A Soulmark Series

by Rebecca Main

  “I would hazard a guess to say something more akin to desire,” he murmurs, continuing his path and slowly circling closer. I follow his movement with rapt attention, beginning to shuffle in a tight circle so as not to let him at my back. “Which might make the sealing more intense.”

  “Then maybe we should wait until the magic wears off,” I offer, “and complete the sealing tomorrow.”

  Keenan shakes his head. The only hint of displeasure showing in the corded muscles of his neck. “There’s no time. As we speak, the pack is preparing for more attacks. Since crossing the border yesterday to investigate your disturbance, there’s been a rather dramatic increase in the spotting of unusual and foreign entities in the forest.”

  “You mean more supernatural creatures?”

  He nods solemnly, inching closer when my gaze flits to the window thoughtfully. “Whatever is out there wants the power we possess, and since witnessing our entering and leaving the magical border without incident—”

  “It’s made them curious. More daring,” I finish, locking gazes with him once more.

  “It’s a veritable shitstorm out there, which is why we do this tonight while we have the opportunity.” The temperature in the room rises, or maybe it’s just the way Keenan looks at me that brings my blood to a boil. “Where is it?” Keenan’s eyes sweep over my body meaningfully as he closes the space between us.

  I’m hit with a rather intoxicating dose of adrenalin as I let my hand fall to the mark that lies low on my hip. Keenan’s eyes glue themselves to said hand, and a sudden reckless desire thunders through me to show him exactly where the soulmark lies. My fingers cross the distance to the fastening of my black pants and a low growl rumbles forth from Keenan.

  It’s the magic driving me, I reassure myself as the button slips from its closure and the zipper inches downward. With both hands, I adjust my clothing to reveal the dark mark upon my skin. It rests intimately against another tattoo, seemingly apart of it. Which is the point. Keenan’s growl cuts off abruptly as he shifts into my personal space, his hands snatching my wrists a tad too tightly and pulling them away from my clothing.

  “I think,” he tells me in a smooth baritone, hands releasing me to refasten my pants, “that it would be best to use my soulmark for the sealing.” His Adam's apple bobs as his eyes travel north to meet my own.

  “Agreed,” I reply. My earlier constraint wades into the deeper recesses of my mind, falling away as his lips inch toward mine, my focus completely captured by his slow and measured movements.

  The weight of one hand rests heavily on my hip, while the other comes to cradle my jaw, tilting my head upward. His cognac breath perfumes the air between us. “May I?”

  My bottom lip finds its way between my teeth again. Why bother asking? I think somewhat sorely as my bruised pride pops up. Because he’s different, I defend to myself, because he cares when he doesn’t have to. I nod as best I can, the action caked in uncertainty. What harm is one kiss?

  When his lips press to mine, I am pleased by their warmth and fullness. They expertly free my bottom lip, only to take it prisoner between his own. A thrill of excitement runs down my spine at his diligent attention. The meticulous working of his lips and tongue turning out delicate gasps and moans from my throat, ones I never knew I could make.

  His hand slips to the dip in my lower back, urging me closer with the lightest of pressure. I accede, pressing my body into the hard panels of his chest and abdominals. Keenan hums his approval, kissing me deeper and leaving me absolutely breathless. How can a kiss be so hypnotizing? As if with a mind of its own, one of my hands begins to drift up his obliques, the other anchoring itself near the crease of his elbow, fingers digging into the slope of his bicep.

  “Ready?” he breathes the question against my lips as my hand glides along his forearm. I nod mutely. Keenan need only say a few words as I touch his soulmark, and the sealing will be complete. It’s simple, really, and certainly no reason for my nerves to be such a jittery mess as my fingertips near his soulmark. I’m doing this for JJ, I repeat over again to myself.

  The instant my skin touches upon the edge of the mark, I am drawn into a void of nothing and then… everything. A thousand brilliant stars surround us. A vibrant cord of light winding around us as Keenan speaks, “Let it be known that thee are found and my soul awakened.” Our eyes meet and my heart gives a sudden leap. “The stars incline us, and so, we are sealed.”

  A whimper escapes me when his fingers thread through my hair and pull me into another kiss. My own hands clamp onto him as a burst of sudden need catapults through me, like some kind of shooting star. Its blazing tail, coiling tightly around us. The books at the Banks Facility never detailed this part of the sealing, or any of these feelings for that matter, I think wildly.

  Keenan issues a groan as I melt into his possessive hold. A flip suddenly switches within him as he begins to dominate the kiss truly. He drives me backward until my back hits the cold window. With a gasp, I arch away from the cool glass, my hands momentarily releasing their grip on his body and severing our intimate connection. A whine issues from my lips, but is stifled by the pressure of Keenan’s own. He disengages from me slowly, his lips leaving me last as he straightens.

  “Are you all right?”

  The words get stuck in my throat as I catch the look of reverence and admiration beaming down at me. His watchful amber-spiked gaze trails attentively over my expression, as if he’s memorizing this exact moment.

  “I—” shouldn’t have enjoyed that “—should go to bed.”

  Keenan takes a deep breath, and for one terrible moment, I think he is about to lean in toward me again to steal another kiss, but he does quite the opposite. With a heavy exhale, he takes a large step back, allotting me more than enough room to make my escape.

  “Of course,” he rumbles, all calm and cool disposition. It throws me off guard, this new confidence. The look in his eyes reads of calculated patience. Patience for what though? “I’ll escort you to your room.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” I tell him.

  Keenan purses his lips. “Someone will escort you, regardless,” he responds. I nod a bit stiffly and move past him with a measured cadence toward the door. I would take what I could get. Keenan doesn’t further pursue the matter, standing idly by as I go. Thank God. My thoughts tumble into turmoil as I’m seized by my new reality. One in which I am forever bound to this man—this wolf. There will be no returning from this, I think hollowly, but at least JJ will be all right. If I can’t save myself, at least I can save him.

  Chapter 12

  Brother Where Art Thou?

  There is a hole in my heart I never knew about. A tiny, minuscule thing that’s now half full. How had I never noticed it before? It’s all I can think about now. Well, that and the current dismal state of my life. I’ve just done something irreversible and equally unforgivable. A real warrior would have never acceded to Keenan’s demands. A real warrior would have waited the situation out patiently, for surely the full force of the Stellar Warriors would rain down upon this pack in only a few days’ time. So why didn’t I wait?

  Because you want an escape.

  The thought worms its way into my mind, bringing with it a sharp twist to my stomach. I can't bear the treasonous reasoning, even if it’s but a passing whisper in my mind. I push it away. There is no going back now. The only thing I can hope to do now is make sure JJ is sent off with the ring and try and do right by Nova. If I can find her.

  Keenan dropped by in the morning to my new “holding cell”—a room on the second floor guarded by two wolves—informing me we’d visit the injured male later in the day. His delivery was brief, yet stained with overtures of jealousy in his voice, a sentiment I further encouraged with a sardonic response.

  Now I wander the neatly manicured subdivision, a pair of wolves huddled together behind me, trailing my movements. I don’t mind being followed. I expected as much to happen. What does rub me wrong is the wa
y everyone peeks out of their homes to catch a glimpse of me. Like I’m some exotic animal.

  “Callie!” I turn at hearing my voice shouted from across the street. It’s Keenan, exiting a small home and pocketing a set of keys. He jogs across the street to meet me, giving a brief nod to the two wolves behind me.

  “Hi.”

  “How are you?” he asks, eyes combing over me. I raise a shoulder deftly, focusing more on taming the sudden erratic beating of my heart than a real response.

  “It’s only been a few hours since you last saw me,” I finally say when he continues to wait patiently for an answer.

  “It's been roughly six hours since I last saw you, which I’d consider being more than a few,” he tells me.

  I look at him with mild shock. “You’ve been counting the hours?” I ask, somewhat incredulously.

  Keenan gives me an impish grin. “I might have,” he admits. “You’ve been on my mind a lot today.”

  The comment makes me catch my breath before I stuff my hands in my pockets, shifting my gaze up the road. “It’s just the soulmark,” I inform him without emotion. “It drives the need and want to complete the process of joining our souls. We’ve only sealed the soulmark. Hence, why I’m on your mind more.”

  “That’s one way to look at it.”

  “It’s the only way to look at it,” I refute, glaring at him to emphasize my stance on the matter. There will be no marking or binding, I think stoutly, my end of the bargain has been met.

  Keenan sighs and takes a step back, pointing toward a truck parked across the street. “Are you ready to go?” I nod my head eagerly, half a step ahead of him before he can say anything more.

  We drive in relative silence toward the witches’ headquarters. Just Keenan and me. No auxiliary wolves to watch over me. Briefly, I wonder if this is because of the wolf’s territorial nature, or because Keenan believes he can handle me on his own. Either way, I’m pleased to have less company on this venture. Especially since my hand keeps creeping closer to Keenan’s, and the chance of anyone noticing my transgression leaves me feeling mortified. Just because the soulmark is sealed doesn’t necessarily mean the marking or binding must happen. It’s just a very probable outcome. After all, the whole point of the soulmark is to identify the other half of one’s soul. The sealing, marking, and binding are the steps that bring the halves together as one. If only the process didn’t drive my senses into overdrive and rid me of all rational thought.

  My gut clenches, whether in dismay or anticipation I’m unsure. My head tells me the former. My soulmark tells me the latter.

  It’s odd to catch myself drifting toward Keenan, no matter how involuntary the action. The Wardens of Starlight aren’t exactly known for being overly affectionate. Or affectionate at all, but as far as I’ve gathered, the wolves are. They’re close-knit in every aspect of life. And they liked it that way.

  “We’re here,” he announces, pulling up outside a large house on a tree-lined street.

  “This is their headquarters?” I ask doubtfully.

  Keenan nods as he unbuckles, tossing a rather bored look toward the home. “The Elder Triad lives there. The leaders of the Trinity Coven.”

  I approach the house a step behind Keenan, keeping a wary eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I don’t like being cooped up in a house full of wolves, and now I’m about to enter a house full of powerful witches—I can’t imagine things being much worse. At least I have my bracers on. The iron cuffs never felt so comforting heading into witch territory.

  “They won’t bite,” he tells me with an amused look.

  “Of course they won’t,” I grumble back. “That’s what vampyrés do. Witches cast spells and curses, you know, like your friend Zoelle.” Keenan’s amusement fades with a grimace.

  “Sorry about that,” he laments, ringing the doorbell. “Zoelle didn’t mean any harm to come from it. I think she just wanted us to be able to communicate without getting into another altercation.”

  “Quinn didn’t.”

  Keenan frowns and looks as if he is ready to scold me, or at least justify her involvement when the door jerks open.

  “Hello!”

  What the…?

  “Hi Luna,” Keenan offers kindly. “May we come in?”

  “Of course!” the petite woman practically squeals. Keenan enters, snagging my hand to tug me in after him, but I continue to stand stock-still. My eyes stay trained on the… on the….

  “What are you?” I ask once the door is closed. Her hair just barely reaches her shoulders and is an icy white. Her eyes are a startling violet. Even her skin seems unnatural. The longer I stare, the more I think I see an odd shimmering quality to it, as if something is slithering beneath the surface.

  Luna stands more proudly. “I’m a fairy!” she chirps.

  My jaw drops as I take a step toward her, eyes wide as I inspect her more closely. A warm hand wraps around my upper arm, but I easily tug out of Keenan’s hold.

  “You’re a fairy?” I ask dubiously.

  She nods her head enthusiastically. “Yes, though you wouldn’t know it from looking at me. Gran and Aunt Mo put a glamor on me to hide my wings and flowers.”

  I toss an incredulous look to Keenan, but he watches us interact dispassionately. I take a step back away from her, my head slowly rotating from side to side. “Fairies don’t look like you,” I inform her, feeling oddly flustered. Luna looks startled and then confused, her wide eyes turning to Keenan expectantly.

  “She is,” he affirms with a grunt.

  “No,” I reason stubbornly, “fairies are small and green with pointy teeth. Not—” I wave my hands in Luna’s direction. “—this.” Ethereal and gorgeous.

  “But,” Luna looks hopelessly between Keenan and me, “I am a fairy. I’m from Hollow Woods!”

  Keenan’s hand comes to rest on my upper arm again, this time tugging me back toward the staircase. “It’s all right, Luna; I’m sure Callie is confused.”

  “I’m not—” I begin to growl in frustration before Luna cuts me off.

  “I’m a fairy,” she insists with a stomp of her foot. “You’re talking about imps. They’re green and small. They have lots of pointy teeth.” She dazzles us with a wide smile. “See,” she says eagerly, “not pointy!”

  This can’t be right. It can’t be. Everything I’ve learned at the Banks described fairies so differently. No bigger than three feet tall. Boney green bodies. A mouthful of needle-like teeth. No wings or flowers.

  I glance frantically at Keenan. “I—”

  “You know what I call imps?” Luna casts a suspicious glance around us before whispering, “Hellspawn.” Hellspawn? “The ones you fought last week. Don’t you remember, Keenan?”

  “We really have to be going now, Luna,” Keenan says, his grip tightening a fraction on my upper arm. “Please tell whichever Elder is around that we’ll be upstairs with your guest.”

  “Oh.” Luna seems to deflate before us, her gaze wandering up sullenly to the stairs. “I’m not allowed to go up there and see him,” she tells us with a pout before wandering away.

  “What the hell, Keenan?” I seethe on the stairs landing, wrenching my arm from his hold. “First your pack makes nice with a coven of witches, and now fairies? They’re not even from this world,” I hiss indignantly. “And from the sound of it, your pack is dealing with a lot more than just curious passersby.”

  “Now isn’t the time, Callie,” he tells me firmly, jawline set to hold his stern facial expression.

  “You tried to tell me the ring was safe here,” I continue to argue, feeling my anger rise. “It obviously isn’t with all of these attacks. And if the ring isn’t safe, then JJ can’t possibly be safe. I want him and the ring out of here before nightfall.”