The Covert Wolf (28 page)

Misery shone in her wet eyes. “And one day, maybe, you wouldn’t come home at all. I’d be left like Adam’s widow, alone again, and without even a memory of you as a SEAL.”

Matt’s heart sank. Damn it, he knew what was coming. What always came every time he’d hoped for more than sex. What he’d craved, and knew he couldn’t have.

A real home. A relationship. The truth hit him like a bucket of ice water. Sickened, he realized she was right.

“Sienna…”

She pressed a finger to his lips, valiantly fighting the threatening tears. “No, Matt. It can’t work out between us. I wish with all my heart it could, but it won’t.”

Matt reached out to touch her, but she rolled over. He dressed and went outside.

It made no sense…how could he bond with her? Ordinary male Draicon thrived on finding their true mates. But he was different. He was a SEAL who distanced himself from his pack.

Crushing disappointment filled him. He jammed a hand through his hair. He’d thought Sienna was the one, the mate intended for him. But she didn’t want him, or the bond.

Because
you
don’t want it enough,
said the nasty voice inside him.

Life was so much simpler before. He felt a stab of longing for the guys in his unit and a dose of hard reality. Better than this empty coldness after feeling the delicious warmth of her emotions, the softness of her love for him, the hot wetness of her hugging him tight…

Concentrate on the mission. He had no room in his life for anything else.

Especially not a sweet, fiery half Fae whom he’d have to leave, for good.

Chapter 17

T
his was Sienna’s last day with him. He was leaving late this afternoon. But Matt didn’t return to the cabin all last night.

She’d spent a restless evening, tossing and turning, aching for his embrace. Her words had driven him away. Because she’d been terrified by what happened to her when they’d made love.

Bonding to him had thrilled her. She belonged with this Draicon.

And then cold reality had slapped her in the face.

Best to get on with life, she told herself. Enough of this emotional intensity.

Sienna finished her coffee and fetched the purse, setting it on the table, along with the decorations she’d plucked off the exterior.

It was just a purse.

Like you’re just a Fae. Right.

It’s inside that counts.

The thought came out of nowhere, a hummingbird darting into her mind. Sienna glanced around.

Power hummed inside her as she laid her hands on the purse. The cloth felt cold and dead beneath her fingers. It was exquisitely made, but it held no life, no warmth.

She thought of Matt’s warmth, his heart beating fast as she’d rested her head against his chest.

The front door slammed as she sank back into the chair. Matt approached, his hair sticking up in places, smudges beneath his deep blue eyes. His black jeans and T-shirt looked rumpled and slept in. Never had she been more happy to see anyone. A deep ache settled in her chest. She’d missed him, his warmth, his humor and reassurance. Most of all, she missed him, the solid, steady Draicon who kept her centered.

“You slept outside all night.”

Gaze steady, he regarded her. “I’ve had worse.”

So cool, distant. Two polite strangers facing each other. She hated this, hated the chasm yawning between them. Gone was the emotional intensity. Logically, it was better this way. Yet she ached for what they’d lost.

“Any luck?” He gestured to the purse.

“I need another Fae. I’ve lost my powers.” Sienna attempted a weak smile. “Guess there’s no use calling me pixie anymore. My wings are clipped.”

Matt turned a chair around and sat, arms braced on the chair’s back. “No one could ever clip your wings, Sienna.”

“But I can’t risk bringing this to my aunt or any other Fae in the colony. My people, I don’t think they’re the same. I felt it, as well, last night. An air of malice. As if something dark infiltrated the colony.”

Sienna thought of the gargoyle she’d stabbed. “There’s a heaviness in the air, and I can’t pinpoint it.”

He stared out the windows. “I’m no fan of the Fae, but they’ve never been hostile or belligerent. I sensed something last night. I can’t pinpoint it, either.”

They were on their own. No help from her colony, or anyone else. “Then we’re burning daylight. We have to find the Orb.”

She repositioned the purse in her lap, concentrating. But as before, nothing came to mind. Sienna heaved a frustrated sigh as she opened her eyes.

“Give it a chance.” His blue gaze was searing in its intensity. The double meaning behind his words slammed into her.

Give it a chance.
Not just the handbag, but their relationship, what had blossomed between them last night.

She wanted to, oh, how she longed to try. If only she knew he’d cradle her affection, her heart, and not toss it away at the first call of duty to either the teams or his pack.

Matt looked at the purse. “All the magick, yet he concealed it on a material object. Let’s look at this objectively. Not just from a magick point of view. If the Orb is light and light is heat, then its opposite is cold.”

Sienna closed her eyes, a memory yanking the corner of her mind. An icy lake, dark waters, wolves howling, screams…blood.

The lake must be protected. No one must know its secret.

Her eyes flew open. “Ice water. Immerse it into cold water and the Orb will energize. Cold reacts to hot.”

Matt grinned. The smile chased his tired look, making him appear almost boyish. She caught a glimpse of what he must have been like before Adam’s death, before he realized no one, not even a paranorm SEAL, was invincible.

As she filled up the sink, he grabbed the ice bin and dumped it into the water, stirring it with a finger. Sienna took the purse, stripped of its pretty decorations, looking battered and sad.

She glanced at Matt. “Ready. Both of us.”

He nodded. Together they began setting the beads and stones into the icy water. Nothing happened. Finally, they tried the purse.

Matt leaned over the sink. She caught his scent, pure male, spice and pine, and closed her eyes, breathing it in. He smelled so good, so tempting. So close, his firm mouth set in a determined line. A mouth that had delivered hot, wet kisses all over her body, bringing her from one height of pleasure to another.

Inching away, she craned her neck to see better.

The purse and stones all looked the same. Except one. A green and white stone, no bigger than a nickel, glowed slightly. Excitement raced through her as the stone began to grow.

It increased to the size of a quarter and then stopped.

“There’s something here. But we need more water, colder water.”

“There is nothing colder, except for Naide Lake.” Sienna’s gaze collided with his, hers wide with realization, his with sudden anticipation.

“Pixie, there must be a link between you, the Orb and the lake. It’s where all your memories are buried.” He began to pace, jamming a hand through his mussed hair. She longed to smooth it back from his brow, feel the silk between her fingers. The compulsion to touch him, to draw close, became a throbbing, physical ache.

“Let’s go. Right now.”

He hesitated. “There’s something I have to take care of first. More important than that magick globe.”

“Nothing’s more important than the Orb.”

Laser blue eyes regarded her steadily. “Yes, there is. You.”

The declaration didn’t scare her, not like the emotional tidal wave she’d experienced last night in his arms. Sienna felt a rush of joy. He still cared, even if it were about her safety.

“I’m leaving this afternoon, Sienna. But there’s no way I’m letting you stay with those people. Not until I find out what’s going on.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

As he started to protest, she pressed a finger against his lips. “No choice. It’s my life, and I have a right to know. If there is evil in the colony, as you say, then I need to see it with my own eyes.”

* * *

Matt’s thoughts streamed through his mind, ripping like barbed wire as he steadily climbed the cliffs where the gargoyle had attacked him. The truth promised to be pretty ugly. And he was painfully aware how much the truth could hurt.

Matt grimly tried to focus on the matter at hand. Yeah, the truth hurt, but he wasn’t tumbling off this cliff because of it.

At last his fingers found the grooved notch in the ledge. Taking a deep lungful of air to scent for intruders, he pulled himself up.

At the cliff’s bottom, Sienna waited. He raked a hand through his matted hair. In less than two hours, a navy helo would be setting down in the clearing just outside Sienna’s cabin. His ass had “better be on it,” Curtis had grimly told him.

The small cave was dark and deserted. Matt hugged the walls, his keen sight sweeping the interior for gargoyles or other invaders. He sniffed the air. Dank, but fresh. The inside went back farther into the rock, but the stench became more pronounced.

Withdrawing his Sig, he crept along the walls, scanning the inside. Ten minutes later, the stench was nearly unbearable. He removed the kerchief from his head and tied it around his nose to stifle the smell.

Decaying bodies.

He removed a glow stick from his vest and broke it. The eerie green phosphorescent glow lit up the interior, shining over a small mound of rotting corpses.

Gagging, he approached, knelt down. Sorrow punched him in the stomach.

They had died horribly, some with the limbs twisted off, some burned. Trying to separate the bodies visually, he began a count and finally gave up. He’d seen enough to realize the horrid truth.

All this time, he’d been wrong. Matt cursed his narrow-mindedness, his dislike for the Fae. They were not the enemy, after all.

Matt removed his cell, snapped a few photos. He felt sick to his stomach at the thought of showing her, but Sienna needed proof.

The air was fresh and clean against his cheeks when he emerged into the sunlight. Matt took a deep breath. When he finished descending, she came forward.

In her green cable-knit sweater and jeans, she looked lovely and ethereal, as natural as the surroundings. He breathed in her scent, drank in the sight of her. She was a cool drink of water after a long desert march, a balm to what he’d seen above.

Her anxious gaze sought his. “What is it? More gargoyles?”

“I know where Bat Boy found the bone.” He gently clasped her shoulders. “Sit, honey. This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Just tell me. Please. I trust you, Matt.”

His stomach gave another sickening lurch. She trusted him. And now he had to force her to face the truth.

“The Fae, all the ones in your colony…they’re dead.”

No reaction. She stared at him with wide green eyes.

“The cave contains a mass grave. The people whom you thought were the Fae, your family…no one’s left. If my suspicions are right, the ones I saw are Darksider Fae, who took their place.” Matt pushed on, his fingers gently squeezing her shoulders, feeling delicate bones and soft skin.

“But Aunt Chloe…she asked me to find the Orb. She was alive…. I would have known, it was her!”

“Sweetheart, they’ve been dead for probably six months.”

She sagged to the ground, buried her face in her hands. Sobs shook her slender frame. He lowered himself beside her, gathered her against him, tucking her head beneath his chin. Wishing he could give her the luxury of grief, wishing he could chase away the piercing grief.

Her entire family was gone. The tiny, niggling suspicion flowered into horrified awareness. When she’d been called before the council, Sienna had thought they were disdainful because she wasn’t one of them. Now she knew. Darksider Fae had taken their place, using her to find the Orb, while her aunt lay dead in the cold, dark cave. She’d been set up and betrayed. The enemy cloaked themselves as her people, promised acceptance and had duped her. The only person supporting her all this time was wolf, a species she’d been taught to despise.

Everything she’d wanted had vanished. Sienna pushed past the sorrow as Matt held her close. He was an anchor, solid and steady, in a turbulent sea. But now wasn’t the time to cast anchor. She’d wasted enough time living for a lie.

Fiercely wiping her eyes, she glanced around. “They killed my family, the whole colony, for the Orb. All this time they’ve been playing with us, sending me out to find it and then planning to seize it when I returned with it.”

Matt cupped her cheek. “That’s my girl. You’re strong, honey. You can get through this. I’ll take you with me. You can stay with Jammer’s sister until I return. Jammer’s my teammate.”

She felt sick to her stomach. “Tim was a hero. He took the Orb to guard it. It would have stayed safe if he hadn’t sold information about you to the witch. They killed him for it.”

“I know,” he soothed. “He was very brave. Let’s go. I need to take you out of here.”

But much as she wanted to run and never look back, she knew what she must do. Sienna looked deep inside herself, calling upon her dormant wolf for courage.

“We can’t leave. There’s a secret glen, where the Fae kept the Orb. It’s a tremendous source of energy. It was warded against evil, but if the Darksider Fae broke through and tapped into this…to serve their masters, the pyro demons…” Her heart pounded hard. “We have to reinforce the warding.”

Matt sprang to his feet, the move graceful and fluid. He pulled her upright. “The vortex, is it connected to the standing stones?”

“The vortex powers the stones and amplifies their power, but the power can’t be unlocked except through a sacred chant. And the Orb. The Orb acts as a conduit. But even without the Orb, the stones have a natural, raw energy.”

“How much energy? Enough to create an explosion and torch the entire forest, if the power were directed?”

“Yes.” She drew in a deep breath, struggling to regain her composure. “It’s why this colony is so protected.”

“The ceremony I saw the other night, that’s what they were doing. Mimicking your people…to draw out the maximum energy.” His expression turned dark. “Take me there. But first, we shift into wolves. If we run into anything or anyone, less chance of detection.”