Release, book 3 of The Angler series (21 page)

Birds? Had she blow the roof off the building?

Cool.

She rubbed her blurry eyes and blinked. Her heart did a double beat. She shook her head and blinked again.

Surrounded by lush green plants, Susan sat on a carpet of soft moss. She rose onto shaky, numb legs. A giant tree loomed thirty feet over her head. Three grown men touching fingertips might be able to hug the trunk.

There wasn’t a forest for miles, yet here she stood in the middle of one. She did a slow three-sixty. Tree, tree, bush, tree, building. Bingo.

Before her towered a stone structure overgrown with flowering vines. Taking one slow step at a time, she approached it. The steps were swept clean of any debris or growth. She climbed, listening for anything inside. Huge gaps in the walls let the sunlight in between the stone slabs, and deep, worn engravings covered them. She traced one with her fingertip and didn’t recognize the language. Hell, she couldn’t even read the symbol. Where was she?

Sucking in a sharp breath, she clapped her hands over her mouth.

DOUG had worked?

She was standing in another dimension.

Alive.

Her trip had been unintentional yet successful. She needed to high five someone. It had worked just like she’d said it would. All those people who’d laughed at her idea could shove it up their collective—

Twisting around with a foolish grin cramping her cheeks, she saw only rainforest. Shadows covered the ground since the trees’ canopy blocked most of the sunlight. Her grin faded and she broke into a cold sweat.

Oh shit, it had worked.

A vacuum of dread sucked the excitement from her body. The explosion must have punctured a hole through the dimensional veil and thrown her through. She couldn’t see the blue portal light. Without the machine, the gateway couldn’t remain open. Or ever open again since it should be slag with the rest of her lab. She shivered and pulled her coat tighter.

She was alone. Stranded God knows where.

For all she knew, T-rex lived over the next hill or worse, the Nazis had won World War II.

Taking a shuddering breath, she closed her eyes. She was a brilliant scientist, graduating at the top of all her classes. The unknown wasn’t something to fear but to be embraced and studied. However, field operations had never thrilled her. She was a lab geek with delusions of exploration. She’d always pictured herself guiding those brave souls who would step onto a new world from the safety of Technocon, not being that person. Glancing over her shoulder at the forest, she took a steadying breath.

What lived out there?

Birds sang, loud and uninterrupted by the hum of cars or machines. She couldn’t see any electrical lines or other buildings. Please, let there be some kind of path or road to follow. How long could she survive in the wilderness? Probably a couple days before something ate her.

The birds fell silent. She froze, facing the forest. Nothing moved. Her heart galloped as she searched the gloom. She backed into the building, not wanting to take her eyes off the woods. A crack in the floor caught her heel, and she stumbled while her arms pinwheeled until she caught her balance.

All right, she needed to get a grip. Just because things were quiet didn’t mean she should panic. Breaking her leg would be a death sentence. She kicked off her shoes. The logic was sound but the adrenaline coursing through her body told her to screw off and run. A cold sweat broke out over her skin, and a cool wind made her shiver.

She scanned the inside of the building. It didn’t have a roof. A stone altar in the center offered the only shelter. She hurried across to it and laid a hand over the smooth, cool surface. Breathing a sigh of relief, she closed her eyes for a heartbeat. It wasn’t bloodstained. That was a good sign, right?

She crept around to the other side and knelt behind it. Hiding felt right.

Crouched on the cold stone floor, she hugged her knees to her chest. At least the military hadn’t gotten her machine. A small consolation while squatting in another dimension, all alone like a frightened animal.

The rustle of leaves to her left made her squeak. She clapped her hand over her mouth and peeked around the corner. Something with silver-gray fur crawled under the vines through one of the wall’s many gaps.

Please let that be a big-ass raccoon. She watched as the creature’s dark, wet nose moved in her direction and sniffed. All her muscles seized. She couldn’t move or breathe.

The nose pushed through, followed by a large, wolf-like head. On his stomach, he crept into the building. Her vision tunneled as he rose to his hind legs and kept rising until he towered over her. Long claws protruded from his fingers and toes. Swinging his head, he sniffed the air. Three jagged scars ran over his muzzle. His amber gaze met her stare, and he bared his sharp teeth. As he moved, thick, solid muscles slid under his silver fur.

With a knocking heart, Susan was anchored to the spot. A werewolf. A real, honest-to-God werewolf stood not five feet from her. She hadn’t crossed dimensions. She’d died and gone to hell.

As he stepped toward her, something flipped off in her brain and it stopped functioning. Deductive reasoning vanished like a cheap parlor trick. Sixty thousand years of human instinct buried in her genes kicked in, and Susan scuttled away from the beast until her head hit the stone wall. Ignoring the sharp pain, she grabbed the vines and pulled herself to her feet. All the while she couldn’t stop staring at this magnificent creature made of nightmares. She took a deep breath and let out a scream that rattled her tonsils.

Once in the faint sunlight within the Temple, Sorin rose on his hind legs and loomed over the cowering female in his feral form. Running as a beast was the fastest and safest way to travel through the forest.

Ever since the Dark Moon Goddess disappeared over one hundred years ago, the Temple resembled a tomb. The solitude appealed to him. It usually helped him think; however something strange disturbed the place today.

Shaking his mane, he tried to settle his crazed fur. He’d been awake all night tending the sick, and he stank of it.

The strange blue light no longer burned in the sky but he’d tracked an odd, delicate smell to this spot. Something different, something he couldn’t place. It smelled female, and she now crouched behind the altar. Screaming.

His ears folded back against his furred head as he continued to bare his canines at the female. Slim and tall, she remained in her civil form. Odd—she should have shifted at his challenge. She wore a well-tailored jacket that fell to her knees. He’d never seen cloth so clean and white. Her doe-brown hair was pinned in a strange manner, twisted behind her head. Inhaling her scent through his mouth, he tried to taste her pack, but couldn’t find anything.

Leaves rustled behind him as Peder, one of his pack’s omegas, crept through the bush and entered the Temple. Sorin shouldn’t have favorites, but if he did, Peder would be one.

The thin, wiry shifter glanced at him and ducked his head when their eyes met. Sorin’s father had been hard on the weaker members of the pack. Five years since the bastard’s death, and still none of them would meet his gaze, even after all the effort to place his omegas at ease.

He normally wouldn’t have dragged an omega from the pack on this type of journey, but he had to leave what healthy hunters remained to guard the den. Peder had to wolf up and take a more dominant role today.

For a little thing, the female sure could make a lot of noise. “Shush, you’ll attract every creature within earshot.” He had to shout so she could hear him as he stepped around the altar.

Her eyes widened to the size of the giant pink blooms adorning the Temple. All the color drained from her face. Flailing her arms around, she tangled them in the thorny vines growing on the walls. “You can speak?”

He winced. Those thorns could poke through the toughest hides but she didn’t seem to notice them piercing her delicate skin. Thin streams of blood trailed over her pale flesh. “By my hairy arse, female, what are you so afraid of?” He reached to untangle her, but she shrank away, deeper into the vines.

Her limbs trembled, and the scent of her fear almost choked him.

His ears shot up. “You’re afraid of me?” He sniffed her again and sneezed at her strange odor. She didn’t carry a shifter’s scent marks and definitely wasn’t a bloodsucker. What kind of female traveled alone?

Shifters stuck together. It was instinct. He couldn’t imagine any of his females leaving pack lands by themselves.

Maybe she was an outcast from her race? Eorthe held many species. The female could have wandered into their forest by accident. Being unmarked meant anyone could claim her, and that always meant trouble: challenges between males, jealousy among the females, dominance ranking shit. His pack had enough problems.

His heavy heart sank. He’d come to the Temple with Peder to gather the blue flowers that grew on these lands to help the Apisi, his small pack. An illness had set its deadly sights on them. Something invisible, something he couldn’t fight with tooth and claw. The fever was burning through his people, who now had no healer as Sorin had buried their pregnant healer just this morning. Before she passed she’d told him to gather more of these flowers to fight the fever since she’d used the last of her stores, and others still fell ill.

Then this stranger had fallen from the blue light in the sky above his head.

“What are you?” the female asked.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was speaking to him. “I—I’m a wolf shifter, alpha of the Apisi.” Taking a slow step forward, he sniffed close to her body. “What in creation are you?” Now that he stood only a few inches from her, he could see her un-callused hands, as if she’d never seen a single day’s hard work. No scars on the exposed skin of her neck and face. Apparently, she’d never fought for dominance either. Even her fine, tailored clothes appeared too rich for the area.

She struggled to free her arms but only made things worse. “What?” Cocking her head to the side, she stared at him. “I’m human.”

“Stay still.” He snapped the order. Sorin released his retractable claws on one hand, sliced the vines, and freed her arms. “I’ve never heard of hu-man. You must live farther south from the vampires.” So he’d been following the scent of a human.

She clutched her neck with shaky hands. “Vampires?” Her gaze never left his claws as he slowly sliced her legs free.

Once done, he gave her space. Her fear scent excited his beast since fright usually accompanied prey. He tapped his foot, his claws clicking against the stone floor. “What are you doing on Temple lands?”

“I’m lost.” The human spoke so softly he had to strain to hear. She kept glancing between him and golden-furred Peder as if waiting for one of them to pounce.

He tried not to stare so hard. Soft creatures didn’t survive in the wild long, and this female was filled with all different kinds of softness. He sighed. “Did you see the blue light?” All he had wanted was a few moments of peace. Instead, he found…her.

“No, where was it?” She sidestepped toward the Temple exit.

“Right above our heads, not long ago.” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know how you missed it.” Since she fell out of it. He’d seen her limp form tumbling in the air from the light just before it winked out.

She trembled, and her scent changed. “I—I—oh yeah, the blue light. Weird phenomenon. Scared the shit out of me.” She quickened her steps to the exit. “I should be heading home.”

“How?” The scent of her untruths grew stronger. Everyone knew you couldn’t lie to shifters. Why was she trying? “You just said you were lost. Will you wander unaccompanied through our forests until someone worse than me finds you?”

Peder quietly stepped behind her to block the exit. He might be submissive for a male, but he was smarter than most and could work without guidance. Sorin would make a hunter of him if it was the last thing he did.

The human blinked her large brown eyes, such an unusual color. Everyone he knew had amber, blue or green eyes, never the rich darkness of mother earth. Life came from the earth, which was why they returned their dead to it. Did this human bring life with her?

“Maybe the Goddess sent her?” Peder’s softly spoken question quieted Sorin’s doubts.

Fanning his ears, Sorin stepped closer to her. “Did she send you?” What little hope he’d sheltered for his people had vanished this morning when he’d spoken the burial rites over the graves. This stranger shed some light through his despair.

She shook her head. “N-no.”

“You will return with me.” Sent from the Goddess or not, he couldn’t afford to take any chances by letting her go. So much for not dragging an unmarked female to his den. It would make hunting and defense that much harder since his healthy hunters would strut through their canyon home and beat each other senseless over a stray.

Her gaze darted to the doorway just before she slipped under his arm and past Peder’s reach. Swift as a jackrabbit, she scrambled down the stairs and squeezed into the thick brush surrounding the Temple.

As he watched her escape, Sorin shook his head. He really was tired. Too many sleepless nights in a row were affecting his reflexes. The odd blue light, her sudden appearance and his need for a miracle were too coincidental.

He pointed at Peder. “Go get the flowers and bring them to Lailanie. I’ll take care of the female.”

“Chasing will only frighten her more, Alpha.” Peder still stared at the floor, but at least he offered his advice without being coerced.

“What would you have me do? Let some other pack have her?”

“No, just don’t be so…intimidating.” He pointed to his exposed teeth with his claws. “Try not thinking she’s prey.”

“Go get the fucking flowers, Peder. I promise not to eat her.” He leapt from the stone steps and skirted brush too dense for him to enter. The sly female wedged easily into the smaller spaces where he couldn’t pursue with his bulk, but the brush didn’t lead anywhere. It only surrounded the Temple foundation. She was trapped.

Crouching low to the ground, he moved along the thick wall of plants. His little prey made enough noise that even the youngest of pups could track her. With ears fanned open, he followed her progress. The birds started their songs again as he got to the far end of the area.

By the Dark Moon, she moved slowly. He could have taken a nap while waiting. He watched Peder head toward their home with a small sack of flowers. The rustling in the bushes drew closer, and Sorin gathered his energy to pounce.

From out of the brush snapped a young sapling, which whipped the sensitive tip of his nose. With a yelp, Sorin fell back, clamping his hands over his muzzle. Through pain-filled eyes, he watched the female tear across the open ground.

Sorin blinked to clear his vision and bounded after his suddenly fast quarry. Her white coat fluttered behind her like a treaty flag, but this female didn’t show any signs of surrender.

She ran full-tilt up the hill toward its summit.

Trailing closer, he could smell the trace of border markings on the wind. If he didn’t hurry, she’d run off the neutral ground of Temple lands and onto some other pack’s territory. He couldn’t follow if she did. “Stop! There’s danger that way.”

She twisted and glanced at him, not watching her step. Something caught her foot at the top of the hill and she fell.

Sorin leaped, reaching with clawed fingers. They pierced the hem of her white jacket. The delicate material tore along the sharp edges of his claws, and the shreds slipped through his fingers. Relief mixed with triumph, pumping through his veins, gave way to dread. He scrambled to grab the tatters and not lose the female, but the momentum of her flight downhill sent her tumbling head-over-heels out of his grasp.

A cry echoed over the quiet forest of Payami lands. Kele spun toward the sound. It came from the direction of the hills, off their path.

Her guards, in feral form, tightened the circle around her. They perked their ears forward as low growls rumbled in their chests.

The thick forest blocked her view. She couldn’t see who cried out. Shoving past the males, she headed toward the noise.

Ahote, her primary guard, blocked her way. “We’re to take you to the Temple and the Temple only.” He gestured at the overgrown path that connected their den and their place of worship.

Well, her place of worship. Not many of the pack prayed anymore.

“I’ll send someone to investigate.” He gestured to another of the males.

She glanced at each of her four guards. It wasn’t their fault she needed protection. Her defective body made her weak. Not being able to shift to feral form, stuck as a civilian, left her defenseless in the wilds. Traveling in the forest was safer as a beast, with sharp teeth and claws to fight. Until she figured out her trigger to change shape, she’d need guards whenever leaving the pack’s den.

But she rapped her knuckles on the tip of Ahote’s nose anyway. If she let him boss her around, the others would eventually start. Her place in pack hierarchy was a constant battle. Even her own mother didn’t know how to treat her. “I’m not ignoring a cry for help. They might be hurt.” As daughter of the Payami alpha couple, Kele was due more respect, but the fact she couldn’t shift confused everyone’s instincts.

Ahote’s ears folded back and he moved aside, not breaking eye contact. A quiet growl stirred in his chest as she passed him. It was difficult to ignore the huge, black beast, but if she showed even the slightest scent of fear he’d attack her.