Page 110 of Corbin
No, she did not want the stench of burning body to be the last reminder of her mother. She already knew the smell of her mother’s blood and death, and would carry that with her forever. But she chose to think of her mother as the young, happier woman she’d been when they’d lived in the north, long before coming to this place chasing this man.
That woman had been gone for a long time.
Holding her head as still as she could so the pain did not blind her, Elianna said, “I do not. I accept your generous offer. Now, if you will help me to this protected location where I will meet your healer, and bring Nico to me, you will not have to ever see me again.”
Alexandre became suspiciously quiet, so much so that his men were sending guarded glances his way. He said, “It wouldbe dishonorable for me to allow us to part ways before you understand all the terms of our agreement.”
That worried her, but Alexandre was known for his word being unquestioned in business deals. He had no reason to lie to her since he held all the power right now.
What had she missed?
Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming
“This is a bad idea.”
“You worried the Big Bad Wolf gonna get you, Rory?” Justin asked the more conservative of two teammates walking with him through Bighorn National Forest in northern Wyoming. He shook his head at the jaguar shifter, who could take down one of the bull elk roaming this area.
Rory needed to chill out. It was only Thursday afternoon and they’d probably be here the entire eight days.
Justin couldn’t wait to shift. His grizzly bear, Herc, would be in heaven once Justin turned him loose. May had rolled in with plenty of sunshine, but he still welcomed the chill at this elevation.
Herc chuffed a happy noise in agreement.
They both liked it cold. Having a beard for a while felt good even if he’d have to shave before returning to headquarters.
But in truth, Justin couldn’t tamp down the worry niggling at him that this trip would not end happy.
Rory’s gaze cut over to Justin when he added, “Even a bigmouth grizzly should be concerned about Adrian’s wolf.”
Justin sighed. Rory was not helping with all these negative waves, but Mr. Doom and Gloom couldn’t tackle a problem until he had pointed out every potential failure.
Justin would not fail Adrian. Neither would these two, but Rory’s harping was not helping Justin get past his own concerns.
“Rory’s got a point,” Cole muttered. The wolf shifter had been on his mobile phone with his mate most of the trip since leaving Spartanburg, South Carolina, which was understandable. Cole had only recently been mated and grumbled every time he had to leave Tess.
But much as Cole wanted to be snuggled up with his sexy new mate right now, he was just as committed to saving Adrianas Justin and Rory were. Failure meant their boss would have to put Adrian’s wolf down, and Justin couldn’t face that loss.
Neither could the other two, especially the wolf shifter.
Not after Cole had tried so hard to save Sammy, a Gallize grizzly shifter they had all respected and considered a brother, before the mating curse killed him.
That wasn’t entirely true about the curse ending the big grizzly’s life, though it had been at the core of Sammy’s problems.
The Black River pack of degenerate wolves had accelerated the effects of the curse when they’d used magic and drugs on Sammy. Cole was the last person to talk to Sammy telepathically before Sammy died. They’d both been in animal form. Against their wills, they fought as adversaries in a bloody battle.
Cole had been suffering the mating curse, too, but he’d managed enough control over his wolf to spare Sammy’s life even though the big grizzly shifter admitted he couldn’t change back to human.
Seconds after that, a Black River wolf killed Sammy.
Losing Sammy had gutted all of them.
As Gallize shifters, they were apex predators at the top of the shifter food chain, with only their boss, the Guardian, above them in power for the most part. He actually called up every Gallize shifter’s animal for the first time. Usually that happened after the shifter turned twenty-one. Cole and Sammy had been exceptions. They had been younger. Gallize lived longer than humans, but they were not immortal—or invulnerable.
These days, humans knew about shifters, but very few people of either type knew Gallize shifters existed.
Things had been chaotic enough before five mages joined forces to position themselves as Power Barons, a group not to be crossed. It had been a smart move, and those magic-wieldingjerks had manipulated their way into alliances with many countries.
That would be like a hawk forming an alliance with a bunch of chipmunks. The Power Barons smiled and played nice with humans just to have exclusive access to the databases on any other supernatural beings. If a shifter or some other nonhuman went missing unexpectedly, humans wouldn’t look twice at the Power Barons. In fact, they’d probably celebrate thinning the numbers ofothers.
