tender he was when he drew her against
his side.
“I remember you telling me that I
would eventually fall for woman, even
when I had given up all hope,” Nash said
to his brother’s grave. “I bet you never
would have guessed that she’d be human
and a Hunter.” He laughed at the irony of
it all.
“I’m sorry,” Maralee whispered.
“You’d have liked her, Cort. She’s
almost as impulsive as you were.”
“Please,” Maralee begged. Having
Nash talk to Cort as if he were still alive
was more than she could stand. Tears
began to leak from her eyes as she closed
them to block out the letters of his name
lovingly carved in the trunk of the old tree.
“She cries over you more than I do,”
Nash continued. He drew Maralee closer
and whispered in her ear, “Show him that
beautiful smile of yours, love. Come on.
He wouldn’t want to see such a pretty girl
cry.”
“You’re so cruel,” she gasped,
pushing at him to free herself from his
grasp.
“It’s not intentional,” he murmured, his
arms like steel around her. “I’m being
sincere. Cort would never want to see
someone suffer over him the way you do.
You need to make peace with yourself,
Maralee. Make peace with Cort. He
would have wanted it that way.”
“I can’t, Nash,” she said. “You don’t
know what it feels like to have ended a
life. Even worse, it’s someone important
to you. Someone who has a wonderful
family that needs him.”
“You make peace with him, Maralee,”
Nash said forcefully. “Right here, right
now. I don’t care what you have to do to
forgive yourself, but we aren’t leaving
here until you do.”
He set her away from him and she fell
to her hands and knees on the soggy earth.
“I’m going to talk to my father. You
are going to talk to Cort,” he said, leaving
no room for argument.
“I can’t,” she muttered to herself. “I
don’t deserve his forgiveness. I won’t
forgive myself.” She was barely aware of
Nash’s low voice as he spoke to his father
several feet away. She remained there on
her hands and knees for a long time, just
staring at the ground between her muddy
hands. She didn’t even feel the cold.
“Sorry isn’t good enough,” she said,
more to herself than the Wolf that was
buried beneath the ground. “I could tell
you how sorry I am, but it wouldn’t
change anything.” It was strange how she
felt he could actually hear her—that he
was listening somehow.
“You have a wonderful family,” she
said. “I don’t know Rella very well, but
she seems to be keeping them all together
and well cared for. Carsha is amazing, so
resilient. Cheerful. Nash says Lark is like
you. You must have always been the
center of attention.” She laughed softly,
her heart twisting.
“And then there’s Lord. Lord hates me,
but that’s all right. He’s the only one I
understand at all.” She paused, trying to
think of something to make up for their
loss. She came up totally lacking. “I guess
the only thing I can do is promise I’ll do
everything I can to help your family. It
isn’t enough, I know,” she said, “but I’ll
do whatever necessary to keep them
together—happy and cared for.”
“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Nash asked her, bending down to urge her
to her feet.
He wrapped her in his arms, mindless
of the mud she smeared over his back as
she clung to him.
“No more tears,” he said. “Whenever
you feel like crying over Cort, then you’ll
just make good on your promise to him
instead, right?”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I’ll try.”
He held her for a moment and then
eased her away so they could return to the
cabin. This time he held her hand as they
walked side by side through the slowly
awakening trees. Spring was approaching
new hope.
“Nash,” she said after a moment.
“How can you forgive me so easily?”
He hesitated and did not look at her
when he responded. “Because it’s not
your fault he’s dead. It’s mine.”
“You don’t really believe that.”
He nodded, looking grim as if he’d
never bless her with his smile again.
“Like my mother said, I always hesitate.”
She squeezed his hand, feeling this
was nothing to be ashamed about. “You
just think about things before you act. I
wish I was more like that.”
“Then we would have never been
together,” he said. “What kind of
impulsive fool goes wandering through the
woods to find a howling Wolf?”
She flushed. “Me.”
“And who would think to mouth off to
a dangerous man until he kissed her just to
shut her up?”
“Me.”
“And who would tease a man to his
limit just to get him to take her virginity?”
She sighed. He made it sound so
despicable. “Me.”
“And who would stand before a pack
of three hundred mad Wolves and toss her
only weapon into a snow bank?”
“Okay, I get it, I’m an impulsive, crazy
woman who follows her heart blindly and
never thinks anything through,” she said
hotly.
He chuckled affectionately. “You’re
perfect, Maralee. Don’t ever change.”
She looked up at him and found she’d
been wrong about him never smiling
again. He was smiling at her now.
“You’re the one who is perfect,” she
said. “I really do wish I was more like
you.”
“And I wish I was more like you,” he
murmured, “I guess our only option is to
stay together forever.”
Her smile was more brilliant than the
sun. “I’m impulsive enough to take you up
on that offer,” she warned.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already thought it
through.”
She laughed happily and hugged him.
Where would she be without him? She
couldn’t imagine returning to her life of
loneliness.
The door of a nearby cabin opened.
Rella and an unidentified man stepped out
on her front porch.
“I need some time to think about this,”
Rella said and the man nodded.
Nash turned his head towards them
and Rella looked directly at her brother-
in-law. Rella grabbed the unidentified
man by the collar and kissed him long and
hard on the mouth. The object of her
passion stumbled off the porch when she
released him.
“Come back in a couple of days,” she
told the man and returned to her house.
Nash moved so quickly Maralee was
almost sent tumbling to the ground. She
watched with wide eyes as he punched the
unknown man in the jaw and sent him
flying. Nash was on top of him with his
hands wrapped around the man’s throat
before Maralee could even react.
“You keep your goddamned hands off
of my brother’s wife,” he growled angrily,
smashing the man’s head against the
ground.
Maralee rushed forward and pulled at
Nash’s shoulders with all of her strength.
“Nash! Stop it!” she demanded. “What are
you doing?”
“If you touch her again, I’ll kill you,”
he warned, punching him in the nose for
good measure before he climbed to his
feet and stalked off towards his cabin.
Maralee watched him storm into the
house before she turned her attention to the
dazed, bleeding man at her feet. She knelt
down beside him and helped him sit up.
“What in the hell?” he muttered in
disbelief.
Maralee was equally perplexed.
“Are you all right?” she asked,
searching her pocket for a handkerchief.
He found his own before she realized
she didn’t have one. He pressed the cloth
to his nose and tilted his head back to stem
the flow of blood.
“I’ll live,” he said, climbing to his
feet. He swayed and Maralee steadied him
with her hands. “Who was that?” he
asked, staring at the cabin where Nash had
disappeared. “Was that the Guardian?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I heard he was a mean son-of-a-bitch,
but man…”
“He isn’t mean,” Maralee insisted.
“Are you seeing, Rella?”
“I plan to marry her, if she’ll have
me,” he said. “She’s the most beautiful
woman I’ve ever seen and she’ll need a
father for those pups of hers.”
Maralee glanced at the house where
Nash had disappeared. She wondered
how he would feel about a man taking his
brother’s place in the lives of his nephews
and niece. Obviously, he didn’t like the
idea much.
“I’m sorry he attacked you like that,”
Maralee said.
The man was staring at Nash’s cabin
as well, a thoughtful look on his face. He
wasn’t as good-looking as Nash, but even
Maralee had to admit that he was
attractive with his dark brown hair and
golden eyes. “It will probably be the best
thing for those kids, taking them away
from here. With a man like that for an
uncle, I’m surprised they’re as healthy and
happy as they are.”
“Take them away from here?”
“Well I obviously wouldn’t be
welcomed into this pack with him as alpha
male,” he said, eyes narrowing.
“You can’t take the children away
from Nash, he’d just die,” Maralee said,
gripping the man’s sleeve as if to
convince him of her words.
“That’s up to Rella,” he said. “Excuse
me. I need to get home.”
Her hold on his sleeve slipped as he
pulled away. Maralee watched him
disappear among the trees before she
followed Nash into the house. She found
him sitting at his desk, calmly reading the
book that was now missing its final page.
“Are you all right?” she asked him,
closing the door behind her and removing
her cloak.
He didn’t answer her, just kept staring
at the book in front of him. A muscle in his
jaw was twitching as he clenched his
teeth.
“I swear, Nash, that is the most
impulsive thing I’ve ever seen you do,”
she said, trying to lighten the mood.
He continued to ignore her. For some
reason, he seemed to be angry with her as
well. She moved closer to him and
touched his shoulder. He glared up at her
and she gasped. The frightening animal in
him, which she hadn’t seen since their
early days of knowing each other, was
there, shining in his amber eyes.
“Stay away from me.”
She backed away from him, actually
afraid of the man she knew to be so gentle.
It was as if he wasn’t even the same
person.
“Nash?”
He took a deep, shuddering breath.
“Go change your clothes, Maralee. I’ll be
okay in a minute.”
She didn’t even think to argue and
obeyed him immediately, going so far as
to lock the door of the water closet while
she washed the mud from her hands and
out of the knees of her pants. When she
garnered the courage to return to the living
area, Nash seemed to be back to normal.
He glanced up from his reading, grim but
no longer angry.
“If you feel like it, you can start
looking through one of the books written
by the last Wolf Guardian,” he said to her,
nodding in the direction of the bookshelf
beside his desk. “Perhaps a different point
of view might wring some meaning out of
his words.”
He trusts me, she thought happily.
“All right.”
She took a book from the shelf and
settled into the comfortable chair in the
corner. She tucked her legs beneath her
and opened the book. As she read, she
realized the Wolves had an entirely
different perspective on the curse. The
way their immortality was obtained was
barely mentioned, instead the first Wolf
Guardian seemed to think they had been
treated unfairly in being cursed by the
cruel sage. Never once did the author
mention the sage was his father, and he
never even alluded to being half-human. It
was no wonder Nash had been so
astonished. The anti-human tone of the text
made Maralee wonder how Nash could be
so open to her.
“Do you feel this way about humans?”
she asked, after she had read a
particularly scathing passage about human
ignorance.
Nash glanced up from his reading. “I
always thought it strange that the last Wolf
Guardian was so embittered towards
humans,” he commented. “I think I better
understand why he felt that way now.”
“Is it so bad? Being half-human, I
mean.”
He didn’t answer her question,
probably because she wouldn’t want to
hear the answer. “At least I know why I’m
sterile now. I’m like a mule. A mix
between two different species that has no
right to create a new life to carry on my
blood; a malformation that goes against
the laws of nature. I’m surprised such a
travesty of life was allowed to be born.”
“What are you talking about?”
He shook his head, and said, “Never
mind.”
“It’s not like you to feel sorry for
yourself.”
He
laughed
derisively.
“You’re
wrong,” he said. “You just don’t know me
very well. It’s just like me to feel sorry
for myself. Somebody has to.”
“What do you have to feel sorry
about?”
she asked, her ire sparking.
“You’re healthy. You have a family who
adores you and a woman who believes in
you enough to give up her entire life to
stay beside you.”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“You’re right,” he said finally. “I don’t
have any reason to feel sorry for myself. It
could be worse. My pack could realize
that I’m half human.”
“Nash!” she admonished. “Your pack
respects you. Even I can see that.”
“You can’t even imagine how quickly
that would change if they found out the
truth of my parentage. They’re barely
tolerating me since I brought you, a human,
an outsider, into the village. Why do you
think they attacked me when we came
back from Sarbough?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But
they stopped didn’t they?”
“Only because I’m the only one who
can break this curse. If they knew why,
they wouldn’t even bother with me. This
is why the sage gave his son the power in
the first place. I can’t even imagine how
things must have been for the last
Guardian. It’s hard to believe the pack
allowed him to live among them. It’s
obvious they didn’t accept him, and I
would suffer the same fate if my people
knew about me. Do you understand what
I’m saying, Maralee? I would never
survive as a human and I don’t belong
here either. I’ve always felt a bit outside
the loop. I just thought it had something to
do with my reclusive personality, but it’s
because I don’t fit. Anywhere.”
“That’s not true, Nash. You fit, you
belong, with me.”
He sighed. “If only it were that easy.”
“Why isn’t it?” she asked him
brusquely. “Aren’t I enough for you?”
He laughed. “You know that you’re
more than enough for any man,” he said.
“Though we fit together, together we fit