Reluctantly His

Chapter Ten

Garrick sat in his car in the pub's parking lot as he practiced inside his head what he was going to say to Nika. He'd spent most of the time perfecting his speech while he'd been hunting, except for when he'd taken down a couple of his prey.

As prepared as he ever would be, he got out of his car and crossed the mostly empty lot to the pub's front entrance. There was only one car parked there, other than his. When he reached the door, he drew up short. His nostrils flared. A faint, acidic scent wafted around him. Breathing deeply, Garrick opened the door and walked into The Old Sow. The scent grew much stronger.

A low growl pushed out of his throat. Even though the scent wasn't that of a werewolf, Garrick recognized it. He had to fight to stop himself from going wolf with anger. Somehow, Nathan had found a way to mask his true scent. Whatever he did, it left an acidic smell behind wherever he went.

Needing to see how far into the pub the scent went, he followed the faint trail.

He'd just about reached the bar when Nika came out of the kitchen with Lee on her heels. Garrick barely kept it under control while he watched her walk the other man to the entrance and say goodbye.

Once the door shut behind Lee, Nika walked over to join him. "You came," she said as she drew nearer.

"I told you I would."

She stood in front of him, and the smell of Nathan's acidic scent masker grew even stronger. His eyes went wolf and his claws pushed through the tips of his fingers, despite his best efforts to remain calm. With a low, wolf-sounding growl, he tried to zero in on where, exactly, Nathan had placed the scent, but Nika quickly jumped away.

"Garrick, y-your eyes. They look like an animal's. And are those . . . claws?"

Her face had gone white, and he heard her heart racing, but he ignored the signs of her fear. "He was here. He put his hands on you," he said through a growl.

"He who?" Nika asked. She kept backing toward the pub's entrance. "I don't know who you're talking about. What the hell are you, Garrick?"

The door flew open behind Nika and slammed against the wall. Nathan, along with three other werewolves, walked in.

"Yes, Garrick, why don't you tell your mate what you are? Better yet, why don't you just show her instead," he said.

Nathan nodded to his men, who shifted into their werewolf forms. Nathan grabbed Nika from behind. Garrick had no choice but to shift as well. The three large werewolves attacked him at the same time. He only had enough time to see Nika's look of horror at the sight of him before they were on him. The sound of her screams filled his head as he tried to fight them off.

Garrick used his teeth and claws to defend himself, but he couldn't get in a blow that would buy him enough time to will his sword into his hand to take out the werewolves permanently. The one behind him jumped onto his back, sinking his teeth into his shoulder, while the other two attacked him from his sides. He howled in pain.

He was strong, but the three beasts were the size of Brand when in werewolf form.

Bleeding from numerous bite and claw marks, Garrick soon lost his footing, and the three overpowered him and took him to his knees. He couldn't shift without sustaining even greater injury from his attackers, so he stayed in his werewolf form and glared at Nathan. "Let her go," he said in a voice that was gruffer than his usual one.

"It's me you want. Take me, but leave my mate alone."

"Oh, I intend to take you with me," Nathan said, wrapping his arm around Nika's head and yanking it to the side at an awkward angle. "But I wouldn't dream of separating you from your mate. She comes with us. Let's see how you'll like being mated to one of your prey."

Nathan shifted into his werewolf form and sank his teeth into the left side of Nika's neck where it met her shoulder. Garrick howled. Nika screamed again, then passed out, slumping against Nathan's furred body. Enraged, Garrick fought to free himself, to get Nika away from the pack leader, but the other werewolves were too strong.

Nathan shifted back to his human form and lifted Nika into his arms. "This is when you take a rest, warrior."

The three pounded on Garrick with their large fists until he lay battered and bloody on the floor. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Nathan carrying Nika out of the pub, then darkness closed over him.

Unceremoniously dumped into the back of a cargo van, Nika came to. She quickly regained her senses, but before she could even try to make an escape, the man who had been at the pub earlier—now her captor—climbed inside and grabbed her by her wrists. He pulled out a length of rope from his jacket pocket and bound her hands as the three other men—who were no longer furry—shoved what Garrick had become into the van next to her. She flinched when his wolf-like head brushed up against her.

Her captor laughed. "What's the matter? Don't you like your mate now that you know what he truly is?"

"And what would that be?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"A werewolf."

"Like you?"

"He's nothing like me," her captor spat. "I'm what a true werewolf should be. I'm not like your mate over there, who was given immortality and the ability to shift by his Anglo-Saxon god, but denied the bloodlust a true werewolf should have." He pulled out what looked to be a small, black sack. "Enough talking."

Easily controlling her with one hand, her captor yanked the sack over her head.

He then secured her bound wrists to something inside the van. Nika tried not to panic as the van bounced. She heard a bit of scuffling, the doors slammed shut, and then . . .

silence. Sensing her captor had left, she pulled on her wrists. The sound of the van's engine turning over roared through the tiny compartment, and they started to move.

Nika struggled to free herself, but whatever they'd tied her to didn't budge. The van hit a bump, sending a shooting pain to where her captor had bitten her.

Sitting, unable to see anything, Nika forced back the tears that threatened to spill over. Tears weren't going to help her situation one bit. She couldn't fall apart. She had to forget that her world had suddenly become the stuff of horror movies. And that there were people who shifted into creatures that would give her nightmares probably for the rest of her life. She would not let herself freak out. Not even with the realization she'd been sleeping with one of those creatures.

Nika didn't want to believe Garrick was a werewolf, but seeing him turn into something that looked half human and half wolf, how could she not? The sight of him in that form had scared the crap out of her. And hearing her captor and Garrick calling her Garrick's mate had done nothing to keep her fears at bay. She didn't understand how any of what she'd seen could be possible. Werewolves weren't supposed to be real.

Her mind still had a hard time processing what her eyes and ears told her.

The van stopped, and she braced herself for what her captor had in store for her next. The engine cut out. Nika's heart tried to thump out of her chest as minutes passed.

The back doors finally opened, and the sound of chains rattling reached her ears. She heard grunts, and the van bounced as if something heavy had been taken out of it. Nika cowered back away from the sound. They had to have taken Garrick.

Next, someone unhooked her bound wrists and dragged her outside. With her head still covered, Nika had no idea where they were. The strong hand that held her upper arm pulled her into motion. It wasn't her original captor who held her this time, because the body that brushed up against her every time she stumbled was much larger. It had to be one of the larger werewolves who had attacked Garrick.

She was taken inside a building and then forced to sit on a cold cement floor. Her bound hands were once again secured to something in front of her. The sack was yanked from her head, and it took a few seconds for Nika's eyes to adjust to the lights.

Blinking, she glanced around. The building looked like an empty barn, one that would have been used on a dairy farm. There were plenty of farms in the Norwich area, and this could be one of many.

Looking to her right, Nika found Garrick, still in werewolf form, beside her. They were chained to the same raised metal bar that had been cemented into the floor. He was still unconscious. Her captor moved to stand over him, then bent down. She noticed the syringe in his hand just as he pushed the needle into Garrick's furred arm and pushed the plunger down.

"What did you give him?" she asked shakily.

Her captor stood, wearing a satisfied smile. "Nothing you would know. It's a concoction of mine that I have been working on and finally perfected. It'll stop Garrick from shifting back to his human form."

Not thinking clearly enough to realize it would be better to keep her mouth shut, she asked, "Why? Wouldn't he be weaker in his human form?"

Luckily, her captor didn't seem annoyed with her questions. "Normally, yes he would be, but not now. With his wounds, he's at his weakest if he stays like he is. If he were able to, the shift would instantly heal them. What I gave him will buy me some time to decide what I want to do to your mate before I end his existence."

With a sinister laugh, her captor motioned for the other three men to follow him as he walked away. A few seconds later, the building's door slammed shut.

Nika was at least thankful they left the lights on so she wouldn't have to sit in the dark. She turned to look at Garrick. In his werewolf form, he was even larger—height and muscle mass—than when he was in his human one. Light brown fur that matched the color of his normal, human hair completely covered his body. He even had a tail.

Sharp claws tipped his fingers. Seeing them shoot out the ends of them while he was still human had been disconcerting, but actually watching him shift—his body blurring as it took on another form—had been even worse.

She shifted her gaze to Garrick's lupine head. Gone were the lips she loved to kiss so much, that had given her so much pleasure. In their place was a wolf's muzzle.

Even his ears had changed. They were pointed like a wolf's and on top his head. She looked down the rest of him again. His hands and feet, though furred and tipped with sharp-looking claws, were still human in shape. His body showed where the other werewolves had clawed and bitten him. There was a particularly nasty bite in his throat, as if one of them had tried to rip it out. Blood glistened in his fur.

Garrick made a low, rumbling groan and blinked open his eyes. Even they had changed. The brown of his eyes had almost taken up the white. They were a true wolf's eyes. He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, and Nika skittered away from him as far as her secured and bound wrists would allow.

Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs, her fear increasing now that Garrick was awake. "Don't come any closer," she said.

"Relax, Nika. It's still me."

His voice sounded different, deeper, and more gravelly. "You sure as hell don't look the same."

He gave her a sad look. "I'll shift and see about getting us out of here."

She shook her head. "He said he injected you with something that is supposed to stop you from being able to shift."

"Who?"

"The one who bit me."

"That's not possible. There isn't anything I know of that is capable of doing that."

Garrick's body blurred slightly, but he remained in his werewolf form. Nika watched him try twice more before he gave up.

"I told you," she said. "He said it was something he had been working on, and that he'd finally gotten it right."

"Mother fucker," Garrick said with a loud growl. He yanked on his hands that were bound and shackled in chains to the metal bar. "I guess Nathan thought of everything. These chains are too strong for me to break, and my wounds will keep me from regaining my strength."

"So we're stuck here until they come back and do who knows what to us," Nika said with a shiver. She didn't want to think about what horrors the other werewolves would inflict on her. Being bitten was bad enough. At that thought, she stiffened. "He—

Nathan—bit me. Does that mean I'm going to turn into a werewolf too?"

"I need to look at your back, Nika," Garrick said.

She shook her head. "No."

"Nika," he said in a calm tone. "I'm not going to hurt you. I may look different on the outside, but I'm the same on the inside. I'm not some kind of beast that will try to rip out your throat the moment you come near. That would be Nathan and his kind of werewolves. They are more beast than man. In their werewolf forms, they don't have the ability of speech as I do."

She still wasn't ready to put her fears aside and snuggle up to Garrick when he looked like he did. "I take it this is your big secret. Were you going to tell me tonight?"

"Yes, and yes again. I had wanted to wait until you got to know me a bit better, but you forced my hand. I don't want to lose you, Nika. You mean a great deal to me."

"As in, I'm your mate. I didn't miss you and Nathan both referring to me in that way."

Garrick's wolf-eyed gaze met hers. "You are my mate."

"How can you know that? We hardly know each other. Or is it some kind of animal thing only you can sense?" Her last question came out tinged with the revulsion she felt.

"Even though it won't do anything to make you think of me as less than an animal, I'll tell you the truth. You stirred my wolf the first time I met you. With women I've been attracted to in the past, my wolf half never came into play. I've never touched a woman and had my eyes go wolf and my claws come out. And what happens when we make love . . . that is only supposed to happen with my mate, only with you."

Nika closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath before she looked at him again. "So you going more animal than man told you I'm your mate?"

"Yes, it does, but I'm more man than animal. I was born mortal, the same as you.

I had a human mother and a father."

"So it's true? You're immortal?"

"I see Nathan told you lots of things about me when I wasn't awake. I would have never guessed him to be such a gossip." At her frown, he said, "Fine, I can see you aren't any closer to loosening up around me. Yes, I'm immortal. I was born in the late 500s A.D. here in the area of Norwich. I was a warrior in my king's court, King Raedwald of East Anglia. He, along with me and four other of his warriors, were chosen by the Anglo-Saxon god, Tiw, to protect mortals from those werewolves sired by Fenris the wolf, the son of Loki, another god. In return, we were gifted with immortality and the ability to shift into what we hunt each night to give us better odds.

Tiw also placed his mark on us, what you think is my tattoo."

Nika felt all the blood drain out of her face. Garrick was over a thousand years old. An ancient warrior from old. No wonder he'd taken offense when she'd berated him for acting as if he was from the Dark Ages. He'd lived through them.

"So Nathan and his werewolves are those sired by Fenris the wolf? And it's your job to help—along with your warrior buddies—to protect mortals from them. Just how many of those types of werewolves are around?"

"More than you can imagine," Garrick said, voice grim. "All it takes to turn a mortal is a single bite from one of Fenris' get. And there isn't any cure."

She felt suddenly light-headed. "Nathan bit me," she said weakly. "I'm going to be one of those monsters."

"No, no you won't. That's why I asked to see your back. As my mate, you will be marked by Tiw as well. It should have already started to appear."

"What does the mark look like?"

"It will be exactly the same as what I have on the cap of my left shoulder. Yours will be high up on your back on the right side. In the beginning, when it starts to appear, it will look like a hand-sized, blackish bruise."

"And if I have that kind of mark?" Nika kept very still while she waited for Garrick's answer.

"Besides being marked as my mate, you'd be immune to a bite from one of Fenris' werewolves."

Nika sagged with relief. "I'm safe. I have the beginnings of the mark you described on my back."

"You do?"

"Yes, I found it today. I thought it was exactly what it looks like—a bruise."

Garrick's wolf's eyes grew serious. "I need to see it, Nika. Please."

She pulled at her bound hands. "How? Neither one of us has the use of our hands."

"Slide your hands down the bar until they're next to mine. If you sit with your back toward me, I should be able to use my teeth to pull back the collar of your T-shirt."

Nika's gaze fell to Garrick's sharp teeth. They were capable of ripping her to pieces, but now that she'd been talking to him, she felt less fearful of him. She recognized the man inside the body of the werewolf.

Garrick didn't say anything while he let her sit and make the decision as to whether or not she'd move to be next to him. In the end, remembering how strongly she had felt for him before finding out what he was, and not being able to deny those feelings now that she knew the truth, Nika slowly shifted her hands down the bar toward him.

When she reached Garrick's side, he turned his body, twisting his arms over his head. The chains attached to the bar and his wrists rattled. "It's okay, babe. I would never hurt you."

Not a hundred percent comfortable with Garrick in this form, Nika slowly turned her back toward him. He shifted closer and made a sound that was between a groan and a growl. "Garrick?" she asked nervously.

"It's just my wounds. It hurts to move around like this. Some of them have started to bleed again."

"Maybe we shouldn't do this."

"I'm all right. I can handle the pain, and it isn't as if my wounds will kill me.

Being immortal, I'd have to lose my head to have that happen."

A picture of Nathan using an axe to chop off Garrick's head flashed through her head. "Please, no more talk about death, especially when that could be something looming in our near future."

Garrick moved even closer, so she sat between his furred legs with his chest pressed to her back. He then rested his lupine head on the top of her shoulder. Nika turned her head to look at him.

"We're going to get free, Nika," he said. "I'm going to try a couple of things once I've seen the mark on your back."

She nodded to keep herself from saying anything negative. She had no idea what Garrick planned. Tied the way they were, they had nothing with them that would get the chains off him. Her bonds were only thick rope. Obviously, Nathan figured chains weren't necessary in her case.

Garrick lifted his head from her shoulder and gently took the back of her shirt in his jaws, and Nika held still. He pulled back the material and held it there for a few seconds before he released it. Silence stretched between them.

"What?" she asked. "It's still there, right?"

"Yes, it is," Garrick replied, his gravelly voice even huskier. "I can see the faint outline of the wolves and Tiw." He rubbed his furred cheek against hers. "If I could shift, I would be kissing you right now. You have no idea what seeing that mark makes me feel. I've been alone for so long. I honestly didn't think I'd care one way or the other about finding my mate. Now that I've found you, I realize how lonely my life has been.

You complete me, Nika. I'll do everything in my power to protect you, and to keep you happy."

She swallowed the sudden lump that formed in her throat. Hearing Garrick say how he felt about her choked her up, but she wasn't in any state to reciprocate. "I don't mean to take away from anything you just said, but I'd really like to get out of here before Nathan and his werewolf thugs come back."