Red Snow Bride (Wolf Brides Book 2) (8 page)

Poor Jeremiah for tethering himself to such a damaged woman.

****

There were stops along the railway that gave us the opportunity to get off and use the washroom. The first break didn’t come until the evening of the first day, but it was long enough for us to dine at an eatery for dinner before boarding again for the night. The stretch of the short walk to the restaurant was precisely what my cramped legs required, and Jeremiah’s mood seemed to improve as we hit the fresh country air outside. Kristina and Luke walked ahead of us, talking animatedly, and Jeremiah and I followed at a slower pace.

I’d been fileting myself over my earlier insult to him and in desperation to make it up to him, I squeezed my eyes tightly and took his hand. It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, climbing to the edge of a redwood branch and leaping with the hope of not hurling to my emotional death. But Jeremiah only looked down at our intertwined fingers with a questioning glance before he squeezed my hand in what I hoped was a silent thank you and not pity.

“The more you touch me, the more you’ll get used to it,” he said in a deep voice. “It’ll always be welcome to me, Lorelei, but I know this is a lot for you. We’ll go at your pace.”

How had I been so lucky to marry the one understanding man I’d ever met? I wasn’t ready to provide him with an explanation on why I was broken, but with an offer like this, the man deserved one.

“I was shy before I was married, and after, well—Daniel didn’t like the touch of me. He was very outward with his distaste for me and it has turned me into a frightened woman, I’m afraid.”

“That man was a canker sore. It wasn’t you he was disgusted by. I could see it in his eyes last night. There’re bad people on this earth, Lorelei. Men who need a woman cowed and under their thumb to feel like they have control fall under that category. Unfortunately, you married one of those men. I don’t find you disgusting. On the contrary, your touch makes me feel things I haven’t felt in a very long time.”

I wished I could tell him how grateful I was for his words but the emotion in my throat would surely drown my sentiments and I’d had enough embarrassment for one day. We climbed the steps to the nearby eatery and Luke held the door open for us to follow them inside. In a surprising gesture that sent my insides to fluttering, Jeremiah lifted my fingers to his lips and kissed my knuckles lightly before he pressed his hand on the small of my back and guided me to an empty table.

“Tell me about your childhood,” I said as we waited for our meal to be delivered.

Jeremiah’s eyes took on a faraway look as he leaned back in his chair. “I loved it. Ma and Da were the best parents a person could ask for, and my brothers and I always seemed to find just enough trouble to keep them on their toes.”

“You have more brothers?”

“Just one besides Luke. Gable is the oldest by one year.”

Luke chimed in. “He was the worst one of us. He only came up with ideas that would likely end up in us getting hurt or in trouble. Like the time he was convinced we had to follow a bear to find honey. You don’t, by the way. You follow the bees. Well, he’d pissed that bear off good and that thing had us treed and kicking at him by the time Da came and rescued us. Ma was fit to take the hide off of all three of us by the time we came in for dinner that night.”

“I bet,” I said around my own giggles. “Raising three boys? It’s no small miracle she isn’t completely grayed yet.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Kristina asked.

“No. My parents tried for years, but I was it for them. I’d always wished for a sibling though. You?”

“Single child here too,” she said. “I, however, did not wish for a sibling because I liked having my mother’s attention all to myself.”

“Why,” Luke asked, “am I not surprised by that?”

Kristina pelted his arm playfully but his dancing green eyes never left her.

Ingrained in me was the urge to eat slowly and enjoy the meal, but while the others had finished and I was only half way done, the train whistle trilled from the station.

There was no way I could eat it all, but Jeremiah didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Eat the fish and we’ll bring the rest with us. You can finish it on the train.”

It would be atrocious of me to take my dinner on the run and eat it in front of others on the train, but I hadn’t even had a bite of the bread yet as I’d been saving the best for last. I shoveled as much as I could into my mouth and my new husband finished the leftover catfish in one fell swoop. We jogged down the street with the weight of the roll beating against my thigh from the pocket of my dress. With legs like a wet noodle, I found our seats again. Jeremiah and his brother acted as if they’d taken a leisurely stroll while Kristina and I chugged breath like we’d nearly drowned. How very intimidating that they were so well conditioned for the life they led and that I would soon be required to take part in it.

My days of gentle living were over.

Jeremiah

Little by little, Lorelei seemed to warm up to me. I didn’t have a guess at what had happened between her and Daniel to create such a fear of intimacy, but if it was the last thing I did, I’d get her over it.

I needed touch. Most werewolves did. We were an affectionate breed and to secure a strong mated bond, we needed the frequent reminder of devotion. Wolves in the wild were the same and the longer I ran as one, the more similarities I found between us.

She lay against my offered jacket propped on the train window, still and breathing steadily. Sunlight filtered in through the glass and brushed her dark, downcast eyelashes as they rested against her cheek. Luke was trying to teach Kristina how to play poker on the bench seat in front of me, and the other passengers were in different stages of boredom. We’d be to St. Louis by tonight to rest before boarding a carriage in the morning.

Six days of rail and no way to change had my bones singing. The marrow had melted into something molten that belonged in the rivers of hell. The smell of wolf was heavy in the air as Luke and I struggled against the bonds that would force us to change sooner rather than later. We just had to make it to our stop tonight. We’d slip out while the girls were sleeping, and if Lorelei happened to wake and wonder where we’d gone, Kristina would cover for us. She was good like that.

It hurt to move. It hurt to stay still. I shifted my position against the tension in the strips of muscle that gave movement to my back. Every fiber in my body was on fire and I was helpless to ease the pain for another six hours at least.

The train ride had been uneventful and relaxing if not for the wolf and it’s want for the hunt. But here, as the pinpointed pain burst with excitement over the nearing sweetness of release, in the wilds between civilizations, a noise pricked at my oversensitive ears.

The galloping of hooves was so faint, it was the vibrations that washed over me first. I flicked my head to the side and frowned, but they’d disappeared. The sound of shuffling cards carried on and Luke gave no inclination that anything was amiss. Maybe it was just my crazy wolf again, creating paranoia where none should exist.

But then, there it was again. Lorelei didn’t stir as I leaned over her to look out the window and as soon as I determined no one was there, Luke’s head snapped up. His eyes were fever bright on me. I couldn’t actually read his mind, but I knew him better than anyone. He’d heard it too and if I wasn’t mistaken, his instincts were probably screaming like mine were.

We jumped to an empty seat across the aisle and pressed our faces to the glass. Six horses carrying six armed riders were barreling down on our train from behind.

“What do we do?” he breathed so softly no human ears would hear.

Our options were limited and if my brother and I got involved, there’d be no stopping the storm of the wolf that would burst out of us like hellions come to earth. “We let ’em rob the train.”

“You know well as I there’s probably a payroll for the track workers in that car behind us, Jeremiah. Hardworkin’ men won’t get paid.”

“Nah,” I said as I leaned farther into the window. “Payroll will be insured. Their pay’ll be late is all. Lay low and keep them safe.”

Luke’s green-eyed gaze fell on Kristina, who watched us with a look of curious dread.

“Listen up,” I called to the other passengers. Most were women and children, though a few men dotted the other seven groups. “This here train’s about to get robbed.” I held my hands out to steady the hum of fear. It only got louder when the masses rushed to the windows and saw the fate that was coming for us. “If you want to live, you’ll listen! Let them have it. Don’t nobody try to be a hero. The faster they get what they want, the faster they’ll be on their way so just stay still, stay calm, stay alive.”

A man in a top hat cocked his ivory handled pistol. “What if we don’t want to be robbed?”

“I recon it’s your funeral, sir. Try not to get the rest of us killed though, you hear? It’s six trained guns against your pea shooter.”

“Sit down,” his wife said as she pulled on the tails of his coat.

Lorelei was awake now, and the fear that swam in her eyes pulled at me so deeply I wanted to kill those sons of bitches for what they were about to do. “It’ll be all right. I promise.”

An explosion quaked the ground beneath us and in the chaos of screeching breaks and terrified screams, the passenger car slid from the tracks and followed the engine through a cloud of smoke at an angle. I launched myself at Lorelei to keep her from rocketing into the seat in front.

“Shut the window,” I yelled as black smoke billowed into the car from the front.

The man in the top hat jumped across the aisle and slammed the only open one closed as we skidded to a screeching halt.

“The plan still stays the same,” I said over the cries of terror.

Lorelei’s breathing was ragged and rushed and the smell of terror wafted off of her in waves. “They just blew up the train.”

“No, they blew up the tracks. Train’s still mostly intact. We’re going to be fine.”

The sound of clomping boots and jangling spurs strode across the roof of our car and the woman who held a baby beside us whimpered.

A man with an old, dirty handkerchief covering his face came in through the connected door up front. A long barreled pistol hovered in his steady hand and swung to each passenger in turn. He smelled of whiskey, and if the filth on his skin was any indication, he’d been living rough for a long while.

“Make no mistake,” he said. “We don’t plan on killing the ones who do what we say, but we will, without hesitation, blast a hole in you if you don’t.”

Another two men entered the cabin with their peace makers drawn and descended without delay to the back where the cargo was being stored. Another three took their place up front.

“First thing’s first,” the leader snarled. “We’ll be needin’ all them weapons you got on you. Don’t be shy.”

The outlaws behind him scuttled from row to row collecting pistols from the men. Luke gave me a questioning glance but I shrugged. We had more weapons than just guns between my brother and I. The glint of gold in Lorelei’s ring brought a slither of unease to my stomach. “Sit on your hands,” I whispered as I pulled my guns out of the holsters on my hips and held them up harmlessly by the barrel.

She shoved her palms under her skirts just as one of the gunmen came to relieve me of my pistols.

“Gotta couple of big ones here fellas,” he sneered through rotted teeth and rancid breath.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I said, “We don’t want no trouble.”

His half-cocked glare and narrowed eyes were a temporary discomfort as the train robber behind him announced it was time to relieve us of our valuables.

That’s exactly what I’d hoped wouldn’t happen. The men behind us had already managed to jimmy the cargo door open and were shoving paper money into a knapsack.

The man standing over me lifted a poisonous glare to Lorelei and said, “Since your man said he don’t want no trouble, I think we’ll start with you.”

A snarl ripped through me before I had the mind to stop it and the cold barrel of my own gun was against my temple.

“Show me your hands, Ms.,” he said.

“Please, sir. I have nothing else but my wedding band to my entire name,” she pleaded.

Dangerously slowly, he said, “Show me…your hands.”

A tear streaked down her face as she lifted them and the man grinned cruelly at his find. “We’ve got us some well-to-do’s here, boys!”

He leaned over me to yank the ring from her, and my eyes rolled back in my head with the loss of myself. His chin made a cracking sound as my palm smashed against it and while he was still shocked I spun my gun around in his hand and pulled the trigger into his neck. Luke was already moving and leapt onto the nearest robber like a jungle cat. He’d have to handle the men up front while I took out the thieves in the cargo room. I ducked as a bullet went flying past my head so close I could feel the breeze from the path of the trajectory grace my cheek. I jumped for the storage above and used the leverage to hurl my booted kick into the gunman. Shots fired from the front of the car and women shrieked in horror.

“Jeremiah!” Lorelei screamed as the man in front of me crashed back into the cargo area.

Her panic was enough to make me hesitate, bringing me within a hair’s breath of doom. The man behind the felled robber took his shot as I swung to the side, and the bullet ran a blazing trail across my rip cage. Letting the momentum of my swing carry me, I snapped man’s wrist before he could pull the hammer back again, then pulled his body over my shoulder and slammed it downward until his dead weight pummeled the struggling man on the ground. Between the two downed men, only one of them was able to get a good punch in as I wailed on them until they stopped moving.

I was lost, a Berserker, a Bringer-Of-Death on the edge of sanity with the lust of the kill.

“Jeremiah,” Lorelei whispered, as a chilling chuckle gurgled forth from the maimed throat of the man on the ground beneath her.

Time stopped. She stood with amber eyes only for me as he lay on his back with my pistol pointed at her head. He watched me with a wicked and bloody smile as his finger squeezed against the trigger.

“No!” I yelled.

And then, Kristina was there. From her own seat she held her intricate little Derringer. The one the men hadn’t thought to look for. The one hidden where no one would find it. Her face held such intensity as she pulled that trigger and blasted her one-shot through his head. His laughter stopped and the gun clattered to the floor.

Luke was crouched with an inhuman light in his eyes. He’d been shot if the blood pooling beneath him was any clue.

“Make sure,” he said in a raspy voice. I took a pistol from the limp hand of one of the outlaws and emptied bullets into their heads for good measure. We didn’t need anyone else coming back from the dead. Luke did the same up front and when we were certain none would hurt any one of these frightened people huddled together on this derailed train, then I gave into my need to see Lorelei safe.

She was huddled into herself in our seat with a wide and vacant look in her eyes. They were rimmed with unshed tears and she rocked gently.

“Jeremiah Cade, you’re a mess,” she said in a strange tone. She pulled a white handkerchief from her pocket and started wiping smears of red from my face. It wasn’t even my blood.

“Are you all right?” I whispered.

She didn’t flinch from my touch as I stroked her face and hair. I couldn’t have kept my hands from her if I tried. Her frightened eyes landed on the body beside me.

“I’ll get them out of here, okay?” I murmured.

Luke’s face was buried in Kristina’s neck and she rocked him slowly.

“We need to move these bodies,” I said. “They can’t stay in here with all these good people.”

Kristina shook her head. “No, Jeremiah.
You
need to move these bodies. Your brother needs a minute.” Her eyes were wide and steady. She was hiding what he was from the bustle of everyone around us. He was injured and on the verge of a change and dragging around bodies wasn’t going to keep him human.

I wasn’t much better off, but my injury wasn’t so bad and I still had some semblance of control. I pulled my hat farther down over my eyes and grabbed the legs of two of the train robbers. When the bodies were piled up near the blast site in the rails, I peeked my head into the engine car up front to find the three workers there all shot through. Damn those wicked men for shooting unarmed rail workers and robbing women and children. How far did a man have to fall to lack any trace of honor?

The dark tendrils of evening stretched across the clearing and I gave the tree line a quick look over to make sure there weren’t stragglers waiting to take their revenge in the night.

The woman with the baby squeezed my forearm when I returned. “Thank you for what you and your brother done, sir. That was mighty brave of the both of you.”

I gave her a tired smile. My body was a writhing ember and it was all I could muster. I locked my arms against two seat backs and lifted my voice. “We aren’t due in St. Louis for some time yet, but they’ll figure out something’s happened when we don’t show up. We aren’t close enough to any towns to walk and it would be too dangerous in the dark anyway. We have no choice but to stay here overnight and wait for help. I recon they’ll get to us by mid-day tomorrow.”

“What if more of those men come back in the night?” a quite woman in a cream colored dress asked.

“I already checked around and it looks like these men were the entirety of their outfit. Just to be sure though, my brother and I will camp outside tonight to keep an eye out for any mischief. I’m sorry for what you folks have been through and I wish it hadn’t happened, but we can’t change what is. We just have to wait out the storm and move on when help arrives.” I made my way back to Lorelei through the chaos of the small, frightened mass.

“I’m coming with you,” she whispered.

“You’ll be more comfortable in here,” I argued.

“But I’ll be safer with you.”

Well, that was to be determined. If she came outside this train tonight, I wouldn’t be changing into a wolf like I so desperately needed but the pleading desperation in her eyes made me not care so much about the pain. I didn’t like the idea of not having her with me either.