Seduced by the Wolf Read online

  Ariel vaulted over the fence post and walked over the meadow, ignoring Jarrett’s warning. She’d gone barely fifty yards when the same stench filled her nostrils, making her gag.

  Pain suddenly speared her foot. Ariel cried out. Struggling to keep her balance, she grabbed her foot and examined it.

  A bead of blood bubbled up. She dotted it with her finger. Suddenly she didn’t want to be here on this land with the malevolence thick in her mouth.

  She ran to the fence. Jarrett clasped her waist and lifted her over. Ariel sat on the ground and examined her foot.

  The puncture mark was gone. No stinger, no sharp object. As if it had vanished.

  “What is it?” Jarrett gently stroked a finger over her sole.

  “Nothing.”

  But as they made their silent way back to his cabin, Ariel had a bad feeling about it.

  She was Lupine Fae. Filled with magick, light and the ability to draw energy from the earth. His people needed her and her energy. For more than thirty years, they’d lived in darkness after the pack males were imprisoned for fighting with the jaguars.

  Jarrett couldn’t admit the deep truth. He needed her, more than for mere sex. He craved her lightness and truth. He’d forgiven the jaguars for the violence, had forgiven Daimon, the Ancient who had killed his sister. He’d forgiven all.

  Except himself.

  Some things could never be forgiven.

  Ariel erased the shadows always dodging his heels. Maybe with her at his side, he could finally find peace. Her toughness, her ethereal features and her rising passion were as addictive as a drug. He could handle her in bed.

  He could not handle her in his heart. He’d keep her safe, would die himself before letting anything happen to her. But love? Sharing his heart?

  Jarrett placed a hand over his chest, feeling the rapid thump of that organ. He tried to retreat into the dark corners, where it was safe. He found himself craving the safe shadows.

  Light would reveal what he truly was, the beast that had killed.

  Chapter Ten

  The climb up the mountain later that afternoon filled Ariel with dread. She suspected what they would find.

  Adrenaline spiked her blood as she trailed behind Jarrett. Whatever was in the mine held her people captive. The mine was made from man, tainted with metal and iron and all things irritating to the Fae.

  Her father had not gone there by choice.

  They reached the mine. Ariel shied away from a rusty iron cart near the tracks leading deep into the recesses. Jarrett peered inside.

  “Stay behind me,” he told her.

  Ghostly gray light filled the cavern. As they ventured down the narrow tunnel, the light became stronger. Her stomach knotted as they reached a large room filled with old mining equipment. Ariel stopped, stricken by the sight. She heard Jarrett mutter a low curse.

  Her father sat in a corner, surrounded by the other Fae. Pale light spilled from their eyes. The irises were pale and glowed gray. Ariel raced over to her father and fell to her knees by his side.

  “Father, tell me, why are you here?!”

  “The land,” Cael mumbled. “It’s tainted. The meadow. Jarrett’s meadow, fenced off…”

  “I know. What happened?”

  “Can’t kill it, can’t eliminate it. Not us. Only Jarrett.”

  Then he fell forward, collapsing to the ground. A moan came from him. “Can’t stand the sunlight, the exposure, too bright, too much, hurts my eyes. Keep it dark. Safe. The monster.”

  “What monster? Father, please!” Ariel shook his shoulder but he did not respond.

  Jarrett squatted down and gently propped Cael upward. He felt his pulse. “He’s alive. For now. We have to get him out of here.”

  Lifting her father as if he weighed no more than a child, Jarrett started out of the mine. But the minute sunlight touched Cael’s face, he screamed.

  She felt a jolt of agony rush through her, her father’s pain her own, a cold knife sliding over flesh. “Take him back into the dark!”

  Jarrett ran back into the mine and gently laid Cael on the ground. He rubbed the back of his neck as he stood. His expression was humble and contrite. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t know what this is, how to cure it…”

  He took a deep breath, punched the rock wall. Shards shattered under the impact. Jarrett studied his bruised and bleeding knuckles.

  Then he glanced at Ariel and his eyes widened.

  “The Luminaire,” he said hoarsely.

  Ariel lifted the charm in her hands. But its light stuttered, like a flame disturbed by a breeze.

  A slow, sluggish feeling invaded her limbs. She felt her muscles cramp with coldness, and turned as she heard a screeching howl rush from deep inside the mine.

  Ariel pushed Jarrett against the wall as the black mass whirled forward. Then it slammed into her, engulfing her in icy coldness. She saw the truth hidden in the darkness, howling like a banshee. The reason her people were dying.

  The last thing she saw was Jarrett’s face, stricken and pale, as he shouted her name.

  Then the grayness rose up and she fell into it.

  Ariel sagged against the cave well, listless and desolate.

  Frantic, Jarrett clasped her shoulders and shook. “Ariel! Come back to me, sweetheart. Don’t fade away.”

  Fear clogged his throat, stealing away his breath just as it had when he’d gathered Chloe into his arms, begging her not to die. Watching the blood trickle from her forehead and spill onto the cold ground. The earth would not claim Ariel as it had claimed Chloe.

  Jarrett dug his thumbs into her shoulders, squeezing hard. Hating the sound of her pain, but knowing he must force her into consciousness. If she slipped away, she might never wake up.

  She was light to his darkness. Life was about balance, she’d said. Light and dark. Violence and peace.

  “Making war and making love,” he’d teased, and she’d blushed.

  Making love. The antidote to this dead coldness. Fill her with warmth, heat her with passion and chase away the demon darkness.

  “Ariel.” He bent his head, brushed his mouth against her cold lips, chilled as the granite surrounding them. “My Ariel. Come back to me. Come on, sweetheart. You can do it.”

  He deepened the kiss, coaxing a response.

  She did not move. Her mouth was icy and he recalled kissing Chloe one last time, life leaving her body, her mouth growing cold.

  Never again. Jarrett fisted a hand in her hair, held her still and blasted all his passion into the kiss. Desire had flared between them like a roaring flame.

  He would not let the fire die.

  The beast inside, trembling with need and sensing a loosening of restraint, growled in approval.

  Jarrett thrust his tongue into mouth and crowded her against the wall. He let her feel the hardness of his body, his burning need for her. With his mouth he made love to her, giving his heat and life force. Please, he thought, emotion choking him, please live.

  The smallest touch of her tongue against his. A sigh into his mouth. Ariel’s chilled fingers brushed against his forearm.

  Jarrett didn’t dare stop to hope. He kept up the pressure, warm and authoritative, sealing her to him. He stroked deep, dominating her through sheer willpower, pouring all his feelings into the kiss. Ariel responded with another breathy sigh, and he felt her skin warm slightly.

  Power sang inside him, the magick of his wolf prodded by sexual arousal. His wolf howled to be freed. Had to save Ariel.

  Then he felt her slip a little further. Ruthlessly, he kept kissing her, urging a response.

  And then she opened her eyes. White light shone from them. Her internal glow, now seeping through her eyes, fading even as he held her tight.

  Ariel struggled to speak, her pale lips moving. He sensed each breath was a struggle.

  “The land, it’s tainted with blood. Father and our people cleansed that, but they could not erase what seeped into the earth and took root. What yo
u buried there, Jarrett.”

  Ariel did not want to fight anymore. It felt too exhausting. A dull ache pounded in her limbs, making them feel sluggish. She wanted to fall down and sleep, avoid the light. The light that showed the truth.

  Lines of tension whitened his mouth. “The burial was a secret. No one saw it.”

  “You blame…yourself… for the deaths. For Chloe. For the violence. You’ve shut yourself away from your feelings because you could not bear to face them. Hoping to keep them locked away. You banished your guilt into the ground when you erected the fence…and put a spell on it to restrict the land. My father tried…removing it. It was siphoning off our energy, started when you returned. Guilt, tried returning to you. Spell backfired, and went into my people. Barefoot, it pricked them, infected them. Infected… me.”

  She struggled to pull air into her lungs. She had to tell him, save him somehow. “The monster leaching life from my people…it’s you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jarrett had done this. Horror clawed down his spine. Ariel looked lifeless, as desolate as he’d once been. Hell, of course, she carried his guilt inside her now. All of it, all that damnable negative energy.

  Now he understood why his men had failed to track out the dark scent tainting the mountain. It was his.

  Jarrett clasped Ariel’s cold arms. A ghost image of her former self, she seemed insubstantial as mist.

  “Forgive…only way.”

  “I’ll take it back,” he said frantically.

  “No!” She coughed and grasped his wrist, her grip feeble. “It multiplied in the earth, the blood and death…making it strong. If you take it back, kill…you.”

  If he took back his guilt, he would die.

  If he did not, Ariel would die.

  Her eyes closed. Ariel collapsed on the ground. Jarrett picked her up, rocking her back and forth. He moaned, feeling her heart slow, seeing the edges of death push around his vision.

  No. Not Ariel with her boundless energy for life, her nobility and courage and passion. He must not allow this.

  For years he refused to forgive himself. He’d lived with the knowledge his guilt was buried in the ground, hidden away from all. He could not forgive himself. He’d taken lives and caused pain.

  And now he was killing Ariel and her people. More would die.

  Because of me.

  Forgive. The words hung in the air. Jarrett touched the Luminaire, watching the light wink out.

  With extreme care he set Ariel on the cold rocky ground. Jarrett stood up and stretched out his arms.

  “No. Take me. Come back to me, damnit. You’re mine. You will not claim another life, unless it’s mine.”

  Closing his eyes, he let go of all the rage, all the guilt, all the sorrow. He saw Chloe’s face, their hope for the future and the child they’d never held, and let go of that as well.

  Silence quivered in the air. Jarrett opened his eyes.

  The Fae remained still on the mine floor. Ariel slumped against the wall, motionless and pale.

  Didn’t work. Damnit, what more could he do? Jarrett opened his fingers. “Please,” he whispered in a broken voice. “I forgive myself. Release them.”

  A mocking silence answered him.

  He hadn’t felt this helpless since Chloe died. This was worse. At least when he’d lost Chloe, he’d tried to save her, tried to stop the bleeding. Now he didn’t know what he could do. Let go of the guilt? Fine, he let go. Didn’t work.

  “What the hell do you want from me?” he screamed.

  Jarrett sank down beside Ariel. He gathered her into his arms, her body like a block of ice. He kissed her forehead, his lips numbing at the chill.

  “Ariel, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I failed you.”

  Tears blurred his eyes. Emotions crowded his chest, making it ache as if a load of rocks settled there. He felt her life slipping away, the light fading from her.

  “I love you, Ariel. I didn’t want to admit it before, it was safer not being in love. I didn’t want to hurt again. Hell, it hurt so damn much before. I don’t care if it hurts. Anything is better than losing you and not letting you know.”

  He rested his wet cheek atop her head, the coldness sinking deep into his flesh. Jarrett sobbed, releasing all his emotions. The flood crested over him and slammed with the force of a tidal wave, drowning him. He floated on the current, letting it take him, continuing to cry as he held Ariel’s body.

  Then he felt a small movement beneath him.

  Ariel opened her eyes.

  No white light flickered there. They were blue as cornflowers. She blinked, looking dazed.

  “Jarrett?”

  Around them the other Fae began stirring and moaning.

  Joy surged through him. He cradled her close, not daring to let go. But she gestured to the center of the room.

  “Look,” she said softly.

  An oblong black puddle lay on the floor. As they watched, it began to evaporate, and then it vanished.

  “My emotions.” He wiped his eyes and stood, helping her upward.

  Ariel touched a stray tear trickling down his cheek. “You cried. Finally. It killed the monster your guilt created. Like dousing fire with water.”

  She gave him a wobbly smile. “I heard you talking. It sounded as if you were miles away. But you said you loved me. I love you too, Jarrett. I think I always have.”

  Jarrett held her close, relishing the solid feel of her delicate bones beneath her pale, now-warm skin.

  If he held her like this forever, it wouldn’t be long enough.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Are you certain you want to do this?”

  Ariel looked so serious as she studied him. They stood outside the perimeter of the fenced-off meadow.

  “Yes. I need to do this.” He glanced at the acres of field, feeling a ghost of ancient grief tug him. “The land needs to be cleansed.”

  For a full week, they had remained secluded in the cabin, gathering their strength. Last night Cael had presided over the ceremony sealing Ariel and Jarrett together as mates. Beneath the clear night, they had declared their love for each other, the Fae colony and the pack looking on.

  Jarrett closed his eyes, remembering that night. Her silvery gown shimmering in the moonlight, her eyes sparkling with love, Ariel looked like a vision. He’d been so overwhelmed with joy, he had to keep assuring himself it wasn’t a dream and he’d awaken, alone once more.

  Cael had pressed their hands together, binding them with a fertile vine the Fae called Tamrea, as a symbol of their eternal love for each other, “so it would always bear fruit to each other and those around them.”

  Sam was at his side as Jarrett recited his vows. His Beta beamed at him, and once in a while stole shy glances at his serene mate, who clasped her hands over the small rise of her belly.

  She was pregnant, as were several other pack females.

  Opening his eyes, he now glanced at Ariel, leaning against him, loaning her immense strength. Little Fae, who was tough as the granite mountains. Jarrett no longer felt a desperate need pummeling him. Instead he felt peace. But it wasn’t enough. Not yet.

  He took hold of a rotting post, vaulted over the fence and then clutched Ariel’s waist, lifting her over as well. They walked to the center of the meadow. The grass felt softer, less resistant than it had before.

  Jarrett snapped out a blanket and they sat on it. Cross-legged they placed their palms to the sky and closed their eyes, lifting them to the sun. He heard Ariel chant the ancient words to cleanse and restore harmony to the land.

  Peace washed over him, riding a gentle breeze stirring the air. When Ariel finished the magick chant, he opened his eyes. Jarrett smiled and pointed.

  “Look.”

  Amid the dead earth and dry grass, a small daisy struggled to grow. Ariel’s face grew rapt. “It’s working, Jarrett.”

  He couldn’t help it. She looked so lovely, her eyes dancing with happiness. Jarrett leaned forward, framed her face with
his hands and kissed her.

  She kissed him back, a deep kiss filled with intent.

  He tumbled with her downward to the blanket, in the middle of the meadow no longer tainted with blood and sorrow and guilt. The rotting stench was gone, replaced by the sweet smell of fresh air and pine from the nearby forest.

  Joy shot through him. He felt free and unburdened, his heavily muscled body as light as a Fae’s.

  They undressed, but when she went to lie down, he shook his head.

  “You’re on top this time.”

  Surprise flickered on her face. “Why?”

  “Because this isn’t just a mating. It’s a partnership.” He gathered her small hands into his and kissed them. “You’re part of me now, Ariel, part of my heart.”

  He lay flat on his back, watching with hooded eyes as she straddled him. Ariel clasped his penis and stroked the hardness. A droplet of moisture wept from the tip. She brought it to her mouth and tasted it with a small smile.

  A low moan escaped him. She was going to kill him.

  With pleasure.

  Then Ariel sank onto him, and rose up. His hands on her slender hips, he surged upward, aiding her, but letting her set the pace. Her eyes closed, her palms flat against his chest, she looked delicious as a fresh peach. Rosy color inflamed her delicate cheeks, flushed her pale body. Wind lifted and teased the dark auburn curls tumbling down to her backside.

  It felt right and whole, being here with her, being one with her. His love, his heart, who had saved him in the dark cave.

  Power hummed inside him, the wolf running wild and free. He felt his body tighten and held onto his control, until he felt her inner muscles quiver with her impending release.

  Now. Jarrett slammed upward as she fell down, their bodies slapping together, his arms wound tight around her, hugging her to his chest. They climaxed together, sparks from her aura igniting the cool air in a burst of colors. She laughed, the sound musical and sweet, filling him with joy.