“Oh, honey, you’re cute, but you are sooo under the influence right now.” He grabbed a few other items they might need, including slicing more tent fabric, and shoved them into a knapsack. He spied an ancient-looking book. “What’s that?”
“He was looking through it.” It went into the pack, along with the ceremonial knife and a couple other items from the altar. Her men would need to identify this asshole. Maybe that stuff would help. He shouldered the pack, then pulled her to her feet. The scent of smoke in the air grew stronger to his sensitive nose. “Let’s go.”
“Where we going?”
He slipped an arm around her waist. “Anywhere but here.” He didn’t know exactly where they were in relation to Old Faithful, only that they were south and west of Fishing Bridge. He could survive on his own indefinitely in the park. Lina could not.
Brodey tested the wind and prayed they didn’t get penned in by the fire. He started down the hill in the opposite direction.
“We didn’t come in this way,” Lina softly said. Her eyes were closed. If not for Brodey’s arm around her, she’d be on the ground.
“I know, sweetie. The other way is the fire.”
Wind kicked up, along with more rumbles of thunder. The temperature had dropped again. Brodey had no idea how to keep her warm and dry if another storm broke out.
Her head lolled on his shoulder as he tried to keep her moving, keep her upright. He realized he might have to carry her. “Stay with me, babe, please.” He kept moving downhill, into the wind and away from the fire.
Clouds obscured the sun. He thought they were heading west, but with the rough terrain and obscured sun, he wasn’t absolutely sure. After an hour she neared collapse and he had to let her rest. He found a deadfall to sit on and stay off the damp ground. She slumped against him, her head in his lap.
“I’m sorry, Brod,” she whispered.
He rubbed her hands, her arms, her shoulders, trying to warm her. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re doing great.”
“Are we safe here?”
“For a few minutes.” He felt the wind shift, caught a whiff of smoke. Not near, but too close for comfort. “You rest for a few minutes, then we’ll move again.”
“Okay…” She was already asleep.
Fuck. He stroked her hair. She was totally taken by two guys who’d die for her, and who were likely going batshit crazy worried about her. She loved them too, no doubt about it.
He sighed, trying not to think about Kimberlie and wishing Lina didn’t make him feel so damn…
Calm.
* * * *
Back at the lodge, Jan, Rick, and Zack were going batshit crazy worried over Lina. Kael unsuccessfully tried to keep them calm while working with Cail, Micah, Oscar, and Doug to amass a search party of trusted shifters to go after Lina and Brodey.
The fire, sparked by several lightning strikes, had closed the eastern stretch of the main road from West Thumb to Fishing Bridge. They had no idea where or how Lina was, or if Brodey had found her.
Cail and Kael studied a park map. The fire road wasn’t very long on paper, but that didn’t mean the guy didn’t drive further, or hike in on foot.
With the park staff focused on containing the fire, the shifters were on their own. Uncle Andel and his entourage entered the lodge common area. He immediately started barking orders. A moment later, Bertholde and her posse arrived. She shuffled up to Andel and poked him in the chest.
Startled, he looked at her. “Shut up,” she said. She turned to Zack, Rick, and Jan. “She’ll be fine.”
“What?”
Bertholde nodded. “She’ll be fine. She and the wolf need to do this. Together.”
Jan and Rick exchanged a glance. “Do what together?” Rick asked, his face reddening.
“Hey, what are you implying?” Cail asked, pushing into his face. “My brother is a stand up guy! We don’t fuck around with other guy’s mates!”
Jan’s eyes darkened. “No one said you do, but since you brought it up—”
“Enough!” the old woman yelled. Her voice bellowed throughout the large common area. Everyone fell silent and looked at her. She pointed at Jan and Rick. “You trust your Lina?”
They nodded.
She pointed at Cail. “You trust your brother?”
He nodded.
“Then trust each other. Work together. Your paths are now forever entwined. You have a common enemy and the same goals.” With that cryptic nugget, she turned on her heels and left.
Zack studied her departing form. “Well, isn’t she just a regular little fortune cookie.”
* * * *
Brodey prodded Lina to her feet. She took two steps before her knees folded. “I’m sorry, Brod,” she whispered. “I’m so tired.”
He scooped her into his arms. He didn’t want to alarm her, but the smoke smelled closer. “I know, babe. It’s okay. I’ll carry you.”
She threw her arms around his neck and snuggled her face against his throat. All he had to do to smell her hair was lower his face and…
He focused his gaze on the ground instead, not wanting to trip and drop her.
After a while, he knew the fire was rapidly gaining on them, the smoke now close enough Lina would smell it if she was awake. He continued downhill, hoping for a stream or pond, the small occasional rivulets of water from spring run-off not enough to save them if the fire overtook them.
She opened her eyes at one point, squinting as she looked up. “Why is the sky brown?”
Brodey glanced up. “Smoke. It’s getting closer.”
That woke her. “Put me down, let me try to walk.” He helped her, and they did make better time. Within another hour he heard the fire crackling, trees falling, and even the occasional fire chopper. Unfortunately, those didn’t fly near enough to see them, much less to signal them.
Her eyes widened when they turned and saw smoke drifting over a ridge behind them. “How long, Brod?”
“Not long at this rate. Wind’s up. It’s pushing it to us, funneling it down the valley.”
“What do we do?”
“We keep going.”
She grabbed his hand and stopped, forcing him to look at her. “You can outrun it. If you shift.”
“No, I can’t, because no way in hell I’m leaving you. Get that out of your head right now.”
She started crying. “I can’t let you die because I’m slowing you down!”
He brushed her tears away. “Hey, who said anything about dying? We’re not dying.” They both looked up at another loud crack. The fire crested the hill and raced toward them.
Lina cried out and grabbed Brodey’s hand. Just then, Baba Yaga and Bertholde’s advice came back to her. Trust your instincts.
She looked around. Twenty yards away, a small spring of water emerged from a rocky crag on the hillside. She thought back to the first day with her men eight months earlier, when Baba Yaga tested her before letting her go and handing her more prophecies. “Over there!”
She pulled Brodey toward the water.
“Babe, we can’t—”
“Trust me! Please!” He followed. She glanced over her shoulder. They only had minutes before the fire caught up with them.
She pushed him against the rocks, the water running over him, and wrapped her arms around him. “Hold on to me and don’t let go!”
“What?”
“Just do it!”
His voice sounded quiet, resigned. “Let me stand outside. Maybe I can shield you.”
“We’re not going to die! I can do more than blow shit up.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” He wrapped his arms tightly around her, pressing his body along the length of hers.
“Don’t let go of me.”
He snorted. “Yeah, like that’s happening anytime soon.”
As the fire advanced, Lina struggled to summon strength from within, a counterweight to the rage she felt to hurl the energy at Lenny. With the forest ablaze behind them, heat racing toward
them, she settled her mind and focused.
Brodey. He’d come to save her. She had to save him.
With her arms around Brodey, she plunged her hands into the icy cold water and thought about drawing it to her, over her and Brodey, around them. At first she didn’t think it was working, until she shivered and heard Brodey say, “Son of a bitch! You’re doing it!”
Chilly ice replaced the feel of the fire behind them. As the flames caught up and overtook them, racing around them, she managed to solidify the icy wall, much as she had protected herself against Baba Yaga’s fireball that afternoon.
Brodey held on even tighter. “You’re doing great, sugar,” he whispered. “Hang on, you’re doing great.”
Lina put everything she had into maintaining their icy cocoon. As fast as she drew water from the crevice, more evaporated from the fire.
As the firestorm raged around them, Brodey nuzzled her cheek. “A few more minutes,” he whispered. “Just a few more minutes.”
She pictured Jan and Rick and Zack, thought about getting safely back to them, into their arms. About loving them. About Brodey and his brother and cousin, and the brother she hadn’t met yet, making sure they were safely reunited.
A mental picture flashed in her mind. She knew it came from Brodey. A woman crying.
Kimberlie.
He couldn’t have her, hence the source of his grief.
He should have happiness. Lina withdrew deeper into her mind, tried to see more, to not think about her exhaustion. Then she felt like she stepped through a doorway into a bright, very hot, sunny afternoon.
She was back in Florida, she instinctively sensed. A fairground.
Turning around, she spotted a sign. First Annual Arcadia Highland Games.
Brodey and Cail in kilts, standing, talking.
Walking…
Cail catching a scent that Brodey also recognized. Brodey taking off in pursuit.
“Her,” Lina whispered, feeling her hold on consciousness fraying.
“What?” Brodey asked.
“You’re going to find Her…”
Darkness fell.
* * * *
Near dark, the shifters were no closer to finding Lina or Brodey. They took turns going into the woods. Once night fell, the dragon men shifted to their largest forms and took wing.
Needle in a haystack didn’t come close to describing it.
By nine o’clock, the men realized they weren’t getting anywhere. Cail made calls to his contacts to get a search plane for the next morning, but that would be iffy if predicted storms churned up. Unable to do anything else that night, the men returned to their cabins and tried to sleep.
Chapter Seven
Lina awoke to Brodey gently slapping her cheeks. “Come on, babe. Wake up, don’t scare me.”
She looked around. Perhaps sensing her unspoken question, Brodey grinned. “You did it! You held on. I don’t know how the hell you did that ice trick, but dammit, you saved us.”
He helped her sit up. Around them, the fire had blasted through and mostly burned out, enough to safely make their way out of the area. Black soot covered Brodey from head to toe. She knew she didn’t look much better.
A rumble of thunder sounded above them, then rain fell. She looked up and laughed. “Gee, thanks! A little late though!”
Brodey laughed with her.
The rain fell, cold, hard and heavy, helping contain the fire as night descended. Once the clouds cleared and the full moon rose, Brodey regained his sense of direction and pointed them southwest, toward Old Faithful. He fed her crackers and water he snagged from Lenny’s tent. He could drink from the streams if he needed without worrying about getting sick. Ditto hunting. He wouldn’t risk her health that way.
They had to sit and rest for Lina’s sake. “How high is this place?” she asked.
“We’re around eight thousand feet. It’s the Central Plateau part of the park.”
“Geez.” She leaned against him and closed her eyes. “I’m so exhausted. I’m sorry I’m whining.”
“You’re not whining, sweetie. You’ve been through a lot. It’s okay.”
“Tell me about her.”
“Hmm?”
“Kimberlie. I saw her in your mind earlier.”
Brodey hesitated. She wasn’t sure he’d answer at first, but then he quietly told her about falling in love with Kimberlie and having to let her go.
“It’s my own fault,” he softly admitted. “I knew better. I never should have slept with her when I knew I loved her.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t introduce her to Ain and Cail first. I mean, we can fool around as much as we want until we meet our One. Usually I only fool around with girls I don’t have any feelings for like that. Then I can’t get hurt or hurt them. Any time any of us feels strongly about a woman, we bring her home to meet the others first. If they were to like her, then we know she’s our One.” He sighed. “I was sick of being alone. I thought I could make them like her.”
He looked so sad it nearly broke her heart. “You can’t kill yourself.”
He blushed, even though it was hard to tell with the soot smeared on his face. “You saw that, huh?”
“I saw you thinking about it.”
“Two’s easier to mate than three.”
“It’d break their hearts to lose you.”
“I’m just the bonehead. Everyone says so and I know it. Ain’s Prime Alpha. I’m Beta Alpha. Cail’s the smart one, he’s the Gamma. He’d become Beta and the two of them would find someone.”
“Stop it. You’re not a bonehead. If you were a bonehead, you wouldn’t have found me. They need you.” She laced her fingers through his. “Besides, you are going to find Her. Soon.”
He looked at her, one eyebrow arched. “What?”
“In the next couple of years. I know it.”
He studied her. “No shit?”
“No shit. Some sort of highland games festival.”
His eyes searched hers. “Will we all love her?”
“I only saw you and Cail looking for her, but I think so. They won’t find her if you aren’t there. You’re the one who tracks her.” She smiled. “Just like you tracked me. And you’ll find her just like you found me.”
He stroked her chin. “Do me a favor? Don’t tell Cail, please.”
“Why? This is great news!”
“Because I won’t make the same mistake I made with Kimberlie. It hurts too damn bad. I don’t want to get his hopes up, or Ain’s.”
“Only if you promise me something.”
His lopsided smile warmed her heart. “What’s that?”
“You will not kill yourself, and that you’ll invite me to your wedding.”
He smiled. “Done.”
They walked for another hour, then Lina had to stop again, finished. “I’m sorry. I can’t go any further.”
“I know. Me either.”
Her clothes were still damp. He worried about her getting hypothermic. They traversed into an unburned section of woods where he found a deadfall far enough off the ground they could both snuggle under it, out of the elements, and he piled pine needles around them. She shivered.
“I need to shift to keep you warm. You snuggle around me, okay?”
“Okay.”
He shifted and she wrapped her arms around him, his furry back pressed against her chest. She dug her cold hands deep into his coat. “This feels good. I might regain feeling in my fingers.”
He chuffed in agreement.
She thought about Rick and Jan and fought the urge to cry. “I’ve never spent a night away from them since we met.” Brodey softly whined in sympathy.
Lina actually drifted to sleep, exhaustion fully taking her. She was hungry, filthy, cold, exhausted, and worried about her men. Not their safety as much as their mental state. They had to be going crazy with worry.
At some point, a loud sound startled them awake. She felt tension in Brodey’s body. Then a large shape emerge
d from the darkness, snuffling and shuffling closer, homing in on them.
Grizzly.
Oh, fuck me! I survived all this shit to get eaten by Smokey the Bear?
Brodey sat up, a low, deep, threatening growl sounding in his throat. Lina tried to squeeze herself further under the deadfall and wrapped her arms tightly around Brodey in fear.
The bear responded with a growl of his own and rose onto its rear haunches. Lina cried out in horror as Brodey broke free and raced across the clearing toward the bear, then shifted in mid stride.
“Wally!” Brodey cried out.
The bear shimmered, then turned into a huge naked guy she vaguely remembered seeing at breakfast one day, who engulfed Brodey in a…
Bear hug.
“Oh my Gawd!” the guy roared in a thick Boston accent. “Brodey, you fucking arsehole! Where da hell you been? You know your brother is ripping his hair out crazy worried about you? And the other guys…” He looked at Lina, who still huddled, terrified, under the tree.
Brodey turned, grinning. “Honey, it’s okay! It’s Wally!”
Lina fainted.
* * * *
She awoke to both men hovering over her. Brodey helped her sit up. “Sweetie, you okay?”
She nodded. “Sorry. I tend to do that a lot when I’m really stressed since this dragon shifter stuff started. I should have warned you.”
Wally laughed. “It’s okay. Brodey told me you kicked arse, girl!”
“Do you know where we are?” she asked him.
Wally nodded. “Yeah. We can’t hike out tonight. Not with you like this. We need to wait until morning.”
She shivered in her damp clothes. She wasn’t sure she could hold on until morning, as cold as she felt.
Wally blushed. “I don’t mind you snugglin’ up to keep warm, if you don’t mind. I promise I’ll keep my paws to myself.”
She nodded, too tired and cold to worry how it looked. Being dead wouldn’t look much better. Wally shifted and lay down on his side by the deadfall, then patted the ground in front of him with a large, clawed paw.
She curled up against him. Admittedly, he felt nice and warm. Snuggly, albeit a little gamey. Then again, she knew her aroma couldn’t be much better. When Brodey shifted to wolf form and pressed his back against her chest, she started feeling warm for the first time since the whole crazy mess started.