The Lady in the Mist (The Western Werewolf Legend #1) (11 page)

Ty gave a little growl of need deep in his throat as he obeyed.  He trailed kisses mingled with tiny bites of pleasure along her skin until hampered by the cloth of her bodice he unbuttoned her blouse.  His tongue sucked her areola into a taught, dark peak.

Sonja bowed up as the moan collected in her.  Staring into the treetops, she examined the sunlight dancing in them without seeing.  The pleasure of his mouth brought her to new heights of passion.

“Does that feel good, nymph?”  His voice held a deep inflection.  Sonja reared up gathering his face in her hands.  “Lie with me.”  Her throat wanted to close.  She searched his face breathing out the words again.  “Lie with me.”

He rolled with her until she sat straddle atop him.  His shaft, hard and uncompromising, pressed against the tender flesh of her most private of places.  “I can’t.  Not yet.”

“But why?”  Bewildered and trembling now, Sonja clutched her arms across her exposed breasts.  “I thought you wanted to.”

He sat up so fast, she gasped.  “I want nothing more than to lie with you to make love to you like you deserve.”  He kissed her tenderly on the lips.  “But I want our time to be special.  In a real bed with all the pleasures that come from the freedom of a lover’s haven.  You and I will share that, nymph.  I promise.”  His features broke into a grin that was wicked.  “For the time being, I want you as hot and bothered as I am so when it’s right, we’ll appreciate the pleasure even more.”

Lowering her head, Sonja bottom lip protruded as she toyed with the buttons of his shirt.  “It’s been so long…”  She trailed off before starting to rise.

***

Ty anchored her again on his lap.  The feel of her female flesh against his shaft had him jumping with the need to fill her.  He rose to meet her gaze.  Speaking softly, he said, “I want you to remember the first time for the rest of your life.  Understand.  If we rutted out here in the grass, the act would be fun, but it wouldn’t be as special as the first time should be.  Believe me, nymph, I want you so bad right now, I could come without trying.  He closed his eyes before sucking in air as she rocked on his cock making the need to think almost impossible.  With a firm hold, he eased her to the quilt beside him.  Looking into her eyes, Ty smiled as he kissed the tip of her slender nose.  “I want to know you before we make love.  You deserve that from the man you take to your bed.  Okay?”

Sonja nodded.  Biting her bottom lip, she shook her head side to side.  “I don’t want you to think I’m a loose woman, Lieutenant.”  Her use of his military rank came out shaky before she brushed away a tear.  ‘It’s just…” She trailed off and sniffed.  “It’s just that…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”  Shaking her head, she rolled away from him to stand.  “We better get back.  It’ll be getting dark soon.”

Reaching out, she offered him her hand.  He took the slender digits.  Surprised at her strength when she helped him to his feet, he made the comment.  “You’re quite strong for such a small woman.”

Her face went ashen before she looked away.

“I’m sorry!”  He didn’t understand what went wrong.  What had he said?

She looked stricken and shut down again, her face closing off from him.  Doubting she would tell him outright, Ty tried instead to make up ground by helping clear the refreshments she’d prepared.  He’d figure out what he’d done wrong.  He had to.

With the onset of darkness, they road toward home, each one sat in silence wondering how to fix the thing standing between them.

The forest grew lonely and too quiet for his peace of mind.  Watching the road ahead, he glanced behind them from time to time.  The faint stench he’d smelled near the creek returned.  Keeping a keen eye in all directions, he gave the mule a nudge for home.

Sonja shivered.

“Are you cold?” Ty asked.

“A little,” She shook her head.  “Don’t worry, I’ll be all right.”  Sonja leaned into his warm.  Suddenly, she tensed in his arms.  Her body arched against his.  He could feel her heart beating through her chest wall.  The sheer force of the pounding caused him to consider her well-being.

“Easy, I got you.”

She moaned when the perspiration broke on her forehead.

Ty leaned over to check her temperature.  “You’re burning up!”  Ty gripped her tight.  “Hold on, Sonja, I’ll get you home.”

Splinters flew when he kicked the door in heading for the bed.  Her condition had grown increasingly worse the closer they got to the cottage.  Laying her out on the quilt, Ty checked her temperature as well as her pulse again.  “Something’s definitely wrong,” he murmured to himself.  Her heart raced as if the organ would leap out of her chest.  Her breath came too rapidly.

Chapter 4

Over the past several minutes, her breathing had weakened to a shallow pant.  Her digression into some sort of fit had him all but paralyzed.  Unable to decipher if she dreamed or fell into some sort of trance, Ty realized he could do no more than keep her comfortable and wait.

Minutes seemed like hours.  Sonja went from screaming aloud to bouts of complete stillness.  Throwing up her hands, she tried to ward off the demons in her dreams.  The guttural growls she emitted as she flailed at her attackers almost did Ty in.  There seemed nothing he could do.  Ty racked his brain for a solution to the trauma she faced.  Her eyes darted back and forth as if in search of something or someone.  Stilling to the point of not breathing, she became a stone statue there in the bed.  Unable to fathom what went on behind her lashes, Ty spoke softly to her, doing his best to coax her back.  “Sonja, wake up.  Sonja, you’ve got to wake up now.”  He shook her again, harder than before but still no response other than her moan.  Her perspiration was so much, Ty went to the kitchen to fetch a damp cloth from the pitcher of cool well water on the counter.  Something had to work.

“She’s in a trance, my boy.”  The voice startled him.  Ty whirled around.

He faced the old woman and growled low and fierce.  “Where did you come from?”  The hand he raked through his hair was fraught with tension.

Hortence merely stood in the doorway, her tattered dress topped by her habitual shawl pulled tight against a night chill.

Frantic, Ty yanked her inside.  “Never mind that, she needs help.  We were riding back from the creek.  She slumped in the saddle.”  With a quick yank he drug Hortence over to the bed.  “She’s been like this for a while now.  Can you do something?”  He stared after the old woman as she drew close to the bed.

Raising one of Sonja’s eyelids, she nodded.  “There is nothing that needs doing, my boy.  She dreams.”  The green agate stone in the ring the old woman wore glowed in the meager light.  “Light a lamp.  I will sit with her.”

“Sit with her!”  At the moment, Tyler Loflin could have cheerfully choked the old hag.  He certainly wasn’t worried about being polite.  He didn’t want to admit, the old bird had scared the bejesus out of him which only added to his distress.  She wasn’t going to do anything more for Sonja than ‘sit with her’.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.  You’re a witch, isn’t there something you can do for her?”  His voice raised an octave.  “She could be dying!”  He doubted he’d ever been more frightened in all his life.  The surge of helplessness that washed over him had his knees buckling.

“Indeed she is, lad.”  The old woman took a hobbled step and then another toward him.  “Sonja sleeps the trance of the change,” she told him.  “Tonight she will face The Guardian to become one with the universe.”  Beady eyes pierced him with their intensity.  “Tis’ the way of things.”  She glanced back at Sonja on the bed.  “Do you know of what I speak?”  Her wrinkled face bore a haunting resemblance to his great-grandmother as she asked the question.  “Yours is a heritage, which, not only understands the wolf, but reveres his power.”  The old hag waited.

He realized she made reference to his being half Choctaw.  His ancestors taught all young Choctaw to respect the wild creatures of the land, especially the wolf.  Ty didn’t have patience for her riddles.  His patience wore very thin.  He could have torn his hair out at that point if the mere act would have helped Sonja regain consciousness.  “Look, I don’t know what you’re babbling about, but if you’re not going to try saving her, then get the hell out!”  The words boomed with the force of his tone.  His eyes burned.  Had it suddenly grown hot in the tiny room?

The old woman remained.

“Did you hear me, I said get out.”  Ty’s lungs hurt, his head hurt, his heart hurt.

Hortence simply cut him a cool stare before clucking her tongue in her cheek.  “Such bravado.”  She took a step toward him.  Cocking a discerning brow, the old woman scanned him up and down.  Nodding briefly, she reached out a weathered hand to flick the collar of his cotton shirt.  “The Guardian has chosen well.”  She gave him a craggy smile.  “Tonight you will understand.  Yours and hers,” she inclined her head toward Sonja, “is the way of the lone one.  A wolf has but one true partner in life, his mate.”  Nodding her head in agreement with her own statement, Hortence squinted eye peered at him in earnest.  “What you do with the knowledge will determine not only your fate but hers as well.”  She leaned in and Ty could swear he smelled wild onions.  “Choose carefully, my boy.  Choose carefully...”

The wind whipped around him stirring dust and debris.  Ty had to fling up an arm to shield his eyes.  When the wind died down, the hag was gone.  He rushed to the front room but there was no one there.  Striding to the porch, he scanned the small clearing.  Nothing stirred, not until a bird called from a nearby tree.  If he’d been asleep, he’d have sworn the visit form the old woman had been a dream but he’d been wide awake.  Questions ran through his brain but before Ty could consider answers, Sonja called his name.  He wheeled back to the bedroom.

She sat on the edge of the bed.  Reaching up, she pushed past the long curls framing her face and rubbed absently at her eyes.

Ty halted inside the door to the bedroom and stared.  Something akin to joy mixed with enormous relief filled him as he rushed to the bed.  His heart beat deliriously in his chest.  “You’re awake.  Oh, thank God, you’re awake.”  He knelt next to her and gripped her hand, his own shaking.

Sonja stared as if she didn’t understand.  “Of course, I’m awake.  Why wouldn’t I be?”  Glancing about, her forehead creased.  “Why am I sitting on the bed?”  Before he could get the answer out, she scanned his face.  Reaching out, she laid her palm against his cheek.  “You’re as white as a ghost, Lieutenant.  You have to get back in this bed now.”  Rising, she pointed to the quilt.  “You’ve had a relapse.”

Ty rose alongside her.  Watching her intently, he couldn’t help the joy, which filled him.  “The Great One heeded my prayer.”  His voice shook with relief.

“What? Have I grown horns of a sudden?  Stop goggling and get into this bed.  That’s an order.”  She reached out taking him by the arm.

Ty’s muscles reacted in a way he hadn’t expected when instead, he pulled her into his arms.  “You scared the holy hell out of me.”  His voice shook with relief.  Cupping her chin, his mouth descended on hers with procession.  When he released her, words came out of nowhere.  “The old woman stuck her nose in the door.  She said you were in some sort of change.”  He ran one unsteady hand through his hair.  A dry laugh escaped.  “She said you were a wolf and I was as well.”  Ty shook his head with disbelief.  “Imagine that?  Then she went on babbling some nonsense about a change you were going through or some such nonsense.”  He paced away before wheeling and coming back to her.  “I couldn’t get you to wake up!”  His panicked voice broke over the last words.  “There was no waking you!”  He’d let fear ride roughshod over rational thinking as he took her mouth with his.

Sonja shoved against him, protesting weakly to be free.  “Wait…”  He continued his attack.  Soon she ceased to struggle.  Instead, she laced her arms around his neck, her fingers running up into his hair, before fisting in the strands.  The kiss shifted before turning ardent and tender.  Ty sensed the need she harbored in the way she molded her firm breasts to him.  Her breath came out in a whisper when he released her mouth.  He yearned to be able to cherish the woman he held in his arms, but he was reminded of who he was.

“I’m the enemy as well.”  Ty hated to admit the truth aloud but he had to put all his cards on the table.