The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (35 page)

“Whoa,” Aura said, trying to send calming energies to the animals that shifted and circled around her. She jumped down out of the saddle. The wolf stopped and stared at her. She could feel it watching the pulse of her carotid artery, waiting for the perfect moment to strike the woman that had put herself in the prey zone.

She stared the beast down. Why hadn’t she brought a gun? She looked over at Dane, searching for his gun. The firearm was out of sight, pinned too far out of reach.

“Shhh … ” She slid her body toward Dane. Maybe she could reach the gun if she tried.

The black wolf eased its front paw off the ground and stepped forward, lowering its shoulders, stalking her. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she forced her body to stay under control. She couldn’t run. She had to stay and fight — and protect Dane.

“Hey, baby … ” She said as she put her hand on the horse’s rump to let it know she was there. Reaching down, she pulled Dane’s foot from the stirrup. The wolf stepped closer, its yellow eyes gleamed with anger. Behind the look of fury there was also a hunger, like she and Dane were simply tasty morsels of flesh wrapped in inconvenient clothing.

“No,” she said, letting the word come up from the depths of her being, channeling her innermost alpha. “You will not touch him.” She leaned down and lifted him by his arms and, with the strength that comes to mothers whose children are in peril, she moved him up the hillside and out from beneath the horse.

Dane’s horse spooked and took off running up the trail. Ryan’s mare followed closely at its heels, with the limp Ryan still in the saddle. “Whoa!” she yelled, trying to get the horses to stop, but it was no use — instinct had taken over.

The black wolf took the opening and ran at her, throwing its full weight against her chest. Her hands slipped out from beneath Dane’s arms and she reached up to tear at the wild beast’s throat. It latched onto her arm, ripping at her like she was a chew toy rather than a demi-god. She reached up with her free hand and grabbed its ear.

Stop! Now! Stop or I will kill you!

The beast stopped thrashing, but kept her flesh in its clenched teeth.

What?
the beast thought, befuddled by the sudden invasion of its mind.
Shut up.

It writhed again, trying to rip her flesh from bone. The pain coursed through her like a million needles as her nerves fired with pain. She pushed it back, letting the adrenaline that flowed through her system take over. Fight. Kill. Live.

I will kill you!

She showed no fear as she held onto its ear, refusing to break the bond.

Look, beast woman, you and your friends are going to die. Let go!
The wolf pulled back, but she gripped tighter. The beast yelped with pain.

She jabbed her thumb into the wolf’s eye and he jerked his head, but refused to let go of her arm. The pain radiated up from her arm, but she ignored it.

Dane groaned from the trail behind her as she played tug of war with her body. Down at his waist was his sidearm. She reached down and, unclipping the gun, pulled it from the holster. She pushed the tip of the barrel against the beast’s forehead, right between his eyes.

Why did you attack us?
Her finger trembled on the trigger. She pressed the tip harder against the animal’s unyielding skull.

You’re prey. You’re nothing.
A growl rippled from the wolf.

The words “you’re nothing” echoed in her mind. Zeb had said those same words.

She pulled the trigger and the shocked beast released its jaws.

The gun clicked. Empty.

She let go of the wolf’s ear and pulled back the slide as she loaded a bullet into the gun’s chamber. The wolf leapt back. The wolf’s back feet lost traction on the steep ice-covered decline. Fear filled its eyes as it scrambled to regain its footing. The rocks tumbled down the hill as the wolf kicked wildly. The animal’s back feet slipped out from underneath its body. It slipped down the hill, only its head above the edge.

Aura lunged forward, grabbing the wolf by the nape of its neck. “You won’t get away from me this easily.” The wolf yelped as she pulled it to the safety of the narrow trail.

She let go of the beast’s hackle and it turned on her, its lips turned up in what looked like a boxer’s bloodied and victorious smile.

She lifted the gun as she staggered backward up the icy hillside. Dancer screamed as the wolf stepped toward her. The wolf turned just as the horse dropped its head and charged the enemy. With a well-placed stomp, Dancer smashed the beast to the ground. The wolf yelped, its sound a mixture of surprise, pain, and unbridled anger.

Dancer brought his feet down with a sickening thump. The sound stopped as the wolf’s bloody body slipped over the edge of the trail and disappeared.

Tiny alarms sounded in his head.
Warning … Warning …
The cold jagged rocks poked into his back and his head throbbed. What had happened?

Dane forced himself up onto his elbows and looked down the narrow mountain trail. Aura and Ryan were gone. Were they okay? Had something happened to them as well?

He jumped to his feet. The alarms in his head turned into the throb of long wailing distress calls, like the tornado warnings he’d once heard in the Midwest. The world spun around him, twisting his stomach and forcing a roiling sickness to wash over him. He sat back down and dropped his head between his knees. He would be fine in a minute. He could get up and go looking for them.

What if something had happened to Aura?

Scarlet-red blood was splattered over the well-trodden white snow of the trail. On the downhill side there was a long smear of the sticky liquid which disappeared off the cliff. Where was Aura?

The nausea sucker-punched him in the gut, forcing him to drop his head back down between his knees. Aura was strong. Ryan would take care of her — unless Ryan was the man they were really looking for. Was it possible that Ryan could be the man responsible for the murder of Angela and the other unidentified woman? Ryan seemed innocent, and normally Dane’s intuition was right, but what if he was wrong? A new sense of urgency took hold. He pushed to his feet, swaying slightly.

Dane reached down to his waist, instinctively checking his gun. The holster was empty.

“Aura?” His voice sounded reedy, like a young man desperate to find his lover.

He stumbled up the trail. The horses had stomped in the blood-colored snow, sending red slush splattering around their feet — making the trail look like that of a scene from a badly written horror film.

His body begged to stop, to find relief instead of pushing on, but Aura needed him. She was in danger.

The trail wound up the hillside like it had been drawn there by some sadist with a death wish. Each step was a struggle, but he moved one foot in front of another, silently hoping that he would get to her in time.

The path in the snow switch-backed. Forcing his body to climb higher, Dane came around the bend. Standing beside the horses, was Aura. Her blonde hair was disheveled, and her arm was caked in drying blood. His gun was tucked in the waistband of her jeans.

“Aura?” He rushed to her. He’d never been more relieved. He glanced down at her bloodied arms and a new fear rose within him. “Are you okay?”

His body begged to touch her, to make sure that she was really there standing in front of him — that she wasn’t just some kind of apparition.

“I’m fine. What’re you doing up? You shouldn’t be moving,” she said, sounding like an overly anxious nurse. “I didn’t want to leave you, but I had to go get the horses … I was just on my way back down.”

He waved her off. “Where’s Ryan?” If the bastard had anything to do with hurting her, Dane would personally make sure his ass rotted in the basement of the state prison; the only light he would see would be the stars that flashed inside his head when he took another prisoner’s beating.

“Ryan’s fine. I just got him away from his mare. He’d fallen out the saddle when she spooked. It looks like he might have gotten dragged a little ways — his face is pretty beat up. Plus, I think he broke his nose and maybe his left ankle.” She motioned to the horses. “He hasn’t woken yet, I’m starting to get worried.”

“He didn’t touch you, did he?” Dane dropped her arm. “What happened?”

“Don’t you remember?” She lifted her hand to his forehead, taking his temperature like he was a child. Her
little Danish
. “We were attacked by a wolf. The horses spooked.”

He pulled back from her hand. All he had was a bump on the head, he would be fine. “Where is it?” He scanned the area looking for the beast.

“He won’t be a problem again.” She reached down and pulled the gun from her jeans.

Had she been hit on the head too?

“You shot the wolf with my gun?” She had to be kidding.

She shook her head. “I just don’t understand it. Wolves don’t normally just attack people.”

“Have you read
Call of the Wild?
” He thought back to the book, in which the men huddled around the campfire as wolves circled around them. “They sure as hell do attack people.”

• • •

The stunned look on Dane’s face spoke more than any of his words. He must have thought she was stark raving mad — like a woman who’d spent too much time out in the Arizona sun. How could she explain to him that she could telepathically communicate with animals? Then he would think she was
really
crazy.

“I mean, I assume we were in their territory.” What had she done?

Ryan moaned. A sense of relief came with the sound. Maybe Dane hadn’t noticed her slip of the tongue.

She stepped around the horses, turning her back on Dane and the mistake she had made. For a cowboy, Ryan had taken the fall from the horse surprisingly hard. He’d been moaning in his sleep ever since she’d found him.

Dane stepped toward the cowboy that lay on the ground on the other side of the horses. A little droplet of blood slipped down out of Dane’s hair and dripped down the side of his neck.

“Come here.” Aura beckoned him with her finger. “Let me see your cut.”

He touched his fingers to the blood and pulled his fingers away, smearing the trail. He looked down and grimaced. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I just cut my head when I fell. No biggie.”

“You know you don’t have to be tough all the time. I want to help you. Just let me take a look.”

He paused for a minute then turned his head so she could see the bloody patch of hair where his head had hit the ground. She sucked in a breath as she pulled back his hair to reveal a little jagged cut. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He pulled away from her. “We need to find the bear tree. Did Ryan say how much further it was from here?”

“Before we were attacked, he said we were close. It can’t be that much further now.” She looked over to where Ryan lay. “But we can’t leave him. And I don’t think either one of you should be riding the horses.”

Dane looked up at the sky. “It’s getting late. Even if we started out now, we’d be trying to pack out in the dark.”

Aura glanced down at her watch — it read 5:30. It would be dark in another hour. Dane was right. But what would it be like spending the night up on the mountainside with Dane and the injured Ryan?

She glanced over at Dane. She couldn’t help noticing the way his pants pulled around him like groping hands. She envied the cloth.

No. She couldn’t think like this. She couldn’t let her nymph desires come to the surface. There was too much about this man that she liked, that she wanted to know and experience. Aura couldn’t take their relationship any further than they already had. Her heart and his life would be in danger, even more than they already were.

“If we get started making a fire we could probably make it through the night,” Aura said.
Unless more wolves attacked them.

Aura followed Dane as he moved around the horses and stepped to Ryan’s side.

Ryan’s eyes were puffy, and the skin on the left side of his face had bad road rash. Clumps of dirt hung to his bloodied cheek, where Aura had attempted to clean, but had given up. Dane pressed his fingers against Ryan’s carotid artery, checking for a pulse.

“He’s alive, I already checked.” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and held it up, looking for a signal. “I tried earlier to call 911 for help, but I’m still not getting a signal.”

“There must be service somewhere because we’re close to where your sister last had cell service. Maybe we could keep moving up higher and try to catch a signal. Then we can call in a team to get us medevac’d out.”

Aura couldn’t shake the feeling of angst that crawled on her skin like a centipede, its feet tickling her nerves with warning. With Ryan unconscious, Dane hurt, and her arm injured, if they were attacked none of them could fight. They would be walking targets. She couldn’t protect them. Hell, she couldn’t even protect Natalie — a demi-god horse-shifter. She was useless. Tears threatened to spill over. She couldn’t cry. Tears would serve no purpose, they would solve nothing. She blinked them away — she wasn’t weak.

“Are you okay?” Dane stood up from Ryan’s side and wiped off his knees. “Let me see.” He stuck out his hand and motioned for her arm. His face was soft and caring; his gold-flecked brown eyes sparkled with unmistakable attraction. He opened his palm and motioned again.

What was happening? Who was this man standing before her? Why was he giving her
that
look? He couldn’t have known that she’d saved him from the thundering horse’s hooves. So why all of a sudden did he look at her like she was his? Warmth crept up her thighs, melting away her residual sense of foreboding. Maybe spending the night with Dane in the woods wouldn’t be as bad as she had thought.

She extended her arm and sat it in his cupped hand, submitting to him. The heat of his skin was a shock to her chilled arm. His fingers barely touched her flesh as he pulled back the torn edges of her coat and inspected where the wolf’s teeth had torn at her arm. The edges had already begun to heal and the fresh skin gleamed pink.

“Have you been bitten before?” Dane looked up at her in disbelief.