Fader: Book One, Reverse Harem (Fader Clans 1)

by A. M Martin

  Shay watches him the whole way, everything left of hand, every step backwards even the sweat starting to form on his hairline. Her nostrils flare as the gold in her eyes widen, covering her pupils and the whites. Nothing but a molten gold that swirls.

  The man nods, watching Shay.

  Her hands tighten, even more, never taking her golden gaze from the man. She bares her sharp teeth and pushes against the two bars in her hands with a force of strength, that rivals any seen before. The two bars burst free from where they were embedded in the stone ceiling. Chalky dust and small chunks of stone fall to the floor and the two iron bars fall towards the opposite wall. The sharp bang rings and echoes through the dungeon.

  Shay smirks an evil little smirk, as she turns her body sideways slipping through the opening.

  The man widens his step as she stalks towards him.

  "Should've left the cuffs on," Shay says, still stalking forward.

  The man nods. Shay smiles. One second the big brute is standing, the next he's slumped out cold on the hard stone floor.

  Shay steps over the man, prowling left through tunnel after tunnel. Past cell after cell, some with prisoners in them some without. The animal in her guiding the way. Wolves don’t like to be caged and have an uncanny sense to find open spaces.

  She takes the stone steps two at a time. Up and up she goes. Round and round. Six flights of stairs she runs up before meeting a metal door at the top.

  Her right foot comes up below the handle. She slams with all her strength, chuckling when the door booms open, flying off its hinges and landing in the yard beyond with a loud thud.

  She's in some type of courtyard. A small group of youths off to the far right scream and start running towards the huge stone house.

  Shay inhales deeply catching small traces of her brother's scent. Fresh rain, he always smells of fresh rain. She starts jogging once more, following the scent around the manor. Soon the scents of wolves flow to her. Shay doesn't even bother with them. As long as they don't try to stop her that is.

  Opening a wooden door at the back of the four-story building she steps through into a kitchen.

  The smell of beef and spices fills her nose, along with a lavender and a lemon scent.

  The two females in the kitchen pause what they're doing. They look at Shay, at her glowing eyes, the black nails, her sharp white teeth bared in a silent snarl. They slowly back up against the wall leaving an open path.

  She nods, moving forward through a vast eating room. Down a hall. Turning the corner right. Another two halls. Finally, his scent gets stronger.

  Shay takes another corner, this time towards the left, and at the end of the hall is an open doorway big enough for five people to stand side by side and walk through.

  She prowls forward. The room is big with at least fifty small white beds taking up either side of the walls. A desk and many silver metal cabinets take up the whole back wall.

  Shay stalks through the room towards the desk and the middle-aged woman clad in white scrubs.

  "Where is my brother?" She demands, not caring that she startled the woman.

  The woman shakes, her eyes wide with the sour smell of her fear filling the air. She points a shaky finger towards the right.

  Shay turns on her heel, and with a deep breath, she opens the plain grey door.

  "Jay?" She whimpers.

  Her twin is laid out on a long bed, wires, and IVs trailing to his body. Machines beeping and whirling.

  "What have they done to you?" She whines, moving to the side of her twin quickly.

  She picks up his cold hand holding on for all she's worth. Her eyes flick over his face. His color is washed out with a black tinge to it. His lips are devoid of their typical healthy red color, they are now pale and cracked.

  Shay climbs up into the bed. She lays on her side staring at her twin’s face. What she would give to see his blue eyes, his cocky smile. The same feeling of guilt and anger rages in her body as the day they buried their father. This is her fault. It’s always her fault. She has been hunted all of her life. Shay should have left by herself a long time ago then maybe her father would still be alive. Maybe her brother would be happy and healthy somewhere else. She grips his hand to her chest as tears start to leak from her eyes.

  "I'm here. I'm here, Jay." She says, softly touching his cold cheek.

  "I'll get them for this, Jay." She growls, still watching her twin’s face as rage burns bright and deep in her body.

  SIX

  SHAY

  SHAY'S BODY TENSES and trembles, laying on the twin size bed beside her brother.

  The smell of campfire slowly floats into the room growing strong over the chemical scent of the ward.

  She grinds her teeth together, her sharp canines cutting into her lips. It's him. That campfire smell that tries to soothe her animal side. Then Shay looks at her twin's ghastly white face. No. He did this to her brother, him and the others.

  She slowly climbs off the small bed, being careful of the wires and tubes connecting her brother to the machines. Shay glides back into the shadowed corner of the room, letting the darkness wrap around her like a cold bubble.

  She pushes down on her core turning into a ghost. Her scent vanishes. Her power, what everyone so desperately wants, slowly drains to nothing. Her black nails lengthen into deadly sharp four-inch claws. They scrape together like nails on a chalkboard. The only thing that makes her seem other is her blazing golden eyes taking up the whites and her pupil. She’s a raging inferno ready to be unleashed in the dark corner of the room.

  Shay bares her teeth in a silent snarl, four fangs gleaming white as the campfire smell grows stronger. She hears the sound of a heartbeat, strong and loud, beating on the other side of the metal door.

  She tenses, knees bent ready to spring. The door clicks open, an inch-wide crack letting the fluorescent lights on the other side of the door shine through.

  "Lassie Silverton. Kin we come in?" A young female voice squeaks.

  Shay smiles around her fangs. She really does love the Scottish lilt. Her smile slowly falls off, her head tilting to the side as two different campfire scents invade the room. One of a flickering campfire the other with an undertow of sage. Siblings?

  "Calum, that’s nae a guid idea. We shuid hauld fur th' ithers."

  Shay smiles again, nothing pleasant about it. That was Asher. Her mouth fills with saliva imaging her fangs slicing through his muscles. His tangy blood filling her mouth.

  A deep, gruff voice scoffs, "Nonsense. She's just a lassie. Urr ye sure she didnae come oot? Ah, don’t scent her."

  Shay's eyes narrow. She hopes they don't always speak like that. She can only halfway understand them, even though she loves the sound it’s not worth it if she can’t understand a damn thing they are saying and that has her nose scrunching up in irritation.

  "Dinnae!"

  She smiles and springs forward as a tall, broad male brushes into the room. Shay’s on him in seconds, her small hand gripping the front of his throat. Her sharp nails biting into his flesh, blood slowly bubbling out around her black nails.

  Shay's eyes flick up as his wolf fades into a blurry picture above the male's head. Dark black with a purple sheen. There is a half-moon crescent on his right paw. Another Shade Prince.

  She inhales deeply. Campfire sage fills her nose. She grins devilishly at the surprised male as he stares at her, his wide hands gripping her wrist trying to pull her away. She pushes harder, more blood trails down his pale skin and onto her hands.

  "Ah, tellt ye Calum." Asher chuckles leaning up against the door jamb.

  Shay’s all golden gaze flickers to him, and she snarls. Asher straightens, his beautiful eyes widening.

  "Ah think there’s bin a misunderstanding."

  Shay's eyes swing back onto the gurgling male under her hand. She cocks her head, golden hair falling over her slim shoulders.

  "Is that a misunderstanding?" Shay snarls, jerking her head towards her brother, h
er hand squeezing harder, cutting off the male’s precious air.

  "Shay, lassie, stop." Asher utters, the sour smell of fear tainting his scent.

  She loosens her grip, "Why?"

  "We need yer hulp." The male gasps out, taking air into his starved lungs.

  "Help? You have a funny way of showing it." Shay snarls, flexing her fingers, digging her nails deeper into his flesh, releasing a fresh gush of blood.

  "Aye. A'm sorry. It shuid o' bin handled differently." He sputters, cutting his dark eyes towards Asher, who looks guilty.

  She smiles, one last squeeze of her nails and she lets loose the hold of her core. Her eyes flash, lighting the room in a golden intensity as her wild, seductive energy pulses in the place. Gliding along the male’s skin.

  Knowing she's proven her point she releases her grip, stalking to stand in front of the bed her twin lays on like the dead.

  Shay looks at the other prince now. No longer being nose to nose with him she can actually make out details. He has Asher's eyes, but that’s where the similar looks end. He has black hair, cut short and a suit made of silk that looks tailored to his body. She watches as his wide hand goes up to rub at his bruised and bloody throat.

  He looks like an older version of Asher in a dark blue suit. His black eyes narrow on the blood he sees on his hand. He straightens his suit, looking at Shay.

  "Lik' ah said. Sorry, aboot th' wey ye wur brought 'ere. A'm Calum Shade."

  "I don't care." Shay barks out, "What is wrong with him?"

  Calum looks over Shay's shoulder, a grimace coming on his face. "Ah, too much silver in his blood."

  "Is that it?" Shay snarls, her body shaking from the rage she's keeping a tight grip on.

  "Aye," Asher says, coming to stand protectively beside his brother.

  Shay snaps her teeth at them, causing both men to stiffen at the threat.

  "My help you say. Why would I help you?" She snarls, her nails clicking together, filling the room with a menacing sound. "After I've been hunted all my life by Faders of every kind. Yours the most."

  "Our kind ye mean."

  "What?"

  "Our kind. Yer wolf tae." Calum states confused.

  "If you say so." Shay sneers. If she was their kind then why hunt her down like a vermin. Why make them live on the run. Their kind. Shay scoffs. She’s even different from them. From her brother and father.

  They stand there silently, watching each other. The tension in the room heightens making Shay’s skin feel too tight.

  "Wull ye at least 'ere us oot?"

  Shay throws her head back and cackles. The accent isn't so pleasing now.

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "Not really," Asher smirks.

  Calum shoots him a dirty look.

  "Very well." Shay brings her slim wrist up to her mouth. She smiles wickedly as she bites into the soft flesh with her fangs. Blood flows from the wound, already making a small pool onto the glossy floors.

  "Shite, whit urr ye daein'?" Calum and Asher both stare at her.

  Shay says nothing, just smiles a blood-soaked smile as she walks towards the head of the bed. With a gentle hand, she opens her twin’s mouth, setting her bloody wrist upon his lips.

  Her blood dribbles out of the side of his mouth, leaving a red streak slowly dropping down his neck. A minute passes before he finally latches on with his own teeth, gulping down her blood. The worry that he was too far gone vanishes as she feels him pull her blood into his mouth.

  Shay looks at the Shades, a bloody smile upon her red lips, "When he wakes we can talk."

  They both gape at her and finally nod.

  She laughs again. They have no idea of what kind of monster they let into their home.

  Seven

  SHAY

  FOUR DAYS HAVE COME to pass, and not a soul has heard or seen a peep of the Silverton twins. Oh, but they know they’re here.

  The Shade Manor pulses with their feral energy, the very walls vibrating with it. Their scents fill the halls and have the males on edge.

  They are a mystery, the Silverton twins, a ghost story for more than nineteen years. Rumors run rampant in the manor about them, mostly horror stories.

  Shay has had a good laugh at the many stories for she has kept an ear to the walls, the door, and windows of their suite. Always listening to the littlest bit of gossip that floats to her ears. With her ears tuned to every outside sound, Shay has heard of a meeting that was to take place to discuss the twins. A meeting Shay plans on joining.

  They’ve been biding their time. Shay didn’t want to go into this so-called meeting without her twin at his peak. Four days have gone and passed. On the fifth day, they emerge.

  Jay asks, pulsing with nervous energy.

  Shay scoffs, rounding the corner of the top floor of the manor.

  Jay states.

 

  Their steps make no sound as they slowly walk to the first floor, Shay masking their scent and energy all the way.

  Shay questions.

  Jay looks at his sister, worry filling his ocean colored eyes,

  Shay stops, a smile coming across her face.

  “Hattie.”

  “’Ello, Mis Shay,” Hattie, the small brown-haired maid who had shown Jay and Shay to their room, has been the only one to interact with the twins in all of five days.

  “No one’s been bothering you have they, Hattie?” Shay questions, her hand going to her slim hip.

  Hattie is what the Faders at the manor refer to as a Hee haw, a nothing. Hattie was born not able to shift into her wolf, and because of that, others have been mean and downright rude to the shy woman.

  “Na Mis.” Hattie squeaks, causing Shay to laugh.

  “Alright Hattie dear, where is this infamous meeting?”

  Hattie turns around, beckoning the twins to follow.

  Jay says, watching Hattie walk through the halls with her head down and shoulders scrunched up to her ears.

  Shay questions.

 

  Shay mumbles.

  They stop at a wide brown door, a wolf, in all of its glory, carved deep within the grains.

  Shay nods her thanks, and her heart breaks just a little as Hattie scurries off.

  Shay states.

  Jay just nods, his head cocked towards the door.

  Shay's eyes light up, and she turns her senses into the room.

  “Aye, they're 'ere.” A deep voice sounds as Calum rumbles with irritation.

  “How can we be so certain of that, Shade?” A soft British lilt has Shay smiling and her brother groaning through their link.

  “Do you believe she will help?” A soft lyrical voice whispers.

  Shay and her twin share smiles.

  “Aye.”

  Someone snorts.

  “What say you, boy?” A dark voice lashes out.

  There’s a pause.

  “She's... Ah, have, mah doubts.”

  That was Asher, his voice seems to spark the predator in Shay. Her eyes flash gold, and her nails start to lengthen. She flexed her fingers stopping them from turning into deadly claws.

  “We are asking a lot of the young girl,” the soft British voice says.

  Shay smirks.

  “Opposed to hunting her for nineteen years?” A deep whimsical whisper mocks.

  Shay links to her brother.

  “We did not engage in such things.” The air seems to breathe this man's gritty words.

  Shay shivers. What kind of creature has the air talking with them?

  The energy in the room fills with tension. Fader ene
rgy lashing out at Fader. It has Shay giddy inside.

  “Do you feel that?” The whisper caresses.

  “I don’t feel a dang thing.” The dark husky voice snarls.

  “Exactly. They are gone.”

  Shay smiles at her brother, a twinkle in her eyes, and opens the door. The twins glide through the room coming to a stop at a large stone table where six men of varying looks are seated in high back leather chairs. The chamber is vast, the walls are made from cut stones and hanging right in front of Shay on the wall is the banner of the Wolf Faders. Her lips pull back and the sight of the silver half moon and black silk.

  “Nope, still here,” Jay announces with a light chuckle, pulling out two chairs for him and his twin.

  Shay takes a seat, looking at the man directly in front of her.

  He’s tall with a head of dark hair and broad shoulders. His skin is pale and has a shine to it.

  Shay smiles wickedly as her sight comes into play. His skin tints to violet and his dark eyes turn to deep purple.

  She links to her brother.

  Jay shows no sign of hearing his sister.

  “We should have left, though she wants to hear what you lot have to say.” Jay shakes his head, relaxing back into his seat.

  Shay smirks, her eyes moving on to the man sitting next to the vamp.

  He’s a Nymph. Her head cocks to the side, she’s never seen a Nymph before. He’s a small thing, maybe just an inch or two taller than Shay, with a slender body, but what has her attention is the blue hue of his skin. The shocking light blue of his shaggy hair and the dark blue of his lips.

  Shay blinks, slowly meeting the gaze of the man beside the Nymph.

  “What’s all this about?” Her twin snarks out, knuckles tapping away at the table top.

  Bright indigo blue blazes at her. A Breather. A small thrill goes through Shay. His slim hand comes up to curl around his chin as he watches Shay.

  Shay’s lips pull up on one side as she looks at the end of the table where the three high and taut wolves sit.

  Her eyes narrow on them. The ones who hunted the twins the most.