Seduced by the Wolf (4 page)

For now.

But Jarrett underestimated the power of the Fae. She would dig past his layers to find the shifter she'd once adored.

Jarrett didn't realize it, but he needed her for more than sex. Ariel suspected he needed her to save him. Because she had a bad feeling about the darkness in the mine.

It had something to do with him.

Shafts of sunlight spilled through the lace curtains at the window and speared the hardwood floor. Ariel turned her head toward the sunrise.

Jarrett still slept. One arm stretched above his head, one arm hooked possessively around her waist, he looked relaxed. Off guard. Gone were the lines of tension, the tight control he'd always held.

Last night that control had nearly shattered. He'd made love to her with a wildness that echoed his wolf. Ariel rolled over, brushed a lock of blond hair off his brow. His mouth was parted slightly as he breathed.

How long had it been since he'd been able to relax like this? She touched the firmness of his lips, remembering them caressing her skin, intent on making her feel pleasure.

His eyes flew open. He turned, capturing her in his arms. Ariel gave a small squeak as he rolled over, his heavy weight pinning her to the mattress, his erection snug against her sex.

“Look what my fairy godmother delivered to my bed. A pretty Fae shifter.”

Rough with sleep, his voice was husky and sexy. Ariel laced her fingers through his.

“You were incredible last night.” Jarrett gave a slow smile. “Care for a repeat performance?”

The breathy excitement of last night faded in the growing sunlight. Ariel searched his face. She saw earthly passion, raw sexuality and male need.

But no emotion. No tenderness. As if she were a stranger and had spent the night in his bed.

“Making love with you was so intense.”

Jarrett squeezed her fingers. “Best sex I've had in a long time.”

Sex. Not love. He'd told her he had nothing to give. Nothing but his body and pleasure.

Strength filled her limbs. In a sudden burst of energy, she twisted, throwing him off her. Jarrett's eyes widened. Ariel ignored him, slid to the bed's edge and went to the lace curtains.

They were dusty and yellowed from age. She brought a panel to her nose and inhaled, detecting a faint scent of female.

“Interesting curtains. You know, window decor has changed in the past thirty years. You might consider a decorator.” Ariel turned to him, hands on hips. “Unless you're so mired in the past you can't bear to change them.”

Tension whitened his mouth. “I've always hated those curtains. Too fussy. Chloe made them….”

His voice drifted off. Pain radiated from him like a pulsing beacon.

“And she's dead. So you still live with curtains you don't like? Great leadership, Jarrett. Really a good way to show your people how to move on. I'm sure you're not the only one who's suffered a loss.”

She hated the words coming from her mouth, but knew she had to push him hard. Jarrett bounded out of bed, stalked over to the curtains. With a mighty yank, he tore down one panel. It tumbled to the floor in a dusty cloud.

Breathing heavily, he ripped off the others. Misery shadowed his face, then vanished. Ariel's heart ached for him.

“Jarrett, she's gone. I know you loved her, and that love will never die. You're a strong leader who would die for your people. You want a mate to give them hope and life. Yet you're dead inside, until you move on and embrace your own life and your own future.” She framed his face with her hands, moisture filling her eyes.

He nodded, closing his eyes. When he opened them, they were empty of emotion. “You're right. But I warned you, Ariel. I have no more feelings left to give. I'm not capable of giving you what you want most.”

“That doesn't mean I should stop hoping. Call me a dreamer.”

He brushed a finger down her cheek. Sadness swam in the depths of his dark eyes. “Keep dreaming, Ariel. I need your dreams.”

He let her go.

In the shower, water beaded on her skin, mingling with the salty tears cascading down her cheeks.

 

“I'm going home. I have to see if everyone's okay.”

Tension tightened his muscles at her words. Jarrett leapt off the porch railing and followed Ariel down the steps. His men watched. He didn't give a damn.

She mattered more.

Ariel had avoided him all day. Caught up in pack matters, he'd sent two of his men to watch and guard her from a distance as she roamed the grounds, searching out scents. He knew she wanted distance from him.

He knew. Hated this, hated the fact that he couldn't give her what she wanted, not with his cold, dead heart. But no way in hell could he let her go.

Last night she'd given him something no one else could. Hope. He felt it stirring deep inside him, and it fed him strength. It wasn't merely sex. Yet he couldn't voice it.

Couldn't face the pain of opening himself to her, sharing himself and then losing her just as he'd lost her long ago.

Chloe's sweet smile and docile manner were fading into the past. He'd loved her. Always would. But it was Ariel now claiming his thoughts. Ariel haunting his dreams.

Sharp pain seized him at the thought of whatever monster lurked out there seizing her and hauling her into the deep, dark cave.

Jarrett caught her arm. Something evil had infiltrated his territory. He wasn't about to let Ariel leave.

“It's too dangerous.”

“To return to my people?” Her large blue eyes widened, making her look vulnerable and even more Fae. “Are you afraid I'll break our agreement?”

I'm afraid you'll never come back
. Images of Chloe, bloodied and dying, danced across his mind. He concentrated on Ariel. “I'm coming with you.”

Ariel looked delicate in a turquoise sweater and new jeans one of the females had loaned her. The tips of her toes peeked beneath the jeans. Curls spilled around her slender shoulders. Yet he knew a toughness resonated inside her, the same kind that drove her to hunt down whatever was taking her people.

Chloe hadn't been tough. She was soft and female and afraid. Her fear had driven her out of the hiding place he'd ordered her to seek during the battle, because she'd needed him at her side.

Ariel might be afraid, but she never showed it. She'd never admit needing protection.

So he took matters in hand and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, leading her back to her home. Something nasty lurked out there, and he wouldn't risk losing her. Never again.

Because you care
, a voice inside his head mocked.

Because I need her.

They shifted for the six-mile trek across meadows and the river. Instinct urged him to keep to the shadows. His wolf senses flared with caution as he padded across the dead grass, making sure Ariel was at his side. As they approached the Fae colony and a group of cabins, dread filled him. No lights shone from the inside. No welcoming fires as in the past.

The small village seemed deserted and dead as a ghost town. A foul stench, laced with something familiar, ground him to an abrupt halt. Jarrett's ears flattened. He nudged Ariel with his nose, signaling her to stop.

What is that smell?

It came from the cabin closest to the mountain. Jarrett's heart banged against his chest. They communicated in wolf form, same as the old days. All his people could communicate telepathically after shifting, but the ability did not extend to Fae. Except Ariel.

She'd always been special.

Decaying bodies
, he told her.

Ariel shifted back. Naked, trembling, she stood in the meadow. Moonlight glistened off her pale skin.

Jarrett cursed and shifted as well, clothing himself by magick. He had no clothing for her. Damn, the temperature was dropping fast.

But she didn't seem to care. Instead, she ran to the cabins sitting in the lee of the mountain like gray ghosts.

The Fae compound was laid out in a square, with a wildflower garden separating each house. Jarrett raced after Ariel, cursing silently. She was lighter and faster, her Fae powers making her feet fly over the dirt path.

She headed for the largest cabin, darting inside like a frantic dragonfly. Jarrett followed.

He knew what she would find.

The stench of death clogged his nostrils, making his wolf howl and want to flee. Jarrett curbed the impulse and tracked Ariel to the back bedrooms. His wolf vision enabled him to see in the cloying darkness. In her hand dangled a length of gold chain and a twist of delicate spirals, light as air and as dainty. Air rushed out of his lungs.

Cael's Celestial Luminaire.

The necklace itself was devoid of bluish light. Dead as the stench filtering through the cabin.

“It's dark. It's never been dark. And he'd never leave it behind, never, he's never taken it off, it's his life force.”

Removing his shirt, he draped it over her shoulders. She seemed dwarfed by it, the tails hanging down midthigh. Her expression was cold and empty as a grave.

Jarrett gently took the chain from her clenched fingers and folded it into her palm. “I know, Ariel. The light goes out only when his life force is gone.”

“No. Not possible.” She shook her head, making her dark curls fly around her shoulders. “My father is not dead.”

She refused to accept it. Her father was strong, vital, and drew his energy from the earth.

The earth could not have taken his life.

By rights the Luminaire was hers now. The next to rule her people. What people?

“Everyone's gone,” she whispered. A sob clogged her throat. “They're all gone. They can't have died. They have to be alive, somewhere.”

“Ariel, sweetheart, the Luminaire's light has gone dark.”

He spoke softly, the words scraping her insides raw. Ariel flung the necklace away from her. It landed on the hardwood floor with a clatter.

A sob rose in her throat.

Jarrett enfolded her in his strong arms, holding her steady. Her anchor, solid as the earth she'd loved, the earth that had robbed her father of life. Air rushed out of her lungs in a tidal wave. She could no longer hold back the grief.

Ariel cried as he rocked her back and forth. She felt his lips brush the top of her head. “Aw damn, sweetheart. I'm so sorry. So sorry.”

The stench of death and decay permeated her pores, squeezing her lungs in a painful vise. With every gulp of air, it felt like death seeping into her body, creeping through her cells and destroying them.

“I…can't breathe,” she gasped.

She let him lead her out of the cabin into the night, out of the foulness squeezing breath from her lungs. Ariel took a deep gulp of air. Jarrett leaned down, wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

“Stay here.”

Shrugging into his shirt, she inhaled the spice of his scent, the rich masculine fragrance of wolf and man. She gulped down air, grateful for the cool breeze touching her cheek and removing the scent of decay. A minute later Jarrett returned, clutching something. He opened his palm.

“Look.”

Tears blurred her vision. She wiped them away. Crying would not help find answers. Ariel stared at what Jarrett held in his hand.

Bluish light glowed from the delicate necklace. Faint, but steady.

Confused, she touched the charm. “But it was extinguished!”

“Inside the cabin. The stench is stronger in there as well. Did you notice how the moonlight was muted inside the cabin? As if something clouded the air.” Jarrett's mouth thinned to a tight slash. “Some kind of darkness taking over.”

“Cael's alive?”

“For now. We have to find him, and the others.” Jarrett slipped the necklace around her neck.

They cut across the meadow, not daring to shift in the process. Jarrett sensed whatever stalked the Fae still lurked. He couldn't risk a shift and even a few seconds of being vulnerable.

When they crossed over into his territory, Jarrett sat on a boulder. Ariel joined him. The blue light of the necklace glowed fiercely, as if the moonlight touching it were a torch.

“Something was odd back there.” He picked up her hand, rubbed it between his palms. Jarrett cocked his head. “Your hands are warm. The air's frigid, but you're warm.”

Ariel touched the Luminaire. “The necklace. It has a natural protective element.”

He slid a hand up to cup her cheek. She leaned into his touch, grateful for the support. Never had she felt so alone as back in the cabin. Her people all gone, her father probably dead…

“No one took them from their homes.”

Ariel looked at his solemn face. “But they all vanished in the night.”

“There were no signs of a struggle. I know Cael. He would never go without a fight. Like his daughter.” Jarrett jumped off the boulder and began to pace. “Not a scratch on the woodwork, nothing knocked down. No forced entry. Whatever has them did not take them by force.”

“The stench, the decay…” Ariel fingered the necklace. “It seemed unnatural.”

“Your people are accustomed to the cycle of life. What was inside the cabin was not part of the cycle. It was artificial.”

“As if someone placed it there, a dark magick…” Ariel's heart skipped a beat. “As a warning. The stench came only from my father's cabin.”

“And not the others. He put it there, Ariel. It was a message.”

“Like breadcrumbs in the forest. He put it there for me to follow.”

“Which you are not doing.” Jarrett whirled, his expression dangerous. “I will. But I won't see you endangered.”

“He's my father. My people. You think I can't save them? You think I'm not strong enough? This is my fight Jarrett.”

“I won't risk losing you.”

A whisper riding the cold wind. His features were stark in the moonlight, his chin granite, his eyes stricken. For a moment she saw straight through the barriers into the heart of him. The real Jarrett. Colors swirled around him.

His aura. The necklace enabled a Fae to read a person's natural aura. Ariel reached out a hand and touched his.

It shimmered with pale streaks of gray, laced with the fiery red of pain and the blackness of death. The agony made her flinch. The colors swirled and screamed, filling her head with claws raking over her flesh, shredding it to ribbons.