by Laina Kenney
The dark man’s hands were human now, perfect, but there was blood on them. Blood had dripped on the carpet where he stood.
She pressed her shaking hands to her mouth. This was no dream.
Chapter 8
Valeri was glad to see his Alpha, but spared a thought for his mate. Her scent was one of fear and resignation combined. Although it would be bad enough, it seemed something was wrong beyond the shock of armed men invading her small home.
He knelt in front of her chair and looked on her anguished face. He took her hand, thinking to comfort, but she froze.
“I didn’t smell fear on you when the man was approaching your back door, but I can smell your fear now. I understand that sometimes it is hard to put a fear into words. Can you tell me what you fear? If your fear is from me, from my shift into a man, I swear I will never harm you or allow any harm to come to you. I would never want you to fear me.”
She shook her head.
“I know that tonight was difficult. Dangerous men invaded your home. I will not judge you,” he said, and perhaps she heard his sincerity.
“It doesn’t matter if I tell you,” she said. The hoarseness of her voice pierced his heart.
“You’re just in my imagination anyway. I’ve always been different. I’ve always known I’m not like other people. There’s something really wrong with me. I’m crazy. My mom knew, I think, and she tried to get me to put it out of my head, to be normal, but I still dream of wolves and blood and my grandfather trying to bite me to make me be a wolf. In the dream I’m really little, and my Mom stabbed him to save me, and then we moved here. Mom said it never happened and I should try to forget the idea, but it felt so real. It wasn’t real. I’m just crazy. Except now it is real. I saw you. I saw you change.”
She started to sob, and he dragged her into his arms and held her hard so she would know she wasn’t alone in her pain. Her hot tears on his neck hurt him in ways he could never have predicted. His mate would never be alone again.
“Hush now. Hush,” he murmured, rocking her against his chest. “You’re not crazy. You are sane. Hush now.”
Her grandfather had attacked her as a child? The man must have been the insane former Alpha of the Perrault Clan, the man Miros had challenged and killed to save his adopted son. It was the only conclusion. Vulfen warriors just did not attack children. It was appalling to any vulfen to think of a child being harmed. Their children were so few and so precious.
Valeri’s fangs lengthened, and his heart jumped at the thought of her as a helpless child, defended only by her fully human mother. She could have been hurt or killed so easily. The light that her generous, caring nature brought to the world would have been extinguished forever, and Valeri would have walked through his life alone.
He pressed his cheek to her golden hair and swallowed the lump in his throat. He had known her for such a short time, but she was the most important thing in his world.
He was dimly aware of Rylek and Miros removing the body in the living room and the unconscious man in the kitchen. He knew at some level that they were giving him the space he needed to deal with the young woman who had saved him. They would not know, although Rylek might suspect, that she was his mate. Rylek had an uncanny way of recognizing a mated pair when he saw one, even if one or both of the pair was too young to understand their unique connection. Whether by scent or some underlying sense of the invisible bond between mates, Rylek had been proven right every time.
Valeri pressed soft kisses on the top of Angel’s golden head, and continued his gentle rocking motion.
His mate was in distress, and it was unbearable to him. He would rather be shot a hundred times than have her shed one more tear.
He pulled back a little and framed her lovely face in his hands. He wiped at her tears with his thumbs, but they still flowed in a ceaseless torrent. He wanted desperately to give her ease, but didn’t know what to offer her to make the pain stop.
His instinct stirred, and he lowered his head and sipped the tears from her cheeks before he took her trembling lips in a tender kiss. He continued his soft exploration, searching for her unique flavor, tasting every part of her sweet mouth. And when she instinctively began to follow his movements, he deepened the kiss into a scorching journey that stopped time and tears and pain.
The heat they generated was intense. When Valeri finally lifted his head and stared down into the dazed eyes of his mate, he was well pleased with his fate. He had dreamed of his mate, but no dream could come close to the reality of Angel.
A flush rose to her cheeks, and she began to speak then stopped.
Valeri stroked her downy cheek but she didn’t quite meet his eyes.
“Is there something you would say to me, my Angel? Though you held it together until the crisis passed, I know you have had a shock. I know you must be wondering about me, wondering about my people and our place in the world. I will gladly answer any questions you might have.”
She looked down, and the sweep of her eyelashes mesmerized him. When she met his eyes with an endearing shyness, his heart turned over. He would have given her anything in that moment.
“What is your name?”
Chapter 9
Angel never thought she would be sitting in the lap of a gorgeous man, a man who was the embodiment of all her secret fantasies, and wishing he was a dog—a wolf—so that she wouldn’t feel so shy around him.
It was so bizarre, but really no more bizarre than the idea that the man could turn into a wolf whenever he felt like it. Or that the wolf would be shot by hunters and scheme to get away so he could be a man again.
She shook her head. She just couldn’t think about that now. One step at a time.
She met his eyes with some difficulty. With his golden hair, square jaw, and classic features, he was so perfect it almost hurt to look at him.
“What is your name?”
She saw the surprise cross his face followed by amusement. She took a deep breath. If he laughed, she was going to smack him no matter how beautiful he was.
He nodded, as if considering something. She wondered where he would start.
“Of course,” he said. “We have not been properly introduced. I am Valeri Sidarov, second to Alpha Rylek Sidarov, and I am a vulfen warrior.”
He leaned closer as if he would kiss her again, but Angel struggled to turn her face away. If his lips touched hers again, she couldn’t be held responsible for her behavior. She might jump him or something, and she really needed information first.
“Whoa,” she said. “No more of that. I have a thousand questions, and you’d better not kiss me or we’ll get sidetracked.”
She was proud that her voice was firm, but the wicked amusement in his eyes almost made her smile in spite of her lingering unease.
“Good enough. We will have to remember this and get sidetracked together later,” he said with a wink.
Angel blushed.
“I am vulfen, what humans have long called werewolf, though that is incorrect. The werewolf of human legend is a savage beast with no soul, no conscience, and no knowledge of vulfen honor. Human hunters pursued and shot me, and I climbed into your car to escape them and to protect you, since you seemed to inspire a deep lust in one of the hunters.”
His teeth clacked together on the last word, and Angel had the strangest impulse to apologize.
After a few seconds, he continued. “Our people are blessed by the goddess with two natures, man and wolf, and for this we are hunted, as you saw.”
Angel waited, but he didn’t say any more. His explanation covered the basic points, but she wanted details.
The dark man came back into the living room, and she scrambled off Valeri’s lap to face him, only to find Valeri between them again. She shoved at his back, and he moved a bare inch to the side. She pushed again and gained another inch or two before he planted his feet. Apparently that was as far as he was willing to go.
Valeri bowed.
“Angel, may I presen
t my Alpha, Rylek Sidarov.”
Rylek bowed as well.
Angel wasn’t sure if she was supposed to respond or not, so she said, “Angeline Ralston, pleased to meet you,” even though she was reserving judgment on that. Her hands were still shaking, and although the bodies were gone, she was still feeling unsteady. It felt like too much all at once, and she couldn’t get her mind to settle.
Rylek looked to Valeri and back to Angel.
“Perhaps we could sit?” he asked after a moment.
She nodded and they all sat, with Valeri beside Angel on the sofa and Rylek in the old wing chair. Apparently vulfen people were courteous when they weren’t committing murder just inside her door.
“You killed a man in my house.” She hadn’t meant to start there, but she didn’t take back the statement.
Rylek and Valeri exchanged a glance.
“Yes. I apologize that you had to see it. I was in a hurry.”
“You killed him because you were in a hurry?” She wasn’t sure if she meant it as a criticism or not. It just seemed wrong.
Rylek leaned forward. “Hesitating would have given him a chance to shoot. Even if he hadn’t intended to shoot you, we found a duffle on the porch with rope and duct tape and”—he looked at Valeri—“other things which would be appropriate for torture and interrogation. You cannot know what he would have done to you if they believed you might have information on a vulfen warrior. He might not have killed you, but it is best that he did not get the chance to decide.”
They found a bag containing rope and duct tape? And other things, things that made a wolf man look uncomfortable?
Angel shivered. She had a feeling she narrowly escaped a kidnap attempt, or worse, thanks to these men.
Valeri’s hand came to rest on the small of her back. She didn’t know him well, but his presence was an unexplainable comfort.
“My mother told me all my life that my nightmares weren’t real. She lied.” Angel didn’t know whether to scream or cry. Her mother had lied to her since she was a child. Why?
Rylek frowned. “Your mother was human?”
Before Angel could respond, Valeri spoke.
“The mother was completely human. But the daughter carries the faint scent of Perrault. I believe it is more than one generation back.”
Rylek nodded. “If you will forgive me?”
He rose and came to kneel before Angel. She felt her heart pick up speed. He was even bigger up close. What was he going to do?
He took her hand and raised it to his nose, sniffing carefully up her arm. She watched him closely. She wasn’t ruling out the possibility of throwing that paperweight again if he got too familiar, but he stood up and went back to his seat.
“Yes,” Rylek said. “You carry the blood of one of our most gifted Clans. I am sorry to say, the former Alpha of Perrault had a bad habit of kidnapping human women and having children with them before casting them out. He was not sane.”
Angel looked at Valeri. Kidnapping was more than a bad habit. She had the feeling that Rylek was deliberately understating the facts.
“The Perrault Alpha was dangerous,” Valeri said. “He was unpredictable and full of wild theories about what would make the vulfen gifts stronger. He sought out human fortune tellers, seeking only those who had a true gift, and fathered children with them. He had no vulfen mate. He did not seem to possess the normal protective instincts of our males. He caused much trouble for humans and for our people before he died.”
“He’s dead?” Angel didn’t know why it was so important for her to be certain that he was dead, except that the images from her nightmares might be put to rest. An old gray wolf had always figured prominently in those nightmares, and she felt a peculiar certainty that he was the Alpha of Perrault that they were discussing. Her grandfather. There was so much that her mother hadn’t told her.
“My mother didn’t tell me any of this. And my father disappeared when I was very small. We had a few pictures of him, and mom told me about him, about how much he loved us and how he would find us if he could. But by the time I was in high school I figured out that she was fooling herself and he wasn’t even looking for us. I have no memory of him.”
Valeri took her hand, and she held on to him.
Rylek cleared his throat. “You must not be angry with your mother for trying to protect you. From what I overheard, she was able to save her child and hide her from a true threat. The Alpha was strong and cunning, but he continuously underestimated human mothers. I have found human mothers to be both dangerous and determined when it comes to keeping their children safe, as all mothers should be. Your mother successfully saved you from a powerful and insane vulfen Alpha. She ensured your survival, and you have become a productive member of your society. She must be respected for that.”
Angel swallowed hard against a sob. Her mother had loved her deeply. Even with her mother gone, she could still feel that love. She might hate being lied to, but she would always love her mother.
“You’re telling me that my nightmares are true, and I don’t know what to say to you. Those men came here tonight because of you, Valeri, didn’t they?”
He let out a breath as he pushed to his feet. He walked to the window and stood looking out.
“Yes,” he said finally. “There would be no other reason for them to single you out. Your mother gave you the best protection she could, and you were living a completely human life. They came because of me.”
Rylek sat straighter, and Angel could almost feel the power swell around him. He didn’t like the thought of hunters chasing his cousin, she could tell.
She could feel his anger like a physical force in the room, but didn’t feel threatened by it. How strange. Her stomach was still unsettled, but it wasn’t from a fear of the vulfen Alpha sitting so politely in her living room.
Maybe the other side of herself that she had been denying since childhood had a way of understanding these things. She would have to wait and see. Maybe she wasn’t crazy after all.
Chapter 10
There was a knock, and before Angel could stand, Valeri was opening the door. Two more large men entered, and Angel knew without asking that they were vulfen, too.
One was dark, like Rylek, but with a scarred face. In spite of his huge size, she trusted the gentleness in his eyes. He was a good man, or wolf, or whatever.
The other had long, pure white hair and eyes like the blackest hell. He was dripping wet from the rain, but he stood tall without any indication that he even noticed, and though he was standing beside a man who smiled in greeting, he did not.
She looked away quickly. She didn’t feel comfortable with him at all.
The man with the scarred face raised a set of keys and shook them once.
“Alpha, the truck is loaded and the hard rain is cleaning up after us. It’s time we should be going back to the estate.”
“And you want to get back to your new mate,” the white-haired man said.
The bigger man flashed a grin. “Of course. She misses me if I’m gone too long.”
Rylek bowed to Angel and then Valeri.
“I will send a car for you.”
“Thank you, Alpha,” Valeri replied.
Angel felt a pang of disappointment. Of course he was leaving with his friends. But maybe they would have a chance to say goodbye. She couldn’t say why, exactly, but dog or man, she would miss him when he left.
“You’d better pack,” Valeri said to her.
“Pack what?”
“Clothes, I imagine. Or whatever you will need for a few days away, until we can determine how many others in the hunting society may know of your involvement with the vulfen people. You will not be safe here until they are eradicated.”
Angel was shaking her head before he even finished.
“No way. I’m not leaving my home. There’s no reason for them to come after me.” She choked to a stop at the look on his face.
He approached and took her hands in his.
>
“Angel, you may not know it, but you could shift right now if I guided you through it. I can feel the power in you waiting to come at your call to free your wolf. If you were in danger, your wolf would rise to protect you. She is close to the surface, though she has hidden most of your life. When I shifted, did you not feel the pull?”
Angel withdrew her hands. Valeri continued to speak.
“You are not human. You would be a target even if you were fully human because you helped me, but if they find out you carry vulfen blood, you will be a target in your own right. I cannot allow harm to come to you. You must come with me tonight.”
Angel had felt…something while watching him shimmer into a man, but it had felt like dizziness together with a stomach cramp. She had thought at the time that she was going to faint, but she hadn’t questioned it. She had just watched a dog stand up and become a man. She thought fainting would be normal under such circumstances.
“I can’t accept this. I have a normal life. I have to work tomorrow, even if it’s only a half shift. I can’t just go running off. How would I explain that to my supervisor? I can’t say ‘please don’t fire me because I just found out I’m really a monster out of a nightmare and now a whole bunch of guys who stink want to shoot me.’ I can’t.”
She could hear the high pitch of her voice, the anxiety and fear, but Valeri took her hands again and pulled her close.
Rylek spoke. “Many of our people work outside the enclave, have jobs, and run their own businesses. Valeri’s father is a world famous chef, and I myself spent one memorable night as a waiter. It is not your job, but your safety, which is the topic of discussion.”
Angel frowned. He sounded quite reasonable, but she wasn’t going to be bullied or persuaded into leaving her home.
Valeri started to speak, but Rylek held up a hand.