Mates in Life and Death (3 page)

Wolfram turned to Dan’s brother. “Valerius, shift,” he instructed.

Dan had seen Trent shift back in Tennington, but the

transformation still shocked him. Given that the wolf was Valerius, it

didn’t scare him, but it did bring back another flashback. He saw

Valerius turning, himself joining him, the two of them hunting

together, running under the light of the moon. He then remembered

going back to a cottage, where a beautiful young man welcomed him

with a tight hug. Dizziness assaulted him.

“Easy there,” Wolfram said. “Lay down.” As Dan did so,

Wolfram shifted as well and, together with Valerius, circled him.

Dan ended up with Wolfram’s large paws on his chest and those

surreal eyes staring at him from above. He found himself falling,

falling, until past and present blended together, merging into one.

Wolfram’s spirit invaded him, guiding his fractured memories to

return to their original state. It should have been scary, but Dan

sensed Valerius there, as well, and his brother’s presence anchored

him.

Slowly, it all began to return to him, bits and pieces of a different

time, growing up with a stern family and a brother he loved. Then,

meeting his human mate, and falling hard and fast for him. Linden,

sweet Linden. His blood had tasted sweet the one time Dan, or rather,

Caesar had bitten him, cursing them both, bringing about their

eventual demise. He recalled the last night of his life, and tears filled

his eyes. Where was his mate now?

The beast within Dan reemerged, no longer bound by the barriers

of humanity, and Dan felt himself change. His heart hurt and his skin

burned, the need to be with his mate as intense as the desire to shift.

He felt a slight nudge in his head, and then energy swept over him,

taking over his consciousness.

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19

When he recovered, his vision had gone monochrome. He tried to

get up, but as he did so, he realized he’d somehow acquired four

paws. At first, the part of Dan that still couldn’t fathom all of this

panicked, but Caesar’s memories soothed him, as did Valerius and

Wolfram’s help.

He experimentally began to walk through the room, getting used

to this new form. With each passing second, his body remembered

more and more of its previous existence. Soon, Dan’s excitement

increased so much he wanted to go right this moment and find his

mate. Linden was out there somewhere. With his acute senses, Dan

would be able to find the other man.

“Daniel, that’s enough,” Wolfram’s voice said.

Dan turned and looked back at the Magistrate. Both Wolfram and

Valerius had changed back into their two- legged form. Dan didn’t

want to do the same, but his lord’s voice held a compulsion he

couldn’t resist. Following his memories, Dan used the strength of his

spirit to leash the beast and shifted as well.

To his shock, when he returned to his normal state, nausea

assaulted him. He couldn’t get up, and his limbs felt weak. Emotional

pain coursed through him as he fully acknowledged what he’d lost.

He hyperventilated when he realized he couldn’t go to find Linden.

Linden didn’t exist in this world.

Valerius knelt next to him and hugged him. “It’s all right. You’re

back. Linden will return to us as well.”

Slowly, Dan began to calm down. At last, he got up on tremulous

legs. “Thank you,” he told Wolfram.

“It was my pleasure and my honor,” the Magistrate answered. He

tossed Dan and Valerius some clothes. The servants must have

brought them in while Dan was out of it. “You’ve still got a long way

to go. It’s a painful thing to acknowledge your past life, and

sometimes it’s preferable to bury those memories altogether. But your

heart needed this, and I believe you will soon find what you’re

looking for.”

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Dan dressed in the provided clothes, Wolfram’s words strangely

comforting for him. “Go rest now,” the Magistrate finished. “We’ll

see each other again tomorrow.”

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21

Chapter Two

A few months later

Linden wiped down the tables with smooth, automatic motions,

his mind already on the warm bed waiting for him at home. He felt

tired, so tired. At this point, only the large doses of caffeine he

inhaled like air kept him awake. But he needed the work, no matter

how exhausting it had become to juggle three jobs.

A strong hand landed on his shoulder. “That’s enough already,

kid,” his boss, Jake, said. “Go on home. It’s late, and you look like

you’re about to fall over.”

Linden offered the older man a smile he didn’t feel. “Thanks. I am

a bit tired.”

Jake snorted at the gross understatement and ushered him off with

a wave. Linden grabbed his stuff and made his way out of the pub.

Darkness enshrouded him almost instantly, the night heavy and

impenetrable. The occasional street light cast eerie rays through the

gloom, but they marked Linden’s way home like the proverbial

breadcrumbs.

Truth be told, a part of Linden would have preferred to stay

inside. Leaving work at this hour held some risks, even for a man. In

the past, the night shift wouldn’t have bothered Linden. Timber Lake

wasn’t exactly the Bronx, and the crime in their town rarely

represented a problem. But an increasing shadow now weighed in the

corner of his mind. Lately, the townsfolk had become cool to him,

more so than usual. Even his bosses seemed aloof, making Linden

fear for the state of his employment. He wanted to blame his

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apprehension on this, but he felt as if some sort of presence loomed

over them, watching them from the darkness.

He couldn’t talk to others about this, but he did have his mother.

She was the only one who believed him, who didn’t mock him when

he told her about his premonitions. Both of them held a strong belief

in the existence of the supernatural. But this time, he couldn’t tell her.

She’d forbid him from going to work, and God only knew they

needed the money.

Shaking himself, Linden ventured into the darkness. He walked as

quickly as he could. At this hour, most everyone retreated to their

homes, even the regulars at Jake’s pub. The streets looked strikingly

bare, but the same feeling of being watched returned. Linden gulped,

his heart beginning to beat faster and his palms sweating. He

increased the pace, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Behind him, he could clearly hear the sound of something

approaching. Not a human, Linden knew, but some sort of animal.

Linden took off running. He knew his flight would just trigger the

hunting instinct in some beasts, but he couldn’t just wait around to

become a snack.

Predictably, his speed proved insufficient for him to lose his

pursuer. A loud growl was his only warning before a heavy weight

landed on his back. The creature tore into his knapsack, and the rough

material of the bag kept its claws from reaching Linden. He tried to

squirm away, but the animal pinned him against the tarmac. Terror

and pain showered over Linden at the realization these would be his

final moments. He never should have taken the chance of working at

night. Who would care for his mother now?

Just when he thought the beast would surely kill him, the weight

above him vanished. As he struggled to recover, he heard a pained

yelp and something that sounded like animals fighting.

He tried to scramble to his feet, but his body wouldn’t obey. And

then, all of the sudden, something else hit him, a weird sense of

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23

warmth that strengthened him. Casting away his fear, he got up and

looked behind him.

He’d intended to see what type of creature attacked him, but

instead, his gaze fell on a tall, nude man. Dark hair flowed over the

stranger’s back in thick waves. A deep gray gaze scanned Linden

from head to toe, as if analyzing for injuries. Linden drank in all the

bulging muscles in his immediate proximity and swooned.

The other man rescued him once again, catching him in strong

arms. “Are you all right?” he asked.

Linden nodded, feeling dazed at the entire experience. Had he

died and gone to heaven? He could find no other explanation for this.

The incredible sense of familiarity that surrounded him couldn’t be

real. For fuck’s sake, he couldn’t be jumping from being at the edge

of death to having his cock throb in his pants. And yet, he could not

have denied it if he wanted to.

Acknowledging the necessity to return to reality, Linden pinched

his arm. The stranger didn’t vanish and just gave him an amused look.

“I’m real,” he said. “You don’t have to hurt yourself to check that.”

Linden could swear the man’s tone sounded husky, and something

like arousal made those gray eyes stormy. This couldn’t be happening

to him. Sure, Linden had a lot of weird experiences in his life, but so

far, none of them brought anything good.

He broke away from the embrace, trying to keep hold of his

reason. First things first. He still needed to see his attacker.

This time, no hot hunk blocked his sight from the huge wolf lying

on the tarmac. Its fur was tainted with blood and its body very still.

But Linden could still spot the sharp fangs and wicked claws. His

knees turned to jelly, the shock and fear slamming into him, choking

him. He could have died. He
would
have died, if not for the

appearance of this mysterious man.

“Shhh,” the stranger whispered. “You’re fine now. It’s dead.”

Linden took a deep breath and focused on his rescuer’s calming

words. It occurred to him that he had no clue how the stranger even

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saved him. And who ran around in the buff killing wild animals? Who

was this guy, Tarzan? No, Tarzan at least wore a loincloth. The man

didn’t have anything to shield his more than generous package from

Linden’s gaze.
God, Linden, don’t look, don’t look. This is not the

time for eyeing his damn cock.

“What just happened?” he forced himself to ask. “Who are you?”

“I’m Ash,” the man answered. “And as for what happened,

clearly, I killed the wolf.”

“Well, yes,” Linden replied. He knew he was being very

unappreciative, but this whole thing seemed too weird. “But you’re

naked.”

“O h, that.” Ash shrugged. “To put it briefly, I belong to a cast of

hunters. We live in the wild, and we trail animals that are a danger for humans.”

Ash didn’t look like any Native American Linden had ever seen,

but that didn’t mean anything. He’d heard of folk who left civilization

for the benefit of returning to nature. Hell, his mother had lived as a

hippie before her body began to show the effects of the lifestyle.

The entire thing remained very suspicious, but all of a sudden,

Linden couldn’t care less. Ash had saved his life. Linden didn’t have

any right to question the other man’s ways. There were more things in

heaven and earth than he’d ever know.

Linden smiled at the other man. “Okay. Thank you. You saved my

life.” He threw a look in the direction of the wolf. The sight made him

oddly upset. The circle of life and death always did, and it saddened

him the beast had been killed for him to survive.

“I know,” Ash said, obviously guessing his thoughts. “It’s terrible

that such things must happen. If it makes you feel better, the animal

was sick. Had it lived, it would have caused a lot of pain.”

“Sick?” Linden repeated.

Ash nodded but didn’t offer further details. “Come. We must

return its body to the earth. I know it’s late, but it won’t take long.”

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25

Linden wordlessly followed behind the other man. He opened his

mouth to offer to help with carrying the dead body, but Ash shook his

head. “I can manage,” he said.

Indeed, Ash picked the wolf up and began to carry it away from

the residential area. Timber Lake was surrounded by forests, so it

didn’t take long for them to find an appropriate spot. The moon shone

above them, occasionally shielded by a cloud. It might have been

crazy to follow a naked man into the wilderness in the dead of night,

but somehow, Linden knew Ash didn’t mean him any harm, and quite

frankly, he didn’t feel so safe on the streets alone.

Still, he’d left his mother defenseless in the house, and it made

him anxious. She wasn’t exactly a senile old lady, but neither could

she protect herself should an animal attack her. He consoled himself

with the thought that she rarely went out without him these days, as

any type of effort exhausted her, but her love for nature hadn’t

dwindled since her hippie days. Occasionally, she forgot about

caution and forced herself to leave the safety of the house anyway.

“Are you all right?” Ash asked him. “You seem restless.”