Page 54 of Triumph of the Wolf
More light glowed around me, filling the cave and shining on my skin.
You will place the protector, a female voice spoke into my mind. It seemed to come from the medallion, but I sensedthe magic of this place enhancing it, giving it power it hadn’t demonstrated before. Likespeaking.
The protector?I asked silently.
Though I was vaguely aware of standing in the cave, Duncan close behind me, I felt detached from my body, and my mouth couldn’t have voiced the words. In my mind, the vision continued, and I saw myself on that cliff, still holding the case and standing behind the mushroom artifact as it did who knew what.
It was made to protect humanity from our kind, but we shall use that to our advantage,the voice said.
How so?
Place the protector.
Uh, okay, but I’m not sure where that cliff is, and I have something else I need to do. Family I need to retrieve. Can you tell me where the kidnapped werewolves are? Do you know?
You are the future of the pack.
Glad to hear it,I said, even if I wasn’t.The kidnapped wolves? Do you know?
You will ensure the protector remains and that the power of the Old World reinvigorates the line and gives the pack the strength to withstand an uncertain future.
Behind me, Duncan eased closer, his hand sliding from my shoulder to my waist and then around it. His chest pressed against my back, and a zing of awareness swept through my body.
Since the wall hadn’t tossed me across the cave yet, I doubted he felt he needed to be close to keep me from being knocked unconscious. More likely, the medallions were using their magic to influence him. To influencebothof us. I caught myself leaning back into him, reveling in the heat of his hard body molding itself to mine.
I don’t object to helping the pack,I said, trying to keep my thoughts straight as Duncan’s mouth lowered to the side of my neck. My nerves zinged with pleasure as his teeth teased my flesh and he inhaled deeply, as if he’d never breathed in anything as amazing as my scent.But Jasmine is part of the pack. I need to help her. Do you know where she’s being held?
Maybe neither the magical cave nor the medallion had any way to know what was going on in the suburbs. Whether real estate developers or Abrams were behind the kidnappings, it had little to do with our artifacts.
“Luna,” Duncan growled, sounding more animal than man. His arms tightened around me, one hand straying to my waistband. “I need you.”
The growly words and his powerful grip made my body thrum with desire, and I caught myself rocking back into him as he pushed into me, his powerful frame trapping me against the wall. When I turned my head to look at his face, hunger burned in his dark eyes, sparking my own passion, a need to have him take me.
Where’s she being held?I tried to ask silently one more time even as I gave into my desire and kissed Duncan.
Our lips were demanding, our need rising with such intensity that I forgot where we were and why we had come. Even with the medallions glowing between us, I lost my awareness of being manipulated. When he unfastened my pants and slid his fingers into me, I gasped and bucked, savage wildness leaping into me.
I twisted in his arms, grabbing him as I mashed myself against him, a frenzy of need leaving me panting, magic mingling with passion, manipulation with true love. Such a desire to sate myself with him swept into me that I snarled and cried out. All animal. All werewolf.
We bit and clawed, instincts ruling us instead of our rational minds. Such pleasure rocked into me that I hardly cared. When Duncan tore our clothes away and plunged into me, we howled.
The cave walls hummed and glowed with magic, with power that wrapped around us as we came together again and again. Never had I known such intense pleasure. Never had I wanted more to be with someone. If this was what protecting the pack involved, I would give my everything to have it again and again.
The lupine howls that tore from our throats when we crashed together for a final time, an explosion of magic leaving us shaking, must have been audible outside of the cave and miles into the forest.
Panting with our hearts pounding, we finally sank to the ground, entwined and exhausted. The medallions continued to glow, satisfied, as if they’d shared in our joining, our pleasure. Their light gleamed, reflected in Duncan’s eyes.
His hand slid over my womb, fingers splaying. As my rational thoughts returned, I realized we hadn’t used contraception this time. Even if I’d had the wherewithal, something told me the medallions and the magic of the cave wouldn’t have allowed it. They’d wanted to secure the future of our kind, to leave me with a werewolf child that had our power, the power to protect the pack into the future.
18
On the floorof the cave, I lay with Duncan, his arms pillowing me and protecting me from the cold chill of the rock as he dozed. My eyes were wide open as I stared into the darkness. Their mission complete, the medallions had stopped glowing, and little light remained. Only a couple of the paintings on the wall continued to emanate faint silver illumination.
I stared at the closest paw print and touched it, disappointed that the cave had offered up only whatitwanted, not what I’d wanted. If finding that cliff and planting the mushroom artifact could help the pack, I would do it, but what of Jasmine and Izzy? I…
A tingle spread into my finger from the cool wall, and a second vision came to me.
This time, I stood in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle, the same table where I’d dined with Duncan, and looked out upon the city at night. The view, however, wasn’t familiar, at least not all of it. There was Puget Sound and Lake Union, but in a clearing amid the streets and buildings, a great garden sprawled, with paths meandering between exotic trees and raised beds and planters. Here and there, fountains rosebetween patches of blue-, purple-, and pink-flowered foliage. Beyond the borders of the garden, the city of Seattle remained, but I was confused, certain so much verdant space didn’t exist in that location in the real world. And those flowers weren’t like anything I’d seen before, certainly nothing native to the region.
