Daeton's Journey (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 10) by R. E. Butler Read Free Book Online

They drew closer and Daeton made plaintive sounds.  Ekho noticed an odd pile of leaves underneath the basket.
    “It’s a trap!” he shouted, and Perseus threw himself against Daeton, grabbing her around the neck, pulling her over onto her back and away from the suspicious pile.  Ekho reached down, felt along the ground, and picked up a rock.  Giving it a toss, he was not surprised when the leaves scattered and a net rose quickly from the ground, closing tightly into a bag big enough to hold all of them.
    He glanced over his shoulder and found Perseus kneeling next to Daeton, who was growling.
    “I think you pissed her off,” Ekho said.
    “Yeah, well, better pissed off than in a damn net.”
    She huffed and batted at Perseus with her paw.
    As several of the Centaurs who had been with them neared, Ekho crept around the perimeter of where the net had been hidden and leapt onto the trunk of the thick tree.  Using his claws, he climbed slowly up the trunk to the branch that the basket and net were secured to.  Climbing onto the branch, he saw a pale bird tied to the branch above the basket.  When it opened its beak, a sound like a crying baby came from it.
    “It’s a bird,” Ekho said, crawling forward nimbly and using his claws to cut the rope.  The bird cried loudly and flapped away.
    Ekho pulled up the basket slowly and peered inside.  The crudely constructed cage was made of branches and inside was a long-snouted burrow cat, one of the forests’ small, furry inhabitants.  He was just calling down to confirm that it wasn’t a baby in the cage when the whole tree shook violently and the cage slipped from his hand.
    He looked up to see an Urtal swinging a giant club, and had only a heartbeat to turn and duck so it struck him in the shoulder and not the head.  As he flew through the air, he shouted a warning to Perseus that they were being attacked, and then everything went dark as he smacked hard into another tree and fell to the ground.
     
    * * * * *
     
    The trees shook as hoots and angry shouts sounded around them.  Rysk and Tyrant stood on either side of Daeton, growling furiously.  Daeton looked up into the thick canopy of trees but could see only shadows.  The sound of Perseus drawing his swords and calling to the Centaurs was lost as the thud of many feet hitting the ground filled the air.  Daeton roared, calling for Ekho, who was up in the trees, but heard no answer.
    A cracking sound echoed above them and she looked up to see a shadow falling toward them.  As the moonlight broke through the trees, she saw a heavy branch hurtling toward Perseus.  She lurched forward and shoved him aside.  He stumbled away from her as pain exploded through her body from the impact of the branch.
    Everything went black.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Daeton found herself walking in the woods of her youth.  On either side, two large bears walked with her, one pale gray and one black.  She knew where they were as they emerged through the trees to the sacred red cedar grove where the males of her den carved the names of their mates and children into the ancient trees.  As they passed by the red cedars, she saw her grandparents’ tree, her parents’ tree, and her brothers’ trees, carved with symbols representing their names.  Then the woods suddenly shifted and she found herself standing before two paths.  One path was dark, the trees tangled, their limbs full of menacing thorns.  The other path was bright with sunshine, and flowers hung from thick, green vines.
    Out of the dark path, Perseus and Ekho emerged.  A young Centaur boy stood next to Perseus, holding his hand, and Ekho held a baby leoneman in his arms, swaddled in pink blankets.
    The little boy held out his other hand.  He had big brown eyes, a mirror of her own.  “Protect me, Moman.”
    “How?” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.  Was she looking at her own son?  A child with Perseus’s dark horse body, but her copper skin and dark