"Now what?" Nika asked.
"You leave me here and see if you can flag down a car on the road. Get the driver to take you to the closest phone. I'll give you the number to reach the others."
Nika shook her head. "No. I'm not leaving you here alone. Nathan could come back and bring more werewolves."
"I doubt that. He's in no condition to try to finish me off. There's silver mixed into the steel of my sword. Silver is deadly to his kind. Even though his wound wasn't to the heart, which would have killed him instantly, the silver is poisoning him. Nathan won't be in any shape to do anything but hide to lick his wounds."
"I'm still not going to leave you," Nika said adamantly.
"It's the only way," he said. "I can't let any mortals see me like this."
I've told Raed and the others what has happened and where to find you. Tiw's voice filled Garrick's head.
"Did a voice just speak in your head?" Nika squeaked.
Garrick let out a raspy chuckle. "Yes. That was Tiw."
"So I'm not all of a sudden becoming schizophrenic?"
No, you are not, Nika, Tiw said with a laugh. Three of the other warriors are on their way.
"Then we'll stay put," Garrick said. "I can't shift, Tiw. Nathan injected me with something to prevent it."
It's only temporary. Come morning, your body will have burned the drug away without leaving any permanent damage.
"Good to know."
You and your mate are safe now. The others will arrive shortly. I'll talk to you both tomorrow.
Garrick felt Tiw's presence fade away. He looked at Nika. "So help is on its way.
And I guess you'll have to put up with my arse being furry for a while longer." Much to his surprise, Nika dropped her hand from his waist to his tail and gave it a yank.
"I have to admit I like your tail," she said lightheartedly.
He turned them away from the door of the house and walked down the porch stairs. "For someone who was terrified of me not too long ago, you seem to have adjusted quite well and quickly."
"It's either that or scream my head off. Tonight, I've had more shocks than I think I can handle. It'll probably really hit me later. All I'm worried about is staying out of Nathan's clutches. He and his werewolves are scarier than you are."
Garrick turned to face her and put his other arm around Nika, holding her tight against his chest. "Tomorrow will be soon enough for you to face everything else."
He just hoped Nika would still be as accepting once the strain of the night wore off. After seeing the faint outline of Tiw's mark on her back, he wouldn't be able to let her go.
Nathan felt the acidic silver slowly poison his organs as it pumped through his bloodstream. The wound to his chest continued to bleed profusely. He couldn't shift to his werewolf form, mostly because it wouldn't remove the silver from his system. The shift would heal him, but he was better off bleeding some of the silver out of his veins.
He needed to get back to the den where he had the antidote for silver poisoning, something else he'd perfected over the years.
Lost in agony, he at first didn't realize Stephen—the werewolf who now supported him—wasn't taking him across the large field that separated this farm from the one where their den was located. They were headed into the woods that ran parallel to both properties.
"You're going the wrong way," Nathan snapped. "I have to get to the den before the silver has a chance to spread any farther than it already has."
With a growl, Stephen grabbed Nathan's head and slammed it into the nearest tree. Lying stunned on the ground with blood dripping into his eyes, he snapped his teeth at Stephen.
"Remember who I am," he said angrily. "I'm your pack leader. I turned you."
"Well, mate," Stephen said, "that's about to change." He dragged Nathan to his feet by his throat. "I've never much liked being ordered around. I prefer to be the big man on top."
"You dare to challenge me for pack leader?"
"I more than dare. I intend to take it away from you."
"To get the others to follow you, you'll have to challenge me at the den while I'm in fit condition."
"That's another thing about me—I don't follow anybody else's rules but my own.
As for getting the rest of the pack to accept me as their leader, I think when I bring them your severed head they'll be more than ready to declare me leader."
The last thing Nathan saw was Stephen shifting to his werewolf form and his jaws clamping around his throat to rip it out.
Chapter Twelve
Nika sat on the window seat in Garrick's bedroom inside the mansion he called home and watched him sleep. He lay stretched out on the bed still in his werewolf form.
It was just past dawn, and she could no longer to sleep. Not that she'd slept much before she'd gotten out of bed. Thoughts of what had happened during the night wouldn't let her rest.
About twenty minutes after Garrick's and her conversation with his Anglo-Saxon god, Tiw,—she still found it amazing that she'd heard an actual god's voice inside her head—a black Land Rover Range Rover pulled into the yard of the abandoned farmhouse. Three large men had gotten out of it and approached them. They had turned out to be Wolfric, Dolf and Brand—three of Garrick's brothers-in-arms.
At the sight of Garrick, they'd taken over the charge of supporting him and getting him into the Range Rover. Once they'd all piled in, Wolfric had made the introductions while Brand drove. Dolf sat in the back with her and Garrick. Dolf had been the one to tell her all of Tiw's warriors, along with the two women who had become mates, lived together in their mansion like an extended family.
When they arrived at their home, Nika had been knocked speechless by the size and beauty of the mansion. It was a showplace home. She'd soon found out the inside was just as spectacular as the outside after she'd been ushered through the front door.
The large, open-concept foyer with its check marble floor, curving oak staircase, and crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, had her looking around gawking.
Nika hadn't had long to do much admiring before Wolfric and Brand had helped Garrick up the stairs and into his bedroom. She'd followed behind and stayed out of the way when the men put Garrick in his bed. She had cringed a bit when they pulled back the sheets and blood from his wounds soaked into them. But she'd kept her mouth shut when the men didn't seem to care.
Shortly after that, Raed and Algar had arrived and introduced themselves. Their mates had been sleeping, and they had reassured her Lexi and Kamryn were anxious to meet her. Obviously, they already knew about her.
Raed did a quick check of Garrick's wounds and declared they were slowly healing and would be gone once Garrick could shift. He'd then bandaged Nika's wound, before the men left her alone with the werewolf who was her mate. Too tired and not wanting to sort through how her life had changed, she'd climbed into bed beside Garrick and tried to sleep.
Now she could no longer keep those thoughts away. Nika ran her gaze over Garrick again. With him being stuck in his werewolf form for hours, and used to seeing him like that, she wasn't afraid of him. Actually, she liked snuggling against his warm fur as she'd done during what had been left of the night. That form was just a part of what Garrick was. As he'd told her, he was still the same man inside the werewolf.
With the threat of death at the hands of the bad werewolves no longer hanging over her head, Nika thought of how close she'd come to losing Garrick. If he'd been mortal, a few of his wounds would have killed him. Thinking about that had her admitting how she would have felt if she had lost him. It would have devastated her.