by Aminta Reily
The wolf stopped so close to her she could feel the heat of his breath on her stomach. Its brown fur brushed against her leg.
“Nice wolf. No bite,” her voice trembled with fear. “Help me!”
The wolf growled, making her stop screaming. It then shivered in front of her. She heard something crack. The wolf groaned before the sound cracked again.
What the hell was that?
The fur fell away from the wolf and a male’s body began to form.
Kayla tried to free her hands from behind her back. She had to get away. When she looked back at the wolf, it was now a naked man. Tyler. He was really a werewolf.
“Tyler,” her voice trembled.
He smiled at her. “Yes, it’s me.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
Tyler’s eyes flashed red. “Me? Doing this to you? For a year, an entire year, I waited for you to pick me as your mate, but instead you go sleep with a vampire. What a waste of my time.”
“I didn’t know what he was until after—”
“I don’t want to hear the details.”
Tyler circled around her, his hand touching her, making her sick to her stomach.
“I was going to turn you by force, but now that you have soiled yourself with a vampire, I could never take you as my mate. You will die at my hands, and I’ll make sure the vampire never touch you again.”
“No, Tyler! You can’t do that. How could you kill me?”
“Why not? You will never be accepted into the Scion Clan. You have been with a vampire, and we never go behind the undead.”
Tyler snarled and moved closer to her. His teeth grew long. She struggled with the rope on her hands, but Tyler had secured them.
“Since you like vampires, I’ll kill you in their way. I’m not really fond of the taste of blood over meat, but I’ll accept it this time.”
Kayla screamed as Tyler moved her head to her side and sunk his fangs into her neck. Pain like no other raced through her body. She could feel her very life being sucked away. The world around her started to spin as Tyler pulled more of her blood out.
She prayed to the heavens when everything began to darken, and she knew she was dying at the hands of her friend.
* * * *
Ian raced up to the campsite. Seeing Tyler over Kayla brought his beast to the edge. He leaped towards him, but another wolf, much larger than the one he had fought, crashed into Tyler, knocking him away from Kayla.
The wolf sat on top of Tyler’s chest, growling.
“Dad, how could you?”
The wolf shimmered on top of Tyler before turning into the man they’d met the other night. What puzzled Ian was how they could change tonight. Their one night hadn’t come yet.
“Me? Son, how could you join that dangerous clan? How could you attack Kayla and try to kill her?”
Tyler growled and punched his father in the stomach, knocking him away.
“She slept with that vampire. You wanted me to wait, and I waited too long. I could never sleep behind an undead.”
The two men circled each other.
“She picked him, not you, Tyler. You can’t kill her because she didn’t pick you.”
“I’ll kill her, and you, Father. I’ll be a leader of the strongest clan around.”
Both men turned into a wolf and charged each other, not paying any attention to Ian.
Ian watched the two wolves fight away from Kayla. Her heartbeat was very weak, and he needed to give her blood and soon.
The moment they were far enough away from her, he raced up to Kayla, untied her and carried her away from the fight scene. He knew the others would take care of the wolves. For now, he needed to take care of Kayla.
Ian raced to his car and placed her in the back seat. He made a quick decision in which he hoped Kayla wouldn’t hate him more, but he couldn’t let her die. He bit into his wrist and held it over her mouth.
She fought, turning her head away from his blood. It took several moments of trying to force her before she latched on to him. Ian let her drink until he was weak.
Satisfied that Kayla would make the transformation, he got into his car and drove off.
The moment he made it to Logan’s home, he took Kayla into the guest room and laid her on the bed. He watched as her chest stopped moving, her breathing ceased. He knew that she was already close to dying, but the blood she took should change her, only if she accepted the change. When her chest didn’t move for a few moments, he moved closer to her.
Had she not accepted the change?
When Kayla took in a deep breath, relief washed over his body. He wanted to wake her and let her know of her new life, but how could he? She hated him, and probably her own kind now. Instead of lying in bed with her, he moved away going into another room. He knew how mad she was and he doubted she wanted to see him when she woke.
Ian would get Logan to explain everything to her first. Logan knew how to handle hostile women when they learned what they are to become.
* * * *
Logan watched as both wolves fought before he heard the howl of death from Tyler. He watched as he turned from wolf back to man. Jack had a death grip on Tyler’s neck. It’s not unusual for a wolf to kill his own kind, but it was unusual for a father to kill his son.
Logan looked down at Tyler as more of the Lone Wolf clan walked up to them in wolf form.
“You killed your son?” Logan asked when he transformed back into human form.
Jack nodded. “I hated to, but I couldn’t let him go around killing humans. My first duty is to protect those who can’t protect themselves. My son was far gone with need and he would have become hunted. If I hadn’t killed him, I’m sure that someone from another pack would.”
Logan nodded. “I’ll leave you to this clean up. The wolf who had been attacking the females was Eric.”
“Yeah, I know that. I wanted to stop Eric before he pulled my son in too deep.”
“If you need any help, feel free to contact me,” Logan said before walking off.
Werewolves had a different way of handling their own kind than vampires. They would probably burn the body rather than burying it. Tyler had disgraced his kind, and they would show with Tyler what happened when you didn’t follow the rules.
Logan would call the Council once he got home. His concern was on his brother now. He was sure that Ian would turn Kayla, and he didn’t know how it would turn out. Only time would tell.
Chapter 7
Kayla awoke feeling like a million bucks. She had never slept so well in all her life. She sat up in the bed, stretching. She frowned and thought back to what happened. Memories of what happened flooded her mind, making her jump up from the bed. She remembered the wolf, Ian being a vampire, and Tyler trying to kill her.
She looked around the room, noticing she wasn’t in her bed. Maybe Tyler had succeeded in killing her. This must be heaven, or the other place playing a mean trick on her.
The door to the room opened, making her growl loudly. Once she saw it was Logan standing at the door, she relaxed. “I’m sorry for snarling at you, Logan,” she said.
“It’s okay, Kayla. It takes some getting used to.”
“What takes some getting used to?”
“Being surprised. When you are, your teeth grow. It takes some time to learn to control that.”
Kayla reached up, feeling her teeth. They felt normal at first, that was, until she felt the longer, much sharper tooth. Panic rose quickly. “What did you do to me, Logan?”
“Me?” Logan asked, pointing at himself. “It was that friend of yours, Tyler.”
“What about Tyler? Did he turn me into a werewolf?”
“Do you want to be a werewolf?”
“Hell no! I want to be human.”
“Well that sucks. You’re not human anymore, and you will need to learn how to live as a vampire now.”
Kayla shook her head. “I don’t want to be a vampire! Who the hell did this to me?”
“Ian—”
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“Ian!” Kayla interrupted. “He did this to me?”
Logan nodded.
“He tricked me! He knew he wanted to change me when he saw me. Tyler was right to tell me to stay away from you two. You both are blood suckers.”
Logan growled. “You shouldn’t talk because you are one also. Ian saved your life. Your friend Tyler tried to kill you and would have succeeded if Ian hadn’t given you his blood. No hospital could have saved you last night. So instead of looking down at us, you need to learn how to become stronger.” Logan handed her a red bag.
“What’s this?”
“Blood. You will need to drink from bags before trying a human donor.”
“Why?”
“When you take from a live human, you can read their minds and feel their emotions for a while. Being a new vampire, it can become very overwhelming.”
Kayla was still pissed at Ian, but wanted to thank him for changing her and saving her life. However, she didn’t want to see Ian at the moment because he lied to her about everything. “I am leaving, now,” Kayla said and placed the blood on the table. She felt a hunger in her stomach and she knew food wasn’t going to help, but the thought of drinking blood made her feel sick.
“Don’t leave yet, Kayla. There are a lot of things you need to know.” Logan picked up the blood. “And you need to drink this. I can feel your hunger.”
Kayla pushed his hand away. “No, Logan. I don’t want that.”
Logan sighed. “You will not even notice it. Drink this for me.” When Kayla shook her head, he continued. “Don’t you want to see Ian before leaving? He did save your life.”
“At this time, I don’t want to do anything but go home and try to find myself again. Is there anything I need to know about being a vampire besides not drinking from a live host?”
“The sun will not be your friend, we can cover the rest later. I really wish you would stay here and talk to Ian. He really loves you.”
“I thought I loved him, but he’s the cause of this. Of me being a killer.”
“You’re not a killer.”
“Then what am I?”
“You’re the mate of a vampire who loves you with all his heart. Don’t walk out on my brother when he needs you most, Kayla.”
Kayla snorted. “He doesn’t need me. Now, show me to the door.”
“If you insist.”
“I do.” She followed Logan out the room and down a flight of stairs. Kayla didn’t miss the beauty of the home, but didn’t have time to take it in. She wanted to go home, now.
“I wish you would stay,” Logan said as he opened the door.
“Thanks, but I can handle myself.” Kayla walked down the dusty road at first. The further she got from Ian, the worse she felt. She began to run down the road. Moving faster and faster, she could feel herself moving at speeds she knew she couldn’t achieve as a human. The trees whipped by as she ran.
She didn’t stop running until she was home. She didn’t want to see anyone and wouldn’t be going out of the house anytime soon. She hated being a vampire. She didn’t want to drink blood to live. She wanted to be human again.
Kayla cursed herself the moment she tried to open the door. After running last night, she dropped her keys and her phone. She lifted the plant beside the door where she kept the spare key.
After walking inside, she noticed that nothing looked the same anymore. It looked brighter. Everything seemed different because she was different.
Tears flooded her eyes as she slid down the back of the door, wondering what she would do now. Her world had just ended, and it was all Ian’s fault!
* * * *
“I take it that she didn’t take it well,” Ian asked from the top of the stairs. He heard Kayla talking and didn’t know if she would accept her change. Logan did have a way with women, but the moment he heard them moving down the stairs and the front door opening, he knew she was gone.
Ian watched as she ran down the driveway and out of sight. Every fiber in his soul wanted him to go after her, but he couldn’t force her. Almost like the wolves, they couldn’t force their mates. Difference with Kayla and him was that he changed her without her approval and if she didn’t accept it, she would have died, if wolves didn’t accept it, they were killed by other wolves.
“No, and she’s pissed at you. I think you should go after her.”
Ian walked down the steps as Logan closed the door. “I don’t think so. I’ll give her a couple of days to calm down. I don’t want her to get even madder at me.”
Logan shook his head. “What are you going to do about Meagan?”
Holy shit! He’d forgotten about Meagan. In a couple of days, he had forgotten about the woman who had…had truly fucked up his life. Why did he care about Meagan? He didn’t any more. She would have to find another vampire to live off because this one had a mate. He knew that sooner or later Kayla would forgive him. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Logan repeated.
“I’m done with her, brother.”
A large smile spread across Logan’s face. “If that’s true, call her and end it.”
“What? Why do I need to do that? I need to concentrate on Kayla now.”
“Brother, trust me. Get Meagan out the way now and concentrate on Kayla in a couple of days. She loves you, but she’s scared. I will have blood delivered to her, and we will get her friend Julia involved.”
“You think that’s a good idea?”
“I do. Kayla is going to need more than just us knowing what she is, and Julia is her best friend as far as I can tell. I’ll let her know what’s going on and then when Kayla is ready, you two can talk.”
Ian sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Logan made it seem easy, but this was a long way from easy. One thing was he had to break it off with Meagan and he planned on doing that tonight. “Okay, Logan. You have convinced me. I will call Meagan and let her know and give Kayla time to adjust.”
Logan nodded. “Give her time, she will come around and I know you will hate me for saying this, but I’m glad that witch Meagan is out of your life.”
Ian chuckled at his brother. He knew that he would be happy if no one else was.
Chapter 8
Two weeks passed since Kayla had been out of her home. Julia had been checking on the animals during the day, and she had been going in at night to do clean up. She hadn’t seen sight of Jack, Tyler, Ian, or Logan.
Logan had blood delivered to her because he knew she would be hungry. Every time she thought of drinking it, she felt sick, but the moment she couldn’t handle the hunger any longer and tasted the blood, she couldn’t stop drinking. Food tasted good, but did nothing for her hunger like the blood did.
Julia thought she was sick, and she would keep letting her think she was sick until she figured out what she wanted to do with her life.
Over the past couple of weeks, she learned that she didn’t need as much sleep as before. She did have to run underground like she thought vampires did during the day. She also noticed that she was more tired during the day than at night. One day, she decided to let the sun touch her skin, and it burned like hell. Moments later, her skin had healed.
Earlier this week, she had called a repair guy who came and replaced her glass door. She had cleaned up her room, but hadn’t replaced any of her furniture that Ian and the wolf had broken. She was beginning to feel like herself again.
A knock came from the front door, making her look up. Usually when someone knocked, she just ignored them, and they went away.
It was high noon and since the sun really didn’t agree with her, she stayed down in the basement where there were no windows just to be safe. The knock came again, louder than before. She groaned and got off the cot she had for a bed.
The door opened the second she made it to the top of the stairs. She jumped back when the sun’s ray shone in the room as Julia walked inside.
“Wow, girl, it’s so dark in here.”
Kayla didn’t move fro
m her spot until Julia closed the door. “I know. I like it that way.”
Julia walked up to her, smiling. “How are you feeling?”
Kayla shrugged. “I’m feeling better.”
“That’s good. How about we go out shopping?”
How could Kayla tell Julia that shopping during the day wasn’t going to happen anymore? How could she tell anyone what she was? “I can’t. I can’t—don’t feel like going.”
“Well you don’t want to go shopping, that’s fine. Let’s get some light in here.”
“No!” she screamed as Julia went up to the window, getting ready to open the curtain.
Julia laughed. “Ah, so it’s true.”
“What’s true?”
Julia turned around to look at her. “Logan told me everything last night. I didn’t believe him until he told me to do the window thing.”
“And you just took it calmly?”
“Hell no. He told me I screamed at how crazy he was and started to call the police and have him locked up. He said that this guy named Cage calmed me down with mind control. If he did, I have no idea if I was mad or not. I can say this Cage fellow kinda frightens me.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know. Logan joked, saying that I didn’t like a certain culture, but I didn’t find it as a joke. I don’t know, but Cage just has this scary vibe about him.”
“I don’t think I want to meet him.”
Julia laughed. “They said he’s only visiting. He came to help find out who was killing. It was a wasted trip. Now, come sit down and talk, but don’t bite me. I’m nobody’s snack.”
Kayla laughed. “I promise.”
“I came here to tell you about Tyler.”
“What about him? The bastard tried to kill me.”
“Tyler is dead.”
Kayla placed her hand over her mouth. “How did he die?”
“Jack killed him for trying to kill you.”
“No…I didn’t want Tyler dead.”
“Why not? Tyler tried to kill you, Kayla! He wanted you dead because you slept with Ian.”
“Well it wasn’t Tyler’s fault that Ian tricked me.”
Julia frowned at her. “How did Ian trick you?”