Leader of the Pack (33 page)

Rafe was menacing Aislinn with evil intent. He moved up behind her barely cognizant form. He was so intent on his target that he completely missed Jenna’s actions. He pawed at Aislinn, and she turned to face him. She pulled her tail between her legs, backing away from him. She stumbled a bit as she moved, and Rafe was on top of her. His size dwarfed her in all ways. Aislinn cried out as he maneuvered her beneath him. She couldn’t see how he could do this and not rip her apart. A gigantic paw held her down as he pressed against her. Aislinn wiggled away from him as best she could, but that mostly entailed lying flat on the ground and trying to use her tail to stop Rafe’s intrusion. Her struggles only seemed to spur him on.

Brinah picked up the remainder of the jar at the foot of the nearest standing stone and stared at the substance Rafe had used to aid in his transformation. It had been so long since she learned these things. The residue in the jar was red and smelled of herbs. There must have been blood in it. She looked up at Rafe as he attacked her granddaughter. Using the glass from the jar, she slit her palm and dropped some of her own blood into the mixture, then poured what was left of it onto the ground. Nothing happened. She was panicking, but she was convinced that the only thing needed to disrupt Rafe’s transmutation would be a change in the formula, before he left the Circle. As she looked around for something more drastic than her own blood, her eyes fell across the rest of the stones.
Eight more jars.

Cullen saw Rafe trying to mount Aislinn, and his attention shifted. He howled in rage, calling out the attack, and there wasn’t a wolf on the reservation who didn’t know that Cullen Arnauk was pissed. Jenna joined her howl with his, and in unison all the Tairneach seemed to come to life. When the Tairneach jumped sides, there was some confusion at first. It was as though no one was sure who should be fighting with whom, but the Arnauk shortly got the idea and the true fight began.

The weres were outnumbered by lycans more than three to one. However, the battle was fought as though the sides were nearly even. The body count piled as fangs tore at throats and claws disemboweled stomachs.

Cullen tackled the were-bear-lion that was Rafe and the pair toppled over, leaving Aislinn cowering on the ground, watching the fight. Her head was spinning, and she couldn’t quite make out what was happening yet. She felt as though she was trapped in one of Rafe’s nightmares. Cullen was greatly outmatched in strength, but Rafe had never been in a hand to hand fight, was slower than the lycan, and was new to his form. The two men grappled and rolled. Cullen weaved, avoiding Rafe’s gigantic paws and swiped at him in return, tearing chunk after chunk of flesh from Rafe’s hide. Rafe tilted his head like a bear and roared a lion’s rage at Cullen, drool dripping from his jowls.

Kara watched the insanity break out around her. When Jenna called the Tairneach, it was clear that the bitch had been planning this. Kara charged Jenna, intent on destroying the woman. Jenna watched unimpressed. Just before Kara reached Jenna a large lycan appeared out of nowhere, crashed into her side, and pinned her down. Kara grappled with the lycan, roaring her rage at the loss of her target and Jenna disappeared into the fray.

Brinah worked her way around the Circle of stones. As she managed to spill blood into the fourth reagent mixture on the ground, Rafe started to falter. At first, he wasn’t sure what was happening. Something didn’t feel right. Cullen charged him again, taking him to the ground. The were-bear-lion wrapped his arms around the lycan and tried to crush him. Cullen growled in pain as Rafe nearly broke his back. Brinah was feeling light headed when she reached the sixth stone. She pushed herself to complete her task. She sliced open her other hand and spilled blood in the mixture that was still seeping into the ground. Rafe suddenly dropped Cullen. He stood disoriented, looking around with a fog over his eyes. When he saw Brinah, he roared in anger and charged.

Brinah ducked behind the seventh stone as Rafe ran at her. In his rage, Rafe ran into the stone, which wobbled on its base and began to fall over. Brinah scrambled out of the way just as Cullen hit Rafe in the back and knocked him over the stone, rolling into the clearing beyond the stones. Brinah watched in dismay as the pair rolled out of the Circle and toward the woods. She was feeling the effects of the blood loss, and she wasn’t sure that contaminating the rest of the stones would affect Rafe’s transformation, if he wasn’t inside the Circle.

Aislinn felt the battle rage around her, as if she wasn’t really there. It was as though she was in one of her dreams, staring down at everything. Her body burned as though she was on fire, and her head swam. When she moved the world spun. Somewhere in her mind she registered that her grandmother was standing nearby. Aislinn watched Brinah pick up a broken piece of glass and slice into her wrist. Aislinn cried out, but it came out more like the screeching growl of a jungle cat. Forcing herself to her feet, Aislinn ran to her grandmother with a drunken step.

Brinah was near passing out. When Aislinn reached her, she thought she was being attacked at first. Brinah fell back onto the ground as Aislinn butted her head against her grandmother in lieu of arms to hug her. Aislinn wasn’t sure what to do. She tried to calm down and force herself to become human again. She never realized how much it would hurt. It felt as though she had been in pain forever. Her body twisted and contorted, shifting a little, and then fear and the pain seemed to cause her to shift back. Aislinn looked around at all the others. There had to be a way to do this. She concentrated on being herself again. She needed to help her grandmother. Her body began its awkward shift once more. It was nowhere near as smooth and graceful as the others all made it look. Aislinn didn’t manage to get all the way back to human. She ended up in her hybrid form as she stabilized. The pain was more than she was able to deal with though, and she lay on the ground staring at her grandmother with pleading amber eyes.

When Brinah realized that the animal in front of her was Aislinn, she grabbed her granddaughter into her arms. It was all she could do to remain calm. Seeing all the cuts and bruises on Aislinn’s body, Brinah pulled open the bag she carried. Her hands shook, but she managed to find the small bottle she was looking for. She pulled the cork out of the top of the bottle and poured the solution into Aislinn’s mouth.

Rafe was still holding his own in the fight despite the fuzzing of his senses. He didn’t think it could last much longer. He managed to get in a hard swipe, and knocked Cullen back several feet. Cullen was starting to tire and was fighting the pain of several broken bones from being repeatedly hit by the were-bear-lion. He rolled to a stop, dazed momentarily. Rafe headed back to the stone circle intent on killing Brinah before she could cause any further damage. Seeing him coming, Brinah crawled for the ninth stone.

Aislinn felt a cooling sensation through her body, and suddenly her senses cleared. Realizing that she hadn’t quite managed to shift all the way to her human form, she sat on her knees staring down at herself. Most of the fur was gone from her stomach, but there was still quite a bit across the backs of her arms and over her legs. She had spots that bled into her hairline, down her neck and collarbone. They turned into stripes, flowing down her back and trailing off, becoming spots again across her hips and down her thighs. Her hands were still claws and she could feel fangs in her mouth. With a measure of gratitude she realized, she had no tail in this form. When she saw Rafe charging in her direction, Aislinn assumed that he was after her until she followed his gaze to where Brinah was sitting near the next stone.

Rafe singled in on Brinah as she added her blood to the base of the ninth stone. Lunging just in time Aislinn managed to throw Rafe off balance enough to miss Brinah, as she crawled away and lay down just beyond the Circle amidst the melee. Rafe grabbed hold of Aislinn, growling his rage as they rolled into the center of the Circle and came to a stop with Aislinn beneath him, pinned to the stone slab. He growled into her face as she struggled to push him off. “
Rach-air-muin,” Aislinn spat at him. Rafe grinned and leaned down. His tongue snaked out of his mouth, and he licked Aislinn’s chin up to her lips, trying to force his way in between.

Brinah passed out watching her blood seep into the damp ground at the base of the ninth stone. The first of the pain shot through Rafe’s arms and legs, as Cullen plowed into him for the last time. As the men grappled, Rafe roared in pain. For all his strength he wasn’t able to combat the twisting of his body as well as Cullen Arnauk at the same time.

Cullen’s jaws closed on Rafe’s throat with a sickening crunch, and he yanked his head back, tearing Rafe’s throat from his neck. Cullen fell away from Rafe’s body, spitting the bloody mass of flesh onto the ground, relief surging through him. Cullen sat there breathing heavily for a moment before he came to his senses and looked around for Aislinn. He let his wolf slip back and took on his human form, feeling some of the tension ebb.

All around them, the sounds of battle were coming to an end. Slowly the Arnauk and Tairneach, who were left alive, gathered around the stone circle for orders. They stood uneasily together. Bodies riddled the ground. The smell of blood was so thick, the lycans couldn’t scent the difference between each other. Mates sensing loss searched through the crowd for each other in fear, crying out mentally for their missing halves. There was a growing group of were-cats, being herded together to be dealt with when Jenna and Cullen were able to give their joint attentions to the problem.

Appearing from the shadows with the dying of the fight, Jenna stood over Rafe’s mangled form, her body apparently untouched from the battle. She kicked at the dead were-bear-lion with one foot, as if to make sure he wasn’t coming back. Then she looked over at Cullen with a relief that made him start to wonder if he had misjudged her. But that moment was fleeting. The small glimmer seemed to fade, and the relief was replaced with Jenna’s standard dark smile, her fingers fiddling noticeably with a ring on a chain around her neck. Cullen recognized the large ruby signet that had been on Brennus Tairneach’s hand for the whole of the time that Cullen had known him.

Jenna turned to the two large lycans trailing behind her protectively. “Have the others gather the bodies of our dead and make ready to leave.”

The large man bowed his head in compliance. “What about the cats,” he sneered, looking over at the group of creatures that were being gathered together. It was taking quite a few lycans to keep them all in line. There were a few excessively large mixed were-beasts that the lycan guards were having trouble with.

Jenna looked over her shoulder at Cullen, who was still sitting on his knees trying to gather his strength. “I think that Rafe and his followers have been a Tairneach problem for long enough. Let the Arnauk clean up the mess.” She grinned weakly at Cullen. “I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea about me,” she said sweetly and walked away from the gory scene in the Circle of standing stones.

“Jenna,” Cullen called after her. She stopped momentarily and turned to him. “Brennus would have been proud,” he said, loud enough that most of the Tairneach present wouldn’t miss it.

Jenna’s eyes fell away from his with a teary thoughtful glaze across them, as if she didn’t really believe it. She looked at Cullen again with a sad grateful stare, before turning and disappearing into the woods on her way back to the cabin.

Cullen shook his head and started to stand. He felt his body crunch. He had a lot of healing to do. Rafe may not have been very skilled at fighting, but his strength had been monstrous. Every time he managed to make contact with Cullen, Rafe broke a bone or ripped a gash in Cullen’s flesh that would scar horribly before he had a chance to heal. Still, he would survive.
Barely,
he thought.

Cullen’s eyes fell on Aislinn. She was so amazingly beautiful. His heart was near exploding with how much he needed to hold her. She hadn’t managed to change out of her hybrid form yet, but she appeared relatively unharmed. A number of claw slashes along her waist and arms appeared to be healing quickly.
Unbelievably quickly
, Cullen noted, watching the scratches on her breasts fade away.

Suddenly he realized he was staring at her breasts. His breath caught in his chest, as his eyes traveled to the small scattered spots and white fur that began just under and along the sides of her breasts. The spots darkened to mottled black in color, where the white fur blended into the same brown color as her hair, and increased in number traveling around her sides. The spots seemed to dip and gather in just the right places to accentuate each curve of her body. The leopard like markings kissed the tops of her shoulders and faded along her collar bone. He was dying to press his lips to her skin and taste each gorgeous spot. They ran up the sides of her neck and along her hair line. Her face was more human than it should have been, even in hybrid form.

Cullen wondered how many women Rafe experimented with before he came up with this. Aislinn’s features were most definitely cat-like. Her upper lip curved up just enough to appear like a muzzle, without losing the thick human lower lip. Her nose was somewhat flat against her muzzle, but was oddly wider than a cat’s should have been. His tongue wet his own lips unconsciously. He felt his arousal growing even through the pain of his injuries. Her eyes were what captured him the most. There was no cat there. They were too round. The pupils took up too much area. He smiled. Somehow those eyes were lycan. Amber replaced the silver that they had been before and swirled around the black dilated pupils. Flecks of iridescent blue mingled in their depths, causing them to shift from gold to green and back again. It was hypnotic to watch.