Sunder

by Tara Brown

  When he got to the forest’s edge, he pulled a cell phone from his pocket. I shook my head. “My mother . . .” the words were in a voice I didn’t know. “My mother . . . she was my mother! Did you see her too?”

  “Yes.” He lowered his hand. “And my brother. They are alive.”

  I gagged more, twisting into the sound of the snapping bones. “My father . . .I think I knew that man’s voice on the cell phone. And the man in the room who hurt my mom, I think my father knows him . . . he’s familiar!” I roared again, screaming as another set of bones broke.

  He dropped to his knees but I felt it. I screamed, “GET AWAYYYYYY!”

  He jumped up, scrambling to a tree and climbing it. I lost focus once he was gone. I lost everything. The sounds of the forest were lost in my screaming.

  In a still moment when the bones stopped snapping and my body took a break, I caught a glimpse of him.

  For the past ten days he had been in every thought and feeling. In fact, I could sense that it had gone back much further than ten days.

  But as I changed there on the forest floor, he was gone. He was gone from my heart.

  Even though I could see him, I was alone and broken.

  He was gone and that was the least of my worries.

  I didn’t know how long it lasted or how long I was unconscious. But when I opened my eyes, I saw the whole world through different eyes. I caught his scent instantly, jerking my face that way. He watched me from the tree, his red eyes glowing.

  But then I caught something else.

  A smell I loved. I didn’t know why or what it was, but I ran. I realized part way through the forest, I was on all fours. I was running as a wolf. The feel of it was just as Judith had said.

  I felt amazing. I ran faster, feeling a smile spread across my lips.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Briton

  “What is worse than this?” he asked her ragged body. She sat naked and limp in his arms. He had followed her for miles and hours all through the forest. She had downed a rabbit and eaten it. There was a small amount of dried blood still lingering on her cheek. He wiped it away, whispering to her, “What is more painful than loss? I know it will be watching you live without me.” He stroked her hair from her face. “But I won’t ever be far. I promise I will always stay and watch over you.”

  It all made perfect sense. His instant love for her. His brother’s uncharacteristic violence that had resulted in a war. Her mother dying of a disease when she was an immortal. The pull they both felt to be with each other.

  It all made sense.

  He kissed her cheek, smelling the wolf on her for the first time. He didn’t even mind the smell. He loved her, regardless of the fate they faced. When her body had changed and she had completed the transformation, his love hadn’t died away. It had not faded, even slightly.

  Her eyes opened before she stirred. She looked at him for a moment before smiling. “You are here. I thought so, but I was worried it was a dream like everything else.”

  He winced. “Liv, that wasn’t a dream. You are naked in the woods, you turned into a wolf for the first time, and our family members are being held by hunters.”

  She closed her eyes again and spoke in a dreamy voice, “My father . . .?” She jerked to life, springing from his arms. “MY FATHER!”

  He put a hand up. “Stay calm. You can force the change if you get too emotional.”

  “My mother is alive, Briton. I don’t think I can stay calm.” She started to tremble.

  He did the stupidest thing he could think of and wrapped his arms around her.

  She pulled back. “I could bite you.”

  He nodded. “I can think of no greater death. I don’t want to fight this, what we are. I want to let it end me. I want to die exactly like this, so if you have to do it now, I’m okay with it. Just remember to free my brother when you go for your mother.”

  She froze. He prayed his words affected her.

  “We need to free them, Briton. We need to warn Judith about my father.” Tears started to stream her face. “I have this terrible feeling that my father let them take my mother.”

  Briton kissed her damp cheek. “We will make them all pay. Now we must go back to town and see Ellie and Liz. They must know what to do about this.”

  She still looked shocked or maybe it was just that she was overwhelmed. He pulled his sweater off and dragged it over her head gently. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her through the dark forest. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. “What are we going to do about us?” she asked the dreaded question.

  “Is there still an us?”

  “I’m not familiar with the vampire/werewolf rules, but I don’t know how to stop loving you. I don’t know how to escape the ruin of you, and me.” She nodded. “I love you. I know I do. I know I won’t ever love another person. I never have. That dream of us lying on the ground dead and Liz cursing the men—that happened—I think. I think the dream was a past life. When I was a wolf, I saw you in my head. There were other past lives . . . you were a vampire and I was a girl. I didn’t know what you were, but I knew I loved you. But you didn’t see me. You walked by me, like I was nothing. You didn’t ever see me, until now.”

  He felt the truth of it tug at his chest. “I must not have known it was you.”

  “I know, but I think I always knew it was you. I remember every life I’ve had, like my wolf remembers them all. And each one has been spent wandering and searching but never finding you again. Until this time. I remember our death on the field with the men in the furs. I remember loving you more than any person ever loved.” She paused, shaking her head. “I sound crazy, bat-shit crazy.”

  He smiled weakly. “I think we have both far surpassed crazy.”

  Her eyes glazed over and she continued, “I remember us in that life where we died on the field with Liz. She was your sister, but we had different names. She wasn’t Liz. She was a witch but we called her a healer. We loved her, she was our family. The day we died in that field, we were gathering herbs when the men came. You tried to save me but we died. That’s what we saw in the dream. That’s when Liz called the curse down.”

  “My father must have been in the field fighting that day.” His heart was bursting, regardless of not having a heartbeat or the memory of the disaster of their past. He cared about one thing. “So you remember that you love me? The wolf hasn’t convinced you we are enemies?”

  She shook her head. “My wolf loves you. It’s the curse and my brain that are against us, but my wolf knows the truth of it all.”

  He kissed her face, taking in a deep inhale of her. “You were pretty cute as a wolf. Very white and soft.”

  She laughed, it was weak and pathetic.

  He hugged her tighter. “I’m so sorry about your mother.” His fangs nearly sprang at the thought of killing her father. He didn’t want to overstep his boundaries and take her right to kill, but he knew if he saw him, he wouldn’t be able to rein it in. Briton would murder her father slowly, enjoying every drop of his blood. He would kill anyone who meant to harm her.

  He would free his brother and make everything right again. If they took away the vampires and wolves from the clutches of the hunters, they would lose their one weapon.

  He sighed when he got to the forest edge and Ellie and Liz were standing there waiting for him. They had Josh with them. That didn’t make him feel better, but at least Liv knew she loved him. She had fallen back to sleep in his arms.

  “She ran—she is a full wolf now.”

  Ellie nodded. “I know. I called Judith, and she knows Liv is a wolf. I asked her not to tell Frank. I didn’t tell her he was a traitor.”

  Liz walked to him, running a finger along Liv’s arm. “Was she okay?”

  “Yes. She did wonderfully. No issues. Just changed and ran around like an animal.”

  “Did she kill?”

  He grinned. “A rabbit. She won’t be happy about that.”

  Liz g
rimaced. “She ate it? A bunny?”

  Josh laughed. “We all eat bunnies, Liz. We can’t help it. Wolves love bunnies.”

  Ellie looked back towards the town. “We have a major issue here. We don’t know which wolves are in on the vampire massacre.”

  Josh sighed. “I can’t see any doing it, but I’ll let you have my bloodline to read.”

  Ellie poked his finger and said something softly. She pressed into his palm, the way she had done to Briton.

  Josh sighed and slipped away. He stood perfectly still, frozen with Ellie.

  Liz swallowed hard “It’s so weird.”

  “The woman in the dream walk last night, that’s Liv’s mom.”

  Liz paused before whispering, like she was stuck in disbelief, “Her dead mom?”

  He nodded. Liv started to move and stretch, waking up again. She opened an eye and looked at Liz. “Hey.”

  Liz had no poker face at all. She instantly burst into tears. “Liv, I’m so sorry about your mom.”

  Liv started to cry too. Briton put her down, letting her walk to Liz. They held each other, crying like teenaged girls. He forgot sometimes that’s what they were.

  Ellie and Josh snapped out of it. Josh’s face was drawn. He stumbled a little and then gave Briton a look. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t either.”

  Josh shuddered. “My uncle is responsible for it. His family has been dabbling in this for some time. Buying our freedom with venom to be used as a weapon against our own kind. He just wanted the vampires gone, without the wolves dying too.”

  Briton took a long breath, contemplating it all. “At least it makes sense why there are so few of us left in the world. I knew the hunters had some way of killing us; I never realized it was to this degree though. And I thought only the born and bitten could die, not the cursed—I didn’t know venom was their weapon. But live venom would kill any one of us.”

  Ellie gave him a frightened look. “We need to find this place where they keep them.”

  Josh’s face tightened. “You need to stop the people here first.”

  Briton spoke through his clenched jaw, “Oh, I intend to. But first, I need to call my brothers home.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Liv

  Briton paced the living room. His father and two of his brothers walked into the room. They gave me a look that made my blood run cold in my veins.

  “You bring a wolf into our home?”

  Briton gave me a smile. “I bring the girl I love into our home.”

  His father reacted instantly, grabbing him and shoving him into the wall. I screamed and jumped at his father, but one of the others grabbed me and held me tight to his chest. “Easy, little puppy. Trust me, Briton can handle his own business.” I could feel the shake starting as his father screamed at him.

  His father looked at me, pointing. “I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU BETRAYED US! YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD—FOR WHAT? THAT DOG?”

  Briton snapped back, throwing his father nearly as far as he had been. “SHE ISN’T A DOG! SHE IS NO DIFFERENT THAN YOU OR ME! SHE IS MY LIFE!”

  A woman, I assumed was his mother, came running into the room. She grabbed her son, wrapping her arms around him and flashing a dirty bad look at her husband. Briton kissed his mother’s head, hugging her back. “It’s okay, Mother. Father and I were just talking.” He glanced at his brother, pinning me to his chest as I fought the change. I was shaking so hard I couldn’t even see straight. Briton walked to me, pressing his face against mine and plucking me from his brother’s arms. “Don’t panic. Everything is okay. Stay calm.” He reached a hand out to his brother. “Read me so I can keep her calm.” He stroked the back of my neck, pulling me into him, but not taking his eyes from mine. “Bringing you here was a bad idea. I’m sorry.”

  I shook. “No. I don’t want us to separate.”

  His voice was calming but it didn't last long. His brother screamed, making me jump and sending a shiver down my spine. I spun fast, feeling my clothes tear away from myself and my wolf form rip from my body. I was gnashing teeth and growling savagely before I realized it.

  Someone grabbed at me. I turned to snap at the hand touching me, but I saw it was Briton. When my wolf saw him, the word that ran through my head was “mate.” That was what I called him in this form.

  I was heaving my breath as a low growl rumbled from me. Being surrounded by them was not good. I needed out—now!

  “She changes quickly.” The brother who had been holding me backed up. I could smell the fear on him. His father glared at me. “She would dare change in my home?”

  Briton looked at his brother, the one whose lip was trembling. The brother shook his head. “She is innocent in all of this. The treachery goes back to you, Father. The cursed land you fought on was hers.” His eyes darted to Briton, “Theirs. She is his shadow twin. They are soul mates. Her mother and our brother share the same fate. Briton has done our family nothing but good.”

  Briton reached his hand forward to his father. The gruff man took it, dropping to his knees as they shared memories. Tears streamed his face. “My boy. I knew Gunnar was innocent.” His eyes looked on at me. “I WILL KILL EVERY WOLF I SEE!”

  I backed up. The man scared me, wolf form or not.

  “No good can come of a war. We must be smart. If we don’t find Gunnar before we attack, they could kill him. And her mother.” Briton seethed at his father and then turned and walked to me, dropping to his knees, stroking my fur. It soothed me. A house full of emotional and angry vampires, and I was still in wolf form.

  The room was filled with an uneasy smell.

  Before I ended up lashing out, I turned and trotted up the stairs to the room I could smell him in. I jumped up onto the bed and lay, awaiting the change back. I relaxed, letting my mind wander. I tried to be calm about it, love the wolf. It didn't work. I screamed as I shifted back to a naked girl. I wrapped myself in blankets and tried to stop the shaking.

  Briton came into the room and cuddled around me. “It is better they understand us.”

  I shook my head. “They won’t ever. I don't even understand us. One bite and we both die. What kind of cruel fate is this?”

  He shook his head. “I don't know. I just know I love you.”

  “Yeah, and your father wants me dead. This is awesome. I can’t go home, I can’t run away, and I can’t stay here.” My eyes closed, I was so tired. Regardless of the amount of fight there was inside of me, or how much I wanted to free my mother or kill my father or even know where Judith stood on it all. I struggled, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I was exhausted, and there was no way I would be able to leave the room without some sleep. ”Don't leave,” I whispered.

  He kissed my head again. “I won’t. I will keep you safe, always.”

  My eyes sealed and I slept.

  The adrenaline and the fear and the work of changing constantly shredded my energy. I slept in a dreamless state, unaware of how long I was out. I woke, feeling nauseated and groggy. I could feel him next to me.

  I opened my eyes but the smell was wrong. I pulled back. One of the brothers smiled at me. “You are the prettiest wolf I think I have ever seen.”

  I growled making him laugh and put his hands up defensively. “Easy—Briton asked me to keep an eye on you while he went to figure out exactly what the hell is going on around here.”

  I pulled my covers over my body better. “I’m sure he didn't mean lie on the bed with me.”

  He shrugged. “Either way, my eyes have not left you since he left.”

  My cheeks blushed.

  He winked at me. “You want to have a go and see if you picked the right brother?” When he saw the look on my face, he backed up. “It was a joke. Not a great sense of humor, huh?”

  I looked around the room. “Not a great morning person or a sleeping-next-to-strangers person.”

  He snuggled into the pillow. “We’re family.”

  “I don't even know you.”r />
  “Ragnar. Briton’s older brother. Better looking brother.”

  I laughed. He had a way about him that made you smile. He was handsome, ridiculously. Dark-blond hair, tanned skin, strong features, sexy lips, and bright-blue eyes. But he was cocky. I had never liked cocky. There is an acceptable level of cocky that is permitted. He had exceeded his limit, by far.