A primes passion, p.7
A Prime's Passion, page 7
“We’ve been worried.”
She gave Donner a wan smile. “I’m fine. I just needed to get away.”
“If you want to run even farther, just say the word.” It was said in a teasing manner, although the light in his eyes was serious. “I’ve got friends all over. I can get us on a boat and we can take a few days off.”
“Like you’d abandon Meridia.” She treaded water, although her limbs were already feeling sluggish and heavy.
He moved closer and lifted a hand, easily staying afloat even as he touched her cheek. “You’re family, honey. You know that.”
“Thanks, Donner. But I just want to go home and sleep. For a month.”
Worry lines bracketed his mouth. “Okay. But you’re going to let me get you a lift back.”
“No.” She made a face at him. “If anybody sees us, some idiot might try to approach a natural orca like that—”
“Not that kind of lift.” He winked and nodded at something past her shoulder.
She felt the rocking of the water then and looked over her shoulder.
A familiar smiling face grinned down at her.
“Chassy.”
“Come on, honey.” The woman held out a hand and hauled Zee up into the sleekly built boat. She passed Zee a shirt and Zee pulled it on with a weary smile of thanks.
Behind them, the water lapped and splashed, displaced as Donner shifted to his orca form. He slapped the water with his tail, once, twice.
As the spray hit them both, Chassy called out. “You asshole!”
Zee was surprised to find she could laugh and she turned to wave at the large creature, knowing he’d done it for just that reason.
“Don’t encourage him,” Chassy said, but there was amusement in her voice.
ZEE’S SMILE WAS LONG gone by the time Chassy let her climb out of the boat on a private dock just a short block from her apartment. The dock behind the Mermaid’s Tale was too public and while she was covered from neck to knee in a t-shirt that her nose told her belonged to Donner, she didn’t feel like parading down the wooden planks with the bar’s patrons able to see her half-naked.
Her head was almost quiet as she drew near to her place and she thought maybe, just maybe, she could sleep without twisting awake in the middle of the night, taunted by the hungry desires of her own body, or by dreams of things she’d never have.
Of course, her exhausted state of mind meant her barriers were lowered, weaker... and it was easier for him to slip inside her barriers.
At first, she thought that was why she scented him on the breeze—the familiar, wild scent of pine trees, cold mountain air, woodsmoke... and oddly, the summer sun shining down hot on the grass, combined with the musky scent that was purely his.
Nikolai...
Her skin went tight as she dragged in a breath of air, the olfactory memory so strong, she imagined she could—
Her eyes went wide.
Coming to a stop, not even half a dozen yards from the narrow passageway that led to her apartment over the bar, Zee went tense.
Wolf. Prime.
Her own wolf stirred in awareness.
It was different from how she’d reacted earlier to that watchful, wary presence she’d picked up on—that unfamiliar presence.
This presence though...
Her heart shuddered and the longing that lived inside her swelled and stretched.
A shadow stirred in the darkness ahead. Tall and broad-shouldered, a stubborn jaw. In the coming twilight, the lights from her building cast him in sharp relief.
Her shuddering heart shattered, the pain of a thousand of lonely nights and empty days all combining to one moment of agony that eclipsed everything she’d ever known.
Adrenaline exploded through her and the exhaustion was nothing but a memory as she shifted. Even as a wolf, she was a slimly built thing and Donner’s shirt cloaked her like a shroud, tangling her up the excess folds. Panicked, she clawed and bit and tore her way free and took off.
Her last clear memory before her wolf took over was of Niko staring at her, his lips parted as they formed her name.
Chapter Seven
Of all the punches Niko had taken that day, taken and deserved, the worst was seeing the dark flash of Zee’s tail as she ran from him.
He staggered, slamming a hand against a nearby wall, as the echo of her fear, the scent, the taste of it, cut through him like a blade. Squeezing his eyes closed, he whispered softly, “Zee.”
But she was already gone, her scent lingering to taunt him.
All these years, he’d tried to forget that scent, tried to bury memories that had become like an icy blade, carving into his heart at the drop of a hat. The whip of memory was still there, but now it served as punishment.
Instinct warred with logic. He had little time left. Meridia had seen him not even ten minutes ago and offered a mocking smile before telling him, Zee’s back in P-town. Your countdown has started, Prime.
Everything about her, from her attitude to the sneer in her voice, rubbed raw against the core of dominance in him, but part of him, the part that had never stopped longing for Zee was glad for Meridia Blue.
She’d been the one to care for Zee when nobody else had stepped up.
“It should have been me,” he said to the night.
The sound of Zee’s headlong flight, quiet as it was, had faded by the time he made a decision. If he had the luxury of time, he would have backed off and let her calm down, but that wasn’t an option. Moving into the shadows, he stripped. Merida had told him not to shift in her territory, but he’d never catch Zee if he stayed in his human form. She was running scared and she knew this territory. He didn’t.
Habit had him folding his clothes into a military neat pile, shoes on the bottom. His mind was already on the chase ahead, the cool brush of the salt-laced night air filling his lungs as he started to breathe deeper in preparation for the run.
She’d always been fast, his lovely, sleek Zee. He was faster.
Primes always were the strongest and fastest, but Zee was swift and had a natural cunning to her that had been a surprise to him the first few times they’d played as wolves.
Later, he’d assumed that was her true nature and he’d battered himself for not seeing through her guise.
Now he’d have to rethink everything—again.
But none of that mattered right now.
He had to find her.
He shifted and took a deep breath of the air, catching her scent, the layers of it showing him paths she often walked—he also took note of a particular male scent.
Donner. His scent was layered with hers, something Niko had picked up on almost immediately and he’d seen her wearing a male’s shirt, known which male it had belonged to.
The urge to rip out a throat was strong, but again, that wasn’t the important thing this very moment. The tangled skeins coming from the ocean, fish and seals, decay and new life, the certain uniqueness of a scent that could only belong to the local alpha—the Regnar. Meridia.
And over it all, laced through it and under it, everywhere, he tasted Zee in the air.
He started to track her.
It took longer than he liked, longer than he would have expected and the wolf in him was alternately frustrated and pleased. Zee had gotten stronger. It wasn’t just an adrenaline-fueled panic that had given her wings either. She knew how to run. Therian wolves had more strength, speed and endurance than their natural counterparts and while Niko still possessed the ability to reason in his animal form, he didn’t think in terms like speed, kilometers, miles or hours but he knew they’d run a long time.
Zee had gotten a head start and she knew the terrain, knew how to maneuver, knew the treacherous areas. She also knew he was tracking her and more than once, she’d gone through those dangerous areas, her smaller body slipping through narrow spots that would have trapped his much larger form, forcing him to backtrack and pick up her scent trail all over again.
But he’d finally gained on her and they were on flatter land. The woods around them made little difference. Off in the distance, he heard the howl of a wolf he recognized as Therian.
He ran on and within moments, he realized Zee’s scent had changed—now there was a thread of panic.
He reached deep and found a well of strength and speed he hadn’t known he possessed, his claws tearing into the ground beneath him to give him better traction. Ahead, he scented water and realized Zee had led him to a body of water—a large stream or small river.
He had to get to her before she reached it—
Another scent. Male.
Zee, her panic rising to choke the air.
Ahead, a thicket of brambles blocked the way. He saw the small gap where she’d crawled through and ignored it, gathering his muscles. Lunging up and over, he landed with a growl thundering out of him.
Another wolf stood at the edge of the river, head cocked as he studied Zee, eyes bright. The power rolling from the Prime slammed into both of them before the sound of Niko’s growl faded and both wolves sank to the ground submissively. Zee was trembling, her muscles bunched tight with the need to resume her flight, but she couldn’t force her body into motion now.
Fuck.
Niko shifted to his human form and rose to tower over them both.
Looking at the unknown male, he said, “Go.”
The male shot a look at Zee.
Niko didn’t recognize this male’s scent, doubted he’d ever met him. There were nearly twenty thousand wolves in Appalachia, along with several Therian cats and some nomadic non-predatory Therian herd-clans. All of them fell under his rule and lead. But with his father’s death so recent, he had yet to visit with all the subpacks.
This male likely belonged to the Wolves of Greylock.
He’d carry Phoenix’s scent, then.
And likely the scents of others from the pack.
“You’re Greylock.”
The wolf bowed its head, still on its belly.
“She’s mine to care for. Tell Phoenix she’s safe.”
Still, the male hesitated.
Narrowing his eyes, Niko said again, “Go.” Command infused the word and after one last look at the female, the other wolf rose and slunk.
The moment his eyes left her, Zee started to slink closer to the water.
“Don’t make me chase you again, Zee.”
She froze.
He said nothing else, just listened to the fading sounds of the other wolf, waited until his nose told him the unknown male was gone before looking back to her.
“We’re going back to Provincetown. Do you need to rest first?”
She didn’t even look at him.
“Zee.”
She pushed up onto her paws and padded over to the brambles, pushing through the barrier with a careless disregard for her body. The sharp scent of blood in the air had him swearing and he strode over to her, his keen night vision spotting where a thick, long thorn had snagged in her fur, piercing the flesh below.
“Let me—”
Zee threw herself forward, the thorn tearing a deeper furrow in her side as she wrenched away before he could help.
Niko squeezed his eyes shut, hands clenched into impotent, useless fists.
Her blood now a stain in the night air, she started to trot, moving farther and farther away from him.
“Fuck,” he bit off before taking his Therian form.
She didn’t speed up when she scented him on the air.
But he didn’t take any comfort in that fact. The air of defeat that clung to her only made his beast snarl and claw inside him.
BY THE TIME THEY REACHED the small seaside town, it was late—or early, depending on how one looked at it.
Niko pulled his pants on after shifting, ignoring everything else.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly, gesturing to the stairwell that led to her home.
After a baleful look, she padded toward the stairs. He followed behind her, eyes scanning the area. Although he couldn’t track scents as well in this form, he still had a far superior sense of smell to humans.
The male Atargarian had been up here—often. Niko could taste his scent mingled with Zee’s, along with Meridia’s, the scents of others he hadn’t met. But the male’s and Meridia’s were the most dominant, next to Zee’s. Niko ignored the sharp press of claws inside his skin, the urge to go hunting. Zee reached her door and he watched, mouth gaping, as she went in through a fucking dog door.
Infuriated, he grabbed the doorknob, prepared to wrench it with enough force to break the lock.
But it wasn’t locked. It flew open with ridiculous ease and he caught sight of Zee’s tail just as she disappeared around the corner.
He closed the door behind him, setting his jaw, and telling himself the matter of the door didn’t matter. There was tech that existed that allowed doors to open and close simply with a scan of the eye, in animal or human form. It was basic and easy to install, and not particularly expensive. But Zee chose to use a dog door. That was her choice—here.
It wouldn’t be an issue once they returned to Durham-Starfell.
Moving silently through the apartment, he found her on the balcony outside the bedroom. The heaviness of the salt-laced air told him she must have left the sliding glass door open—at least she didn’t have a fucking dog door in here too.
She lay curled up with her head on her paws, her fur all black in the darkness.
“Zee.”
She made no reaction.
Crouching next to her, he reached out.
That got a reaction. She shrank in on herself, curling into a tight ball and burying her nose in the curve of her body, cringing like an abused pup.
The sight tore bloody runnels through his already shredded heart, even as something deep inside him stirred.
Rage...
Whines escaped her and he sucked the anger back inside him through willpower alone.
Cringing. Like an abused pup.
Too many memories rose to haunt him, things about Zee that had worried him in the first few months after they’d met, but that he’d brushed off later on. Now, looking at them through the lens of the adult he was, he realized there was a much uglier story than even what Phoenix had told him.
Without thinking about it, he reached out, drawn by the urge to touch her, cuddle her close, protect her.
Soft fur met his fingers. Her body went rigid under his hand and he almost yanked his hand back as he realized what he was doing. The whines coming from her were almost constant now, and he knew that although she trembled as if fearing a blow, the worst thing he could do was break contact while she was still lost in that spiral of fear.
“You’ve always been the prettiest damn wolf, Zee. That hasn’t changed. Hell, I think you’ve gotten prettier.”
Nothing but those pitiful broken sounds and wracking shivers.
The bite of fresh blood filled the air and he realized she’d broken the crust of dried blood that had formed a scab over the wound in her side.
“We need to clean your wound, make sure there aren’t any thorns inside.”
No reaction.
He stroked her for a few more minutes before trying again. “Come on, Zee. Shift for me. We need to talk.”
He hated that his words came out husky, almost a plea.
Finally, her body shuddered and he heard a ragged inhale. This time, it was his turn not to breathe as he waited for her to shift.
But she didn’t.
“Zee... baby, please.”
She jolted, shooting up onto her feet and racing into the apartment. He went after her, leaping over the bed and making it into the living room in time to see her darting for the door.
“If you take off running, I’ll just have to run you down again.”
She froze, her entire body quivering. Finally, her head bowed, tail drooping low.
He hated himself a little more.
But she stayed.
“Shift, Zee, so we can talk.”
SHE DIDN’T SHIFT.
Not then, and not in the hours that followed as the dark night sky bled away into dawn, then the clear blue of morning.
The sun shone down with relentless cheer when Niko reached for his phone and punched in the number for her brother. She’d fallen into a restless sleep on the balcony and he put his earpiece in, hoping she was exhausted enough that his voice wouldn’t wake her.
Phoenix came on the line, scowling at the sight of him. “I was hoping she’d bloody you.”
“Zee shifted to her wolf form last night a little before midnight. She won’t change back. Do you have any idea why?”
Phoenix’s brows came together over his eyes. So far, they were still their normal greenish-gray, but the man’s tension was clear in the hard line of his jaw, the stiff set to his shoulders.
“I thought I’d made it clear—I no longer have contact with my sister.”
“Fuck,” Niko swore, feeling his options sliding away from him with every passing second. “I’ve got less than eighteen hours to vacate Provincetown. I’d like to talk to her before we leave.”
“We?” Phoenix’s lashes flickered, the only real reaction.
“She’s coming back to Durham-Starfell with me. She’s been without a pack long enough.”
The black began to bleed into Phoenix’s eyes. “What if she doesn’t want to stay in Durham-Starfell, Prime?”
“Until she finds a place where she has a true pack, she has no choice. She needs to be with a pack, needs healing, touch. Since she’s in my territory, it’s my responsibility.”
A sneer quivered on Phoenix’s lips, but he stayed silent.
It was probably the best he’d get from the other man, and considering everything Niko had learned, he couldn’t blame the other man. “If she doesn’t shift soon, I’ll have to force the issue—”
“No!”
The word came out in a low, choked plea.
Niko had looked away from his phone, eyes on the sleeping wolf just outside the glass doors but the sound of Phoenix’s voice had his attention shifting back to the other man.
