Maya Banks - Love Me Still, Ebook english
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
512 Forest Lake Drive
Warner Robins, Georgia 31093
Love Me, Still
Copyright © 2007 by Maya Banks
Cover by Anne Cain
ISBN: 1-59998-709-0
www.samhainpublishing.com
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: December 2007
Love Me, Still
Maya Banks
Maya Banks
Chapter One
Their father’s familiar scent drifted to Cael and Riyu through the mountain pine. The
two wolves raised their heads, sniffing the wind. The fur on their backs prickled and
stood on end. Danger.
Simultaneously, they shifted to their human form. More of their pack shifted around
them as they forged through the trees in the direction of Magnus’ scent. Nude forms
became clothed, a barrier to the cold and snow. Cael and Riyu conjured buckskins, boots,
a shirt and a heavy fur.
Their worry was not only for their father but for their mate, Heather. She had gone
with him this day along with Niko to the small mountain town below.
They sniffed again but couldn’t detect the scent of Heather or Niko. Only their
father. And his blood.
They put on a burst of speed, bounding into the clearing where their father struggled
through the snow in his human form.
“Father!” Riyu cried out.
Cael and Riyu rushed to where the older man collapsed, blood smearing his face and
chest. His wounds were ragged, and the flesh lay open in several places.
The two brothers looked at each other, fear churning in their gut. Where was
Heather? Where was their mate?
“My sons,” Magnus said, his voice low and weak.
“What happened, Father?” Cael demanded. “Where are Heather and Niko?”
Behind them, the rest of the pack gathered. Silent and worried. A high-pitched
scream shattered the calm. Someone must have summoned their mother.
She shoved by them and gathered their father in her arms, rocking back and forth as
tears streamed down her face. Magnus struggled against her, looking beyond her to his
sons.
“Heather…”
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Love Me, Still
They surged forward, their minds consumed with worry and fear that they had lost
their mate as it appeared they would lose their father. His wounds were severe. They
were mortal.
“You must tell us where to find her, Father,” Riyu pleaded. “Tell us what happened.
Who did this?”
“S-she betrayed us,” Magnus said, his voice heavy with pain and sorrow.
Cael reared back. “What? What are you saying?” He moved closer to his father,
gently pushing his mother away. “Father, Heather is our mate. She would never betray
us.”
Magnus coughed, blood bubbling from his mouth. “She did this. I think Niko is dead
as well. We were ambushed. I was taken. I saw her at the clearing where they held me
and Niko. I saw her hurting him as the others beat me. I heard her swear vengeance on
the pack.”
“No,” Riyu denied, shaking his head. “She wouldn’t. She loves us. Accepts what we
are. She would not lead hunters to us.”
Magnus’ clear blue eyes, mirrors of his son’s, opened wide and stared at the two
brothers. “Look into my sight. See what I saw.”
Cael and Riyu thrust into their father’s mind. It was a wild, swirling vortex. Blurred
images. Painful ones. They heard Heather laughing. Saw her dance in and out of Magnus’
vision, a bitter smile on her beautiful face.
You will die.
She came closer, stepping in
front of the men who were beating their father.
They will kill you.
Determination was
etched in her features as she looked into their father’s face. More images. Heather in the
embrace of one of the hunters.
Riyu and Cael fell back, their hearts pounding, grief swelling in their chests.
Betrayal, sharp and agonizing, sliced through Cael’s body. God, no! How could she?
Their father. A man who had adopted her as his own daughter when Cael and Riyu had
taken her as mate. And now she had killed him. And one of their pack brethren.
“I’m sorry,” Magnus whispered. More blood ran from his mouth in a fine stream. “I
loved her, too. Like…like a daughter to me.”
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