years, when she’d lived on this plot of land with her foster brothers and Georgia Mae. Even back then, she’d put up an emotional wall. She’d played rough and tough to keep up with Hunter and Kai, insisting to Georgia Mae she didn’t need any girl talks and that she didn’t need to talk about her mom.
A hard lump rose in her throat. Her mother had loved and lost; Ella feared the same fate. So she shuttered herself off from love and pushed Jake away.
She squeezed her eyes shut and hugged him tighter, trying to unlock that hidden place in her soul.
“Please,” she whispered, as much to Jake as to herself. “Please.”
Slowly, tears started to trickle out. Tears she’d never shown anyone. She brushed her cheek against his shoulder, rubbing the drops into his skin.
“I love you,” she whispered, clutching him as the ache in her heart ballooned.
Embrace it, the Keystone whispered. Pain is love.
She thought of Jake lying in bed the previous night, quietly studying her, stroking her skin. His blue eyes shone with a mixture of sadness and hope — the bravest combination of all. She thought of him clearing his throat that day on the porch and quietly asking, What is it, Ella? What’s keeping us apart?
Courage. The man had it in droves. The kind of courage needed to face a powerful enemy — and the kind of courage that let a man put his heart out on a limb.
The tears came faster, freer as she found the courage too. The courage to face loving Jake with everything that involved — highs, lows, compromises. Worst of all, loss.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I’ll always love you.”
She gathered up her sorrow like so many flowers in a wilted bouquet. Then she cried. Sobbed, really, because this was it. This was exactly what her mother must have gone through. The emptiness, the sorrow. The soul-draining despair. The never-ending inner chant of please, please, please while a tiny ray of hope flickered uncertainly.
Jake lay perfectly still, barely breathing. Dying?
Please, she cried. Please, not him.
She kept the don’t let me lose him part out of her silent prayers, because this wasn’t about her happiness. It was about the life of an honest, honorable man.
Please. Please let him live.
Heat poured from the gem — heat and energy so intense, she could feel it through Jake’s hand.
Please…
The heat intensified to a near burn, and suddenly, Jake sucked in a deep breath. His exhale was rattly, but the next inhale was smoother, and the other one after that, too.
“Jake,” she whispered, not daring to hope.
His eyes fluttered open, glazed over at first, then slowly clearing as he focused on her then looked at his hand in wonder.
“Maybe I should hang on to this for a while longer,” he muttered in a hoarse voice. Then his eyes slid shut, but his chest continued to rise and fall.
“You are definitely hanging on to it,” Ella said, trying to be strong but failing utterly. Mumbling a thousand thanks in her mind. So what if the ordeal turned Jake
into a tiger, lion, or even a liger? Jake was Jake, and she would celebrate his survival for the rest of her life.
Just think, her fox whispered. If the Keystone protects him through this change, it will protect him through a mating bite.
Ella’s eyes snapped open as her inner fox wagged its tail wildly. Could it be true?
Silly fox, she chastised a moment later, catching herself. Poor Jake was covered in blood and wounds. He’d had the worst possible introduction to the shifter world. This wasn’t the time to think of such things.
Jake pulled himself to a seated position despite her protests. “Um, Ella?”
She gulped down the lump in her throat and waited for more.
“You’re…kind of…naked.” He pointed out.
She pulled him into a huge hug. Yes, there was a lot she had to explain to him about the shifter world.
“Seems I can’t help it around you,” she said, wiping her tears.
“Can’t say I mind—” Jake started, then went stiff as he stared behind her.
She whirled as a growl sounded in her ears. The lion was back and stalking toward them with a slight limp, its eyes red with revenge. Behind him, the bushes rustled. Was that the tiger coming back too?
“Shit.” Ella jumped to her feet and looked around. The machete was too far to reach. She’d have no choice but to shift, and that lion was three times her size. Jake would try to help, which meant he would reopen his wounds — at best. At worst…
You will die, the lion’s growl said.
Ella clenched her fists, preparing to shift. No way was she losing this battle now.
Then, out of nowhere, the sound of tires crunching over gravel reached her ears, and she snapped her head around, expecting to see a vehicle. But the heavy footsteps of some huge beast preceded it, and she caught sight of a huge, brown blur approaching through the trees.
Ella stepped back, protecting Jake. “God, not more shifters now…”
Jake struggled to his feet and swayed, one hand tight around the opal. “More of Goode’s men?”
A massive grizzly hurtled into view, barreling straight for the lion.
“Hunter!” Her voice shook with relief.
The lion snarled in surprise and fled into the woods with Hunter hot on its heels. The tiger was out there somewhere as well, but the shaking bushes indicated he, too, was fleeing for his life.
“Hunter?” Jake murmured, his jaw hanging open. “Shit, there are more,” he muttered when two tigers sprinted through the clearing, racing after the others.
Ella shook her head. “It’s all right. That’s Cruz and Jody.”
A Land Rover screeched to a halt by the gate, and Kai jumped out. “Sorry,” he called as he raced over to Ella. “I would have flown over, but I couldn’t risk it in daylight.”
“Tell me he means flying in the helicopter,” Jake murmured.
Ella decided to let the dragon part slide for now.
“You okay, Jake?” Kai called.
Jake nodded weakly. “A little confused…but okay. What about Nina?”
Ella melted all over again. Leave it to Jake to consider another person at a time like that.
Kai grinned. “Doing great, from what I hear. The twins too. It’s Boone who nearly passed out.”
As he spoke, Kai pulled his shirt off and handed it to Ella. Seeing each other naked was all par for the course with shifters, but still, she was happy to cover up. Being naked was a lot more fun with just Jake around.
“So, how many others? Where?” Kai demanded, scowling at Goode’s body.
Ella pointed into the woods. “One lion, one tig—”
She’d barely finished the word when a bloodcurdling feline scream sounded from the woods.
“Make that just one lion,” Kai murmured.
The undergrowth thrashed, and a series of heated growls ensued. Then came a piercing roar, another scream, and after that, the forest stilled.
Ella clutched Jake’s hand, watching the woods for some sign. Finally, Hunter, Jody, and Cruz strode back into the clearing, and she exhaled.
“Thank goodness.”
Jake tugged her hand. “Please tell me they’re the good guys.”
“They’re the good guys,” Ella assured him, happier than ever to see her friends.
Cruz and Jody, the tigers, turned and rubbed their bodies together in long, comforting strokes that started at the nose and ended at the tail. Hunter prowled around the perimeter of the property, muttering to himself in bear talk.
Ella gently steered Jake to sit on the stairs and crouched in front of him. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
He nodded, looking more shell-shocked than anything else.
Jesus, how did he survive that? Kai murmured into Ella’s mind in a low, concerned voice as the others edged forward, still in animal form.
She held Jake’s hands tightly, assuring herself he was okay. Then she made space for the others to see and nodded to Jake. “Show them. Just don’t let go.”
The right side of his mouth curled up. “Believe me, I plan to hang on to this for a while.” He opened his cupped hands just enough to reveal the opal.
The sun glinted off its mottled surface, sending out rays of multicolored light.
“Holy shit.” Kai stepped back.
Cruz gave a surprised growl, and Hunter chuffed.
Jake shot a pointed look around the animals who’d stalked across the yard to inspect him. “You can say that again.”
Chapter Seventeen
One week later…
For the next week, Jake drifted in and out of dreams. Good dreams. Ugly dreams. Confusing dreams too. And the most unsettling part? Some of them may not have been dreams at all.
There were the feverish dreams where he sweated buckets and fought death away — not on a field of battle but in a bed. A good thing Ella was there, keeping him from drifting off into the pit of darkness that seemed intent on swallowing him up. The opal was in his hand, too, helping him fight the fever with its own piercing heat. He spent a lot of time lying motionless while a whirlwind churned inside him. A battle that pitted his body against…something else. Something dangerous, yet enticing. Totally unfamiliar, yet natural at the same time.
“Ella,” he whispered from time to time, waiting for the squeeze of her hand that said, I’m right here. Not going anywhere, McBride.
Eventually, death went from crowding his space to creeping all the way over to the edge of the room until it finally threw in the towel and disappeared. The fever broke, and his dreams became pleasant fantasies — like him touching Ella, or Ella touching him. Make that, Ella doing a hell of a lot more than touching him, which felt so, so good. They talked in those fantasies, and that was nice even if Ella sounded a lot more conflicted than he wanted her to be.
Jake, you’ll be a shifter too.
A shifter. That sounded cool. He liked that dream.
A fox, like you. He’d nodded and smiled like it was the most normal thing.
You might come out differently, she’d said in a strangely choked voice. You could be a liger like Gideon.
He remembered shaking his head firmly. I want to be a fox like you.
Foxes were tough and agile and resourceful. Foxes roamed the mountains, totally free.
Ella had gulped and gone quiet for a while before whispering, I’d have to bite you before your injuries make you a liger.
So, bite me, he remembered saying — or dreaming — without considering anything other than Ella. Me. Together. Whatever it took.
It shouldn’t be like this, Ella had cried — really cried — when she leaned over his neck and touched him. It should be good.
This is good, he’d assured her, and that was the truth. Her body, so close to his. Her lips on his skin. Even the scrape of her teeth felt good. There was the briefest pinch of pain before a hot, piercing surge zipped through his veins like lightning, turning on every switch in him. Really turned on in a way that felt so good, he ended up tugging Ella
into a straddle over him, cowgirl style. Before long, she was moaning and rocking, and he was thrusting, filled with inexplicable energy and desire. And when she sank her teeth into his neck for a second time, he’d exploded inside her and howled with the pleasure of it all.
So — dream? Fantasy? Jake would have sworn it was the former if it weren’t for the tiny scars on his neck. The barely there marks he kept touching and wondering about.
All that had wiped him out for the next few days, and he’d fallen into a deep, easy sleep. No more nightmares. No more fever. No need to hang on to that opal all the time, because his body was healing on its own for a change. Whenever he woke, Ella was nestled alongside him, refusing to let go.
And finally, a few days later, he awoke totally clear-headed and alert for the first time. He cracked his eyes open without moving, just in case. Where was he? Was everything really okay?
He exhaled a moment later, because Ella was spooned along the curve of his chest, asleep. The light pouring through the big windows was the saturated pink of daybreak, and he and Ella were in a creaky bed. The one in her room at one end of the plantation house at Koakea, it seemed. Slowly, he raised his right hand and studied it, front and back. Then he clenched it a few times, checking the shape. He’d had some weird dreams in which his fists had been more like paws with tufts of coppery fur, and he and Ella had been running — no, scampering — over a western landscape, both of them on four feet, swishing their tails.
He opened and closed his fist. Was he really turning part animal, or was he just going nuts?
A faint, barking laugh sounded somewhere deep inside his soul and whispered so quietly, he had to strain to hear. Not going nuts. Just finding me.
Finding who?
Me. You. We’re the same.
The curtains rustled in a light breeze, and trees swayed outside the window, giving him a glimpse of the moon sliding toward the western horizon. Which confirmed how much time had gone by, because the last he remembered, the moon had been a lot thinner than that. Something swelled in his chest, and he found himself humming. Why, he couldn’t tell. Only that it felt good. He hummed a little more, trying to find a tune that sounded right. Eventually, he settled on a long, low note, a little like a howl.