CHAPTER ONE

 

 

Six months earlier.

 

Seth Le Beau leaned against the rough stucco wall and crossed one ankle over the other. This better not take long he snarled at his wolf whom he’d named Fang long ago

After about fifty years of hunting, Seth had decided to distance himself from humans in general. Over time, something unusual happened. With Fang as his only source of conversation, he interacted with the wolf often. A close, interdependent bond developed between them and before he knew it the natural shifter relationship with his wolf soul morphed into two sentient beings sharing one body. As far as Seth knew, no other shifter had a wolf soul that could speak. Fang not only had the senses of a natural wolf, the beast also had the ability to think and rationalize as a human and articulate his opinions.

Fang rolled his eyes heavenward. This is for your own good, he said in a parental tone.

It hadn’t taken Seth long to figure out that affection and remorse were hazardous in his line of work. With his emotions locked away, he’d stopped caring about friendships. Except for Fang of course.

To his chagrin, there was one problem with his brilliant decision to live like a hermit. As much as he didn’t want to be around others, Fang had decided they needed them. Sure, he needed touch. Every shifter did. Fang’s argument didn’t hold water. Seth tried to explain to the beast that he had no problem getting physical contact from a willing female without speaking nary a word. A few minutes in a tavern, a little smile and cocked brow, followed by a hotel key slid across the bar, and voila. And if the female insisted on conversation, shrugs and grunts went a long way in mollifying the woman.

His coping mechanism didn’t fly with Fang. The stupid fleabag insisted they needed conversation. Fang had whined some nonsense about regressing to a caveman. So, to Seth’s ultimate irritation, he found himself leaning against the wall outside of a restaurant in the valley below their mountain.

His dang wolf insisted he start up a conversation with at least one person before he was allowed to go home. Seth knew better than to disregard the beast. The last time he had, Fang howled all night, and he didn’t get a wink of sleep. Did the mangy wolf think he would forget how to speak or some such nonsense?

I’ll give you five minutes and then we’re leaving, Seth grumbled.

The wait was scarcely a few minutes, Thank God. Two women came out, and one glanced his direction. “Good evening, ladies. Did you have a nice dinner?”

The one eyeing him opened her mouth to answer, but the other yanked her way. “What’s wrong with you? That man could be a rapist or murderer.”

That’s it, Seth snapped at Fang. We’re out of here. He stomped around the corner of the building and shifted to wolf form.

About a half-mile from the cabin they scented a human on the trail. Fang took over and slipped into the brush to watch the young man. They followed in stealth mode. A blind man could see the kid was lost.

Fang shook his head at the stupidity of the boy. Humans shouldn’t wander into the wilderness of the mountain without protection and absolutely never alone. Providing helpless, tasty morsels to the hungry wolf pack in the territory isn’t a good idea. This idiot is a free meal, served up on a silver platter. I don’t want the wolves to develop a taste for human flesh. If they become too aggressive or relocate closer to town and easy prey, we will have to kill the pack.

Neither of them wanted to destroy the native wolves.

At least the moron was safe for the moment. The pack was denned up. They too knew how to read the weather. In a matter of hours a big storm would hit the area, and if Fang was right, which he always was, they were about to get six to eight inches of snow. He raised his nose and took a deep breath. The scent of imminent snowfall hung thick in the air. They glanced at the kid again.

That boy isn’t dressed to survive the storm, and the tiny pack he has is scarcely large enough to contain a few meals and a windbreaker. If he thought to bring one, Seth scoffed.

I agree. The human won’t survive without our assistance.

For some reason, the first storm of the season was earlier than usual. Especially one of this magnitude. The kid should have checked the weather report and come prepared. This mountain was infamous for unusual and unexpected weather. Fang grinned at Seth within their mind link. A few years ago, he’d seen it, or should he say Seth made it, snow in July. However, this particular storm wasn’t their handy work.

Following the young man began with a push from Fang to ‘socialize’. Though now, due to the weather, a second reason presented itself. One mile became two. While Fang tracked the kid, Seth waffled between the options available but couldn’t decide what to do about the situation. Should he let the kid go and allow fate to claim its due? Was it his place to impose his will on the boy, Gaia, and the wilderness where they found solitude? It may be this mans destiny to die this day. And he learned the hard way a lifetime ago not to fuck with destiny.

Seth swore under his breath. Why did the human have to be a kid? And more importantly, why did it matter? Thousands of men and women had perished at his hand—you’d think he’d be hardened to death. Instead, he hid away in the wilderness, because truth be told, one more kill could very likely be one too many.

Fang cocked his head and pointed his nose toward the kid. We should warn the boy.

Seth almost shifted to clear his throat but stopped before making the mistake. Noise would give his location away, a rookie error he hadn’t made since his first assignment over one hundred years ago.

It was too dangerous to expose their position. The weather wasn’t the only hazard the ignorant human may stumble upon. There was a rogue somewhere on the mountain. They had tracked the beast for two days. It might be more dangerous for the kid if we warn him. We’ll stay close and kill two birds with one stone. Keep an eye on the human and watch for the rogue. The beast would show itself if it detected prey. And this kid wore a huge come and get me beacon on his back. It wouldn’t be long now, and Jorge would show his ugly mug.

But you agree, we need to help the child.

Seth let out a long breath. Once the rogue is defeated, we’ll haul the kid off the mountain. Even as far gone as he was, he couldn’t allow a human to die.

Where the hell was Jorge, and why hadn’t the rogue made a play for the kid? They’d followed the floundering idiot for hours. This human possessed no sense of direction, walking away from the road instead of toward it. The kid reminded him of Barney Fife in the episode where he went camping with the boy scouts.

Seth was calculating how many miles he’d have to carry the guy on his back to get him to safety when all hell broke loose. His preoccupation must have allowed Jorge the opening the rogue had been waiting for. The kid suddenly stopped dead mid-stride. The dense brush between Seth and the path was thick enough to conceal his presence yet thin enough to allow him to see a few inches above the trodden dirt. Seth felt Fang’s relief that they didn’t see hooves. At least it wasn’t an elk. He learned the hard way he couldn’t reason with those psychotic beasts. That left three possibilities: a bear, the pack, or Jorge. Based on the hairy paws, it was the rogue.

Fang grunted his agreement. He was ninety-nine percent sure it was Jorge. Unfortunately, the wind carried the animal’s scent away so he couldn’t be certain.

Seth pushed Fang to just below the surface and made a partial shift back to human. Then crept like a shadow through the brush, ghosting toward the obstruction on the path. Moving soundlessly even though leaves and twigs littered the ground.

A low growl verified it was indeed Jorge. They would know that growl anywhere. They’d been friends once upon a time. Teammates within the Elite Hunters. Then Jorge found his mate and left the squad. Sadly, Jorge’s happiness was short-lived, a mere forty years. And when Jorge found his beautiful mate murdered, instead of following her in death he chose to go after the killers. Surviving one’s mate never ended well for a shifter. It left behind a slathering, insane beast without the ability to think or reason.

Another ravenous growl from the rogue pulled him from his memories. It was a sound he’d heard so often he felt no fear, only excitement for the challenge to come. The battle was on. A wave of adrenaline released into his veins. When a pang of regret threatened to rise, Seth reminded himself the raging beast was no longer Jorge. His friend was gone, and only a monster wearing Jorge’s face remained.

Seth spread the brush lining the game trail to glimpse his prey in the middle of the path in wolf form. If the kid held still, dispatching Jorge would be relatively easy. No such luck. The stench of the human’s fear ratcheted up, and the kid sucked in a breath. The human must have recognized the insanity in the wolf’s eyes. A rogue would put the fear of God into anyone no matter how brave, except for him of course. Every rogue had a cold, dead stare. Insane killer eyes. The one thing they lived for was to bring pain and death to anything that crossed their path.

It had been a while since his last assignment, and he wouldn’t have this one except Jorge had brought the battle to his back door. Seth leapt onto the path between Jorge and the kid, bellowing a challenge to distract the rogue.

“Go back the way you came, kid. RUN!” he growled through his half wolf half human mouth without breaking eye contact with Jorge.

The beast launched itself at Seth incited by the boy’s flight. Unbelievable! The human actually listened and ran the opposite direction like an Olympic gold medalist. Jorge wasn’t so much interested in Seth as he was in chasing prey. Not going to happen.

Jorge was fast. However, they were faster. And stronger. Even though the rogue slipped a few solid blows past their defenses, they won the battle, but at a painful cost.

Seth wrinkled his nose and grimaced. He knew the reek of a perforated bowel all too well. They had one hell of an agonizing night ahead.

He moaned and laid flat out on his back. He needed a moment to catch his breath and stop the bleeding. In his condition, there was no way he would make it back to their cabin tonight. He had no choice but to shift and let Fang seek a modicum of shelter from the storm in a nearby cave.

Outside the cave, the wind blustered and moaned. Already a few inches of snow covered the ground—but his chill had nothing to do with the winter weather. He’d lost a massive amount of blood and struggled to regulate his body temperature. Though in wolf form, Fang had retreated into the darkest corner of his mind to avoid the pain.

Seth groaned, and the sound escaped his wolfs clenched jaw as a whimper. Curled up in wolf form, for the thousandth time he prayed for a death he knew wouldn’t come. Luperca would never permit one of her hunters to perish.

Stomach wounds were a bitch and a half. He was more than intimately acquainted with the pain he panted through. As long as he remained with the Elite Hunters a mortal wound wouldn’t kill him. Hell no. Death wouldn’t bring relief from his suffering. Only time and healing would ease his agony. He may not be allowed to die in the line of duty, but immortality didn’t exempt him from injury and pain. At times like this, he hated Luperca and her control over his life.

Seth lived with pain, day in and day out. Time and experience taught him that some insidious enemies were without physical form. Agony didn’t have a body per se. It didn’t need one. Pain could take up residence in any body it chose. It’s an agony-inducing parasite, a nasty, unwelcome visitor that was difficult to evict. One, which often left a man broken, and begging for death. And for him, if incapacitated, left him vulnerable to attack.

He had adjusted to living with pain in its myriad of disguises decades ago. Every morning, he woke with some level of pain from mild discomfort to agony. Every night he mended new wounds, both physical and emotional. Sadly, pain was his one constant companion. Without it, he and Fang were utterly alone.

Seth floated on a sea of agony. His fever raged until fire engulfed his body. His temperature soared higher than a human could ever endure without dying. He tried to focus healing energy on his wound and the infection taking hold. He’d just managed to block out the pain and direct what he’d come to refer to as white light when an unexpected sound broke his concentration and tumbled him back into the sea of pain.

What is that? Fang growled as he moved closer to the forefront of Seth’s mind.

The faint, rhythmic beat swelled in volume. A heartbeat? Was someone near? Their senses went on alert for danger. The pulse sank into him to the bone, becoming a part of him. His own heartbeat slowed to match the perfect steady drumming.

Lying motionless, they studied the strange phenomenon. Either of them could sense a threat from a mile away. Whatever this was, it didn’t carry the taint of danger or evil.

Slowly, their pain lessened, and a pool of cool, sparkling blue water shimmered in his mind. Strange, Seth wasn’t prone to fever-induced hallucinations. The light breeze cooled his feverish skin and rippled the water. A welcomed side effect of whatever it was.

As long as they were a party to the adventure he might as well take a good look around. He studied his surroundings from where he stood. A thick, lush forest ringed a tranquil pond. The trunks were broad and straight, unaffected by the ravages of wind and time. He glanced at the canopy of foliage above. He’d never seen such a deep shade of green.

Seth returned his attention to the pond and sucked in a breath. Luperca, his boss, and creator sat on a large stone beside the water gazing back at him. She inclined her head and smiled. Then she swept her arm to her left. He looked in the direction she indicated and saw movement within the tree line. The most beautiful woman they had ever seen entered the clearing. She wore a loose-fitting blouse and slacks.

Fang narrowed his eyes and huffed out his disapproval. Her baggy clothing was an abomination on a beauty such as she. A flowing, figure-hugging gown would have been his choice of attire.

Seth squinted and looked closer. She had some kind of badge hanging from her neck. But why?

It’s time for you to get lost, wolf.

Fang growled in retaliation but moved to the back of his mind.

Her blond hair hung loose and tumbled in waves past her shoulders, swaying with each step she took. She moved like a graceful dancer, flowing across the uneven earth. The beautiful female stopped a few feet from him and gave him a soft smile. His gaze lingered on her mouth and then rose to her large, soft olive colored eyes.

Unexpectedly, he felt the heat of her body. Fang let out a yelp of surprise. When had she come closer? Her delicate hand swept down his abdomen and lingered over the wound. Tingles, like an electric current, raced across his skin. The gaping hole in his gut closed and healthy flesh sealed the gash.

Her breath warmed his face and tasted of vanilla and caramel. He took his time memorizing her features. Her full, soft, pink lips would provide fantasies for years to come. She blinked, drawing his attention to her incredibly long lashes. In all his many years, he’d never seen eyes such as hers. Seth reached for her, bracing for mind-numbing pain to rip through his gut. The searing agony never came.

The woman rose up on her tiptoes, placed her hands on his chest, and leaned into him. Her lips brushed his as light as butterfly wings, making his heart hammer as if he’d run a marathon. It was barely a kiss at all, and yet the most intimate moment he’d ever shared with a woman. He leaned in for another, and she was gone.

Seth glanced around, and the pulsing beat began again. Faint, but there.

“What is that drumming?”

“Listen with your heart. You know what it is,” the ethereal being, Luperca encouraged.

The beat grew louder, demanding to be acknowledged.

“Tell me, hunter,” she insisted. The melodic notes of her voice commanded a response.

“A heartbeat. I’m hearing the heartbeat of my mate,” he whispered in awe.

Luperca gave him a single nod and shimmered from view.

A breath later, he found himself back in the cave. He braced for a wave of pain to sweep him into unconsciousness. The tsunami never came. He blinked his eyes open. It took a minute for his brain to register what had happened. He sat up and touched his belly. The wound was gone.

Falling back again he folded his arms behind his head. Had she really been in his vision with him? Had he just met his mate?

Seth drew in a deep breath and smiled. The scent of vanilla and caramel hung heavy in the air.