lightning witch 02 - lightning legacy (18 page)

"If you don't get up, I'm going to tickle you until you scream." My tone was husky, but she nearly ran out of the bed.

A few moments later I heard the whoosh of the shower. Then she screamed. I shot out of the bed so fast the covers tangled around my feet and I went careening to the floor. With more speed than I knew I had, I righted myself and went charging into the bathroom.

Steam billowed out of the small enclosure. I darted my gaze around and saw Delaney standing in the middle of the bathroom gawking at me.

“What’s wrong?”
Who do I need to kill?
My heart was hammering in my chest.

“Uh look at me!” she cried, looking down at her nude body.

My eyes trailed over her. I smiled a knowing smile.

"Oh, I'm so happy you're pleased with yourself! But I look like a cheetah!" She motioned to her breasts and abdomen. They were covered in love bites. I couldn't hide my smile.
Hey, what can I say? I’m pleased.

Clearly, she was not amused, because she narrowed her eyes at me and said, “You aren’t Kenickie and this isn’t a Hallmark card!”

“I don’t know what you just said.”

Who the fuck is Kenickie and am I going to have to kill him?

She gaped at me in disbelief. “How? How have you never seen
Grease
? You’re old as dirt. That just isn’t possible.”

“Get in the shower, woman!” I ordered, then added, “Or I’ll add more to my collection.”

“OH, COME ON,
Reid. I’m never going to learn unless you help,” Troy called.

After Delaney and I showered, Troy and Monique asked us to help with some of Troy’s training. By "help" they meant I had to be the dummy for target practice.

“Troy, there is no way I’m going to let you shoot a fireball at my head in hopes of hitting an apple. You aren’t William Tell!” I held out the apple he handed me.

“Oh, come on! Don’t be a pussy!” he yelled over the distance that separated me from the three.

"Hey, you are what you eat. And the answer is still no."

Troy's eyes went wide and both he and Monique whirled to face Delaney. Her mouth hung open in shock and then her face turned so red it was nearing on purple. She jerked her head in my direction. Before I had time to register it, she shot a small ball of lightning at me, causing the apple, held out in my outstretched hand, to explode, covering my forearm in sweet sticky goop.

"Turn off the blush, D, I got no sleep because of the racket you two made last night," Troy said laughing.

Delaney threw her hands up in surrender and turned to stalk away.

I walked to the group.

“Nice shot, love.”

She scowled at me, but I didn’t mind. Her scowl was cute. Not that I would ever tell her that, as I did not wish to be electrocuted. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. I didn’t think I would ever get enough of being able to touch her like this.

"What's the plan?" Delaney asked. When we had emerged this morning, we told Troy and Monique about the phone call from Anderson. We all agreed we needed to head the pack off before they got to Savannah. This may not be a big city, but there were a lot of people here. Also, we needed to get the upper hand and surprise them. Now, we just needed to come up with a plan. We could do nothing until Troy had better control of his power and Delaney could control her beast a bit better. That was my plan for today.

“Delaney, we need to go. We have a lot of stuff we need to do.”

"I bet you do," Troy said, as he waggled his eyebrows at Delaney.

She slapped him in the stomach.

“Oof, hooker.”

“Keys inside?” she asked Troy.

He nodded, giving her the middle finger. She smiled and turned to the house. I paused, mesmerized by the sawing motion of her ass. I licked my lips and ran a hand over my chin. That girl had me wrapped around her little finger.

WE DROVE TO
a small clearing that was nestled in some densely wooded areas just off of Highway 17. The trees were so overgrown that there was no way for us to be seen from either the highway or a plane. When I asked Delaney how she knew about this place, her eyes watered slightly. She said there was a stream nearby that opened up into a larger marsh and that she and Sierra came here a number of times.

My woman had been through so much. She had known so much loss, it broke my heart to see it. She solidified her emotions and hardened herself, clearly trying not to show me this vulnerability.
Did Mitch do this to her? Did he harden her?
I growled at the thought. I scented the air. There were the normal woodland smells, but there was a distant scent. It was faint and seemed like it was trying to be masked. I made note of it, then brushed it off. I think my paranoia was getting the best of me.

“Well, master wolf, what now?” she asked.

I smiled at her. “Tell me what Mitch told you about your beast.”

“Well, he told me when I change to let it take me over. To give myself over to the thrill of the hunt. The thrill of the kill.”

The air between us grew heated and I could scent her excitement just speaking of it.

"Not quite. When you change, you can let the beast out, but you need to keep a leash on it. Mitch lets his beast have far too much control. One of these days, it's going to get him killed."

“Let’s hope,” she retorted.
Indeed.

“Mitch barely has control over his wolf. Also, we aren’t human, but we aren’t wolves either. We are something else. We have attributes of both. Too much of one and that leaves holes and becomes a weakness,” I explained.

She nodded, clearly trying to take everything in.

“One of the good things about being mated is I can communicate with you while in wolf form.”

Her eyes went wide. Then, her shocked expression turned thoughtful. I quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Well, um, Mitch um …” She trailed off, clearly trying to choose her words carefully.

I tried to swallow back the rage I felt whenever his name fell from her lips. “Go on.” I urged.

"Well, he kept pressuring me to mate with him. And then, um, sleep with him. Before I left, he said he would force it on me. I guess if you can't force a mating, why? Why would he want that?"

I had to take a deep breath as not to spew rage everywhere like a wildfire.

“I don’t know. Other than him wanting to possess and use you, I don’t know.”

My tone was harsh. I couldn’t help it.

“I’m yours, you know,” she whispered, as she put a hand on my shoulder.

I shuddered at the contact and my anger ebbed at her touch. Then a thought struck me.

"Hey, what did that letter from your aunt say?" I had no idea why the thought popped into my head, but there it was.

“Oh shit, I never read it. But, I have it at Troy’s,” she said, clearly irritated at herself.

"Well, we will worry about it when we get there. Now, I want to see your wolf and how beautiful she is."

She blushed at the compliment, but I knew she wanted to show me. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head and just like that I was hard for her. I feared I always would be, no matter the situation. I made a mental note to never go to church with her. She stood nude in front of me and I had to fight the urge to fall upon her like a hungry man devouring her inch by sultry inch.

She shook, not because she was cold. Nerves? She took in a deep breath and I went to turn around, knowing how painful a shift as a new wolf could be, but before I could, she shifted. She went from human to wolf as though from one breath to the next. I was in shock at the speed. Never had I ever seen such a smooth and fast shift.

Then I saw her. She was small for a were, but, then again, most females were. She was snow white. Not a single black or tawny hair on her beautiful body. Her body was sleek. She was perfect. She stood about four-and-a-half feet tall and looked as though she wasn't built for brute force, but speed. And her eyes were glowing silver. She was so stunning I had no words. I walked over to her. When I got within a few inches of her, she ducked her head in submission. I sighed and the beast in me stirred. I had a feeling she would look at me as her alpha. I imagined the thought of being an alpha would ruffle, but it didn't.

I wanted to try to communicate with her, but I’d never done this before. I felt around for our mental connect. It took a little while, but I found it.

"Hello, love."

Her ears twitched and then she began pawing at her head, clearly distressed. The beast had the upper hand and I needed her to reign her in.

"Delaney, feel for the connection. Once you find it, you need to find a happy medium with your beast. She can't control you this much. You'll hurt someone," I tried to say aloud in a calming tone.

She was struggling. I knew there was nothing I could do. This was her battle. She had to do this and she would have to face this for a few months before she would have full control in this form. After a few minutes and a few head shakes, she seemed to calm. I tried our mental connection once more.

“Better?”

"Yeah. This is harder than it looks." Her voice sounded distant, but it was there. She sat down in front of me as though she were expecting something. I smiled down at her and ran my fingers through her fur. She ducked her head low and arched her back to me. It wasn't until she started panting that I understood the importance of what she was going through. Her beast not only recognized its mate, but its alpha. I backed away and undressed. My shift took several minutes longer and was substantially more painful than Delaney's. With her beast's submission, mine needed to answer. I have never had the longing or real desire to be an alpha, until now. I felt like she was pulling something from me. Like she was asking a question that I alone could answer. I brought her out here to help her, but it seemed like she would be helping me as well.

Delaney was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen as a human, and as a wolf she was just as majestic. As soon as my body finished its shift, I padded over to her. Again, she ducked her head. I opened my mouth and playfully bit her nose. Again, I tried to reestablish our connection. She was correct, it was a lot harder than I thought. When in my wolf form, it was easy to let go a bit of my control. To let the beast take over some, but for this kind of communication I had to reign the beast in, and that was incredibly difficult.

“Reid?” Delaney's soft voice rang in my mind. And like that, the connection snapped into place.

“I hear you.”

She nipped my nose back in a chiding way and said, “See? Harder than it looks.”

"I want to help you, but I need to see what you can do. I know you have hunted, can you call your lightning?"

“I think so. The only two times I hunted before, Mitch wouldn’t let me try.”

"Try now." I needed to see how different she was. I thought it would take her a few moments to call up her lightning, but in the blink of an eye she went nearly incandescent with lightning. She looked as though she was made from lightning. And her eyes sparked, looking as though they were their own lightning strikes. When she shook her fur out, sparks went flying off of her, reminding me of shooting stars. She was utterly stunning. I was captivated. Before I could say a word, she stalked toward me.

“Wait,” I mentally called.

Her power was so strong that even from this distance I honestly didn’t know if I could survive it. It wasn’t just the lightning. Her lightning was part of it, but the magnitude of her power was pressing down on me and I wasn’t sure even touching her would be a good idea.

She paused and in a tone that I couldn’t recognize as her she said, “Reid, I’m scared. I can’t pull my power back in.”

She looked scared to death and her power was only growing. The force of her power was becoming increasingly more intense. It was causing the trees and brush to start bowing and giving way. I tried to hold my ground next to her, but her power was overwhelming.

“Love, you need to try …” I trailed off when I realized she wasn’t just scared of her power, but about being a wolf. I had to bring her down. I could do this. She was my mate. I had to heal her. I
would
heal her.