Heart Of The Wolf (21 page)

Task
completed, she pulled the needle out of her left arm and gave the
puncture wound a quick lick. She capped the syringe once more and
placed it in the pocket of her light, summer's cardigan for
safe-keeping. A few seconds would be all it took once Taylor was
knocked out. Speaking of which…

She unfolded
the piece of paper Gladys had given her – not so much instructions
as an incantation in some foreign language she didn't recognise –
not Latin.

Whatever.

She laid if
flat on the top of the nightstand.

With her nail,
she cut through Taylor's strand of hair and it unwound from around
the neck of the bottle. She laid it out next to the paper, a
slightly darker brown than the surface of the wood it decorated. It
curled in on itself, looking a bit like it was in pain and trying
to hold itself together.

Guilt invaded
her like the enemy it was. She took a deep breath and shut the lid
on it – it was a fucking useless emotion anyway. It got you nowhere
– it got you dead.

Hands still
shaking, she pulled the top off the potion bottle, her eyes falling
on the strange words she had to say.

The front door
downstairs opened, and she froze.

“Selena?”
called out Taylor.

Fuck.

“Coming! I'll
be right down – hang on!”

Now or
never.

Don't do
it!

Now or
never.

She poured
half the contents of the bottle over his hair.

Somewhere
inside her, her wolf cried.

Cry all you
want. Crying's better than dying.

In a whispered
rush, she read out the words on the paper, not understanding them,
but pronouncing each syllable the way she thought it ought to sound
and trying not to feel damn stupid about it.

On her
utterance of the very last word, everything seemed to go deathly
quiet – you could have heard a pin drop – and that was it.

Nothing.

“Selena!”

Gladys said it
would take up to an hour to work, remember? You've timed it exactly
right. If it all goes to plan, Taylor's absence at the meeting will
overshadow hers, and by moonrise, she'll have a mate – finally!

“Okay –
coming!”

She swiped
everything on the nightstand into its open drawer, patted her
cardigan pocket to make sure the syringe was safe, and hurried
downstairs.

Taylor's eyes
hovered over her. “Are you all right? You look … a bit
harried.”

“It's been a
long day – I'm tired, and I miss Stephen. I'm fine.”

Sympathy
flitted over his features and he nodded. “Well, I had a good look.
I didn't see anything untoward, but there was one thing…”

“There was?”
And what the crap would that be? I made the whole intruder thing
up.

“I can smell
Operiphur in the air. It's faint, but it's there, so while there's
no trace of anyone having actually been here, I can't rule it out.
But because of the Operiphur, I've got nothing to go on.” He
frowned. “I can't figure out why—”

His phone
beeped.

He brought it
out of his back pocket and read the screen. “Shit!”

“What?”

“It's from
Lawrence. Meeting's cancelled…”

She almost
whooped for joy, and then he finished the sentence… “He's spotted
Tridents on the land.”

Selena
paled.

She'd sworn.
The old woman had
sworn
the Tridents would leave the pack
alone after the 'message' she had unwittingly helped to deliver
courtesy of one dead human.

Too late, she
noticed Taylor had shed his trousers, along with his top – both of
them piled up on her living room floor. “What are you doing?”

“Lock the door
and stay inside.”

Before she
could say another word, he had shifted and was out the door, racing
towards … wherever Lawrence was, she presumed. “Wait!”

Oh, no.

Oh, NO…
If the potion took effect while he was in mid-flight or … god – or
fighting Tridents!

Panic
swelled.

She ran
outside and slammed the cottage door shut behind her.

Cursing all
females' genetic inability to shift before mating, she sprinted
after him.

~*~

The woods got
darker and darker as they were led deeper and deeper in. The urge
to scream was pretty paramount roundabout now, but a new feeling
was blooming from the base of Sarah's gut: anger. Maybe it was the
fear that had led to the anger. Whatever it was, she felt grateful
for it. The fear and anxiety that so often permeated her nowadays
was crippling – she could do so much more with anger. “Where are
you taking us?”

“Somewhere
safe,” was the gravelly reply.

Uncertainty
finally started to show on Holly's face. Beth still seemed
oblivious to the potential danger they were all in.

“Safe from
what?”

He turned
back, glanced at her for a second, his stare giving nothing away,
and then resumed walking.

Oh, for fuck's
sake – quit with the cryptic!

Beth hurried
forward until she was side by side with him. “Do you live
here?”

Sarah thought
she saw him nod.

“Does it catch
much daylight? You're really pale.”

Holly mumbled
something indecipherable at Beth's audaciousness.

“Have you ever
had rickets?”

“
Beth!
”
hissed Sarah, and she didn't care who heard.

The guy – who
hadn't even given them his name yet, for Christ's sake – came to an
abrupt halt.

Looking back
at Sarah's exclamation, Beth didn't see him stop and crashed into
his side.

His hands
automatically came up to her arms to steady her, and Beth visibly
gulped.

She'd love to
think it was from the trepidation that every other sensible person
was feeling, but her body language and the weird way the air
suddenly went all intense around the two of them, suggested it was
more from desire. And for the very first time, Sarah got the
inkling it might just be reciprocated.

Well, how
lovely. That would all be well and good if the guy wasn't
potentially a criminal about to bump the three of them off.

“Are you
seeing this?” whispered Holly by her side. “It's like the creepiest
romance film ever.”

Mr Creepy
gestured with his head to somewhere off to his right.

“Oh!”
exclaimed Beth, and Sarah and Holly finally saw what she saw when
they came forward a few more steps.

A house, large
and dark – fittingly foreboding – came into view behind the
trees.

“Er…” began
Sarah, “is this the main house? Is this where Taylor lives?”

“No. Not the
main house. And this is where I live.”

Beth's jaw
dropped. “Wow!”

Yeah – no
shit. Wow as in, 'wow, I'd never stop here for help if my car broke
down'.

Sarah scolded
her brain for inviting the imagery of broken down cars into its
field of thinking. Damn.

“Let's go in,”
said the man. More of a command than anything else. Beth didn't
seem to have a problem with his suggestion.

She sure as
hell did. “How about, no.”

Beth looked at
her with her 'what the fuck are you doing?' expression.
Really …
what the fuck am
I
doing?

Sarah marched
forward, took Beth by the arm, and smiled as sweetly as she could
manage at the man-with-no-name. “Will you excuse us for a second?”
Without waiting for an answer, she dragged Beth away until she was
sure he wouldn't be able to hear them whispering.

Beth shrugged
her off. “What's the matter with you? We're close to finding
Taylor.”

“Are you
insane? We're close to getting killed – possibly.”

She laughed.
“No way. I'm not getting any danger vibes.”

“You have
got
to be kidding! That guy – who hasn't even told us his
name, by the way – has danger written all over him in bright, neon,
lights.”

“Really?” Beth
looked at her incredulously, and then looked at him, incredulously.
“He's a softy. He's like a big puppy dog.”

“If you like
Rottweilers!”

“I do like
Rottweilers. They've gotten a bad reputation because of
irresponsible owners who mistreat them, but they're great herding
and protection dogs – wonderfully obedient to good masters.”

Sarah stared
at her, exasperated.

“What? My
grandmother used to have one, remember?”

A shadow
loomed over them from their right – not an easy feat considering
the trees shrouded everything in darkness anyway. Their male
companion had somehow managed to get within five yards of them
without them noticing. In one hand, he held a mobile phone – good
to know there was signal here in the deepest dark of the woods.

His nostrils
were doing that flaring thing again, and he seemed on alert. For
what, Sarah had no idea. And finally, she caught on to why she
found his mannerisms so odd: it reminded her a little of Amil. He
had had the same kind of look about him whenever something caught
his attention.

“I hate to
break up the party, but we need to get inside. Now.”

Beth cocked
her head to one side, studying him. “Because it's safe in
there?”

“Yes,
ma'am.”

Beth snorted.
“Don't call me ma'am.” She strode past him towards the house.

Sarah went to
follow, but he stepped in front of her. “My name's Pete, by the
way.”

She failed in
hiding her surprise, but she suspected he'd see right through her
anyway with those black orbs of his. “Right … erm … thanks.”

He nodded,
turned and continued on.

Sarah took up
the rear with Holly, once again, linking her arm through hers, and
all four of them walked through the front door.

~*~

Those were yew
trees, right? Had to be. There was the oak in the middle – the only
oak among a bunch of pines, and then there were three very
different, smaller trees surrounding it.

Lydia came to
a stop and leant against the rough bark of the oak, trying to catch
her breath. She'd done more running today than she had since in her
teens. Super strength was great, but werewolves still needed to
breath.

Fuck it – had
Lawrence said left or right at this tree?

Shit.

She should go
back. Who had been using Operiphur? Was it the person who had
killed Brendan? The one who had driven her truck back? What if it
was a Trident? What if there were six, seven, ten Tridents hunting
Lawrence down right now? What if there were more? Okay, so they
were trying to hunt her down too, but she had lightning, not that
she knew exactly how to use it at all times… Lawrence had one dart
gun and the ability to be an arse.

A flurry of
movement to her left had her scuttling around the tree trunk to
hide behind it, which she then realised was a pointless thing to do
if surrounded by werewolves or Tridents – they'd just sniff her
out.

Her own sense
of smell kicked in at that moment, overriding her fear.
Taylor?

Tentatively,
she peeked around the trunk and saw him bounding in her general
direction, rustling the undergrowth as he went.

Thank
god.
“Taylor!” She stepped out from her hiding place.

He spotted her
and sped towards her, shifting into his human form the second he
stopped running.

“Taylor…” Five
steps and she was in his arms.

“Thank god
you're safe.”

“Do you know?
Did you see Lawrence?”

“No. He sent a
text message out to the entire pack:
Meeting cancelled, Tridents
here.
”

“So, it
is
Tridents.”

“Must be. He
wouldn't have sent that without having seen one.” Taylor cursed. “I
can't believe they're doing this tonight – they're forsaking their
own needs in order to catch us at our most vulnerable. They must be
getting smarter.”

“I left
Lawrence alone. I didn't want to, but he told me to leave. Maybe we
should go back and—”

“No. If he's
spotted Tridents, they'll be where he is. We risk running into them
if we go back.” He cupped her face. “He'll be all right. He's a
good strategist.”

A sound from
behind her mate caught her full attention, and his.

Selena emerged
from the small opening between the tall ferns looking as anxious as
they felt. She froze when she spotted them, and all at once, the
scent of Taylor's whereabouts became very clear to Lydia.

She growled
and took a step back. “You were with her?”

“What? No.
Well … yes, but only to run a check around her cottage. She said
someone had been lurking. Lydia—”

Another step
back, and backwards was good, 'cause if she went forward, she may
just let rip and go straight for the female.

“Lydia … this
is me. I would
never
betray you. I was helping her as a
friend, you know this.”

She did.
Somewhere deep down, she knew it completely; trusted him
implicitly; but that didn't help the wolf in her. Where mating was
concerned, the animal reacted to primal instinct, not logic. The
fact that Selena took in the scene with a self-assured smirk on her
face didn't do any of them any favours. Nor was it okay that Taylor
was as naked as the day he was born – that obnoxious woman was
getting an eyeful of what Lydia knew she'd die to get her hands
on.

Taylor glared
at Selena. “I told you to lock yourself in the house.”

“You told me
about the Tridents and then you took off – I was worried about
you.”

Lydia's growl
deepened; grew louder. “It's not
your
prerogative to worry
about
my
mate.”

Selena tutted.
“So egoistic, Lydia. I worry about
all
of my pack.”

“And it's not
your pack. It's mine.”

The two
females now circled each other, Taylor in the middle looking like
he'd rather be anywhere else.