Bound by The Moon (The Bound Series Book 2) (11 page)

Chapter Nine

Sam waited until Luc had taken off with Jaden, then looked at the sky. Poor Luc, he was running out of night time. He'd have to spend the day at the house.

Balin had just left with Maya on the back of Jaden's bike, and Douglas had left with Agatha on his back. A huge wolf running through the trees, with a woman astride it's back. Now that wasn't a sight you saw every day.

He looked towards the others, around the clearing, most were subdued. Edwin Murdoch, stood watch over his friend, John Forrester, as he slept on oblivious. Edwin as well as the others had shifted back, but John was still in his Tiger form. He lay on his side, snoring, with his legs tied together, and his muzzle taped up. It was the safest way to transport him.

There was a commotion to the east, and he turned. Just then a 4 x 4 came through the treeline, pulling up beside the group. Adam Lincoln stepped out of the big four wheelers, while his twin brother Nathan, sat behind the wheel. The engine was idling while the waited for John to be loaded. Adam was a big man, they both were, but then again grizzly bears weren't known for being small. Adam smacked Edwin on the shoulder as he came around him, then knelt down beside John. Shaking his head, he put his arms under the tiger shifter, hefting him up, and into his arms. He put his taped muzzle over his shoulder and his paws dangled down his back, as he slept on, oblivious.

"Do you need us to hang around?" Adam asked as he neared Sam and Helena, but she shook her head. Sam raised a brow at her.

"Thanks Adam, but no. I'd rather just get this over with, if you don't mind," she whispered back. Clearing her throat, as her chin came up. "Do you need anything for John," she said looking towards the tiger shifter in his arms, her hand lifting to rub his soft ears. "After all, it's our fault he's this way, he was helping my daughter and Jaden out. I feel responsible."  Adam grinned, the dimple in his jaw standing out as he shook his head. Long, brown, straggly hair moving with his head as his velvet chocolate, brown eyes, smiled down at her.

"Nah, Helena, this was not your fault. We offered our help willingly, so don't you worry about a thing. John boy here, will be just fine, once he's slept off the spell. We'll all be at your door tomorrow night for the barbecue, you'll see. Then you may be sorry you invited us. We have quite an appetite," he said laughing, as he strode off towards the back door of the Land Cruiser. He gently lay John's prone body, along the back seat. Edwin nodding to them as he passed, before jumping in beside the other tiger shifter. The rest of the shifters took off in animal form, melting into the trees, as Adam shut the passenger door. Nathan drove off, tooting his horn as it too disappeared through the treeline. Leaving nothing behind but the echo of the fight, and silence.

There was only herself and Sam left now, and obviously her still motionless husband.

"So would you like to wait until I've done this, then come back and do clean up?" Sam asked Helena, coming up behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, but she shook her head. Sighing, he rested his chin on her head.

"You don't have to do this Helena, I'm more than capable of sorting this out for you."  She turned, and his arms slipped around her waist, as she faced him. Raising a hand, she placed it against his cheek, then stood on tiptoe, brushing her mouth lightly against his.

"I knew you would offer to finish this, but like I told Maya, I need to do this myself." Her lashes dropped, covering her navy eyes. Pulling his left arm from around her waist, he placed his fingers under her chin, raising her face. Her eyes opened again, and he looked deeply into her eyes.

Sam stood motionless, searching Helena's gaze for answers. To what, she didn't have a clue? But sighing, he slid his hand along her throat, and up, into her hair. Then cupping the back of her head, he took her mouth in a short, sweet kiss, making her toes curl. It baffled her, that he could have this kind of effect on her. I mean he was after all, a jaguar shifter. The same breed as her bastard of a husband, the one who'd revelled in causing her pain. He had eventually killed her, ending her human life, so how could she let her guard down around this man, this shifter? Why did she want to? Now, that was the more important question, but she'd be damned if she knew the reason. She just did.

Helena, returned his short heated kiss, revelling in the warmth of him mouth. He touched her nowhere but the back of her head, the base of her back and her lips with his. He kept their bodies separated, but the warmth of him seeped into her own chilled body. That again was a strange phenomenon. She was a phoenix, so surely she shouldn't be able to feel chilled.

Gasping, she pulled back from his kiss. Shock evident in her eyes, as Sam lifted his lashes. Frowning he tried to figure out what was wrong, but she just turned her head, looking over her shoulder. Sam looked too.

For fuck sake, why couldn't the bastard have just stayed down
?  Adrian, her sick, psycho husband had come around, and had shifted back to his human form. It tended to help along their healing, Jackals were the only shifters around who stayed in animal form when hurt. Shifting actually slowed down their healing, weird, but there it was. Sam just wished this one had stayed out of it. If he'd have stayed out, it would have made it easier on Helena. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Hello wife, long time no see," Adrian mocked from where he sat on the floor, his wounds nearly healed.

Helen looked at him with loathing, as he sat there staring at her, his head cocked to one side.

"You look different dear? But I can't quite put my finger on why though." He began laughing after he'd said it, "Oh yes, now I know what's different. You're back from the dead. Aren't I the lucky one? I thought I'd got rid of you, but no, you're back again." He sighed dramatically, and Sam took a step in his direction. Fists clenching, and unclenching at his side, in his agitation. He stared at the piece of shit as he sat here; hands and legs still tied.

"Helena, aren't you going to introduce me to your fuck buddy? I mean, isn't that the polite thing to do when you meet up with your husband." Helena just growled, and he tutted at her, before bursting into laughter.

"Come now, no need for such reticence. You've seen most of the women I've fucked. Well, actually I believe you've cleaned up after me a few times." He laughed at his own joke, before sobering. "No, not funny, oh well. Thank you anyway. Jolly decent of you to get rid of my messes, a very loving, wifely thing to do. You're rather handy to have around. Actually, if I'd realised what you were, I may have hung on to you. Or maybe I would have just buried you instead of burning you, thus triggering your change. Oh well, we live and learn," he said with a shrug.

"I think you don't," Sam snapped. Kicking Adrian's shoe, with the toe of his boot. The action took his attention away from Helena.

The slit green eyes turned to him, looking him over. He then dismissed him, as if he wasn't up to par.

"Helena, if you're not going to introduce me. At least untie me, to give me a sporting chance?" he said, his eyes taking on a beseeching look.

"No, she won't be doing either. You'll not be getting another chance to cause her problems. This ends now," Sam said, putting himself in front of Helena.

"You're a rogue. A diseased predator, who has reached his expiry date. There is no room for you on the earth. You, and those like you, put us all under risk of detection. You are a threat to human, and shifter alike. You're a murder and a rapist, and your sentence has been passed. Now I'm going to see it's carried out." Sam watched the man sat on the floor. He just looked at him, no emotion evident in his features. Nothing, no remorse, not a thing. A completely blank expression in fact. Then he laughed, and Sam became confused,
what the hell?

"You're serious?" Adrian laughed again. "You really think she's going to kill me?  Do you know her at all?  Helena was always a dutiful wife. Obedient, well apart from keeping the little witch hidden from me."  Sam felt Helena move behind him, felt the heat from her body begin to warm his skin. Sam stepped to the side, allowing Adrian to see just who his wife had become.

"You have been sentenced to death for the crimes of torture, murder and rape," Helena said to him. Her face took on a look of disgust, when Adrian just looked at her, as if she were playing some kind of joke.

"You really never knew her did you?" Sam asked him, incredulous. How could anyone be around Helena, for any length of time, and not see the steel and strength that ran through this woman?  Even if the man hadn't been a psycho, his complete disregard for her amazing qualities alone, meant he had never deserved her. Fate had really messed up with them. He'd give his hind teeth to have a woman like Helena given to him. The man was a fool.

"You won't hurt me Helena, it's not in your nature," Adrian said with a smirk.

"Wrong," Helena said. That was the only warning she gave him. "Back up Sam, you know the routine by now," she said rubbing her hands together. Then dropping them to her side, she shook them. Loosening her shoulders, she brought them up, and out from her body. Rotating her head on her neck a couple of times, as the glow in her hands began to intensify. Her hair begun to waver; as if in a draft, and her feet left the floor.

"Goodbye Adrian. I'd like to say it had been nice knowing you, but well…" And with that Helena opened her palms, and released the fire. It jumped straight to Adrian, as he sat there with his mouth open. He didn't even have enough time to scream. The fireball engulfed, and incinerated his body within seconds. Leaving behind nothing, but ash, where he had once been.

Helena knew she should have felt something. I mean she'd just killed her husband, but she didn't. Although she did feel hysteria building. A bubble of laughter welled up in her stomach, and exploded out of her mouth. She laughed until tears streamed down her face, and then she began to shake. That was when the laughter turned to gut, wrenching sobs.

Sam couldn't take any more. He pulled Helena around and into his arms, holding her against him. One hand stroked down the length of her hair, while the other rubbed her back soothingly. He gently rocked her, until her tears had subsided.

Helena lifted her own hands around Sam's waist. Twisting them in his sweater, behind his back. Rubbing her cheek on his chest, as she sighed, melting against him. She allowed him to take her weight, and give her comfort. Dropping his chin onto Helena's head, Sam just stayed there with her. Giving her just what she needed in that moment.

Chapter Ten

Sam lost track of time as he held Helena, the sun began to rise as he watched. He saw it break over the treeline. The colours of orange, red, pink and yellow spectacular, as they lit up the early morning sky. He relaxed, exhaling as he bent his head to kiss her hair, but missed. Just as his lips were in reach of hers, she yelped, jumping back from him.

Sam watched her as she shook her hand. He went towards her, concerning marring his features. Then his face cleared and he stopped, dead in his tracks. His eyes began widening as he looked from Helena to his own hand, which had begun to tingle. Closing his eyes, he opened them again as he raised his left palm up, and out towards her. He watched Helena's eyes widen in understanding, as she lifted her own right palm for him to see.

Sam let out the breath, he hadn't realised he'd been holding. He knew Helena's mate mark from Adrian would have vanished, as soon as he'd turned to ash. Now though, it had been replaced, the new half mark now there, was the other half to his own.

They stood staring at each other, only a few feet separating them. Nothing but lush land, the morning sky and silence surrounding them. Sam grinned at the realisation, but Helena just shook her head. She stepped further back from him, and his face dropped. Swallowing, Sam lowered his eyes, frowning.
What had he been expecting, that she'd just accept him?  Not likely. Not after she'd already been at the hands, and mercy, of an abusive Jaguar?

"No Sam, that's not it. I know you're nothing like him," Helena told him, and his head slowly rose.

"Helena you just read my mind, I never vocalised what I was thinking." He watched her own confusion as she looked towards him, her eyes slitting as she stared at him.

"
Fate wouldn't do this. It wouldn’t reward me after I'd killed a mate. Certainly not by replacing him with one I did want
." Sam's face split in a grin as he looked at her.

"You want me huh? I knew it," he said laughing as he strode forward and picked her up, the swung her around. "I knew you wanted me too, I've seen you check me out. Took you long enough," he said letting her slide down the length of his body, before taking her mouth. Helena pulled back, her dark navy eyes searching his clear, aquamarine eyes.

"
You can hear me
?" she asked tentatively, and he nodded his head.

"Yes, I can Helena. I can hear you here," he said pointing to his head, then he tapped his chest. "
I can also hear you here, too,"
he whispered into her mind, and her hand came up, covering her mouth.

Sam took hold of the hand, which she'd dropped from her mouth, and turned towards the tree line. Helena fell into step beside him, but just as they entered the tree line she stopped, looking back over her shoulder. Sam didn't say anything. He just stood, released her hand, and waited quietly by her side. He could feel her turmoil as she stood silently, watching a light breeze pick up the ash. The ash which was the only thing left of Adrian. Then it was gone, scattered by the wind.

He knew she was torn. Worried that she should feel some remorse over her actions. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better. Only time could do that. Then hopefully, she'd come to the realisation that she'd done the right thing. The Only thing. Or maybe seeing her daughter, and Jaden would. Hopefully, seeing them would help her to understand that she'd done that which had to be. Sam would have killed him without any remorse, and taking a life wasn’t really what he ever did willingly. Unfortunately, with them being shifters they couldn't live by human law, and stand trial. If they didn't police themselves, and stop rogues, then they'd threaten their existence as a whole. Discovery by humans could lead to mass hysteria, or hunting parties. So if it came down to it, he'd do what had to be done. It was the only way to guarantee their survival, and keep the threat away from humans. This way also maintained humans' ignorance, of their kind.

"I know you would have done it for me, but I needed to do it myself. I know I did. Thank you for understanding. It's just going to take time for it to sink in though, but I do appreciate it. I also love that I can hear you in my head. That was one of the things that always worried me about Adrian. I knew there was something not quite right with him, but God. I never dreamed it was what it was. Saying that though, I can't regret it either," she said. Sam looked at her with incredulity, but she simply smiled at him. Then one word shimmered in his mind, "
Maya
." Sam bent, kissing her nose.

"Yes, he did give you Maya," he agreed, as he again began walking. Helena once again fell into step beside him. Her hand slipping back into his. He intertwined their fingers, so their mate marks touched; as they made their way back towards home.