12. Levi

12

Levi

L evi was still reeling from the kiss. He was certain that she was his mate, but obviously he couldn’t tell her that. He knew that she had watched him as he walked from the water, and a few times before that he could feel her eyes on him. He liked the attention, but it gave him an uncomfortable erection.

But when she was getting dressed, he did turn away. He had to. Now that he actually had her in his arms, it was even harder to control himself.

She looked really cute in Clara’s clothing. He spread the blanket out on the ground. “How are you feeling now?” He knew he was hovering, but his dragon would settle for nothing less.

“I am a bit disoriented. Sometimes it’s hard to find words. But it’s getting better.”

“How long were you in your bear form?”

“I’ve lost track of the time. Weeks at least. Is it still February?”

“Yes.”

“I left San Francisco in January.”

“Are you from California?” That surprised him. She had an accent. It sounded Eastern European.

“No. I am from Romania, sort of, as well as Poland, and I spent years in South Dakota. I’m not sure that I’m really from anywhere. My clan was always on the move.”

He was dying to ask her question after question, but he didn’t want to make her feel like he was interrogating her.

“You can ask me anything you want,” she said.

“How did you know I wanted to ask you questions?”

She scooted closer, and his heart thumped in his chest. “I can just tell.”

“I do have questions, but my overwhelming concern is that you’re safe. You seemed like you were in quite a bit of distress when you arrived. I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

“There’s no easy answer to that.” She looked down at her hands. “My inclination is not to tell you anything. Not to give it away too much information in case you use it against me.”

He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand. “You don’t have to defend yourself. I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. Based on past experience, I have reason to believe that’s what will happen. But my instincts actually tell me to trust you.”

Fury welled up in his gut. He’d suspected that someone had hurt her, that she had a dark past. But hearing it confirmed was a whole other story. “Who was it? Where are they now?”

“They’re in Siberia. Most recently, it was a pack of wolf shifters.”

Wolf shifters had harmed his mate. “What do you mean, most recently? Was there more than one?”

“Oh. Well. My own clan wasn’t great, but they weren’t the reason I was running.”

“But the wolves were? What did they do? Can you tell me where they were located?” He pulled out his phone to write down the location. He wasn’t going to let this go. He was never quick to use Kellan’s vast resources to do frivolous things like take vacations, but for this, he absolutely would. And Levi was not without money himself. If necessary, he would track down these vile pieces of shit.

She scrambled up from her spot on the ground, crouching next to him. “Wait a minute. You can’t go after them. They’re evil. They’ll try to kill you.”

“You don’t have to worry about us. I don’t have as much experience as some of the shifters on this very ranch. But a few months ago, I flew to South America to fight dragon shifters who had gotten involved in some dark magic as well as some witches and wizards that had become corrupted as well.”

And he wasn’t going to say anything to her, but he was afraid that this group of wolves was the same group that had held Nora hostage years ago.

Levi had learned about it on his trip to Peru to help with the mafia group of dragon shifters. All of them had attempted to catch Levi up on the relevant parts of their clan history. According to Niall, Nora had said the same thing to him—she hadn’t wanted him to pursue the wolves. She’d thought they’d start a turf war. Niall had always regretted letting it go. Levi would not make the same mistake. He also would have to tell Nora. She deserved to know if these were the same ones.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. And Kellan, Quinn, Liam, and Brennan have all fought a vast array of supernatural people. They’ve fought vampires, aliens, Fae, witches and wizards, demi-gods and demons.”

“ Aliens ? Aliens are real? And demi-gods?” When he nodded, she exhaled. “I don’t even know what to say to all that. I’m not sure I knew some of those beings existed.”

“They do. So, when I say that we can take care of this, it’s not bluster. Nora, the witch that I called for advice about your situation, just helped with a spell to unlock a two-hundred-year-old curse.”

He put his hand on her arm. “We won’t go off without a plan. We’ll even gather some intel first. But if there’s a pack of wolf shifters hurting other shifters, we have to act. Otherwise, there will be more victims.”

She looked down at her lap. “You’re right. I know that.”

“Hey.” He put his hand on her cheek. “I won’t let them get near you, okay?”

She sighed. “Thank you.”

“We can get back to them in a minute. Tell me about you first. What happened to you? And what can I do to help?”

“I had left my clan. I was wandering, and everything was okay. I thought that I could live in Siberia. I thought that I would do well there because I could shift back and forth. But I didn’t work out like that. I was hungry all the time and did not consider the fact that real bears actually hibernate. I tried to hibernate, but I could only stay asleep for a few days at a time. So, I was in my human form out in the middle of the woods, and I was actually cold for once. It was well below freezing and I hadn’t eaten in days. I wasn’t thinking clearly. A male wolf came up to me and he offered me money. Then he offered me a place to live. Like an idiot I went with him. He took me to a remote compound in rural Siberia.” She huffed a laugh. “I suppose everything is rural in Siberia.”

“Do you think you could point any of this out on a map?”

“Probably.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, please keep going.” He put his hand on top of hers and held on.

“Once we got there everyone was very kind. That lasted for several days. I noticed that there was razor wire around the fence, but I dismissed it. Eventually after I had slept and eaten, I asked why there was razor wire, but I was told not to ask questions. And they started having me recite spells. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”

“Recite spells?”

“Apparently, I have magic in my blood. Somewhere in my ancestry there’s a witch or wizard. For all I know, it could be my parents.”

“And you didn’t know?”

“I didn’t have a clue.”

“Have you ever done any magic?” he asked.

“No. Not intentionally anyway. And I wasn’t even aware of it.” She froze. “Wait. I did . When I ran away from the compound, they were chasing me. They were willing to torture the people who didn’t see what they wanted. So now I got to that big chain link fence with razor wire. I willed myself to be able to make it over the top, and I did.”

“That’s amazing. You made it out. You did that for yourself.” He wanted to tell her that he was proud of her, but they didn’t know each other well enough for that kind of declaration, and it might have sounded condescending, although he could never mean it that way. He was actually very impressed with what she had managed to do.

But he was also having trouble containing his fury. “Did you say torture ?”

“Yes. When I didn’t do what they wanted, they had punishments.”

“What did they do to you?” He tried to keep his voice in check. He could feel his claws, emerging from his hands. Scales rippled down his arms as his body prepared to fight. But the enemy was a half a world away.

Her answer would determine how he handled these vermin.

“One electrocuted me and threw me down into a basement. When one of the leaders heard that they had shocked me, she was pretty mad. She brought me back upstairs and gave me some soup. So, they didn’t actually care about me, but they wanted me to be useful, and I suppose if they had damaged my magic, then I wouldn’t be useful anymore.”

She wiped her eyes. “I just couldn’t go along with it.” Her voice shook with emotion. “I let them use me for days before I caught on. There’s no telling what kind of dark magic they used my spells for.”

He could not keep his hands to herself; he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, burying one of his hands in her hair. “You did nothing wrong. They’re the monsters. I’m so glad you survived.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so glad you got away from them.” He wanted to ask if she could feel the tug that meant they were mates, but he didn’t dare. It wasn’t the right time.

“So, you made it out of Siberia?” he asked.

“Yes. I snuck into the cargo hold on an airplane and flew to Moscow, then Tokyo and then from Tokyo to San Francisco. I was born in the United States, and I lived in North Dakota for years, before we moved to Europe. So, I thought I knew what to expect, but I did not know what San Francisco would be like. There were so many people everywhere and I didn’t know what to do. I haven’t spent much time around humans at all.”

Sofia must have an iron will to have made it through all of that and still be in one piece. “Did you walk here from San Francisco?”

“Yes. I saw the bear on the California flag, and it came to me in a flash that I could just shift and stay shifted. My plan is to go to the Northwest Territories in Canada and stay there. I made my way through Nevada and then ended up in Colorado and I started traveling at night only, to avoid being seen. I thought I was in the Midwest and then I ended up in Texas. By the time I got to Kellan’s ranch, I just couldn’t keep going anymore.”

Now that he’d heard the full story he was even more in awe of her perseverance. “You can stay here as long as you like. Now that you’re shifted and you can speak, Kellan would welcome you into his home.”

“But what about his human wife?”

“She has spent time around all kinds of supernatural people. She hosted vampires here plenty of times. Now that you can communicate, it will be fine.”

“I still don’t want to impose.”

“I promise. You won’t be imposing. The reason you’re still here to begin with is because Kellan and a few of the other shifters that live here have made it their life’s mission to collect stray shifters, from all over the world. So even though the four of them live here, they have extended family everywhere. They don’t consider proximity to make the clan, just relationships.”

“Clan is not such a positive word for me,” she said.

“I can understand that too. “

“Your clan is difficult?”

“Yes. Difficult is a good word; they’re certainly not evil. But they are very old-fashioned and backward in their thinking,” he said. “If you’re not comfortable with Kellan’s ranch then you’re more than welcome to stay with me.” Maybe that was forward of him, but he had to make the offer.

“Thank you.” She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but did I hear you mention a group with shifters who stayed in their animal forms all the time?”

His heart sank. Did she want to leave so soon? He wanted to protest, but it wasn’t his place. He swallowed and forced his voice to be steady. “Yes. But you have a place here for as long as you want. Nora only brought Rhett and his motorcycle club up because she thought it might work for you. Not to get rid of you.” He had to make that clear.

“I know.” She put her small hand over his. Other than the kiss, that was the first time she’d voluntarily touched him. “I don’t know what I want to do yet. But for weeks, my only goal has been to get to Canada so that I could stay in my bear form.”

It wasn’t his place to pressure her to stay. “If you’d like to meet Rhett, then we can get in touch with him.”

“You said it was a motorcycle club. How does that work with shifters who stay in their animal forms?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve only met Rhett at the festivals; I’ve never traveled with him. But I think he sticks to very rural areas.”

“I’d like to meet him.”

No! Mine. His dragon rumbled.

He had to get away from her before he lost his temper. He did not want her to leave. And he sure as fuck didn’t want her to go live with Rhett. The very idea of it was choking him. This wasn’t rational. He knew that. He kept his composure. It wasn’t her fault. She had every right to leave. But his dragon was clawing at him.

“I will get you in touch with Nora. She will know a lot more about this than I do. I know Kellen has some extra phones. I’m going to get one of them and get it set up for you.”

“Wait. Levi.” She got to her feet. “I don’t need it right now.”

He loved the way his name sounded coming from her mouth. But he could not wait. “I’ll be back. Don’t leave the property.”

Twenty minutes later he was back with an older phone. “You can go meet Rhett anytime this week. He’s not far away, and he said it’s a good time.”

“Oh,” was all she said.

“I will be escorting you,” he said.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I’ll be going with you. You aren’t familiar with this part of the country, and many of the people in the area where we’re going are hunters. They’ll be armed and equipped to hunt a large deer, and they might try to shoot you.”

If she refused to let him take her, then he’d follow her. There was no way in hell she was going off alone.