Roxy
No…
Nonononononnonnono…
That word just kept bouncing off the insides of my skull.
It couldn’t be.
The skinwalker was dead.
I saw Stormy and Maddox incinerate the bastard with my own eyes.
My puma was scared, even worse than I was. Because she knew that there had been nothing she could do to the skinwalker to set us free. We had had to be rescued. And in those short hours, that thing had done so many things to me.
So many wrong things.
I needed to run. I wanted to run. My puma wanted to run, and shred anything that got in her way.
Run!!!
Stop.
I pushed back on every instinct in me, all those impulses and voices that were screaming for me to run, to hide, to never come out of the forest ever again.
To be a puma until I died.
She had claws and fangs, and she was so fast.
No.
Stop.
I pushed back again. She slashed me with a claw and it hurt.
But the pain helped.
Remember who you are.
Remember you’re not just animal, but you’re human too.
That I have people that I love and that love me.
I’m Roxy Ironcloud, sister to Stormy and Bly, daughter of Maggie and Granddaughter of Viola.
I’m not going to let that son of a bitch monster do this to me again.
I’m strong now.
I was going to fight it, and this time, by the spirits I was going to kill it.
I opened my eyes and Wade stood there, staring at me as if I was…
God the way he looked at me. Adoration, hunger, want and desire—and a respect.
I didn’t know what he saw in me, but I wanted to be as strong as he seemed to think I was.
Okay, back to the business at hand. I walked over to him and placed my hand in his, wanting to speak to his Nonna again, and wanting to touch him too.
Right before she’d said the word skinwalker I’d been so excited. I could see her. I could see a spirit. That meant that maybe, just maybe, I could see Gram again.
Excitement had prickled at me like little electrical shocks. But when she’d said the skin walker was still alive, that had shorted out everything, every nerve ending, every thought—even my heart had stopped for a painful beat in my chest.
Touching Wade again I felt it, that charge, that current of energy was back, passing from him to me, and then back again. And just like that, Nonna appeared again, standing right where she’d been before.
“So he’s… it’s alive still. How much of a threat is it?”
She nodded as if she’d been waiting for me to say those words.
“It’s mostly just spirit now. Most of its power is gone, but because it still lives, it will heal, and it will grow strong again.”
“Fuck!” I looked at Wade, thinking he’d said that, but then I realized it came from my mouth.
Nonna quirked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. “But that could take hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Though I think it will be sooner than that. It is ancient and it knows so much. Knowledge is power, especially in magic.
“But right now it can not affect the natural world in any way. It cannot possess a body any longer either. But, it can communicate, and that is exactly what it is doing now. It has the ear of that pack of wolves’ alpha.
“His name is Ford, and he thought he was going insane—which truthfully he is going insane… loupe.”
Loupe.
I felt the terror rake its icy claws down my spine.
A loupe was a shifter that let its animal rule, and to allow itself to indulge in any sick desire. Murder, rape, cannibalism. Nothing was taboo to a loupe.
That’s why those wolves I’d fought today had been so crazed, so ready to hurt me. Their alpha was going insane, going loupe, and the pack bonds were pulling them all with him.
“And I’m afraid,” Nonna began again, “That it won’t lead them to you if you run away. It wants revenge, and will lead them right to your family.”
I was grinding my teeth. If that son of a bitch were here I’d shred him myself. If I could get a hold of him.
“Makes sense,” I said trying not to freak out again. Luckily a thought surfaced in my mind. That thought pissed me right off.
“So it sent those four wolves to get me.” Rage burned inside me so hot my fear evaporated immediately.
That fucker…
Nonna shook her hear. “No, the alpha has been resisting the skinwalker. Those wolves finding you was just dumb luck on their part.”
Dumb luck…
“He hasn’t found out about you—yet. But the skinwalker will learn of the attack and will sense that you were there… and soon.”
“He followed me here.” It was just a fact. There would be no other reason for that thing to be here. Over a hundred miles.
“He did,” she said. “He still thinks of you are prey.”
My anger flared inside me, eclipsing my fear to the point it wasn’t even there. “I’m no one’s prey anymore.”
The old woman smiled.
Wade grinned as he held my hands.
“So, we need to get out of here and get home.”
Wade blinked, looking lost for a moment. Bless his soul, he was so adorably sexy when he looked that way.
I shook my head, not believing what I was thinking.
Great Spirit, please help me here.
I could practically hear distant laughter.
I reached for my purse. “I need to call Stormy. Let her know what’s happening.” She’d get Maddox and Bly and the others gathered together.
I let go of Wade’s hands—Nonna disappearing—and pulled my phone out and saw the shattered screen.
Shiiit!
I clicked the little button to turn it on. The screen flickered and died. One more press and I could swear I heard a sizzle.
Dead.
Wade pulled his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to me.
“Great,” And then it hit me. I didn’t have any numbers, for Stormy or Bly, memorized.
Technology had made my brain—at least the part of my brain that used to have important phone numbers memorized—into Jell-O. Strawberry flavored Jell-O with little marshmallows.
“I don’t know anyone’s numbers.” I looked at Wade and handed him his phone back. “Do you have Maddox’s number?”
“No,” he said with a little shake of his head. “I haven’t talked to him in a few years.”
Swell.
I reached for his phone again. “Let’s get on the road and while you drive I’ll try finding the number for Ironcloud’s. All the other numbers are for cell phones.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said and then his eyes got wide. He spun and said, “Hey Nonna! Maybe—”
“What is it?” I asked.
He turned back to me and shook his head. “She’s gone.” He shrugged. “She does that.”
“What were you going to ask her?”
“Just to go warn them for us.” He scrubbed his big hand across the back of his neck.
He had a really, really nice neck.
I shook that off. What was I, a vampire?
“Good plan.”
He just stared at me for a minute. I was starting to like him staring at me.
I was liking it too much.
He sighed—a bit of a growl in the back of his throat—and I saw the gold of his bear flicker across his eyes.
That look zinged through my body like the sweetest adrenaline/caffeine high ever.
If I didn’t get out of here I was going to do something incredibly stupid.
Probably something incredibly enjoyable and later incredibly regrettable too.
I grabbed my purse and started for the door. “Let’s hit the road.”