should be only us. No curse. No family.
No obligations. No worries. Nothing but
us.”
He nodded. “We’ll forget about the
rest of the world for tonight,” he agreed.
“I’ll love you the way you were meant to
be loved—without any reservations.”
She held onto him for a while longer.
Clinging to his strength made her believe
they could overcome anything as long as
they were together.
“Let’s have dinner and then we can
stretch out in front of the fire and talk,” he
murmured, not seeming to mind that she
depended on him so completely.
She grinned. “Talk?”
“Among other things,” he promised.
“I guess I have to let go of you now.”
She pressed her cheek up against his back
and closed her eyes.
“Just for a minute.”
“All
right,”
she
agreed,
arms
tightening around his waist.
She inhaled his scent and then
regretfully released him. He didn’t move
away immediately and she was pleased to
realize he didn’t want to part from her any
more than she wanted to part from him.
They would make it. They had to, for both
their sakes. Maralee pushed her worries
aside to concentrate on the here and now.
She couldn’t allow herself to believe her
time with Nash was limited or she’d fall
into despair again.
“I’ll go start that fire then,” he
murmured and disappeared into the
darkened living area.
Maralee started cooking their dinner
and Nash joined her in the kitchen after a
few moments. He seemed intent on driving
the outside world away from them, leaning
against the edge of the kitchen counter and
talking to her while she cooked. By the
time they sat down for their meal, Maralee
had convinced herself the only thing that
mattered was how she felt about this
wonderful man.
“Tell me about your childhood,” he
urged as he began to methodically devour
his steak.
Maralee immediately thought of the
most terrifying and tragic moments of her
childhood, but she pushed them aside. She
instead focused on other things. “Well,”
she began, “I was raised primarily by my
aunt. She was the wife of my father’s
eldest brother. Her husband had been
kill…” She paused, looking up at him
rather than go on any further.
“Killed by Wolves,” he supplied.
“Yes,” she admitted. “I have no living
blood relatives so the court left me and my
estate to my aunt’s care until I turned
twenty-one.”
“And when do you turn twenty-one?”
“Oh, I turned twenty-one over four
months ago.”
“So the estate in Dubwar is yours
now?” He had stopped eating his broiled
rabbit to stare at her with consideration.
“My aunt still lives there. I don’t know
if I’ll ever go back.”
“Do you own a lot of land, then?”
Maralee stared at him for a long
moment. His sudden interest in her
inheritance seemed strange to her. It was
almost as if he was interested in her solely
because she was a wealthy heiress. She
discarded the idea as soon as it occurred
to her. What interest would Nash have in
wealth and property?
“It is a large holding,” she agreed after
a tense moment of silence. “All of the
Decatur’s lived upon the estate at one
time,
so
there
are
several
large
homesteads all combined together. My
aunt rented out chunks of the properties to
sharecroppers soon after she took control
of the estate. I think it’s doing fairly well,
but I’ve never had much interest in such
it.”
“You should go home, Maralee.”
Her heart seemed to drop down to her
toes. Her distress must have shown on her
face because Nash reached for her hand
and gripped it tightly.
“I’m not trying to get rid of you or
anything,” he said. “But maybe it’s time
for you to take charge of your life. You’ve
decided to stop hunting Wolves and so
you should start thinking about your
future.”
“But you are my future.”
He smiled at her sadly. “Of course.”
Maralee pushed her meal aside, her
appetite suddenly lacking. “I don’t think
you really believe I love you,” she
whispered, looking up to try to catch his
gaze. “I don’t think you realize I mean it
when I tell you how important you are to
me.”
He looked away, but Maralee caught
the look of guilt on his face. How could he
question her feelings, even now?
“You don’t believe me, do you?” she
asked.
He looked into her eyes and said, “I’m
trying.”
“Damn it, Nash. What do I have to do
to prove it to you?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
They stared at each other for a long
moment before she said, “You don’t want
me to love you, do you?”
He lowered his gaze. “I just don’t
understand how you could love someone
like me.”
“Someone like you?” she questioned,
lifting her hand to touch his face. “What
do you mean?”
He shook his head again. “I shouldn’t
have said that.”
“Don’t stop now,” she demanded.
“What did you mean?”
“I don’t have anything to offer you,
Maralee,” he said. “I can’t give you a
proper home or a family or a future. I
can’t make you happy. You’d be better off
without me.”
“You’re wrong,” she shouted, startling
him. “You do make me happy. You don’t
know how miserable I was without you
because you weren’t there to witness it.
The only thing I need is you, and as long
as you’re with me I have a home, a family
and a future.”
He smiled at her crookedly. “I don’t
think I’ll ever understand you.”
“You don’t have to understand,” she
told him, “just believe.”
“I’ll try.”
She sighed with exasperation. “You
can’t try to believe,” she said, “you either
do or you don’t.”
He nodded in agreement, but none of
this changed the fact that he couldn’t
believe she had found something within
him to love. After a moment, Nash
released her hand and began to eat the
remainder of his dinner. Maralee left him
to his thoughts and picked at her plate as
well. After they finished their meal, they
washed the dishes together and then
retired to the living area. They spread out
side by side on the bearskin rug before the
fire and talked for hours about anything
that occurred to them. It was well after
midnight when Maralee cuddled up
against him and pressed a trail of warm
kisses along his throat. They made love
slowly, touching, exploring, and loving
one another without the typical mindless
passion that usually consumed them both.
When he moved over her to claim her
body as his, he kissed her ear and
whispered, “Being here with you like this
makes me glad I’m part human. I feel
closer to you.”
She smiled and held him close as he
moved within her slowly. His usual
animalistic lust was completely obscured
by tenderness and though her body was
aching with need, her soul and her heart
were completely satisfied. He rose up on
his elbows and looked down at her.
“I still find it hard to believe that you
could love me,” he said, “but I’m glad you
do. I’m glad that you accept me because it
allows me to accept myself.”
She wondered at his sudden need to
vindicate his existence, especially while
he was making love to her, but she knew
he needed her to stand firm in his corner.
She blinked her eyes open and found that
he was staring down at her intently. She
smiled up at him warmly.
“I do accept you, Nash, and I love you.
Nothing will ever change that.”
He smiled and she recognized that he
truly believed her for the first time. She
also recognized a physical change in him.
His eyes, normally a feral gold, were
inexplicably a greenish-blue shade. She
gasped in surprise, unable to drag her gaze
away from his beautiful eyes as he stared
down at her with love and hope.
“What is it, Maralee?” he asked,
touching her cheek with his fingertips.
“It’s nothing,” she murmured, but she
knew without a doubt that at that moment,
her Wolf was entirely human. “I just want
to be together with you like this forever.”
“Forever,” he agreed, his eyelids
drifting closed as he lowered himself to
kiss her tenderly.
CHAPTER 42
A loud knock at the front door pulled the
pair of intertwined lovers from sleep just
after dawn. Maralee groaned in protest
and snuggled more securely against Nash.
He tugged her closer still and buried his
face in her hair. A second knock, even
louder than the first, refused to be ignored.
“Who in the hell is pounding on the
door at this hour?” Nash grumbled,
unsettling Maralee as he sat up abruptly.
“Nash!” a panicked voice called from
outside the door. “Nash, are you in there?”
“Rella?” He rose and struggled into
his discarded pants before moving to
answer the door.
More awake now, Maralee sat up,
wrapping herself in the blanket they had
shared, and rubbed her face wearily. The
instant Nash opened the door, Rella was
in his arms sobbing brokenly against his
bare chest. Maralee was too concerned to
feel jealousy.
“Rella, what is it?” Nash asked, trying
to pull her away from him so he could
look at her.
“Carsha.”
“Carsha?” Nash took Rella by both
shoulders and forced her to look up at
him. “What happened?”
“She ran away,” Rella said. “When
we returned from visiting the Northpack
last night, I told the children that we
would be moving away and joining their
pack soon. When I woke up this morning,
Carsha was gone.”
“Are you sure she ran away? Did you
check with mother? Maybe she just went
to see her grandma.”
Rella shook her head. “I wasn’t
thinking clearly. I came straight over here
because you always make things right,
Nash. I know I can depend on you.”
“I’ll go start looking for her. You
check with other people of the village and
have them start looking as well,” Nash
said. He tugged his pants off and took his
Wolf form before brushing past Rella and
out the front door.
“I’ll help look too,” Maralee offered,
struggling to her feet and searching for her
clothes.
“I don’t want your help,” Rella said
coldly, glaring at Maralee. “It’s your fault
she ran away in the first place. If you had
never killed her father…if you had never
wedged yourself between Nash and
myself, then I wouldn’t be forced to leave
the village I love to live with a bunch of
strangers. Everyone would be a whole lot
happier if you just disappeared.”
Rella let herself out of the house and
slammed the door. Maralee stared at the
door in shock. Rella’s harsh words rang
true within Maralee’s soul. The promise
that she’d made to Cort over his grave
seemed to call from the very core of her
existence. I’ll do whatever necessary to
keep them together—happy and cared
for.
Everything she did seemed to go
against that promise. If Nash stayed with
Rella, Cort’s family would be together
and cared for. Surely everyone would be
happier—except for her, but that didn’t
really
matter.
She
didn’t
deserve
happiness after all of the terrible things
she’d done.
Maralee
dressed
hurriedly.
She
wanted to leave before Nash returned,
because if she saw him, her resolve would
melt and she would never be able to do
what was right. She would never be able
to keep her promise to Cort.
She gathered her belongings and
stuffed them into her knapsack. She would
go to Sarbough and hire a carriage to take
her Dubwar. Perhaps it was time for her
to take charge of her life and if she was
going to live without Nash beside her, she
would definitely need something to keep
her occupied.
She was almost ready to leave when
there was another knock at the door.
Maralee sighed. She had made her mind
up, but she didn’t need anyone putting
doubts in her head. She peeked out the
front window and saw Stacia standing
impatiently at the front door. Maralee
sighed again and put on her cloak before
swinging her knaps
ack over her shoulder.
She opened the door and tried to brush
past Stacia, but the woman caught her arm.
“Where are you going?” Stacia asked.
“I’m leaving,” Maralee said, trying to
brush her off.
Stacia smiled. “I always knew that you
weren’t strong enough to stand by him.”
Maralee nodded tersely. “Tell him
good-bye for me,” she said. “Tell him…
tell him that he was right not to believe.”
“What?” Stacia questioned, confused.
“Just tell him. He’ll understand.”
Maralee reached into her pocket and
located her money pouch. She dug around
inside it until she found the barrettes she’d
been carrying around for ages. “Give
these to Carsha when she gets home,”
Maralee said, handing dragonfly barrettes
to Stacia. “Tell her that she’s lucky to
have someone like Nash as her new
daddy.”
Stacia took the barrettes and looked
down at them questioningly. She released
Maralee’s arm and watched her step off
the porch. Maralee half expected the
embittered woman to say something to her
as she walked away, but Stacia watched
her leave without a word, undoubtedly
glad to see the Huntress out of her son’s
life forever.
Maralee felt numb as she left the
village of the Wolves behind for the last
time, but she felt in her heart that she had
done the right thing. When she passed the
oak tree that marked Cort’s grave, sunlight
warmed her face. She knew that he was
smiling down on her, glad she had made
good on her promise to him. Her leaving
would hurt Nash, but he would realize
with time he belonged with Rella and the
three children he adored so much. He
would find happiness. She had to believe
that. It was the sincerest wish of her heart.
CHAPTER 43
The weeklong carriage ride to Dubwar
had been uneventful and bleak. Maralee
refused dwell on her past. Now she was
only looking forward to her uncertain
future. A future without Nash. Things had
happened so quickly; the reality of her
decision to never see him again had not
truly sunk in. Just moments before, the
carriage had let her off at Dubwar station.
The town had existed before the Decaturs
had made their home here, but it had
profited greatly from the Wolf Hunters’
wealth and prosperity. The familiar sights
of the town were nostalgic as Maralee
made her way to the livery to rent a horse.
Home after a six-year absence. It was