Read Online Wolfe's Lady by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy - Free Book Online Page B

flowing water on the eve of the full moon, he can become human again. Did you ever try that?”
    “No, not since that would involve facing both my phobias.”
    Darien said. “I would be afraid to try and if it failed anyway, I would be very disappointed.”
    Although he sounded hopeless, Stella found a tiny sparkle of hope. If there were a way, then they could find it. Love might be the power that prevailed and if it meant they could find a happy ending to this story, she could help him face his fears.
    “It could be worth a try, Darien.”
    “Stella, leave it alone, please." His voice thickened with fear and something more.
    “I can’t do that. It might be the one way that we could be together. Please, Darien.”
    His reluctance suggested more than fear at stake and she wondered. As she reviewed the requirements for that method, she realized she had no idea if he drank blood or killed in wolf form.
    Nausea twisted her stomach but she had to frame the question and know the answer, no matter what it might be.
    “I cannot visualize that you would do such things, Darien, but I will ask – do you drink human blood or kill when you are in wolf form?”
    His topaz eyes, golden in the morning sunshine, widened until they dominated his face and his frown vanished, the corners of his mouth twitching as if he wanted to smile.
    “Your faith in me, Stella, is gratifying and it is correct. I have not nor do I ever wish to drink blood or eat human flesh. I would never do to another person what Henry did to me, not attack or bite or taste. He intended to kill, something I just will not and would not do.

    I manage with protein as you have observed. If I kill as a wolf, it has never been either other humans or wolves. I don’t know if I kill at all but I don’t think that I do. If I did, the knowledge of mutilated bodies, human or animal in the area would be common and there are none.”
    Joy renewed as she decided it was possible.
    “Then you can do it!”
    “Stella—”
    “That is, if you want to. Do you?”
    He seized her hand in his bruised, battered ones.
    “I do more than anything.”
    “Then why not try?”
    His grin was wry and his laugh mocking.
    “You know the two reasons why—I cannot swim and I am terrified of heights.”
    Stella’s grin was bright.
    “You can face your fears one time, can’t you? Then we can be together.”
    Darien closed his eyes, his breathing ragged and his hand in hers trembling.
    “There is another thing and it’s not one that I want to do.
    Your love would be vital if the cure were to work but something more would be needed— your blood.”
    “My blood?” Her voice soared to soprano level. “What do you mean? If I have to die for it to work, then I’ll try to remember some other way.”
    His eyes blazed. “I would never accept your life in sacrifice for any reason and that is not what legends require. I would have to cut your finger or some other part of your dear body to get a few drops of blood to purify the water.”
    Until she drew breath, Stella didn’t realize she had not been breathing. A few drops of blood from a small cut seemed little and she had no doubt she could do that. A quick search of all the lore she learned yielded a faint memory of such a ceremony.
    “That’s fine. I don’t mind, Darien. I will do that for you.”
    He stared at her with those topaz eyes for a long moment and then shut them, as if in prayer or searching his soul.
    After several minutes passed, he opened his eyes and met her gaze.

    “I can try for you, Stella. If it fails, then you will know how much I love you.”
    “What happens if it fails?”
    He quirked one eyebrow at her. “If the attempt fails, then the one sure cure might work.”
    “What is it?”
    “Death. If I become mortal long enough to drown, I would call it either a final cure or simple failure. So, it is possible that I could become human again only to drown. Will you take the chance?”
    Stella gulped. If that