Saving Kat (4 page)

***

Something’s wrong
. The thought came so
abrupt that Adam stopped in his tracks and sent out a call.
Is
everyone all right?
Breaking through the line of trees, he
tried to shake some of the rain out of his fur. A coppery scent
that could only be blood, hung heavy in the air. Fresh and
familiar, it lingered on the breeze. He took off at top speed,
letting the smell guide his steps.
It can’t be her
.

He skidded to a halt as he caught the scent
of a familiar wolf. William? He should have been in the hospital,
not wandering around in a storm. Worry knotted Adam’s gut. He
couldn’t see his friend, but he had to be there somewhere.

“
Adam?”

The telepathic voice invaded his thoughts and
he scanned the area before he finally saw the form of his best
friend hidden in the shadows of the trees.
“What are you doing
outside, William?”

William lay curled up under a soaked jacket.
His thin shoulders shook from the cold… or something worse?
“Kat’s dead.”

“
No, you’re wrong.”
Fear rooted him to
the spot. He wanted William to be wrong. He needed him to be wrong.
The edge of the cliff was thick with wet mud, but the sight of the
small footprints were unmistakable. The last impression of a human
caught too close to the edge. The rain had stopped and the smell of
blood intensified. He edged forward, careful of the slippery ground
and sheer drop. His eyes went wide as he located her. She’d hit the
rocks so hard she resembled a puppet with its strings cut. Arms at
odd angles, like she’d tried to reach for a hold that wasn’t there.
A howl tore through him, anguished and heartfelt.
“No! What were
you doing out here in the first place?”
The question went
unanswered. He would never hear her voice again, never be able to
tease her until she blushed. Gone without knowing how much she
meant to him.

He stared down at her, helpless against
death. What had brought her out in the pouring rain? Had she come
after William only to die trying to save him?

Her hand twitched.
Alive?

He scrambled down the steep incline as fast
as the slick outcroppings would allow, picking his way along the
obstacles on instinct, his mind driven by fear. How she’d survived
falling from that height, he didn’t know, and he didn’t care.

He jumped over the rocks, coming close enough
to her body to see the weak rise and fall of her chest. Life barely
clung to her broken shell. Another howl ripped from him, cutting
through the storm. He couldn’t lose her. Mari had been right. He
loved Kat. All the fail-safes, that guarded his heart, vanished
when he thought he lost her.

He shifted into his human form, ignoring the
cold air on his naked skin. He knelt beside her. His hand trembled
as he wiped a red streak from her pale cheek. “Kat, can you hear
me?”

A whimper of pain reached his ears and he
closed his eyes. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here. I’m going to
take you home.”

The thought of moving her, of bringing her
more pain mentally tore at him, but pain meant she still hung on.
Her heartbeat continued to grow weaker, her breath shallower. No
way would he be able to get her out in time, even if he called the
other members of the pack to help.

It left him one choice. He hoped she forgave
him. .

***

“Mari!” Adam shouted the doctor’s name as he
carried Kat into his room. The petite woman had beaten him there,
to set up a makeshift operating room. She shoved him aside. A growl
ripped through him. His wolf, angry, worried, pushed itself to the
surface. The sight of his strong-willed witch, fragile and weak,
made it hard to control the primal part of him. He couldn’t lose
her—he couldn’t.

“For the love of the Goddess, Adam, put her
down on the bed. I can’t examine her in your arms.”

Her heart beat weak, like the fluttering of a
baby bird’s wings. What would he do if the virus didn’t work? Would
it be possible to live without her? Would he want to?

Mari placed her hand on his shoulder. “Let me
do my job.”

He finally took up a post outside his
bedroom, head in hands as Mari worked on Kat. Hours must have
passed as he waited for news. When the doctor finally came out,
blood splattered her white coat. “You bit her.” Accusation flashed
in Mari’s eyes, but Adam didn’t regret his decision. The hard
choices were his to make, and in the end it hadn’t matter about
what he felt. He would have saved Kat regardless.

“I didn’t have a choice.”

Mari wiped the blood off of her hands. “She
isn’t going to see it that way. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad she’ll
live. The virus has already healed the most severe of her injuries,
but I’m worried about the damage to her psyche.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve noticed the Pack’s witch is always a
talented human? Changing Kat could mean she’ll lose her connection
to the Goddess completely. She may never use magic again. It’s
going to be a hard thing for her to adjust to. You better get
someone to change the bedding in there. It’s going to be traumatic
as it is. Waking up covered in blood and finding out she’s not a
witch anymore, will make it worse. Do you want me to call someone
to do it

Adam suppressed a growl. “I’ll do it.”

There was no mistaking the sadness in the
Doctors eyes. She might have saved her, only to lose her anyway. “I
thought that you might say that.”

***

The pain in her skull throbbed in time with
the beat of her heart.
Ouch, maybe if I don’t open my eyes, I
won’t have to move. I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be the best
feeling in the world right about now
. She peeked from under her
lashes.
Where am I?
She had been on the cliff, talking to
William. The sense of dropping into nothingness hit her. She’d
stumbled off the edge.
So how did I end up in a bed? How did I
survive falling from that high?
She slowly sat up and bit back
a cry. Her body felt raw, like someone had dipped her into a
too-hot bath.

Sunshine filled the room and she glanced
around. Adam sat on a wooden chair with his legs stretched out and
arms crossed over his broad chest. His head dipped to the side as
he slept, but the uncomfortable position meant sleep hadn’t been
easy for him, especially since his body was too long for the chair.
Film posters decorated the walls and everything had a distinctly
male feel to it. It certainly wasn’t her room or one she
recognized.

Cold air brushed against her and she glanced
down, seeing a lot more flesh on display than she was used to. She
pulled the covers up. “Adam?”

The Alpha opened his eyes, and even before
she took her next breath, sat beside her. His dark eyes traveled
over her. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Where are my clothes?”

His hand moved up her arm. “What do you
remember about last night?”

“We didn’t sleep together, did we?” It would
be really unfair if she forgot something like that. Rolling around
with Adam would be pretty memorable.

Sadness and amusement battled behind his eyes
before sadness won. “No, we didn’t sleep together. There was an
accident. Think Kat, what happened after you talked William out of
jumping?”

She pictured herself talking to the sick
animal, aching to help him. Her eyes snapped open. “I fell. I
didn’t imagine it….” She scrambled out of the bed, ignoring the way
air caressed the most intimate parts of her body. “I…hit the
rocks.”
How did I survive a fall like that?

She dropped to the floor with a thud, barely
registering the bone-jarring pain that traveled from her knees to
her hips. “What did you do?”

Kat tried to touch her inner power but felt
only the barest whisper of a response, like something blocked her
connection to the Goddess. Had the fall damaged her ability to
access it? No, she’d never heard of anything like that happening
before. It wasn’t an independent body part. Her power came as
natural as breathing. She glanced up at Adam, catching his dark,
unreadable expression. “What the hell did you do to me?” She
shouted at him, the man she’d grown up with, the man who playfully
pulled her hair, the man she thought she might be in love with.

He flinched as if her question hurt him. He
rubbed his forehead, his eyes closed. “I did what I had to do to
save your life, Kat.”

“You had no right to do that for me. I’m not
one of your wolves.” Anger broke through the momentary numbness.
“But why change a habit of a lifetime? You’ve always enjoyed making
my life unbearable and now you’ve done this. There’s no coming back
from this.” The words came out of her with no rhyme or reason. A
part of her knew that it wasn’t true, but she paid it little
attention, too focused on her anger to think clearly.

“What did you expect me to do? Let you die,
knowing I had it in my power to save you?” He snapped back at her,
getting back to his feet, moving away from her.

Kat swallowed around the lump in her throat.
He had a point but she couldn’t see beyond the fear that in saving
her life, he’d destroyed everything that connected her to the
Goddess. “You changed me into a wolf.”

He took a step back toward her. The big and
powerful man hesitated, his movements unsure as he reached out for
her. She scrambled to her feet, backing away from him. The pack
hero, the
Alpha
, had stolen her gift without a thought about
what she would want. It didn’t matter that he had saved her life.
If her connection to the earth had been severed, she might as well
be dead. A snarl twisted her lips into an unfamiliar gesture. “I
swear to the Goddess, I will kill you if you touch me.”

“Kat….”

A growl escaped her lips. The sound shocked
her, twisted her insides into uncomfortable knots. The confusion in
his dark eyes tore at her, but she could not think beyond the
emptiness swelling inside her. “I swear it, Adam.”

Adam hadn’t thought it possible, but his
heart broke again. His thoughts flashed back to the moment he saw
her body, bloody and broken beyond repair against the rocks.

He wanted to say he’d carefully weighed the
ramifications of biting her against his hope the virus would be
enough to save her life, but he hadn’t. There simply hadn’t been
enough time. He’d broken the skin at the base of her neck, piercing
the artery so the virus would spread quickly, driven by her
heartbeat.

Adam had hoped Mari might be wrong, that a
wolf and witch could inhabit one body, but the very angry woman in
front of him only proved the doctor right. Kat darted around the
room picking up and discarding clothes quickly until she found a
pile of her own, ones he’d collected for her earlier. He’d never
seen her so angry before. Witches were known for their mild
tempers, and Kat had been no different, until today. He tried to
ignore the fact she was naked. He’d never seen her like this, her
hips curved gently and her breasts, while slightly bigger than a
mouthful, begged for a taste.

Something about her beast called to his. It
should have been impossible since she wouldn’t change before the
full moon. As soon as she embraced her first shift, she’d be able
to change at will. Until then, the virus should have remained
dormant, but he could sense it there, wild and feminine beneath her
skin. His wolf snapped and lunged to be free, wanting to claim the
enticing new female. He’d been a shifter his entire life, but he’d
never felt or experienced his inner animal so clearly while in
human form. He pushed it away, burying the urge.

“What are you going to do?”

Kat pulled her tank top down, not bothering
with a bra. She moved with a body still too stiff, she might not
have felt any pain, but Adam could still see the tightness in her
body. She hurt. I’m getting out of here. I can’t stay.”

Disbelief settled over him. He wanted to pull
her into his embrace. To tell her that he’d been terrified he’d
never see her again. She’d probably try to tear his arms off and
beat him to death with them. “You can’t just leave.”

She stalked back toward him. “You don’t get
to tell me what to do. I don’t care if you’re an Alpha.” She
punctuated every word with a jab of her finger to his chest before
she stalked past him.

He didn’t turn around. He couldn’t believe
how quickly the moment had gone downhill. Why couldn’t she just be
happy that she wasn’t dead? Damn it, it hadn’t even crossed his
mind to let her die, it hadn’t been an option. Why didn’t she see
that? Everything about her, the way she held herself, the way she
completely ignored her nakedness, only told him she was too wrapped
up in her anger and hated him. He held himself rigid, fighting
against the urge to stop her. The door opened behind him, her
footsteps halted.
Did she change her mind?

“I finished the tea. Get it to William, as
soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”
Don’t leave. Please little
witch, don’t leave me
.

Kat snorted. “Don’t thank me, Adam. I’m never
going to thank you.”

He waited until he heard the door closed
before collapsing onto his bed, breathing in her scent. “I’ll miss
you, little witch.”

The words echoed in the empty room.

The Grey Beard Pack lived on the mountain
too, but farther from the harsh elements of the higher elevation.
Everything was green, lush and full of life. The fertile ground
called to a part of her she’d never be able to touch again. It had
only been two weeks since Adam had bitten her, but Kat felt like a
different person, waking up, stretching out her senses, and not
connecting with the element left her feeling empty—missing the
gentle pulse of the earth as it spoke in a language only an Earth
witch could understand. Now, something else lived inside her,
something she didn’t want to understand.