3

“Wait!” she called, but he ignored her. She hesitated, wondering if she could possibly retrieve the small flashlight inside her jacket. No way did she want to go blindly charging off through the night with a spooky stranger without at least being able to see what he was doing. She bent a little, and the lead wolf snarled. “Easy, fella, I just need to get a light.” His lips pulled even farther back and saliva flecked his muzzle. The other wolves took their cue from the pack master and stalked closer, showing hundreds of teeth.

Stumbling through the darkness following a possibly vicious stranger suddenly held appeal. She picked up her feet and hurried after the man before she found out if the pack had a taste for sweaty hikers.

Besides, who knew what else might come creeping out of the brush?

There might have been three moons in the sky, but none of them were full, and she’d never had the best night vision. The second time she nearly went sprawling while jogging after the stranger, she decided to call a halt. If she didn’t slow down one of the branches hitting her in the face was going to put out an eye, and then where would she be? Besides, Lemming could always track him.

The wolf things had other ideas.

“Look,” she tried to explain to one of the creatures that inched slowly closer, growling, while Lemming nearly backed up her leg, “I’m trying, but I can’t see where I’m going. Just give me a minute, okay?”

A hand shot out of the dark and gripped her upper arm, making her shriek.

“This way.”

She gasped for breath, trying to calm her frantic heart while the stranger hauled her through the woods. “Did you have to do that?” she demanded, but he didn’t answer and didn’t slow down. She tried again. “Where are we going?” Still no answer. “You’re a real jerk, you know that?”

His grip on her arm tightened and he picked up speed. “I will return you to your place come morning.”

She dug in her heels and threw every ounce of her weight into it, jolting them to a stop. No way, pal. She didn’t know what he planned, but when a strange man without an ounce of courtesy told her he was going to keep her for the night, she panicked.

As he spun to face her, she shot her fist into his nose, snapping his head back, then grabbed his shirt and rammed her knee into his groin with all her strength.

Or tried to.

The next moment he was holding her on her toes with two frighteningly controlled hands around her biceps.

His voice, when it came, was rough with menace. “You think to deny me anything?” His body was very tense, as if he longed to either choke the life from her or hurl her from him. Even so, she tried to kick him. Swearing, he shook her, making Lemming snarl. The stranger snapped something in a language she didn’t know and Lemming subsided with a whine.

His eyes bore into hers. “You’re fortunate you are a woman, or I would snap your neck and have done with it.” As suddenly as he’d grabbed her, he released her, causing her to stumble. “You go back come morning.”

Jasmine trembled, not daring to move for a long, sick moment. Never before had she felt so threatened by a man, so completely aware of her inferior size and puny strength. He had her alone, completely at his mercy, and if he decided to hurt her there was nothing she could do to stop him.

Lemming whined and slid up to her, seeking reassurance, and in that seeking, gave Jasmine a measure of strength. She wasn’t a coward, and she was smart. There had to be a way out of this. Wiley needed her.

***

He was overreacting.

Keilor watched her tremble, chiding himself. The girl was young and scared, barely even a woman by the looks of her, and he was a stranger who deliberately frightened her. Of course she would lash out. As he watched the girl gather her courage, he remembered that his cousin considered her a friend. He didn’t have to like it, but he could refrain from terrorizing her.

He wiped the blood from his battered nose and his anger flared again. Blight that! He would if she would.

Nevertheless, his touch was gentler and his pace slower as he guided her through the darkness. Remorse stabbed him when she shrank a little at his touch. He ruthlessly repressed it. They didn’t want her to like it here, nor to feel welcome, no matter what Rihlia thought. She would come to see the wisdom of remaining separate from the human world soon enough. If he and Jayems had their way, the girl would be going back this instant. Only Rihlia’s need to reassure this girl that she was fine stayed their hands.

The memory of her stripping off her heavy clothes strobed through his mind, provoking a flash of heat. She glanced at him in surprise and a little fear when his grip tightened on her arm. He forced it to relax.

It was only the unexpectedness of it that had caused his body to react, he reassured himself. He hadn’t expected the girl to start stripping. It hadn’t helped to discover that her outer wrappings had concealed an exotically pretty woman—girl, he corrected himself firmly—underneath. His cousin had claimed they were of an age, but this female was barely up to his chest, with a youthful face, besides.

Not that it mattered what she looked like; the girl was going back as soon as Rihlia said goodbye. It was time for his cousin to rediscover her real family.

He ducked to avoid a branch, thinking how fortunate they’d been to find the long lost Rihlia at one of the rare gates between worlds. He shook his head in amazement. After years of fruitless searching, only to discover the child she’d been had crossed worlds! But now she was home and it was time for her to take her rightful place among her people and her family.

He glanced at the dark haired girl in irritation, the night no barrier to his keen vision. What Rihlia didn’t need was reminders of the past weighing her down while she tried to readjust to her home world. Even if they were sweetly curved and just the right height to...

“I cannot see what she could possibly want with you,” he burst out in frustration.