“Your analysis is a good one.” Jael glanced at Rebekka. “The healer could be sent to Coyote lands. She could visit with the humans and gather information. They’d allow her into the encampment.”
Aryck bared his teeth. “No.”
Jael’s lips quirked up in a small smile but then he stilled, eyes growing distant for an instant before saying, “My brother has found a dead Wolf.”
The mental communication confirmed Aryck’s suspicions about Jael. Like him, the Wolf was an enforcer of the alpha’s line.
“A pack member?” Rebekka asked.
“Once,” Jael said, his voice not inviting further questioning, though it was unneeded between Wolf and Jaguar.
Jael pulled one of the knives from its sheath and leaned over, using the blade to sever a thin manzanita branch. He stripped it and carved something on it in several places before stepping closer to Aryck and allowing him to see the symbols. “These warn against drinking the water here.”
The gesture spoke louder than words. Rarely did different groups share what counted as their written language.
Jael tossed the marker to one of the other Wolves. “Make several more and place them around the watering hole, then catch up to us.” To Aryck he said, “Let’s continue on. After the elk herd is located and dealt with I will speak to the alpha about the possibility of a formal alliance. In the past I wouldn’t have considered approaching him with such a suggestion, but I think perhaps he will be more receptive now, especially given he has let both a human and a Jaguar come among us.”
Miles later they found the remains of two Elk. Aryck’s hand curled around Rebekka’s arm at the sight of them.
The bodies were fresh. Their tracks and faces pointed in the direction of the Wolf village, as if they were retracing their earlier route. There was no obvious cause of death, but the urine-soaked ground and scattered feces hinted at convulsions.
He’d known from the outset they were tracking a mixed herd, a small family of Were traveling with pure animals for added safety. He hadn’t wanted to upset Rebekka by talking about it, not when there was every possibility the Wolves would be forced to kill all those in the herd rather than let any of them escape to spread the virus. He’d hoped they carried the virus without being affected by it in the same way as the Wolves. The dead in front of him said otherwise.
Jael left men to burn the bodies. And though no one spoke openly about them being Were, the Wolves bristled with emotion. Fear and rage and worry.
Aryck allowed another mile of steep climb to pass before he left Rebekka’s side and moved alongside Jael’s. Keeping his voice low, he asked, “How far until we reach the Elk village?”
“Close, I think”—there was a brief hesitation—“given the smell.”
Aryck nodded. The breeze carried the scent of death.
They approached a place where the trail forked. Left went toward Bear territory. Right toward Jaguar, passing through Coyote lands to get there.
Protectiveness rose in Aryck, the desire to shield Rebekka from what most likely lay ahead of them, not just the dead but the disposal of them. The Wolves would have to burn the bodies of entire families, including children, some of them in human form, all of them infected when those traveling with the herd of animals returned home.
Steps away from the branching trail, Aryck said, “Rebekka and I will wait here.”
“I’ll send someone to tell you what we find.”
Aryck stopped as the Wolves continued on. He took Rebekka’s wrist as she reached him, forcing her to a halt. “Jael will let us know if you’re needed. We’ll wait here.”
“No,” she said, fighting his grip. Jerking and pulling. Finally trying to peel his fingers away.
He countered by wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly against him. She stiffened, resisting still. Her heart thundering, pounding like fists against his chest.
“Let me go. Please. It could be too late by the time someone comes back to get me.”
Aryck gave her the truth with lips touched to her forehead. “It’s already too late.”
Her hands maneuvered between them, pushing against his chest in a continued effort to escape. “You don’t know that.”
He rubbed his cheek against hers. “Think how quickly the virus affected the Wolves. They succumbed at almost the same time and were all near death. If not for the shaman’s drum holding them to the living world, they would probably have crossed to the shadowlands before we got there.”
She stilled with understanding, making the very connection he’d meant to spare her from. “The last two dead Elk were Were.”
“Yes.”
A tremor went through her, a soul-deep shudder. Her hands slid down and around his waist, arms hugging him, drawing comfort as she softened against him.
Mine, he thought, accepting it fully, completely. Determining to act on it as soon as they were back on Jaguar lands.
It didn’t take long for the smell of smoke and burning flesh to reach him. He set Rebekka away from him just before a Wolf arrived, one whose scent was close enough to Jael and his brother’s to mark him as a sibling or cousin.
“There is no need for a healer,” the Wolf said. “Fire will bring Bears, if they’re not already watching. Jael said to tell you he believes the Bear enforcer will also see the wisdom of approaching his alpha about forming an alliance.”
It’s a first step, Aryck thought. He couldn’t ask for more or even guarantee his father would support the idea. “I’ll speak to the alpha when I return to camp.”
The Wolf focused on Rebekka. “The pack owes you a great debt. We will not forget it.”
Nineteen
DUTY and desire warred inside Aryck as soon as he stepped foot on Jaguar lands. He should go directly to camp to discuss the possibility of alliance with his father. Even now he should be reaching out mentally to the alpha and sharing all that had happened since going to the Wolves’ village. But rather than doing either, he detoured, taking a path leading to a dried-up spring.
Anticipation grew with each step, desire rebuilding. His heart beat fast and hard in his chest, like drums around the fire, building to a crescendo. Beside him Rebekka was quiet, somber, lost in thoughts he could easily guess at. But for the Were, life went on. There was little use in grieving over the Elk.
She’d saved seven Wolves from death. That was all time allowed.
He led her to a place where sandstone had eroded to become a soft bed, then halted, drawing her into his arms. She trembled but didn’t resist him, didn’t turn her face away when he slowly lowered his.
Brushing his mouth against hers, he said, “If not for you, the entire pack would have died.”
His words had the opposite effect of what he’d intended. She withdrew emotionally, stiffening in his arms and looking away.
Tenderness filled him. He understood. She was a healer and a human, far removed from the harsh truth of survival among pure Weres.
She couldn’t know that if other groups had learned of sickness spreading through the Wolf pack, they would have acted, slaughtering the Wolves either to stop the spread of disease or to gain control of the territory. He didn’t doubt she’d witnessed terrible things in the brothel, but nothing as horrible as genocide and war.
He pressed kisses to Rebekka’s neck, pausing to suck, to take the tender skin between his teeth. The desire to mark her strengthened as his cock hardened.
Her ear drew him upward and he captured the lobe, teased it with his tongue. Sucked. He was rewarded by the softening of her body, a melting against him accompanied by the heated scent of awakening desire.
“Let your worries go,” he murmured, sliding his hand up her side and over, taking possession of her breast as his tongue explored her ear.
Her moan and the jolt he felt go through her were all the encouragement he needed. He tightened the arm around her waist, pulled her against the thick ridge of his erection as his palm glided over her nipple until it hardened and she began grinding against his cock.