Page 19 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
The car’s speakers sparked to life. “Hello, Skyla.” The warm, sweet woman’s voice laughed. “This is going to sound just like a children’s story, but my name is Tinsel, and I’m here to take you home.”
* * *
Skyla made a rude sound. “Yeah? Not going back.”
She hated it when hunters played sick games with their prey. She had to assume the woman could hear anything in the car. She made a one-eighty motion with her finger, to tell Nic she was taking his advice to turn around.
“Oh, no, dear, I’m not a hunter, I’m from Kotoyeesinay. I have a portal.”
The woman in the sleigh gestured. Magical winds buffeted their car and blew up a fog of ice crystals. The lights blazed blindingly bright and formed an arc. The highway and canyon walls on the other side of it changed colors and shape. And had no rain.
Skyla had never seen a portal big enough to drive a car—or a sleigh—through. The tremendous amount of energy felt like tiny static electricity shocks. She slowed the car to a crawl. “How did you know where I’d be?”
“When you were five, your parents made a deal with the Read ’Em and Weep Oracle Service to keep you and your sister on their Little Terror watch list. They’re overbooked, so they asked me to help.”
The tourist-gimmick name sounded just like what she remembered of Kotoyeesinay, the one time she’d been there. Back when her family was still alive.
She flicked a quick glance at Nic. “What about my companions?”
An icy breath of magic danced through the car. Mauk’s display brightened and faded. “All are welcome as your guests.”
Skyla stopped the car about fifty feet from the glowing portal and turned to Nic. “What do you think?”
He jutted out his chin. “Oracles make me crazy. Polar fairies”—he pointed a thumb toward the woman in the sleigh—“hate wizards almost as much as they hate arctic elves, so she’s probably not working for the auction house.” He checked the latch on his seatbelt. “I say go for it. The real hunters know where I am and will be here soon enough.” His lips curled in distaste. “I don’t want that asshole Landry in my head ever again.” He took her hand in his. “What’s your take?”
“It feels on the level. I want us in a sanctuary, where the auction house can’t get us.” She caressed the top of his hand with her thumb. “There’s probably a bed on the other side of that portal. I want to lick every inch of you, then make love with you and see if we really are mates.”
He put her hand on the front of his pants, over the iron bar of his erection. “You make me forget my own name for how much I want to be yours, and have you be mine.”
Desire thrummed her core so hard and fast she had to gasp for air. She really was in wolf heat for the manly tiger next to her.
It took everything she had to look forward again and put her hands on the wheel. “Okay, Tinsel, what will we owe you?”
Lightning forked in the sky.
“It’s all prepaid, dear. Just drive on through, and you’ll be at the Kotoyeesinay border. I’ll be right behind and close the portal after us.”
Skyla swallowed her doubts and started forward again. “Mauk, deploy your kinetic shields, just in case. I hope that will keep you safe.”
“Deployed.” The center display went dark blue, with only the time and date showing. Mauk probably couldn’t both shield and hit the GPS satellites.
A crack of thunder made her shoulders hunch and Nic twitched. She didn’t like thunder and lightning, either. She drove around the mound of snow and the cheerfully waving fairy in green velvet and white fur, and accelerated toward the portal. The sooner they got to sanctuary, the better.
Just as they passed by the glowing line, lightning struck the gate, sending a web of plasma energy fingers all over the car.
Skyla’s thoughts ground to a halt as time stretched…
...slowed...
...then snapped back with a roller-coaster rush of howling wind and ice crystals in her face.
Inexplicably, she flew forward into a bank of snow.
She sat up, hoping the world would stop spinning soon. Remnants of portal magic felt like static electricity. The only thing she could see in the dark was more snow, under her, all around, everywhere. No road, no smart car, no sleigh-riding fairy named Tinsel, no sexy Nic. She couldn’t feel him at all.
A frigid wind gust made her shiver with cold. She’d soon freeze in her human summer clothes. Fortunately, her true wolf had a coat thick enough to survive the Ice Age. She shifted.
Unfortunately, her superior wolf senses provided no new information on where she’d been ejected from the malfunctioning portal. She wasn’t a survival challenge devotee like her father and sister had been, but she knew enough about the wilderness not to stumble around in the dark.
Since she didn’t have an igloo, she used her wide paws and powerful shoulders to dig a little mound of snow, then bury all but her snout under it. Snow and fur made good insulators, and she was exhausted.
Once the sun rose, maybe she could figure out where the hell she was and find help. And find Nic, wherever the hell he was.
