Legend (A Wolf Lake Novella) Page 4

  Tall and dark, he made an imposing shadow beside her, his grip firm but not painful as their passing parted the people around them in a way she would describe as biblical.

  Roland led her to where Nafarius stood talking quietly with Marcus, then stopped to wait while his alpha quietly issued orders. Marcus caught sight of them, lifted his chin in greeting before slipping off into the woods.

  "Go with him," Nafarius ordered.

  Sam watched Roland disappear, and wondered where he was going. What did werewolves do during the day? she asked herself. Work? Hunt? There couldn't be that much to do out here.

  Nafarius watched the woman, noted her interest in his beta. "He would hunt you down and kill you, if I let him."

  Startled, Sam turned to find Nafarius watching her. "I know."

  "Then why do you care that he's leaving?"

  "He's the only one I know," she said simply. "Are you going to let me go home?"

  Nafarius watched the woman cross her arms over her chest, the movement pushing up her breasts, drawing his eyes. "I haven't decided yet," he said.

  Sam watched his lips moving, was momentarily distracted by their surprising fullness. Getting her first good look at him since her arrival, she cataloged his various features. Chiseled face? Check. Square chin? Check. Strong nose? Check. And what she could only assume was an impressive set of abs tucked securely away under his faded cotton t-shirt. Check.

  "Are all werewolves beautiful?" she blurted out, blushing. Looking around, she could only hope no one else was standing close enough to hear.

  Nafarius blinked, surprise leaving him momentarily speechless.

  "When will you decide?" Sam rushed to fill the awkward silence left by her artless question.

  She thought him beautiful? That had to be a first, Nafarius thought. While he rarely lacked for female company, he had never given much attention to his appearance or that of his pack. He had given some thought to her appearance, both here and at the lake. He knew what she looked like stripped bare, her body slick with water. Knew too that her nipples were a dusty rose color that grew dark when they hardened.

  "Nafarius? When will you decide?" she asked again, when he didn't immediately answer.

  Nafarius gave a negligent shrug. "When I do."

  "I can't stay here," she insisted.

  "You have somewhere to be?" Nafarius' eyes narrowed. "Someone to return to?"

  "What? You mean a husband? No," Sam shook her head. She'd been single for a while, her last relationship having fizzled out rather pathetically. "But I have a home, classes...a plant," she added lamely. God, was that what her life boiled down to? One dead plant? There was no one to go back to, no one waiting at home for her. While her professors might notice her absence, she wasn't close enough to any of them that they would worry if she didn't return.

  "Boyfriend? Girlfriend? Lover?" Nafarius didn't bother trying to hide his satisfaction as she shook her head no. "Good, then you stay," he decided.

  Sam was surprised to see his eyes warm slightly, his order sounding more like an invitation. "I...I..."

  They were interrupted by Roland's return.

  Sam jumped back as her broken gear was thrown at her feet. "What the hell?!"

  "You need to see this," Roland said, handing a notebook to Nafarius, his eyes pinning Sam in her place.

  "Hey, that's mine!" She reached for her notes, a cry of pain escaping as Roland knocked her hand away.

  Silently, Nafarius flipping through the pages, frowning

  Cradling her hand to her chest, Sam watched as Nafarius' eyes went icy cold. She knew the exact moment he reached the section on Wolf Lake. "It's not what you think," she pleaded.

  "This looks like research." Rage turned Nafarius' voice harsh.

  "It is, but..."

  "I thought you said you came up here to go camping?" He had known last night that she was evading, that there was more to her story. He had not expected to find this. Still flipping through the book, Nafarius waited for her to respond.

  Sam looked from Nafarius to Roland to the others. Surrounded by men and women, their stance angry and hostile, she realized that she was in mortal danger. "I did, I was..."

  "Who do you work for?" Roland demanded. There were groups dedicated to finding the supernatural, people that would go to great lengths to prove their existence, using it for their own benefit.

  "I don't work for anyone. I'm a literature major." Even she realized how lame that sounded.

  "You expect me to believe that a human, a literature major, was able to find her way up here alone?" Nafarius snarled. He had made a mistake bringing the woman here, one that his pack would pay for.

  Sam visibly blanched at the venom in Nafarius' voice.

  "You came here specifically looking for us," Nafaruis accused, holding up her notebook as proof.

  "No, not exactly," she tried to explain. "I came looking for the lake. Yes, as part of my research but I wasn't looking for...I never expected to find...you..." Sam finally admitted.

  Nafarius stared down into her face. She stood watching him, wide eyes pleading with him to understand, to believe her. He looked to the notebook, what could only be her elegant handwriting covering page after page with notes. But it was the map that slipped from the pages to flutter lightly to the ground, Wolf Lake clearly marked, that sealed her fate.

  Gripping the notebook in two hands, Nafarius easily tore through the leather binding rending the book in half.

  "No!" Sam cried.

  "Get her out of here," he ordered. Turning, he stalked into their den. Finding one of the cooking fires still lit, he tossed the pieces of the book on top of the flames.

  "You bastard!" Sam screamed, as she was dragged through the den. The best of her research, years of personal notes not to mention the leather binding that had been a gift, gone in an instant.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  BITCH IN HEAT...

  "WHAT ARE WE going to do?"

  "...can't stay here..."

  "...doesn't belong..."

  "...know what I would do..."

  Nafarius stood at the den entrance staring out into the night. Behind him, the pack moved restlessly, conversation centering on Sam and what to do with her. So far, the list of ideas had a decidedly violent bent.

  "What are you going to do?" asked Roland.

  Nafarius hadn't heard his beta approach. Not a good sign, he thought. Already the woman was a distraction, one he couldn't afford.

  Staring out into the night, he knew what he had to do, what he should do. But for once, the notion didn't sit well.

  "She stays," Nafarius said.

  "And then what?" Roland asked. "She's not pack."

  Nafarius remained silent.

  "The pack won't stand for a human. You can't expect them to."

  "The pack will do as I say." Nafarius decreed.

  "There'll be trouble." Roland predicted. He'd seen firsthand what the woman was like. She wasn't one to sit back and take orders. Captivity would not sit well. "She has to be destroyed."

  "No." Nafarius' response was instantaneous. He wasn't ready to give that particular order. "Not yet."

  Roland frowned at his leader's back. Nafarius had never been one to hesitate or shy away from what needed to be done. "She can't stay here, not without protection," Roland said.

  "She's under my protection." Behind him, Roland's jaw clenched, his scar twitching.

  "That's not going to go over well."

  Nafarius shrugged. Turning, he stood shoulder to shoulder with his second. "See it done."

  Roland watched as his leader - and his friend - walked back inside.

  * * *

  Sam hated waiting. She hated waiting in lines, for friends and she especially hated waiting for coffee. All of that paled compared to how much she hated waiting to learn her fate.

  She'd spent another night sleeping in the alcove alone. The sound of angry voices murmuring late into the night keeping her awake and leaving her restless and tired.
Morning came and Sam considered her options. There weren't all that many. She could try negotiating with Nafarius, promising whatever it would take to let her go, or she could try running. Remembering her last dash through the trees and the ease with which they'd brought her down, Sam didn't consider running a viable option. She was pretty much at Nafarius' mercy and they both knew it.

  "Sam? Can I come in?" Maddie asked.

  "Of course." Glad for the distraction, Sam watched as she ducked into the alcove. "Hi, Maddie."

  "I brought you something to eat."

  "Thanks, but I'm not..." Sam spied the plate in Maddie's hand. "Is that pie?"

  Maddie gave the plate a little jiggle. "I thought something sweet might cheer you up."

  "You made pie? Here?" Sam said, surprised. "I've never made a pie and I have a complete kitchen."

  Maddie shrugged. "It's actually not that hard, even up here. But no, Nafarius brought this back from his last trip to Roslyn."

  "This is Bettie's pie?" Sam asked, her fork hovering between her mouth and the plate. "From the diner?"

  "You know it?" Maddie asked.

  Sam took a bite, her eyes closing in bliss as brown sugar and butter burst in her mouth. "Oh, wow."

  Maddie smiled, please to watch Sam enjoying the pie. Making a mental note to snag her another piece with dinner, Maddie took a seat on the floor.

  "Did you sleep okay?" Maddie asked politely.

  Sam shrugged, "Hard to sleep with all of that going on," she said, indicating the area outside the alcove. Voices had continued talking late into the night, the cadence communicating the pack's mood.

  "You have nothing to worry about, nothing is going to happen to you," Maddie assured her.

  Sam was a realist. "I appreciate you saying that, but we both know things aren't looking good."

  "I heard Nafarius offered his protection. No one will harm you. An attack on you would be the same as an attack on Nafarius, a challenge to his position as leader."

  "And no one wants to challenge him?" Sam asked, this sounded a lot like an animal thing.

  Maddie shook her head. "No one is strong enough," she said with a slight frown. "Well, except maybe Roland but he doesn't want to be leader."

  "Why not?" Roland certainly seemed strong enough and Lord knows he scared the bejesus out of her.

  "Roland says he doesn't have the patience to be leader."

  Sam snorted. "Patience doesn't seem to be a requirement for the job," she said, thinking back over her interactions with Nafarius.

  Maddie laughed, the sound light and delicate. "You'd be surprised." Sam looked at her quizzically. "The pack is just another big family with lots of personalities. There are sibling rivalries and petty squabbles. Nafarius has to deal with it all."

  "Kind of like the Godfather, but with fur," Sam muttered.

  Maddie laughed lightly.

  "Madelyn. Leave us." Nafarius said, cutting Maddie's laugh short. Reaching out, he lightly touched the young woman on the arm as she passed. "Don't go far."

  "You seem surprised," he said to Sam. "That she got your joke," he clarified.

  "She didn't strike me as the type," Sam said.

  "Why? Because we're illiterate, wild animals?"

  "Whoa...no, I never said that." Sam realized he was quickly working his way to offended. "No, because she didn't strike me as the type to read or watch The Godfather. I would have pegged her more a Danielle Steele fan."

  Nafarius's frown eased a degree. "What makes you say that?"

  Sam shrugged. "Maddie just seems...sweet." It was hard to explain. The young woman was beautiful, could probably have any man she wanted, but for all that there was something missing. There was no viciousness, no guile or manipulation. There was just...Maddie.

  Satisfied, Nafarius nodded. "Tell me about your life."

  Sam stared up at where he stood, arms crossed, blocking the doorway. He filled the space, she thought, made it hard to think. "What do you want to know?"

  "You said you're a literature major. Where do you go to school?" Nafarius began.

  "I'm getting my masters degree at the UW." Sam thought back to her last meeting with Andrew, tried to mentally compute how much time she'd been away, with how long it would take before someone missed her. The result was not comforting.

  "What does being a literature major have to do with hunting down werewolves?" Nafarius still wasn't sure he bought her story. Roland certainly did not, and was advocating the destroy-now-ask-questions-never plan.

  Sam sighed, this wasn't going to go well. "My focus is on myths and legends. Vampires, witches...werewolves."

  Nafarius' eyes narrowed dangerously, but he stayed silent.

  "I try and trace the literature back to its origins, to find the incident that gave birth to the legend," she explained.

  "And prove their existence."

  "No," Sam shook her head vehemently. "If you had taken the time to read my notes, you would have seen that in each case, I've been able to disprove the myths."

  "Who else has seen your work?"

  "No one," Sam said. "Not yet anyways."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I was working on my thesis. Wolf Lake was the last piece." Sam thought back to the countless hours, the time and energy that had gone into her thesis. It was years of work, of study that, if she read the situation right, would never see the light of day.

  "Surely you have an advisor, someone that oversees your studies." Nafarius was furiously working through all the possibilities.

  Again, Sam shook her head, shrugged. "Yeah, I have an advisor but..."

  "But what?" Nafarius pressed.

  Sam sighed. "Andrew was never very interested in my work. Bram Stroker's Dracula and Ann Rice's Interview with a Vampire aren't exactly considered great works of literature. At least not as far as academia is concerned."

  "What about your research? Where did you find the map?" Nafarius wondered how many more there could be out there.

  "A flea market, in a box with a bunch of other books. The map was in a journal. I doubt anyone even knew it was there."

  "Did you show it to anyone?"

  "Just Andrew but - "

  "What about your personal life?" Nafarius cut in.

  Embarrassed, Sam looked away. "I don't really have one."

  "No friends? A boyfriend?" Nafarius didn't believe that there wasn't someone that would miss her. "What about family? Everyone has family."

  "Look," Sam snapped. She'd had enough. Nafarius' interrogation highlighted just how pitiful her life really was. "You can rest easy. No one is interested in my work and no one will miss me. Whatever you decide, your secret will be safe."

  Nafarius frowned, belatedly realizing that he'd hurt her feelings. "I haven't decided what to do with you yet. For now, you're under my protection. No one will harm you."

  "Don't do me any favors," Sam huffed.

  Nafarius yanked Sam to her feet, the movement so fast it barely had time to register before he'd set her back down on her feet.

  "Hey!"

  "You step out of this room without my protection and the others would tear you apart," he snarled.

  Sam stared into blue eyes gone bright with anger, a thin ring of gold surrounding the pupil. "That would certainly solve all of your problems, wouldn't it?" she asked.

  "It depends," Nafarius said, dropping her back onto her feet, "on whether or not someone else comes looking for you."

  Sam stumbled back, catching herself against the wall and watched as Nafarius left the room. She was still standing there stunned when Maddie returned a few minutes later, a bundle in her arms.

  "You okay?" Maddie asked. Sam looked pale, her mouth having gone slack-jawed.

  "What? Oh...yeah." Sam took a deep breath and tried for a reassuring smile. "What's that?"

  Maddie lifted the bundle. "Nafarius thought you might like to get cleaned up."

  "Thank you, God." Her mood instantly lightened. "I don't suppose there's any chance of a hot shower a
round here?"

  "No, but how about a cold bath?" It was the best they had to offer.

  "Honestly, at this point I'd be happy just to stand outside in the rain." Sam said, recognizing the limits that went along with their location.

  Maddie's smile was sweet and bright enough to light the dark alcove. "Come on."

  Sam hesitated, Nafarius' warning ringing in her ears. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

  "It's okay," Maddie assured her. "Nafarius issued orders. The pack will leave you alone."

  The promise of a bath was too tempting to pass up. Hoping Maddie was right, Sam followed her out of the alcove, through the pack's den and out into the late morning light.

  "Where is everyone?" The den was deserted, the clearing empty but for a few small children and their mothers.

  "Nafarius and Roland went with the others to check the pack's territory. Some are hunting and the rest working in the gardens."

  Sam followed Maddie across the clearing and into the forest. She had no idea where they were in relation to her previous campsite. "Where are we going?"

  "There's a stream near by. I'll warn you, it's snowrun off, so it's cold but there are pools deep enough to bathe in."

  "Is this where you bathe?" Sam asked.

  "Sometimes," Maddie said.

  "Don't you ever miss a hot shower?" Sam was curious about what seemed like a hard life.

  "I've never had one," Maddie admitted.

  "You've never had a shower?" Sam felt her mouth hanging open. No shower? She couldn't begin to imagine. Showers were a source of pleasure for her. She took long showers in the morning to wake and long showers at night to relax. Two a day had been her norm since way back before...well, for a very long time. She couldn't imagine a life without one.

  Maddie turned, walking backwards, she smiled. "I've lived here my entire life. I was born here."

  "You've never wanted to leave?" Sam tripped over an exposed root, grateful when Maddie caught her by the arm and kept her from falling.

  Maddie shook her head. "I'm curious and at some point I'll make the trip into the city, but so far there hasn't really been a reason to go."