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Nolan put his hand on the sphere and the sphere disappeared.
Now his hand was on the bare shoulder of a naked, red-haired woman. He took in the curve of her delicate spine, the wavy tangle of her hair, the pallor of her skin.
In the back of his mind, he was aware of the other members of the Rock Creek Clan standing around him. He heard gasps. Someone muttered, “What the hell...”
The earth beneath his feet was solid. Darkness surrounded them, shadows of midnight and moon. Pine scents filled the air from the circle of trees that surrounded them. It was mixed with the loamy scents of rock and soil, from the disturbed cairn where Nolan, primarily, had unearthed the sphere which had held this woman.
He was aware of their surroundings, yes. But he was most aware of the still lungs, not breathing. The still heart, not beating.
And it was like he was touching Emily again, her body cold and lifeless. Surrounded in snow. When he slept, his mind wouldn’t let him forget about that, Emily dead.
This red-haired woman had been in his dreams like this, too. Her skin hadn’t been cold or pale, though.
She couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t accept that. He held his breath, waiting for a sign.
Beneath his palm, her heart began beating.
He tore his hand away, shocked.
He had dreamed this, Emily returning to life, so many times. But this was not Emily.
Stepping away, he saw that the woman’s eyes had opened. They were a shade of violet he’d never seen on a human before. Emerging from a glowing golden sphere like this, though, she was obviously more than human.
His friend Margot approached the woman. “Hello, there.”
The woman turned her face to look at Margot. Her chin was pointed delicately, as was her nose. Her eyelashes were thick frames around those violet eyes. One side of her neck and the lower part of her jaw was covered in scar tissue—it looked as if she had long ago sustained a painful burn.
Margot went on, “I’m Margot. You’re in the Rock Creek territory, in Idaho. That’s our alpha, Jameson.”
Margot pointed to the blue-eyed, brown haired grizzly shifter who led the clan. The woman’s gaze followed Margot’s gesture with curiosity, but the wariness never left her expression.
“We don’t mean you any harm,” Jameson said.
His deep voice seemed to startle the woman. She drew her legs up closer to her chest and crossed her ankles.
“May I ask your name?” Margot said to the woman.
A slight shake of her head was all the response they received.
“For fuck’s sake, give the woman some clothes,” one of the men said. Ian, Nolan guessed. “It's cold as butt out here.”
Clothes. Yes. It was a good idea. Nolan was closest, so he yanked off his shirt and held it out to the woman.
She hesitated a moment, then slowly reached for the shirt. A brief expression of pain crossed her face as her long fingers closed over the fabric.
“Let me help you?” Margot said.
The woman nodded. Faith, Ian’s new mate, came over as well, along with Kayla. The three RCC women fussed over the newcomer. They helped her to stand and slid Nolan’s t-shirt over her head. The woman accepted their fussing without complaint, as if she was used to being waited on.
“We’re taking her to Parker's old cabin,” Margot said.
“The bed’s already made up,” Faith added. “And I barely slept in it.” She blushed and sent a quick glance to Ian, who gave her a roguish wink.
Jameson cleared his throat, and the woman turned to him. “If you're hungry,” he said, addressing the newcomer, “there's food.”
The woman shook her head, and the others ushered her out of the circle of pine trees. The cooking pot with the spell ingredients remained behind, forgotten. Magic. Magic was what had brought the mysterious woman to them.
Nolan watched the four women go, his eyes on the long, slender legs moving below the hem of his shirt, which reached to her mid thighs.
A hand clamped down on Nolan’s shoulder. It was his brother, Bryce, still naked from shifting out of his bear form.
“Yep,” Bryce said. “You’re a goner.”
Goner? Nolan shook his head, not wanting to think too hard. “Just in shock.”
“Did...all of that just happen?” Ian asked. “A naked woman was in that sphere thing. Is that what Bronson's after? A person in a ball?”
“We don’t know what she does,” Jameson said.
Parker, still in his tiger form, growled and loped after the women, no doubt eager to keep an eye on them.
“Rex,” Jameson said, “go with him, will you?”
The wolf in their midst took off after the tiger. Bryce, Ian, and Nolan remained with Jameson. The four of them looked at each other, perplexed. The short, mournful who...who... of a long-eared owl cut through the night.
“She’s not here to hurt us,” Nolan said.
“How do you know this?” Jameson's voice wasn’t disapproving, more thoughtful and curious.
“She was surprised to be here,” Nolan said. They had all been surprised by her arrival. The spell they’d done, courtesy of Ian and Faith’s work over the past few days, hadn’t been forthcoming about results.
But they’d known Bronson was after the spell, and their options had been to either destroy it, hold onto it and wait for Bronson’s people to keep coming after it, or perform the spell and see what happened.
Jameson didn’t often take risky chances. He was steady, calm. Nolan was grateful he’d let them do the spell. He had a gut feeling that everything was going to change—for the better—now that this woman had shown up.
“She seems too weak to do much damage, anyway,” Bryce said, looking thoughtfully at the place and the trees where the women had walked away.
Nolan frowned. He disagreed. There was nothing weak about the mystery woman. He just wasn’t sure if he should mention his impression to his alpha or not.
But Jameson was perceptive; he had likely noticed her strength already. Besides, strength didn't equate to the desire to do harm.
“We have to let her stay,” Nolan said. “What’s the point of doing the spell and finding out what Bronson is after, if we just send her off again?”
“I’ll think on it,” Jameson said, rubbing his hands over his face. “We can all talk in the morning. Clan meeting. Right now, I want to go back to my cabin and kiss my mate and hold my baby boy.”
Nolan lingered by the cairn while everyone else walked off. He’d spoken the words that brought the woman to them. What had the spell papers said? The finding, the binding, the calling forth. He'd said the words. He’d torn apart the cairn to reveal the sphere.
He was responsible. He had to take care of her.