Sage barely registered stepping closer and pulling her against him, his palm at the back of her head while the other stroked gently up and down her spine. Her body seemed to meld against his, soft and pliant and sweetly feminine.
“I promise…no rooms with locks…no one will ever beat you again, Luna. I won’t allow it,” he told her, a deceptive softness in his tone that was far from his eyes. He felt the wolf just below the surface and was working to keep even the slightest signs of the feral animal inside.
Control had never been a problem for him. He was rigid in it, ever since he’d been in the military. Yet less than half a day with this woman and the beast was clamoring to be set free. The more time he spent with Luna, the more the beast was making demands he’d never experienced before. He’d read enough stories; heard enough explanations on the effects and what to expect when your beast recognized its mate.
He recalled the fight less than ten days ago. He’d witnessed several of his best friends caught in the middle of a rage he’d never seen on them before when their mates had been threatened. Jess, the town physician, the one caught in the deepest fury as his mate, Lily, had been taken captive. Now the feelings were seething just beneath the surface and he could honestly say he understood them now.
He pulled the large SUV into the driveway of the old, well-built Victorian style home. The porch was wide and wrapped around the house, thick stone steps leading to the double front doors.
“How do you plan on getting inside, Luna?” He wondered briefly why he believed her word that this was her grand-mother. He’d just taken her at her word, without taking time to check.
Then he saw that glorious smile bloom on her face. She opened the seatbelt, turned and leaped to the ground, long legs running over the grass and onto the porch. He was positive he caught a brief glimpse of the ten year old girl running and playing, without fear of anything. She continued on the porch, moving past the empty flower pots on the wide ledge. She seemed to be counting.
She dropped to her knees and he couldn’t see her hands as he walked toward her, aware of people watching them. Then she stood upright, smiling happily and holding up a small ring with three keys on it. He heard the keys jangling as he climbed the stairs to stand behind her. Her hands were shaking and looked so small against the heavy, thick door. It opened easily and she pushed it inward.
Sage stood behind her. He almost thought she would turn and run. Or pass out. Either was possible. But she tucked the keys into the top pocket on her jeans and took a long, slow deep breath before she walked into the spacious foyer, a wide, curving staircase about fifteen feet ahead of her and open, arching doorways on either side of her. The corridor straight ahead led to what looked like the kitchen.
He stayed behind her, watching. She chose the left side, a huge atrium type room with full windows open to the light and a thick glass type dome. Built-in bench seats lined each of the large windows, pillows and throws lying around for warmth.
Luna abruptly turned and came to him, took his hand firmly in hers and led him across the room. The inside wall was completely lined with photographs.
“My grand-mother loved to take pictures,” she gestured to one filled with a collage of a girl about four or five, her silver-blond hair to the middle of her back and curling wildly around the pixie face beaming with glee.
“I think she really loved her grand-daughter,” Sage commented quietly, his gaze landing on several shots that held his attention. “These?”
“I don’t know how she got close enough to take those,” Luna shook her head. “But she is beautiful.” She stood looking at the silver-gold colored cougar, black tipped ears and muzzle; long whiskers and paws that seemed huge. Her hand rose, almost mindlessly to allow her fingertips to brush over the glass encased photo.
Amnesia, his mind repeated. She wouldn’t know that side of her until her memory returned. He had a feeling they were looking at her mother.
“This is my mother,” Luna said reverently, pointing to a woman that looked like a reproduction of herself, standing on the docks near the lake. Reclining in the atrium with a book and a small girl on her lap. “She was beautiful.”
“Have you looked into a mirror lately, Luna? You are your mother’s daughter,” Sage felt that brick wall fall on him when she faced him slowly, going to her toes and kissing his cheek.
“You are very sweet, Sage. Thank you for the kindness. I feel…” Her breath quickened, a soft shudder taking her. “Home,” she whispered reverently. “I feel home.”
He almost moved. He was staring at those full, pink lips like he was thirteen. And she was the most gorgeous girl in the school. By the time he realized he could make his muscles work, she had stepped back, her fingers out and touching the glass covering the photos of her mother this time.
The melodious sounds of chimes filled the room and echoed through the empty home and broke the quiet spell that had woven its way around them. Wide eyes rose to his and he immediately saw the panic there, her breathing coming too fast. Her head shook, fear shimmering in her eyes. They couldn’t have found her already! They couldn’t! She didn’t want to go back.
“Stop, Luna,” His hands went to her shoulders tightly. “I’m here with you. It’s probably one of the neighbors. This is a small town and news shoots through it fast.” He waited a full pause. “Alright? I won’t let you be hurt. Believe that.”
“Alright,” she repeated, her head bobbing rapidly. But her breath still hitched when the chimes sounded again.
“Stay here,” he ordered, striding to the door and pulling it wide. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Addy Powers,” she squinted a little behind a pair of gold edged, narrowed glasses, barely perched on the edge of her nose. She leaned in, trying to see around the large male body. When he didn’t appear inclined to move, she straightened up, the top of her head barely touching his shoulder. “You’re a big one. I’ve seen you around here,” she said with a satisfied nod. “You’ll do nicely. Now, where is Luna?”
“Hello,” Luna stepped from the side, eyes quickly scanning the area around the house. “I’m Luna St. Germaine.”
“Oh my dear…” One weathered palm rose and covered the thin lips. “You are Ariane. You’ve grown up to be your mother.” She held out her palm and swiftly changed her mind, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around the slender woman. “Addy Powers. Oh, child, you are so beautiful,” but her eyes narrowed, her head tilting to take a closer look, peering deeply into her eyes. “What’s wrong with you? Are you feeling well? Your grandmother left me something for you. I won’t stay, but I brought this to you,” she held out a large gold envelope.
“For me?” Slim fingers were cold and shook slightly as she reached for the envelope, taking it against her. A mixture of fear, anticipation flared in her eyes.
“Nothing wrong with my eyes. What’s wrong with you, child?” Addy repeated and took a step forward, her palm up and on Luna’s cheek. “You’re too thin. Have you been sleeping?”
“Not so much,” Luna answered instantly, frozen in place as this small, older woman examined her eyes and peered around her. Her hand touched the uneven strands of silver-gold, her frown deepening.
She took Luna’s free hand and pulled her into the living area. “You sit. Minerva has some excellent tinctures for you. I know where she kept them,” her head shook as she continued onto the large, old-fashioned kitchen. She pushed Luna into a chair and glanced at Sage who had followed silently. There was no shyness as her eyes swept from the floor to his head, their eyes meeting. She nodded approval and began opening cabinets after putting a large tea kettle on the stove.
“Where have you been, child? Minerva searched. Lord, she tried so hard to find you when they took you away.”
“Montreal,” she answered quietly, laying the envelope down on the table, her finger tracing the precisely printed name across the front. “I tried to come back. So many times, I tried to come back. They wouldn’t allow it. They always found
me. I hid. But they found me.”
Well-worn jeans absorbed the damp palms she wiped across the sides after she washed her hands and prepared the tea, placing a collection of herbs from various small canisters into a tea ball and set it into the tea kettle.
“Minerva never knew where they took you. I think the one thing she was glad of is that your mother wasn’t around to know what happened,” she sighed, her head shaking. “Your father donated to your creation, child, but he’s pure asshole. There was a reason Ariane ran from him. Too many good damn reasons,” she tipped the kettle over and filled a large mug before pouring the remaining liquid into a clear jar.
“What is that for?” Sage finally asked.
“To clear the poisons from her,” Addy answered without pulling punches, lifting a large jar from the closet and finding a spoon for it. “I know Minerva got you hooked on honey,” she smiled at the look on Luna’s face, her head nodding. “And you haven’t lost it. Good. Finest honey this side of the mountains. We got smart bees.”
“Poisons?” Sage leaned against the window ledge, his hands curled on the end to avoid stabbing himself with his own claws. The more he heard, the more he learned, the more he was positive he was headed for a problem. A situation he hadn’t seen coming when he woke this morning.
“Toxins, poisons…” She leaned a little closer, peering into the wide green eyes as Luna spooned honey into the fragrant tea. “Medications, maybe. Wrong. Something’s wrong.”
“And you can tell this?”
“It’s my chosen profession, young man,” Addy placed the large jar of liquid on the table. “Drink as much as you can. Her eyes, her skin and hair…especially her eyes. Her scent,” she told him with a knowing look.
“Did you know my father?”
“I knew what your mother went through at his hands. I know what he did to her self-esteem and self-confidence,” her voice was flat, cold. Angry. “I know what he allowed her to be used for.”
“Why did her grand-mother allow him to take her?” Sage suspected, but collecting information was what he did. “I need information, Miss Powers. Anything you can tell me would help.”
A pair of barely brown eyes met his. “Money. It made no sense, though. He appeared one day just after Luna’s tenth birthday with a couple lawyers and took her, claiming his right as her father, even though they had never married. And Ariane had left her care to Minerva,” her head shook slowly. “She didn’t have the money to fight him. We tried to find them. To get her some grand-parent rights, but…he was Canadian and she was blocked at every turn. He has powerful friends.”
She looked at Luna, nodding to herself.
“I think I should lie down,” she stood up and hugged Addy.
“You go along to your room, child. I’m going to talk to your friend here for a bit,” she watched the woman smile and leave, the sound of her climbing the stairs making her hands clenched into taut fists. “What’s he done to her?” She demanded in a low, hard hiss.
“I don’t know, Miss Powers,” Sage shoved against the window ledge and paced the large kitchen. “I only met her this morning when she wandered into Devil Hills and fell asleep on a bench in the park.”
“That man is a bastard and should never have been allowed to keep her, let alone take her,” she spit out furiously.
“There are things you wanted to say, but didn’t while she was here,” Sage met her eyes honestly. “What?”
“Her father knew what her mother was even before he selected her.”
Chapter Four
“Selected her?” Sage didn’t like the spike inside his instinct.
“He deliberately found a girl without parents, Ariane,” she said softly. “I know she deliberately didn’t tell him when she turned up pregnant because of comments he had made to her about the shifter community. He’s the next generations version of a racist. And believe me when I say, that’s the mildest thing you could say about him. He’s very far on the right of the movement, wanting to eradicate and ‘cure’ the evil from them as a whole.”
Addy Powers paced the kitchen. “Ariane was barely eighteen. She was frightened. She had been in Vancouver at school when he targeted her,” she raised her eyes to his. “Ariane told us there were gaps in her memory when she was with him. And when she woke, she was in a different place and sore in places a woman would remember. She ran from him and swears she never told him when she lived.”
Sage felt his claws. For the first time in a very long time, unbidden, he felt the hint of his canines.
“Are you saying Ariane didn’t recall having sex with the bastard?”
“You’re real sharp. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Clear and cold. The child was terrified when she came home. She didn’t know how she had become pregnant. Our doctor at the time swore she had not had sex,” Addy shook her head, her mind comparing the woman upstairs with one so long ago. “Luna…she hasn’t been raped, has she?”
“I don’t know.” He felt the edge of his canines; felt the coursing fury mix with his blood. “The doctor who saw her this morning took blood because he didn’t know what was in her system. He said she needs food and fluids and sleep,” Sage struggled to pull the fury in line. “I don’t know the answer to your other question. Jess didn’t…Luna barely permitted him to take blood.”
“She’s yours, you know. I can smell the pair of you,” Addy met the denial in his eyes. “Running won’t make it less truth.”
“You noticed the blood in her hair,” he waited for her nod. “It’s almost healed now, but she seems to have struck her head very hard. She doesn’t have a lot of her memory. Not fully. It’s filtering to her in bits and pieces. Add to that your observation about the toxins in her system…” He exhaled deeply. “I think she’s afraid to talk about something inside her…afraid whatever happened in the past, will be repeated.”
“What’s he done to her?” Addy repeated, almost to herself.
“I don’t know. Some friends found her in the park and we took her to the clinic. Jess took blood, but until he gets the report back, we just don’t know.” He looked toward the other room. “She left the clinic without telling them. She said it wouldn’t be safe for them if she stayed.”
“Her subconscious remembers,” Addy said softly. “We knew he was Canadian, but we didn’t know from where. He met Ariane at the University in Seattle. They were both students. She used to tell Minerva that he was different until his family was near. When she found herself pregnant, she broke off all contact when he flatly denied it could be his child. It hurt her a great deal,” she recalled sadly. “But she was a strong woman and pulled herself together for her child. Lord, seeing the pair of them together was amazing.”
“How old was Luna when her mother died?”
“She didn’t die, young man, she was hunted and killed,” her voice was hard, angry. “Luna had just turned eight. We had watchers who swore they saw strangers on the outskirts, toward the snow line. But they never came into town. When the bastard showed up to claim Luna, he knew just a little too much about Ariane’s death for my taste.”
“You think he had her killed?”
“I think the bastard hunted her himself,” she corrected coldly. She looked at the envelope. “I’ll offer some advice. There’s an envelope inside there that you might keep from Luna until she’s stronger. Minerva outlined all she knew in it, including her thoughts on her mother’s death. She doesn’t need that right now.”
Sage walked to the table and opened the clasp, sliding the contents onto the table. A few photographs and two smaller envelopes. Addy stepped forward and lifted the darker envelope.
“One day she’ll want to know.” He said, taking the enveloped and folding it, tucking it into his back pocket.
“One day, she’ll be strong and can deal with it. Right now…get her to drink as much of the tea as you can. It will help cleanse her system.”
“What do you think he’s been giving her?”
“Young man, I wish I
knew. The ten year old will be different, but Luna was a lively, inquisitive child who never stopped moving,” she told him with a laugh. “This Luna…so subdued. Restrained.”
“She said she felt caged,” Sage didn’t like the words but he had a feeling they were accurate.
“Did she recognize this photo?” Addy moved swiftly, taking the photo of the exotic looking cougar from the wall.
Sage shrugged. “Just that it was a beautiful animal and she wondered how her grandmother got that close to the wild cat.”
“She didn’t recognize her mother,” Addy said quietly. “The scent…it’s wrong…wrong for her age. Whatever he’s done it her, it’s affected her cat.”
“Until her memory becomes clearer, we won’t know. I’m taking her back to Devil Hills with me in the morning. I can keep her safe there,” Sage told Addy confidently.
“Be careful of her father, young man,” but she looked him over and nodded. “You’ll do nicely for Luna. Her grand-mother would approve.”
“I’m the sheriff in Devil Hills. I’ll protect her because it’s my job,” he said, listening to his own words and hearing the wolf deep inside calling him a liar.
“Hmm…well, that will work on others,” she chuckled. “You’ve never mated.”
“I don’t see where that’s important.”
“It might be your best answer to the problem,” she told him enigmatically and tipped her wrist up. “I have appointments. Take care of her, young man.”
“Thank you for coming over,” he said absently, her words bouncing around in his head as he slid the photos of herself and her mother into the envelope and added the smaller envelope before closing it. He heard the door close and went around checking locks before climbing the stairs and checking bedrooms.
He stopped at the open door and stared. Her grandmother hadn’t altered the room much. The colors of pink and lavender filled the room in the form of pillows, blankets and stuffed animals all against a stark forest green. Curled in the small twin bed, Luna had snuggled down into the collection of things that had been part of her life.
Devil Hills: #2 Luna & Lydia Page 3