The Becoming Trilogy Box Set (Books 1-3) (75 page)

Later that morning, Ash woke
with her heart in her throat. She’d been dreaming of the forest again, only
this time the pursuit was on four legs. She’d been running with Connal, their
prey a huge black wolf. They’d taken it down, she’d just locked her jaws around
the beast’s jugular … She shivered at the lingering dream-taste of blood in her
mouth.

When had these animalistic
dreams replaced the nightmares about her mother? Around the time of her
transformation, she supposed. Ash welcomed the reprieve, but couldn’t help
feeling this was yet another piece of her old life that had drifted out of
reach.

She opened her eyes to the
sight of Connal’s fine ass disappearing into a pair of jeans. It was a criminal
act to cover up a body as hard as his. An appreciative grin curved her lips,
her eyes glued to every flex of tawny muscle. She found her voice when he
straightened. ‘You’re going somewhere?’

Connal twisted to look at
her, and though she knew she looked bed-dishevelled, his eyes darkened with
heat. ‘Yeah. I made a promise, to a friend.’

She had to bite her tongue,
hard, not to voice the question in her head. It sprang out of its Mac box and
was on her lips before she caught it. Had he changed his mind about killing his
brother? She couldn't ask him that. Just thinking about the blond king felt
like a betrayal.

Ash raked her hair away from
her face.

Connal crossed to her, a
great beast prowling on silent feet, and she raised her eyes resignedly to his.
He simply smiled at her, the smile that simultaneously stopped her heart and
got her blood pumping with desire. Ash was still reeling from the effects of
him when his mouth claimed hers, slow and deep and sweet, the friction of his
stubble a wonderful burn on her skin. She hummed a protest as he pulled away,
his words falling on her lips.

‘What?’ he smiled. ‘I can’t go
out the door without you thinking I’m going to off someone? It’s not what you
think. This isn’t about MacTire.’

She was the one pulling away
this time, putting enough space between them that she could gauge his
expression.

‘It’s not?’

He shook his head and she
used his shoulders to pull herself up from the bed.

‘Then you’ll let me come with
you,’ she announced.

His large, warm hands fit the
dip of her waist, steadying her. ‘Better dress warm.’

Wow that was easy,
Ash thought.

Scowling confusedly at his
turning form, Ash snatched up her bra en route to the closet and pulled out a
worn pair of comfortable jeans. She could only think he’d meant for her to go
all along. Which made no sense if this was a murder mission.

‘I don’t have a coat,’ she
frowned.

Her red velvet coat hadn’t
survived the first wolf attack. She still mourned it, but knew she should be
grateful it had been the only fatality that night.
No, not the only one
,
she reminded herself. The wolf that attacked her met a grisly end. Connal had
made sure of that. She still couldn't quite believe what he was, what she was.
Ash glanced up to find him watching her button the jeans. He visibly shook
himself out of staring and she bit back a smile. Good to know she wasn’t the
only one who ogled.

‘Here,’ he said, ‘try this
for size.’

No matter how many times she
saw him naked, the sight of him peeling out of his clothes would always raise a
flush in her cheeks. It was the way he
moved:
sinful and predatory.

His thick sweater hit her in
the face and she caught it to her with a laugh, burying her nose against the
fabric.

Ash eyed him over the top of
the bundle. ‘What about you?’

‘I have my jacket,’ he
shrugged.

The chunky black Aran sweater
smelled divine as she tugged it over her head, even if it did swamp her. It
fell clear to her knees and cocooned her in his scent, the lingering heat from
his body seeping into her.

She tugged on a pair of flats
and straightened to watch as he pulled t-shirts out of the laundry basket into
a bag. His and hers.
Is it going to be an overnighter?
she wondered.
'Those are for the wash,’ she said, ‘I can get us fresh ones.'

'No, these are perfect.' He
smiled over at her, taking stock of her appearance as he zipped up the bag. She
didn’t miss the possessive appreciation in his gaze.

‘Where are your boots? You’ll
ruin those.’ He indicated her red suede pumps with a tip of his chin and she
went to hunt her boots from under the bed. She’d killed her coat, she wasn’t
sacrificing shoes as well.

Ash perched on the bed to
lace up, cocking a curious brow at him. ‘So, are you going to tell me where
we’re going? We’re not burying a body this time, are we?’

‘No bodies. We’re going to
see a woman about a dog.'

He grinned and Ash cast him a
bemused frown. Was he serious, or winding her up? His face was so innocent, she
really couldn’t tell. Yielding and more than a little curious, she pushed to
her feet with a sigh. ‘Okay, Mr. Mysterious. Lead the way.’

Hands on her hips, she stared
at the three vehicles. His Shadow rested on its kickstand beside the Cadillac
hearse, and her Minor sat daintily in the larger car’s shadow. Connal bypassed
his bike and her car and she followed slowly.

‘You sure we aren’t burying a
body?’ The only times she’d ridden in the hearse had been to dump the wolf corpse
and lay Setty to rest in Connal’s clearing. Neither was an experience she
wanted to repeat.

‘I promise,’ he said, twining
a curl of her hair around his fingers and pressing a kiss to her forehead.
Relaxing into him, Ash felt his smile curve on her skin. Then he was moving
away from her and unlocking the car. Ash popped open the passenger side door
and settled into the worn seats, shifting over only enough to let him toss the
bag into the back. She pulled the too-long sleeves over her hands and snuggled into
his sweater while the car’s heating warmed up. ‘So who’s this friend whose
promise we’re honouring?’ she asked.

Connal craned his head as
they reversed, watching the elongated back end of the hearse. ‘Doc Madden,’ he
said casually.

Ash hid her surprise at the
revelation by looking down. She’d never thought he’d call the doctor ‘friend.’
It was another thing that had changed since they’d been apart, and maybe she
should have realised earlier. Madden had been there with Connal in the temple
to witness her mistake with Mac, and after. He’d been there when she’d escaped
Form, told her things he couldn’t have known unless he’d been in Connal’s
company. He’d offered to help her. Things had definitely changed during their
time in Fomor.

‘The Doc asked me to watch
out for Liath,’ Connal explained.

‘Liath?’ Ash asked, baffled.
‘But they don’t even know one another, do they?’ She recalled the blonde
barmaid eyeing up her doctor chaperone at the club the night the wolves tried
to take her. That seemed a lifetime ago, before they’d taken her son hostage in
exchange for Ash, before Ash had almost died.

‘Madden is the boy’s father-’

Ash gaped openly, relief hard
on the heels of surprise.
Connal isn’t the father then.
Good.
The
thought had crossed her mind more than once.

‘- but because he’s
thegn
,’
Connal went on, ‘and forbidden to procreate, he manipulated Liath’s memories,
to protect her from MacTire’s
solution
for dealing with half-breeds.’

Ash shuddered at that word.
It reeked of extermination. ‘He stole her memories?’ She frowned, ‘Is that even
possible?’

‘Unorthodox, but very
possible,’ Connal glanced in her direction. ‘The
thegn
are adept at
psychic manipulation. Normally, it’s used only to protect the secrecy of the
race. Doyle knew Madden’s secret, that’s why he targeted them, to keep Madden
at heel while he claimed the glory for capturing you.’

‘Doyle is a bastard,’ Ash
growled.

‘Hopefully a dead bastard,’
Connal agreed, ‘but as neither he nor Madden have shown face since the night of
the fight, I thought Liath could use a little extra security, for when I’m not
around.’

For when they were both
dead.

Ash mulled over that
terrifying thought in silence and let him drive, unaccosted by the questions
leaping through her mind as they journeyed north at a speed that should defy
the capabilities of the hearse.

It took them less than a
half-hour to spill out into the rolling Irish countryside of the Boyne valley,
passing signposts for the Neolithic tomb at Newgrange. Her university course
had briefly delved into the mysticism of such artificial mounds. Maybe Connal
would let them stop by on the way back, she thought. She’d never done the
tourist attraction thing. Eventually, after a few more miles of pretty green
countryside, they turned off the main road to rattle along a dirt track.

He was taking her into the
middle of nowhere.

Again.

This was par for the course
on almost all of their outings, she shouldn’t really have expected anything
else.

Connal drew the hearse to a
stop at a farm gate. Parking just off the lane, he grabbed up the bag from the back.
Ash couldn’t see any buildings from her seat, there was a slight incline hiding
whatever lay beyond the gate, but her curiosity would have had her following,
even if Connal’s outstretched hand didn’t. She wrapped her fingers around his
and let him pull her from the car. As they crested the hill together on foot,
the dirt path widened. A fenced-in paddock reached off to one side of the road,
leading to a grouping of buildings. The horses grazing on the short grass awakened
memories of riding the magnificent creatures. There’d been stables at one of
her foster homes, and her time living on that ranch had been freeing, though
she hadn’t ridden since she’d left. Ash let go of Connal’s hand to venture
closer to the paddock.

Palm up, she reached out over
the fencing, clicking her tongue at the animals. A soft breeze teased the hair
from her face and she smiled as a gorgeous chestnut mare stretched out her
head.

‘Ash, careful, they won’t-’

She didn’t hear the rest of
what he said over the screams of the horses. The wind had changed and the
beautiful mare reared, its eyes rolling back in terror. It kicked away from the
fencing and the small stampede charged around the enclosure in fearful circles.

Her scent.

They’d caught her scent, and
they identified her as predator.

The rejection stung.

She’d been doing such a good
job of forgetting.

Connal had her upper arms
gripped tight, his fingers digging into flesh as he hauled her away from the
fence.

‘Hey! What are you doing? Get
away from them!’

Ash’s head whipped towards
the new voice, her lip curling in an instinctive warning at the obvious
reprimand in the tone. Running towards them, clad all in riding gear, the girl
vaulted the fence, her voice softening as she herded the horses into calming.
They danced nervously but stopped their racing.

No older than Ash, she was
very attractive, even as she stormed towards them with her mouth drawn and her
eyes glaring.

Halfway to them, her pretty
face changed. Gone was the anger, her mouth went lax with surprise and then
spread into a wide smile that could have rivalled the sun for brightness. The
girl bounded towards them and it was Ash’s turn to glare. All the stranger’s
enthusiasm was aimed at Connal, who was standing calm at Ash’s back.

‘Connal? Oh my God, Connal,
it’s you!’’

Ash braced for impact. No way
in hell was she moving so this woman could hug her man. Or tackle him. Her
approach was exuberant, but the girl managed to put the brakes on before she
ploughed right into them.

‘Ash, this is Sadhbh.’
Sive
, Connal pronounced it, his voice holding a warmth that poked the
small, jealous part of her. It was clear they knew each other. Sadhbh didn’t
let him get any more introductions out before she was telling him everything
he’d obviously missed.