The Gathering (30 page)

Lord she would have given anything not to
answer that question. What did Sabriel make her feel? Aroused.
Wanted. There was no way in hell she was going to tell him
that.

“I know what I think he made you feel.” He
inhaled, his nostrils flaring. “I can smell it.”

Her heart skipped a beat. There hadn’t been a
day since she met Garrett that she’d truly been afraid of him, his
wolf, yes, but not him. Not the man. But now as she stared up at
him, a bubble of fear skated across her flesh.

“Stay away from that vampire.”

“I don’t want him, Garrett.” He didn’t look
as if he believed her. “It was nothing. He just likes to play
games, is all.”

“I hope that’s all it is.”

“It is.”

“Good, because I’ll rip him apart if he so
much as looks at you in a way I don’t like.” With those final words
he kissed her, claimed her with a thrust of his tongue inside her
mouth. His hands were rough when he lowered them to her breasts and
she let him do as he pleased. She wouldn’t have fought him if she’d
wanted to.

When he broke the kiss, the wolf was still
there, staring at her with those amber eyes. His gaze was
predatory, possessive, and she knew she was about to get a lesson
in what it meant to be a werewolf’s mate. Her heart was already
racing by the time he backed up and grabbed her, tossing her over
his shoulder, before crossing the room.

Reaching the stairs, he started up, and Rayna
smiled. She knew then her mate would never stray. Not if a single
look from Sabriel could cause such a reaction. Garrett was hers, as
she was his, and he was about to prove it.

Bryce sat on the high ridge, staring out
across the darkened mountain. A wolf howled somewhere in the
distance and the wind whistled through the trees.

He’d avoided the house for days, only staying
long enough for Garrett to give him any orders, if he had any,
before he would leave again to scout the mountain.

The wolves Caleb made were all with the pack
now and a few, those who didn’t initially come with Jacob, were
being watched. They looked expectant. As if they were waiting for
Carmen to show up any minute. Bryce couldn’t find a reason to care.
He blamed that on Lydia.

Just thinking of her sent his emotions into a
tailspin. He hated having to think about her at all. Hated wanting
to know what she was doing, if she’d fed. Most of all, he hated to
want her so much. And he did. He could admit it to himself but he’d
be damned if anyone else would ever know.

The last time he saw her she was saying her
goodbyes to everyone in the house. Sabriel was taking her back
home. Bryce was glad. Without her there to constantly torture him
with her presence, he could forget about her. Or so he told
himself. The knowing ache he felt now, and the struggle his wolf
was having with him, made him think otherwise.

Rustling in the trees behind him alerted him
to someone’s presence. It took only seconds to realize who it was
when her scent reached him. His wolf raged at the knowledge she’d
sought him out. It slammed against his bones and the physical pain
was enough for Bryce to turn and look at her.

She was bathed in shadows from the moon
shining through the trees. Jeans and a loose fitting top made her
look young. Her long hair swayed in the breeze. As always, she
looked beautiful.

Lydia stopped a few feet from him and looked
out over the mountain. “It’s quiet. I can see why you spend so much
of your time here.”

He turned his back to her. “What do you
want?”

“I came to say goodbye.”

“Then say it and go.”

She moved closer then, her footsteps a soft
whisper against the pine needles. Her scent wrapped around him like
a soft glove and he closed his eyes to ward off her effect on him.
“I will miss you.”

Bryce said nothing in response. He knew if he
opened his mouth he’d beg her to stay and he couldn’t live with
that. He loathed her kind. Had since he’d found his family murdered
for no other reason than he trusted someone he shouldn’t have.

Lydia sighed, the sound causing the hair on
Bryce’s arms to stand on end. His wolf was howling inside his head,
demanding he claim her, to take her and lock her away from the
world.

He refused to obey.

Standing, he stretched out the kinks in his
neck. “Don’t keep Sabriel waiting for you.”

“He’ll wait as long as I wish him to.
Besides, he was having a heated conversation with your pack leader
last I saw him.”

Bryce turned to look at her. She was staring
up at him with an unreadable expression on her face. “Go home,
Lydia.”

Her expression didn’t change but something in
her eyes made his breath catch. The pain he saw there caused his
chest to tighten. He regretted brushing her off so easily now.

She ran her gaze over him, her large green
eyes glassy in the filtered light. The corner of her mouth tilted
into what he assumed was supposed to be a smile before he felt a
light, phantom caress on his cheek. She turned, without a word, and
left.

He stared at the spot she’d been standing,
his wolf raging inside his head, and a full five minutes hadn’t
passed before he was running through the trees.

Lydia had cleared most of the forest by the
time he caught her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her
around to face him and kissed her without a word said between them.
When he pulled back to take air into his lungs, he said, “I’m
sorry.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his
neck. “For what?”

“For not being able to give you what you
want.”

The smile on her face fell away and she
sighed, her hands coming to rest on his shoulders. She toyed with
the fabric of his shirt and chewed her bottom lip for long moments.
“Nothing I can say will change your mind?”

“No.”

Lydia looked up at him. “I have to return
with Sabriel.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to go.”

Begging her to stay would have pleased his
wolf but pride wouldn’t let him do it. “It would never work, Lydia.
I can’t forget what you are. I spend half my time hating you and
the other half beating myself up because I want you so much.”

She looked away from him, her hands sliding
down his arms. “I guess there’s nothing else to say then.”

“No.”

Rising up on her toes, she kissed him softly
on the mouth, tasting his lips before her tongue darted inside. She
broke away before he could truly enjoy it and pulled away from him.
“If you’re ever in New York…” She smiled and turned without another
word.

He watched her leave and knew that every day
without her would be torture. The wolf would make it so. The
further away she walked the louder the beast howled. He would
demand his mate and Bryce knew now that Lydia was the one. Vampire
or not, his wolf had chosen. And he’d be damned if he let the
creature have its way.

When she was out of sight, he gave in to the
anger and rage and let the beast have his voice. He howled his pain
for the entire mountain to hear, screamed at the injustice of it
all, and fell to his knees when his lungs ached from the effort.
The wolf clawed at his soul and Bryce knew, the creature would
never rest until he had his mate.

A case of nerves every once in a while was
normal for a reporter but today, Rayna felt ready to faint. The
pack had assembled at the clearing and with so many present, it was
reminiscent of the first time she’d been here, when Malcolm had
called her and Mitch to witness a shift.

With the addition of Carmen’s wolves, the
area was packed. She’d counted nearly fifty people as they walked
from the trees. Rayna was sitting on the rock face, watching those
around her, and waiting for Judith.

Her friend was leaving. After tonight’s hunt
she would be going to Bluff’s Point with Chad. The two had barely
been seen since returning to the mountain and the romance Rayna had
wondered about was no secret now. Chad was smitten. He looked like
a schoolboy around Judith most days. And Judith had a perpetual
blush staining her cheeks. They cared for one another, enough to
give Judith the courage to leave.

Rayna was happy for her but the sorrow she
felt was bone deep. She’d miss her. She’d been like a mother to her
most of the time. A true friend when she needed one. Someone she
could talk to about anything and not feel like a
disappointment.

She saw her moments later walking past the
tree line with Chad. Rayna wondered how Garrett’s old partner and
friend would react to what he was about to see. She reminded
herself that he’d seen much of what he’d witness tonight in the
park at Bluff’s Point. He was probably more prepared than Rayna had
been. They crossed the clearing and jumped up on the rock face.

“So I hear this is your big night?” Chad
said.

Rayna grinned. “Yes. Garrett said I was ready
so, I’ll be shifting.”

“Are you nervous?”

“I’m scared shitless!”

Chad laughed. “I would be too. I’ve seen it
before but the thought of watching it again, with this many around,
is giving me a nervous stomach.”

“Well, I can tell you from experience, it’s
frightening the first time. At least you have advanced warning. You
know what’s about to happen. I wasn’t that lucky. I thought I was
surrounded by loons who only thought they could shift. I hadn’t
prepared myself for the actual event.”

Rayna saw Garrett walk into the clearing with
Bryce. She wasn’t sure what the two had been talking about but
whatever it was must have pleased her mate. He was smiling, the
white’s of his teeth shining in the moonlight. Her wolf stirred
just looking at him.

Since the night they’re returned to the
mountain, and he found her alone with Sabriel, he’d barely let her
out of his sight. Not that she was complaining. Her body still
ached in places and every nerve was over sensitized. He’d made love
to her so often she was afraid he’d get tired of her soon but that
didn’t seem to be the case. If anything, he seemed to enjoy it too
much.

His wolf showed himself more, looking at her
as if he were the one there with her instead of Garrett. She wasn’t
sure how to feel about that exactly but knew, once her wolf was
born, Garrett’s wolf would finally be able to truly have his mate.
She wondered if that wasn’t what drove Garrett as of late. The
wolf’s eagerness for his equal.

When everyone was present and accounted for,
Garrett silenced them with a hand in the air. He said a few words,
wished them a safe hunt and turned everything over to Bryce. She
stared at him questioningly when he approached the rock face,
grabbed her hand and tugged her to the ground. “What are you
doing?”

He didn’t say anything, just kept walking
toward the trees. She followed without a word. Half an hour later
when the sound of water reached her, she smiled. He was going to
the creek.

“You’re not bringing me out here to seduce
me, are you?”

He laughed and looked back over his shoulder.
“When have I ever had to seduce you?”

“Point taken.” She walked the familiar path,
the grass beaten down by repeated trips through the woods. When she
saw the area where they’d first made love after reuniting, where
he’d claimed her as his own, she grinned. A blanket had been placed
near the stream. A basket she assumed held food sitting neatly in
one corner. “You’ve been a busy boy.”

He growled, his grip on her hand tightening.
“I haven’t been a boy in more years than I wish to count.” When
they reached his carefully prepared picnic, he turned to face her
and immediately went for the buttons on her shirt. “You in a
hurry?”

“Not particularly but the wolf is. He hasn’t
stopped screaming inside my head all day.” When her shirt fluttered
to the ground, he unsnapped her bra and tossed it aside. He grinned
at her, palmed one breast and gave it a squeeze before stripping
his own shirt off.

“Why am I getting naked if the wolf is the
one so eager? Because I’m here to tell you, there isn’t going to be
any kinky business between me and that wolf of yours.” She toed off
her shoes before unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them off.

“Well, I didn’t think you’d want to walk back
home naked in the morning so, the clothes come off now.”

It dawned on her then what he was doing and
why. The shift. They weren’t going to shift with the others. He’d
brought her out here, to their place, so she wouldn’t have the
curious gaze of the pack on her. Her chest tightened.

She’d known all day he wanted her to shift.
That he’d been preparing her for days, in fact. Coaching her on
what she’d feel, teaching her how to relax her body enough to let
the wolf take control.

Knowing Garrett was doing everything within
his power to make her shift easier was comforting but having to
actually shift? Her lungs seized. Breathing became difficult and it
wasn’t until Garrett grabbed her that she gulped in enough air to
breathe.

“Nice, easy breaths,” he said. “There’s
nothing to be afraid of. I’m right here.”

She nodded her head. “Maybe, but I’m still
scared.”

He kissed her forehead, pulling her into his
arms. “I’ll not let anything happen to you, Rayna. I love you.”

“I know you do.”

They stood like that for long minutes. Until
her pulse returned to normal and breathing wasn’t an issue. “Okay.
I’m ready.”

He pulled back so he could see her face. “Are
you sure?”

“No, but its going to happen regardless,
right?”

He nodded and his eyes held a sadness she
hadn’t noticed before. “I’ll never be able to tell you how sorry I
am, Rayna, but…” He sighed and stroked the side of her face with
the back of one hand. “I love you. If I hadn’t infected you, a part
of me would have always wished you had been.”