“Definitely down.” If Teri never saw that bed again, it’d be too soon.
“I’m glad you came down to join us.” The woman with the ponytail came forward and took her arm, supporting her. “It saves us the trouble of breaking you out.”
Teri blinked. “You were going to break me out?”
Heather nodded and smiled. “Yeah, we talked about it last night. Robin and I decided it was time you got to join the rest of us. Daire seems to be a little overprotective.”
“A little?” Robin snorted. “He makes Kelon look like an amateur.”
Teri remembered how Garrett had been with Sarah Anne.
“Are all werewolves so protective?”
Heather put a hand under Teri’s elbow and helped her the last step to the floor.
“You get used to it,” Heather assured her.
“Or find ways around it.” Lisa grinned.
Teri had a feeling she was going to like her.
Robin smiled. “That is always plan B.”
“We try not to use it too often, though,” Heather cautioned as she steadied her. “Otherwise, they’ll catch on to us.”
Teri decided she was going to like them all. The laughter seemed to carry her in to the living room, give her the strength her shaky legs needed. It felt good to be back among women. Daire meant well but he was always so serious, so intense. She missed laughter.
Lisa stopped at an array of snacks set out on a table. “Since you made it all the way down those stairs, what’s your pleasure? We have . . .” She looked at an assortment of things. “We have tea, we have soda, we have water—”
“Milk shakes,” Robin piped up, nudging Teri with her elbow. “I’m pushing for milk shakes.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. “Ever since she realized that a werewolf’s metabolism is always on high, there’s no stopping her.”
“Hey.” Robin shrugged. “You’ve got to celebrate the upside.”
Heather snorted at her sister. “As if Kelon isn’t upside enough.”
Robin shrugged again. “You pick your upside. I’ll pick mine.”
Teri blinked. “We don’t gain weight as wolves?”
“Not an ounce after the conversion is complete”—Lisa grinned—“but then again, we don’t lose it, either.” She slapped her voluptuous hips. “We just stick where we were bitten.”
Teri touched the waistband of her jeans. “Wow.”
“What?”
“I just realized I get to spend eternity at my goal size.”
Lisa laughed as Teri took a seat in the overstuffed chair. “Lucky you.”
“So I should put you down for a milk shake?” Robin asked.
“Why not?”
“Chocolate?”
“Fine.”
“Great. I can never make it right if it’s just for one.” Robin opened the door of the small fridge beneath the table and pulled out a carton of ice cream.
“We’re not really wolves, you know,” Heather cut in, taking a seat on the couch across.
“We’re not?” Teri got the impression Heather might be the one who kept the other two grounded.
“It’s more a bonding than a conversion.”
“Oh.”
Lisa popped the top on a can of soda before sitting beside Heather. “And we don’t actually get to live forever.”
“How long do we live?”
“Well, if you’re life bonded, you’ll live as long as your mate does. But when you die, he dies.”
Teri blinked. That, she hadn’t known. “How do you know if you’ve been bonded?”
“You’re bonded,” Sarah Anne said, walking in the door. “It was the only way Daire could keep you alive.”
Sarah looked as good as always. Better, even. Her skin seemed more lustrous, and there was a calmness about her that was new. She leaned down and hugged Teri. Teri held her hand, as she would have stepped back.
“You mean I had a choice?”
The calm slipped. “If you’d been conscious, maybe.”
“I didn’t have to be a wolf?”
“Uh-oh,” Lisa whispered.
Robin hit the button on the mixer. The noise wasn’t loud enough to obscure Sarah’s answer.
“I gave him permission.”
“Who?”
“Daire. I told him I wanted you to live no matter what and he did what he needed to do.”
“And he agreed?”
“He didn’t have much choice. I told him you were pack and that no matter what, I wanted you to live.”
So Daire had done what a Protector always did: he put pack first. Great, she hadn’t even been his choice and now he was bonded to her. Forever.
“The bond can’t be broken?”
“No, there’s no breaking it.”
“And if he wants someone else?” Like his real mate.
“He won’t want anyone else,” Robin said, bringing the milk shake over. “He’s bonded to you.”
Teri took the glass. The chill traveled from her hand to her soul. Daire had given everything up for her, not because he’d wanted her, not because it was meant to be, but because she’d been a duty he hadn’t been able to avoid.
Once again in her life, she was second best.
Six
TWENTY minutes later, Heather, Lisa and Robin declared they had to get home and get supper ready. Amid laughter and jokes about stepping back into the dark ages, they left.
“They’re happy,” Teri observed, standing by the couch as the women left the room.
“Their mates are some of the strongest werewolves living today.”
“Yet they married humans.”
“Most wolves don’t have a choice where they mate.”
“I can’t imagine anyone forcing Daire to do anything.”
“The mating bond is more powerful than any force a human could apply.”
An image of Daire’s scars flashed in her mind. At some point someone or something had applied a lot of force to Daire. Had they succeeded in getting what they wanted? She touched her own scars, running her fingers along the grooves, hating the thought of anyone hurting Daire, hating the thought of him being humbled. “I’m trying to understand it.”
Sarah Anne stepped in and hugged her. “I haven’t even had a chance to have a real hug.” It felt good to hug her friend. So much had changed in the past week, but this was familiar. Blessedly normal. “How are you?”
“If you’d stop hugging me so tightly, I’d let you know.”
“Oh, my God!” Immediately, Sarah let Teri go. “Did I hurt you?”
“Don’t be silly. I’m wolf now. If I get hurt, I just heal.”
Sarah cocked her head to the side. “Not all wounds heal.”
She was talking about losing the baby, the attack.
“I haven’t given up hope.”
Sarah frowned. “I’m so sorry—”
Teri shook her head. “Why? You didn’t order those rogues to attack me.”
“But if you weren’t with me, they wouldn’t have found you.”
“We’ve been over this before. They were just bad apples. Period. And I had the damned bad luck to be standing by their basket.”
The analogy didn’t make Sarah Anne smile like she expected.
“In the old days, that never would have happened. Protectors would never have let rogues get close, let alone live.”
“But these aren’t the good old days.”
Sarah licked her lips and looked out the window. “No, they’re not.”
Standing this close, there was no missing the lines of tension at the corners of her mouth and eyes.
“Have Josiah and Rachel been found?”
“No.”
The hairs on the back of Teri’s neck stood on end. “Oh, my God.” She looked around “Where’s Megan?”
“She’s napping.”
“You left her alone?”
It came out harsher than she wanted. Sarah Anne’s eyes narrowed. “Garrett’s with her. Why?”
Teri rubbed
her arms. “I just don’t like the thought of her being alone. What if one of those lone rogues gets in here?”
Sarah Anne turned and met her gaze. “They’d never get past the guards.”
“That spy didn’t have any trouble getting in here.”
Sarah Anne’s gaze didn’t waver. “They wouldn’t get past Garrett.”
“You have a lot of faith in him.”
There was the faintest of smiles. “I discovered there’s more to him than arrogance.”
Sarah’s hand went to her neck. It was the same place where Daire had bitten her, Teri realized. The place that heated up on Teri whenever Daire was near. She put her hand over the spot on her own neck. The mating mark. “You’ve bonded to him?”
Sarah Anne shifted uncomfortably. “Not a life bond, not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Apparently”—her lips quirked in a grin—“Garrett thinks I need to be courted first.”
“Courted?” Werewolves courted their women?
Sarah Anne didn’t meet her gaze. “I know it’s only been a couple years since John died. . . .”
Teri ran her hand through her hair. It was longer now, shaggy. She didn’t like the way it stuck to the back of her neck. It was getting long enough to need to style. Long enough for someone to wrap their fingers in, hold her. A cold chill raced over her skin. “Just tell me one thing.”
“What?”
“Are you happy?”
“You know”—the grin blossomed into a smile—“despite everything that’s going on, despite how it came about, I really am. I used to mock the old myths that talked about the beauty of mating with your true mate.”
“But you’ve had a change of heart?”
“Yeah. Garrett makes me very happy. Way down inside where it matters.”
“Good.” Teri hated to knock that small smile off Sarah’s lips, but she had to know what’d been going on while she’d been laid up. “What news has there been of Rachel and Josiah?”
Sarah Anne bit her lip. She folded her arms across her chest. The way her fingers dug into her arms was a bad sign.
“It’s not good news, is it?”
“What makes you say that?” Sarah Anne asked.
Teri motioned with her hand. “The way you’re gripping your arms. You only do that when you’re nervous.”
Sarah Anne looked down, and sighed. “I guess before I work on my poker face I need to work on that.”
“We’ve known each other a long time.”
Sarah Anne’s gaze dropped to Teri’s scars. Teri’s went to Sarah Anne’s bare ring finger. “And been through some tough times together.” Her attack, John’s death. The struggle to rebuild their lives. “And we’ve always come out on top.”
“I’m not sure we can this time.”
That didn’t sound good. Teri sat back on the couch. “Shoot.”
“I’m sorry.” Sarah sat beside her. “You’re tired.”
She was tired, but not weak. This werewolf metabolism was an amazing thing. “It’s more I’m bracing for the worst. Daire wouldn’t tell me a darned thing.”
Sarah didn’t immediately respond. It had to be worse than Teri thought. “No matter what you tell me, I’m not going to fall apart,” Teri said as she sat on the sofa. “I think the one thing to come out of all this is there’s not much that’s going to shock me and not much I can’t handle.”
“Maybe I should let Daire—”
“If you do, I’ll go to my grave ignorant, and that’s unacceptable.”
Sarah’s lips twitched. “Finding him a bit protective?”
“Yes and if you laugh, I’ll hide all the chocolate.”
“He’s a very traditional wolf.”
“Then he’s going to have to modernize fast, because I am not the little-woman type.”
The twitch spread to a grin. “No, you’re not.” Sarah Anne leaned over. Her arms came around her shoulders. She hugged her tightly as her voice choked with emotion. “Thank you so much for saving my daughter.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You paid an awful price.”
Teri closed her eyes, tears burning behind her lids, clinging to the memory of that bright light that had been her own daughter, hearing again Megan’s terror as the wolf had lunged for her. “Some things weren’t meant to be.”
Sarah Anne stepped back and wiped at her cheeks. “Your daughter—”
Daire must have told her it was a daughter.
“I meant Megan,” Teri said, cutting her off. She couldn’t talk of the baby she’d lost without breaking down. “She was never meant to die like that. And if I had to do the same thing all over again, I would.”
As she said the words, Teri realized she meant it. It wasn’t a matter of what-ifs. She would make the same choice again. It was like a weight lifted from her shoulders. No matter what the consequences, she’d made the right choice that night.
“I can never thank you enough.”
“You would have done the same.”
“I wish I had been close enough.”
“But I was and it all worked out.”
Sarah Anne opened her mouth. Teri cut her off. She might have made the right decision, but that didn’t make it hurt less. “Now, tell me what’s going on with Josiah and Rachel.”
Sarah perched on the edge of the couch, fingers digging into the cushion. “They didn’t show up at the meeting place.”
Meeting the next morning had been an absolute. Only something horrible happening would have kept Rachel away. Fear shot up Teri’s spine as she contemplated all the horrible things that could happen to a woman and a child with werewolves on their trail.
“They’re not dead?”
“Oh, no. We just don’t know where they are.”
She said it as if that was a small thing. No doubt so Teri wouldn’t stress. Too late. Little Josiah with his too-brave moments and his little-boy smile? Rachel with her soothing manner, missing? Teri grabbed Sarah Anne’s hand and squeezed, prepared for the worst, hoping for the best. “They were captured?”
Sarah Anne shook her head. “No. This Protector, Cur—”
“That’s an awful name.”
“Yes.” Sarah folded her arms back across her chest. “This Cur seems to think Rachel doesn’t want to be found.”
Teri let out her breath. They were alive. “Our Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Then she must have a damn good reason.”
Was it her imagination, or did Sarah Anne seem relieved? “That’s what I said.”
“I hear a ‘but.’ ”
“Garrett and the others think she’s being deliberately evasive.”
“Well, why wouldn’t she be? She probably thinks she’s being chased by rogues.”
As if the words snapped an inner coil of tension, Sarah Anne collapsed against the back of the couch, closed her eyes and smiled. “I’m so glad you’re feeling better.”
“Missed me?”
“You and your logic.” She glanced at Teri out of the corner of her eye. “I’d forgotten how obsessive wolves can be when they get an idea in their head.”
Teri looked out the window at the bright sunshine dappling the shaded front yard. “And they think Rachel stole Josiah?”
“Yes.”
A squirrel hopped across the yard, his tail gracefully flowing behind him. Just hopping across the yard as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if the cat crouched behind the bushes wasn’t a threat. As if he had forever. “Because of Megan.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Teri wished she’d bitten her tongue.
Sarah Anne sat up. “What about Megan?”
“I don’t fully understand the whys—”
“You’re a lousy liar.”
“Well, it’s your legend.”
“Legend?”
“Yes. The one about the child with powers.”
Sarah sat back. “Oh, my God.”
“You didn’t know, did you?”
“
No. It never occurred to me.” From the look on her face she thought it should have. Now. “She was just my daughter,” she whispered. “I worried about people knowing she was telepathic, but the child from the legend?” Sarah Anne shook her head. “That’s just a myth.”
“The healthy reaction of a sane person. So refreshing to see.”
The joke went over Sarah’s head. Where a minute before she was relaxed, now she was so tense she looked as if she’d snap. “Does Daire think she’s the child of the legend?”
“No, but he’s not dismissing others’ assumptions.”
Sarah Anne licked her lips. “But does he . . . fear her?”
There had been nothing of fear in the emotion she’d felt between Daire and Megan. “I got the impression he thinks she’s an amazing little girl.”
Blowing her hair off her forehead, she whispered, “Thank God.”
So much relief made Teri suspicious. “What about Garrett?”
“Believe it or not, he loves her.”
Teri half turned and tucked her foot beneath her. “And what’s not to love? She’s a wonderful child.”
“Garrett’s wolf. They see things differently.”
“Half wolf,” Teri corrected. “And obviously it’s his human half that has a hefty dose of common sense.”
“Because he loves Megan?”
“Because he loves you both.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I can tell from the tone of your voice when you speak of him. You’ve got that warm fuzzy thing going on.”
“That sounds awful.”
“I think it sounds nice.”
“You would.”
Teri couldn’t resist. “Too bad he’s wolf. Otherwise, he’d be about perfect. “
Sarah managed a weak chuckle. Teri was surprised she managed anything at all with her daughter threatened and her son missing, but Sarah Anne had always been a resilient woman. “Wolves aren’t that bad.”
“Neither are humans, and I think you werewolves do yourselves a disservice by dismissing any human influence as inferior.”
“Purity of bloodline is important to werewolf culture.”
Teri shook her head. “I don’t know why you cling to that belief when everyone knows mutts are the hardiest.”
“It’s not the same.”
“I bet it is. Genetics are genetics, no matter what the species.”
“Wolves are stronger.”
Wild Instinct Page 17