Wolf Tracks: Tales of the Were (Grizzly Cove Book 17) Read online

  Jim got a good look at her face, and a sinking feeling filled his stomach. She looked familiar. She looked a lot like the late, unlamented Otalla, in fact.

  Helen scrambled for cover at the side of the road as Jim pushed her to hurry. A shimmer of electricity went down his spine as he received a glancing blow from the mage bolt the woman threw at them. As a shifter, he had some natural defenses to magical attack, but Helen had none that he knew of. If the bolts were going to fly, he’d have to cover her, but he could only take so much without faltering. He prayed as he’d never prayed before, for the Goddess to keep Helen safe.

  “You killed my sister!” the woman shrieked, and Jim had his suspicions confirmed. “I don’t know who you are, but I followed your magical trail all over the damned country with my scrying bowl, and you came almost to my front door. You bastards!”

  She let go with another bolt, but they were off the road, in the trees, which offered a little cover, though not enough. Jim tried to stall.

  “I don’t know who you are or who your sister was, lady,” he called out, signaling to Helen to go farther away, under better cover. He was going to draw the woman’s fire and hopefully give Helen a chance to hide.

  “How soon they forget,” the woman scoffed. “I am Maura Dunlevy, and you killed my sister, Otalla. She was partnered to that great lump, Somersby, or whatever he was calling himself this week. I told her she could do better.” Little lightning zaps leapt from her fingers to the road as she stalked closer, hunting them. “I kept magical surveillance on them, always. I saw what happened. I saw what you did to her!” A large bolt took out the tree next to Jim, and he dove the other way as it toppled onto the road. “I want you both dead, but I want that witch to suffer, like my dear Otalla suffered. You hear me, witch?” Lightning danced through the trees, taking out a few, here and there.

  This woman had power, Jim would give her that, but was she stable mentally? And what could he do with that? Jim thought hard about how to destabilize her enough to get her to make a mistake and leave herself open for attack. It would be tricky, but he might just be able to pull it off.

  “So, you’re an old lady, like your bitch of a sister?” he asked, almost conversationally.

  He saw no reason to continue denying he understood what she was going on about. She was pissed, and she was going to attack them, no matter what he said. He might as well use what he knew to throw her off balance, if he could.

  She screamed and threw a mage bolt at where he’d been standing when he spoke. Luckily, he was long gone from that spot. A column of smoke went up from the small fire her magic had started, but luckily, the area was too damp from the near-constant rain that was typical of this part of the world for the fire to really get going.

  “We were born of the old world and the old ways,” Maura proclaimed. “When power meant something, and only the strong survived. I don’t know how you managed to end my sister, but you will not do the same to me. I don’t have a parasite of a husband leeching off my power the way she did. I stand alone, and I kill those who dare try to block my path or do me wrong.” She made a sweeping gesture with her hands. Jim wondered if it was some kind of magical spellcasting, but nothing happened, right away. “You have done me wrong. Both of you.”

  Maura repeated the motion, and Jim started to look around more closely. She was definitely doing something. He felt her power against his natural shielding like someone rubbing his fur the wrong way. Uncomfortable. Annoying. Unwanted.

  “We killed her because good always triumphs over evil,” Jim said, moving quickly to a new bit of cover. None too soon, because the boulder he’d been crouching behind split in two when Marua hit it with one of her mage bolts.

  Did the woman not tire? Did she really have that much energy at her disposal? If so, they were in trouble. Jim kept track of where Helen was hiding, all the while trying to figure out how to save this situation.

  His phone vibrated, and he glanced at it. The cavalry was on its way, but would it get here soon enough?

  Helen hid behind a tree and tried to think. No way was she going to go out like this—cowering behind a tree. It went against every principle she’d been raised with, and it didn’t suit her personality at all. No, if she was going to die today, she was going to meet her fate with courage, and fight back, darnit!

  Helen might not have learned much of the combative magic her brothers excelled in, but she’d seen them work. She knew how mage bolts were launched and where the power came from. At least, in theory. She’d never been able to conjure offensive magic at all, but her defensive skills were pretty good, even when compared to her more apt siblings. Just because she was more healer than mage didn’t mean she couldn’t use what power she had to protect the man she loved.

  And there it was. She was in love with Jim. Against all odds and counter to common sense, she’d fallen in love with the big galoot. Goddess help her.

  No way would she stand by and watch him take chance after chance at getting his handsome ass fried to kingdom come and do nothing about it. Helen thought hard about her next move, and then, when she was sure she’d conjured the best protection she could muster, she stepped out from behind the tree.

  She called on Mother Nature, the forest, and all living things to help defend her. She called on the Light of the Goddess and the goodness of the Mother of All to aid her in her time of need. She beseeched the Lady in all Her forms to help protect those who served the Light in this situation, and she put all that energy into a shield that stood as a wall between the roadway and the forest, through which she would allow no evil power to pass.

  The sorceress saw her and immediately threw a powerful mage bolt her way, but the invisible shield blocked it, shimmering in the air for a moment as it absorbed the power and drove it into the earth, to harm none. Maura screamed in frustration and launched, again, with the same results. Helen watched the health of her shield wall carefully. So far, it was holding up nicely against whatever Maura threw against it, but Helen didn’t know for how long she could keep it up. Something would have to give at some point, but for now, they could at least breathe and strategize.

  Jim looked concerned but hadn’t said anything. She was glad he hadn’t told her to run. She would never leave him behind, and if she was going to try to convince him that they should be together long-term, she had to show him that she could be the partner he needed, not some wimp that had to be protected all the time.

  More than that, though, she needed to stand on her own two feet and help. It was her deepest nature to offer aid—of whatever type she could—when there was trouble. While she hadn’t been in too many combative situations in her life, she was learning through her adventures with Jim that she could contribute. Perhaps in unexpected ways, but she definitely could make a difference.

  Helen walked closer to her side of the shield wall to confront the woman. She had a few things to say, and if this situation was going to end badly, she at least wanted to have her thoughts heard before it happened.

  “You sister was a cruel and evil woman, Maura Dunlevy,” Helen said in a clear voice. “I’ve never ended a life before. I’m a healer. I save life and value it, but I don’t regret what the Lady’s power, working through me, did to Otalla. She kept her youth by killing others, and that is one of the definitions of evil in my book. She needed to go on to the next realm, and I was the instrument of sending her there.” Helen paused while Maura steamed and launched useless attacks against her shield wall. “I’ll do the same for you, if you continue to attack.”

  “Oh, I’m so scared,” Maura said in exaggerated tones. “You hide behind a shield like a coward, instead of fighting me mage to mage.”

  Helen wasn’t going to fall for Maura’s taunts. She would not play this game by Maura’s rules. She’d watched her brothers learn battle magic and knew that way lay certain defeat. Helen would not be distracted into doing something stupid or dared into idiocy.

  “I do not attack. I defend. You can lob mage
bolts at us until the cows come home, if you want, but I’m not going to dance with you. I’m a healer, not a fool.” Helen kept her expression serene, knowing it would really bother someone like Maura to see her unruffled at the threat she posed.

  “What you fail to realize is that I’ve only been playing with you up to now,” Maura said after a long pause, during which she seemed to regain a bit of her emotional control.

  Helen feared what that might mean. She was in the open, right near the line where the roadway began and the grassy area ended. The trees were behind her—too far to get to quickly without protection. If Maura made a move that dissolved the shield, Helen would be all too vulnerable.

  Jim was off to her right. Somewhere. She’d sort of lost track of him while focusing on Maura, but Helen knew he could take care of himself. Heck, he was probably better equipped—even without battle magic—than she was for this kind of confrontation. He probably had some plan in mind, so the longer she kept Maura talking, the better chance he had of pulling off whatever it was he was trying to do. Helen certainly hoped he had a decisive move up his sleeve, or this was probably going to end badly.

  Maura was conjuring something, keeping her focus on Helen and the shield. She was gathering her energies, and Helen actually felt them as a slimy sensation over her skin. She shivered, unable to help herself. Whatever Maura was planning, it was going to be bad. Helen only hoped she could withstand it.

  When Maura let loose with her spellcasting, several things happened simultaneously. Helen felt like everything went into slow motion as Maura launched shield-cracking energy bolts at her shield wall, one after the other in rapid succession until the wall could stand no more. It went down, and then, all hell broke loose.

  Helen got hit with more than one of those slicing, painfully sharp mage bolts, the energy cutting her skin to ribbons, even as she fell to the ground. Helen put her hands out, calling up what energy she could from Mother Earth, trying to form a little bubble of protection around her huddled form, but it wasn’t quite enough to keep out the continued attack. It did help, a little, but she was still catching the occasional glancing blow, and she couldn’t move from the spot. She was terribly exposed, and Maura moved right up on her, standing over her like some sort of avenging demon.

  Helen looked up, meeting the death she saw in Maura’s eyes with calm. She didn’t want to die, but if that’s the way this was going to go, she would meet her fate with dignity. She had few regrets, but not getting to spend any more time with Jim was right at the top of her list.

  She couldn’t even look at him. The sorceress took up all her vision, and she didn’t even know where he was. A single tear leaked from the side of her eye that she couldn’t control, and she saw Maura’s expression fill with hateful glee.

  And then…

  Her head exploded.

  Helen registered a very loud bang and realized the sorceress had forgotten one very important element to this scenario. Jim wasn’t just a werewolf. He was also a Navy SEAL, familiar with weapons of every sort. Somehow, at some point, he’d armed himself with something that could literally blow someone away.

  Helen sagged in relief as Maura’s body slid to the side and collapsed, lifeless. Thanks be to the Mother of All, and the U.S. Navy’s finest.

  Jim was there the next moment, holding her with gentle hands. “Are you all right, baby?” He looked worried, but she found it hard to articulate everything that was running through her mind. She also felt unaccountably weak. Whether from blood loss or the magical drain, or both, she didn’t know, but she was viewing the world through a gray haze.

  “I love you,” she told him, wanting him to know, just in case this was the end for her. “I’ve loved spending time with you,” she went on when his face paled. “Thank you for some of the best adventures of my life,” she finished her thought, unable to say more. She just didn’t have the strength.

  “Helen! Don’t you leave me, now,” he told her in a commanding, pained voice. “I need you to stay awake, sweetheart. Help is on the way, but you need to stay awake.”

  Helen thought she heard motorcycle engines—a lot of them—as she faded into unconsciousness, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.

  Chapter Twenty

  Helen woke someplace else. She was in a hospital bed, in a strange room with monitors and other medical equipment. A hospital? No, it felt more intimate than that, and she had the room all to herself. A strange man walked in. He was tall and blond, and he bristled with magical power. Shifter power.

  “Where am I?” she asked, feeling blurry, blinking her gummy eyes.

  “Grizzly Cove Clinic,” the man replied with a smile. “I’m Doctor Olafsson, and you’ve been unconscious for about twenty-four hours.” He came over to her, checking the monitors. “Welcome back to the waking world. You had my buddy, Jim, very worried. He’s barely left your side, but Big John made him take a break so he could brief the Town Council on what went down in Texas and explain a bit more about the documents and the run-in you had on the road.”

  Helen remembered, now. “An evil sorceress calling herself Maura Dunlevy. Claimed she was the sister of Otalla, who I ended in Texas.”

  “Wait. You ended her?” The doctor seemed surprised.

  Had Jim not filled them all in on events to this point yet? Or was he withholding the fact that she’d killed someone for a particular reason? She wasn’t ashamed of her actions. She knew, in her heart, they were sanctioned by the Mother of All.

  “It had to be done, and the Goddess gave me the strength to do it, so I did.” Helen shrugged. “I’ve never done that sort of thing before, but it was okay.”

  “Some people don’t understand how I can be a bear, who kills, and also a doctor,” he said, his expression going solemn. “I probably understand, better than most.” His expression lightened as he went on. “As my mate would probably say, we tend to be a bunch of chauvinists in this town, even though we have plenty of evidence that our females can be just as fierce as us, whether they have claws, magic, or no special abilities, at all.” He grinned at her, and she smiled back.

  “Thank you for looking after me,” she told him, not sure what would come next. She really wanted to see Jim, but it sounded like he was closeted with the men in power in this town, and she probably couldn’t bust in on that sort of meeting.

  “I texted Jim, as he made me promise to do, and he should be here—” The sound of a door slamming in the other room made the doctor look up and grin. “I suspect he’s already here. I’ll leave you two to talk. Just don’t get out of bed yet. I want to make sure you’re completely stable before I let you go, okay?”

  “Sure thing, doctor,” she told him, already looking past his large form, looking for Jim.

  And then, he was there. Filling the doorway, his face looking a bit haggard but every bit as handsome as always. He came into the room, and the doctor went out, pulling the door shut behind him.

  “How are you feeling?” Jim asked, looking unsure of himself for the first time in their acquaintance.

  “Awake. Alive. Better than when I passed out,” she reported with a smile. “I really thought I was done for. What happened?”

  “The Grizzly Cove contingent showed up a few minutes after you passed out. Luckily, Sven was with them, and he was able to treat your wounds and stop the bleeding. We all helped. Most of us have had advanced training in first aid, so there was no shortage of skilled assistants, but Sven is an actual doctor, so he took charge of your treatment,” Jim said, walking closer to her bed. She noticed a chair had been placed right beside the bed, and she wondered if he’d been sitting in it while she’d been unconscious.

  “Sven is the guy who just left? Doctor Olafsson?” she asked, just to make sure she had the right bear shifter in mind.

  “Yeah, Sven Olafsson. He’s a polar bear, believe it or not,” Jim told her, shaking his head.

  “I believe it,” Helen admitted with a chuckle. “He said you were in a meeting with the Town C
ouncil.”

  “I didn’t want to leave your side, but when an Alpha bear tells you to do something in his territory, it’s wise not to argue too much,” Jim said with a rueful grin. “I think he just wanted me to take a break from my vigil. I’ve been sitting in this chair since they brought you in.” Jim patted the back of the chair. “I wanted to be here when you woke up because of what you said…” His words trailed off, and she searched her memory to come up with a meaning for them.

  Then, she remembered. She’d told him she loved him. Oh, boy.

  She was searching for the right thing to say when he went on. “You see, I realized something when you blacked out on me.” He sat in the chair and took her hand in his. “I realized that, if you died, right then and there, so would I. I realized that you were my mate, and there was no use fighting it—not that I had done so intentionally, in the first place. I was just sort of slow on the uptake and not sure how I could rightfully subject a beautiful soul like yours to my style of life. I was fighting against the change that I now know was inevitable, and for the better.”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, one by one, as her heart melted. He lifted his head, and his gaze met hers.

  “I love you, Helen. I want you to be with me forever, and I want to share my life with you. There will never be another woman who completes me the way you do. Please say you’ll be my mate.” His eyes were beseeching, his expression endearing, and there really was only one answer she could give him.

  “Yes,” she said through happy tears. “Yes, yes, yes!” she repeated, just to be sure he understood. “I love you, Jim. I think I have for a long time, now.”

  He jumped up from the chair and leaned over to place a deep, delicious kiss on her lips.

  Sometime later, the door to her room opened, but she barely noticed. Jim didn’t seem to think it was a threat because he took his time breaking off that amazing kiss. He rose and turned to face whoever had come to disturb their intimate moment.