Falling Hearts (Hearts of Wolves Book 1)

by Maggie Garrity

  “Me personally, or all wolves?” I wondered just how far into this world she would be willing to venture. She seemed to consider for a moment.

  “Everything,” she finally answered with resolve. I looked her over, taking in her ramrod straight back, her hands twisting nervously in her lap, and her brown eyes. I knew she was afraid, but her eyes spoke of curiosity, too. She wanted to know about the world of monsters that had previously only belonged in movies and storybooks for her.

  “I’ll tell you as much as I know,” maybe if I was honest with her, she wouldn’t run away. “Werewolves are known worldwide. Different countries have different names, but it is all the same species. The history is equally as different. Our historians have done a lot of research into our origins. They’ve come as far as finding a common link in a king named Lycaon of Greek Mythology.

  The story goes that Lycaon fed a boy, presumably his son, to Zeus to test him. Zeus is said to have turned Lycaon into a wolf as punishment and killed his many sons with a bolt of lightning. From that moment on Lycaon was to live the life of a wolf, he would never be a man again. That is the myth, and while there may be some truth, no one can be certain what happened to make Lycaon a wolf. We know it was him though that started the lineage.” I could see the questions in her eyes. I was dreading my hatred of history at that moment. I could easily tell her the basics, and I even knew my ancestors, right up to Lycaon, but I had never ventured into all of the speculations and guess work that surrounded him.

  “There are writings of the king disappearing and a wolf roaming the land in his place. It is said that he continued his evil way, attacking humans every chance he got. Over time, some of the humans he bit that didn’t die developed an odd illness, or so it was thought. They could change into wolves. Lycaon was furious when he learned that the wolves he had turned did not have the same constraint as he did. He refused to turn any others, and many believe that he hid away until he died.”

  Zee had stopped fidgeting. She was leaning forward, listening to the history of my people. Her curiosity was amazing to me. I couldn’t smell the fear that had overwhelmed her scent when she walked in. I quickly continued telling her what I could, picking parts I hoped she would find interesting

  “The humans that had been turned came together in packs, so to speak. They discussed the recourse of their actions if they chose to turn more humans. The talks created a huge rift among the wolves. Some believed that becoming a Lycan, as it was called, was a curse brought on by a demon possessed wolf. Others intended to stay in packs, and to turn their families. That is how the great packs of Europe formed, and the Hunters of wolves as well.

  The wolves who considered themselves cursed refused to turn ever again. They learned to resist the pull of the moon. They demanded that the other wolves do the same and told them they could not curse any other humans. When the packs refused their orders, they formed a terrifying force that would hunt down the Lycans. They called themselves Hunters.

  The Hunters would storm into the homes of known wolves and slaughter entire families, wolf or not. Many wolves were killed during the massacres of the Hunters. The remaining packs went into hiding. They developed laws to keep not only wolves, but also humans safe. Eventually the packs grew, some by turning willing people and others by mating. It wasn’t hard to hide right out in the open. Once a person learns to balance the human and wolf instincts it is pretty simple. Wolves traveled the globe just as humans did, many making their way to the new world.

  “So, that in a nutshell is the history of werewolves,” I watched her eyes dart back and forth as she seemed to process. I was thinking, too. The talk of Hunters had me considering that odd scent. A Hunter made sense. The bastards loved to taunt when they found a pack. It was easier to take down a pack when there was strain.

  “Are any of the myths true?” Zee’s quiet voice pulled me from my revelation. I raised an eyebrow, curious about which myths she meant. “You talked about the full moon, and from seeing Wyatt and Ryker, I realize you don’t need the moon to change. But can you turn anyone anytime? And do you have to bite them? Will you live forever? What about silver bullets?” She built momentum as she rattled off questions, and I had to force back a chuckle.

  “Most myths have a least a small basis in truth,” I told her, “We don’t have to turn for the full moon, but most of us do. If we don’t, we become restless, and it makes it harder to balance our instincts. We do have to bite a person to change them, or at least no other way that I’m aware of has been found. We can turn a person whenever we want, but we do so with great caution. Here is no cure once a person is changed. We age the same as humans but killing us is not easy. Silver can sting, but we heal incredibly fast. The only way to kill a wolf is to cut off its head.”

  A shudder rippled through her body at my last revelation. Still I could see more questions in her eyes. I waited to see if she would ask any of them. She may not have been fidgeting anymore, but I could feel the tension building in my muscles. When she didn’t speak, I decided to continue my story with my family’s history.

  “My family can trace back to one of the original Greek packs. Some of them split off and crossed the ocean to live here. My family’s pack has been in Colorado for the past 150 years. As the pack has grown wolves have split off to form their own packs. I am the third wolf in my family to break off and start my own pack. So, in answer to your first question, I was born a wolf.”

  Zee nodded her head as if she understood but her eyes darted to the door and then back to mine. I could only imagine where her thoughts were. I’d just told her we lived in secret, and she knew our secret. The tension in the room was palpable and it was testing my already wearing nerves. I needed to run off some energy, and soon.

  “Will you let me leave?” she asked quietly. The tears shining in her eyes as she silently begged me to let her leave were almost my undoing. She was still afraid, and it felt like my heart crumbled a little. I nodded slowly and she shot from her chair and out the door. It killed me to hear her running from the house, but I didn’t try to stop her. She needed time to get her head around it all. She’d be back. I just had to keep telling myself that.

  Jarren stormed into the office, his eyes swirling, and he looked wild. My body stiffened involuntarily at the display of aggression from him. I was ready to confront him, work off some of that energy tearing into someone who could put up a good fight, but I saw Tegan. She stood just outside the doorway, a tear sliding down her cheek, as she stared at me. God, Zee was her first friend here, and now she may be gone forever. I couldn’t stand the hurt in her eyes or the rage in Jarren’s and I hung my head to avoid it.

  “You let her leave?” Jarren all but yelled at me, “What about the laws? The security of the pack is at risk if she tells anyone.” I stood slowly and glared at the angry male in front of me. He didn’t back down at once, instead his lips curled back to reveal his teeth. Good, I could kick his ass and clear my head. I could feel my smile, but it felt off, angry, wrong. Sadly, Jarren noticed it too, and he ducked his head in deference.

  “She won’t talk to anyone,” I growled, stubbornly sticking by the woman who had just walked away from me when she learned the truth about me. “She may not accept us, but she won’t put us at risk.” A sob from Tegan softened my heart a little. I glanced at her, but her face was buried in her hands. Wyatt appeared suddenly, looking terrified of her emotions, but he pulled her into his arms. If my heart hadn’t been broken, I might have chuckled at his bewildered face while my sister clung to him, soaking his shirt with tears. Jarren was pacing the office and I needed to do something to calm the pack.

  “We’ll go talk to her,” I decided. I couldn’t be sure it would help her accept werewolves in her life, but I could at least ensure the pack’s safety. Jarren relaxed just slightly and headed out the door. Tegan’s red rimmed eyes found mine and they were so full of hope. “I can’t promise you anything, Tegan, but I’ll try.”

  Chapter Thirteen

&nbs
p; Zee

  A werewolf. I tried to wrap my head around the concept as I drove faster than the speed limit to get back to my apartment. I couldn’t stop thinking of how sad his brown eyes had looked when he nodded that I could leave. I felt a little heartbroken at the idea of not seeing him anymore, but I wasn’t made to deal with this kind of thing. Monsters weren’t supposed to be real. My boyfriend was supposed to just be a regular human being, not suddenly grow fur and howl at the moon.

  I pulled into my parking spot quickly and dashed up the stairs to hide in my apartment until things made sense again. I was spending way too much time running and hiding lately. Who cared that I had just learned that the world was a little more diverse? It was time to suck it up and get back to the girl I was before I let Alex in my life.

  When I walked in the apartment Delilah glanced up briefly from her computer. Her headphones were on and I could hear the music blasting all the way to the front door. It was amazing that her eardrums didn’t explode. She must have been writing a paper. She tended to listen to her music as loud as possible while she wrote. She claimed it helped block out the world around her. I was under the impression that it just helped her dance like a fool while she was typing. Even then she had started bobbing her head back and forth with so much enthusiasm that her whole body moved. It was a wonder that she could even type wiggling around like that. The sight brought a much-needed smile to my face.

  Leaving my sister to dance her way through her homework, I decided to clean. Normally I wouldn’t clean randomly in the middle of the day. I did enough cleaning at both of my jobs. I was much more a clean the whole apartment once a week and then fuss if Delilah didn’t keep her messes contained kind of person. When my mind was racing though, cleaning helped it to stop. I pulled cleaners out from under the sink, making a mental list of what I would need when I went grocery shopping with Tegan. The thought of Tegan caused a pain, not quite as bad as the one I associated with Alex, to lance through my heart.

  A sharp knock at the door made me jump. I calmed my erratic heartbeat as I sat down the bottle of glass cleaner and went to open the door. I assumed it would just be the jerk from downstairs. He loved to come and complain. Someone was walking too loudly, we parked to close to the line, his mailbox was empty, and he knew someone had taken his mail. I yanked the door open without checking if it was the neighbor, all ready to rip him a new one, and instead I took a huge step back in shock.

  “Zee, can we come in?” Alex at least looked chagrined as he stood there. Jarren just looked angry. If looks could kill, that man’s hate would have burned me on the spot. Thank goodness he was just a werewolf and not a laser blasting mutant. What the hell could they want? I had already been given more information that I knew what to do with. Delilah cleared her throat behind me, and I jumped. I had completely forgotten my dancing little sister. I turned to find her standing up, looking at the two men with surprise and a bit of admiration. Yeah, join the club little sister, they were awfully nice to look at.

  “Delilah, this is Alex,” I nodded to him and he gave her a trademark grin, his dimples making an appearance. I’m pretty sure I heard Delilah sigh. “This is Alex’s friend, Jarren.” He didn’t even acknowledge that I’d spoken.

  “It’s nice to meet you Delilah,” Alex sounded genuinely pleased, “Zee told me so much about you. It’s great to put a face to a name.” He really was smooth. Delilah blushed and ducked her head and I wanted to smack the back of her head and tell her he wasn’t available.

  “It’s nice to meet you both,” Delilah may have spoken to them both, but her eyes stayed trained on Jarren. I could only imagine how that would turn out, but luckily it wasn’t a concern. He was completely ignoring Delilah. She glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. I shook my head at her, Jarren was not a good idea.

  “What do you need Alex?” I may have been a little harsh, but the quicker we got this finished the quicker I could move on. His eyes flicked to Delilah and then back to me. Oh yeah, werewolves are a secret. “We can talk in my room, if Jarren and Delilah don’t mind keeping each other company.” I pointed down the hall, and he gave me a quick nod before he turned to speak quietly to Jarren. Delilah took that as her opportunity to get answers and jabbed me hard in the ribs with her elbow.

  “What the hell is going on Zee?” she hissed, “These guys don’t seem like they’re here for a date. That Jarren guy looks ready to kick your ass. What happened?” I just shook my head again and rubbed at my tender ribs. Holy crap, her elbows were like knives. I looked at Alex and I swear his head was cocked in my direction just a bit. It seemed like he was listening for my answer. No way was I going to tell Delilah anything, werewolves did not need to be on her radar at all.

  Jarren let out an angry huff, that I’m sure was meant to mask his growl and walked over to sit on the couch stiffly. Good grief, you’d think we were shoving bamboo under his nails for the rigidness in his body and the grimace on his face. Delilah just eyed him incredulously. I really hoped she wouldn’t provoke the already dangerous male. Delilah despised rudeness, and she didn’t really sugarcoat her own rudeness when she let people know. This was sure to go great.

  Hoping that for just once Delilah wouldn’t confront someone, I led Alex to my room. Any other time I would have stressed out about the messiness that greeted us when I opened the door. Today was full of enough stress though, so I chose to pretend I couldn’t see him taking it all in with surprise. My laundry was overflowing because I was technically supposed to be spending the afternoon washing clothes. My bed was in shambles, with clean clothes strewn across it from searching out the perfect outfit to go see Alex in. A lot of good that did me. His eyes lingered on the sketch of himself on the cliff that was hanging on my mirror.

  “So, what do you need, Alex?” I asked again, anything to get his eyes away from the picture. I never should have hung it up. Now I just looked like a teenage girl tacking up hot guys on the walls. He gazed at me for a moment, almost like he was searching for something. I had no idea what, but he suddenly seemed satisfied with what he saw.

  “I’m sorry for how you found out about my pack and me,” his forehead wrinkled a little, and my hands itched to reach out and smooth the troubled look from his face. “I wanted to tell you, and I planned to. I just wasn’t sure when, or even how. I never pictured having this problem in life. I never felt pulled to a human or a werewolf…but that isn’t the point of me coming here.” I waited for him to decide to continue. One part of me was thrilled that I was important to him. Another part, sadly the bigger part at that moment, couldn’t get past the werewolf part.

  “I hate to ask this,” he started, “but I need you to not tell anyone what happened today. Our safety depends on our anonymity. If we are found out things won’t end well for us.” He was eyeing me carefully. It seemed hard for him to ask me for anything, but I understood. Oddly, of everything that day, this I got.

  “I won’t tell anyone,” I told him easily. It was really a decision I’d made from the moment he told me. “I promise I won’t tell. I may be having trouble with the idea of my new friends and my boyfriend being werewolves, but I won’t tell other people about it.” His face broke into a huge grin, and he looked entirely too pleased with himself.

  “Boyfriend?” he questioned, his dimples making a very unfair appearance. I hadn’t meant to even say that out loud.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, hating the sad look that replaced his dimples. I couldn’t give him false hope when I was so unsure myself. He was avoiding my eyes, instead he was looking around my room again. His eyes lit on items and then moved on at an alarming rate.

  “I wanted to see your room,” he spoke quietly, “You know, I wanted to be invited in, we’d make out a little on the couch, you’d lead me to your room. I thought it would be something fun and exciting. Instead your nerves are filling the room and I don’t know what to do to help you. I wish we could go back and start this fucked up day over.” My heart was beating a little fast at his imagi
ned scene. I could see it, too, but things weren’t like that.

  “I know what you mean,” I spoke equally as quiet, “but you would still be a werewolf. Eventually you would have to tell me. Now I know, and I can’t tell you how things will go yet. I need a little time to think. I need to think about the future. How does a relationship like this even progress?”

  “However, you want it to,” he spoke earnestly, and I really wanted to believe it was that easy. I wanted to believe that I could date him and the fact that he was a werewolf would never come up at all. Or I could just become…but that was crazy, and I couldn’t even finish the thought. Still I could feel it in the back of my mind.

  “Just give me a little time,” I tried to put some conviction in my tone. My wayward thoughts messed it up and made me sound unsure. Alex only nodded at me before turning to leave my room. When he opened the door, I could hear the raised voice of Delilah and growling voice of Jarren. So much for them getting along.

  “I told him to be nice,” Alex looked furious as he stormed into the living room. I was right on his heels, hoping I could defuse the situation a little. Delilah and Jarren stood facing each other, both were breathing hard. Delilah’s eyes were shining, and her face was red. I had been on the receiving end of that look, and I knew she was going to hit him any moment. Jarren looked equally as angry. His shoulders heaved with his breath and he was baring his teeth at her. “Jarren, enough. We’re going.” I was a little shocked at his command, but more shocked when the angry male snapped to attention and stalked out the door without as much as a backwards glance. Alex followed him with a small nod and smile to Delilah and me.

  The instant the door shut Delilah whirled around and started firing of questions about who they were, where they were from, what did they do, did I even know them. I told her what I knew without mentioning the one little fact about them being supernatural beings who shouldn’t exist. I would keep my promise, I couldn’t betray Alex. After Delilah seemed mollified that I at least knew a little about the men, she went on to complain about how horrible Jarren was.