Sabine felt Drew’s conflicted feelings. Fight, to gain some retribution
or flight, to save her. He turned and lowered himself to his haunches and
lifted her gently.
He chose her.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he choked out, the pain and fear dulling
the anger his eyes.
Sabine’s eyes drifted shut, drawing on her reserves to keep breathing.
Drew’s fast jog sent sharp pain shooting through Sabine.
“Stay with me, Sabine, babe please.” Drew murmured in her ear. He rubbed
his face from her fur-tufted ear to her muzzle. She managed a weak lick over
his grim face.
Maybe she wasn’t going to die after all. Dying was supposed to be
painless. Only the living suffered, and she welcomed the pain racking her body
as her proof of life.
And held on as Drew asked. She had so much to live for.
Chapter Thirty
Curled up beside Drew in the bottom of Micah’s inflatable raft, Sabine
revised her opinion. Death would be a welcomed release from what she was going
through. She ached all over, was sick as the proverbial dog. Nausea chased the
bitter bile rising in her throat, as she fought against losing her dinner. She
loathed every mode of transportation invented by man, but she despised
traveling by boat the most. The small boat hit another wave and bounced over
the three-foot swells like a ball. She couldn’t help but let out a self-pitying
groan.
“We’re almost there, Sabi,” Ishbel crooned, soothing the fur on her face.
The persistent buzz of the engine propelling them forward changed to an
annoying put-put before it cut off. It helped her sore head, but the blasted
boat wobbled and wavered from side to side, which brought another bout of
dizziness.
“Can you shift, babe? If not, hoisting you up as a she-wolf is going make
you feel sicker. I’d have to carry you over my shoulder.”
No, it wasn’t possible. She couldn’t feel any sicker.
“It’s just until I get you aboard the boat. You can change back to wolf
form and go into a rejuvenating sleep to get well,” Drew murmured gently, his
lips against her ear. She must look really banged up because the doubt in his
voice told her how he felt. He wasn’t sure she’d be completely well again.
Sabine wasn’t so confident she would either. The gashes in her hip and
her messed up leg were taking longer to heal than usual. What worried her most
was she didn’t feel the warm soothing preternatural pulses of energy aiding the
knitting of her bones and tissues.
Apathetically, Sabine shifted.
Ishbel’s horrified gasp confirmed the worst of her fears. Sabine looked
down at her calf and hip. A horrified whimpering gasp escaped through her lips.
Raw meat. Her wound glistened wetly. Scabs had barely begun to form over the
wound.
“Christ almighty.” Drew glared up at Micah, accusation shooting from his
eyes. “What kind of fucking anticoagulant do you people carry in your bite? She
isn’t healing.”
Micah’s shoulders slumped as if someone had dropped a ton of bricks on
him. His countenance austere, he faced Drew. “I’m not sure. I can only tell you
what’s been hinted at, and I believe that’s just the start of our problems.”
“Problems? You don’t have any problems yet, son. But I can guarantee you
are about to have a shitload of them,” Drew snarled, rising to his feet.
The pliant vessel undulated under them. The testosterone level rose
between the two weres. Oh no, she was getting out of this thing before she got
tossed into the black, unfathomable deep.
Sabine grabbed Drew’s arm to pull herself upright. Her good leg could
support her weight. He turned and hauled her up, and the world bobbed and
weaved.
She closed her eyes because she saw three of everything. “Could you at
least get me off this floating lily pad before you two start pounding on each
other?”
Drew’s lips compressed into a thin, grim line. “Wrap your arms around my
neck and your legs around my hips.”
Shocked out of her misery by his words, she gaped at him. “You can’t
possibly expect me to have sex with you now.”
Drew’s brows flew up. The furious fire had died, and his lips twitched.
“I wasn’t, but now that you put the idea in my head, are you offering?”
The chuckles from the men brought a hot red flush to Sabine’s face.
“Arrhh, get me off this thing before I embarrass myself any more by
throwing up.” She looped her arms over his shoulders and hitched her legs
around his haunches.
Drew grinned at her, but she shot him a baleful glower. He tried to
stifle his amusement, but it was there, shining unabated from his eyes.
The swift swaying climb up the rope ladder did nothing to improve
Sabine’s mood. They swung like a pendulum, bumping into the rusted hull of the
ship. Drew tried to protect her as best as he could but they collected a few
abrasions on the way up.
When Drew set her down her down on the deck, she almost gave up a prayer
of thanks. That was before she realized that the benighted vessel rocked in
constant motion with the waves.
“When we get back to that mountain we live on I’m not setting foot or paw
off it again,” Sabine groused. The throbbing in her leg eased a little. The
more irritated she became, the better it felt.
“Drew!” A blur dashed past Sabine and twined itself around her mate. Drew
buried his face into the girl’s sun-streaked blonde hair as she sobbed against
his chest. It could only be his sister. Aimee spouted an incomprehensible
string of words at Drew without pause, who seemed to understand every word.
“I thought you’d be glad to see me, Aimee mine,” Drew teased, his voice
hoarse with emotion. He rocked her back and forth, giving and taking comfort
from the soothing action.
Aimee finally wound down and allowed Drew to ease her back from him. “Of
course I’m glad to see you.” She gave Drew a playful slap on the chest before
she rounded on Micah. “Why didn’t you tell me you had made contact with my
brother?”
“I didn’t want him whisking you off before he acknowledges me as your
mate.”
The mumbled reply didn’t satisfy, and Aimee gave him a narrow-eyed look.
The girl was tiny and curvy, and all Lunedare with her chocolate-brown
eyes, irises rimmed with the distinctive ring of amber. Her identifying scent
was prevalently Lunedare. The tang of the were she’d taken as her mate
impregnated her spoor, making her a Redmaven. As an added fillip to that, there
was their cub binding her and Micah Redmaven, which, judging by Drew’s
darkening expression, was not a good thing.
Sabine sighed. They’d be walking on the edge of a precipice trying to
diffuse Drew’s righteous anger.
“You’re carrying a cub?” Drew’s stark demand brought a black scowl to
Micah’s face.
“Yes, I am,” Aimee chirped, beaming at her brother, her happiness
evident.
“Were you forced?” His gaze shifted to Micah, cold and challenging, which
Micah met with a sphinx-like indifference to Drew’s unvoiced threat.
Aimee pulled away from her grim-faced brother and moved to stand by
Micah. He rested his plate-sized hands over her delicate shoulders, a silent
proclamation that they were a unit.
“Don’t be silly. I shamelessly threw myself at him.” Aimee looked up at
Micah, and they shared an intimate smile. The were’s face transformed. He
looked down at the tiny she-wolf with tenderness and healthy unbridled lust.
Sabine almost laughed, to see her unashamedly sensual mate squirm at the
sexuality humming between his sister and the were holding her. It was a new
side of him she’d never seen before.
Aimee faced her brother. “This is Micah, my mate.” She ignored Drew’s
black scowl. “My choice, I’ve said the words, accepted his mate’s mark. It’s
irrevocable.”
“He’s a Redmaven.” Hearing the damning denunciation filled Aimee’s eyes
with pain. “Have you seen what he becomes when he shifts?” Drew asked her
quietly.
Micah flinched as if Drew had lashed him with a whip.
Interesting, he hated what he was, Sabine thought. She didn’t know the
were, but there was no mistaking his feelings for Drew’s sister. He also earned
her admiration for liberating his pack, because if there were ever a set of
weres who needed rescue from the amoral practices and neglect of their alpha,
it was the Redmavens.
“Drew.” The admonishment in the single word brought a flush to Drew’s
face. “You taught me that no prejudices were to be tolerated. Why can’t you let
go of yours now, for my sake. I know what kind of man Micah is, who he is.”
Aimee’s chin jutted out with the same inflexible thrust as her brother’s.
Obviously struggling with his emotions, Drew burst out, “Jaysus, Aimee,
you’d have no life with him. The council has decreed that the Redmavens must
pay a penalty for flouting. I doubt their bloodline will survive the
blood-hunt.”
Aimee’s mouth dropped open, horror written on her face. She clasped her
hands protectively over her stomach. “Will that include my baby and me, Drew?”
Micah caught her as she sagged back against him. The other Redmavens
crowded around the couple. There was a toughness about them. Eyes filled with
resolution glowed greenly with their lupine heritage. They were prepared to
fight for their survival.
Sabine struggled to get her feet. “Enough. For Heaven’s sake, Drew,
you’re talking the genocide of an entire family.”
“The only thing that’s stopping all the other packs from coming down on
the Redmavens is the fact that I get first crack at them for taking Aimee. I
would have been satisfied with putting down Bardo and the weres who actually
had a hand in kidnapping her.” Drew looked over the silent Redmavens. “At this
point, the most I can ask for is a reprieve for the women and children.”
Sabine protested, “That’s not good enough. You will have a lot of say in
what happens to them. You can formally request for a pardon. I have studied
pack law.”
Drew shook his head. “It would take a petition from four alphas to
accomplish that.”
“Justice would do it, if you asked. As will Royal. My father is another,
and you are the fourth. Look beyond the fact that Micah is a Redmaven. Consider
what courage it took to defy the tenets instilled in every were from birth.
Blind obedience to your clan’s alpha. See the faces of his family. Read Micah’s
spoor, Drew. In spite of what they did to him, the best of a werekin prevailed
in him; the instinct to fight to ensure the survival of his family.
Characteristics you share with him.”
Drew gritted his teeth in his aggravation, and her mate looked so
beleaguered she almost laughed out loud. “Damn it, Sabine. What do you want me
to do?”
“What you are struggling against, to do what you know is right. Save the
Redmavens. Save your sister.” She bit her lip, a plea in her eyes.
“Whoa, hold up. Even if I wanted to, which I’m not sure I do, there’s
nothing I can do to change their situation. Their pack is a hot mess.” The
muscles in Drew’s jaw bunched stubbornly.
Aimee stumbled over to her brother and placed her hands on his chest.
“Fix this for me, like you fixed my cuts and scrapes when I was little. I can’t
lose him, Drew, please,” Aimee begged. “We don’t come to the table empty-handed.”
Desperation thickened her voice. “You have no idea how deep in poop we’re going
to be in if we don’t get our butts in gear. The Redmavens have a whole slew of
chemicals to mess with how we smell, fight, and heal.”
“Shit, Aimee, here I thought I’d shoveled my way halfway out of the pile,”
Drew grumbled and sent another threatening glare at Micah.
Aimee turned, snagged Micah’s arm, and tugged on it insistently. “Tell
him, Micah.”
“He doesn’t want to hear diddly-squat from the likes of me. After all,
I’m a Redmaven.”
The two weres glared at each other, neither one willing to give an inch.
Needing to break the tension, Sabine felt bound to ask, “If he doesn’t
want to hear anything from you, maybe you can explain to me how is it I didn’t
catch the trail of the weres we had that little skirmish with.”
Aimee planted her hands on her hips. “Listen to me. My hormones are
raging, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to give birth to a cub without a
central den when there’s a chance for us to reclaim his birthright. It can
happen, providing you two don’t screw the pooch. So work together or I’m going
to cop an attitude that’s going to make Katrina look like a summer breeze
squall.”
“Sabine needs medical attention,” Drew bit out.
It was a delaying tactic if Sabine ever heard one. “No, it will keep. My
wounds aren’t going anywhere. I’m entertained by seeing you try to avoid giving
your sister what she wants. Besides, if Micah can provide us with some insight
into Bardo’s strategies, I say we listen and be thankful.”
Aimee spared her a grateful glance. “Micah, come on, please, tell him! It
would go a long way in getting your home territory back. Drew, you’ll do it for
us, won’t you?”
Drew held up his hand like King Canute trying to send back the tsunami
that was Aimee, back out to sea. “Now Aimee, that’d be asking for way too
much.”
“Not if you take the information we have to Justice, as a show of good
faith. Please, Drew, do you want your niece to be homeless? We’d be stuck on
this boat, running forever,” Aimee wheedled.
“Niece?”
Aimee smirked slyly. “If you have an Achilles’ heel, it’s us girls. You
won’t stand by and see your niece grow up without a home.”
“Reason enough to petition the counsel, on behalf of your sister’s new
pack,” Sabine piped in and earned herself a dark scowl from Drew.
“She’s a Lunedare,” Drew declared, flatly.
“Sure she is, as much as I’m a Silverwolf?” Sabine interjected through
the side of her mouth. Drew shot her a
you’re-not-helping
glare.
Drew was obviously beleaguered by Aimee’s pleas and her reasoning. He
shot her an irritated look. “Not now, Sabine,” he bit out, tersely.