My Perfect Mate (11 page)

Heat spread from her hands and she
envisioned the wound healing and the swelling going down. Ujarak
moaned. “Easy, I’ve got you.” Aisyt leaned down and brushed a kiss
to his lips. His eyelids fluttered, and then she looked into a pair
of chocolate eyes that warmed when they focused on her.

“I must be in heaven.” He reached for
her, pulling her down for another kiss.

Aisyt reveled in the feeling, then
remembered the three nanuk. It wouldn’t be long before they
arrived. Being caught inside wasn’t a good idea. She listened. The
wind slowed.

§

Susan looked up. The wind seemed to be
dying down. In the distance, she could see white shapes moving. It
must be the nanuk. A little farther away, another igloo rose from
the horizon. If she could see them, they could see her. She dropped
down to her belly and looked around. A small rise caused by
drifting snow lay just ahead slightly off the trail she’d been
following. She crept over to it, all the time hoping she wouldn’t
be seen.

“Jean-Paul, please come
back to me. You need to wake up!”
There
was a slight stirring in her mind. Pain rushed through the mating
bond. Susan lowered her head, trying to let the agony wash over
her. Then suddenly it stopped. Susan felt a prickling feeling flow
through her mind.
“Jean-Paul?”

“I am here,
love.”

§

Jean-Paul heard Susan calling him from
far away. He needed to find her. Darkness surrounded him. His head
felt like it wanted to fall off. He reached up and felt the sticky
liquid matted in his hair. Visions of the polar bear swiping at him
filled his mind. The nanuk with the ring around his
neck.

JP blinked his eyes open. His head
throbbed and he whispered a quick healing spell under his breath.
He couldn’t see anything, feeling with his hands, he realized he
was zipped inside a sleeping bag. Someone dragged him along the
ground, non-too gently. He could hear the occasional huffing sound
and growl. It must be the nanuk.

“Jean-Paul?”
Susan’s telepathic question filled his
mind.

JP quickly reassured
her.
“Are you all right? Where are they
taking me?”

“I’m fine, they burned the
tent to the ground. I’m trapped in my wolf form by necessity.
They’re dragging you toward an igloo. One of the bears has the
ring.”

“Yes, I saw it before he
hit me. Keep them in sight. If one of them decides to release me,
let me know.”

“The storm is dying down.
I’ve got to hide, or they’ll see me.”
Susan’s fear leaked through the mating bond.

“Be careful. I’ll get out
of this sleeping bag and then grab the ring. Don’t let them catch
you.”

“I won’t.”
A feeling of relief flowed to JP from Susan. She
tried to be brave. Jean-Paul smiled. His Destined One might have a
sharp tongue, but everything else was soft, the way he
liked.

He called his magic and began to form
a ball of light in his hand. The nanuk were immune to the effects
of magic, but not to the effect of their environment. A ball of
light in the face would still blind them, especially with the
Arctic darkness surrounding them. JP waited for his
chance.

§

Susan crept forward. She
was about to go over a lump in the snow when an arm shot out and
around her neck. Susan froze and looked up into a pair of ice blue
eyes.
“Wait, I’m a friend. We met at the
ice palace.”
Susan sent telepathically to
the girl. As long as they touched, they should be able to
communicate this way without a blood bond between them.

The arm around her neck loosened.
Susan drew in a breath and tried to steady her beating
heart.

“You are with the one like
Aisyt?”
the girl’s voice filled Susan’s
mind.

“Yes, the nanuk have him in
the bag they drag. You’re Qannik, right?”
The equivalent of a mental shrug was Susan’s only
answer.

The girl suddenly stilled. Susan
looked over to see that two people crawled from inside the igloo.
From the long hair and pale skin, Susan recognized Aisyt. Was the
man wrapped in furs, Ujarak?

The nanuk huffed and growled. One
raised up on his hind legs. The bear carrying JP dropped the bag.
Ujarak’s uncle stood back. Everyone waited to see what would happen
next.

§

Jean-Paul grinded his teeth. His body
ached from being banged along the ground and just now he’d been
dropped. Now if only one of the bears would open the sleeping bag.
The small ball of light flickered in his hand. If he didn’t release
it soon, it could catch the sleeping bag on fire. He lay still when
he heard a familiar voice.

“I came for the ring, uncle. It’s
melting the ice cap. It needs to go.” Ujarak’s voice rang
out.

JP hated feeling helpless.
It was difficult to control more than one element at a time, but he
was Fae and thousands of years old. He had the power. He called the
air to his command while sheltering the light in his hands.
“Susan, what’s happening?”

“Ujarak and Aisyt are
standing near the igloo. His uncle is shifting. Ujarak threw him
one of the furs.”

“The woman with you is a spy for the
amarok. Give her to me and I might consider giving you the
ring.”

“No, she’s my mate.”

“Your mate? So the boy wants to become
a man. At least she isn’t that lycan bitch you panted after. Still
she helps the amarok fight against us. Let’s go inside and discuss
this. You can share her with me. Between the two of us, she can be
disciplined and shown the error of her ways.”

The air around JP felt
charged. Itigaituk’s voice was filled with deceit. JP hoped Ujarak
could hear it. It was time to act. He pushed the air against the
inside of the sleeping bag. It began to expand like a balloon.
Finally, it popped.
“Close your
eyes!”
he sent to Susan as he released the
ball of light in his hand.

§

Susan heard JP’s mental warning and
shared it with Qannik. A flash of light could be seen even behind
her eyelids. As soon as it was dark again she blinked her eyes
open. Jean-Paul already moved. The polar bears rose up on their
hind legs in response to the temporary blindness. That didn’t stop
JP from reaching the ring and burning through the rope that held
it. Itigaituk hollered and called the shift. One of the polar bears
rushed Ujarak and Aisyt. Ujarak pushed the woman behind him and
called the shift, even as he ducked the downward swipe of the
bear’s paw.

Qannik leaped forward and suddenly the
scene filled with white wolves. They jumped and bit at the polar
bears. Susan ran toward JP. He reached down and pulled a knife from
the snow. He sliced at the bear paw headed for his head. A growl of
pain proved he made a cut.

A sudden blue glow surrounded Aisyt
and Ujarak. The bear trying to get to them backed off. Three white
wolves vaulted onto his back. Susan thought one of them was
Qannik.

The sled dogs ran from the igloo in a
frenzy. The smell of blood filled the air. The dogs leapt at the
wolves. Their dark fur easily distinguished from the white wolves.
Susan’s heart ached. She had to stop this slaughter. A young wolf
yipped in pain when a sled dog bit its leg. Susan called the shift,
then concentrated on a partial shift on the bottom of her feet.
Thank goodness she was a lycan or she’d freeze to death.

Claws extended and fur and
pads protected her flesh from the ice. She stood shivering in the
cold and whistled to the dogs. Nothing happened. She reached for
their minds, sending a wave of calm to them. Several seemed to
respond, stopping in their tracks. She pushed harder against their
minds, demanding obedience as their alpha and whistled again,
calling them to her.
“Come. Come to
me.”

The lead dog, his ear bleeding, ran to
her side. Susan buried her hands in his fur. She trembled. The lead
dog yipped and leaned against her. Another sled dog ran over and
then another. Soon Susan was surrounded by the dogs. All of them
tried to press against her. She was thankful for their warmth, but
still shivered from the cold touching her skin.

Ujarak’s uncle suddenly stood before
her. He shifted back to his human form. The dogs whimpered. He
reached out to grab her. She tried to move back, but there were
dogs all around her. She started to lose her balance. Itigaituk
grabbed her arm and yanked her forward.

Susan cried out as Ujarak’s uncle
forced her arm behind her back. She struggled. The man was slippery
with blood even though shifting had healed him. The lead dog
growled showing his teeth. Itigaituk pulled her back against his
body with an arm around her neck. Her other arm was trapped between
them. Susan grabbed at his wrist. He squeezed making it hard to
breathe.

“Stop now or I kill the bitch.”
Itigaituk turned her to face the igloo.

The other two nanuk were on the
ground. From the amount of blood, Susan thought they were dead. JP
stood with a bloody knife in his hand, his chest heaving. The white
wolves milled around the fallen shifters and JP. The blue light
around Ujarak and Aisyt suddenly winked out leaving them all
blinking.

“Uncle, it doesn’t have to end this
way. Release her.” Ujarak stepped forward. Aisyt put a hand on his
arm. Whether to hold him back or console him, Susan didn’t
know.

“How will it end then? You’ll let me
go, leave me here? I don’t think so.”

Aisyt whispered something to Ujarak.
He blanched and looked at his uncle. “Is it true? Do you and your
friends hunt the amarok like she says?”

“They are an abomination!” Itigaituk
yelled.

“They’re people, most of these are
children. Children of the Nanuk.”

“No. They can never be nanuk. They are
cursed, beneath us. The goddess knows they are unclean, that’s why
they are canine. Dogs to be kicked.” Susan stiffened. Itigaituk
could never be reasoned with. His hatred consumed him.

Susan looked at
Jean-Paul.
“I love you.”

§

“Don’t even think of giving
up on me, little wolf.”
JP sent a warming
spell to the air around Susan. He could feel her heart breaking
from the hatred of the man holding her. Ujarak kept his uncle’s
attention like JP hoped. No one noticed him hand the knife to the
small white wolf, or see Qannik making her way behind
Itigaituk.

“Susan, when I tell you,
kick Itigaituk in the knee. You must close your eyes. I’m going to
send a fireball at his face. It won’t hurt either of you, but fire
coming at your face will make anyone duck. Be ready.”

Susan closed her eyes as he suggested.
JP could feel her through the mating bond gathering her strength to
kick the bastard holding her. He wasn’t going to leave it to
chance. As soon as he threw the fireball he would port to Susan’s
side. Itigaituk wouldn’t take his Destined One from him.

Jean-Paul called his magic. A golden
glow filled his mind. The Gryphon’s Eye ring feed his passion, both
his love for Susan and his hatred for the man who threatened her.
“Fire bright, warm this night, to my hand, a ball I
command.”

JP threw the ball at
Itigaituk’s head.
“Now, Susan.”

She kicked. Itigaituk cried out. He
released her, throwing his arms up against the fireball. JP ported
to Susan and dragged her away from the man. The fireball winked
out, but not before a knife flashed in the light. Jean-Paul pulled
Susan farther away and blinked the dark spots from his eyes. When
his vision cleared. Qannik stood over the fallen man. She plunged
the knife over and over into Itigaituk’s back.

“I only wanted to love you! You killed
Mama! You carved your initial into my skin. How could you? You
bastard!” Tears streamed down her face.

Aisyt was suddenly beside the young
woman, taking the knife from her hand. She enveloped Qannik in a
hug, holding her trembling body as the girl sobbed.

Ujarak ran up, his face pale. “Aisyt,
is Qannik my uncle’s daughter?”

“She was before he tortured her and
left her to die. I found her bleeding on the ice. He staked her
out, so she couldn’t shift. I saved her and brought her
home.”

“I didn’t know, Luava had a child. No
one in the family knew.”

“No, your uncle brought them here,”
Aisyt explained. “He went hunting leaving Luava alone. He enjoyed
hunting the amarok. I tried to shelter them from your uncle and his
friends. When Qannik was born and shifted to a wolf, I knew there
would be trouble. I made it a point to check on Luava. I never
blamed her for what your uncle did. When he came back and realized
that Qannik was amarok, he strangled Luava. Then he tortured,
Qannik. Your uncle hated the amarok even more after that. He left
traps in the snow, anything to hurt the wolves of the arctic. He
came, every chance he could to hunt them.”