Dawson Bride (Wolf Brides Book 3) (21 page)

Lucianna

The horses picked their way up the steep hills and alongside valleys. I held onto Barney’s saddle horn for dear life when she’d take a running start at steep embankments. The trail was nonexistent, but Gable and Jeremiah seemed to know exactly where they were going. Luke, Sheriff Hawkins, and Elias followed quietly behind. When I’d asked why Elias was here, Luke had told me quite simply, he was the quickest human draw with a pistol he’d ever met, and that was good enough for me. We also needed a second witness outside of our family.

The only sound was the careful clomping of our surefooted steeds and the occasional rock that was loosed and fell down the mountainside behind us.

Gable’s gaze drifted from the woods to me and back again, like his instincts warred within him on where to focus his attention.

We’d taken Lorelei and Kristina to stay with Trudy until this was over either way. It was strange being separated after I’d become so used to their constant presence but it was an unnecessary risk to put them in the sights of Ralston.

I didn’t envy them waiting to see if their men would come back whole and alive again. At least I’d know instantly, or I’d die and it wouldn’t matter so much to my corpse. Such morbid thoughts I had, rattling around in my head. But how could I help it? I hadn’t cared about living that night in the fog, but now, things were different. I was different.

Sheriff had answered the wanted poster and tracked down Ralston himself. He advised him he thought he’d seen me hiding out in the mountains with a man, but in order for him to bring me in, he’d need proof of my identity. The poster he’d received in Colorado Springs was spotty, he claimed. He gave specific directions and advised him to send someone who’d seen me in person before.

The clever lawman had left a juicy beef bone in front of a hungry dog and walked away.

My hunter was close. He could be here as soon as tonight if he traveled straight through. The hairs rose on my neck and I scanned the woods for the hundredth time. Nothing but occasional patches of high altitude snow and trees that dripped pine needles.

From the bear that had attacked the house, Kristina had made a fur cloak to fit me. I’d be sleeping rough tonight and without Gable’s warmth, it would serve as my bed and blanket. Gable seemed to like the look of the bearskin cape. He said I looked like a warrior but it was probably my hair, worn long and down and whipping in the frigid wind to lure in my almost lover, that made him see me that way. The cloak cascaded across Barney’s hips and contrasted against her pale coat. Snow and earth.

Gable donned a warm duster jacket that skimmed the tops of his boots. His cowboy hat was pulled low to keep the wind from his ears and when he turned in the saddle, his eyes blazed the color of crystal. He was a beautiful monster in a dashing man’s skin. The raw power and anticipation that drifted from him made me feel like I was humming with it, too. His effect was evident in the lightened colors of Luke and Jeremiah’s eyes. From the way Sheriff Hawkins and Elias carefully avoided eye contact with the brothers, it was obvious they knew what they were and how best to avoid challenging them. Even with the blunted instincts of a man, they knew the Dawson’s were bringers-of-destruction.

A wolf howled long and low in the fading light and from his profile, Gable smiled. His eyes held a faraway look, like he knew the animal’s song.

Jeremiah turned in his saddle from up front with a similar expression. “You hear that, brother? The wolves know we’re here. They’re welcoming us home.”

If ever I’d been to a haunted place, this was as close as I’d come. There were no animal sounds of life. They’d all moved down the mountain in search of better food and warmer sleeping places. The trees groaned and rocked in the cradling breath of the keening wind, and in the dim light, dark shadows were cast across the path ahead.

“This is it,” Jeremiah said. “This is as far as we go.”

Luke and Jeremiah tipped their hats and drove their horses upwind.

“See you on the other side,” Luke said.

Unwilling to say goodbyes, I waved.

“Don’t shoot any wolves,” he called behind him.

How was I supposed to tell between the wild ones and werewolves?

As if Gable could read my mind, he said, “Werewolves are bigger.”

Right. Well, if they stood side-by-side, that would be helpful.

Elias pulled his mount up on the thin trail beside me. “Miss Lucianna, Sheriff and I will be close but you won’t be able to see or hear us. We’ll be on that ledge up yonder. Call out if you think he’s going to pull the trigger on you, but be wary. We need to hear his confession so be sure.”

“Don’t worry,” Sheriff Hawkins said. “We’ll be right up there with eyes on you. And we don’t miss.”

I tried to smile a reassurance that I wasn’t falling utterly to pieces, but my lip trembled too badly to pass as anything but a grimace.

Elias and the Sheriff followed the snow-trampled trail Luke and Jeremiah had forged, and Gable nudged his horse forward. He could come with me to make camp because his presence would be expected by Ralston. He could make a second set of hoof prints in the clearing and help me make dinner before he disappeared into different skin.

My fingers shook as we tied the horses to a line Gable secured between two saplings. He grabbed my hands in his gloved ones and set a firm look on me. “You’re going to be all right. Do you trust me?”

I nodded. With all of my heart I trusted him. My trembling hands didn’t get the message though.

He brushed my cheek with the soft leather of his gloved fingertip. “I swear, I won’t ever let him hurt you again.”

We set up camp at the edge of the clearing, closer to the towering ledge above to accommodate the human eyes, ears, and aim of the men stationed there. When I looked up, I couldn’t see them at all.

Gable pulled a fur hand warmer from Barney’s saddle bag and told me to sit on a stump he’d dragged in. When he seemed satisfied that I was comfortable, he cleared snow away and built a fire wide and high enough to attract attention. I huddled near the warmth of it while Gable made meticulous tracks in the snow that told a story I wouldn’t understand but that Ralston, if he was half the tracker he thought he was, would read like a book.

I might’ve relaxed near the warmth of the flames if Gable didn’t freeze and look up every couple of minutes. He would give a slow, arched study of the surrounding woods before he would return to whatever chore he was in the middle of. It unsettled me. One of these times, Ralston would be here. I just felt it in my bones. Gable told me to listen to my instincts when they screamed this loud.

Tonight was the night I’d start my life or end it.

“Don’t,” Gable said quietly as I stood to help make dinner. “Let me take care of you.”

I sat back down onto the log slowly. Why did I get the feeling this would be my last dinner on earth? I had to stop. I’d been fated to die in the hidden room of my parents’ country manor. Instead, I’d been plucked from death’s grip and placed in Gable’s protective embrace. I was supposed to die loveless and unwed, and instead I’d lived an entire lifetime since that night in the fog. I’d been happy on my borrowed time. Those extra moments had given my life balance. At least I would spend my last dinner with the man who held my heart.

A deep rumble sounded in Gable’s throat. He was crouched in front of the fire stirring a small iron skillet of beans and salted ham. A rough meal for a rough night to come. “Lucianna, I can practically hear your thoughts.” He leaned back and wrapped a strong arm around my shoulders. “I’ll protect you. I wouldn’t ever allow you out here if I thought I couldn’t.”

His eyes dropped to my heaving chest before he leaned into me. His kiss was consuming. Like wind, it filled everything up and I swam in the soothing warmth he created within my body. Pulling the bearskin cloak around him, I stretched closer until the cotton of his shirt brushed my neck. He was so powerful, the hum of it brushed against my hands and I lost myself in the demanding way his gripped my waist.

As he ran a hand up the hem of my dress, a bird fluttered to life in the trees to our left. Gable snapped his head toward the noise. Unwilling to leave the calming feeling he’d given me, I kissed his pulsing throat. He smelled of man, leather and his wolf. My wolf. His throat moved under my lips as he swallowed.

“I have to keep my head out here, and this,” he gripped my wrists and gently pushed me back. “This ain’t helping.”

Torn between the want to be close to him for what could be our last time, and to let him keep his focus so we could live to be close another day, I dropped my face. “I’m sorry.”

“Woman, don’t you ever apologize for that.” He poured the steaming meal into two bowls and handed me one. “Eat. You need your strength. There’s no way to know if he’ll come tonight or two days from now. Or ever.”

My shoulders shook with a sudden chill. “He’s coming, Gable. I can feel it.”

The hardness of his lupine eyes softened. “When we get home, and the crops have come in, and the cattle are sold, I’m going to buy you oil paints in every color imaginable. I’ll give you brushes of every shape and size and canvases to paint on. You’ll paint a picture of the Dawson woods and we’ll hang it above the hearth of our home.”

I relaxed into the story and drifted away on his imaginings.

“I’ll carve you a dressing table to brush your hair by before you come to bed with me, and build you a fire in the stones of our hearth every cold night. And I’ll fix all the things about myself that were broken before you came along. These are promises, Luc.”

“I’m just scared,” I whispered. I leaned my forehead against his. “I have too much to live for now.”

“I…” He froze like he’d been struck. “They’re coming.”

I squeaked out, “They?”

“He’s brought others. Four men. Six rounds in a gun, Luc. He bolted from the clearing in a move so fast he blurred. “Remember,” the trees seemed to whisper.

I listened for the echoing crack of his change but could hear nothing over my thrashing heart.
Buhbum, buhbum, buhbum
—like a death chant.

I took a long draw of cold mountain air and held my breath. In the flames, I found my strength. I let the last memories of Mother and Father wash over me like an avalanche. I remembered the pain of Bryant’s tiny, frail body going limp in my arms. Ralston had taken everything from me and still, it wasn’t enough for him. He was here to kill me and he wouldn’t be satisfied with a clean death. The drumming pulse of fury replaced my frightened rabbit’s heartbeat.

He was here to kill me, but I’d repay him in kind.

I turned my back to the horses and put my long, white hair on display. It swayed in the wind and tickled my cheeks.
Be brave
, the wind whispered, and a vengeful calm filled me.

Ralston may have thought he knew me in England, but he certainly didn’t know me now. He’d forced an iron strength into my blood and bones. I was a woman who survived massacres and pirate ships. I was a woman who ran with wolves and commanded the love of the fiercest animal. I’d taken council with two women who’d refused to give up and fed only on their bond to the ones they loved. I wasn’t Lucianna Whitlock any longer. I was a Dawson.

I’d carefully cleaned my plate and wiped my mouth by the time careful horses’ hooves clomped through the tree line. I sat straight and still until the moment the pistol clicked and the cold metal of the barrel sifted through my loose hair and touched the skin of my scalp.

“Lucianna,” Ralston said with the voice of a snake. “You’ve led me on a delicious chase.”

At the sound of his voice I smiled slightly into the flames before me. He’d come. His first act of bravery would be his last.

My voice shook just enough from the rushing energy that pumped just under my skin’s surface. “My man will be back at any moment. Leave if you know what’s best for you.”

“Find him and kill him,” Ralston demanded. Four sets of boots crunched off for the woods. “Very clever of you to run away with a mountain man.” He sat beside me and looked around the clearing with that hollow, emotionless gaze of his. “I would’ve never thought to look for you here. You could’ve lived forever up here if you had any loyalty from the townspeople below.” He stomped snow from the tip of his black, shiny boot. “I’m probably doing you a favor.”

I let what I hoped was fear slither into my eyes. “Why couldn’t you just let me go?”

“Do you know the merger with your father’s companies would’ve made history? Do you know how much wealth would’ve trickled through our family? Our grandchildren’s grandchildren wouldn’t work a day in their lives and still would’ve wanted for nothing. Every eligible lady in London was slathering for a proposal from me but you.” His voice turned hard and poisonous. “You, who were the most beautiful, the most sought after, with the ripest body to torture for my pleasure. I had to have you, Lucianna. If I can’t, no one can. And now a filthy mountain man has caught your fancy. Do you know how insulting that is to me?” He wrapped his hands around my throat and tightened his grip until I was gasping. “Do you?” he roared.

The barely held together facade was just that. He’d slipped in the months since I’d seen him. He’d always been missing something, but the hunt for me had done irreparable damage to the man.