by R. E. Butler
Louise shook her head. “The moon is rising. There’s still time for you to get away from the shifter before he kills you.”
Her heart clenched tightly as fear crept up her spine. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s my duty to tell you the truth. That…that creature is nothing but a bloodthirsty animal who will you kill you in the name of making you like him.” She grunted in frustration. “You don’t have to stay here! Just leave with me now. I’ll get you to safety before he convinces you to fuck him. Trust me, you don’t want to spread your legs for that monster. You’ll die at his hands. You don’t want to die, do you?”
Valerie’s mind blanked for a brief moment, and then her tiger roared inside her. She felt bolstered by the roar.
She clutched the medallion. “I’m not going to die. You need to leave now.”
Louise’s eyes narrowed, and she bared her teeth in disgust. “You fucked him? Already? What is the matter with you? You whore!”
Taking a step back, Valerie opened her mouth to scream for Charisma when the woman was suddenly in front of her, moving so quickly that she hadn’t been able to track the movement with her eyes. She whispered in a language Valerie didn’t know, and touched her middle finger to the center of Valerie’s forehead. Everything inside her froze and she fell to the porch in a heap, paralyzed.
“You could have walked away and lived a perfectly normal life,” she said, leaning over Valerie. “I tried to save you, but now you both have to die.”
Chapter 7
Charisma stacked wood in the basket he used to carry logs into the house, anxious to get back to Valerie. He wanted to be with her when the moon rose and the necklace unlocked.
His heart clenched suddenly, a pain so abrupt and powerful that it sent him to his knees. He could feel Valerie’s fear through their soulmate bond, and his tiger roared in worry. He’d never felt anything so overwhelming. He pushed to his feet and rushed through the house.
As he reached the open front door, he saw Louise leaning over Valerie’s body. His beast exploded within him and he tackled her before she could flee.
The breath whooshed from her lungs as the full weight of his body slammed into hers and knocked her to the ground. His claws dug into her flesh as he roared. Louise pressed her palms to his chest and whispered a strange word. Yellow flames erupted over her skin. They singed his fur as her lips spread wide and hatred glittered in the dark depths of her eyes.
He kept his weight on her body, ignoring the burn of the magical flames. He knew if he let her go she’d disappear, and Valerie would never be safe. With a loud snarl, he latched his jaws around her throat and clamped down, twisting sharply as she screeched in rage and then went silent. The flames covering her skin sputtered and vanished. He wrinkled his nose at the vile taste of her blood that made his cat want to retch.
Ignoring the painful burns, he rushed to Valerie’s side. She seemed paralyzed, her eyes closed and her features tight with pain. Using his enhanced senses, he moved his nose up and down her body, trying to decipher what had been done to her. Where the wiccan had touched her forehead, a small dark spot was slowly growing, little black tendrils snaking across her skin.
Shifting back to human form, he lifted her into his arms and raced into the house. Her entire body was rigid, and although she made no sound, he could feel how scared she was through their soulmate connection. He laid her on the couch and kissed her lips gently, finding them ice cold.
“I’m going to call the wolf pack for help.”
He wasn’t sure if she was actually conscious or just paralyzed, but his desire to get her free from whatever spell had been cast moved him to do the only thing he could think of. In his nightstand drawer was a rarely used cell phone. Out here in the middle of nowhere, he often couldn’t even get a signal, and with his family gone, he really had no one to call.
When he’d met the alpha, they’d exchanged numbers, but this was the first time Charisma was asking the wolf for help. After waiting for the phone to turn on, he opened the contact for the alpha and pressed the button, praying that the weak signal he had would be enough to connect him.
The phone rang, sounding tinny in his ear, and he held his breath as the line connected and crackled to life.
“Solomon.”
“This is Charisma. I need your help.”
There was a brief pause, and then the alpha said, “The tiger, right? What do you need?”
Charisma quickly explained what he’d witnessed. “I didn’t want to call the wiccans again. I think the one who hurt my soulmate was against our bond. I can’t think of another reason for her coming to hurt Valerie.”
Solomon growled out a curse. “There have been rumblings that some wiccans are trying to help shifters shuffle off the mortal coil by interfering with the bonding. Definitely a good call not to go to the wiccans yet. I’m sending my pack doctor and some guards. When you’re ready, I’d like to go with you to pay a visit to the wiccans. They have a lot of explaining to do.”
Relief rose up inside him quickly. “Thank you.”
“Thank me when your mate is well again.”
The call ended, and the phone tumbled from Charisma’s hand as his whole body shook. He had trusted the wiccan to help him find Valerie. He’d felt that there was something off about her when he met her, but he’d been so intent on doing the spell that he hadn’t cared. He should have been more vigilant and kept his mate safe.
He hurried back to the room and knelt next to his mate, sliding his hand into hers. Her skin was cold to the touch, and in the few minutes he’d been gone the black tendrils on her forehead had doubled, stretching across her skin.
It seemed like an eternity before he heard the sound of a vehicle coming up the long, twisting drive that led to his house. He’d been babbling to his mate nonstop in an effort to keep in connection with her. He could still feel her through their bond, but as each minute passed the connection seemed to dim.
“The pack doctor will help us, sweetheart,” he said, standing and moving swiftly to the front door. He opened it and watched as a large black SUV stopped and the two back doors opened. A woman and two men exited the vehicle. The woman, carrying a medical bag, stepped onto the porch.
“I’m Zara, the pack doctor. Tell me everything.”
* * *
Valerie was in hell. She could hear perfectly, but she couldn’t move. Her entire body seemed frozen, her muscles taut and her skin aching. She could breathe, but she couldn’t open her eyes or make a sound. Charisma was near her, but she couldn’t tell if he was touching her or not. She was desperate to make even the slightest movement or sound to let him know she was conscious, but no matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn’t do anything. Her beast, which had started to feel so real, now felt nearly gone, as if something were shoving it away from her and breaking the connection that taking Charisma’s blood had given her.
She didn’t know what a pack doctor was, but after the front door opened and a woman spoke, Valerie felt a bit of relief slip through her. If she was a doctor, then she could help. Hopefully. She had no clue how long she’d been stuck in this strange paralyzed state, but it felt like an eternity.
If she could go back in time she wouldn’t have stepped out onto the porch at all, she would’ve kept herself locked up tight in the house. Charisma wouldn’t have let anything happen to her if she’d been with him. He felt guilty, and she wished she could tell him that she didn’t blame him.
She wanted to cry. She felt like she was going to slowly slip away into unconsciousness and never wake up. If she never got to hear Charisma’s voice, look into his beautiful eyes, or touch his silky skin again…it was a hell she didn’t want to contemplate.
“Valerie, I’m Zara. I’m the pack doctor. That means I’m not only a wolf shifter but also a trained medic. Try to move if you can.”
With all her strength, Valerie tried to move something, anything, but her body felt like it wasn’t her own, that she was a ghos
t in someone else’s body. Her eyes stung, but if tears fell she couldn’t feel them.
“How long has she been paralyzed?” Zara asked.
“For twenty-three minutes,” Charisma answered.
Zara hummed and a snap sounded, followed by a tinkling sound. “Let me see if I can get some of her blood. I think I know what happened, but I need to see to be sure.”
“What did the wiccan do?”
“I believe she used a stone spell. I studied with a wiccan coven for a semester in college to learn about herbal remedies, and in one of the ancient textbooks I read about the dark magic arts. When wiccans go to battle, they rely on others believing they’re weak because they’re females, and they use that to get close to their enemies and touch them with poison on their hands. I believe that the wiccan put poison on her fingertip, and when she touched Valerie, she most likely recited the spell.”
“What’s happening to her?”
Although Zara’s voice dropped considerably lower, Valerie still heard her. “She’s turning to stone. Eventually she won’t be able to breathe anymore and her heart will stop.”
Charisma snarled. “Can it be reversed?”
“A wiccan could reverse it, but if I were you I wouldn’t trust any of them. The whole coven may be tainted with the desire to wipe out shifters. They could destroy you too. There is a way to save her, I think – but it’s dangerous.”
“She’ll die without help. I’ll do whatever I can to bring her back.” Charisma’s voice was edged with steel. If she’d been able to, Valerie would have smiled at how much he wanted to save her. Her golden tiger was fierce and protective. If she survived, she’d tell him how lucky she was to be his.
“You have to destroy the poison by overwhelming Valerie’s system with your blood and the venom in your fangs and claws.”
“You mean force her to shift now?”
“It’s the only way. It may not work. The poison could be too deep in her body for your blood and venom to help. Or, she could die from being forced to shift so quickly. My best guess is you have less than two hours before she dies. You need to act now or it will be too late.”
Charisma roared, the sound full of heartbreak and fury. It was so loud that she could hear the windows rattle.
“Will she be in pain?”
“As the poison dissipates, yes. I can’t give her anything to counteract the pain because it could interfere with your venom and blood.”
Charisma’s voice was low in Valerie’s ear when he whispered, “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again, sweetheart. I’m sorry for this. I’m sorry I have to hurt you to save you. Please forgive me.”
Valerie heard fabric rustling and seams being torn, followed by cracking bones, and then she heard a deep purr…just a heartbeat before something slid through her neck that felt like burning acid.
She would have screamed if she’d had the ability. Pain flowed through her like wildfire. If she’d thought she’d been in hell before, she hadn’t known the true definition of it.
Chapter 8
Charisma stripped Valerie to her underwear, the seams tearing as he hurried. Then he stripped himself and shifted, aware that what he was about to do could very well kill her. But she would definitely die if he did nothing. He’d already failed her once by not protecting her; he wasn’t about to fail again.
Zara moved to the corner of the room but hadn’t left the cabin. He wanted privacy, but he knew he might need her. Fear rolled through him as he prowled over Valerie’s prone body, but he pushed it away and concentrated on saving her life.
Fitting his jaws at the crux of her neck and shoulder, he bit down swiftly and pierced her skin. He could taste the death in her blood – the bitter rancid taste burned his tongue as it filled his mouth. Lifting his fangs from her flesh, he bit down on the other side of her throat, and then slowly moved down her body. He closed his jaws around her elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles, and then sank his claws into her biceps, hips, and thighs. As the venom in his claws and fangs moved through her system, he could feel their connection strengthen. Agony ripped through him, and he knew that it was her pain he was feeling. His heart cracked for the hurt he was causing her, but he knew he would lose her if he stopped.
Shifting back to his human form, he stretched out on top of her and slashed his wrist, forcing her mouth open so he could feed her his blood. Rubbing her throat, he blinked back the tears and closed his eyes.
“Come back to me, sweetheart, please,” he whispered. “Please.”
Their connection sharpened further, until he could hear her screaming in pain in his mind, his beast roaring in worry that it would be too much for her fragile human body. The process of changing a human to a shifter was meant to take weeks, not minutes. The shock of changing could kill her, if the pain didn’t become too much.
With his fingers rubbing her throat, he felt her swallow suddenly, and then her body jerked under his, her back bowing and her eyes opening. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her heart began to slow.
“What’s happening to her?” he asked, watching her skin flush darkly and then pale.
“Don’t stop. It’s part of the forceful transformation. Your blood is taking over, changing her swiftly at a cellular level,” Zara said.
Minutes passed as he shared blood with her. He began to feel lightheaded, but he ignored the tingling in his limbs. His connection to Valerie was whole again, and although he could feel that she was in pain, she wasn’t scared. He could feel how much she cared for him and wanted to live.
“I won’t survive without you, sweetheart,” he said. “Please come back to me.”
Her body jerked under him and her heart stopped completely. Panic rushed through him and he looked up at Zara to find her watching them intently.
“Pull your wrist out of her mouth,” Zara said.
“Is she…what’s happening?” he demanded, as he freed his wrist from his mate’s mouth. Between her parted lips he could see that her human teeth had elongated slightly. Her fangs grew as he watched, lengthening and sharpening.
“She’s changing. The poison is entirely gone. Now it’s up to fate whether she lives or dies from the shift.”
Charisma slipped off her and leaned over, brushing his fingers across her forehead. Her heart began to beat again, and he breathed out a sigh of relief. The black tendrils of the poison were gone now, her skin smooth and unmarked. Happiness flowed through him, but it was tempered by the fact that Valerie still hadn’t moved.
She seemed frozen, and although her chest moved as she breathed and he could hear her heart beating, she hadn’t moved a finger or opened her eyes. He held his breath, willing her to be able to handle the shift. Time seemed to stand still.
And then her eyes popped open and her bones cracked. Golden fur flowed over her skin as she screamed, her body twisting and morphing. The shift took over, forcing her body to change shape from human to tiger. Her spine bowed, each vertebrae cracking like a gunshot. Her human hair receded, replaced by the silky fur of the tiger. Her hands curled, her screams of pain slicing right through him as claws emerged through her fingertips for the first time, her knuckles cracking and twisting.
He'd never witnessed a first-time shift. His own had been painful, but he’d expected it and had an idea of what would come. His parents had been with him every step of the way, encouraging him. Drawing on his memories, he coached his soulmate through her transformation.
“Don’t fight the shift, Valerie. Let it come. I know it hurts, sweetheart,” he said as he laid his hand on her stomach, brushing his fingers through the soft golden fur that covered her abdomen. “Breathe deeply and try to relax so your body can change. I can’t wait to see you shift. My cat wants to run and hunt with you.”
Her pain-filled cries ebbed as he spoke, as if she was listening to his reassurance and following his directions. Their gazes locked as her face changed from human to tiger. His heart pounded in his chest, and everything went quiet for a long moment. She blinked
molten-gold eyes at him, her lips parted to reveal her gleaming fangs, and then she rolled to her stomach and shifted completely. Four paws sank into the hardwood floor and her tail swished angrily as she bellowed a roar at Zara.
“She’s the pack doctor,” Charisma said soothingly, wrapping an arm around her thick neck in case she tried to go after her.
“She can tell I’m not mated,” Zara said, smiling. “I’d say she’s out of the woods. She’ll probably sleep for the night. If she’s achy when she wakes up, I left some tea leaves for you to steep, which should help.”
“Thank you for your help,” Charisma said.
“Of course. We might be different beasts but we’re all in this together. The guards will stay until midday. Solomon will be here at sunset tonight to go with you to the wiccans.”
Nodding, Charisma waited until Zara had left and shut the door behind her. He moved quickly to the door and threw the deadbolt, glancing out the window to see her and one of the wolves get into the SUV and leave. The two other wolves were in their shifts and watched the SUV depart before they resumed their walk around the cabin in opposite directions.
Turning back to his mate, he saw her grimace and knew she was fighting exhaustion and lingering pain. He moved to her and knelt, picking up the necklace, which had broken when she shifted completely. The bra and panties she’d been wearing had torn apart with the change in her body. He’d forgotten about the necklace, or he would have removed it before she shifted.
She yowled sadly, nuzzling the chain and medallion in his hand. “We can get the chain fixed. The important thing is that you’re safe.” Shoving the jewelry into the front pocket of his jeans, he cupped her head. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
She purred and pressed her nose to his throat. Licking his skin, she gave a questioning rumble. He knew what she wanted. Tilting his head, he closed his eyes and said, “Mark me, Valerie. I’m already yours.”