Animal Secrets: A Paranormal Romance (The Animal Sagas) (3 page)

“It’s too late,” the witch Cackled again, even as she shimmered further. “It has been too late since the day my child was taken!” then abruptly the woman, the leaf, and the blood drop disappeared completely.

Chapter 6

Clay, Sonya and Lynda were immediately caught off guard by the old woman’s disappearance. How did she do that? And where did she go? They were almost as confused as Sonya was when the old woman appeared initially. Just who was this old woman? What was she talking about? The curse she mentioned, what did she mean by that? None of Lynda or Sonya’s family had ever killed anyone. At least to their knowledge that was the case. There were so many questions going through all their minds it was impossible to understand or completely comprehend what had just happened.

By the time the other wolves had arrived, there was no trace of the old woman. Lynda, Sonya and Clay hadn’t had much of a chance to rehash what had just happened but they would surely have to now. The pack members had hundreds of questions it seemed and the threesome would surely have to answer all of them that they could once they got back to their homes. But for now they were all safe.

Clay transformed back into his human state, and carefully picked Sonya up into his arms. “Did she hurt you?” he asked her with a worried look on his face.

“No,” Sonya shook her head as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

“Lynda?” Ben asked as he transformed and walked up to her with his arms out to hold her. Lynda had also shifted back into her human state, and her hands were on her rounded belly. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked back at Ben, shaking.

“Lynda, what is it?” Ben asked, cautiously stepping closer to her. Lynda could not bring herself to speak, as her grief was running far too deep. She continued to shake as the grief overtook her.

“The witch, or whatever she was, that old woman, you didn’t see her, but she threatened the babies,” Sonya explained to Ben in a horrified whisper.

“Lynda, no one is going to hurt our children. Don’t you worry about the babies,” Ben promised as he stared her straight in the eyes. “I will protect you, and them as well, so don’t you worry. Okay? Do you understand me?”

Lynda felt the tears cascading down her cheeks, still shaking as she held onto her tummy. “Her curse. She told us of a curse – one that has caused our line to be eliminated over time. I’ve always wondered why our numbers have dwindled – you can’t protect me from her. And you can’t protect the babies either!” she whispered. “You can’t protect them either,” she cradled her belly gently with her palms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Ben cupped her cheeks with his hands and turned her eyes back to his.

“Yes I can, and I will, Lynda. Please believe me, I will take care of us all.”

Sonya felt a deep shame wash over her and tears stung her eyes as she looked away from her sister and the Alpha of their pack as he tried to console his bride – her sister. She had never seen her in this state. Lynda was always the strong and savvy one. And seeing her like this was was ultimately horrifying to her.

“What’s wrong, Sonya?” Clay asked, he could tell she was hiding something. He cradled her close to him, trying to reassure her that she could tell him the truth.

“She took something,” she quietly murmured in Clay’s ear.

“What? What did she take from you? Or was it from Lynda? What are you talking about?” he asked studying her intently.

“She took a leaf,“ She said to him quietly, trying to keep all the attention off of her

“But a leaf isn’t anything, honey. Don’t worry about that. That doesn’t mean anything,” Clay said trying his best to reassure his new mate.

“But it is special Clay.” she confided to him.

“Why? Why would a plain old leaf be anything out of the ordinary? Crazy old woman, she was probably just trying to scare you by picking something up,” Clay commented.

“But Clay… It was a leaf… and it had my blood on it,” she blurted out and buried her face in the crook of Clay’s shoulder and neck, now crying just as hard as Lynda. “She has our blood now, Clay. She has my blood!”

Clay and Ben met eyes over the tops of the two women’s heads. They both knew that this one fact made the situation much more serious.

“That’s not your fault, baby,” Clay murmured to her in the best reassuring tone he could muster. “You couldn’t have stopped her.”

Sonya and Lynda were both still visibly upset as they all traveled back through the woods. What was supposed to be a night of celebration had just turned into a night of fear. They had no idea how completely their lives would be affected by this new occurrence. The arrival of the old lady had scared the girls beyond words, but of the two sisters, Lynda was definitely the most badly affected.

As soon as they got back home Ben led Lynda into their bedroom, and helped her back into bed. He gently covered her with the sheets and comforter. Then he sat down beside her, and rested his hand on the rise of her stomach. He smiled faintly as he felt the flutter of movement inside.

“See?” he said gently. “They’re doing just fine in there.”

Lynda did not answer as she tried unsuccessfully to hold back the tears that insisted on flowing.

“Lynda,” he drew her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers gently. “Please, don’t worry, they are going to be just fine, and we will have many more if I have any choice in the matter.”

“Ben, you don’t understand,” Lynda felt her heart sink and did her best to talk between sobs. “You’ve never seen your entire line just die off. For all I know she is the reason our parent’s died too – maybe it wasn’t an accident like we had thought all this time. She murdered them! And if she had the power to do that, she certainly has the power to make good on this too!”

“You’re right,” he said quietly. “I don’t understand. But what I do know is that your entire line did not die off,” he met her eyes sternly. “You and Sonya are part of this pack now, we are your line, and we will protect you both.”

Lynda sniffled, started to regain her composure a bit and nodded at Ben’s last comment. He kissed her fingers once more, drew her hand down from his mouth and laid it gently across her belly, with his large hand on top.

“Feel them,” he murmured. “They want you to know that everything will be just fine too.”

Lynda again felt the flutter of their movement inside her and sighed contentedly. She wanted to believe Ben. She did believe in him. And she wanted to think that the pack would be able to protect them, but she also knew better. The old lady had gave her quite a scare. But she wanted to be strong for Ben and Sonya especially so she vowed internally to try and get herself together. She knew what the threat meant – she had seen the grief in the eyes of her family as they attended funeral after funeral when she was still a teenager. She also knew that if her babies did not make it to birth that she would be devastated.

Would Ben still want her if he knew that she could not have any more children? He was a proud man, but would the loss of the babies be too much for him to bear? Would he blame her for it? She turned away from him, hoping to hide the fear in her eyes as question upon question fought for dominance in her brain. She just wanted to shut it off so the questions would stop. Even if only for a few minutes.

Ben’s jaw clenched as he sat there, realizing that she was still worried. He knew she would not let it go and would run scenario after scenario over and over through her brain. She needed peace but he did not know yet how to give her that. He wanted to be able to reach inside of her and make her trust him, but he could see that the witch had truly rattled her. So he kissed her forehead gently and curled up in the bed right beside her.

“I will keep you and the babies safe, don’t you worry,” he murmured to her as she finally fell into a fitful slumber.

As it turns out Sonya and Clay were in a similar position inside their own home. She was staring listlessly out at the sky, her injured ankle tended to and wrapped up tightly in a tan ace bandage, thinking about the events that had happened only moments ago. She thought long and hard about every statement the old woman had made to her, in fact to all of them, trying to decipher exactly what she meant. As the baby in the family she was aware of some of the old Yukonia tales but all the things the witch had said certainly made no sense at all to her.

“She gave you a quite a scare, hmm?” he asked, offering her a cup of warm Irish coffee and then kissed her cheek. Sonya stiffened at the expression of affection.

“Clay,” she said softly taking the warm drink from him. When he bent down and kissed her again. “If I can’t have babies -”

“You can,” he insisted and lovingly nuzzled her neck. “But even if you can’t, that changes nothing between us,” he assured her. “I love you Sonya, and nothing could ever change that. I don’t love you just for your child rearing ability… so that is not an issue with me. I want you to completely understand that. Do you?”

Sonya smiled at him, enjoying the warmth of the hot drink in both her hands and mouth. She sat up in her chair, stretched a bit and then immediately snuggled back into her arms, still carefully holding the warm drink in one hand. Maybe the witch had her blood, and she didn’t know just what that meant, but Clay had taken full possession of her heart and she knew together they would figure out something to make it all okay.

Chapter 7

As soon as Lynda awoke from her nap she immediately noticed two things, she did feel a little better and there were others in their home besides just her and Ben. Maybe the nap gave her recuperative powers that little extra jolt they needed to push away the nausea that she had been experiencing on and off for the past few months. As her mind began to swirl contemplating the events of just a few hours ago she instinctively patted her round belly and was returned with a feeling that her twins were in there and were doing just fine.

“Thank you,” she whispered to no one in particular.  As she lay there, still patting her belly, she did her best to figure out who the voices belonged to that were coming from her own living room. She looked out the window, it was still dark outside. She cocked her head and listened intently – Ben, Clay, Sonya… Leyna, one of the elder females, and a few others that she had yet to figure out. Needless to say, they were really actively discussing something. She knew that it had to do with her, Sonya and the twins. She also knew that she needed to be a part of what was being talked about and to actively be in on deciding what the potential solutions were. So she got up.

Before heading out to see the others she stepped into the bathroom and took stock of herself. Her hair was a mess, she looked pale and tired and just not like herself at all. So she brushed her hair, her teeth, peed, and changed clothes. That helped her feelings just a bit, because, as she looked in the mirror one last time before going out into the living room, she felt much better about what was looking back at her. She wanted to look better for the others – personally she could care less about it, but she knew if she looked frail or just un-Lynda-like, that the others would pick up on it super fast and worry about her. And there was too much to worry about without adding that to the mix.

As Lynda walked into the living room where the group of people were having a heated exchange, they all instantly grew silent and turned to stare at her. It was as if Lynda had hit the stop talking button as she crossed the rooms threshold. Nonplussed, the group watched her enter the room, all inquiring about how she felt, how she was doing, and all the typical questions people ask in these kinds of situations. She smiled as she passed each one, nodded at a few, threw a feeble wave to a couple and headed directly to where Ben, Sonya and Clay stood near the middle of the room. Ben, Clay and Sonya waited patiently for her to join them. As soon as she got there Clay reached out for her then patted her hand, Sonya hugged her for what seemed like hours, and then Ben pulled her to him and kissed her lightly on the forehead as soon as Sonya turned her loose.

Lynda sat down on the couch right next to Sonya in the middle of the group as quickly as she could without being a total distraction to their conversation. “Okay, so what have you all figured out?” she asked the group gathered there who were still as silent as church mice. Sonya reached over, grabbed Lynda’s hand and pulled it into her lap as she scooted even closer to her big sister.

“Well, it is pretty much a given that this person, whoever the lady was, knew who you and Sonya were and wished you both ill will.” Ben stated, trying to lead the conversation and to catch Lynda back up on what she had missed as she slept.”It is also pretty clear that she is very gifted in the magical arts. We’re not exactly sure how powerful she is, but it is obvious that she does have some power.”

“She popped out of nowhere while I was waiting out in the woods,” Sonya told her sister and the group. “I never heard her approach me or anything – and believe me, I was listening. I heard a voice coming from somewhere near me but couldn’t figure out from where. The next thing I know she was there! Talking about a curse too. I thought she was talking to the wrong person, you know.”

“The witch knew who you were,” Leyna interjected to Lynda. “There was no mistaking on her part. And she knew of your sister as well.”

“But how?” Lynda asked.

“Well, that part we don’t know yet – but we will figure it out. Don’t you worry,” insisted Clay.

“We need to figure out exactly what she meant by the curse and what kind of curse it is,” Ben added.

“And how to get rid of it!” Sonya said.

“Exactly,” Ben agreed. “So I guess the first thing we need to do is figure out who this lady is and where she is from. Next, we need to find out all that we can about her. And also we need to figure out if she has any weaknesses.”

“I can lead a group of our best trackers out into the woods and see if we can find anything,” Clay stated. Then he added, “Maybe she dropped something out there that can lead us to her. Or maybe we can pick up a scent we can use. The sun will be up in just a bit and that will be a big help too. And maybe you two can get with Faye the artist to draw up a picture of what the old woman looked like. Faye might come up with an image that we can show to others and maybe someone will recognize her. You know, kind of like our own Strongheart sketch artist.”