That earned her a half grin. “He’s trying to bring on your wolf like Tristan did.” “Must not have worked as I never heard her until I came to Westervelt.”
After minutes of Kendrick screaming, he threw his hands in the air and pointed to a woman who stood next to him. Her hair was a golden shade of blonde and even from the distance where Leah stood she could see the violet of her eyes. “She’s a latent, this is pointless.”
“What’s a latent?” Leah asked Az. “A half shifter who can’t shift.” “But I’m not.”
“I know that.” Az kissed the top of her head. “Your wolf refused to answer his call. She did not want him as her Alpha. That’s huge. Most wolves do not want to be lone wolves. She must have really hated how he smelled.”
I did. It was awful.
“Kendrick probably wouldn’t believe he could be denied as your Alpha so he assumed you were latent.”
The man stalked to the edge of the circle, grabbing a petite woman with long black hair and striking blue eyes. “Carrie, I told you to get me witches who could make this happen.”
The woman shook in his arms. “I did. They’re the very best. Since the Westervelt group killed their leader, they’re still settling into this. If she’s latent, there isn’t anything to be done.”
Kendrick dropped the woman named Carrie—who for some reason Leah actually felt sorry for—on the ground, hard. Dust sputtered up into the sky where she landed. “Give her to the boys, change her over. If she can’t be one of the real deal we’ll make her one of them.”
His statement made, he stomped away, the circle dispersing as he passed except for Carrie and two men who still stood near the past Leah. Carrie stood and dragged herself more than walked in front of her. She knelt down.
“I’m sorry about this.”
Leah watched as her former self screamed and tried to speak through the gag.
“I wish I could make this stop. I know I can’t make you understand and even if I could why should you forgive me? Anyhow, if it means anything and maybe it doesn’t, I have no choice. I’m as trapped here as you are.” Carrie stood and looked at one of the men who remained. “Take her to the change chamber.”
Leah’s memory showed her that she had screamed, fought and that did give her present self some relief. As she watched the scene unfold before her, the memories seemed to pull out of what she watched and replant themselves into her mind. Now she could remember how hot it had been outside, how sand had gotten into her mouth around the sides of the gag and scratched her tongue. She could recall with perfect clarity that she’d been terrified and furious at the same time. Her mother had warned her this could happen.
Well, not this scenario exactly. She couldn’t imagine the woman who raised her ever envisioning a day when her only child would be hauled around the desert, forced to endure terror at the hands of her former Alpha. She couldn’t have imagined it because she’d made her husband swear to keep her, Leah, away from Kendrick Kane, something her father had immediately neglected to do. Maybe it was unfair, maybe it was petty, but Leah blamed the senator—her father—for this happening to her.
A thought struck Leah. She whirled around to look at Az who was watching with anger in his eyes as her previous self was dragged away. “Why is my father still alive? As her mate, shouldn’t he be dead? Shouldn’t he have made himself die?”
Az turned his regard to her. She shivered under his gaze, the intensity, the hotness that permeated through his eyes into her soul. God, she wanted him. “There are two scenarios for that not happening. The first is that there is a young, young child involved and the living parent remains alive until that child is old enough for he or she to leave. I don’t think that is the case with you.”
Neither did Leah. She was certainly an adult. “What’s the other one?”
“The remaining mate lives in utter agony every day of their life until they follow.” Leah shrugged. “My dad looked a little upset earlier but not in agony.”
“My aunts denied themselves death to keep pack magic alive after their mates were killed in the curse. Ironically, my uncles were the only ones not to kill their mates. They killed themselves instead.”
“You Kane men are nothing if not loyal to your wives. I’ve only seen you a little while now but that was obvious from moment one.”
Az nodded. “Tristan fought tooth and nail, even burning down a building, to not hurt Ashlee.” He stopped speaking for a moment. “This still doesn’t explain the issue with your father. It bothered me earlier that he didn’t ‘get’ pack. Even non-shifter, she should have spoken to him in his mind. He should have believed. That’s what happened with Ashlee and Summer’s father.”
“Az, when she died it was so awful. She and my uncle were both killed on their way back from a charity event. It was instantaneous, which is something, I guess, but I thought I was going to just shrivel up and die.”
“Your uncle? Your mother’s brother?”
Leah sat down on the sand. Why wasn’t the memory changing? “No, my father’s twin brother.”
Az’s foot started tapping on the sand and she looked up at his face. His expression was guarded however she could tell that inside his head he worked out a problem.
“Tell me about your uncle, she-wolf.”
“He was an artist, a local guy, never became big time but really talented. My mother used to bring me over there every day when I was young. He taught me to paint. My dad hated it, thought the whole thing was a waste of time.”
Az knelt down in front of her. “Of course I can’t know for sure, but my bet is that your uncle is your father.”
“What?” Leah leapt to her feet standing over Azriel. “Oh hell.” She chewed on her fingernail as she paced around. Some of it made sense, she supposed. Her uncle was artistic—so was she. She looked like her father but her uncle was her father’s twin brother, it was a familial resemblance. Her mother had always gazed lovingly at her uncle. Once she’d caught her crying…
“Why would she do that?” Leah grabbed onto Az’s shirt. “Why pretend Nathan St.
James is my father?”
“I can’t answer that question.” Az ran a hand through his hair. “I guess maybe she thought she could keep you safer as the daughter of a United States senator. St. James is a strong, powerful man. I don’t know who your mother was—if I see a picture maybe I can identify her—but assuming she fled for her life in the middle of the night to get away from Kendrick’s plan to kill all the women, then perhaps her goal was to set you up as strongly as possible to be safe.”
Leah shook her head. The idea was horrifying to her. “When she used to talk to me about being a shifter—she never hid it, which is funny because if I had told anyone she would have been in big trouble.”
“Only you didn’t, obviously.”
“Maybe I knew inherently it was important to be quiet about it. Anyhow, she told me about finding a mate.”
Azriel looked down at the ground. “What did she say?”
“That it would make me know myself like I never had before.”
“Everyone is so tightlipped about the mating. I don’t even really understand what happens.” He blushed and she wanted to giggle. “I mean, I do understand a lot of what happens. I think there must be more to it than anyone talks about otherwise what triggers the change in everyone? Cullen practically became a puppy after he mated with Summer. Theo came back from the brink of madness and Tristan stepped up to finally become Alpha.”
She couldn’t help but tease him. “Maybe the sex is just that good.”
He smiled and looked at her again. “Now if that isn’t pressure, I don’t know what
is.”
The scene shifted around them and Az grabbed her, pulling her into his arms. She knew she wasn’t at risk, these were only memories, they couldn’t physically hurt her but she loved that he wanted to protect her so she snuggled close and let him act macho.
Leah saw herself strapped to a table. Four hooded women stood over her. She
knew they were women because their long hair fell down over their shoulders. Leah pulled out of Az’s arms.
“I want to see their faces.”
Walking fast, she stood next to her remembered self and stared at the people who would, she knew, change her into something out of a horror movie. Funny, they didn’t look horrible, just like four regular women she might see walking down the street.
Az, they look so…regular.
My father looks like a nice guy when you first meet him
The first lady, the one who seemed to be conducting the spell, had long blonde hair. Her locks fell almost to the floor. Her face was long and horse-like with a strange looking nose that she’d either been unfortunate enough to be born with or butchered by a plastic surgeon to receive. It didn’t fit on her face.
Next to her was a set of twins, gorgeous women with curly black hair and grey eyes. Leah actually shivered as she looked at them. They scared her. Blondie with the bad nose might be leading the ceremony but those two were the power behind it. The other woman looked mousy with dirty brown hair and sad eyes. All in all, it was an odd bunch of people to be performing such monstrous acts of destruction.
The blonde looked down at remembered Leah on the table. As she watched, Leah could see sweat forming on her forehead. She didn’t need to remember this part and wished they could move on.
“Az, do we have to watch?”
“From a pure scientific perspective, I would like to see what they do. However, if it’s going to cause you pain, then no, we do not have to. I can pull us out.”
He was right. There was knowledge to be gained here. “Alright, let’s witness it.”
The women started to sing. Not words exactly, it was more like high-pitched vowel sounds. Their voices were not what anyone would call beautiful. Leah closed her eyes and covered her ears, trying to tune out the onslaught of pain listening to them caused to her. All at once, the ladies raised their arms towards the ceiling and Leah heard herself— even through her covered ears—scream on the table. The change was coming.
She couldn’t watch, turning her back to the scene so that should she even accidently open her eyes she wouldn’t have to see it.
“Alright enough, I’ve seen enough.”
Az’s voice cut through the agony of sound in the room and the next thing she knew she landed on her behind again. Looking up, she uncovered her eyes, and saw sky scrapers above her. Snow fell lightly to the ground.
“What the hell? I tried to send us home.” Az sounded annoyed so Leah stood to get a better look around.
“This is New York City.” She’d been there enough to know. Pointing in the distance, she indicated the Empire State Building ahead. “See.”
“I haven’t been here in ten years.” Az scratched his head. “We should be back in the ‘now’ and out of your memory.”
“Look, there I am.” Leah watched herself walking fast out of a drugstore. Behind her a man was yelling. In her arms, she carried…hair dye.
“Stop, that woman is shoplifting.”
Leah’s former self took off running down the street and before she could stop herself, Leah ran after with Az behind her. After a few minutes, she followed herself into a McDonald’s bathroom.
“You were already a wolf by now. What are you doing?” Az sounded confused.
Leah laughed. She couldn’t help it. She knew exactly what she was doing. “I’m dying my hair, Azriel. It’s a small act of rebellion. I can’t remember any of this—my mind was warped by the forced wolf change—except I know myself now. I’m going to paint my hair like this.” She grabbed her damaged locks. “Somewhere inside of me, I still existed enough to cry for help. This was the only way I knew how.”
Just like that, the world went black. Moments later she opened her eyes to the warmth of Az’s bedroom.
She knew who she was: Leah St. James—wolf shifter and survivor. Now the question was what should they do next?
Az stood. “Shift with me, Leah. I need to run.”
The bright light filled the room and the body of her mate became a glorious dark wolf. Not needing another invitation, she followed suit. As far as she could remember, she’d never run just for the fun of it on four feet before.
8
The wolf loved to run. His feet hit the ground hard but oh it felt so nice to be free, to run, to not be contained not only in his human body but also by the years of misunderstandings and self-doubt that plagued Az’s life. Like this, like the animal he tried not to hate, he felt free and relaxed.
The female who he’d waited for since his birth eighty years earlier moved too far to his left. That wasn’t acceptable. He wouldn’t have her move too far away from him. She might get hurt. He was male. It was his job to protect her.
Growling, he batted her with the top of his head. She growled back at him but complied with his wishes. That felt better. He could run again. His first priority was the she-wolf. Now and always it would be she who mattered most.
Az shook his head, trying to force his own consciousness back into the wolf. It was easy to let him take control, easy to just let his mind drift into the animals, to exist in nothing more than what he smelled, heard, and tasted, to not be plagued with endless questions and worries.
Are you there? Leah’s voice sounded worried. How long had she been trying to reach him?
Sorry, sometimes he takes control. Or rather, sometimes I let him. I like your wolf. He’s very…protective of me…but I missed you.
Let’s shift. He called the white light unto himself loving the heat and the warmth for the few seconds he was blessed with it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leah do the same.
In the background he heard the sound of the waterfall that led into the largest lake on Westervelt Island. He hadn’t realized they’d run that far. No wonder Leah had sounded worried she hadn’t been able to reach him.
He turned to look at her, his breath catching in his throat. Bathed in a ray of moonlight, Leah was a sight to behold. Az was glad there was a strong tree behind him as
he leaned back against it, not sure his knees were all that steady. He’d seen her naked—a few times now, with all the shifts they’d been doing but this was different. There was no pack around to distract him, no task that needed to be preformed, just his mate and the nighttime to tempt.
“You’re the reason men write poetry and sculpt artwork.” After he said it he realized how cheesy it sounded and wished he had a rewind button so he could redo his decision to speak it aloud.
To his amazement, Leah grinned from ear to ear. “I should be embarrassed being naked. I certainly wasn’t raised walking around in my birthday suit all day long.”
“It’s different here.”
She moved forward, her gaze locked with his. “My mother used to tell me about this place, not by name, of course. She probably didn’t want me, during my rebellious years, to try to come looking for it. I used to think it was in Ireland or the West Indies. Somewhere exotic. It never occurred to me it could be less than an hour from where I was born.” Leah stopped right in front of him, her head pushed back so she could look up at him, which gave him a perfect view of her long, luscious neck. Gods, he wanted to mark her.
He reached out and touched her hair with both of his hands, loving the way the silky strands felt on the pads of his fingers. “What did she tell you?”
“That it was a shame that I’d never get to come here because it meant that I’d never know what real freedom was—the freedom to be who I was born to be—and that if I didn’t find my mate then what I thought love was would always be a shallow interpretation of the real thing.”
Az swallowed hard. “It’s counterintuitive. Why tell you how fabulous it is if she knew you’d never come here?”
“Maybe she hoped that I would.”
Closing his eyes, he smelled the nighttime wind on Leah’s skin. Because he couldn’t help himself, he rubbed his forehead on the top of her hair covering his face with her hair. “I’m so
glad that you did. When Malcolm handed you to me in the lab, I knew you were different. I had nightmares of you dying. My wolf begged me to keep you safe and I was terrified that you wouldn’t be.”
“I don’t remember much from the lab, just vague impressions, but you were there and I knew you, if I was unaware of everything else, I knew you.”
He didn’t know which one of them kissed the other first. All he cared about was that their lips met. Her mouth felt soft and her breath tasted sweet against his tongue. Never in his life had he been so glad to have his eyes closed, there was no way she could look at them right now and not see the hundred of emotions he knew would be pouring out of them.
She made a small moan in her throat and he pulled her closer up against him. Using his hands, he explored her back from the top of her neck to the spot right above her buttocks. Leah was so small, so thin, but under his hands she didn’t feel delicate—instead she felt solid and secured like the most perfectly put together machine ever constructed.
Azriel…
Her voice in his head only added to the moment. Did she even know she was projecting? He didn’t think so.
Pulling his head back, he stared down at her face. Her chin jutted out stubbornly and the one dimple she had on her left cheek grinned up at him. In her blue-grey eyes he saw nothing but trust and desire reflected back at him. Still…
“We should be doing this in a bed the first time.”
Leah pushed him backwards against the tree wrapping one leg up against his thigh.
His groin jumped even further to attention. “Bedrooms are overrated.”
He ran his hands through her hair as he stared at her. “Leah, are you sure? Are you absolutely positive? Whatever happens here—it’s going to change us in a significant way. You’re sure you want to do that here up against a tree.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re right, Az, I don’t.”
His heart flip-flopped. He’d known it when he asked her that it was possible she would say no. Nodding, he stroked her cheek. “Okay, we’ll go back to the house, we’ll do this slowly. I’ll court you—gods know you deserve it…”