“Nothing.” Owen knew he didn’t sound convincing. There were marks on his lip where her fangs had broken the skin in an intoxicating rush, though the wounds were healed and not obvious—he’d checked this morning.
Zach lifted an eyebrow.
While coming to the gathering was compulsory for people like Zach and Owen—sons of pack leaders—it was, at least, a nice holiday where he could be himself without worrying what humans would make of him if they discovered the truth. He wasn’t sure his fellow firefighters would think being a werewolf was an advantage. He planned to spend the day swimming and doing nothing. Maybe he could forget last night if he really tried, but he was sure Macey’s scent lingered on his skin even though he’d scrubbed.
Owen shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about Macey, but he couldn’t regret it either. She had a spark and a taste for rule breaking that he wanted in himself. That he’d need if he was going to put together a pack. If he failed, he would be outcast, and he’d never be able to attend another gathering. Could he wait another five years if he had to, or would his father have broken him by then? Or would he snap and get himself banished?
Probably the latter. For a moment it seemed no matter what he did he would fail.
Zach leaned a little closer. “There’s another run tonight for wolves who aren’t interested in mates and breeding…something you’d be interested in?”
He’d heard rumors of alternative runs. He wasn’t into guys and he hadn’t realized that Zach was either. Was that the secret Zach hid? As heir to the pack that wouldn’t be allowed.
Owen took a moment before responding. “I wish it were that simple.”
That Owen liked a vampire was definitely more complicated than liking men—at least for a second son. Though he was sure that his father would consider them equally bad.
Zach laughed. “Nothing is simple when there are expectations.”
“Will you be running tonight?”
“No.” Zach glanced away, but it was clear that he wanted to.
Owen didn’t press. He’d offer Zach a place in his pack, if he had one. But he doubted Zach would leave when he had standing and responsibilities. “How’s your father these days?”
Zach’s father wasn’t a staunch traditionalist like his, but Zach couldn’t take off and do his own thing. He was the future of the pack.
“Good, yours?”
“Same as usual. He’ll never bend.” Or come close to entertaining anything close to modern ideas. Owen swallowed. Of everyone that he knew, Zach could keep a secret, and was keeping secrets. He had to start somewhere and if Zach laughed, then maybe he should give up such dangerous dreams. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw the challenge in Macey’s eyes.
“I was thinking of…” the words dried on Owen’s tongue. Saying them out loud was so different to thinking them. He’d thought being at the gathering would be easy and finding support would come naturally. Maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a leader and he should shut up and stay in his pack.
Zach stopped walking. “Thinking of what?” He lowered his voice. “Leaving?”
Owen nodded. Was he that obvious?
“Starting something new.” He hated the uncertainty in his voice. The courage that had been so easy to find when imagining his pretty speeches had well and truly left. “I respect the traditions, but this isn’t the nineteenth century. Things have changed. We need to change. Some packs are moving forward instead of looking back and they’re doing really well.”
“They are. And there are bitter divides between traditionalists and those who are changing. My pack is caught in the middle. I work in the city like most of the younger members, but the older ones prefer the rural town. We’re splitting and it’s dangerous.” He scuffed a toe in the ground. “My father knows I’ll never be part of a breeding pair, but that’s something that I have agreed to keep quiet until my sister is old enough to take over and he can settle the split.”
“Your sister…that’s not traditional.” Zach’s sister was still a pup. And there was no guarantee she’d get fur instead of fangs. His freedom was years away. “What will you do?”
“I’ll be given notional control of the city under her.” Zach slid him a glance. “If I stay.”
“You’d be welcome. I will need a second.” Were they actually discussing this like it would happen? “My father will be furious when he learns.”
Zach sniffed. “If he knew you were playing with blood drinkers, he’d be rabid.”
Owen swore. Had the other wolves in the cabin smelled something on his skin? “I scrubbed.”
“Not well enough.” Zach grinned.
“We both have secrets.”
“Is it because of her?”
“No. I’ve been thinking about this for years. It’s now or never.”
Zach nodded. “Okay. How many do you have?”
“Just us at the moment.” Hardly a great start, but then, he had to start somewhere. And getting Zach would be a coup. “You are interested?”
Zach stared up at the sun. “I can’t keep doing this, so yes. Who else will you approach?”
“I don’t know yet.” Most of his friends were sons of leaders who were more traditional than they liked to admit. “I’m keeping an ear out. You do the same, but I’ll do the approach.”
“Of course.” Zach tilted his head as though accepting the order and they were already pack. “I won’t tell either of your secrets if you keep mine.”
“I won’t say a word.”
“You’ll need at least two blood drinkers.” Zach grinned. “But that shouldn’t be hard.”
The lake glittered before them. There were already wolves out on the water making the most of their down time. There would be informal talks over the next few days so wolves could arrange moves before the official meeting. Moving wasn’t taken lightly, usually it was only approved for marriage, more rarely for work, even though in theory wolves could move whenever they wanted. Approval was required from their current pack leader and the one they intended to move to. As a firefighter, he’d be able to find work anywhere, but he was trapped.
His father rarely approved requests to leave and accepted only very select new members—those that were also heavily into tradition. Owen hated it. It was suffocating. As much as he’d like to find members from his own pack to leave with him it was too risky.
He scanned the shore looking for a place to set up. Zach walked with him. They passed Ben and his loud buddies, including Owen’s brother, and kept moving with little more than a chin tilt in their direction. If Macey’s scent was still on his skin, he needed to get into the lake before every wolf around him realized something was going on.
They passed a woman lying in the sun on her stomach reading. She wore a bikini that barely covered her butt. Owen’s gaze drifted up her spine. The scent of hot metal and honey hit him hard. Macey.
The woman glanced up; her eyes widened for a moment in recognition before she snapped her attention back to her book. The other woman next to her let her gaze linger longer. They were clearly sisters from the hair and the shape of their lips. Owen moved on as fast as he could without greeting either.
He'd said it was only one night…but he was a liar.
“Smooth, man. Guess I know who now.” Zach laughed.
“Shut up.”
“I never thought—”
“What, you thought I’d follow blindly forever?” He’d tried that. Really tried but the last gathering had opened his eyes and for the last five years he’d battled with himself about what he should do. His loyalty to the pack versus his desire to be a selfish prick who wanted freedom.
“You did last gathering,” Zach said. “In fact you were quite the traditional asshole in public.”
“I thought I had to be.” He’d tried to fit and failed.
Zach dropped his towel. “Better stop here, that way you can still see her.”
“It might be best to move on.”
“Nah, I’m enjoying
this. Though in future you might want to be more careful when returning to camp after your own little run. You don’t smell of her. I saw you. That’s when I knew for sure, you aren’t like your father.”
Owen didn’t know whether to be relieved he didn’t smell or worried that he’d been seen with Macey. If Zach had seen them, who else had?
Macey did her best not to look at Owen as he stripped off his shirt and made his way into the lake wearing only a pair of board shorts that rode too low on his hips. She kept the book in front of her like she was reading, but she had no idea what was written on the page.
It had been a onetime thing. They both knew that.
While it wasn’t forbidden in most packs, it was frowned upon by all. Wolves were supposed to stick with wolves, and vampires with vampires. Many packs strictly enforced that. She’d never seen the two mixing, beyond the normal family things in her pack and she wasn’t about to ask why those rules existed as that would draw attention. But she hated the growing distance between her and her family. It would be easier if she wasn’t part of the same pack, then the changes wouldn’t be so obvious.
Her gaze flicked to the lake, but she didn’t see him. That was a good thing. She needed to forget him. She’d gotten her old crush naked, and it had been good, and that was it. She needed to keep her gaze on the vampires and find a new pack. Then Owen surfaced, all gleaming wet skin.
Her sister, Maddy, elbowed her. “You shouldn’t be staring at wolves. You should be with the other biters.”
Macey’s glare went unnoticed, as Maddy’s attention was on the wolves. “I don’t need you to remind me what I should be doing.”
Maddy pressed her lips together like she’d bitten a lemon. They’d never been close, but now Maddy was actively trying to push her aside. Sure Macey was smarter, but she was no longer the golden child because she lacked fur.
“You don’t have to babysit me, just because Mom asked,” Maddy snapped.
“I do.” That was another excellent reason to move away. She’d no longer be responsible for looking out for her three younger siblings. Her parents had breathed easy when Maddy had shifted early and properly. They’d thought all their pups would be vampires. “This is your first gathering. I’m supposed to look out for you where I can.”
Macey was sure that if Maddy knew what she’d gotten up to there’d be hell to pay. She’d dob before Macey got a word in.
“I’m going swimming. Did you want to hold my hand and make sure I don’t drown?”
Go ahead, breathe some water. “Practice your dog paddle.”
Macey returned her gaze to her book while her younger sister flounced off. She didn’t flounce toward Owen and his friends, of which there were now at least six. He looked over and caught her watching. The heat on her cheeks wasn’t super-fast sunburn brought on by being a vampire.
A shadow fell across her, and Macey squinted up at the figure. Talia.
“You shouldn’t be sunbathing.” Talia had on a wide-brimmed hat and a sundress. No other vampires were in the sun, they had picked shady spots.
“I want to make the most of it.” One day she’d be like those vampires who only ventured out at night. She wasn’t looking forward to hiding from the sun forever.
“You’ll hasten your sun sensitivity.”
“What?” Macey slammed the book closed.
Talia nodded. “Sorry to bust your bubble. We aren’t sitting in the shade to be different. We’re hoping that by limiting direct exposure we can prolong our resistance.”
Macey sighed. She should move and go and sit with the vampires, but that felt like defeat. Like publicly admitting that she was different. She wouldn’t be able to watch Owen as easily if she was surrounded by vampires. “I’m supposed to be watching my sister.”
“You can do that from there.” Talia pointed to the shady piece of shore where the other vampires sat.
Macey took another glance at Owen. This time he waved. They could be friends. “I might go for a swim first.”
Talia’s gaze skimmed the lake. There were plenty of wolves in there. No vampires, not during daylight anyway. All the fun in her life was being sucked out, drop by drop.
“You can’t play with them anymore.”
“I didn’t realize you were such a stickler for tradition.”
“I’m not, but some of them are.”
“What do you mean?”
Talia squatted down. “See the two blonds. They’re cousins and traditionalists. The others aren’t much better, and they are all leader’s sons. Future pack leaders. They hang out together, for a reason, and even in a progressive pack, the leader will never take a vampire as a partner. They don’t even like us mating in case we make more vampire babies instead of wolves.” Talia leaned in closer. “They fear us, Macey.”
“Why would they, we aren’t proper wolves?”
“We don’t suffer from shifting lust. We’re faster and stronger than them even in wolf form. They worry that if there are too many of us, we’ll walk away and leave them unguarded. Or worse, take over.” She stood. “Have your swim, then join us. But forget about wolves.”
Macey watched Talia leave. She didn’t feel like swimming now. And she couldn’t go out there and flirt with Owen even if he did keep glancing her way. He was the son of a leader and from a traditional family.
And she was his dirty secret.
She packed up her things and moved to the shade. Her sister waved but stayed in the sun. Macey wanted to melt away and disappear into the shadows.
Around her other vampires talked. They gossiped about the run and who’d gotten with who. Who was going to ask to change packs because they had a partner or wanted a new job. Or just because. Vampires seemed to have more freedom to move than wolves. That was something that was never talked about. All she’d ever heard were the whispered condolences to her parents as though she was dead.
Owen waded out of the lake, water streaming off his skin and glistening in the sunlight. His gaze flicked to where she sat…he didn’t look like a man who was ready to move on and forget.
She forced her gaze back to her book. She wouldn’t be anything more than a secret with him. Her lips curved. Some secrets were worth keeping. She glanced up and risked a smile.
Chapter 4
Macey’s ass hit the ground again, and she barely got out of the way of the training knife—shaped like a knife but made of wood so it only bruised instead of cutting—as it stabbed into the ground where she’d been lying.
“Get up.” Someone shouted from the sidelines.
Like she wasn’t trying. They’d been training for hours. She was sore everywhere and had discovered new muscles. The man she was fighting kicked toward her ribs. She rolled and got to her feet, only to collect another stab to the gut that left her winded. She doubled over, and as he came in for the kill, she slammed both fists into his nuts like she was spiking a volleyball. High school sports lessons had finally become useful.
He staggered back, but still held the knife. She had to get that to win.
Tomorrow they’d be using actual knives. She’d be cut to ribbons in seconds going by today’s performance. And even though she healed fast, she didn’t enjoy getting hurt.
She snarled, fangs down, then unleashed an attack of her own before he recovered. She slammed her shin into his thigh and swung her elbow at his head. Confidence swelled and her snarl became a smile. She had him!
Her leg went from under her, and his hand closed around her throat as he took her to the ground. The tip of the wooden knife pressed against her breast. She was dead.
Several of the other new vampires groaned. Because she’d lost or because one of them was up next?
The guy pulled the knife away. “You did good.”
He offered his hand as he stood. It’d be churlish to refuse but she was tempted. He helped her up then spoke to the class. “The moment you get too confident, you’re dead.”
He tossed the knife to another vampire. Had they volunteered
to teach so they could beat up new vamps? Or was community service something they had to do when not patrolling?
She sat in the dirt, wincing. For a few seconds she imagined how different her evening would be if she was a wolf. The wolves were out there having fun. The gathering was for their pleasure and pack business. Deals would be made. Matches approved. Lineages checked. Would Owen’s father have approved of her? Would her family have been happy for her to leave?
Would she have been happy in a more traditional pack, staying home and making wolf babies?
She had a degree, and she wanted a career. She wanted to live her own life…and this wasn’t it.
While she’d spoken to a few vampires, she didn’t want to be obvious and ask if they needed more vamps in their pack. She could ask her parents to make some enquiries on her behalf, but that would mean telling them and while they treated her differently now, leaving was something else.
The new vampire in the ring skidded across the circle on their back and landed at her feet. She scrambled back to make room. But it wasn’t required. He was ‘dead’ in the next five seconds. At least she’d lasted longer.
Did they even need to learn how to fight like this?
People didn’t run around with pitchforks and hunt monsters anymore. They had forgotten that werewolves and vampires existed. And the wolves could take care of themselves, they were wolves after all. But vampires that left to go alone were called rogue and any pack they lived nearby could hunt them down. Talia’s warning that the wolves feared them echoed in her mind.
Two more fights and an end to the training session was called. It must be close to midnight. She stood, aching and in need of a shower, food, and rest.
“You want to grab something to drink with the rest of us, or do you want to hang out with your family?” Talia asked as they walked toward the cabin. Her cheek was dark and bruised, but she was acting like this was the best fun she’d had in a while.
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