Animal Desire: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolf and Shapeshifter) (The Animal Sagas) (2 page)

“You’re not leaving them,” Ben said with a slight sigh. “You’re just going for a run. It won’t take long, and I promise you, it will help you to feel a little more secure.”

Lynda wanted to argue with him some more but the other wolves were beginning to arrive. She had too much respect for Ben to fight him in front of their pack. Reluctantly she gave in.

“Sonya, don’t drop them,” she began to lecture her sister.

Sonya bristled. “I will be fine… they will be fine!” she said sternly. Of course earlier she had been terrified, but now that it was obvious that Lynda didn’t think she could take care of the twins, she just knew that she had to prove her wrong.

Night fall was coming – the moon was just beginning to rise above the tree tops all around them. As the run started, Lynda’s heart was pounding. All she wanted to do was go back to the babies and make sure that they were alright. She knew that this was something that she needed to do, but that did not make it any easier. But the more she ran the more intense the pounding of her blood through her veins became the more she wanted to revel in her panther form.

The night air was so crisp and cool that it felt delicious against Lynda’s skin. She had shed her clothes in the midst of her run and was slowly transforming into her panther form. She hated to admit it, but she actually thought that Ben might have been right. Maybe this was what she needed, a reminder that she was still an individual too despite being a mother.

As she ran faster through the woods she could hear Ben breathing heavily just inches in front of her. She knew that he could run faster but he was sticking close by her, and she appreciated that. As much as she had become a part of Ben’s pack, she was still a were-panther, and her need to run with great bursts of speed outweighed her desire to show her alpha the proper respect.

She finally gave in to the desire as she transformed fully into a were-panther and her powerful legs propelled her swiftly through the underbrush. She easily surpassed Ben, who was stunned by her sudden burst of speed. He tore off after her, stirring up the nocturnal creatures with the howl that escaped from deep within his throat. She could hear him chasing after her, his strong paws striking the ground and propelling him ever closer.

She could feel the heat of his heavy breaths as he nearly overtook her. They had not been on a run together since she was fully pregnant with the twins, and she could now sense what he wanted. It was what she wanted too. As she jumped over a large fallen tree trunk, he jumped it right behind her. She had already shifted back into human form, when he pounced on top of her as a wolf.

She gazed up into his ice blue eyes, and he gazed back at her with equal heat. Then his form shifted as well, back to human. Lynda was all too pleased to allow her natural abilities and desire to please her mate to kick in. She was losing herself in the warmth of his skin brushing against hers, the sensuality of his kiss, the low growls emanating from his body.

But just as her psychic senses became more heightened with her need to detect her mates wants and fulfill them, she suddenly had a flash of an image. It was so vivid, in fact, that she could almost feel as if she were a part of it. The image she had just envisioned was of the darkened window in their bedroom, immediately followed by the twins’ empty bassinets.

“No!” she cried out and pushed Ben off of her, which was no easy task as he had lost himself in the throes of passion just now. Confused, he sat up as he watched her bolt off across the woods, back toward where they had just come from. He only hesitated for a moment before he began to chase after her. He knew something was wrong, or at least she felt that something was wrong, and he immediately followed her to help her in any way possible.

At that same moment, Sonya, back at the cabin of Ben and Lynda, was just starting to adjust to caring for the babies. She even found that, despite the spit up, she fairly well enjoyed taking care of them. She had sung a lullaby to each one, rocked them both, and even told them a little story or two, which she hoped they couldn’t retain as it might get her in trouble in the future.

The evening was going well, very well in fact, and all she could think to herself was how much she had proven Lynda wrong. A little later when the twins dropped off into a deep slumber at almost exactly the same time, she felt like caregiver of the year. She laid them each in their bassinets and left the door slightly cracked open to be sure that she could hear them cry. But before she left she checked the bedroom window to make sure it was locked and did a little security walk through of the bedroom and bath. She left the room when she felt everything was a-ok.

Then she settled down on the couch and turned on the television with the volume way down so as not to wake the babies. She really had no idea what Lynda was so exhausted from. To her the twins had been the easiest babies in the world. She was half way through one of those torrid romances that only came on after dark, when the door to the cabin suddenly burst open. And by burst, it practically splintered beneath the force of a full grown were-panther tearing into the room at full speed.

Sonya jumped up, so startled by the event that she immediately began to transform with a loud snarl. At the very same moment Lynda shifted back into her human form. Ben came barreling through the front door only seconds behind her. Lynda ignored Sonya’s growls while in puma form and then her questions once she transformed back as she stalked toward the slightly open door of the main bedroom.

Lynda threw it open expecting to hear the scared crying of two infants, rudely awakened from their slumber… instead she heard nothing. And then she slowly crept over and looked into the bassinets. She could feel the cool crisp air of the evening inside the room. Weird… it shouldn’t be that cool in here with the babies. She stood there for a second, frozen in time, giving her mind a chance to decipher what her eyes were already telling her.

There were no babies in the bassinets…  There were no babies in the bassinets? There were no babies in the bassinets!!! And then she felt the stir of the breeze inside the room again. Weird… it shouldn’t be that cool in here with the babies. And then it dawned on her as she slowly looked around the room… the bedroom window was wide open!

Needless to say, complete chaos erupted after that, signaled by Lynda’s heartbreaking wail as she turned into a cougar right there on the spot and jumped right through the open bedroom window. There was no sign of anyone outside. Ben followed suit and jumped out the window right behind her changing into his growling wolf form too as she tried to bolt off into the woods. She growled back, her teeth snapping as she challenged him.

Ben howled, and the pack almost instantly gathered around him, racing from their cabins, the woods, and wherever else they might have been. He transformed back into his human form, with Lynda still snarling at his side. “The babies have been taken,” he informed the others, some who were already in their wolf form, and the others who were transforming as he spoke. “We must track the scent.”

With that command they bolted off into the woods as a team in every direction possible. Only Sonya remained in the cabin, too consumed with guilt to join the search party. She kept staring at the empty bassinets unable to fathom how they had been taken right out from under her nose. She looked from them to the open window that she knew for a fact she had checked earlier, back and forth, almost as if she were in a trance.

Meanwhile, in the woods the search party tracked the scent of the babies all the way to the edge of the river, where they finally lost the scent. Lynda laid down at the river’s edge where she shifted back into human form and wept into the soil. She, better than anyone, knew that any number of dangers could be posed to her babies by this time. Whoever had taken them could have left them to drown in the river, could have already sold them off to someone else… or worse!

All manner of horrifying thoughts were filling her mind, causing her to be nearly delirious with grief. At that point Lynda saw Sonya come running through the woods to join her. Sonya simply could not stand waiting at the cabin any longer. She joined the search party, and upon seeing Lynda’s devastation, she took over for her sister. She closed her eyes and willed herself to recall the birth of the twins.

It had been mostly uneventful for herself, but when Lynda gave birth to the first child, the girl, it was quickly noted that she was not breathing. Lynda was overcome by the birth of her second child, and it was left up to Sonya to deal with the first baby. No one knew what to expect from the rare cross breeding. So Sonya did the only thing she could think of and blew air from her lips into the baby girl. Soon she was crying as loudly as her newly born brother.

Once she was breathing on her own the baby girl had looked up into Sonya’s eyes, and in that moment they had been bonded forever. So Sonya focused all her will on that moment as she attempted to use her primal senses to find the babies. She stood there quietly for a minute or so, focusing all her attention… then suddenly she knew which to direction to run in.

“This way!” she called out, and a flood of werewolves, including one scared puma  mother followed right along.

Sonya burst through the branches of trees and the gnarled bushes without the slightest hesitation. She gave no thought to her own safety as she frantically bolted forward in the direction of the baby she had sensed. When she finally skidded to a stop they were at the edge of a small clearing near the edge of their territory. In the center of it was what looked like a shack. But how could that be? They all knew every hut, den, lean-to, cave, camp, cubbyhole, shed and pigpen inside the Strongheart territory.

Lynda boldly sniffed the air, as did Sonya, and they could both sense the babies now, as well as some new magic in the air. Both were unprepared for this. The pack of wolves, including Ben and Clay, quietly waited in the brush fifty feet or so behind the sisters for a command on what to do next. Lynda was ready to rush in but for once Sonya encouraged her to wait and take stock of the situation before plowing on into the unknown. But they both felt it without a doubt… that the being inside had been attempting to hide the shack from them all this time by using a spell of some sort.

So the two sisters slowly and cautiously approached the ramshackle structure unsure of what would happen next. The shack itself was, at best, a miniscule shelter. It was barely large enough to contain the two babies inside, much less any adult sized beings. But the closer they got, the more both sisters became aware of an additional unknown presence inside with the babies. A magical presence. A female presence. A witch! Yet this… this was a completely unknown scent to them both, though it reminded them of another for some reason.

As Lynda neared the shack, the twins, sensing her presence, began to wail and howl for their mother. The being inside the shack must have realized that she had been caught, because she attempted to bolt out of the shack and away from the wolves that had formed a tightening circle around the shack. With her dark cloak hanging low, disguising her features, she could have been anyone.

Lynda had already sensed that the magical presence inside was female, and more than that, she was also werewolf. All of the other members of the pack were coming to this realization too as they took in her scent. Right there in the front of the pack Ben inched forward, Clay to his right, with his snout raised in the air. Her scent… the new being… it was familiar to him for some reason. Who was she?

Lynda did not wait for permission to go to her babies. As she bolted past the cloaked figure and into the shack she immediately transformed into her human state and swept both babies up into her arms. With tears of relief, and gratitude, she cradled them close to her. Outside, Ben and the other werewolves tightened their circle around the woman even further. The closer Ben got to her the more he thought that she did not exactly smell like a witch. Strange… he could not figure out her familiar scent. Though he knew without a doubt she was a witch.

Show yourself,” Ben demanded, his voice shifting from a growl to a powerful demand as he transformed into his human form right there in front of her.

The woman boldly reached up and drew back the hood of her cloak, eliciting a chorus of gasps and snarls from the wolves completely surrounding her. Only Sonya, who stood at the back of the pack, ready to pounce on this woman who had stolen the babies, did not react to the sight of her once her face was visible.

She had white blonde hair that fell forward in various clumps and braids. Her skin was ivory, nearly the same shade as her hair. But it was her eyes that gave her fully away as they raised to meet Ben’s without hesitation, they shimmered a violet hue.

“Tanis,” Ben breathed out, his eyes wide, his desire for wrath faltering.

At that same moment Lynda stepped out of the shack, carrying the two babies that had been stolen from her. She glowered at the woman from behind. “You will pay for what you’ve done,” she warned her as she moved past her back to the safety of the pack.

Tanis was unmoved by Lynda’s words. Her eyes were still locked to Ben’s.

“Ben, do something,” Sonya hissed from just behind him. “Or I will!”

Ben blinked, as if startled out of some sort of hypnotic state. “No,” he said sharply. “Everyone… leave us!”

The wolves all around him scattered instantly beneath his command. They all moved back a few hundred yards, just out of earshot, but still close enough to return when needed. Only Lynda, still holding the twins, and Sonya remained there with him, immune to his authority at the moment.

“Tanis… we all thought that you had died years ago,” Ben said haltingly as he stared at the young woman before him. She couldn’t have been much more than a teenager.

“Obviously you all were wrong,” she replied calmly, her voice as smooth as silk.

“But now you will perish,” Lynda threatened as she handed the babies over to Sonya. “Ben, please allow me to do it myself right now.”