by C. D. Gorri
“I never loved Tom Nirvelli. I am sorry he’s dead. Sorry he didn’t get the chance to meet his son. But I don’t miss what we had. It was a shallow, cold union. He didn’t love me. After that one time on the boat, that I hardly even remember, he never touched me.”
“What? How can that be?”
“He didn’t want me. He said making love to me was like banging a cold dead fish. I couldn’t keep him aroused.”
“Was he a fucking moron?” Randall’s sudden surge of anger was outdone by his sincere confusion. The man must have been fucking dead inside not to respond to the searing passion of his Tulla in bed.
“Thank you for that, but I think I know what you are asking me. The answer is no, I don’t see him when I kiss you. I don’t imagine him when you’re inside of me. I don’t want to think of anyone else when we are like this. Only you. Is that what you wanted to know?”
Randall’s heart sounded like thunder to his ears. He pulled her into him and locked his lips over hers. Their position made it difficult, but he needed to taste her lips as he entered her from behind with one controlled flex of his hips. She cried out into his mouth and he held her as he joined their bodies and loved her with everything in him.
His hands roamed everywhere, her breasts, her neck, the sweet little nub that made her buck and moan under his skilled fingers. Her response to him was raw and natural and made him want to howl. Randall couldn’t get enough of her.
Maybe theirs would be a union based on physical compatibility? Maybe he’d be able to keep his heart separate from what they had? Who the hell was he kidding? His head swam with the same words over, and over again as he pushed and pumped and finally, with one last, hard thrust, he spilled himself inside of her pulsating core.
Love. Mine. Love. Mine. Love. Love. Love. Love. LOve. LOVe. LOVE.
CHAPTER 14
The cheerful wall clock announced the time with three little bells and Randall frowned. Danny’s bus was late. He and Tulla had long since taken a shower and dressed. Of course, they would’ve had more time to clean up the wreck that was his bed if they hadn’t taken that shower together. Not that Randall minded in the least. You still didn’t tell her.
He shook his head and bit back down his guilt. He’d gone and done the unimaginable. He’d fallen in love. For the first time in his long life. He marked her as his mate, and still, he didn’t tell her his secret. Ice cold fear gripped his spine every time he thought about telling her the truth about himself, that he was in fact a Werewolf.
It wasn’t something most normals could even comprehend. He’d heard stories from other Wolves, men mostly, of women, wives even, walking out on their men or husbands after hearing the news. Some could not reconcile their men with the beasts inside. They saw them as monsters.
Randall was old enough to know that the Werewolves who were monsters started that way as men or women. Their evil was not brought on by their Wolves, no, it was something else. Something dark and twisted that lived inside of their human selves first. The Wolf made the human stronger, but he/she was not evil or good on his/her own. That came from the man or woman. Geez, it was exhausting being politically correct, even if he was only working things out inside his own mind.
One thing remained true throughout all his musings. The thought that Tulla would possibly leave him, that she would look on him with disgust or disbelief, tied his stomach in knots. He’d only just found her. He could not lose her so soon. Mine.
Tulla paced back and forth in front of the large bay window that looked over the driveway. Randall listened to her footsteps as he wiped down the stone kitchen counter and put the recycling outside the back door. He surprised her when he suggested that he cook while she take some time to herself just to relax.
He wanted to impress her by preparing a homemade Neapolitan tomato sauce and a couple dozen handmade ravioli stuffed with a blend of finely chopped spinach and ricotta cheese. The recipe was courtesy of his time spent in the kitchen back at the Manor with Rafe’s mate, Charley.
It was good, he’d made it before, but this time it was special. He had never prepared a meal for someone he loved. I love her. He’d repeated it in his head a hundred times since they made love that morning.
“I can’t wait till you try these ravs,” he called out to her from the kitchen.
“Mm, it smells amazing,” she turned and smiled, but he could sense her worry.
He looked at the clock again. It was ten minutes past the hour. Randall frowned again. In his short time at the B&B he’d never known Danny’s school bus to run this late. He turned off the stove and walked into the living room.
“Tulla, do you have the school bus driver’s cell phone number?”
“No, just the school’s. I should call, right? I mean it is getting late.”
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea. You call. I’ll wait by the window.”
As if his words were the sound of the gun going off at the start of a race, Tulla sprinted from the room and came back with her cell phone. Her hands shook as she tapped the screen. He smelled the acidic scent of her fear and he felt his Wolf surge forward. Protect. Mine.
“Hi, this is Tulla Nirvelli, I’m wondering why the bus is so late today with Danny? It’s 3:12 and he hasn’t come home yet? What? No, no, that can’t be! His father is dead! No! Oh, my God!”
Randall didn’t need to be on the phone to hear the conversation. His heart thudded in his chest at what he’d just heard. Someone had picked up Danny from school, someone claiming to be his father.
“Tulla look at me, take a breath and go over everything you just heard.”
“Dan- Danny isn’t there at the school! Someone took him! They just walked into school and took my son! I have to go,” she was running to the door when he stopped her and pulled her close to him. She was in a state of shock and panic. Tears spilled from her gray eyes as she shook her head back and forth.
“Do you want to call the police?” Randall asked the question, but he was against the idea. He wanted to go now, get to the school, get the scent of whoever it was that had taken her precious son. The boy he’d come to think of as his to protect. A loud roar was going off inside of his head, this one cried out for blood. If one blonde hair on that boy’s head was harmed someone was going to die that day. He swore it to himself.
“No police. They can’t help.”
“Why not? Tulla look at me, what’s going on?”
“His birthday is Friday, I was gonna keep him home Friday. This is too soon, he’s not eight yet, the man said he’d come when Danny was eight, but I was gonna keep him home with me! No! No, this can’t be happening!” Tulla was screaming by the time she reached the end of her tirade. Randall struggled to understand what she was saying.
Did she know her son was in danger? Why didn’t she tell him? The scent of her terror enraged his Wolf, he wanted to rip apart the bastard who did this. The bastard claiming to be Tom Nirvelli. It was time for answers.
“Tulla, I need you to breathe, baby. Come on, get in the car. We need to get to the school now.”
He was gentle with her, he spoke slowly and carefully led her to the door. Every instinct, every cell in his body in protect mode. His Wolf demanded to take over, but it was too soon. Randall needed to remain in charge for a while yet, to discover what had happened to Danny, the child his Wolf had already claimed as his own. Mine to protect.
Tulla followed him without question. Her eyes wide with terror. She could not believe this was happening to her. For the first time in her life she discovered passion and love and now her boy was taken.
Was it a punishment? Maybe she was destined to be alone. She didn’t deserve happiness, not when she couldn’t keep her son safe. Oh no, Danny! Please, please let him be okay.
Tulla knew she wasn’t making any sense, but she couldn’t stop her thoughts any more than she could stop the changing of the tide. How could she? He had her son! A fresh wave of fear flowed over her, threatening to drown her as Randall pressed the
button on his cell and spoke into it. She didn’t quite understand his words though she heard them clearly.
“Danny was taken from school by a dead man. I am going to catch the man’s scent at the school. Send backup, now, and yes send a fucking clean-up crew. I’ve marked her, she is mine. Yes, my Wolf too!” Wolf?
“Buckle your seatbelt, baby,” Randall’s words were clear in her ears. He reached forward and buckled her seatbelt when she made no move to comply.
She could feel his empathy, his emotions far more controlled than her own and she clung to that. His strength would get them through this. In that moment, Tulla had no doubt that he would do all he could to help her get her son back.
Randall stepped on the gas and drove the ten minutes to the boy’s school in half the time. He was out of the car before she undid her seatbelt, but he knew the moment she stood beside him. Danny’s teacher came forward to meet them. The middle-aged woman’s name went right out of his head, he sniffed and acknowledged the truth of her statements.
“I am so sorry, Ms. Nirvelli, he had a note in your handwriting! Look, I even compared it to the one you sent in last month when Danny was sick! He said you gave him permission to take him!”
Tulla was still talking to the woman as Randall made his way to the office where the man who took Danny had given her the note. He inhaled and closed his eyes, his supernatural senses working overtime to discover the culprit. He breathed again and ran a hand through his hair. Concentrate dammit!
His heart thudded in his chest as he called his Wolf forward, he knew if anyone saw him his eyes would be glowing a light shade of gold as the other part of his self took in the scene before him. He saw scattered fragments of Danny’s cheerful aura left behind and another next to him. The other was dark and murky to Danny’s bright white. Not human.
The Wolf in him inhaled and growled deep in his chest. Magic. Witch. No, an oath-breaker!
CHAPTER 15
A Warlock! A fucking Warlock took his boy!
Randall took four seconds to calm himself before taking his cell out of his pocket. He relayed the information over to the only other Wolf in his Pack who would understand the height of his terror.
Dib Lowell and his brother Kurt had more than their fair share of run-ins with the loveless bastards who wielded dark magic for their own personal gain. Warlocks were a nasty bunch of fuckers. And now they had Danny.
“Randall! Dude, you hear me? I already sent back up. They’re coming to you in a helicopter. Some of our Wolves from Charleston. Tate was already there doing some work for Rafe. He’s got Doug O’Neill with him. You know him, right?”
“Yeah, I know Doug. He’s a good Wolf.”
“Listen, I know how much this means to you, but don’t do anything stupid, Randall. Warlocks are fucking evil, man. Wait for reinforcements.”
“Thanks, man, I really appreciate, fuck, you know what I mean,” Randall saw red. His vision became skewed as he tried to give his thanks to Dib over the phone. His emotions were raw and it was making him jumpy.
“We’re Pack, brother. We help each other, you know that. Hang in there,” the call dropped and Randall crashed to his knees. His Wolf howling in his chest, demanding to be let out. There was no way in Hell he was sitting around doing nothing until the others arrived.
That was when he noticed something on the floor. A piece of thread or yarn. He picked it up and squeezed it in his hands. It was a piece of string from the ukulele he was teaching Danny to play. He was going to get his boy back. Now.
“Let’s go,” he moved outside to where Tulla was now trying to comfort the distraught teacher. The moment her steel gray eyes met his, he knew she was made of tougher stuff than even she had thought.
“Look, Tulla, I found this, it’s from Danny’s ukulele.”
“Oh, my God! My baby, Danny! But how will this help you find him?”
“It will. Listen, I need to know what you are keeping from me,” the hitch in her breathing when he said those words told him he was on the right track. She knew something.
“Oh no! The night Tom died, or the night I thought he died, I got a phone call from some guy with a creepy voice telling me I had till Danny’s 8th birthday. They were gonna come for him on his 8th birthday to see if he was their anointed one, but I have no idea what he meant. I thought he was crazy! Just some weirdo Tom owed money too. The next day I took my baby and ran all the way out here to be safe from them!”
“Anointed one? Fuck, alright look Tulla. I know you are gonna find some of this hard to believe, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Danny has been taken by a Warlock and we need to find him now.”
“Warlock?”
“Yes. Warlock. If he was talking about an anointed one, that’s not good news, but I swear to you I’m gonna get Danny back before anything happens to him.”
“Oh God! But how? And where are we going?”
“We are going to the one place I can think of on this island that has a strong enough connection to magic that a Warlock would find hard to resist.”
“How do you know about any of this?”
“I’m going to tell you something Tulla, that you are bound to find out any second now anyway. Shit.”
Randall struggled for control as the Wolf inside of him demanded release. Once he knew Danny had been taken by a Warlock it was all he could do to keep the beast contained within him. He was losing all such control and pulled the car over before something happened that he never thought he’d live to see.
“You need to drive,” his eyes were glowing, he could feel it. Any moment she was going to see what he was. He had to tell her. Now.
“So, what you are telling me is you are a Werewolf?” Tulla hopped over the seat as Randall got out of the car and circled around to the back seat. He pulled his shirt over his head and when her eyes met his in the rearview mirror she understood everything he had just said was real. This was real.
“Yes. I am,” he growled the words as the Wolf fought to come out.
The Change was painful and could take some time. He was older than he looked, with more than half a century of Changing under his belt, Randall could make the transition from man to Wolf in usually under five minutes. But in all his years, he had never Changed on a night other than the full moon.
He’d had reports that the teenage Wolf from Northern, New Jersey had taken huge strides in breaking the curse that kept Werewolves on two feet for all nights except that of the full moon. He just never knew how far the girl had come. He’d have to thank her when he got his boy back.
“Tulla, you need to drive to that cave where you and Danny go hiking sometimes. The one west of your house. Can you drive close enough?”
“How do you know about that place? Oh, my God! Is that your bones, does it hurt?”
Randall growled as his body began cracking and twisting under the pressure of the Change. He panted with the effort it took to answer her. His skin felt as if it was burning off of his very body.
“Roll the windows down. Get me close. Don’t follow. Wait for back-up.”
“Randall! What- Oh my God!” Tulla pressed the pedal to the floor of her little car and opened the windows as far as they’d go. She kept her eyes on the road, but the noises coming from the back seat had her looking in the mirror more often than not.
The sun was still shining though it was almost five o’clock. Two hours. Her son had been gone for two hours now and the man who had been staying in her B&B. The one she’d opened her body and more, her heart too, was currently writhing in her back seat like a man in agony.
She heard a deep growl reverberating behind her and looked up to find herself eye to eye with the biggest Wolf she had ever seen. His molten caramel eyes were familiar though they burned gold with an intensity that was almost hard to look at. His fur was dark and thick, almost black.
He was as gorgeous as the man who sat there a moment ago, but Tulla had no time to appreciate the Wolf. She pulled the car over next to a clump of trees that wou
ld give way to the rocky sand path she and Danny had walked before to what her boy often called “the secret cave”.
They had discovered the place a few years back and Danny sometimes asked to go there for picnics and such when the tide allowed. She didn’t know how Randall knew they walked there. She certainly had never discussed it with anyone.
Then again, the man she’d shared the most amazing sex with, only hours earlier, was now covered in fur and on all fours banging against the car door with all his might. Any second the door would break. So, she did the only thing she could do. She opened it.
The Wolf leapt out from the back seat onto the dirt floor. His head reached almost as high as her shoulders. He was enormous. She instinctively backed up a step, but his growl was not for her. He seemed to hesitate, looking at her with gold eyes until Tulla understood. She nodded at him.
“Go! I’ll be fine. Go get Danny back!”
The gigantic Wolf shook his fur covered body, now that he was in the light it looked a lot like Randall’s long dark locks. He seemed to understand Tulla’s words and he gave her one last look before running off in the direction of the cave. He was faster than any animal she’d ever seen.
Tulla gasped before falling to her knees on the rocky floor of the forest that bordered the beach on this part of the island. She was familiar with the area, but there was so much she didn’t know. But now was not the time to think about that. She had one goal, one job, to get her son back.
Tulla recalled what Randall had said to her before his Change took over. He told her his phone password, 1848, and told her to hit redial. She took a second to gather herself. She could afford herself no more time than that, her son needed her.
Tulla stood up and ran to the car. She grabbed the fancy smartphone off the floor where he’d dropped it earlier. It was still warm from his touch and she prayed silently that he would reach her boy in time while she went about typing in the password. As soon as she was able, Tulla hit the little green button that would call the last number dialed.