Chapter Fourteen
Lucas Runs with Julie
Moonlight, Florida, 11:00 p.m.
Not long after dark, the moon slid out from behind the clouds, threatening this side of full. Laurel couldn’t just sit at home after what Lucas had shown her. Life was too short not to live it to its fullest, even if it meant fighting for what she wanted. She’d lost her family. She wouldn’t risk losing her one chance at happiness.
Laurel finally understood why she’d felt so attached to this stranger after just one day. Despite his misgivings, they were connected. The moment he entered her, everything they were merged, and their two auras became one. She was determined to tell him the truth about what she’d seen in their auras. She couldn’t allow Julie to interfere, even if she had to fight the bitch for Lucas.
Laurel shifted and tracked Lucas’s scent into the underbrush. As she followed his unshifted scent, she picked up Julie’s, too. Then his scent turned musky. His wolf. He’d shifted.
And soon after, Julie’s scent grew stronger, different, acrid. The female mating scent overpowered everything else. Any other male in the vicinity would pick up Julie’s scent, but then they’d also smell Lucas. His strong, dominate male arousal would send any lesser male away. Julie’s pheromones had to be calling out to every other male within miles.
But Laurel was alone, and it worried her.
Even though the female decided who she wanted, this close to a full moon, unmated males couldn’t resist the lure of the females’ scent. In this case, Julie had Lucas in mind and Laurel didn’t trust the neighboring pack members to follow the rules. If things went bad, Laurel might get caught in the middle of a bunch of horny males. In the frenzy, she needed to be prepared for trouble, but Julie also bore watching.
She heard them up ahead before she saw them. Was she too late? Had things already gotten out of hand? Remaining downwind, she sniffed the air and smelled the increased mating scent. Had she been in human form, she might have cried. Shifted, her wolf wasn’t giving up on Lucas so easily. When she saw the couple in the moonlight, the wolf in her dared not make a sound. She watched from the background, trying to keep her emotions to herself. Jealous, angry, and unreasonable, the wolf’s emotions allowed her to distance herself from the disappointment and pain she felt as a human. Her beast wanted to rip out Julie’s throat. But the wolf’s anger was also directed at Lucas. Laurel reasoned he’d let things go too far.
Both he and Julie had shifted back to human form. Because of Julie’s scent and the waxing full moon, Lucas was only barely human…just beyond the shift. When he turned in Laurel’s direction, she saw a moment of instant recognition. Then the strange shimmering look he gave her made her wonder why he didn’t react.
His eyelids lowered, and his sexual response rose as Julie’s tongue traveled down the length of his torso. Lying on the ground, Julie turned her hips toward his face and buried herself against his lower abdomen. Licking and nibbling her way down until she took his entire erect shaft in her mouth.
Strange. Lucas barely reacted. Drugged? Perhaps.
Distancing herself from her feelings, Laurel studied his actions because she couldn’t get a reading from his aura. Realizing Lucas was unable to help himself, the responsibility fell to her. Her possessive wolf swore vengeance with every inch of his flesh Julie touched, while the woman inside her ached with disappointment because he’d misjudged his ability to resist her.
A scent of other males grew stronger. Time was running out. The moon reached its zenith, and their howls sounded closer. She tried to keep herself under control, but her wolf finally won the battle raging inside her. Fear for Lucas and herself decided her next move.
Rising from a stalking crouch to her paws, she shot from the underbrush into the clearing and attacked. Leaping, as Julie shifted in midair to fight back, Laurel and the female wolf rolled in a battle of fur and flying spittle. Laurel kept the advantage with the element of surprise and training. She aimed a deadly bite to the interloper’s throat, but at the final moment, held back, refusing to strike a fatal wound.
Just as she released Julie, the rogue shifters arrived and surrounded Laurel—two, three, as many as six. Her opponent was too seriously wounded to shift back immediately, but the wolves from the Fort Myers pack stood their ground while three more arrived in human form. They cursed at her when she remained lowered on all fours, growling and snapping. Well, they’d have to deal with her like this. She refused to shift from her wolf and risk being at her weakest in front of them. She wouldn’t stand a chance against so many. The unshifted rogues tossed a net over Laurel while the shifted pack members snarled and snapped, and prevented her from moving. Caught in their trap, they slipped a control collar over her head and bound her front and back paws.
For the moment, Julie didn’t move, bleeding from multiple bite wounds, and the patch of missing hair was going to take a while to grow back. If Laurel could, she would have smiled.
“What do we do with the male?” one of the unshifted rogues asked.
“Julie has plans for him. Slater said we should follow her instructions. For now, get rid of the bitch.”
“Get rid of her? We can’t afford to lose a healthy bitch,” one of the other rogues objected.
“Then leave her at our site until we get this mess sorted out and we’ll pick her up on the way back home. We can use her for breeding later.”
Not on your life. Laurel had no intention of servicing these wolves. She’d fight to the death before becoming a breeding slave for Slater Hall’s operation.
Julie rose on all fours but stumbled, growled once weakly at Laurel then resorted to licking her wounds as the others took charge. One of the rogues looked over her wounds and suggested she shift then he redirected his attention to the two holding Laurel. “Take her away while I help Julie.”
The others dragged her off in the same net they’d captured her with and gave no thought to her comfort. Not that she’d expected any consideration from this group of slugs. But the more contact she had with the earth and plants, the better chance she had of sending her location through the elements to Lucas. She sent her thoughts on the air, through the vines along the pathway, and stones she encountered. She drove her fear into the earth, and her need to the plants she touched along the way, hoping he’d track her to where the rogues planned to imprison her.
In a small clearing beside the edge of the grove, surrounded by scrub pines, palmettos, and gnarled live oaks, they chained her to one of the newly grafted grapefruit trees. The thorns from the old main growth stabbed through her fur, but she could deal with the scrapes and pain better as the wolf than she could in her human form.
The rogues returned the way they came and left her alone.
Once they were out of sight, she tried loosening the sturdy chains around her wrists and ankles. Not happening, and she doubted they’d return with good intentions. She needed help.
Laurel forced out as much of her aura as she could, hoping to locate Lucas. Her aura could strengthen him in several ways. Not only did she need to prevent Julie from mating with him—she tugged the chains—he might be her only hope of getting out of this mess.
Although she bled slightly, the fresh scent of her blood from her new open wounds would stir Lucas into action—drugs or no drugs. If only what she’d seen in his aura meant he could use her elemental gifts, maybe their connection would lead him to where she was being held.
All in all, things hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but if Lucas was as capable as she sensed, this was just a twist of events. Trapped in a desolate clearing, not far from the small one where she’d fought with Julie, Laurel reconsidered her plan. She had at least learned the bitch intended to bring Lucas to Slater as soon as they captured him, using her for bait.
Under the circumstances, Lucas would have to track her here on his own to free her. Suspecting his mental state would be volatile, she didn’t dare scream and enrage him. They already were holding Grace somewhere and were looking for Ty. She didn’t want to be bait for Lucas if Julie figured out he wasn’t interested. She’d get him one way or the other if Lucas didn’t think this through.
They had to get the information to Derek.
***
The effect of the waxing full moon had weakened Lucas’s resolve more than he anticipated and drove his wolf to respond when Julie sought him out. Despite his arousal, his wolf fought against the natural inclination to mate, until Julie drugged him. He could barely move, but the effects began wearing off soon after he saw Laurel in the clearing, and more so when the fighting began. Then, before he fully recovered, the group of rogues grabbed Laurel and took her away.
Julie approached him seductively. Blood streaked her face and covered her shoulder. Laurel had gotten in a few good bites and swipes before the males jumped her. But the blood he smelled wasn’t Julie’s. The scent he picked up in the dirt and on the breeze held fear and anger and concern. And when Laurel’s aura surrounded him, he felt compelled to follow.
Concerned, yet certain her wolf could handle the mutant shifters, he spent his recovery time persuading his inner wolf and Julie he wasn’t interested. By then, he finally had a good idea where the rogues had taken Laurel.
He followed her elemental clues, tracking her and sensing her in a nearby clearing.
Smart girl.
When he arrived he stayed in the bushes downwind from the where Laurel, still in wolf form, was chained to a tree. There were three older pickup trucks parked side by side on the edge of the makeshift camp site where there’d been a fire pit burning earlier. The fire was out and the rocks were cold now, yet Lucas felt like he was walking into a trap.
A warning current of energy traveled through the ground from Laurel to him. She scratched the ground with her right paw warning of a guard approaching from that direction. She seemed strong and uninjured, but when, seconds later, she collapsed, shifting into her fragile human form, her injuries became more visible against her moonlit, pale skin. The infuriated wolf within him didn’t want to hold back, but he couldn’t afford to be reckless. In time, every rogue would pay for marring her.
Now he crouched in the shadows and waited for the guard.
A single smaller wolf came into view. If he alone stood guard, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Lucas. His was the only strong scent, and Laurel hadn’t moved since she dropped to the ground. Lucas grew concerned for her.
He stealthily approached the guard and took him without a sound. One swipe of Lucas’s massive paw easily dropped him. Once the rogue had been taken down, Lucas shifted and located a tool box in a nearby truck. He restrained the guard with rope and duct tape then rushed to Laurel’s side to examine her for injuries.
She didn’t look as bad as she had when she’d first shifted. But for a few superficial scratches, she hardly seemed injured—certainly not to explain why she was unconscious. He checked her head for injuries and her legs for snake bites, or any puncture wound to possibly explain her condition. Still nothing, except a few minor bruises.
“Laurel, wake up,” he whispered, trying to remain undiscovered. He shook her and, when she didn’t respond, he examined her further.
Even then, he couldn’t account for her condition, so he resorted to licking her wounds while she remained unresponsive. His saliva healed the worst of the scratches and the minor ones disappeared altogether, but he was torn between taking her to one of the trucks and going for help, or going after the other two men involved. Lucas hadn’t done the healing thing since he’d been a lad, and never on someone else. As a grown man, he usually opted to heal the old-fashioned way by waiting until he shifted. During the full moon, his body healed and regenerated no matter what.
“Lucas?” Laurel’s eyelids fluttered open, and she appeared stunned as she tried to sit up. “I heard them talking about your sister. We need to follow them and I think they may have captured Ty.”
“Wait, you were unconscious—”
“We have to tell Derek.” She tried to sit up again, but he stopped her and eased her back to the ground. “I’ll be all right in a minute. I get like this if I’ve overused my mind. It’s a protective mechanism, like a circuit breaker.” She sighed and allowed her lids to lower, but she smiled and patted the hand gripping her shoulder. “I’ll be okay. Just give me a minute.”
“Warning anyone will have to wait unless you have that handy backpack of yours stashed somewhere, lass. My phone’s in my room.” She shook her head. “Perhaps this lad left his in one of the vehicles? If not I’ll contact Derek as soon as we get you to Moonlight.” Lucas found a phone in one of the pickups and tried making a call, but there was no reception.
“Nothing.” He picked up Laurel and carried her to the truck.
“We have to return to Moonlight.”
After she was inside he handed her the phone. “We need a signal.”
A mile north she started pressing buttons. “Signal. But no answer.”
“Leave a message for Ty and call Derek.”
She did as he asked while he drove like a mad man back to Moonlight. She still looked too pale.
“I left a voice message for Ty and Derek,” she said. “Cell coverage out here is still iffy in spite of the tower we installed. It’s maddening.”
“Aye, at least they’ve been alerted then. Just rest now.”
Once at her cottage, he carried her inside and reassured himself she was well.
“I’m fine,” Laurel insisted. “Just put me down on the couch. I’ll be good as new in a few moments. But what about you?”
She ran her hands over his shoulders, touching a few spots that were healing up quickly. He turned and placed his lips on her fingers; then no longer able to resist, claimed the kiss he’d been aching for. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It wasn’t until he realized she must be exhausted, he stopped to think what he could do for her.
Then Lucas noticed the blood smeared across Laurel’s breast and the blood on her lips. He touched his hand to his lips and it came away with blood.
He’d bled during the fight with the rogue, and Laurel had open wounds from her injuries.
If they’d shared blood, fighting the bond would become increasingly difficult. Perhaps, impossible.
“What is it?” she asked with an expression of concern.
He should be careful with her emotions. They grew closer every minute. She was tuned into him as no one had ever been.
“Come, lass.” Instead of trying to fight the attraction between them, Lucas took Laurel into the bathroom, certain she’d love a bath, and he wanted to be the one to share it with her. “We should clean up.”
Soon, water filled the tub and heat steamed up the room.
“Are you sure a bath is all you have on your mind?” Her giggle echoed in the tiled room. “Because if you intend to just bathe me and leave me wanting, I can’t promise I won’t try to seduce you.”
“I may be kicking myself for this later, lass. But I need to be with you…completely. Understand?” Almost losing her or just believing he could have, changed something between them.
“I understand,” she said. “Conflict, danger, and loss bring people closer.”
“I don’t believe that’s all it is, but it surely contributed to the immediacy of this need I have for you.”
She was right. He’d believed he’d lost her before he’d admitted he wanted her. It felt as if someone turned on a switch and he wasn’t able to control his newfound desire for her.
She opened her arms to him and waited for him to take her into the bath. He lifted her easily and placed her into the bubbles then joined her in the oversized tub. Caressing her breasts with one hand, while touching and exploring all her intimate places with the other, he managed to increase his need and her desire. Time to finish and dry her off. He was impatient to get into bed and anxious to make love to her properly.
Her open acceptance of him, even knowing what he was and what it could mean to her, didn’t prevent her from wanting him. Maybe that was their special connection.
Today, he wouldn’t deny their sexual needs, but he would never claim her completely unless she could withstand the dire mating. Until then, he’d hold back, being satisfied with her and her freckled nose. They would spend full moons apart, and he would manage to keep her safe from her greatest danger…him.