Brother to the Wolf, page 1
Brother to the Wolf
Saga of the Black Wolf,
Book Two
A. Katie Rose
Brother to the Wolf
By A. Katie Rose
Copyright 2012 by A. Katie Rose
Cover Copyright 2017 A. Katie Rose
The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher, House Anderson Publishing, or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to the living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
For Carol with love
Other Books by this Author:
The Saga of the Black Wolf Series:
In a Wolf’s Eyes, Book One
Brother to the Wolf, Book Two
Prince Wolf, Book Four
Wolf Unchained, Book Five
Under the Wolf’s Shadow, Book Six
Other Books:
The Unforgiven
Rebel Dragons (A Dragon Shifter Series)
The Last Valkyrie
The Stolen Heir
Brother to the Wolf
A. Katie Rose
Chapter One
Flight
Wolf is dead!
He gave me the chance to run and live, surrendering himself to save me. If I went back, even to save him, his selfless sacrifice would be in vain. I knew the two of us stood no chance against the numbers and strength of the Shekinah Tongu. Wolf knew it, too. He ordered, no commanded, me to run, to flee, to escape. He gave his life for me. How dare I throw that away in a fruitless attempt to avenge him? Should we meet again in the afterlife, I would be ashamed to admit to him how I disrespected the most precious gift he had to give.
I whirled, my hair streaming over my face, half-blinding me.
I ran.
On I ran, heedless of whipping branches and stiff brush thorns raking my bloody naked body. I ran, not feeling the agony of my sprained ankle. I ran, not caring if the sharp rocks ripped open my feet. I ran. And I ran. And ran and ran.
I ran. I sobbed as I ran.
I left him behind. Oh, Lady of the Stars, forgive me. Wolf, forgive me. On I ran, ducking low oak and pine branches, thrusting through balsam and thickets of thorn, heedless of their scratches. Nothing could ever hurt as much as my heart hurt at that moment, running away in panic from a fight, leaving a good man behind. No matter Wolf commanded it of me. No matter what he sacrificed so I could live, free from Brutal’s vengeance. I ran. Like a bloody coward, I ran. I had no choice. I left him behind. My tears streamed, my throat raw from crying and running and panic. My lord commanded me to run.
I ran on and on and on.
Into the rising sun I fled, my tears and hair and the new sun’s rays blinding me. I don’t know for how long or for how far. Only that my lord commanded me to run, and run I would. Until my feet no longer carried me forward. I would run until I collapsed from sheer exhaustion. I would run until death took me.
Until I stumbled headlong into a low thick oak tree.
Whichever came first.
The impact sprawled me on my uncovered backside and back, awakening a flood of new awareness and stilling the hot taste of panic. I staggered to my feet, fending off thick branches, tripped over sharp, moss-covered rocks, tempering the flood of fear. Pain, held in abeyance until that moment, slipped its collar and swamped me in a rising flood. The pain of my ankle, a white-hot agony, and the lesser scratches, cuts and abrasions from rocks and thorns triggered some semblance of intelligence. I drew in ragged gulps of air, looking about me, appraising my situation.
At long last, the warrior in me finally took charge and I began to think.
The Tongu no doubt subdued Wolf, or even killed him, by now. I shrank from the thought of Wolf dead, torn apart by the savage barbarians and their hounds. I knew Wolf’s chances of survival were small. Yet, because of him, mine weren’t. I ran again, this time without my panic as a spur. Glancing around, and at the newly risen sun to get my bearings, I set off the way he and I would have gone had the Tongu not overtaken us. Soon, they would set their beasts on my trail and follow after. This time, I thought grimly, they would not catch me.
I slowed now and again to squint into the sun and glance about me to get my bearings. I estimated I was about a league or so from the escarpment. While I had no bow to take out the Tongu if they found me on the escarpment, they wouldn’t be able to take me if I was ahead of them. They couldn’t circle around, nor would they shoot to kill. Most of all, they’d have to climb down as slowly as I did. If I got enough of a head start, I might yet elude them. Kel’Ratan and my boys lay two or three leagues beyond the escarpment. Once within their protection, no Tongu on earth could ever hope to harm me.
I set swift, steady pace, a lope I could sustain for hours, if necessary. The sun sent jagged spikes of pain lancing into my still teary eyes, and I wiped my face as I ran. Wolf was dead. No, he lived and I’d come back with Kel’Ratan and the others and rescue him. Wolf was dead. I’d die if he was dead. He had to live. Wolf was dead. No, I would return, and kill the Tongu. Wolf was dead.
I couldn’t get the refrain out of my gibbering mind. Wolf was dead. No, he lived and I’d get him out of there. Wolf was dead. Tears flowed anew at the thought of Wolf’s death. What was he to me? A slave, a nothing. A someone I found I cared deeply about. Only a few incredibly short hours ago I insulted him and threatened to kill him. He had absolutely no reason, no reason, to sacrifice himself to save me. I treated him badly. He could have freed himself and run, as intent as the Tongu were with raping me. He’d have been miles away before they even discovered him gone. His final smile when he saw me free haunted my vision. He cheerfully died for me. He cheerfully died for me.
A fierce savage pain ripped my heart. That smile. Oh, that smile. Only now, at his death, did I discover a man with whom I might be able to share everything with. Never before had I found in a man all that I wanted in a potential mate. My father’s decree be damned. I should be free to find the man I wanted, not whom my father wanted, I thought, furious. The bitterness that even should Wolf still be alive and we found love within each other, we could never be together. My father will make damn sure of that.
The hot surge of adrenaline gradually faded as I ran, pain slowly creeping past the horrid thoughts of Wolf’s death. My ankle, badly injured, now had been bearing my weight at a full run for nearly four miles. Its hot agony forced itself into my awareness, but I set my jaw and grimly ran on. Dodging trees, ducking branches, I held on, moving steadily forward until my left ankle gave out entirely.
A scream snagged in my throat as I fell sideways, striking my head on a hidden rock. I thrashed in the underbrush, moaning, holding my left ankle in both hands as though that would halt the hot bolt of agony from surging upward to my knee. Even the pain in my head failed to overrule the torture of my foot. I rocked back and forth, crying, twigs and small stones digging into my butt, feeling nothing save the currents of fire that lanced up my leg.
After a long, slow time, the fire in my ankle cooled to a heavy pulsing throb with my weight finally off the injury. My sobs and shrieks slowly died into hiccups and I quit crying. I took a deep calming breath, slowly regaining control of myself. It’s a bloody good thing your only witnesses to that scene were a few squirrels, I thought with wry humor. I hoped they would keep what they saw to themselves.
Wiping my face with my filthy hands, I threw my streaming oily hair back over my shoulder and looked about me. The sun shone down benignly, the air still cool enough to be comfortable before the day’s summer heat took over. Birds flitted and chirped from nearby pine branches. A squirrel complained of my presence in his territory from the safety of an oak trunk. The slight breeze stirred the shadows of the undergrowth to dancing. I took heart from the normal forest sounds, remembering the black silence that fell over the woods when the Tongu drew near. I had no idea why their presence frightened the forest creatures to silence when my own did not, but the memory of it spurred me up.
My ankle had swelled to three times its normal size. My normally almond skin had darkened, to almost black halfway to my knee by the deep bruising. Stunned by its grotesque size and color, I felt a little sickened by what I saw. That foot couldn’t bear my weight any longer. I looked around, hoping for something, anything, with which I could bind it. If it had the support of a splint, I might yet be able to hobble and keep going forward. Sticks I found in plenty, but no vines to bind them. Naked as I was, I’d no clothes with which to tear apart and wrap my ankle.
The squirrel, furiously scolding me, suddenly shut up and vanished. The soothing breeze died. I could no longer hear any birds chirping or fluttering from branch to branch. I glanced up, my mouth suddenly dry. Why did the sun no longer shine so bright? It was still there, for I could see it through the tree branches. Still, a strange pall hung over it. Evil pervaded the very air, choking me. Lady above, no.
The Tongu.
The hairs on my
Calm down, I ordered myself.
I fought hard to regain control of my runaway wits. Using calming techniques taught by my sword master oh so many years ago, I stilled the panic. I thought hard, savagely. If I kept going, I may stay ahead of them. I’d no doubt Kel’Ratan and the others were searching for me. I also knew the escarpment wasn’t far away. There was also Bar. If I could get to Bar first…
I could hardly walk. I needed a crutch.
My eyes fell on a stout oak branch, thick as my thigh at one end, tapering down to the thickness of my arm at the other. I grabbed it, fingering the sharp broken ends. A rock might help. Seizing a jagged stone, I set to smoothing the rough edges of the branch, shaving off the ends of twigs down the length, shaping it into a useful crutch. The ends still cut deep into my palm, and I once more shaved the harsher ends off. When I carefully staggered up to my strong right foot, the crutch, while still painful under my arm, held my weight without digging too deeply into my flesh.
Driven by the panic that still crept forward to nag at the edges of my mind, I lurched onward for another hour. I hopped and skipped forward, keeping the fear and panic at bay by concentrating on not tripping over rocks or deadwood. I quickened my pace to that of a crippled beggar. If the Tongu came for me now, they’d have no trouble whatsoever in overtaking me. I tried to increase my speed, hobbling and skipping along, but despite my care, stones and undergrowth constantly tripped me up. I set my jaw grimly and stubbornly stumbled on.
The deathly quiet around me informed me they hunted me still. How close were they? The pervading evil only told me they were close, but not how close. They might be a mile behind, or only a few rods. I’d never know until their hounds nipped my heels. They knew I was naked and injured and had nowhere to go. With Wolf tamed and broken or dead (my mind shied away from that thought), they knew I was no match for them. I despised the fact that they were right.
Kel’Ratan and the rest of my war-band lay only a few leagues to the east. No doubt, they were already hunting for me, worried, seeking me with every resource they had at their disposal. They’d have no idea where Wolf might have taken me, but I knew they would have started a search of the forest. Wanting to estimate my position from the escarpment, I decided I was further from it than I previously thought. I struggled on.
Something passed between the sun and me. A bird? Whatever it was flit past the candle of my eye in less than a heartbeat. I glanced up, but saw nothing but sun and green. I stopped mid-hobble, scanning what I could see of the sky between the tops of the trees, looking, searching all around for another shadow. Could it be? Come back, come back, damn it.
Two grizzled hounds burst out from the undergrowth a few rods away. Their lips skinned back from savage white teeth. Once again, in a fleet instant, I saw their muzzles tied shut. Whipping my crutch out from under my arm, I cocked it. Balancing my weight on my good right leg, I swung the crutch, now a heavy club. I’d chosen well. Solid oak and still green, it was as hard as iron. The hound, a few strides ahead of its mate, leaped toward me.
My club caught the beast squarely on the side of its head. Canine skull crunched under the impact. I’d no time to consider its death when the other hound also leaped, snarling voiceless.
My warrior instincts and training took over. As in swordplay, rather than meet it head on, I melted to the side. My weight, solid on my right leg, shifted me to my right, where I held the club. The hound’s leap took him past me, but he wheeled. Almost mid-jump, he turned, his hind legs thrusting him forward, digging furrows in the dirt. My club, on its returning swing, caught the hound under the jaw. I hit him hard enough to snap him backward. He flipped up and back, hitting the ground hard on his spine and tail.
I didn’t look to see if I killed him. I knew the Tongu would run right behind their hellhounds. I readied myself, my stout club, undamaged by the two hard impacts, raised high.
They didn’t disappoint me. Three of them burst out from under the trees, their tattooed faces and scarred throats as familiar as old friends. Undaunted by my readiness and my club, they rushed me. They held no weapons in their hands. So they still wanted me alive.
Come on, big boy. Let’s dance.
The first one ducked my swing, but I still hit him on the shoulder rather than his head I aimed for. He staggered to the side, passing me by. My returning blow caught the second in the ribs. His choked off wheeze told me I did some real damage. I set myself to receive the third when my left leg failed me utterly.
I needed two sound legs with which to fight. When I instinctively sought to balance on both legs to bring my club around to swing at the third Tongu, running a few feet behind his brothers, my left leg collapsed under me. My wild swing missed the Tongu completely. His arm around my waist finished what my treacherous left leg started. I went down, the Tongu’s foul-smelling, hissing body on top of mine.
The impact knocked the wind from me. Gasping for much needed breath, I hit him, hard, on the ear with my fist. History surely repeats itself, for the Tongu hissed in fury and struck me a wicked blow across the face.
Half-stunned and sick with pain, I struggled, kicking upward with my knee, seeking his soft genitals. I hit only his rock hard thigh instead. He grunted, his dark evil eyes peering down at me, his triumphant grin white in his tanned face. He pinned me solidly, my wrists hard against the damp earth and dead leaves. I lost my grip on my club.
“We got you now, bitch,” he hissed, his foul breath reeking in my nostrils.
I conjured saliva into my dry mouth and spit.
As in my archery, my aim was true. Squarely into his leering right eye, my spit hit. His face contorted into a mask of rage and hate. This time his fist almost made me lose consciousness.
Darkness filled my sight. No. Wait. My eyes, open wide, still contained vision. The darkness filled the forest. Beyond the Tongu’s foul, grinning face, something impossibly huge blocked the sun, casting all into shadow. A deep, resonant sound, never before heard by a living human being, roared into the evil silence. Rage. Hate. Fury. None of those words could describe the daemonic sound that filled the forest. The earth shook under the sheer magnitude of that sound. I jerked my head, tossing my hair from my eyes.
The Tongu’s evil eyes widened in sudden frantic panic. His leering mouth bowed down in horror. Blood drained from his darkly tanned skin, leaving his flesh paler than pale. He turned, slow, too slow, to face this new peril. His hands released mine as he made to boost himself off me, to throw himself off me. To escape.
A huge eagle’s claw, with talons the length of a man’s hand and sharp enough to gut a dragon reached down. It scooped him up, circled his torso, lifted him from me with all the effort a man might use to lift a mug of ale. So precise did those deadly talons seize him, I felt no touch of those claws on my bare belly at all.
Devil’s eyes. Daemon’s eyes. Yellow and black. With the dark shadows behind, the devil’s eyes glowed yellow and black. For surely hell herself had vomited up this monster.
How can a man with no voice scream? Yet scream he did. His black eyes rolled back into his head, revealing the whites. The Tongu struggled, pushing against the immense hand that held him fast in its deadly grip. His struggles were those of a mouse caught within the jaws of the cat. A savage raptor beak the size of a horse’s head bent down—
—Bar bit deep into the Tongu’s neck.
As I might have torn off a chunk of meat with my teeth, he ripped the man’s body in half. The Tongu’s heart and brain lived for a moment longer than he did. His hissing, wailing scream as Bar tossed the two pieces of the man’s corpse into the brush died away and was lost.
