Page 7 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
“You sure as hell do,” he said with a brief smile, reaching out to brush back her hair from her face. He took a deep breath and let it out fast. “I can fight. I’ll go first, or all I’ll do is watch your gorgeous ass, and probably fall and break my leg.”
She snorted in amusement, even as desire rocked her. She plucked at her soggy sweatpants. “You haven’t seen my ass to know if it’s gorgeous or not.” She waved her hand in invitation. “After you, Alphonse.”
He started to go in, then straightened up and swooped in for a hard kiss, too fast to do more than give them a taste. He ducked in. She followed quickly. Already, she could feel the first threads of a bond forming between them. It both thrilled and scared her. There was so much she hadn’t told him. So much she didn’t know about him.
The shaft widened and went up. Wind whistled far above them. A sturdy-looking metal ladder started about eight feet above their heads. Nic wiped his hands on his grimy T-shirt, then crouched and launched himself out of the water and up, easily grabbing the third-from-the-bottom rung. He pulled himself up to get his feet on the first rung then looked back down at her. He frowned. “Fuck. I’m coming back down to give you a boost.”
Sloshing sounds came from the main corridor. Either someone was coming or the main water line had finally broken. “No time,” she said. “I’ll boost myself. Climb!”
She crouched and jumped, then used the water’s magic to swell the wave to lift her the extra height she needed to grab onto the bottom rung. She lifted her knees and managed to get one leg over the bar. She borrowed more magic to dry her hands and clothes, then swung up and caught the next bar and pulled herself upright.
“Amazing,” said Nic.
His praise pleased her, which annoyed her, because it was a bad habit to get into, looking for others to provide her self-worth. Besides, grace wasn’t one of her gifts. “Climb, damnit!”
He grunted and began climbing. She did the same, aware she’d hurt his feelings. She’d kiss him all over later to make up for it.
Unintelligible shouts echoed against the concrete walls, sending a frisson of fear down her spine. “I’m dowsing my light.” She did so, then cast a quick spell to make the hatch seem smaller and uninteresting. No time to reconstruct the illusion that completely hid it.
The reflected light from below was enough to let her see—one of the advantages of shifter senses. Nic’s wet sweatpants clung to every angle and plane of his massive thighs and muscular butt as he climbed. She could have used magic to dry his clothes for him, but where was the fun in that?
Just when she was beginning to believe they’d be climbing forever, the walls sloped in, and she smelled dust.
“Culvert is about twenty feet up,” said Nic. “Which way?”
“Lerro said right, shuffle left, right. I hope that’s the way out and not tap-dance choreography. Hard to tell with him.”
Nic stopped and swore. “The concrete is cracked and the top section of the ladder is hanging. Earthquake damage, probably.” He twisted to look down at her. “Can you fix it?”
“Maybe, but I need to see it.”
He crammed himself over to one side of the ladder and hooked his knee over the rung. She climbed up beside him, resolutely ignoring the raging attraction she felt just being near him. Shifter-mate biology was as powerful as all the books said, or maybe she was just extra susceptible because he was exactly her type. Tall, dark, and lumberjack.
Focus, dammit!she ordered herself. The magic-infused water below was too far away to steal from to repair the crumbling concrete where the bolts had pulled away. She eyed Nic’s bulging arms. “I can’t fix it, but could you pull the ladder the rest of the way off and tilt it against the far wall? If you can set it, my magic can hold it steady. Should give us a higher jump-off point.”
When he nodded, she climbed down to give him room. It only took him one try to wrench the ladder from its remaining bolts and do as she’d asked. She called up her dwindling reserves and magically fused the metal and concrete. “Go fast. I can’t hold it for long.”
Nic climbed the angled ladder and leapt up with effortless feline grace, landing on the edge. He shot glances left and right, then looked down. “Come on.”
She clambered up the ladder with considerably less coordination but managed to make the jump into the culvert. She let the magic go as she did so.
She didn’t mind that he had to pull her up, because it meant she got to slide herself along his deliciously hard body. Her poor brain wasn’t used to her hormones being in the driver’s seat.
He kept hold of her hand as they walked briskly down the big corrugated pipe. She created a mage light for them, so Nic wouldn’t bang his head into the periodic headers.
Lerro’s “shuffle left” instruction turned out to be a narrow trough in between two culverts, barely wide enough for broad-shouldered Nic to get through, even sliding sideways. They turned right into the next culvert, which was bigger in diameter and curved to the left. The ordinary smell of dust and the sound of gusty wind made her speed up. She’d been confined underground way too long.
The next curve brought the welcome sight of sunlight, and the unwelcome sight of a sturdy metal cross-bar grate. In the center, a human door was chained shut with a heavy lock. Probably designed to keep critters out. Fortunately, it was no match for a determined man with the strength of a tiger. He ignored the chain side and ripped the door off its hinges.
He bowed elegantly and gestured toward the opening. “You first, Gaston.”
She gave him an appreciative smile for responding to her earlier joke and stepped outside cautiously onto the sharp rocks. Her beast’s paws had thick callouses, but her human feet were soft and tender. She borrowed her beast’s senses to test the air and listen for predators, human and otherwise. Something smelled tantalizingly familiar, and not just Nic, who stepped up beside her.
Blue and brown mountains rose all around, with streaks of red in the nearby rocks and dirt. Hot, dry winds rustled low-growing, scrubby bushes. Gnarled pine trees dotted the slopes. The sun floated halfway between overhead and the horizon, and the pervasive heat meant it was probably mid-afternoon.
“We’re easy prey here,” Nic said, looking up and around. “The auction house has a landing pad and helicopters. We need to shift and run.”
“Yeah, but which way?” she asked. “Where are we?”
