Jewel of Darkness (16 page)

The rage had instantly consumed him, dumping adrenaline into his bloodstream. The only thing that kept him from tearing off through the forest in search of the veil had been the presence of the Alphas, including his own.

Finally, evening out his breathing, he had the sudden urge to shed his human skin. He needed his wolf to help him deal with the emotions flooding him. Dalton tore the clothes from his body and phased instantly to his wolf. For a moment, he didn’t know where he was going to go, but then he pictured the room where Jewel had laid for several months, still as death, lost in her own mind. But still she’d been there with him. He took off at a run. He didn’t slow down as he rounded the side of the house and bolted for the window he’d used to visit her. He leapt, and his head slammed into the glass, shattering it. His body followed and the glass crunched beneath his paws as he landed. Dalton didn’t stop to think about whether or not his feet were being cut. He made a beeline for the bed that had been hers. It had been stripped of the sheets, but she’d laid there for so long that her scent lingered on the mattress. He jumped up onto the bed, giving it a good sniff before laying down. After several minutes, Dalton gave in to the urge to roll around, covering himself in her scent that was left behind. His feelings were confusing to him. He needed her with a desperation that rivaled the way a male felt for his mate, and yet still the pull of the mate bond wasn’t there.

Doesn’t matter. She’s ours,
his wolf snarled. He’d become increasingly agitated. His wolf needed action. He wanted to hunt, but Dalton didn’t have the slightest idea where to begin.

Two days’ time,
he reminded the wolf.

Two days too long.

Dalton agreed. It didn’t change the fact that she simply was beyond his reach. Without the bond, he had no way to find her. He pictured her face in his mind and he shook like an addict needing a fix. After everything he’d been through in his long life, who would have thought that a human female, who loved books and useless information, would be the thing that brought him to his knees? He turned his head up toward the ceiling and howled — long, deep, and mournful. The sound filled the room and traveled out the broken window. It started in his lungs and traveled up his throat and out of his mouth, but the source was his cold, broken heart. The other wolves joined in his chorus. He was so focused on his own grief that he didn’t hear the door open or close. As his howl died, he became aware of his Alpha standing against the wall across from him. He held a pair of sweatpants in his hand but didn’t offer them to the wolf.

Dillon watched him quietly. Dalton met his gaze briefly before looking away. He didn’t lower his eyes; it wasn’t in him to be submissive at that point. There was only one who could bring him to his knees and it was no longer his Alpha.

“Peri will get her back,” Dillon told him.

Dalton growled.

“I know,” Dillon held up a hand. “I know you want to be the one to rescue her. No, I take that back. I know you
should
be the one to rescue her. But at this point, does it really matter? Isn’t it more important that she be returned to you, no matter how that has to happen?”

Dalton phased. He caught the sweats that Dillon tossed at him and jerked them on. “Of course, I just want her back no matter how that has to happen. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t kill me that I wasn’t the one who could save her!” He roared when Dillon started to interrupt. “It kills me because she is mine.
I
am the one who is supposed to keep her safe and I failed. Not only did I fail to keep her safe but I then failed to get her back. What kind of mate does that make me? How can she ever feel safe with me?”

“I won’t argue with you,” Dillon said calmly. “If I were in your place, I would feel the exact same way, as would any male in your shoes. So it would be pointless for me to tell you that she doesn’t expect you to be perfect. She doesn’t expect for you to be all powerful.”

“I should have kept her safe.”

Dillon made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “That’s not the point, at least not anymore. You need to start preparing yourself for her return. She may not be the same person that she was.”

Dalton shot his Alpha a glare. “She will still be Jewel.”

“Yes, but there is no telling what Volcan has done to her.” Dillon pushed away from the wall when Dalton took a step toward him. “Dammit, Dalton, I know you don’t like to hear it. I know it’s horrific and disgusting and enraging, thinking of all the possibilities, but you have got to be prepared. You say you don’t feel a pull toward her anymore, at least not the way mates do, so that begs the question, how will she feel about you? I am not trying to be cruel. As your Alpha, it is
my
job to protect
you
. I just want you to be prepared for the fact that she might not run to you with open arms. That doesn’t mean it’s because she’s mad at you or blames you. It could just be because she doesn’t feel like she knows you. Humans spend a much longer time courting one another than we do. When the mate bond was present, she felt instantly drawn to you, like she already knew you. But she may not feel that way anymore. You need to be prepared to be patient with her.”

“I’m not an emotionless, cold bastard, Dillon,” Dalton snarled. “I won’t expect anything from her. I just want her safe. I want her out of the hands of that sadistic prick. I want her here with me and if it takes a day or a thousand days, I want the chance for her to fall in love with me, bond or no bond.”

Dillon stared at him for several silent, tense moments before nodding his head and then silently leaving the room. Dalton stared at the closed door for several minutes. His Alpha’s words played over and over in his mind,
She may not be the same person that she was.
He wanted her to be whole and intact. She’d already been through so much and it hadn’t broken her. Regardless of how strong she was, everyone had a breaking point. He hadn’t known his own until he’d met Jewel. She was his breaking point.

“Hang on, Little Dove,” he murmured under his breath. He gave the empty bed one last look and then walked over to the broken window. Dalton jumped out and landed softly onto the ground. He didn’t know where he was going. He just knew that sitting around waiting wasn’t an option. If he had to run for the next two days to hang on to his last shred of sanity, then that is what he would do, be it in wolf form or human. Dillon had been right, he didn’t want to hear about the things that could have happened or could still be happening to her. He didn’t want to think that Volcan might have broken her. Dalton could only hope that she would be able to forgive him for failing her.

“I will make it up to you,” he vowed as he took off into the forest. If his existence was only to help her heal and live a happy, safe life, then that is what he would do. Even if she didn’t want him as her mate, he would still do everything in his power to ensure her happiness.

A
nna’s eyelids felt heavy as she opened them and blinked several times to clear away the sleep. She pushed herself upright from the plush chair into which she had folded herself and looked slowly around the room. The sight of the fairytale-like room reminded her that she was no longer with her new healer friends. She looked around for the small pixie woman. Adira, she remembered, had been her name. But there was no sign of her. The fire still burned in the small hearth, but the songs of the birds had quieted. A painful clenching in her chest and the subtle feeling that she wasn’t alone had Anna clenching her teeth as she remembered the reason she’d ended up with Adira in the first place.

She’d needed to think, to really process the changes that were happening so rapidly in her life. It was one thing to watch one of her new friends find their mate or to see ones like Sally and Costin fitting so well together. But it was an entirely different thing now that it was happening to her. Feeling a presence in her mind had been alarming, especially, when she’d felt her own soul responding to it. There was a part of her that wanted to turn around and run straight to him. She didn’t understand that part. It was almost as if a stranger resided inside of her, and for the first time, Anna was meeting her.

The stranger was trying to tell her that she belonged with the wolf that pursued her, that by his side was where she was meant to be. But the rational side, the side she had relied upon for so long — the
human
side — was telling her she didn’t know the man from Joe Blow on the street and therefore would not be running heedlessly into his arms.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stood up to stretch out her tight limbs. Though she’d slept, it hadn’t been peaceful, which was evidenced by how tight her muscles were. As she rotated her head around on her shoulders, she saw the tree branches part and Adira walked in.

“How did you sleep?” the pixie asked with a friendly smile.

“Not great,” Anna admitted.

The woman nodded as though she understood. “It’s hard to sleep well when so many changes are taking place.” She paused and then seemed to remember she was holding something. She held out her hand. “Here, I picked these for you.”

Anna stepped forward and took a small basket of berries from the woman. Her first reaction was delight. Anna loved plants of any kind, both flower and fruit bearing. But then she considered what she knew of fables and, stupid though it may seem, she couldn’t help but wonder. She looked down at the berries and then back at Adira. “There isn’t some weird rule about not taking food from pixies because then you will want to dance forever and forget all your family or anything is there?”

Adira laughed. “The things you humans come up with is quite amusing.” She shook her head. “No, not that I’m aware of.”

Anna nodded. “Good, because I’m starving.” She dug into the berries as she watched Adira move about the room, straightening this and that. She seemed quite content in her home even though she appeared to be the only one who lived there. “Do you get lonely?” Anna blurted out before she could think better of it.

Adira turned away from the bookshelf she’d been organizing. “Why would you ask that?”

She didn’t seem offended, of which Anna was glad. “You live alone.” Anna didn’t word it as a question.

“I do.”

“And if I remember correctly, we walked quite a ways on our way here ― which means you don’t live close to anyone,” Anna pointed out. “So, I guess I was just wondering if you get lonely out here by yourself.”

The pixie shrugged. “Most of the time I’m quite content. But, it is nice to have someone to talk to every once in a while,” she motioned towards Anna.

“Well, I always talked whether there was anyone to listen to me or not,” Anna admitted.

Adira’s brow drew together. “You live alone as well?”

It was her first reaction to deny it. She’d been protecting her mother so long, trying to make sure no one found out just how much time she spent by herself, and worried that the state would step in and take her away to some orphanage. But as she stared at Adira, Anna realized she was tired of lying, tired of having to keep the secrets she protected so carefully.

“Yes, I’ve lived alone for a long time.”

“But you’re so young. You can’t possibly be old enough to be on your own.”

Anna shrugged. “My mom didn’t think so.”

“She just left you?” The accusation in the pixie’s voice was stern as she frowned at Anna.

“My mom is a gypsy, like a
real
gypsy. Not, what I am. She actually lives the life of a gypsy, traveling around with her people. She says if she stays in one place too long she begins to feel restless, and that if she stayed still for too long, evil spirits would be drawn to her.”

Adira made a clucking sound with her tongue. “That’s hogwash. When you have a child, their needs and wants become your own. What you want has to take a back seat. And evil can come a knocking all it wants, but it can only get in if you invite it.”

Anna wanted to say that she agreed, but at the same time, she could see her mother’s point of view. Her mom had been raised within the gypsy community. It was what she knew. She’d stayed in one place while Anna had been young, but as soon as Anna started high school, she’d started rambling. She began traveling with the community of gypsies that often came through New Orleans. Once Anna had graduated from high school, her mom had pretty much told her to have a nice life.
No, that wasn’t fair,
Anna thought. She hadn’t just left her. Her mom had tried to explain to her that she needed to travel and ― Anna’s eyes snapped up as they met Adira’s. “Oh crap,” she muttered as the memory of the night her mom left came crashing down on her. “She knew.”