"You lost them?"
The man pressed his hands against his sides and looked down at the floor. He had been born a slave and he was always ready for punishment.
"Speak up!" Calag snapped.
"I think they went through the portal."
"Carfolian Hell!"
"Can we go after them?"
"We should get authorization. Can you send a message back to Sun Acres?"
"We're too far away for me to make the contact by myself. But I think Darnet and I can do it together."
Calag thought about his options. If he waited, they could lose the man and the woman. But Falcone had given specific orders that nobody was to go through a portal without authorization.
"Darnet!" Calag called. "Get in here."
The other adept came running.
"Yes, sir?"
"Lander is waiting at Falcone's residence. I want you and Balfer to send a psychic message to him immediately."
He watched the men stand so that their shoulders were touching, watched them link hands.
They might be able to get through. Or they might not. And if they couldn't, it was Calag's head on the chopping block.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LOGAN HAD BEEN so focused on the soldier that he hadn't been paying attention to where they had landed. Then he felt Rinna's fingers grip his arm.
He swung toward her and found her staring around in wonder—and also alarm.
They appeared to be in a convenience store, the kind of place where customers dashed in for some product they needed right away. Or where they came to get coffee and a premade sandwich.
"We're safe," he told her, thinking that they had just gone from a crisis into a safe harbor. Then he reminded himself that he was the only one who had stepped into a familiar environment.
Her voice quavered as she moved closer to him and whispered. "Is this a storehouse?"
"No. It's a convenience store. There's nothing to worry about here. Why does a storehouse frighten you?"
She loosened her grip on his arm and gestured with her hand. "There's never enough of anything where I come from. Food. Medicine. Clothing. The rich can buy those things and store them for when they're needed. But they guard them jealously. And they kill if they catch you trying to raid their private stock."
"We don't have that kind of violence here. This is a place where ordinary people come to buy things they need," he said, keeping his tone reassuring, trying to remind himself how strange her world had seemed to him. She must be having the same problem—in reverse. "This is a public place, not a rich man's storehouse. Anyone can come in and shop here."
She seemed to relax a little. "Like the marketplace, you mean. Only inside?"
"Yes."
She took another look at the well-stocked shelves. "And we're in the back where the merchant hides his best things and brings them out for the rich people."
"It's not like that here," he answered. "If you have the money, you can buy it."
She nodded, but she looked like she didn't really believe him as she took a step along the aisle where they stood.
"Does Falcone have control over where this portal comes out?" he asked.
"I don't know. I don't think so. Probably Avery and Brusco took advantage of a weakness in the plates. The way Boralas did."
"A store isn't such a hot place to land," Logan muttered, then amended the comment. "Well, I guess it depends on whether the clerk is paying attention to who goes in and out."
Rinna was moving her hand along the shelves, touching products. She picked up a jar of spaghetti sauce, shaking it gently and looking through the glass at the contents before putting it back. Moving farther down the aisle, she scooped up a bar of bath soap and slowly read the label.
"This is to wash your body?"
"Yes."
"They taught me to read in the school when I was a child," she murmured.
He stared at her. "Not everyone can read?"
"Most slaves can't," she said, then turned her head quickly away.
Most slaves.
She'd said it casually, but the words sent a small shiver traveling over his skin. Had she been talking about herself? He looked at her with fresh awareness as he watched her turn the bar in her hand, then bring it to her nose.
Strong emotions welled up inside him. His lifemate looked so feminine, yet he sensed an iron core at the center of her being. And he had seen her in a fight. She knew how to defend herself. In her world, she had been the one who knew exactly what to expect. Here, the tables were turned. Could she trust him enough to rely on him?
His lifemate?
Good Lord. He'd used the term without even thinking about it. Yet he knew in the secret depths of his soul that it was true. He'd bonded with her. Even if she didn't know it yet.
"This must be expensive," she murmured.
He blinked, bringing his mind back to the conversation even as he struggled to keep his voice steady. "No. It's ordinary."
She gave him a startled look, and he wondered if she heard the emotion in his voice.
But her words were still about the product in her hand. "Not in my world. A woman who had this would be of very high rank."
"Things are different here. You'll have to let me guide you," he answered, thinking how much pleasure it would give him to teach her the things she needed to know to get along here.
"Yes," she agreed, but was she just giving an automatic response?
She moved farther along, and he saw that her eye was drawn to a selection of brightly colored boxes with smiling men and women on the outside of the packaging.
Condoms. He swallowed, wishing she'd focused on something else, because he was immediately aroused as he pictured the two of them making love.
She picked up one of the packages It said, "Extra long." She shuffled through other types and brands, slowly reading the attributes. "Ribbed for her pleasure. Prelubricated." Turning to him, she asked, "What are they?"
"Condoms," he answered brusquely.
"Which are?"
His throat had tightened, but he managed to say, "Something a man uses when he makes love to a woman—to keep her from getting pregnant."
He saw her flush. "Oh."
He wanted to tell her they wouldn't be needing any. A werewolf wanted to get his mate pregnant to perpetuate his species. That was programmed into his genes.
Then he realized how far he was getting ahead of himself. She didn't even understand that they had bonded, which meant he could hardly si art making demands.
Unaware of the turmoil roiling inside him, she put the box back and took a deep breath. "They have coffee here? In a public place?" she murmured.
Delighted to find another focus for his thoughts, he answered, "Yes."
Again her surprise showed on her face. "And it's not expensive?"
"No." He laughed. "But the stuff they have in a place like this probably isn't very good, either."
"Ersatz coffee," she murmured.
"Real. But not the best quality."
She tipped her head to one side, considering. "They have good soap but bad coffee?"
"Soap comes from a factory. They brew the coffee right here," he answered, knowing he couldn't explain. Especially when he didn't drink the stuff. He was only going on what other people had told him.
"Oh."
His chest tightened as he watched her gravely studying each new thing she encountered. There was so much she didn't know, so much he wanted to tell her. Not just about this world—but about the two of them. He ached to cement the bond between them by making love with her.
But he knew on a gut-wrenching level that she had spoken the truth earlier. She was not a woman who gave her trust easily.
They were still standing at the back of the store. He hadn't been paying attention to anything besides Rinna and his feelings for her. But just then, something else caught his attention. The dumpy woman with gray hair tended the cash register. He'd seen her before—in this store.
And suddenly, to his relief, he knew where he was. At the Easy Shopper where he'd stopped on the way to his campsite, when he'd remembered that he'd needed flashlight batteries.
He was about to turn toward Rinna and tell her they were no more than twenty miles from home when a customer came in and approached the clerk. He was a young man with weedy hair and a plaid shirt. Something about the way he walked and the way he looked put Logan on the alert.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked.
"Yeah." The answer came out high and aggressive.
Sensing that something was wrong, Logan cupped his hand around Rinna's shoulder, drawing her behind the end of an aisle.
As he watched in sick fascination, the man drew a gun and pointed it at the clerk. "Hands up. Into the back," he ordered.
Rinna threw Logan a look of shock.
He pressed his finger to his lips, then brought his mouth to her ear and spoke in the barest whisper, "He has a gun. It's a deadly weapon."
Had she ever seen a pistol? Did she know how much damage it could do?
He thrust her behind himself as the thug moved toward the back of the store. He could feel her tension—and his own.
After the clerk and the man with the gun passed, he and Rinna could run out of here and call the cops. But by the time they arrived, the woman might already be dead.
Rinna took the decision away from Logan. He felt her move, and before he could grab her, she was creeping silently around the other end of the aisle. She turned and stared at him, then toward the clerk and her captor. He knew she was telling him that they could take the guy by surprise.
She didn't even know the clerk. But she was going to the woman's aid.
He was pretty sure she didn't understand how much damage a firearm could do. And he couldn't warn her, not without giving the two of them away. So he picked up a can of pork and beans, ready to hurl it and duck back as the man passed him.
Before he could act, all hell broke loose.
Part of the wall to his right wavered, and he knew in a moment of sick fascination that the portal was opening once more.
His assessment was confirmed when he looked through and saw the stone chamber from which he and Rinna had escaped. But the chamber wasn't empty.
In the next second, two of Falcone's soldiers burst through. They had exchanged their comic opera costumes for twenty-first century American civilian clothes, but their unkempt look gave them away. Also their weapons. One held a spear and a knife. The other had a bow and arrow and a mace.
The man with the gun saw the soldiers at the same time Logan did. "What the hell?" he shouted, turning and firing several shots in rapid succession.
One of the men went down. The other kept coming.
Logan saw Rinna gasp as she took in the scene. Falcone had sent his warriors after her—and they had stepped into a situation that they could hardly understand.
"Go. Get out of here," he shouted.
She hesitated.
"Go. I'll meet you outside."
She gave him a long look, then ran for the wide doors at the front of the shop and ducked out.
He jerked his attention back to the interior of the store as the robber's gun discharged and a jar of grape jelly exploded, spraying glass and grape-colored goo.
The clerk screamed and kept screaming. The man with the gun kept shooting and the other soldier went down.
While the thug was occupied, Logan came up behind the robber, then slammed the can of beans he was still holding into the man's skull.
In the distance, he heard the sound of police sirens. Obviously the clerk had been able to press a concealed alarm before the assailant had hustled her off to the back of the store.
The woman was staring at him as though coming out of a daze. "Help is coming," he said.
"Don't I know you?"
"No."
"You were in here before."
He repressed a curse. "You're mistaken," he said firmly as he turned and walked away.
Across the parking lot, he saw a white hawk perched on the branch of a tree. Thank God, Rinna was safe. But they had to get away from the scene before the cops arrived. No way was he going to get caught in this situation and have to explain about portals to another world.
Once he reached the door, he bolted across the parking area, putting a couple of parked cars between himself and the building. When he reached the woods, he began to chant, tearing off his clothes as he said the words of transformation.
He landed on all fours, leaving his clothing behind as he sped into the woods, just as two cop cars with their sirens blasting rounded the corner.
Rinna flapped after him. He kept running through the woods, thankful that they were in a fairly rural area, which was good for the wolf and the bird.
After ten minutes, he realized he was winded, and he remembered that he was still recovering from a bad injury. But he pushed himself because he wanted to put distance between himself and the store. He kept going until he finally stepped on something sharp with his right forepaw.
He yelped and sank to the ground. Turning up the paw, he saw an embedded thorn, which he extracted with his teeth. Then he forced some blood from the injury to help prevent infection. After that, he tried to push himself up, but he was too tired to go on.
The bird flew to his side, tipping her head as she looked at the wound. He couldn't talk, couldn't tell her what to do, and when she flew off, his heart leaped into his throat.
Logan scanned the sky, looking for the bird. When she failed to return, he felt his throat close. At first he hadn't trusted her. But that hadn't stopped them from growing close in a very fundamental way.
He had longed for a mate. Perhaps that was why they had bonded so quickly. Or was it always like that for the Marshall men? They met the right woman—and the process started.
He'd like to ask one of his older brothers or his cousins how it had been for them. At the same time, he couldn't quite picture himself revealing so much. Maybe Megan or Antonia or Savannah would talk to Rinna about it, and she could tell him.
Yeah, right
. He was getting ahead of himself again.
Still breathing hard, he curled on his side, closing his eyes, wondering if his possessive thoughts had driven Rinna away. When he got some strength back, he would look for the bird. Or would that do any good if she didn't want to be found?
With his heart aching, he considered what he knew about the family history. He'd overhead the women talking about how his brother Grant had lost his life-mate. He'd been suicidal until Antonia had brought him back to life.
When he'd heard the story, it had just been words without his being able to truly key into the emotions. Now he could understand.
Rinna was his mate, and if he lost her, he would lose his sanity. Perhaps even his life.