Rachel's Totem (11 page)

She frowned, not quite understanding. But as Burke slowly shifted, she mimicked his movements. And then she began hearing soft commands in her mind that she accepted as well. Her skin itched and her bones ached. She moaned as unfamiliar stretching caused pain, and as her bones and muscles realigned, her moans turned into soft whines, feline cries for help.

Instead of Burke’s voice, however, she heard his thoughts in her mind and read impressions from his body language that spoke so plainly she couldn’t believe she’d never noticed how expressive a cat was before.

“Let it come. Embrace your inner beast. Easy, love. Just relax.”

He’d done that last night too. Called her “love”. Her attention diverted, she found it easier to do as he said and fell into the changes in her body with little resistance, accommodating the pain.

“Very, very nice.” Burke rubbed his head against hers, and the press against her whiskers made her want to sneeze. “Sorry. You’ll learn to recognize shifts in pressure and scents, so pay attention to those whiskers and that powerful nose. Open your mouth, baby.”

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She did and managed a yawn of sorts that felt wider than anything she’d managed as a woman.

“Beautiful set of teeth.” He grinned, his eyes slanting and his lip curling slightly.

“Sarah will be so jealous. You can tear her up with one big bite if you want.”

“So does raptor taste like chicken?”

Burke chuffed, the feline equivalent of a laugh. “By all means, when you chew her up, let me know.”

“Maybe I will.” Having tasted and shared sex with Burke, Rachel felt more than possessive. Burke was hers now, and Sarah Duncan had better learn to keep her hands, talons, and whatnot off Rachel’s lover.

He pushed her with his head toward the bordering woodline near his property. “Let’s run for a bit and let you adapt to your new body.”

Minutes turned into an hour as Rachel ran on four paws, her tail a balancing guide as she played, racing in the woods with Burke. Overjoyed to be sharing this first with him, she shared with him everything she experienced.

“It’s like a rebirth, this feeling.” She meant the shift, but she realized much of what she felt she could attribute to Burke, to his genuine spirit and selfless devotion.

“It is. I remember the first time I shifted.” They settled around a small stream that widened into a watering hole. “I had just reached my thirteenth year. My voice was changing, my body was gangly and reed-thin. But my senses were on overload, you know?”

Did she.

“And when I shifted, it was as if I’d been given a special pair of glasses, like I could see so much of life that had until then been passing me by.”

“That’s nice. The perfect way to describe what I’m feeling. You know, Burke, you have these great moments of poetic clarity that just don’t seem like they should be coming from a six-four ranch hand.”

He laughed. “Yeah, my brothers like to give me a hard time for being so insightful.

Drives them nuts, me always being right.” He gave her a shrewd glance. “Nothing much 77

throws you, though, does it? Not this shifting, the marking last night or even the knowledge that this town and the people inside of it are real.” He shook his head . “You’re amazing, Rachel. And I’m not the only one who thinks it. You might just have ruined my brothers for any other women after last night.”

The embarrassment she should have felt didn’t come. The beast within her acknowledged the marking she’d received as her due. “Oh?”

His eyes glinted and his scent rose to cover her. “Yeah. You were so damned sexy under us, taking us inside you. But mostly they sensed your giving heart, your willingness to help others. It’s that caring that gives you great power. That love that even your dickless ex couldn’t stomp all the way out of you. You’re Charlotte’s niece for sure. ”

She warmed all over, and her heart took another dip in his direction. “I just hope I can live up to her, and your, expectations.”

“You will, baby. Hell, you already have.” His gaze at that moment looked entirely human in a cat’s body. “Rachel, I have to tell you something. I—” He stopped and stared over her shoulder, his eyes narrowing. “Stay by my side unless I tell you to go back to the house. We’ve got company.”

As he said it, a foul odor assaulted her. Foreign canines intruding on her land. She growled low in her throat, wanting them gone. Spores of threat contaminated her peace, breaking this meaningful interlude with Burke, and her anger grew.

“Damn, Rachel, tone it down. That mean streak in you is a serious turn-on.”

Shocked that he could tease in the face of danger, she snorted in response but felt her fury subside a little. “You’re not helping my inner beast that wants to rip their throats out.”

“You’re right. I’m helping you control yourself. This isn’t the way I wanted to introduce you to your wild nature. But when threatened, your instincts prevail. Just remember, you’re catamount. These fucking dogs are nothing more than leftover hamburger.”

She smacked her lips and he chuckled .

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“Don’t let them throw you. Stand strong, right next to me, and we’ll get rid of them.

Remember, this is your land. And the totem is yours as well.”

“Don’t you mean the town’s?”

“No. It’s yours to protect, just as it’s my job to protect you.” He stared into her eyes, the golden glow of his gaze sincere. “Nothing is more important to me than you, Rachel.

Nothing.”

Oh, God. Was he saying what he seemed to be saying? His body angled toward hers, keeping her both well guarded and well cared for. Under his tender gaze, she even felt loved, but couldn’t tell if that was a reflection of her feelings for him or not.

It was all too soon. So many life-altering changes…and yet, Rachel knew deep in her heart that she loved him. Her beast cried out to make him aware, to mark him as thoroughly as he’d marked her.

Burke’s eyes widened with shock. “Rachel, that scent. Are you…?”

He never finished his sentence, for at that moment, a half dozen wolves stepped in sight, their mouths wide with toothy grins, their gazes hard and hungry. Stopping a good twenty feet from both Rachel and Burke, they sniffed and began growling at Burke.

Before they could do more, another wolf, this one larger and more silver than the others, joined them by the small pool of water.

“Honored sister, we welcome you home,” the large one said. Cocking his head, he studied her. “I think, perhaps, my welcome is too late. You’ve been claimed by a catamount.” The wolf’s sigh was clear. Unlike the others, this one possessed an aura of dignity and carried himself like royalty. “But that’s of little consequence, really. I’m sorry to rush you, but you need to find our totem, now. There’s a hunting party coming this way, and I have no idea when they’re due to arrive. Could be today, could be tomorrow.”

“Like we can believe anything you lying dogs have to say.” Burke’s ears flattened and he hissed at the leader.

The wolves growled in response and stepped closer, until the leader barked at them to stop. Rachel caught a spicy scent from the lead wolf he seemed to be projecting 79

intentionally. “Don’t be more of an ass than you already are, Burke. This isn’t about defending your mate, or about my idiot brethren trying to overtake Cougar Falls. This is about protecting the town from invading humans. I’m not lying. ”

Rachel took her eyes off the leader to watch Burke, and his sense of amazement washed over her like rain. “Monty? Holy shit. I thought you were dead. ”

The wolf shuffled on his paws. “It’s a long damned story. But not now. Time’s wasting. On our blood bond, I’m telling the truth.”

Burke shook his head, snarled once more at the wolves flanking Monty, and turned to Rachel. “Much as I wish it otherwise, he’s not lying. It’s go-time, Rachel. Now or never. ”

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Confusion filled Rachel on so many levels she didn’t know where to begin. The wolf, Monty, was obviously a lost acquaintance of Burke’s. But his comments about invading humans, about her being Burke’s mate?

“Rachel.” Burke nudged her with his broad head. “We have to find it. Do what Charlotte wanted you to do. Find your inner beast.”

Hello, she already had. “I’m standing on four feet aren’t I? And don’t tell me you’ve forgotten last night already.” Glaring at Burke and Monty, who seemed to be grinning at them, she tried to concentrate. Aunt Charlotte had mentioned following her beast. Well, her inner beast had traipsed all over the damned woods after Burke and seen nothing resembling a twenty-foot tall totem pole.

“Monty, you can stay.” Burke nodded toward the surrounding wolves. “But the rest of them need to get the hell away. This is hard enough as it is. We don’t need the extra pressure.”

Monty gave a short bark and the others slunk back into the woods, leaving Rachel, Burke and Monty alone.

“Want to tell me why anyone would want to go hunting right here in our town?”

Burke asked Monty.

“It’s worse than that. A group of a dozen or so professional hunters is paying through the nose to bag some wolves, cougars and foxes promised them by a fucking traitor in the Gray Wolf clan. And we’re not talking run-of-the-mill sports nuts. We’re talking specialized killers with no qualms about murdering nonhumans.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. The rogue made a deal with them to exterminate most of the Shifters a small faction of the Gray Wolf clan wants gone. With the totem lost, anyone can find this place. And once the town’s finally been cleared, I’m assuming that faction will turn on 81

the expendable hunters and any of the wolves not agreeable to the situation. You know how much wolves hate hunters. Anyway, I volunteered to find and keep safe the new guardian. Once the totem’s in place and Rachel’s under wolf control, a new Order can begin for the pack.”

Rachel began to understand the danger they were all in, and she stepped instinctively closer to Burke, eased somewhat when their bodies touched.

Monty surprised her by shifting to human form. Tall and lean, he looked both haggard and incredibly strong. A handsome Shifter, he had dark hair threaded with silver and ice-blue eyes that promised honesty. He held his hands up in a sign of surrender.

“I’m not the threat here. Look, if I had wanted the rogue’s plan to work, I wouldn’t have warned you about it. You know me, Burke. I’m the same brother I was all those years ago, no matter what’s happened since. But I don’t want the gray wolves taking over Cougar Falls, and I really don’t want those damned humans tainting our town. You have to put the totem back in place.”

Burke shifted into human form suddenly, but put his hand on Rachel’s head, cautioning her to stay as she was. “Why should I believe you, Monty? You up and disappeared years ago. Not a word in all the time you’ve been gone.” Funny, but Burke sounded hurt under his gruff disbelief. “I thought you were dead, and now here you are when the town’s at its most vulnerable. How do I know this isn’t some ploy to put your hands on the totem and get me out of the way so you can try to control Rachel?”

“Please. I could have ordered the wolves to stay, or I could have ambushed you an hour ago when you watched her make her first change.” Monty huffed a breath and lowered his arms, crossing them over his chest, not a bit embarrassed about his nudity.

Then again, when a man looked like he did, what did he have to be ashamed about?

“Look away from him, right fucking now.”

Shoot. She must have unintentionally projected her appreciation to Burke. “I’m still a woman, Burke. You people really need to wear clothes, you know.”

Monty stared at them curiously, and she realized he didn’t understand them. “He can’t hear us?”

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“Not when I use this particular pathway to talk to you. And don’t change the subject.” His hands were curled into fists, and she could smell his aggression.

“Burke, we don’t have—”

“Yeah, yeah, Monty. No time for this. I fucking get it. Rachel?”

She glanced away from Monty. “Look, I’m only human. Okay, so maybe I’m not.

He’s an attractive man. But he’s not you.” She stared into Burke’s eyes, the need to tell him the truth overwhelming. It was almost as if Aunt Charlotte were there whispering ghostly encouragement. And that was plain weird. But like Burke had said, it was go-time. The truth needed telling.

“I love you, Burke.”

The change that overcame him was instantaneous. He flowed into his cougar form and touched his forehead to hers, his scent overpowering.

“God, Rachel. I love you, too. I want to mate with you, I want to marry you. I want—”

“Hell, Burke. You’re both giving off some really strong scents. Do you have to do this right now?” Monty glared down at his rising erection. “Not all of us have a female to share in your happiness, you get my meaning?”

The human part of Rachel was embarrassed she’d forgotten about a naked Shifter standing so close. She kept her eyes glued to Burke, who now found his friend’s nudity amusing. Men.

Burke directed his thoughts back at Monty, and she followed his mental pathway.

“Sorry, Monty. Rachel, baby, we’re sure as hell going to get into this later. But right now I need you to tell us exactly what Charlotte said in her letter. And all of it this time. I know you’ve been holding back.”

Rachel growled. “So what if I’ve been holding back? What Aunt Charlotte proposed was nuts. Or at least, I thought it was crazy when I read the letter. She told me to stop dwelling on the past and have some wild and crazy sex with you.”

Burke’s shit-eating grin made Monty roll his eyes.

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“And she wanted me to marry you, Burke, because she thought you were heaven-sent.”

“Smart woman. Always liked Charlotte.”

“She also told me to find the totem before the town had major issues.”

“But she didn’t tell you where or how to find it?” Monty asked.

“No. She said, and this is verbatim because it sounded odd to me, “Trust yourself, look deep into your heart and follow your beast, for he’ll show you the way.””

Burke and Monty exchanged a look .

“He’ll show you the way?” Burke sounded excited. “She’s not talking about your inner beast.”