Taming the Heart (Creatures of the Night Book 2) (3 page)

“I… I don’t know how,” she said as she did her best to stifle her sobs. She was loosing it a bit, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare right away. “My sister…”

“Fight for her then,” he replied.

She shook her head. Her sister was the one to do the fighting. Her sister was the one that could do the get down in the mud and fight thing, not her. “I don’t know how. Please… don’t hurt me any more,” she cried.

*

Braden lifted his boot off the tiny woman. He was perplexed. She was bitten but… she wasn’t turning. If she was becoming a hunter, he would have the urge to rip her little blond head off her delicate shoulders. Hunters could only be in close proximity to each other so long before it turned into a death match. He felt no anger. He felt no animosity. He felt nothing.

Well… there was this strange twinge that kept eating at his insides. It was a foreign sensation to him. How did one make this feeling go away? He thought about it for a moment before he went back to retrieve her chair. He reached down and picked her up, setting her down in the chair again. She was now covered in mud and the feeling persisted. She was shivering and tears left tracks in her dirty face. He had done something wrong. What did people do when they did something wrong?

“I’m… sorry. I just had to make sure,” he explained at last.

She sniffled a few times as she looked at him with injured eyes that were still swimming in tears. “Whatever. Did you call the police?” she asked watching him warily.

He nodded before he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to her. It was a paltry offering in the face of the amount of mud covering her. She looked at it like it was an unfamiliar object before she snatched it away from him and wiped her face. They stood there looking at each other for a moment. She was small for a grown woman. He had seen small women before but… and she was so lite. To pick her up in his arms had been like lifting air.

He clenched his jaw. She had to be the tiniest woman he had come across. The women in his country where usually tall and full of curves. Supermodels came from the women of his country. Women that could be gorgeous and still get out there and chop wood with the best of them. This teacup sized woman seemed entirely too fragile to be real.

*

Miranda looked up at him. She looked up and up and up at him. Even had she not been sitting in the chair he would have been tall, intimidating, and so damn handsome she could nearly drool. If her nerves weren’t so frayed she could have possibly been doing that very thing at this moment.

He had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail and his crystal blue eyes were clear and sharp. They were dazzling to look at, yet… his clothes looked so grungy. He wore a white and gray fur coat like a trapper might and his boots were of the quality that miners might wear. Where had he come from that they dressed like that?

He looked like he had grown out of the side of the mountain, or perhaps walked out of the pages of a history book on Vikings. Was he prepared for a blizzard or what? These were questions that she might ask if she planned on spending any time with him beyond waiting for an ambulance, but she did not. It was a shame to waste such extreme hotness on such an extreme asshole. Her main concern was not his attitude though. Her main concern was Katie and where she had gone to.

*

Nearly an hour later after she had had several near meltdowns, attempting futilely to run from him into the woods after her sister three more times, a few cars pulled up and began to set up tape in the area. The little woman looked visibly relieved to see them. He shook his head. What it would be like to be that innocent again, he would never know.

A few men approached shot guns in hand. Saul Munoz stepped forward with a smile and extended a hand. Braden did not return the smile but gripped his friends hand and gave it a good squeeze. Saul was okay, for a human. They had met officially at the most recent hunter training and hit it off instantly, one warrior recognizing another. Braden grabbed the shirt of a nearby agent and whispered something in his ear. The man scurried off quickly to obey his command.

“I thought you were told to clear the area,” Saul said brusquely. He was feisty… for a human.

“I don’t need you to tell me my job human… The woman needs medical attention.”

Saul looked to the woman in the chair who was holding her bloody arm cradled to her chest. “An innocent? Why didn’t you just leave her here?” he asked in an irritated voice.

Braden gave him a deadly stare. Saul took a step away. “Okay…”

“Where the hell is Bateman?” Braden asked.

“He had an important mission overseas. I’m not sure when he’ll be back.”

“Well you are going to have to take her back to the compound with you then.”

“Excuse me. Is someone going to go out and find my sister?” the woman asked as she looked around at the men with guns. Saul turned a genial inviting smile on the woman and began to approach. Braden grabbed his arm. He stopped and looked at the restraining hand. He then turned a megawatt smile on the tiny woman.

“We have men out searching for her already ma’am. I will be with you in just a moment. The ambulance should be here shortly. If you will wait but one more moment, I am going to talk with this gentleman here,” Saul said before Braden drug him back again.

“What! You called us in for a cleanup,” Saul hissed in a whisper. “I’ll give her the shot to wipe her memory and we’ll plant another story with the local police. All you had to do was-”

“She has been bitten,” Braden interrupted.

“Bitten?” Saul said a little louder than he should.

Every agent there cocked their guns and pointed them at Miranda. She put up her good hand and made a frightened whimpering noise in her throat. Braden strode over to stand in front of her and faced the men.

“Stand down,” he growled. They complied almost immediately. Saul came to stand before him.

“She is going to go through the change and you think I can take her back to our compound. Not even Bateman would do something that stupid. She would rip the place apart.”

“Well I can’t keep her. Once she turns we are going to rip each other apart.” Braden didn’t know why but as soon as he said those words a shock of excitement went straight through him.

“You are going to have to control yourself muchacho because I don’t grow back limbs after a hunter has ripped it off. She cannot come with us.”

“What about that new mentor… that Stone woman?”

“She is on another assignment for a time to be undetermined as well.”

“What is the point of having Mentors if they are not around when you need them?”

“Ahh… Hello. What is going on? Who is going through what change and what is a mentor?” They both turned to see the wheel chair bound woman looking up at them with round deep blue eyes. Saul knelt before her and took her un-injured hand.

“I am sorry, mija. Your whole life is about to change.” He stood up and faced Braden. “Get her out of here before she harms anyone.”

Braden sighed heavily. He bent down and hoisted the woman out of her chair and over his shoulder. He turned and began to walk away from the crash site as she cried and beat at his back with her good arm.

“No! I have to see my sister! I can’t leave my chair! What about my van! Where are you taking me! I don’t want to go with you. Help! Help! I want my sister, I want my sister, I want my sister…” The mantra went on and on but he ignored her. She stopped for a moment to sob a little more before she pleaded again.

“You can’t do this. I need to see a doctor. My arm hurts, and you can’t leave my chair,” she murmured in a wounded whisper. She was shaking like a leaf now. He stopped as the unfamiliar sensation came into his chest again.

Reluctantly he turned and strode back across the distance quickly. He snatched the chair up with a growl. He sent a look to Saul that dared him to say anything. The bronzed man threw his strong hands up in the air and backed away slowly.

“You are going to have to learn to stop wailing like a wounded creature to get your way! I won’t put up with it,” he commanded her before he strode off once again through the woods.

He got to his truck and dumped her in on the driver’s side, following her up, pushing her across the couch seat and snapping her into her seatbelt. She finally pummeled his face and arms and he was glad for it. He could handle a fight. It was the wailing and hopeless despair that he couldn’t take.

Chapter Two

Miranda clung to the door handle as they bounced over uneven earth in a truck that had wheels four times her size. He sat calmly and drove as if they were on a normal paved road instead of speeding up the side of a mountain. They had been on a smooth road for about three hours before he turned off suddenly onto this unpaved road. If this could be called a road. She could do little but hold on with her uninjured arm. She wasn’t sure of much at the moment, except that this man was with those other men that had shown up claiming to look for her sister, and none of them were policeman.

How rotten could her luck get? It wasn’t bad enough that she’d been in a car accident and her sister had disappeared in the woods at the hands of some type of wild animal, but she had been kidnapped to boot. She looked over her shoulder at the chair that bounced so high on the rutted path that it nearly jumped right out of the truck bed.

“My chair is going to jump out of the back,” she shouted before they hit a hard root and her teeth nearly shattered.

“I don’t care,” he replied simply.

Tears stung her eyes as she struggled against the pain in her broken arm. She had never felt more helpless in all her life. “I can’t get around without my chair,” she pleaded yet again.

“You will get around without it soon enough,” he replied in that same dead pan voice.

He didn’t seem to look at her or feel any sympathy for her. He was a psycho taking her somewhere to do unmentionable things to her. Of course she wouldn’t need her chair if she was dead. A hysterical sob escaped her throat before she could stop it.

He finally showed a little emotion as he snapped a sharp look at her. “Stop that,” he growled.

She pulled in on herself and huddled against the door. “My arm hurts,” she said as calmly as she could manage. They hit a rut and she cried out in pain.

For the first time in an hour he slowed the speed of the truck just a bit. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse. Slowing down indicated that they had neared their destination, and she was in no hurry to be chopped up into little pieces and fed to wild animals.

“They will tell me if there is anything to report on your sister,” he said as he continued to stare straight ahead. She snorted and shook her head. No one was looking for Katie. She didn’t stop the tears that came to her eyes from overflowing this time. Katie. Katie. Katie.

If there was ever a time in her life that she needed her legs, it was now. In her mind they still worked. In her mind she could feel them under her, ready to push her up so she could leap and jump. There were so many times when she woke up and nearly went crashing to the floor because she felt her feet on the floor. She looked at the useless offending appendages. Sometimes it would have been better if they had actually cut the damn things off, but she had been so stubborn in insisting that she keep them.

They rode another hour in silence and she continued to stay as far away from the massive man that drove the truck as she could. He was so big that the cab of the truck felt small and suffocating. There was nothing she could do against him at all. She felt like a pixie fairy standing next to a giant. He could crush her like a little bug. She wanted to sob and scream but apparently it bothered him when she did that. He didn’t even look at her when she kept quiet, so she would do her best to keep quiet. They finally pulled up to a rough looking cabin.

She looked through the windshield and the breath caught in her throat at what she saw. Even under the luminescence of the moon she could see the mountain range that stretched out beyond the cabin. She had been to some beautiful places but this… She guessed this range stretched right into Canada. Before she could think any more about it, her door was pulled open and she was up over his shoulder again. She rolled her eyes as she let her head flop against his back and held her arm close.

“I can wheel myself if you set me in my chair,” she mumbled. To her surprise he heard her and made a grunting noise. “Well I could,” she said louder.

He reached into his truck and pulled out her chair along with… she and Katie’s bags! “I didn’t see you grab our bags,” she said in shock not knowing if it was a good or a bad sign that he had thought to bring her stuff.

Why would he bring her stuff if he just intended to kill her straight out? Why would he grab Katie’s things unless he was actually looking for her? Was it a trick? It had to be. A trick to take her off her guard.

“One of the others pulled your stuff while I was talking with Saul.”

Miranda let her head fall to his back again at the sight of Katie’s military issue green duffle bag. Katie. This was a nightmare. Katie had to be alive. She had to be. “Please… help me,” she begged again as she cried.

Angrily the man sat her chair down and then dumped her into it. She pulled back sheltering her broken arm as she looked up into his angry face.

“What did I tell you about that?” he snarled.

“I’m sorry,” she squeaked. No matter how hard she tried, however, she couldn’t stop sobbing.

He picked her up in her chair and she lost her breath for a moment. He had picked her up, chair and all, as if it were nothing, and started towards his cabin. She had been picked up many times, but never like this. She clutched at the front of his coat instinctively, trying to get some type of hold on reality. The coat was extremely warm, heated by the warmth of his skin and he smelled like the outdoors. When he kicked the door open and set her to the floor she wheeled herself away from him quickly.

He strode to her again and grabbed the arms of her chair, nearly coming nose to nose with her. “Let’s get some things straight. I am going to help you because I am the only one that can help you. So stop your whimpering and crying. I didn’t ask you to be here, I don’t want you here, and the only thing you are in danger of has already entered your bloodstream.”

He pointed at her injured arm. “You have been bitten by a werewolf but you didn’t turn to a werewolf right away, so you are going to be a hunter like me. You are going to get very sick. You are going to have a fever, and I am going to walk you through it. Your mentor should be here to do this for you but he is off on some damn mission. I don’t want to be here, you don’t want to be here, but you are here. Deal with it.”

He stood back and crossed his arms over his chest. She wanted to ask him if he was insane, but the answer to that question was obvious. “Do we understand each other?” he asked her.

She nodded quickly and tried to act as if she believed it. She could see by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t buying it. “No really. You’ve brought me here t-to protect me… So… d-do you have a first aid kit or something?” she asked attempting to control her trembling.

He threw his hands up and stalked back to the door. “You will discover the truth of my words soon enough. I’ll be back when it starts,” he said before he walked out and slammed the door behind him.

*              *              *

Miranda looked around the room frantically. She needed to find some type of weapon to defend herself. She nearly shouted with glee when she saw a rifle leaning up against a corner. She maneuvered around an enormous black leather couch positioned in the center of the room. She grabbed the rifle and sat it across her lap, being sure not to move her aching arm. She used her one hand to pull back the slide, glad that she had given in when Katie was so insistent that she know something about how guns worked. It was loaded. She sent the bolt home and then looked around for a good defensive point.

She shook her head when she saw there was nowhere to hide in this room. Besides, what was she going to do? Demand that he give her his keys so that she could drive out of here? How? With the rifle pressing the accelerator and her broken mangled arm struggling with the steering wheel? She would be dead before she got off the mountain. What she needed was a phone.

She wheeled over to her and her sisters things. She scooped them up and put them in her lap. She then wheeled herself toward a hall that she assumed contained a bathroom. There was only one door so she went through it. She only briefly looked at the bed that looked like it had its own zip code it was so large. She saw a door on the other side of the bed and she tried to maneuver to it. There wasn’t a lot of room but she eventually made it. The door led to a bathroom and she hurried inside, locking the door behind herself.

After rummaging through her sisters things and finding no phone, she cursed viscously. Her phone had been in the center console of the van before the accident and was probably out there in the woods somewhere. Her sister’s phone had probably been in her pocket. Miranda screamed and allowed the sobs to consume her for many crazy minutes. She cried and cried and cried until she was sure she was empty. Finally, when she came back to herself, she forced her breathes to come more even. She had to do something other than sit here feelings sorry for herself.

Sniffing back more tears, she rolled over and opened the cabinet beneath the sink. There was some mouthwash, a few candles, a few jars with some types of odd mixtures in them, and at the very back… She reached out and grabbed the tiny first aid kit, feeling a little tremor of relief run through her body. Finally, something had gone her way. She laughed at that thought before she went over to the tub. She dumped the first aid kit into the huge Jacuzzi tub and set her things aside before pulling herself, rifle and all, into the tub.

She set the gun up on the edge of the tub and watched the door. Finally when she was satisfied that he hadn’t returned, she began to unbutton her suit jacket. She screamed out loud and nearly fainted when she pulled the sleeve off the wounded arm as quickly as she could. Concentrating on her breathing she waited for the wave of pain to pass. Finally when her head wasn’t spinning so badly, she reached down to take the stupid heels off her stupid useless feet.

There was no way she was going to get her pants and stockings off, but that didn’t matter at all. It wasn’t as if she would feel them getting wet or mind if they were soggy. Despite her phantom legs, she didn’t feel the cold, the heat, wetness, or any pressure on her legs. She felt nothing but the insane itching at times. Reaching up she turned on the water and waited for it to heat. She was covered in mud, and she needed to clean her arm before it became infected, if it wasn’t already.

She had never seen anything like what had happened earlier. The animal that had bitten her didn’t appear rabid. In fact it had appeared the complete opposite. It had looked her in the eyes, as if it had wanted her to know that it knew it was biting her. As if it were making a conscious decision and wanted her to know that. And those eyes… She closed her eyes and shuddered. They had almost looked… human and filled with blood. They were blood red and glowing with… anticipation.

“That’s crazy. This whole thing is crazy. There are no such things as werewolves,” she said aloud as she forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand.

She turned her head away before she stuck her injured arm below the stream of warm water. She screamed out loud as it stung something terrible. Gritting her teeth she forced herself not to jerk away. She need the wound clean.

She saw some dial body wash on the side of the tub and reached for it. There were a few clean wash clothes sitting on the back of the toilet so she grabbed one. Using her good hand, she worked lather up and, still refusing to look at the wound, she began to scrub around the open area as close as she dare.

Finally, she prepared herself before she stuck her arm under the water yet again. It was more agonizing than the first time. It felt like the water was running right down to her bone. When she reached up to turn off the water, her breathing was ragged and she was shaking all over. All the towels were up on a high rack above the tub. She used the riffle to reach up and knock some down. She quickly pressed a few of the towels against her arm before she opened the first aid kit.

She laughed at herself more heartily now. What did she think she was going to do against the open gashes in her arm? Open one of these little iodine napkins and press it against the wound? Put a bandage on it? Wrap it in the puny gauze? Tape it up?

She threw the stupid kit away from her and lowered her head to her chest. She had been driving all day, had been in an accident, had been bitten, been kidnapped, and had lost her sister… Tired was not the word to describe what she was.

Using some of the towels she cushioned her back and laid against the side of the tub holding her arm. Satisfied that the gun was pulled against her lap and pointed at the door, she allowed her eyes to close and was swept away into blessed darkness.

*                            *                            *

Braden sat up in one of his favorite watching trees and he listened. He listened to the sounds of the night, of the earth settling in on its self and recuperating from the day. There were things sleeping, and things slinking and stalking, but he breathed in the cooler night time scents with relish. He was glad, not for the first time, that since he’d had to be reassigned he had been reassigned to this portion of the US and Canada as opposed to some place like the South or, God forbid, California.

He looked towards the cabin where the woman was. The questions flew through his mind yet again, but there was no one to answer them. She should not be here, in his domain. She should either have been turned to a wolf or, and by far the more rare case, turned into a hunter. If she had turned into a wolf immediately then he would have killed her on the spot. If she had turned into a hunter on the spot, he may have torn her limb from limb and she would have fought for her life until the mentor came to rescue her. That hadn’t happened either.