while her companion snorted in derision.
“She’s just another Arcane. No big loss. If you’re that hot for them, you can always find another bitch to spread her legs,” Mark said.
Kelly winced. Nancy gasped, shoving her friend. “Mark, I wish you’d just shut up!”
Sam flicked his hands, sending an energy current at Mark, knocking him unconscious to the pavement. “Wish granted,” he told Nancy.
Then he stood, pulling Kelly with him. Nancy glanced at her. “I never thought an Arcane would risk her life for me. I was wrong.” She glanced at the unconscious Mark with disgust. “About a lot of things.”
“I’m sure he has some redeeming qualities,” Kelly offered.
“Like drooling on the sidewalk,” Sam muttered. With a nod to Nancy, he guided Kelly to
“You scared me to death. Don’t ever take the pendant off again.” He hesitated and added, “Please.”
Silence lay between them, intense and heavy, as they drove out of town. After a few miles, she turned in the seat, avoiding a spring sticking up through the cracked leather.
“Do you know what happened back there? I thought your powers healed me, but if you still had them, they didn’t.”
“I sent only enough energy into your body to find the venom and neutralize it, not repair the damaged muscle.” Bone strained against flesh as he tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “You healed yourself.”
“That’s impossible. I don’t have enough power and certainly not any healing abilities without the triskele.” Unless they’d formed a new, unique connection. Arcane magick and Elemental.
“I don’t understand it, either.” He gestured to the back. “I packed a cooler with snacks and water. We have a long way to go.”
Enormous stands of pine, maple and hemlock ringed Sam’s isolated log cabin in the remote Tennessee mountains. A vista of rolling green hillside, punctuated by a weathered barn, stretched before the back porch. Wisps of gray fog drifted up from the pine trees, smoking the chilly air as Kelly braced her hands on the porch railing.
After the flight from Miami to Atlanta, where he had a car waiting, she had no memory of the long drive or Sam carrying her inside and tucking her into the big bed downstairs. He’d taken her to the place she’d least expected—his private retreat, where they’d first made love.
The cabin felt much smaller. Or maybe it was the rugged, virile man who took up all the space.
Rain now splattered on the porch roof as she stood under it.
Sam stepped onto the porch and handed her a cup of steaming coffee.
They sipped in silence a few moments. Sam set down his cup on a side table. “I called Curt, my CO.”
Kelly tensed.
“I told him I had you secured in a hidden location in the United States. He said it was a matter for Mage authorities now and insisted I give you up.”
Jaw tightening, he stared at the rolling hillside. “I insisted otherwise.”
Her heart skipped a beat.
Sam kept a white-knuckle grip on the railing. “Curt wasn’t clear on what protection you’d have. In fact, he was very evasive. And then he launched into a rambling, confusing speech about the chain of command and how much trouble I face.”
“You think he’s been replaced by a duplicate?”
Anger and frustration snapped in his gaze. “Yeah. Curt never talks that much. Or wastes words.”
Sam flexed his hands. “I said you were in my custody and I’ll hand you over to the council myself.” A grim smile touched his face. “The entire damn council. At ST 21’s base, because you felt safer there.”
She saw the logic. “It’ll take them days to assemble. Doesn’t one live in Thailand?”
“Right. And my uncle is on his annual retreat in the Azores. No phone, no communication.”
“That buys time, but what if someone comes here looking for you?”
“Legally, the cabin belongs to a dummy corporation I formed long ago. No one knows I come here.”
“No one else?”
Sam glanced at her. “I haven’t returned since the fire. The corporation hires a cleaning crew to maintain the place. You’re the only other person who’s ever been here.”
Unease filled her, a burning question she hadn’t dared to ask all those years ago. “Sam, back then, did you bring me here so no one could see us together?”
Sam sighed. “It was easier, and more private. Kel, you have to understand, my father put a lot of pressure on me to settle down with someone from my own class.”
Kelly’s stomach churned. “I get it. You were ashamed. Good for some things but not others. Like in Honduras. A good fuck.”
“Stop it,” he snapped. “Don’t cheapen yourself like that.”
“I didn’t say it, Sam. I’m only repeating what was said to
Two strong arms encircled her waist, tugging her against him. Resisting, she stiffened as he sighed deeply into her ear.
“I’m sorry I left you all those years ago. And I’m sorry I said those cruel things back in Honduras. I insulted you, badly. If I could take it back, I would.”
“Why did you say it?” she whispered. “I was so humiliated. You made me feel like I’m... What did your father call it? An easy lay.”
“Gods, Kel, never. I was scared of what happened between us.”
“Like you were scared of telling your family about me?”
Gently, he turned her around and stroked a finger down her cheek. “I was going to bring you to formally meet my father, remember? The night of the fire. I wasn’t ashamed of you. Never.”
She rested her palms against his broad chest, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart. “I know. Everything came between us back then. We forgot who we were and fell back to what we were, Arcane and Elemental. And somewhere along the line, we lost faith in each other.”
“I should have stayed.” His warm palms cupped her chilled cheeks. “I need to tell you something. My letter said I left because it was over between us.”
A tiny muscle jumped in his jaw. “I left because I couldn’t bear that I’d lost my family and you. I headed west, shifted into a wolf to forget the grief. I went feral. Almost killed a rancher who shot at me when I was on a sneak-and-peek, eyeing his cattle. Called me a rangy, violent pest. I ran off, but got...crazy.”
He drew a deep breath. “The shotgun was no match for a wolf who could run faster than an express train and catch a man when his back is turned.”
Sam, cheerful and carefree, gentle and tender. She shivered, imagining him with sharp fangs, a vicious snarl and claws.
Darkness shadowed his gaze. Sam’s mouth tightened. “I let the wolf take over until grief and rage turned me into a beast. You stopped me. I thought of you, Kel, and the human part of me returned.”
Horrified, she stared at him. “Did the rancher die?”
“Was in the hospital a few weeks. The council sent authorities after me when they’d heard. They made me pay the rancher’s medical bills, which I would have done anyway. The council feared I’d turn vicious again and eventually someone would find out it was no ordinary wolf. They wanted to execute me.”
Shock made her heart go still a moment. His eyes closed, as if reliving the moment proved too unbearable.
“How did you convince the council you weren’t dangerous?”
It must have been good, because Sam
He looked away, a flash of guilt on his expression. “My uncle argued I’d acted out of grief. Because I was Elemental, they released me, on the condition to never turn into a feral wolf again. If they caught me, they’d turn
