Legendary Wolf

by Barbara J. Hancock

  “You can’t love me,” Anna said.

  She wasn’t prepared for Soren to scoop her up and propel her into the curve of the cement wave that created the balcony on which they stood. It created a nook for their bodies, and he pressed her there in between his broad chest and the wall with her feet off the ground. He held her, high and hidden, away from the Ether’s light.

  “I can and I do,” Soren vowed.

  Anna didn’t resist his angry passion. She reached for the back of his head and tangled her hands in the curls that were growing out at the nape of his neck. Her eyes had flared with flecks of emerald light. She could tell because the glow illuminated the frustrated desire on Soren’s face.

  “I love you, too,” Anna said. “I always have.”

  She lowered her head to capture his lips in a kiss that wasn’t slow or sweet. She was as frustrated as he was. She plunged her tongue to taste him deeply, and the resultant thrill that claimed her body was painfully bittersweet.

  His hands had splayed on her back to protect her from the hardness of the cement. Now he used them to pull her closer. The sword blazed in its scabbard. The balcony was flooded with a green light that subsumed the Ether’s rainbow.

  It was a goodbye kiss.

  Only Soren didn’t know just how final she intended it to be.

  She took them through the Ether without pulling her lips from his. Their tongues twined, and she continued to taste him rebelliously as all else disappeared. The sword would Call another. She would be gone. But he would always remember her. And, maybe, even if she never materialized again, she would remember him, too.

  Chapter 29

  The white wolf was waiting when they materialized on the cliff overlooking the false Mediterranean Sea that surrounded Krajina. Lev had never penetrated Vasilisa’s enchantment when he was looking for his wife and child.

  Until now.

  Soren and Anna had appeared in each other’s arms. Their lips were still pressed together. But at the presence of the white wolf and the sound of his rumbling growl, they broke apart.

  “No, Lev. She’s my mate. I won’t allow you to harm her,” Soren proclaimed. Anna couldn’t help the thrill that rushed beneath her skin at his words. But she also felt despair. Lev was feral. He couldn’t be reasoned with or dissuaded from the hatred that blazed in his bloodshot eyes. The pale gray of his irises was shot through with red. Madeline’s had been the ruby sword. Its light seemed to shine from deep in the white wolf’s eyes.

  Madeline’s sword slept with her and Trevor. Its power hadn’t glowed in hundreds of years. The gleam of ruby light in Lev’s eyes caused a flutter of unease in Anna’s stomach.

  “Stop. He won’t be able to harm me,” Anna said. “Not where I’m going. And when I’m gone, you’ll be free to help him.”

  She backed away from Soren, but all the while her gaze tracked over him. She would take a vision of him with her into the cold and dark. He had watched over her for centuries. His memory would watch over her still. She would never be alone.

  “What are you saying?” Soren asked. He stepped after her, but the white wolf leaped to place his massive body in between the brother he instinctively trusted and the witch losing his family had made him hate.

  “You’ve been right all along. We can’t be together. But you were wrong about the sword. We can’t destroy it. There will always be Volkhvy who choose the Darkness. The Romanovs will always need to stand against them. You can’t be left without a sword or a partner to wield it. You can’t be left to stand alone,” Anna said. “We’re going to let each other go, just as you planned. But I’m letting the sword go, too.”

  “No,” Soren protested. It came from deep in his chest and sounded much like the red wolf’s howl. Lev was startled and confused. He sidestepped and rounded to face them both with his back to the edge of the cliff.

  “When I’m gone, the sword will have to Call another woman to fight by your side. A more suitable choice. You’ve always been my champion. But you need a champion, too. You can’t sacrifice your chance at a powerful partnership just because I’m an unsuitable mate,” Anna said.

  “Is that why you think I’m doing this? Anna, I love you. I love a witch. There is no better mate for me. There will never be another mate for me. I wanted to destroy the sword to protect you from Lev’s venom and Ivan’s anger,” Soren said. “And if they won’t accept you as my mate. If you’re in danger from them, then I’ll have no other. I refuse.” Soren took another step toward her, even though Lev looked like he would attack at any second. “I’ll destroy the sword if its rightful owner can’t wield it,” he continued.

  Anna froze.

  He’d already told her he loved her. She hadn’t believed him. Not really. She’d thought the distrust he had for Volkhvy blood prevented him from truly loving her. Even when he’d urged her to accept the sword’s Call to help her resist the Ether’s vacuum, she’d thought he was being her protector, not her lover.

  “I’m a witch,” Anna said, as if anyone could doubt her heritage when the emerald light was shining in her eyes.

  “I know. I feel your power pulsing beneath my skin. When we kiss, it vibrates in my soul. And I don’t fear it, because I know you. I’ve known you for an age. I was thrown by the revelation at the Gathering. I’ll admit it. My fear of the Ether colored my reaction. I will always watch my back around Vasilisa. But I trust you with my life. And with my family’s lives,” Soren said.

  The last stabbed into her heart with its finality. Because nothing he had said changed what she had to do. It only made the loss of what they could have had harsher. He trusted her, but she couldn’t trust herself. She would leap into the Ether with the certain knowledge that they could have been together.

  But he had been right not to trust her with his family’s lives. With Lev’s life.

  Anna turned off the flow of the Ether’s energy with one unwavering mental push. The sword at her waist went dark. The green glow left her eyes. The ever-present tingling in her hands died.

  “No,” Soren said. This time his protest wasn’t a howl. It was a hoarse whisper from lips swollen by her kiss.

  Lev paced toward her along the edge of the cliff, emboldened by her sudden apparent weakness. She stood on the edge of a precipice with all her power gone. But it wasn’t weakness. It was the ultimate strength. She rejected self-defense. She finally had total control of her abilities, and she used them to protect the white wolf even as he stalked her.

  “I won’t let him kill me, Soren. I know that would destroy you and your family. I’m going into the Ether instead. Once I’m gone, the sword will be freed. Don’t destroy it. Allow it to choose a better mate.”

  It was even harder to let the sword go than it had been to cut off the flow of energy from its stone. Nevertheless, she did it. Anna released the sword. Her fingers loosened, and the sword fell to the ground. It landed at her feet with a dull thud. Lev paused again, confused by her nonaggressive stance.

  “We did it, Soren. We survived the curse. Our love survived. For a while, I thought it had only survived in me, but now I see it survived in us both. And Bronwal survived, too. Help Ivan rebuild. He needs you. Elena and the baby need you. Madeline and Trevor need you...” Anna said, but she was interrupted.

  She immediately understood what the ruby glow in Lev’s eyes had signified and why it had caused a feeling of unease in her gut. As if her words had conjured Lev’s wife from her coffin in the center of the garden, a familiar figure approached from below. Her bright auburn hair was whipped by the wind and bathed in ruby light. Her dress tangled around her legs as the artificial atmosphere created by Vasilisa disappeared. The baby was nowhere in sight. Madeline no longer cradled Trevor to her breast. Instead, she wielded the ruby sword, which no longer slumbered. The ruby in its hilt gleamed, sending beams of multifaceted light in every direction away from her windswept figure.


  Lev howled. Rocks from the cliff’s edge crumbled beneath his back paws and fell into the frothing waves far below.

  The white wolf’s howl was so loud it caused Anna to crumple to her knees. She pressed her hands to her ears as it continued. Soren wasn’t as affected. He was the red wolf after all. He endured the howl, pushing through the shattered atmosphere it caused to fall by Anna’s side at the cliff’s edge with his arm around her.

  “If you leap into the Ether, I’ll follow you,” he shouted above his brother’s howling.

  Madeline had continued her climb. She reached the top of the cliff. The ruby light glowed from her eyes. An aura surrounded her wild hair like a halo of red. She raised the sword high in the air. She was a medieval warrior princess raised from an enchanted sleep, but she didn’t approach the white wolf as his wife.

  She walked toward him like an avenging angel about to take his life.

  Anna and Soren both understood what was happening at the same time. Madeline was connected to the white wolf. She had woken feeling his extreme fury as her own.

  And part of the white wolf’s fury was directed at himself. He’d been searching for his lost mate and his son forever. He hadn’t been able to save them.

  Soren was able to get to his feet first, but he reached immediately to pull Anna up from the ground. Lev’s howl had died down to a whine. He crouched on the edge of the cliff, facing his long-lost love’s approach. More rock came loose beneath his giant paws to tumble end over end before splashing into the water below.

  “Madeline, stop. It’s Lev. Don’t you know him? He’s your husband,” Anna shouted above the wind and the waves.

  “He’ll kill her,” Soren said. He let go of Anna, but she reached to grab his arm before he could run toward the other couple.

  “No. He won’t,” Anna said.

  And she was right. Rain began to fall. As it pelted against the white wolf, it flattened his fur and turned what was left of the ground beneath his feet to mud. More rocks were dislodged, and Anna cried out as the white wolf’s back paws struggled to keep purchase on his dissolving perch.

  But then Lev shifted back into his human form for the first time in centuries. The ground shook and a chunk of cliff fell away, but Lev’s human form was lighter and smaller. He didn’t fall into the sea. Mud and rocks fell, but Lev knelt on what was left of the edge of the cliff. His wife paused, confused by the disappearance of the savage wolf she’d been preparing to attack.

  “Vasilisa said it might take time once Madeline was awakened for her to be herself again. She’s feeling Lev’s emotions, but I think the sword is driving her instincts, and I’m her sister-in-arms. She was protecting me from the white wolf,” Anna said. “She’s confused. It’s been so long. She doesn’t recognize Lev, but she can’t kill the man she loved.”

  Her heart thudded painfully in her chest. Lev was separated from his prey by the woman who was supposed to be his champion and partner. But deep down he must have recognized Madeline. He hadn’t attacked her. They had been separated for so long, but his endless roaming indicated he’d been searching even after he’d forgotten who he’d been searching for.

  He’d finally found the woman he’d lost.

  Madeline lowered the sword, but she still hesitated. The rain lashed down and plastered her hair to her face and body. Anna went to her. It was like approaching a ghost. The ruby light in her eyes had faded. She released the sword easily into Anna’s hand, but she only stood stiffly when Anna tried to embrace her.

  “Lev, no!” Soren yelled.

  The white wolf had shifted into his human form, but he still had the same hatred for witches in his heart. He sprang toward Anna. He howled at the same time, and the sound contained all the pain hundreds of years of lonely wandering could bring. Anna didn’t raise the sword. She didn’t have time to step into the Ether, either. Nor did she summon her energy for defense.

  She pushed Madeline in one direction. She threw the ruby sword in the other. And she stood to face Lev’s attack.

  Her love for Soren extended to his family. And unlike the queen, the queen-to-be honored the Light Volkhvy champions above self-preservation. It would be better to die than to harm a single hair on a Romanov head. But she didn’t stand alone. The earth shook. The wind stilled. Suddenly, the red wolf stood on one side of her, and the Light Volkhvy queen stood on the other.

  Chapter 30

  Vasilisa had calmed the atmosphere, but it was Soren who halted Lev’s attack. He met his brother’s advance with a cold snout against Lev’s forehead and a snarling maw inches from Lev’s face. As a man, the white wolf was impossibly lean and hard. His muscles had seen nothing but relentless exercise for hundreds of years. He had the tall, broad Romanov build with none of the bulk around it. His eyes blazed with blue-gray fury and confusion.

  But the red light from the ruby was gone.

  His wet hair was tangled and wind tossed, but it was also streaked with white. The white streaks were new. He hadn’t had them as a man centuries ago, but Anna didn’t think they’d been caused by his extreme age. He still looked strong and vital and young.

  The streaks were white, not gray. Anna thought either the shock of losing his wife or the shock of finding her again had drained the color from his formerly golden hair.

  The ruby in the sword’s hilt was dead and gray.

  “You woke her too quickly after you said you shouldn’t,” Anna said.

  “Yes. I did. It was the only thing I could do to help you against the white wolf,” Vasilisa said. “Her connection to him actually woke her. I just stopped shielding her from that connection.”

  Lev fisted his hands and moved to go for the Volkhvy queen, but Soren growled and nudged him backward with his massive head against Lev’s chest. It was a testament to Lev’s strength that even the red wolf didn’t budge him far. His bare heels dug into the ground, and his resistance caused two ruts to form.

  Anna would have gone for her mother herself, except she was burdened by Madeline’s weight. The other woman’s knees had collapsed when the ruby sword was taken from her hand. She was only on her feet because Anna held her upright with an arm around her waist. It wasn’t an easy feat. Madeline was a tall woman with an athletic build that hadn’t been diminished by her long, enforced rest.

  But it was Madeline’s need of her support that made her anger toward Vasilisa kindle like green fire in Anna’s eyes and deep within her chest. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wouldn’t have done this. It was the first time certainty and confidence in her abilities filled her with a calm resolve.

  Witch or no witch. Queen or no queen. She would love with all she had, but she would never hurt the helpless. And she would never value herself above those she ruled.

  The queen didn’t seem intimidated by the green glow of fury in Anna’s eyes. She came to her daughter’s side and took her precious burden. Madeline didn’t resist. She went to the queen’s hold easily, and Vasilisa seemed to take her weight with no effort. Madeline could suddenly stand. Anna wondered if her mother used her abilities to keep Madeline on her feet. If so, she couldn’t help her in other ways. Madeline looked like she wasn’t fully aware of what was going on.

  Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not when Lev Romanov looked like he was still more wolf than man.

  Anna placed her hand on Soren’s scruff. She held it to comfort him and to comfort herself. She also held on to keep him from overdoing the correction of his brother’s aggression. The edge of the cliff wasn’t that far away.

  “You need to get him to Bronwal now that he’s shifted. I’ll take care of Madeline. Trevor is still sleeping. I’m waking him up slowly to give him time to adjust,” Vasilisa said.

  “You should have given Madeline time,” Anna accused. Lev growled as if he still had fangs. It might have been because he agreed. It might have been because he hated the sound of Anna�
��s voice.

  “I had no time to spare. And now Lev Romanov is found. He is a human for the first time in hundreds of years. You can hate me for it,” Vasilisa said. “I deserve no thanks after all I’ve done.”

  Soren whined. Lev had slumped back to his knees and Madeline had swooned in the queen’s arms. Anna released Soren to touch Madeline’s face. Her skin was cold and damp. In her state of suspended animation, she’d seemed moments away from her next breath and her next step. Now that she had woken up, she seemed near death.

  “I wouldn’t have done this,” Anna said.

  “I know,” Vasilisa whispered. “You were going to go into the Ether to protect them all. When the time comes, you will be a far greater queen than I have been, and you will also be more loved than feared by your subjects.”

  Vasilisa walked back toward the palace. Madeline placed one foot in front of the other beside the queen, but she didn’t seem to understand that she was walking away from the man she’d once loved and the sword that was rightfully hers.

  Everyone but Anna forgot the ruby sword on the ground. She went to pick it up. Even though it wasn’t her blade, it still responded to her touch. The ruby gave off the softest glow, and Lev’s growls dissolved into silent seething tears.

  * * *

  Bronwal welcomed Lev back with subdued joy. The corridors were filled with servants falling over themselves to help a man who would have preferred to be left alone. He claimed the tower room, and no one dared to try to convince him otherwise. It became the new lair of the white wolf, who walked on two legs, but who was probably more savage than he’d ever been before.

  No one was certain how much he understood about his wife and son. About where they were or how they were or if they would ever be able to come home. It had to be enough for now that he was home, where he could at least have a chance of recovering from his centuries-long ordeal.

  Anna’s part in his homecoming was told of far and wide. At first, Soren had told the tale to Ivan and Elena, and then Elena and Patrice took the tale from there. He had faced his brother and his pregnant sister-in-law first to be certain they understood what Anna had tried to do. And also to fight the alpha wolf if he had to.