Wolf Mate by Natalie Kristen Page B

the window. From the crease between his eyes, she knew
that his mind was on a case. She had seen that look, often when he
was poring over a file at his desk. Dax would clear Levi's name.
She was sure of it.
    She wasn't that worried about
Levi. Levi had Dax to defend him. And Dax was a pit bull when it
came to defending his clients. Even pit bulls had nothing on him.
He would fight tooth and nail, fang and claw, for his clients.
    But Rebecca...
    Melynda sat down heavily on
the empty bus stop seat to compose herself. Poor Rebecca. She was a
survivor. She was strong, but right now she was helpless. She was
strong mentally and emotionally, but the poor woman was just lying on
a hospital bed, completely immobile and defenseless.
    Melynda rubbed her arms
vigorously. Goose bumps had erupted all over her skin, and it wasn't
because of the cold. She just had a bad feeling, a very bad feeling
about this.
    She feared for Rebecca, and
strangely, she feared...for herself.
    Don't be silly, Melynda ,
she chided herself, trying to nip her paranoia in the bud. You're
just working yourself up for nothing. You're just worried about the
exams. That's all.
    Melynda stood up quickly and
muttered a “Get Home Quick” spell under her breath. In
her haste, she stumbled over a single word in the spell. “Shit,”
she gulped. Panicking, she recited the spell again, trying to cover
her mistake, but it was too late. She could already feel the magick
winding around her. The wind whipped up, and the streets twisted and
churned. But it felt wrong.
    The spell had gone wrong.
Seriously wrong.
    It shouldn't be like this.
    She should be able to see her
house by now. The “Get Home Quick” spell usually brought
her to her street in a couple of seconds. She just had to walk a few
steps to reach her front gate. But now, everything was swimming and
swirling around her, and there was no telling where she was.
    She could be spinning into the
middle of the city, materializing in the middle of a busy highway.
By the time she got her bearings, she might be staring directly into
the looming headlights of an oncoming truck.
    Melynda tried to chant the
spell again, but the more she panicked, the more she slipped up. Her
stuttered, garbled spell sounded wrong to her own ears.
    “ Please...” she
whispered.
    Her thoughts spun out of
control as her fear spiked. Terrifying, tormenting images flashed
before her eyes in rapid succession. She remembered every
frightening moment in her life and relived every nightmare.
Everything she feared and dreaded swam to the fore to taunt and
torture her.
    Her spell had gone very, very
wrong.
    Her emotions were now working
against her.
    Instead of empowering her,
they entrapped and endangered her.
    Her most recent fear pulsed
before her very eyes. She saw what he did and the terror and
destruction he caused.
    He terrorized his young wife.
He beat her, bullied her and betrayed her. And when she tried to
divorce him, to finally free herself completely from his clutches, he
tried to kill her.
    Through Rebecca's emotions and
her own fear, she saw everything he did and everything he was
planning to do. She saw it too starkly, to clearly. She wasn't sure
if the gripping sense of fear and desperation that was slowly
crushing her, squeezing her heart and lungs until she couldn't
breathe, couldn't scream, was her own or Rebecca's.
    Melynda struggled against the
darkness which was fast closing in on her. She sensed a presence in
the darkness. Twisting round, she could barely make out the outline
of a face.
    But it wasn't the face she'd
hoped to see. It wasn't Dax. She suddenly wished with all her heart
that she could just see Dax one more time. She had been so angry
with him, so hurt by him, and she had said many hurtful words to him.
    If only...
    There was no time for regrets.
Her Emotional magick had latched onto her overarching fear and
worry, and had drawn something sinister, something very dangerous, to
her.
    Fear attracted predators