Chapter 8

Maeve opened her eyes after hearing the creak and groan of the bedroom door. She glanced toward the sound and stayed perfectly still as she watched it swing open slowly and stop. Orion lay still beside her, his breathing deep and even. She blinked into the darkness, sensing a presence, but found nothing.

Careful to not disturb him, she slid out of bed and wandered out to the living room—which had been converted into office space. She left all the lights off and stood at the window, scanning the night for something, although she didn’t know what.

A knot formed in her gut as she found the base of the tree and spotted a shimmer of light near the roots.

She listened for Orion one last time before grabbing his jacket off the coat rack and ducking out the door.

Air stirred, whipping in a circle, picking up her hair and tossing it across her face. Clouds raced across the clear sky, obscuring the stars that had winked over them only an hour earlier.

The hair stood up on her arms as she approached the tree, her eyes locked on the spot where she had dug up what her mother had left behind.

“Maeve,” a feminine voice whispered, the words carried on the wind.

She whipped around and searched the area, but found nothing. She clutched the coat tighter to her and tucked her hair behind her ears before returning her gaze to the glow hovering over the moss.

However, the glow had vanished, and she found the shimmering image of a woman standing before her.

A woman she had seen before.

In her visions.

Her mother.

“Mom?” Maeve whispered.

“Hi, baby,” her mother said with a big smile.

Tears sprang to Maeve’s eyes as she greedily took in the woman before her. A flood of questions flitted through her mind about her childhood, what she did as a grown-up, if she had always known she was a wolf, and who their dad was. But the minute Maeve opened her mouth to speak, the important questions vanished like a bubble popping as it landed on a picnic table.

“How are you here?” Maeve asked.

Her mother shrugged a shoulder. “I made a deal so I could get to you. I needed to see you, at least once.”

Her mother reached for her; Maeve’s eyes drifted shut as she waited for the feel of her mother’s hand gliding across her skin.

Only it never came.

Maeve opened her eyes to find her mother staring at her own hand, her eyes narrowed, and her lips thin and flat as if she were frustrated.

“Will you be able to come back when I find my sisters, so they can see you, too?”

“This is a one-shot deal, I’m afraid.”

“I’m going to find my sisters. I promise I will. Orion and I will use the locks of hair to seek them out and banish Belen once and for all,” Maeve assured her.

Her mother’s eyes flared with red bursts as she smiled. “Ah, yes, the locks of hair,” she said. “Have you begun your search?”

Maeve studied the woman before her. She wore the same clothes as she had in all the visions, sans the blood, but there was something in the way she stood. An air of confidence unfamiliar to Maeve from what she had seen. And the way she was talking…it didn’t make sense for a mother who gave up her life for her children.

Where was her excitement? Her interest? Wouldn’t she have questions for Maeve about her life, how she had grown up, and what she did for a living?

If the parents who raised her had been good to her?

Maeve’s fingers sought the charm at the end of the chain dangling from her neck. She wrapped her fingers around it and held on tight. Warmth shot out from the metal.

Her mother eyed her hand. “What’s that around your neck?” she asked.

Maeve’s stomach dropped to her toes with the sickening realization that the woman standing before her was not her mother.

“Who are you?” Maeve asked.

The woman let out a high-pitched laugh, the sound dancing on a bundle of Maeve’s nerves. “Whatever do you mean? You know who I am.”

“You’re not my mother, dammit! Now, who are you?” Maeve demanded, her hands balled into fists at her side and a growl rising in her throat.

The woman’s eyes snapped with anger, the red bursts turning to flame in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter who I am, you stupid girl.” She reached for Maeve again, this time making icy contact with her skin.

The woman’s hand dipped into Maeve’s chest, pinching and squeezing as she wrapped her hand around the necklace. The minute her fist closed over the everlasting love symbol, she yanked her hand back with a piercing scream and inspected her palm.

“You sniveling little bitch!” The soft voice changed to a menacing hiss. With a quick shot she backhanded Maeve, knocking her to the ground.

Maeve braced herself and turned to look over her shoulder. The woman who had been standing before her vanished in a puff of smoke, and in her place stood a mountain of a man with a long cloak and shoulder-length black hair.

Belen.

“Aren’t you a stupid one? While you’re traipsing around out here, you’ve left Orion unprotected.” His teeth locked in a menacing grin.

Maeve’s gaze snapped to the trailer in the distance. She whipped around, a growl rumbling in her throat, just as Belen morphed into a trail of glittering black shards dancing on the wind.

The wind that carried him straight to Orion.

“Nooooo!” she screamed before dropping onto her four paws and tearing into the dirt, her claws ripped away at the moss, scrambling for purchase. She lunged for the trailer, her lungs filling with painful gulps of air as she raced to protect what was hers.

Bursting through the door she swung her head back and forth, searching the room. With a snout to the air she sniffed, the scent of her mate there, masked by the smell of rotting flesh tinged with smoke.

The door to the bedroom burst open and Orion appeared naked before her. He smiled, tilted his head, and clucked his tongue at her. “Here, puppy, puppy, puppy,” he called while he snapped his fingers.

She crouched low and growled, the hair on her back standing up, her tail puffing out.

His eyes flashed, the red bursts flaring and then disappearing. He thrashed his head in that moment, fighting the force that had climbed inside him. “Maeve,” he gasped out.

The flames flashed in his eyes again and that smile, the same one from her mother, from Belen, spread across his face. “You want your mate, you little bitch? Come and get him…I dare you,” he taunted.

She took a step toward him, and then another, watching for more signs that Orion still fought from the inside.

His eyes burned hot as he shuffled a step to the side.

She took another.

He shuffled again.

Their eyes stayed locked on one another, warlock versus wolf, both waiting for a show of weakness, a distraction that would give either of them the opportunity to attack.

At least that’s what Maeve thought they were doing.

Then Belen spoke.

“What are you waiting for? Might be you’ve figured out if you attack me, you kill him… my eighth-great-grandson?”

Maeve froze.

Belen threw back his head and laughed. “What part stopped you, that you’d kill him or that he came from me?”

It can’t be true.

“Ahh, but it is true. Orion is my blood. He’s from my warlock lineage. Even if I’m not here, there’s a part of me that will always be inside of him, waiting to strike,” he said with a sneer.

As he spoke the image of Orion faded away despite his physical body standing before her, and Maeve envisioned Belen.

She had to separate the two.

“It doesn’t matter what you do. If you kill me, you kill him. If you don’t kill me, you will always see me in his eyes.”

She didn’t know how to protect her thoughts from him. Somehow he saw all.

She stopped plotting. She blocked the random thoughts trying to pop into her mind and did the only thing she could think of to do.

She pushed her energy into her heart, into the place where he wound the protection spell, and tried to reach him through his own magic.

Orion? If you can hear me, I need you to fight. Just for a few seconds I need you to find the strength to battle him so I can get to you.

 A primal yell—one that had to have torn his throat raw, shot a chill to her core, and made her spine shiver—pierced the air as Orion thrashed. The cords in his neck strained; his skin turned red and then purple as he thrashed his head back and forth. He stumbled, and grabbed the window frame, gnashing his teeth in an internal battle.

She watched for her opening, her one shot to get to him.

He braced himself and met her eyes. “Do it!” he ground out as he held himself there, open to her, needing her.

Flexing her haunches, she sprang into the air at him. She sank her fangs into the spot she had bitten that night when they’d mated. With a firm grip on his skin, she shifted into human form and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, cupping the moonstone in the palm of her hand.

They slammed against the wall with such force she almost lost her grip. She dug her teeth in further and twisted her legs around his.

They dropped to the floor, where he spasmed and bucked beneath her. Sweat broke out on his skin, the salty tang reaching her tongue mixing with the iron taste of his blood.

With one last tremor, he went still beneath her.

“Oh, no, no, no…dammit, he did not win!” She scrambled up and grabbed his face. “Stay with me. You have to stay with me.”

His head lolled to the side.

No. Not on her watch.

She pressed her ear to his chest, a cry rising out of her when she heard the racing beat of his heart.

“Orion?” she whispered, kissing his lips, his cheek, his chin. Tears fell from her eyes and splashed against his damp shoulder.

He groaned, and tried to raise his head. It dropped back to the floor with a hard thud.

“Shh, easy. I’m right here,” Maeve assured him.

“Yeah, right on my chest,” he gasped.

“Oh, crap. I’m sorry,” she said, scrambling off his ribs and kneeling next to him.

His eyes opened, found hers, and he smiled. “Admit it, you were just looking for any opportunity to bite me again,” he joked, his voice weak.

She laughed through her tears. “Damn you, you scared me.”

“I scared me,” he said as he pushed up into a sitting position and slid back to lean against the trailer wall.

“You didn’t tell me he was your ancestor,” Maeve said quietly.

“Would you have mated with me if I had?” he asked. His ragged breathing slowed and he dropped his head against the wall as he watched her.

“I—” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lie. “I don’t know.”

“I’m not him. I’ll never be him,” he murmured.

She nodded as she choked on hot tears.

He laced his fingers through her hair. “Come here,” he whispered, pulling her toward him.

He tilted her head back, slanted his lips over hers, and kissed her. His mouth seduced hers, his lips parted, and his hot tongue sought to taste her.

The last of her defenses disappeared as she curled up against him. She pulled away just enough to sink her teeth into his bottom lip, then kissing away the sting she had to have left behind.

He moaned against her mouth and smiled. “Is this your way of saying I’m just going to have to get used to the biting?”

She scrunched up her nose and leaned her forehead against his. “Probably a safe bet.”

He took a deep breath and let it out. The tension in his muscles seemed to slide away with the release. “I love you, Maeve.” He pressed his lips to her temple and let them linger there.

“So, it’s not crazy to feel it when we don’t even know each other?” she asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him.

“No,” he laughed. “Not crazy.”

“And you know that the only reason I bite you is because I love you,” she said, smiling against his neck.

“Careful. I might just have to start biting you back,” he said with a laugh.

She snickered at him. “I’m thinking I might not hate that.”