The dogs were still there surrounding the tree. The Shadows were still working on her shields. When they failed, she would become another kind of chew toy. She knew what they were capable of had seen it with her own eyes. They would drain her until there was nothing left.
She couldn’t say she was surprised, hadn’t she been on this one-way trip since she turned six? Her sister hated her. Her parents loved her sister more. Why? Because she wasn’t strange.
The tree was gone she was standing on the shoreline. The sea in front of her was black and endless from her point of view. At her feet was a varied collection of seashells, all hers, all dull. She picked up the one that brought her back to the day she first changed. The headaches, the voices in her head that made her think she was crazy.
The next one was the first meeting she and her parents had with the school. They said she had ADD an advanced case. They weren’t sure who dropped the ball and missed it, but she would need medicine. They prescribed Ritalin, the nightmare she lived through. The next shell was when she was first committed.
The school called her mother and suggested strongly that she take her to Western Psych the emergency room. They walked in after having been searched by the guards. Her mother had to give up her purse but could keep her phone. It was worse than a regular emergency room. People who were certifiable (not that she had room to talk) wandered around. She remembered curling up next to her mother hoping her nightmare was just that. Hours later they finally saw an intake counselor who said it would be hours still before she was admitted but her mom could leave her there. Not her mom, she refused to leave her child unattended in a room full of people they needed not only security to look after but two police officers. She dropped the shell; it had been a long time since she thought about that time in her life.
This one represented the prom she didn’t go to. It was beautiful a pink and white pattern reminding her of the prom dress she worked so hard to afford. Her date never showed up he left her waiting for him all night. She even bought the tickets, never thinking about it she was just so excited to do one thing in her high school years. He used the ticket to take someone else.
“Hope you had fun, jerk.”
She kicked the shells with her foot. Each one of them highlighted a time in her life where there was nothing except pain. You could only run from pain for so long. Kneeling by the shells she ran her hand through them. There was one shell, unlike the others. It was twisted and when she held it up to her ear, she didn’t hear the ocean.
It was gray bringing a smile to her face. This had to be Locke’s shell. Like all the others it was dull, but it had no color at all. It reminded her that he was Nobody’s Prince. Did he have shells that he kicked around on a nonexistent beach?
It didn’t matter none of this was real. She stood up ready to walk away from her life, her past. Head forward she walked into the black void. Not wondering why she turned around running back. She gathered up her shells and placed them in the pouch at her side. It wasn’t a good life, but it was her life. Who knew, one day she might even get to tell someone the story of the psychic who could.
She walked into the distance until the first quake shook the ground underneath her. “What’s happening?”
“Your mental shields are coming down.”
“Damn, damn, damn,” she looked out into the soothing darkness. Over her shoulder was the fight that still needed to be fought. She should just go, give up like she said she would. Tell that to her feet. She ran back knowing she couldn’t win, but if she could slow them down. There was a chance she could save another’s life.
She started building energy between her hands.
“Want some help?”
“Locke? How did you get here?”
“Let’s just say I’m about to find out if I can cheat death.”
“Together,” she placed her back against him as the energy in her hands moved to the critical point. It came out with a blast. Together they fought them off.
“You need to go repair your shield and make your way home. Follow the breadcrumbs I laid out for you. I’ll hold them off.”
“I’ll see you on the other side.” She wished she could kiss him and tell him the conclusions she came to but now was not the time. She ran to fight another battle one for the control of her mind and her mental power.
“You don’t want this,” the voice of the Shadow that she was calling bob whispered in her ear. “Think of all the pain it has caused you, the heartache.”
Her memories so close to the surface assailed her. “Who would you be without those experiences?” She didn’t know, and it was too late to go back and find out. Two choices go or give up.
Funny she always wanted to be strong. Who knew that strength was derived in the ability to keep going even if it meant changing direction?
“You’re right I should give up, I’m not.” This time she ran to her shield and fought the Shadows trying to take them down. How long had she fought? She didn’t know, but she repaired her shields and called out to Locke.
“It’s time to go!”
“I’m right behind you.” She ran for the exit, turning she saw him go down under the Shadows just as she was yanked out.
Chapter Nineteen
“Ava,” Ven rushed across the room to catch her before she fell.
She collapsed in Ven’s arms looking around the room for Locke.
“Ava your arm.”
“What’s wrong with Locke?” she clutched at Ven’s shirt with her one good hand. “I saw him go down under the Shadow attack. Send me back I have to help him.”
“You can help him by getting to him and letting him know you're safe and he can stop fighting,” Tristan’s demanding voice cut through all the chaos in the air.
Ven picked her up to keep her from tripping and falling as she made her way to Locke.
“I’m here Locke, come back to me. Please, baby, come back to me.” Tears dripped down her face when Tristan shook his head and stood back. “When I first met you, you called yourself Nobody’s Prince. You were wrong, you are wrong. You’re my prince, hell I’ll call you prince charming if you want. Locke don’t you see, you’re the rainbow in my bridge. The reason I’d rather live here than in a mighty tower guarded by a dragon waiting for a prince because you already found me and set me free. I wake up to see you and I fight the Shadows to spend one more day with you. Please, baby, wake up and be my prince in a shining werewolf suit.”
She crawled up on the bed with him using the one arm that worked and cried. This time there was no shame. She was crying for someone she loved and lost. How could she have almost walked away from the person who reminded her what the sun looked like? How was she going to live without him for the rest of her life? She wished she could pick up the seashell that contained her memories of Locke so that she could live each one over again this time appreciating what fate or God gave her. Time happened to fast, and those she loved left too soon.
A hand rubbed her back while another gently touched her face.
“You’re too pretty to cry.”
“Locke you’re alive.”
“You brought me back. I thought… thought I was doing the right thing dying so you could live. I know better now; the right thing is for us both to live.” His voice was strained Key hurried across the room with some water while Tristan was running a scanner over him.
“You’ll live, if you ever do something that idiotic again—”
“It’ll be done for someone I love.” He stared at Ava then he lifted his head to include the others in the room.
“No one else gets to play the hero,” Tristan grumbled. “You come with me so I can fix that arm.”
Ven helped her up and to another bed where Tristan enclosed her arm from her hand to her shoulder in a machine and told her to sit still.
“I thought I told you to leave?”
“I stayed,” Ven gave him his puppy dog eyes. “Remember?”
Tristan opened and closed his mouth. He didn
’t miss the power that spiked as Ava pleaded for Locke to find his way back. He wouldn’t say that Ven had a part in recovering Locke, but he wouldn’t dismiss the idea either. The boy was different, but he was theirs.
“How long will this take?”
“I’ll tell you after you wake up,” Tristan stuck her with a needle making her eyes close.
*~*~*~*
“Locke?” Ava sat up certain she drank too much last night. “Why did you let me get drunk?” She laid back down deciding her head hurt too much to sit up.
“It’s a side effect of the healing, it’s rather nasty but worth it.”
“Healing who was hurt?” The memories came one after another making her grade A headache ratchet up into kill me now land.
“My arm,” she held it up to find out it worked. It was a little sore nothing she couldn’t live with.
“OMG! You can heal broken bones?”
“Nope, not me, Tristan and Cait our other healer. Like I said it leaves a nasty side effect of a headache, but that should pass soon enough.”
“I don’t want to piss you off I might love Tristan.”
“I always thought Tristan used his skills as a healer to gain love. It’s the only reason we protected him when fighting.”
“Uhuh tell me more, I’m believing your BS.” She laughed and carefully moved across the bed until she was snuggled close to her male. “That was some fight?”
“I’m more interested in our recovery, but that leaves us once again playing catchup. They have the ability to snatch us anytime they want.”
“I think it was a trap like the others they have used just a bit more sophisticated.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Mira told me about the time she went into her apartment and almost died. When Tristan went in nothing happened, so the trap was set to spring for her and no one else. I think that’s what happened here. It was focused on me. I don’t know how. Was it a psychic signature or a physical one they were looking for? Either way, it wanted me.”
“It got you, you almost died.”
“You almost died,” she hit him with her healing hand then cradled it. “Why are you so hard?”
“Are you complaining?”
“Yes,” she poked out her bottom lip and pouted.
“So adorable.”
“Adorable? Do I look like a two-year-old to you? I am hot, smokin’ hot. You can barely keep your hands off me, you want me so bad your dick is thick and oozing precum for me right now.”
He grabbed her hand and placed it over the dick she was talking about.
“You’re hard.”
“Only for you.”
“We should talk?”
He raised a brow, she giggled. There was something about seeing him adopt some human traits that made her smile.
“I agree this might not be the best time, but after what happened I need to take the time.”
He nodded reluctantly taking her hand off his throbbing cock to cradle it against his chest.
“When I was… I’m not sure where I was… but when I was there, I had a chance to go back. There were these seashells, but they are unimportant except to say they reminded me of times in my life. Times that were pivotal to who I am today. You had a shell.”
“I did?”
“Yeah, it was gray, but it was my favorite shell. It was just like you, different.” She got silent wondering how she was supposed to tell him everything that was inside of her heart.
“We can talk later.”
“There might not be a later. I don’t want to put this off. The Shadows gave me a chance to walk away from all this.” She used her hand to indicate her body. “I could have left it all behind, like a Shadow. No pun intended. I don’t know what would have happened, but I think everyone who ever knew me might have forgotten me. Anything I ever did both good and bad would be erased from life as we know it. I wanted that. Maybe my parents and my sister would be happy without me. Do you know….”
She wiped her eyes because now she was crying again, but no one died darn tears.
“Do you know that my mother stood behind me through some of the worst moments of my life? I was too busy going through to see her holding my hand and encouraging me. I always thought she hated me. How could I be so wrong?”
“Seeing the truth isn’t easy.”
“You’re right. I almost let you go I was going to walk away from this.” This time she included him when she used her hand to indicate herself. “I almost walked away like you didn’t matter.”
“Why did you stay?”
“I love you. I love you and me together, I want to spend my life with you. I know you’re an alien and I should be scared. Hell, I hear in on the news every day, fear those that are different from you. The Shadows are different from us, so I get the warning, but why aren’t we being taught to fear those that look like us?”
“If we fear those that look like us then we have to take a good look at ourselves. That’s why we all have green eyes. There will never be a Kur’ik who thinks we look like them.”
“You might be right. I can find lots of reasons to fear someone. I won’t be fearing them because of the planet they were born on or the color of their skin. You don’t scare me, Locke. What I’m trying to say is I want to be your mate and spend the rest of my life with you no matter how long it is. That is if you’ll have me.”
“I love you Ava; I think it started when you replied to the message, I sent you. I thought for a woman to be so brave to ask to meet me. I was intrigued. Then I saw you in the car tears streaming down your face with the sunlight turning them into jewels. I was lost. You were so brave when you opened the door and went with me. I was hooked on you Ava. Since then you have proven me right and showed me the capacity you have for love. Your heart is so large, and you keep accepting me and my family. I want to be your male, your mate for as long as we have time together.”
“Sounds like a yes to me. How do we do this thing?”
“See about that, I have to bite you with these.” He opened his mouth and his fangs grew.
“My what big teeth you have.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Little red riding hood and you, my dear, are the wolf, my wolf. I think red should have made sure her wolf wasn’t a werewolf before running.”
“Never stop to talk to a wolf unless it’s one of us.”
“I won’t. Now,” she walked her fingers up his chest. “Explain to me how those teeth in my neck, I assume that’s where you want to bite, won’t hurt me.”
“I’ll do it when we are mating, that way the pain you feel will be overwritten by exquisite pleasure.”
“Exquisite pleasure did you say? What red-blooded female could resist that line? Maybe you should show me this pleasure.”
He took her mouth in a kiss. There was a faint voice in the back of her head screaming no, she would regret this. Since it sounded like a certain Shadow to her, she ignored it.
Chapter Twenty
Locke was staring into her eyes. What are you looking for my male? Proof of my love or any doubts I may have. It didn’t matter because she loved him and there weren’t any doubts. She didn’t know how each day, or every year would work, but she was willing to do her part to keep them together.
“You love me.”
“I,” she kissed his cheek, “Love,” her tongue licked at his throat, “You.”
She took him in another deep kiss loving the way his tongue swept into her mouth battling her but not taking over. She drew back and nipped his bottom lip before she sank her blunt teeth into his neck. She drew a drop of blood which she licked up.
“Bloods not my thing, but when it comes to you, I feel like all bets are off.”
“It’s just a small exchange between mates.” He picked her up and sat her on his abdomen. She was wearing nothing except a pair of panties. “You’re beautiful.”
Her breast swung over his chest like a pendulum, his eyes followed more unde
r her spell with each swing.
“Watch out before I mesmerize you,” she laughed leaning down.
“Too late for that.” He took one of her nipples in his mouth, causing her to moan as her hands went to his chest.
“I love the feel of you, the hardness and the heat. The way you play with my body and make me feel like there is no one or nothing in the world better than I am.”
He bit her nipple sending waves of pleasure through her body with one last suck he let it go.
“There is no one more important to me than you are.”
She believed him that’s why she was sitting on him doing her queen of the jungle move bare breast and all. Her hips wiggled a little as she felt her pussy heat up. Moving over she leaned forward so he could take her other nipple in his mouth. She knew what she wanted, and she wanted her greedy little hands all over his body. Reaching out she pinched his nipples first one then the other.
“I love the way they get hard for me.” His hips thrust as she pulled on his nipple before soothing it with her fingers.
When her nipple left his mouth with a satisfying pop, she leaned down and took one of his into her mouth. It was only fair. She chuckled to herself before sucking him down. How had she forgotten how good he tasted and his scent? She didn’t understand how other women resisted him. Good thing she wasn’t the sharing type.
The groan he let out when she nipped at him with her teeth was enough to send her over the edge. She tightened her grip, making sure her nails didn’t pierce his skin.
“I’m tougher than that.”
“Hush, I will not hurt you.” She nipped at his lips before she went back to working her way down his chest. It was going to take her a lifetime to map out the hills and valleys of his chest. She slid down his body as her hands followed her. When she reached the waistband of the joggers he was wearing, he lifted her off himself to get rid of his clothes.
“All yours.”
Her tongue came out to lick her lips, she wanted to get to the good part but wasn’t it all good. Her fingers played with the darker skin that started from where his navel should have been to the patch around his dick. Take your time. Yep, right. She dove in like a starving woman allowing her tongue to trace each individual patch of skin. She was amazed at how he looked so different when he was naked from what she expected.
The Wolf & The Psychic: BBW Alien Paranormal Romance (Werewolves & Mates Book 2) Page 12