Mating Hunt (8 page)

Gray pushed at the edges of her vision. A sickening feeling overcame her, as images swirled in her mind. Arianna stood, fear and panic clogging her throat as memories screamed in banshee voices, taunting, laughing.

You will never escape.

Then the darkness rose up, and she fell into its welcoming embrace.

“Ari? Ari, wake up, little pint.”

Gentle fingers slid around her neck, lifting her head. Arianna’s eyes fluttered open, her vision gradually clearing. Kyle’s handsome, worried face came into view. He held a glass to her mouth that smelled of strong liquor.

“Drink.”

She sipped and gagged.

“Drink,” he ordered.

She took another sip, the liquid burning as it slid down her throat. “What is that?”

Kyle set the glass on the nightstand and helped her sit up. “Brandy.”

On the bed, Jessie and Amanda stared with worried faces. Arianna managed a wan smile. “I’m fine, kiddos. Just a little weak from the long hike.”

“You don’t look like a weak Lupine,” Jessie observed.

Oh, he was good, this one. Definitely future alpha material. “Just need some fresh protein. I haven’t had fresh meat in a long while,” she lied, not wanting to scare them further.

The answer seemed to satisfy him. Arianna struggled to her feet as Kyle grabbed the empty brandy glass. In the manner of their people, she nuzzled the young’s foreheads to bid them goodnight. Lupines needed touch, needed the connection. Their young thrived on it. And these children had experienced no tender words, no affectionate touch for two weeks.

For her, it had been longer, oh, so much longer...

“We’ll be downstairs if you need us,” Kyle told them, closing the door halfway.

He followed her to the dining table, made her sit as he cleared the table and set the dirty dishes and brandy glass into the sink. Kyle joined her at the table, taking her hand.

“You were right all along. The young were on the mountain. If you hadn’t caught their scent, we’d never have found them. Good job.”

He gave her a warm, approving smile, but it failed to chase away old horrors.

“Ari.” His voice was gentle. “Why did you faint?”

Dry-mouthed, she shook her head, her stomach churning.

“Sweetheart, you must tell me.”

No, she must not. The memories remained firmly shut behind a thick door. “Please. I can’t talk about this.”

“Ari? Do you remember anything? Anything that can help them?” His warm hands settled on her tensed shoulders.

“No.”

He regarded her with his keen gaze. “You okay here for a while?”

At her nod, he continued, “I’m checking our perimeter, then going hunting for fresh game. Those Skins could be searching for the little ones. They’d better pray I don’t find them.”

As the door closed behind him, tears pricked behind her eyelids. They splashed, one by one, onto her lap like raindrops.

T
HE NIGHT FLOODED
his senses.

Paws scrabbling over rocks and dirt, Kyle clambered up the pathway behind the cabin leading into the woods. He ran for a long while, scenting the frightened creatures hiding in their burrows. He threaded through pine and oak, sniffing for intruders. Satisfied none were present, he hunted for prey.

After a while, hunger satisfied, he shifted into Skin form. But his Satyr blood surged, renewing his anger. Kyle selected logs from the wood pile. He relished the hard pull of muscles with each crack as he split the wood with the ax.

After, he carried a few logs into the living room and started a fire. Staring into the crackling flames, he jabbed the burning logs with the fireplace poker. Arianna came downstairs and sat on the leather sofa. Her intoxicating and delicate scent wove through the air, tightening his body with sheer male need. He set the poker back into the iron stand.

“We got to them in time, Kyle. They’re going to be okay.”

“The bastard who wants to experiment on them has to be an OtherWorlder.”

“An OtherWorlder with a lot of power,” she said in a faint voice. “Someone so powerful, no one dares to stop him.”

“I will. After I hunt down and exterminate the Skins threatening Lupine young.”

A distant, haunted look entered her gaze as Arianna stared into the flames. “You can’t. Because if a Lupine shifts into wolf and attacks the Skin stealing his young and the Skin shoots the wolf, no one will arrest him. No one will do a damned thing.”

Hellfire. Kyle’s heart dropped to his stomach. “Is that what happened to you, Ari? Is that why you’ve forgotten about your pack and your parents?”

Arianna paled. Without words, she ran across the room, grabbed his jacket and headed outside.

The past was a heavy weight on Arianna’s chest.

Beneath a pale of gray moonlight, the lake sparkled like diamonds as water licked the stony shoreline. She stood at a ribbon of shoreline, selected a smooth, round pebble and skipped it over the lake. More memories surged. Tossing rocks, going for hikes, doing most things kids enjoyed. A normal childhood.

But your life was never normal. Not since the day Mom and Dad left the pack, took you far away, so far away...

Huddling deeper into Kyle’s sheepskin jacket, she inhaled his rich, spicy scent wrapping around her like two protective arms. But for too long he’d sheltered her. How could she have a life if she didn’t face what frightened her? It wasn’t sex.

It was the nameless, faceless beast haunting her dreams, the bad man who wanted to hurt her. The bad man who’d done terrible things to her beloved parents...

The cutting wind slapped her face. Her memories were far colder. She was too afraid to cull them out of the dark corner of her mind. But the young needed her to remember.

I can’t do this
, she thought, hugging herself.
It hurts too much.

The front door banged open. Arianna stiffened as Kyle joined her.

“Come inside. The fire’s roaring, and I’ll confiscate Darius’ stash of Malbec. It’ll piss him off, knowing someone drank his favorite wine.”

“I need to be alone.”

“And I won’t let you.” In the moonlight, his eyes became two hardened emeralds. “You’re mine, Ari, even though we have yet to bond in the flesh. What I hold, I keep, and keep safe. I’m not going to leave you alone until I know you won’t faint again. Until I know you’re ready to deal with what happened to you.”

“I don’t need to remember.”

“You must. If you don’t, you’ll always be stuck in the past.”

“And you’re such an expert,” she mocked. “You know what it’s like to have a rough childhood.” But Arianna knew he had. How many times had she seen it reflected in his eyes when someone mentioned happy times, growing up in a pack?

Moonlight shadowed his expression. “I do. But this isn’t about me.”

He rubbed a hand over the bristles on his lean jaw. “It’s about a scared, young girl I found on the mountain who was only twelve, who spoke a few words and then didn’t speak again for another three months. A girl so terrified she never slept, only screamed out in nightmares that would make an adult shiver.”

“Stop it,” she whispered.

“You were terrified of what some sick bastard wanted to do to you. Some sick bastard who wanted you for the same purpose he wanted Jessie and his sisters.”

Throat closing, she felt bile rise from her stomach.
Don’t fall apart. Keep it together, keep it together.

“I can’t remember.”

“All the searching we did for your parents, it was useless because they were dead. Right?”

And then the memories burst forth like a breaking dam. Grief flooded her as she remembered blood streaking pure white fur, bright blue eyes clouded over as they died in wolf form, her father lying atop her mother as if to protect her.

“Yes. They’re dead. Damnit, you have your answer, now leave me the hell alone!”

Blood trickled into her mouth as she bit her lip.

Kyle said nothing, but squeezed her shoulder, as if in silent understanding as she struggled to regain her lost composure. She’d learned long ago pretending to be strong was better than showing any weakness.

After a few minutes, they returned to the cabin. Legs opened, arms braced on his muscled thighs, Kyle sat on the top step. Arianna joined him. Ice filled her veins, her breath, the space behind her eyeballs.

“Did they love you?” he asked quietly.

Somehow she managed to speak past the lump clogging her throat. “Very much. What I do remember is how happy we were. I was special to them, their only offspring.”

Kyle’s gaze grew luminous in the moonlight. He ran a calloused thumb across her quivering cheek. “You are special, Ari. You have a tender heart, hidden behind a tough hunter’s façade.”

Gone was his fierce sexuality, the intensity that took her breath away. This was her guardian, who protected and cared for her. Tension eased, the ice in her heart melting in little trickles. But his next words left her cold once more.

“Such a tender heart, which is why you know you must help me protect those little ones. You’re the only one who can help us find the man who wanted to breed them. What happened to you all those years ago, Ari?”

T
HE LAKE LOOKED
cold and ghostly in the moonlight, as unforgiving and stern as the past that refused to relinquish its memories. Arianna chafed her cold hands to try to keep warm. Cold, oh, so cold.

“Do you remember anything?” he asked quietly.

“I remember ice, my breath coming in ribbons of steam. A cavern and chains.”

She’d thought she’d never experience warmth again.

“Were your parents there?”

“No.” Arianna frowned, flashes of memories sparking like lightning.

“They loved you very much. They taught you to hunt. Must have, because you had skills when I first started working with you, little pint. Skills someone taught you.” His voice deepened. “Remember the good stuff. The times you were happy.”

Lulled by his soothing tone, she reached for memories long buried and began pulling them free, like dusty photo albums from an attic trunk.

“My parents left their pack a few years after I was born. They taught me to track Lupine scents when I was little. Because I’m a pureblood, my senses are more heighted.”

“Knew it from the moment I started to teach you,” he said quietly. “You’re a damned fine tracker.”

“They were biologists who wanted to save wild wolves. They left the pack, moved to Montana and formed an organization to rescue wolves, breed and then release them. I played with the pups, even ran with them.”

Arianna smiled, remembering the pups cavort, the loving way the wild wolves raised their young.

Kyle muttered a low curse. “Rescue Wolves of Montana. After I’d found you and Aiden started searching for your parents, we checked it out. But it had closed and locals said the owners returned to Alaska with their daughter. Damnit. If I had only known...”

She leaned against him, needing his support. “I stopped playing with the pack when my dad heard rumors there was a wild wolf girl running with the wolves. And then the operation became too large. They hired a Skin to feed and care for the wolves. Things got bad when Josh started working for us.”

Arianna stared at the lake. “Josh did things. Mistreated the wolves, teased them. I warned my parents, but they’d already decided to shut down the operation. My dad worried about my first change because blooded Lupines were most vulnerable the first year of shifting. They gave the wolves to another organization to release and let Josh go.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Losing his job must have really pissed off the Skin.”

“It should have, but he didn’t seem to care. If only I’d known he was hiding something.”

“It’s not your fault, Ari,” he said gently. “You were a child. What happened next?”

“Before we finished packing, I experienced my first shift and came into heat. It was intense and scary. Mom and Dad wanted me to learn to defend myself before we left for Alaska, but needed a place where the Skins couldn’t see me shapeshift.”

Her voice dropped. “They chose Mitchell Mountain because of its rugged terrain. We hiked and an hour later realized Josh followed us with a shotgun. He, he...”

Thin wisps of her ragged breaths fogged the air as strobes of memory flashed in her mind. Arianna squeezed her eyes shut, seeing sticky crimson stain pure white fur.

Kyle threaded his lean, warm fingers through hers. Opening her eyes, she whispered, “I don’t remember. I don’t remember, so stop asking me!”

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “Deep breaths, Ari. Just breathe.”

For a few minutes, she gulped down the crisp, cool air. When the shaking stopped, Kyle jerked a thumb at the path.

“Let’s walk. The kids will be fine.”

They followed the trail behind the cabin, cutting deep into the thick forest. Silver moonlight dappled deep green pines as moonbeams pooled on the ground.

After they’d walked a while, she stopped. Kyle squeezed her hand. “You okay now?”

Arianna nodded.

“Jessie said the man who wanted to buy them was nearby. Somewhere on this mountain, that sick bastard is waiting to snatch more Lupine young. Where is he hiding? Ari, how would you track him?”

Just like old times, when Kyle would question her, nudge her into thinking of solutions while they hunted. It was his method of teaching, but later, became their comfortable way of working together.

She must work with Kyle to hunt the new threat to Lupine young and stop whoever wielded this sinister, dark magick.

“I remember an underground prison. The one who wanted the young must have a well-concealed stronghold to keep the young hidden until they reached puberty. But who has that much magick other than a wizard like Tristan?”

“Another wizard almost as powerful.” Kyle rubbed the back of his neck. “That would explain why the Brehon haven’t discovered his crimes. And if he didn’t steal many young, the disappearances would be explained as unfortunate.”

“Maybe it was Tristan.” The thought nauseated her.

Kyle shook his head. “First rule of the guardian wizards. Protect the innocent.”

“Second rule. Don’t shift in front of Skins or you’ll be the star attraction at their next bonfire. Real sweet guy.”