Feathered Touch (Wyrd Bound Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgements

  Opening

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Final Note

  Feathered Touch

  Book 2 in the Wyrd Bound series

  by Shen Hart

  Copyright Shen Hart (2015) ©. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalised and coincidental.

  Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

  Thanks to my talented editor, Michael Keenan. This book wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for his dedication and help.

  Thank you to my best friend for encouraging me through the dark times and cheering me on during the bright times.

  Thank you to Ares, David, Jason, and Michael for being so patient with all of my questions about guns.

  Thank you to those who read Wyrd Calling and cheered me on to write more.

  Opening

  My curiosity got the better of me. Lee had barely left the property when I turned to Ryan and we took off into the woods. I was enjoying the feeling of the cool, damp soil beneath my paws as we ran. The bright winter sun streaked through the thin winter canopy as we wove between the broad, dark trunks and brushed through the dense undergrowth. Ryan’s tongue was hanging out of his mouth as he trotted next to me while we relaxed and enjoyed the peace of freedom. He’d come quite a ways since I’d met the unruly, insecure cub. I stretched up and nipped his ear before taking off again, enjoying the feel of the crisp air rushing over my fur and the exhilaration of the freedom. He stayed close to me, the mouth on his timber wolf form open in a happy grin. Our ears pricked up when we heard something odd in the distance. We hadn’t spent as much time in the woods surrounding our home as I’d have liked, but I didn’t believe that there were people for many miles. I wondered if we’d managed to run that far.

  I caught the scent of something on the breeze. A slight metallic tang wrapped around the earthy breath of clay. When I sniffed again, I caught the acidic musk of draconics. They definitely weren’t supposed to be in our woods. I glanced at Ryan, who had moved a little closer to me as he sniffed the air. We slowed and trotted in the direction of the scent and sound. At no point did I consider that I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better. I was his alpha. It didn’t even cross my mind. There was an intruder in my woods, and I wanted to know what was going on. We slowed to a cautious walk when the trees thinned, and a large opening was visible between the trunks. Bare pale red clay lay before us. It’d clearly been compacted over what must have been months or years of repeated compression. That did not amuse me. That meant they were regulars in my woods.

  Ryan brushed against me, his elbow caught against my lower shoulder for a brief second. It acted as a fleeting reminder of the size difference between us. He looked down and away from me before stepping sideways to give me a little more room. We lowered ourselves to our bellies and slowly pushed through the dense, dark-green undergrowth. Our ears were pricked as we tried to see what was going on. I cocked my head a little as I watched a tall, lithe woman with pitch-black hair down to her waist speak sharply to a draconic. Her voice was slightly too high pitched and had a raspy edge. The scent of salt remained on her skin. Banshee. I narrowed my eyes as I wondered what on Earth a banshee was doing dealing with a draconic. She paced back and forth, her voice rising in volume as she said she needed more products. I wondered what products she meant. My answer came a little sooner than I’d hoped.

  I don’t know how he crept up on us. We must have been too focused on the banshee. Large, rough fingers buried themselves in my scruff and hoisted me upwards. I snarled and thrashed, only to find myself face to face with a large draconic. His skin bore the faint outlines of scales, and his eyes were a deep amber flecked with burgundy. His lips were pulled back in a sadistic smile as I continued to struggle and snarl. I glanced over to see Ryan doing the same in his other hand. I tried to twist and sink my teeth into his skin, not that it would have done any good. Draconic skin, particularly that of those who almost had scales, was almost impossible to pierce. He never gave me a chance. I felt a sharp pain just above my shoulder before everything went black. The last thing I heard was Ryan’s yelp.

  Chapter One

  The cold was seeping through my shirt and jeans, making my joints ache and my muscles hurt. I came to slowly. At first I thought I'd somehow fallen asleep on the kitchen floor, but then it hit me. My aspects were all locked away in their boxes. I felt empty, chained. I sat up with a jolt, searching the darkness for any clue as to where I was. A quiet groan reminded me that I hadn't been alone when everything had gone black. I reached out and ran my hand along the soft cotton of Ryan's shirt. I had to protect him. I moved a little closer to him while he sat up and groaned again. I tried shifting my wolf eyes, but I couldn't; I couldn’t break down the boxes and get to those aspects. Panic began to set in. I couldn't shift anything. My energies were entirely locked down. That wasn't possible. I gulped down the air and kept calm.

  Ryan's quiet voice cut through my panic. "Where are we? What happened? What the fuck was that thing?"

  I smiled and ran my hand over his shoulders before wrapping my arm around him. That was harder than I first imagined due to his being quite a bit bigger than me.

  He leaned into me a little, his breath was quickening and his muscles tightening. "Why can't I shift? Where are we?"

  The panic was creeping into his voice. My protective instincts kicked in stronger in response.

  "I don't know. I do know that we're going to be ok. I've been in worse situations than this."

  It was true, I had, but I had at least partial use of my energies then. I cursed the Sisters under my breath. We needed to focus.

  I squeezed his shoulder and closed my eyes trying to focus on my other senses. We needed to figure out where we were and what was going on so that we could get out. His muscles remained tense, but his bre
athing was slowing down. My ears pricked as I heard heavy footsteps approaching. They sounded as though they were on stone and the slight echo gave the impression of a narrow hallway. I opened my eyes and looked directly ahead into the pitch black. Ryan had tensed again. His head was pointed in the direction of the footsteps.

  They stopped, and a gruff masculine voice said, "Food time, mongrels."

  A square of dark-yellow light appeared above us and barely three feet in front of us. The faint smell of roast beef mingled with the smell of damp earth. The square went away as the meat landed with a soft splat on the floor. I tried not to cringe. Just because I was some part animal didn't mean I enjoyed eating cold meat off a filthy floor. I leaned forwards and grabbed the meat. I remained pressed next to Ryan. I hoped that my presence would help put him at ease. I didn't want to admit that feeling him next to me was calming me.

  "Do we have to eat that? I mean, we don't know what it is and it's been on this filthy dirt-caked floor..."

  I swallowed back my pride and handed him a slab of damp, cold meat. "We need to keep our strength up. We don't know what's going to happen to us, but starvation isn't going to help us get out."

  He muttered under his breath but took the meat. I cursed the Sisters again as I bit into what I told myself was a nice roast beef and choked it back.

  Once we'd both eaten, we stretched our arms out and groped our way around the small stone room we were kept in. Ryan found a small water trough in the corner. It smelled free of filth and blood, and we had no other choice if we wanted to stay hydrated. I cursed the Sisters again. We huddled up against a wall. Ryan wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kept me close.

  I broke the silence and said, "So, what do we know?"

  He sighed deeply, and it felt like he squeezed the bridge of his nose. "The room is stone, and the light was clearly artificial. It's damp, so we're probably underground. We don't have any use of our energies, which means something very powerful is involved here."

  I curled my lip at the final part. "They must have woven some incredibly complex sigils into the wall. I suspect there are soul stones and blood magics involved, too. We heard the banshee in the clearing, and it was a draconic that knocked us out. They also kept us together and are feeding us."

  My mind hit against the thought, and I leaned my head on Ryan's shoulder before I said, "There's a reasonable chance we're in a fight pit."

  I'd broken down a fight club before, but that had been from the outside, not the inside.

  I tried to keep my breathing calm and slow and my muscles relaxed. I didn't want to worry Ryan. I had to get him out of there alive. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I would make sure he was ok.

  I rested my hand on his chest. "We'll get out of this. I promise you, we'll get out of here."

  I thought back to the other stupid situations I'd gotten myself into in the past and how far we'd come as a pack in such a short time. The boys had taken a couple of weeks to really come to terms with the death of the siren killer. The murderer becoming human at the last second had thrown them, but they understood that he had to be killed. Ryan had asked questions while Nik quietly listened and Dan shrugged it off. We were becoming a pack, slowly but surely. I refused to allow that to crumble.

  I smiled to myself as I thought back to my introduction to the boys, how I'd demanded a receipt so I could return them. I would never have thought of myself as being protective over them then. Yet I swore I would do everything in my power to keep Ryan safe. I would get him out of there. His muscles kept tensing and releasing, his heart rate was too high, and I needed to make him relax and conserve his energy. I had to take his mind off the situation at hand.

  I patted his chest softly as a sign of comfort and affection, and also to draw his mind back to me. "Tell me a bit more about your family."

  He'd mentioned his sister before, so I hoped for the best. He swallowed hard. Maybe I'd been wrong.

  "Well, my sister's a bit of a bitch." He laughed quietly, trying to keep the waver from his voice. "She has always been the one who got high grades in school, had all the trophies and achievements. She told me I'd never come to anything. She's off on the other side of the world saving someone or something. That's what she does. She saves people. She's a gods-damn miracle worker."

  He couldn't keep the slight snarl out of his voice.

  "Mom and Dad are good people, they always did their best to raise me right. I grew up with them, Mum's sister, and Dad's brother and his wife. Mum's sister's mate died not long after they got married. She never quite recovered and never had any cubs. My uncle and his wife are super cool, though. They taught me to hunt and track. My uncle taught me hand-to-hand combat, and his wife taught me how to handle a blade. They never looked down on me like the others; they always told me I could be something good. I really hope they're right. I want to make the whole pack proud."

  I patted his chest softly again and said, "You will make them proud."

  Ryan had driven me mad at first, but they all had. He'd fucked up a couple of times with the sirens, and his moping was frustrating, but he’d been making good progress. He was eager to learn and was showing a lot of progress with both his hand-to-hand and his blade work. He was stealthy and cautious. I hoped that he'd be a good shadow for my assassinations. I just had to get him out of there.

  The small room was almost silent outside of our breathing. If we listened closely, we could occasionally make out faint screams and heavy footsteps. Ryan held me close and tensed at every one. I focused on the steady in and out of my breath and tried to think logically. The pitch black and the silence would quickly wear us down psychologically. I hadn't even started to prepare Ryan for anything like that. We needed to keep ourselves occupied and mentally remove ourselves from the situation. Dwelling on the surroundings and the multitude of potential outcomes would not be good for us.

  Alex's face came to mind. I could see the creases around his ice-blue eyes, the furrow in his brow, and the tightness in his lips. I knew he'd be worried about us.

  Instead, I said, "How are you getting on with Nik and Dan?"

  Pack bonds are incredibly important. The pack depends on each other, and with our pack being Wyrd Bound we put our lives in each other’s hands. He took a deep breath, his chest rising steadily beneath my head before he allowed the air to slowly escape again.

  "Nik is great, I've known him for years anyway; he's like a brother to me. Sure, we have our problems sometimes, but nothing ever sticks. Dan, I'm not quite so sure on. He's... odd. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a great guy, but there's always a bit of distance between him and us, and he absolutely refuses to take his shirt off. I know you made that comment about Nik and me, but I've never been into guys; I don't want him thinking that I'm gonna jump him if he takes off his shirt!"

  I laughed softly. "I'm sure there's another reason for his odd behaviour. I'll take him to one side when we get back and ask him."

  We continued talking about easy, familiar things for what felt like a few hours before we fell asleep. It was a fitful, uneasy sleep, but we had to snatch what we could. That was what kept us going over the next few days.

  Chapter Two

  I had no real way to track how the time passed down there. There was no light source outside of the one in the hallway, and that only appeared when the heavy-booted creature threw cold meat through the hole in the door. We had no contact with anyone other than each other. I had to give it to Ryan; he was holding up better than I had hoped. We paced around the little room on a regular basis to keep our muscles working. It also helped to de-stress us a little when we needed it. We tried katas, but the small space and pitch blackness made them very difficult. We quickly learned to move and catch the meat before it hit the ground. It made us feel a little better, if nothing else. I didn't put too much thought into where the meat came from or what it was. I just viewed it as sustenance.

  We discussed everything from the boys, our hopes for the future, Ryan's past and f
amily, to movies, food, and music. I tried to keep myself in the calm alpha position. I didn't give him any more information about myself and my past than I was absolutely comfortable with, and he didn't push. I remained calm and in control. When he grew frustrated or started to withdraw, I held him close and stroked the back of his neck and got him talking again. We had to keep our minds out of the black little box that had become our home. It was the only way we'd survive.

  ~*~ ~*~

  We knew that day would be different. More meat had been thrown at us and the square of light remained there for a few moments after the meat had been thrown. I didn't look up at it. It hurt my eyes too much.

  "Are they going to throw us in the pit?"

  Ryan's voice was surprisingly calm and almost curious. I couldn't hear any fear there. I took another bite of the bland, cold meat and thought for a moment. It seemed like the most logical bet.

  "I suspect so. Keep your wits about you. Don't waste any energy fighting them unless you're sure we can get free."

  He gave a soft grunt of understanding, and then the waiting began. Our usual conversation ground to a halt as we waited. We fidgeted and paced around the little room.

  I took a deep breath and pulled Ryan close to me. "We need to calm ourselves. No wasting energy."

  He simply nodded and bent his knees as though to sit, but we heard the heavy boots, and they weren't alone this time. We tensed and stared at the door. I had no idea what to expect, but I had to think we'd be blind at least momentarily. His fingers dug lightly into my ribs as he tensed and held me close when they stopped outside our door. The sound of metal scraping against metal rang in my ears. Every muscle was tensed, ready to leap out of there. Slowly, a thin crack of yellow light appeared forming a large rectangle, and then the door was thrown open. The faint screech of the metal scraping against the stone sent chills down my spine, but the light was too much for my eyes. I turned away to try and protect my eyes.