Page 31

Two weeks later

“ Concentrate, Annabelle.”

She poked her tongue at him. “I’m trying. It’s not easy, you know. It’s so overwhelming. The wolf inside me is so strong. It wants to be free, to run, to chase…”

She was halfway to her feet when he moved to block her path. “ Non, non , Annabelle. Leave the poor rabbit alone.”

“But…”

There was a distinct whine in her voice, and her musky scent had deepened. Her wolf was close to the surface, pushing for a shift.

“Focus on something else.”

Blue eyes, with dark indigo shadows flitting in their depths, turned to him. A growl rumbled in her chest.

He chuckled. “Not on me. You know how that ended last time.”

She pouted. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”

His grin grew wider. “I’ll never complain about having my mate in my arms, but you need to learn to control your wolf. You have a coven to run, Annabelle. And we need to prep Isobella for her journey back in time.”

At the mention of Isobella, Annabelle’s face clouded over. “We can’t keep hiding her illness from the family, and her doctor’s pushing for chemo and surgery. We have to get her to the tenth century as soon as possible. Any word from your brothers about Cordelia?”

He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin.

“Cordelia’s proving more difficult to find than we expected.

She’s got to have someone with some tech experience working for her.

She’s got identities popping up all over the world.

Pierre and Louis are working day and night to crack them, but none of them are leading to anything.

For all we know, she could still be here in San Francisco. Right under our noses.”

“Or she’s gone back to the tenth century for a stint.”

He hoped not. The last thing he wanted to do was send a sick and weak Isobella back to the tenth century, only to have her encounter Cordelia.

“I was talking to Aunt Marjory yesterday about this. Every couple of years, Cordelia would vanish. She’d be gone for long stints of time.

The first time it happened, she was young, in her early twenties.

She disappeared again a few years later.

There were suspicions she was pregnant to a warlock from a rival coven, but when she returned, she was alone.

“The same thing happened when Aunt Marjory took over the coven. She vanished again. This time for a few years. It’s one of the reasons Aunt Marjory became the High Priestess. Cordelia wasn’t around to challenge her. Do you think, maybe, she was going back in time?”

Gabriel considered the possibility. Annabelle’s theory made a lot of sense. “If the grimoire is hers, as we suspect, it would explain why the pages are vellum and old, but the writing is in modern American English.”

Worry flickered in Annabelle’s eyes. “If she’s back in the tenth century…”

He cupped her face. “Hey. Let’s not jump to conclusions. Don’t forget, Cordelia is an old lady now. That time traveling spell is brutal. As powerful a witch as she is, her body might well be too fragile to withstand it.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Pierre and Louis won’t give up. And they’re good at what they do. If she’s here, in the twenty-first century, they’ll find her.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Isobella is going to need all the training she can get before she goes. So, back to your lessons.”

“Ugh.” Annabelle held up her hands. “All right, all right. I know. You’re talking sense.” She closed her eyes, backed away from him and took in a long deep breath. “What do you want me to do?”

As tempting as it was to scoop her up in his arms and take her here on the forest floor, Gabriel called on all of his own training to resist the impulse.

“I want you to call your wolf as close to the surface as you can. Then, holding her there, I want you to reach out with all your senses and tell me what pick you up.”

“Okay.” She shook herself, like an athlete preparing for the starter’s gun of a race, and took a deep breath.

Her body went preternaturally still, and her head tilted to the side.

“The cabin. The fire’s died down, but there’s still smoke in the air.

The lake. I can smell the lake.” She gritted her teeth.

“There’s that rabbit again. If it knows what’s good for it, it’d go away. ”

“Push through it, Annabelle. You can’t get distracted every time some prey animal crosses your path. Turning wolf in downtown San Francisco because a pigeon flew past you, would be a real problem.”

She straightened her shoulders and jutted out her chin. There was the determined Annabelle he knew.

“You can do it. Shift your focus to something else.”

Her head jerked to the right. A beady-eyed raven watched them from above. Then her attention shifted, back to the rabbit, and her control slipped. Blonde hair sprouted on the backs of her hands and a large canine peeked out from beneath her top lip.

“Annabelle.”

“Oh, hell.”

The change roared up, and her clothes were ripping as her body shifted.

Then she was off running. Gabriel shifted, heedless of another pair of torn jeans, chasing after her.

Years of training, and the advantage of being a bigger wolf, had him on her heels in seconds.

He launched himself at her, bringing her down in a scattering of fallen pine needles. The rabbit bounded off, safe for now.

Beneath him, Annabelle’s wolf retreated, leaving her bare to him with the exception of a few scraps of material. He shifted back, pinning her to the forest floor with his big body.

“I’m never going to get this,” she moaned, trying to wiggle out from under him.

He nuzzled her neck. “You will, but it’ll take a while, and a lot of practice.”

“Something tells me you don’t mind.”

He grinned, nipping at the cord of her throat. “Why do you think I was looking forward to your training so much?” He trailed a fiery line up her throat and planted a kiss on her lips.

She pushed at his chest. “You knew? That this would happen? That I’d struggle to control my form and we’d end up here? Like this? Naked? Over and over again?”

He kissed her again, briefly, but with a promise of something more to come. “Every wolf I know who’s ever mated a human talks about it.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You don’t like it?” He shrugged. “We can go back to training if you like.”

She wrapped her hands around his neck, holding him in place. “Hold up there, big guy. I didn’t say that.”

He trailed a hand up her rib cage to cup her breast. “We should get back to training.”

She arched into his palm. “We should.”

He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “Isobella needs us.”

Annabelle moaned. “She does, but…”

He sucked her earlobe into his mouth, then released it. “We’ll be quick.”

She wrapped her legs around his hips. “Yes.”

He ground his hips, rubbing against her core. “Then we’ll get back to training.

She gripped him tighter. “Less talking.”

She captured his mouth in hers, and Gabriel lost himself to the kiss.

His pack mates were right. Training was everything he’d hoped it’d be.

He had an inkling things were heating up for the coven and the Langeais wolves.

That Cordelia and the Faucherians wouldn’t be quiet for long.

Gabriel was going to revel in every last moment of this brief reprieve.

After the three years they’d spent apart, he and Annabelle deserved it.