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."
Chapter Eleven
Garrick rubbed his cheek against Nika's again. "It's all right. I know this isn't the time or place to be professing my feelings for you." He painfully inched back from her.
"Turn and face me, but not so close that I don't have room to work. I'm going to try to bite through the ropes on your wrists."
"If it works, watch the skin. All right?" She did as he said.
"I'll be careful. The only skin nibbling I want to do is when I'm in human form and we're both naked."
"Garrick," Nika said with a stern look on her face.
"Fine. I'll get to work on these ropes and won't say anything more about what I'll do to you the next time I get you into bed."
Feeling the pain of each of his wounds, Garrick went up on his knees to reach Nika's wrists. He bent his head, sank his sharp teeth into the thick rope, and pulled to snap the fibers. Over and over he repeated the process, and little by little, the rope frayed. The time-consuming work took its toll on his weakened body, but he refused to stop until Nika was free.
Once the rope was frayed enough, Nika yanked on her wrists until what remained intact snapped. She quickly untangled her hands from the rope as Garrick sat back on the floor, panting a little.
"What about your chains?" Nika asked once she'd moved to his side. "You can't bite through those."
"Not unless I want to break my teeth," he said, trying for some humor. He dragged himself up straighter. "I don't know if I'll be able to do it since my shifting ability has been affected, but I'm going to try to will my sword into my hands. Then I want you to take it and use it to break the chain."
Nika swallowed. "Your sword? You have some kind of magical sword that you can make appear and disappear?"
"Something like that. We'll just have to see if I can do it, since I draw on the same power inside me to shift as I do to will my sword to my hand."
Concentrating, Garrick drew on his power. Same as when he'd first tried to shift, he didn't meet with success. He only managed to will a ghost of his sword into his bound hands. One after another attempts failed until he felt even weaker, but he wasn't ready to call it quits. Gathering his powers, he focused them harder than he'd ever had to, willing the sword to take on solid form. A split second before he was about to lose the hold on his ability, his sword appeared, and he closed his hands around the pommel.
Panting heavily, his head hanging to his chest, Garrick tightly clutched his prize.