Heart Of The Wolf (10 page)

He should kiss
her now – entice her, claim her as his along with his guaranteed
survival, and turn his back on everything he had come here for.
Shit, she was
willing
. It wouldn't even need to hurt for her
… much.

But everything
he had come here for filled his heart with every beat, every beat
reminding him of the silent promise he had made to his one true
mate, even if that meant his death.

So, instead,
he watched Emily walk away from him, and sent her a mental apology
that he would not be here to meet her at seven o'clock.

She walked a
large, semi-circle around the two guards who were immersed in their
conversation and only looking up occasionally, until she was at
least a hundred meters away and he could no longer make out the
white of her socks. She knelt down, then stood up, and he wasn't
sure what she was doing – rubbing some dirt into her? And then it
looked like she tore at her blouse. Her diversion was loud,
chaotic, to the point and definitely belonged to a daring soul.

He smiled.
Yes, he was proud of this female he'd known for all of five
minutes; five minutes solidifying this moment in all of eternity
and allowing him a last chance at freedom. There were no accidents
in life.

Her
high-pitched scream filled the air as she hurtled towards the
policemen, babbling in broken Egyptian, of which he could
understand only a little since he had not spoken his mother tongue
for going on twenty-five years.

“
Help me!
Help – he took my money. He took it!”

The police
broke into a run towards her as she pointed to the opposite side of
the ruins where her 'mugger' had run off to. He wasted no more
time. Reaching into the side pocket of his rucksack, he pulled out
a lapis lazuli ankh on a long chain and secured it around his neck.
Then, he hauled himself over the side of the well, settled his feet
into the foot holes, hoping they wouldn't crumble away, and started
his descent into the darkness beneath. Somewhere under the murky
water, the womb of the well held a secret: a door. The ankh was the
key. What lay beyond the door was the answer to his prayer.

Chapter Five

Selena walked
in through her door just as Stephen walked out, the both of them
hurtling into each other with Taylor just a few steps behind.

“Hey!” she
cried, trying to steady herself.

“Sorry.”

She stopped
dead, taking in his attire and the huge, filled-to-the-brim, hiking
backpack he carried. “What—”

“I'm done.”
Anger simmered off him. “I'm outta here.”

“What do
you—”

“I'm
gone.
To hell with this shithole of a pack. It's a fucking
joke.”

“You're going
rogue?” she gasped, in shock. Those tears that she'd forced up to
the surface for Taylor just a few minutes ago, came up without any
encouragement now. “Did they throw you out?”

“No. I'm
leaving – my choice.” He sighed, seemed to calm down for a second
and then ran a hand through his hair as he looked back up at her in
regret, one wary eye on Taylor behind her. “I'm sorry I hurt you …
about what I did. Shit. Selena, I didn't mean to hurt you. I need
to get out of here.”

“Where are you
going to go?”

He shrugged.
“I'll figure it out.”

She hesitated,
the core of her pulled in two directions. “I could … maybe I
could—”

“I wouldn't
let you come with me, even if I thought you wanted to. You're a
pack girl – always have been.”

Without
warning, he dropped his bag and took her into his arms for a
hug.

She saw Taylor
stiffen behind her, preparing to attack if he tried anything. The
reality of it crashed down on her and she crumpled in his arms,
crying. “You can't go. You've always been there.”

He tickled the
back of her neck with his fingers in affection, the way he always
had since they were kids, then dropped a kiss to the top of her
head. “You'll be okay, little pup,” he murmured into her hair.

She tightened
her arms around him, unwilling to let him go. “No … who's going to
look after me now? What if you get hurt out there on your own –
who's going to look after
you
?” And it was no exaggeration.
Growing up with a distant father and no mother, they had parented
each other in so many ways … and rogue wolves didn't fair well,
most of them not surviving for more than a couple of years.

Her heart
cracked.

It was
happening – really happening: their pack was falling apart and it
was starting with her family.

“I'll be okay;
I've always been okay. And the last time I checked, you didn't need
anyone looking out for you, Selena – I damn well know you know how
to make your way. Hey…” he tilted her head up so she met his eyes,
red-rimmed with unshed tears and exhaustion, and the remnants of
fury, “I don't like the way things are done here, and I won't stay
and be the underdog with no chance of running for Alpha – there's
nothing for me here anymore.”

“I'm
here.”

“And if I knew
there was no chance of me hurting you like earlier, you're the one
thing I'd stay for – me and you, our family of two,” he smiled,
slightly, before the smile vanished. “But the fact is, I don't know
that I won't hurt you again. The moon—”

“Exactly! The
full moon's tonight – you can't go rogue now, it'll kill you.
It'll—”

“I've got more
chance of finding a female as a rogue,
without
her knowing
what pack I'm from – that's how bad things are.” He ended their
embrace, having to prise her hands apart and off him.

Her sobbing
filled the silence.

He landed a
last kiss on her head, his voice choked with emotion. “Take care,
little sis.” He squeezed her hand once, and then empty air
surrounded her.

The roar of
his motorbike coming to life lifted her head, and without looking
back, he took through the woods on the path that led him out of
Lawrence's land and away from the pack.

“
No!
”
All her hurt poured into that single, screamed word, not that it
did any good. And then it was Taylor's arms she was in once more as
he tried to comfort her.

Lydia's scent
invaded her senses like poison.

This was her
fault.
Her fault.
She came and changed everything! Tore
everything apart…

Fine – she had
an outlet for her pain.

Rage simmered
in her veins, the perfect anecdote to poison.
Put the blame
where it belongs…

Karma was
going to be sweet.

~*~

Taylor sat at
Richard's breakfast table while the old wolf paced his kitchen.
Ryan sat next to him, unmoving.

The silence
was deafening.

The oldest
member of the pack – one who had lost his mate going on twenty-five
years ago – had now also lost his only son.

Selena had
raced straight into her bedroom on entering the house, still
crying, refusing to even look at her father, and Taylor pushed away
the uneasiness he felt. He was needed here, and he'd done his best
to try and calm Selena down, but fuck it, he just wanted to be
wrapped up in Lydia after their bonding last night, and his own
needs were almost unbearable now he'd let the leash off his
wolf.

He also didn't
feel all that okay about being physically so close to Selena, and
he knew that was the wolf part of him protesting, so he tried to
reason with the animal. In the human world, when someone was
hurting, you hugged them, you consoled them – it was the done
thing; it didn't mean anything other than that. In the wolf world,
where the five senses and biology ruled, it seemed that even being
near another female around this time of the month, when already
mated with another, was bordering on adultery. At least, that's
what it felt like to the animal inside him, and he'd really had
enough of feeling like he was a philanderer – both as a human and a
wolf – when he hadn't once cheated on anyone. Finally, he was
letting those feelings of guilt where Sarah was concerned lay to
rest. It wasn't his fault and it wasn't hers, and it sure as hell
wasn't Lydia's, so he didn't now need to feel like he was betraying
Lydia by simply giving Selena a hug, thank you very much. The
blurry lines of man and wolf were giving him a headache, but he
wasn't detached from compassion, god damn it. How could he do
nothing when a woman stood in front of him in tears?

He sneaked a
glance at Ryan, who had his eye on Richard. He wondered if he felt
the same debilitating need to be with Lydia, or the same sense of
discomfort around Selena – it's not like he and Selena hadn't
shared each others' bodies in previous months before Lydia had been
around. At least Taylor had always refused to give in to Selena's
constant come-ons, and for the first time ever, he felt as if he'd
done the right thing in that regard, because he wasn't wolf enough
to just block that kind of relationship out as if sex was just
necessity and nothing more … sex
was
a relationship. For
him, at least.

“I could go
after him,” voiced Ryan. “He was angry; your fight was fresh. If I
get him on his own, maybe—”

“No.” Richard
stopped pacing and sighed, leaning heavily on the kitchen counter.
“It's done. He made his choice.”

“He might not
be the last to go,” Taylor piped up, and Ryan's eyes bore into him.
“It's not a criticism; I'm just saying… There's talk about Lydia
and the pack as a whole. The pack is uncomfortable and also starved
of females, and they're saying no other female will touch us now,
in case they're associated with 'the storm-wielder'.”

Ryan growled
threateningly at that.

Taylor held up
his hands. “Not my words – it's what others are saying.
Allegedly.”

“Stephen
stated as much before he left,” affirmed Richard. “Shouted it, more
like.”

“The pack's
strong; it just needs a re-education,” snapped Ryan.

“And will we
be giving that with our fists, or other?”

Both of the
older wolves stared him down.

Taylor refused
to flinch. “You can glare at me all you want, diplomacy is the way
to go here. And structure. We can't fly off the handle at every
single thing that happens, because they
will
be flying off
the handle tonight. We need to give them a structure at the meeting
so they know we've thought about all our options and have come up
with a solution; so that they can see we're strong.” He sat back
and waited for the quip from Ryan that would put him in his place
for being so candid against an Alpha, and in front of a member of
his pack, too. He'd gotten used to being barked down over the past
nine months, but refused to shut up if he saw something was just
plain right. Last month, everything had been murky for him. Now,
things were very clear.

The quip never
came. Instead, he glanced up to find Ryan gazing at him, intently,
with an expression he couldn't make head or tail of.

And still
gazing…

Dark eyes, the
colour of the darkest coffee, spearing him.

The centre of
his navel started to coil; heat up…

Ryan looked
away.

What the fuck
was that?

“You're
right,” said the Alpha, softly. “As you often are.”

Well … 'fuck
me' didn't quite seem to cover it. The shock must have shown on his
face, because Ryan almost smirked. “Don't worry about the meeting.
Lawrence has a plan. He's the most planned guy I know – it's a
fucking OCD – and when it comes to diplomacy, you ain't seen
nothin' yet. He knows how to work a room. It's in the noble blood …
of which I have none, by the way.”

“There's one
more thing. Selena's asked to be excused from the meeting.
She—”

“No.” That was
a point-blank 'no'. “I get that she's feeling vulnerable, but so
are all of us, and she'd not the only one to have shit happen to
her, so no. Everyone goes tonight.” He turned to Richard. “You'll
both be there.” More of a statement, although his stare still held
the question.

“At the
meeting?” The old wolf's grey, weathered eyes took on a light with
some hidden meaning Taylor didn't get. Almost a year as a wolf and
he still felt like a clumsy outsider at times, with all the
'not-getting' he always accomplished.

“I wouldn't
miss this meeting for the world. Long time coming, it's been, Ryan.
Too long. I've been loyal to the Gunvalds since Amadeus took me in
– a scruffy stray from Yorkshire; treated me like his own son,
beside
his own son. This place was just a plot of unkempt
land then. I watched Lawrence's father and his grandfather build it
into what it is today, and then I watched it all fade into the
distance twenty years ago when all royalty was raped and murdered –
almost all. It became a ghost of itself, as if the land was haunted
with memories it couldn't forget. You weren't here. I was. Stephen
was six; Selena four. Because Amadeus took me in as family, we
lived in that mansion alongside them. Stephen idolised Lawrence,
although he'd never admit it in a million years. Selena wanted to
dance just like Elana… It was a tragedy what happened.” His gruff
voice dropped lower. “The slaughter took place in the outbuilding
next to the mansion – the one no one sets foot in now. The kids and
I had been on the other side of the woods treating an old Elm tree
that had become diseased… It wasn't the screams we heard first. It
was the smell of blood, so subtle, riding on the breeze … so much
like four days ago.”

Taylor's
stomach turned. He'd never forget the smell.

“I ran Stephen
and Selena into the copse behind the Elm – told them to huddle and
stay there. And then I shifted and ran. I got there too late. The
building was a bloody grave, the entire Gunvald family, bar one,
all in their dead wolf forms and heaped up in the main room.
Lawrence was in the adjoining room, mutilated and lying in a pool
of his blood, his dead sister wrapped up in his arms. I thought he
was dead too, by god, I swear I did. So much blood… I assumed he
hadn't shifted in death the way wolves do, because his injuries had
exhausted him too much for his body to make the change.