When Thomas looked at him this time, his eyes looked haunted. “It won’t do any good; the witch already has her,” he said.
***Lynette***
Lynette knew that she should stop and go back home, but she couldn’t make herself. The farther away from Serendipity she got, the better she felt, and no matter how dangerous the trail was after dark, she needed to be alone for a while. She’d been so sure of Derek, sure that he wanted what she did, a life together, that when he’d hesitated, she’d panicked and ran off.
Now she was hurt and confused, her heart aching with a feeling of loss unlike anything she’d ever felt before, and only riding seemed to ease that pain. She knew deep down in her soul that she loved Derek, that the words she’d said to her father were true: she’d never marry another man. But when she’d said them, she’d been so sure that someday it would happen.
But she’d forgotten about the rest of the world, about Sam and Gus, forgotten that real life wasn’t always as pretty as we’d like it to be. Maybe she’d been wrong about Derek. Perhaps he was one of those men her mother had warned her about. Maybe she’d been terribly wrong about him. The way he’d reacted when she’d talked about marriage was proof enough that she might have been, she decided, the feeling of loss even sharper.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she suddenly found herself back at the camp they’d abandoned in their rush to get home. It looked spooky in the moonlight, especially when she knew that the dead bear was probably still lying there in a pool of blood, and she shivered. Realizing that she should turn back, she stopped her horse and started to turn around, but then a shadow in the trees caught her attention.
She watched as the shadow came out of the trees and materialized into the form of an old woman, and she knew that she should turn and flee, but she couldn’t make herself move. Instead, she found herself jumping down from her horse and approaching the harmless-looking figure staring down at the bear. When she got close enough, the woman looked up at her and smiled, revealing two rows of rotted teeth.
“I’ve been following this monster for years, just waiting for the day something finally took him down,” she said, her voice scratchy with age.
Lynette found herself transfixed by the woman, and even when she pulled a giant knife out of the folds of her dress, the moonlight glistening on the sharp blade, she was rooted in place. Horrified, she watched as the woman lifted one giant paw in the air, then sliced it off, repeating the procedure with the other three, then stuffing them into a bag.
When she was finished, she stood up and looked over at her. “Now, Lynette, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing out here in the middle of the night? It was nice of you to find me; it saved me all the trouble of finding you.”
“You were looking for me?” Lynette asked, her brain muddled as if she’d been drinking.
“Oh, yes, and your magic at the old mill made it so much easier to find you,” the old woman said.
“You’re the witch my mother warned me about. I thought you’d be dead by now,” Lynette managed to say, her tongue thick.
“Oh, I’ve been able to keep that from happening for a long time, and these little dandies will help me once again. But this time, it will be all that much sweeter when I’m in control of Serendipity,” she said, holding up the sack. “But first, let’s get you home. I’m sure your parents will be very happy to see you.”
***Derek***
Derek grabbed Thomas’s arm and shook him. “What do you mean the witch has her?” he asked, panic welling up inside him.
When he didn’t respond, he shook him again. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Amy had a dream. The witch lured her away; she’s going to take Lynette’s magic and use it against us,” he said, his eyes wide with shock.
“What witch?” Derek practically screamed at him. When Thomas just stared at him, he pushed him away. “We have to find her,” he said, throwing on his clothes.
When he came back out of the bedroom, Gus and Sam were both dressed and waiting for him. “What do you want us to do?” they asked in unison.
Derek’s mind was swirling; he had no idea how to deal with a witch, but he wasn’t going to lose Lynette. “Take him home and find out where Lynette’s mom is,” he ordered. “I’ll go to the barn and put together a search party. We can cover more ground on horseback. Meet me there.”
When he raised the alarm at the barn, he was impressed by how fast the hands jumped into action. It wasn’t long before they discovered that there was a horse missing. “She probably headed up to the cliff she likes so much,” Steven said, carrying a saddle over to his horse and throwing it on.
Derek started saddling his own horse as around him, men did the same, a quiet sense of purpose falling over them as they worked. When Gus and Sam arrived a few minutes later, Thomas and Amy with them, Amy strode forward and said, “I’ll need a horse of my own.”
Relief washed over him. “I’ll see to it right away,” he said, turning and heading for the barn.
When he came back with a mare for Amy, she swung up in the saddle. “Let’s go find my daughter,” she said. “Thomas is going to stay behind and organize the rest of the valley. I’m afraid we’re going to have a fight on our hands to get her back. Are you up to it?”
Derek looked her straight in the eye and said, “Nothing and no one is going to take Lynette away from me. I love her, and I won’t spend my life without her.”
Amy held his gaze for a long time, then nodded her head. “I believe you,” she said, then walked her horse over to where Thomas sat on his.
Looking around him, he spotted Sam hiding behind Gus’s leg looking very scared. He walked over and knelt down in front of Sam, then pulled him into his arms. “I have to go get Lynette,” he said.
“Are you going to come back?” Sam asked, his eyes full of tears. “Mommy didn’t.”
“I’ll be back. I promise,” Derek said. “Don’t forget, I took down that big bear. A witch should be a piece of cake.”
“I love you, Dad,” Sam said, smiling through his tears.
“I love you too, and when I get back, we’re going to see what we can do about making us all one big happy family,” he said.
Sam looked up at Gus. “Gus too?”
“You bet; it wouldn’t be the same without him,” he said, looking up at Gus. “I want you two to take care of each other, okay?”
It was hard to ride away from his son and best friend, but Lynette needed him, and he needed her. He needed her bright smile and playful sense of humor; he needed the warmth she gave him by just being near; most of all, he needed her to make his life complete. No matter what lay ahead of them, or what kind of evil they had to face, he was ready to fight to the death for the woman he loved.
They rode in silence, Amy’s magic filling the air around them, climbing further into the mountains, a silent guard of shifters flitting through the trees around them. When Amy brought her horse to a halt and lifted her hand in the air, he held his breath, waiting for some sign of what she was sensing, then released it when he realized that he had magic of his own.
Taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly, he let a small trickle of power flow through him, just enough so that his senses came alive. Suddenly, the night was no longer so dark or quiet, and he heard the sound of a horse coming down the trail, and a woman talking quietly. Amy dismounted, gently patted the horse on its flank, and sent it back down the trail, the sound of hooves on the hard pack trail loud in the night.
Derek followed her example, opening himself up just a little more, feeling the rush of power filling his muscles with energy. He stood there, hovering between human and wolf waiting, smelling Lynette’s scent in the air, his instinct to kill flaming to life. Amy looked back at him, and motioned for him to stand next to her, then took his hand in hers, and together, they waited.
Chapter Fifteen
***Lynette***
Lynette struggled against the ropes that tied her hands, stre
tching and pulling, feeling the knot loosen. Her head was still filled with fog, but as she worked at the knots, she worked on the spell that the old witch had put on her. Once she’d secured her bear paws in the sack and hooked them over the saddle, she’d turned to Lynette and let out a cackling laugh.
“Up in the saddle with you,” she’d said, pointing at Lynette.
She’d tried to fight but she couldn’t stop herself from jumping up into the saddle, and she was still fighting. Just as they came around a corner and she saw her mother and Derek blocking their path, the perfect spell popped into her mind, and she quickly mumbled it through thick lips, her tongue not quite doing what she wanted it to.
As soon as the last syllable was out of her mouth, the clouds in her head began to clear, and it took only a few more words to loosen the knots around her wrists. Her instincts screamed at her to run, to jump from the horse and go to the safety of Derek’s arms, but she stayed where she was, pretending to still be under the spell.
“Ah,” the old witch said, her putrid breath making Lynette gag. “I see you have a rescue party.”
“Let her go,” Derek ordered, the sound of his voice making her warm inside.
“Or what?” the old witch asked. “Do you really think I’m afraid of a shifter?”
“Don’t forget about me, Morgana,” her mother said, surprising them all. “Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you? Young or old, you still smell like the evil witch you are.”
“You always were the smart one, Amy: the perfect one, the one with everything,” Morgana said, then let out a cackling laugh. “But this time, I’m going to be the one with everything, starting with your sweet Lynette’s magic. It was so kind of her to come to me. Once I have control of Serendipity, I can make myself young again, and I might just let you stay alive to see it.”
Using a strength Lynette didn’t think she possessed, Morgana grabbed her head and twisted her neck to the side, and a cold hard blade was pressed up against her throat. “I had hoped to do this with more ceremony, but I can see that’s just not going to happen, so I’ll get on with it.”
When she felt the knife cut into her skin, and the trickle of blood running down her neck, Lynette knew she was out of time, that if she didn’t act fast, nothing could save her. Gathering her magic around her, she focused on the things she loved most in life, throwing up a protective barrier of positive energy that stopped the knife.
Morgana pressed harder, but Lynette focused on Derek, his eyes full of fear and love, waving his arms in the air; on her mother, her lips moving as she recited a spell. With one giant push, she was out of the saddle and running toward Derek. He caught her in his arms, but she didn’t stay there. Instead she turned around to face the witch who’d tried to kill her.
A blood-curdling scream came out of Morgana’s mouth when she saw Lynette standing safely in Derek’s arms. She lifted her arms in the air, looked up into the star-filled sky, and screamed again, then looked down and directly at Amy. The wind began to blow, the trees swaying and creaking, and the sky filled with angry-looking black clouds.
“This is not going to happen; you will not win again,” she screamed, holding her hands out in front of her. “I’ll call my demons to destroy you.”
Fireballs began to form in her palms, but Lynette’s mother didn’t move, just kept repeating the same spell over and over. Around them, shifters began to come out of the trees, an ever-shrinking circle around Morgana, who didn’t notice; her focus entirely on Amy.
“If I can’t have Lynette’s magic, I’ll have yours,” she screamed, launching the fireballs at Amy.
Amy raised her hands in the air, but a huge gray wolf jumped in the way, the fireballs hitting in the middle of its chest and sending it flying. “Thomas,” Amy screamed and fell to the ground next to him.
Morgana laughed. “If I can’t have him, neither can you,” she said. “I think Lynette will be next; there’s more than one path to Serendipity. I’ll save you for last.”
Derek pushed her behind him. “I don’t think so,” he said, taking a few steps toward Morgana. “You see, I’m a white wolf.”
The pleasure drained from Morgana’s face, and Lynette was sure she saw a second of fear, but then she said, “Bring it on, shifter, but first, I have a little something to finish.”
Derek didn’t wait for her to finish her sentence to shift, and he was on her in an instant, but it wasn’t fast enough to stop Morgana from throwing two more burning orbs at Amy. Her mother threw up her hands, but it was too late to stop them, and she was lifted high into the air, landing with a sickening thud next to her husband.
Lynette rushed over to her parents, just as Derek’s razor-sharp teeth penetrated the flesh of Morgana’s neck, then, much like the bear, with one shake of his head, he finished her off. She felt no satisfaction seeing Morgana’s withered body fly through the air, only a sinking sense that her life was over. Grabbing both her parents’ hands, she tried a healing spell, but they lay lifeless on either side of her, her father back in his human form.
Around her, the shifters lifted their heads to the sky and began to howl, Derek’s the loudest among them. She spotted him not far away and begged him with her eyes to fix it, to wake her from her bad dream, but he shook his head, then lifted it to the sky and howled again.
She bowed her head and let the tears come then, let the grief wash over her as the wolves of Serendipity mourned the loss of their beloved leaders. When she felt Derek’s arms wrap around her, she let go of her parents’ hands and got to her feet, stumbling as they began the long walk home, the bodies of her parents carried by the men who’d tried to protect them.
They put them in the lodge, side by side, in front of the big fireplace where everyone could take a moment and say their goodbyes. Lynette wanted to sit with them through the rest of the night, but Derek gently pulled her away. “Let the women tend to them,” he said, gently leading her out of the lodge.
She was numb with grief as they walked out of the lodge but aware enough to gently shake her head when Derek began to lead her home. “I don’t think I want to go home. I can’t face that empty house,” she said. “Can we go to your cabin instead?”
Derek put his arm around her. “We’ll go anywhere you want, sweetheart,” he said, leading her the other way.
***Derek***
When they got to his cabin, he undressed her and eased her into a hot shower, joining her to gently wash away her parents’ blood. Then pulled her into his arms and held her under the hot water while she cried, sobbing for all she’d lost, all that would never be. When her tears dried up, he shut off the water and dried off, then led her to his bed, tucked her in, and climbed in beside her.
She lay still cuddled in his arms, but he knew from her breathing that she wasn’t sleeping. “I’m sorry, Lynette,” he said, the only words of comfort he could think of. “I wish I had some magic that would take the pain away.”
“I don’t need magic, Derek. I just need you. I need to know that not everything in my life is ruined,” she said, looking up at him.
He shifted his weight so that she was under him and leaned up on one elbow. “I’m sorry you have to even question that,” he said. “When you brought up marriage, it scared me. So much had happened so quickly, but I love you, Lynette. I love you, and I’d marry you tomorrow if you wanted me to.”
“I love you too, Derek; I think I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you,” she said. “Make love to me, show me that happiness is still possible, that life can still go on even with this huge hole in my heart.”
He needed no more invitation, his body was already yearning for hers, and he knew that it would help them both to start healing. His hand found her breast before his mouth came down on hers, and she sighed with pleasure, making his body tingle. Warmth spread through him, and in only seconds, he was hard and throbbing, ready to plunge himself into her moist heat.
He kissed her instead, his tongue tasting, exploring until she was breathle
ss, then he kissed his way down her chest, finally sucking a pert nipple into his mouth. Sliding his hand down her stomach and gently parting her legs, he teased one nipple, then switched to the other. A low growl came from deep in his throat when he slid his finger between her folds and found her hot and moist, more than ready for him.
Spreading her legs further, he slid between them, poised to bury himself deep inside her, but stopped himself. Instead, he dipped his head between her legs and slid his tongue over her throbbing pleasure button, his body responding to her cries of pleasure with a pulsing need that left him breathless. Stroking her with his tongue, he took her over the edge, then grabbed her hips and drove himself into her, burying himself as deeply as he could as her body bucked and trembled.
She dug her nails into his shoulders, lifted her hips to him, and cried out his name as he thrust into her again and again. He felt the world around him dissolve; all that mattered was the feeling of Lynette’s body accepting his, and just as he reached the height of passion, he opened his eyes to find her looking up at him.
As he spilled himself inside her, claiming her for his always, the last link in a long chain that would connect them for eternity slipped into place, and Lynette became a part of his soul just as he became a part of hers. They both felt it, but Lynette felt something else: the spark of new life that suddenly filled her as Derek collapsed on top of her.
Smiling, her body still humming with pleasure, she realized that life really did go on. Holding the secret close to her heart as they cuddled together under the blankets and watched the moon rise in the sky, she decided not to tell him yet. They still had obstacles in their path and an uncertain future to face; she’d tell him when the time was right, when they needed some joy in their lives.
Derek’s even breathing told her that he’d finally fallen asleep, and soon followed him into the world of slumber. But she’d only been asleep for a few minutes when something woke her, and she sat up in bed. Relieved to see her mother standing at the foot of the bed, she almost forgot that her mother was gone. Gasping with the grief that hit her, she stumbled out of bed.
Daddy Wolves of the Wild Prequel Page 9