Shadows of the Ancients

by Christine M. Butler

  “Maybe,” I agreed as I watched the stars twinkling above us. “What about you? When we talked about you buying the bar, you said you owned businesses around the world. Are they all bars?”

  “No, they’re not. I have lots of different interests. Each of them tells a little something about my passions though, I guess. The last business I opened was actually a book store. I have a thing for comic books, but an aversion to comic book shops. I prefer the quiet library feel of a book store.”

  “I can understand that. I went in a comic book shop with my friend, Tyler once. The guys in the shop were being so loud. Apparently, they were having a gaming night during the time he took me in there. There was a Magic the Gathering tournament going on, and some guy was yelling about how his Black Devotion Deck would slaughter everyone in there. I didn’t even know there was more than one deck in that game. Actually, I didn’t even know it was a game. I always thought they were trading cards. It was like an alternate universe in there though.”

  Evan was laughing at me. “Yes, well, that would be why I prefer book stores for the most part.” I leaned into him further, his arm immediately wrapped around my shoulder. “I think your schooling is already working.”

  “Oh? How so?”

  “When you’re in my arms, I’m at peace.” He leaned down enough to kiss the top of my head, and I knew I felt the same way when I was with him.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to him.

  “For what?”

  “Everything. All the small things. For this. Just sitting out here under the stars with you is wonderful. For calming me without controlling me. You could over power me any time and just take what you want, but you treat me the way my dad treats my mom, like an equal. Thank you.”

  “I think you are entirely unaware of your power over me, Jess. You don’t have to thank me for any of it. I do it gladly, because I enjoy being close to you, and I want to make you happy.” I stayed there, head against his chest, for a few minutes enjoying the quiet sounds of the night as he squeezed me a little tighter. I was falling for Evan, but I was still a little confused about how everything was playing out. I never imagined being with a person could be so easy and effortless. I thought if it wasn’t difficult, then it wasn’t real. Here I sat in Evan’s arms, wanting nothing more than to make it permanent. My wolf was in full agreement. She didn’t know what we were waiting for. She was ready to run with his wolf, and be free together. That started me thinking about Ashley again. It had been a while since they bounded out of the house as wolves. “Do you think we should go after them yet? I’m worried, Evan.”

  “How about we give her two more hours, and then I promise if they aren’t back yet, we’ll follow their trail. Let’s just sit out here and enjoy the night together until then.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry. I’m trying to be patient, but I never really got that first running experience, so I don’t know.”

  “Well, think about how you feel when you run with the pack. Isn’t it exhilarating?”

  “I’ve never run with my pack. I got out with my family sometimes, but I don’t think I’ve ever been around anyone other than Jack, Sierra, and my parents as a wolf.”

  Evan stiffened. “Why wouldn’t you run with your pack?”

  “I don’t know.” I said half-heartedly. “My parents didn’t think the rest of the pack would like my lack of markings. They always said there was nothing wrong with it, but they showed me that all the wolves had some sort of markings on their coat, except me. I guess they didn’t want me to be ostracized because of it.”

  “Hmm,” Evan was quiet beyond that noise, and it made me nervous.

  “What if you don’t like the way I look as a wolf?”

  “I don’t think that will ever be an issue, although, now I’m curious, and I’m kind of hoping we have to go looking for Ashley.” He was smiling at me when I looked up. It was a smile that stretched all the way to his eyes, crinkling them ever so slightly at the corners. I could see a little of his brother in him. They had the same nose and jawline. Mikael didn’t have Evan’s full lips though, or the vibrant blue eyes. I wondered what I would see if Evan’s other brother showed up, or his father.

  “Evan, what is your family going to think of all this? Be honest. Your brother was pretty nasty when I first met him. I mean, look at what he did to Ashley, and that was mostly because I smelled like you and she dared to stick up for me.” I looked up at him again, and couldn’t stop the flow of worried questions. “The only time Mikael has been somewhat nice was with my mom. What if the rest of your family shows up and doesn’t like you being with a Lesser? What if they blame me, and hurt the people I love? What if they take you away from me?”

  “Jess, I wish I had more reassurances for you where my family is concerned. I can tell you that I will be here to protect you. I won’t let anything happen to you or your family as a result of my being here. I’m the son born of a second mate. It makes me different. I’m both revered and tainted depending on who you ask in my clan. I play to whichever sentiment will get me what I want. I don’t think my father will object. He’s not the type to see his own child lonely. He knows there are no other Ancients out there that aren’t taken. I don’t think he’d deny me this.” Evan pulled me down further, until my head was laying in his lap. “Let’s just enjoy the night, and worry about everything else tomorrow.” I yawned, these eventful days were starting to catch up with me. “Just rest for a bit, while we wait.”

  Evan massaged his fingers ever so gently in my hair. With each stroke across my scalp, I was melting further and further into oblivion. The back and forth motion of the swing as Evan gently kicked off the porch floor wasn’t helping matters either. Despite my worry for Ashley, I was being lulled into a deeply relaxed state. I knew I was in trouble when my eyelids started growing heavy, and the rest of the world became slow, background noise to the dream that was taking flight inside my mind. So much for waiting up for Ashley to return. I dropped off into a peaceful sleep there on Evan’s lap without meaning to.

  DIRTY LITTLE WOLF

  I was lying naked in a field near the lake, basking in the warmth of the sun after swimming in the cool waters. Droplets still trickled down my neck as they escaped the wet tangles of my hair. His voice was velvety smoothness, breaking the beautiful silence. “Wake up, love.” His hands were on me then, moving up my arms, to my shoulders, and I was a little disappointed, because I wanted those hands elsewhere. I was naked, everything laid out in front of Evan, why was he not on me, kissing me, in me?

  Everything was shimmering and lost in a haze as I felt a tongue lick up the side of my face. “Evan, what are you doing?” I mumbled. The tongue licked my face again, only this time an incessant whining followed the gesture, along with a nudge from a nose in my shoulder. I wiped my hand across my face to remove the slobbery trail that was left behind, and I opened my eyes. It took a minute to get my bearings because I had been dreaming. I wasn’t in a sunny field. It was dark, and I was laying on a porch swing with my head still in Evan’s lap. Two wolves stared at me, one red and one black. “Jess? Are you awake now?” Evan called from above me.

  “Um, yeah, I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep.”

  “Apparently I’m dull, we were in the middle of a conversation and next thing I knew, you were out like a light.”

  The big red wolf leaned forward and licked up my face again, bringing me further out of my sleepy stupor. She sat back on her haunches and looked at me with giant blue eyes, and the dopiest look I’ve ever seen plastered on a wolf’s face.

  “Oh my God! Ashley?” I sat up then, as reality fell back around my shoulders. I grabbed hold of her fur, and hugged her to me. The black wolf stalked off to the side of the porch and shifted back to the form of a very naked man. I made sure to keep my eyes averted, but Ashley did not. Her wolf was watching Asriel as he entered my house, and she apparently liked what she saw.

  “I’ll bring her a robe so she can change,” he said to me. Ashley’s w
hines grew louder.

  “You dirty little wolf!” I said to her, and I swore I almost heard her laughing back. “I was so worried about you!” Ashley came and put her head down in my lap, and I obligingly scratched behind her ears a little. “Ash, I’m so sorry this happened. If I could… I’m just… sorry.” I whispered into her fur as I put my head down on hers. She nudged me up, and licked my face again. Then she looked at me like she was trying to convey a thought with her eyes, but I couldn’t understand it. I just knew I was thankful to have here, safe and sound. “The good news is, you’re a wolf. So, I guess we don’t have to debate over whether to turn you anymore.” The noise coming from her was definitely a laugh. “Oh, and now I’ll have you to run with too, since I don’t go with the pack.”

  “Here,” Asi said as he came through the door and back out to the porch. He must have borrowed a pair of my dad’s sweatpants, because that’s all he was wearing when he came out. I may have been dating his friend, but I could certainly appreciate the view. Asriel had a set of abs that were chiseled by the gods themselves. They had to be, because even the werewolves of my pack would be jealous of that body. They were simply amazing, and his arms were perfection too. Judging by the whine coming from Ashley, she was thinking the same thing. He placed a sheet over Ashley, so she could transform underneath of it. She did, and rose up on two feet tucking the sheet in here and there, making a damn dress out of the thing.

  I sniffed as Ashley got closer, “Jesus, Ash, I can barely catch your scent at all. You smell like Asi. You REALLY smell like Asi!” I looked up at the man in front of me who suddenly couldn’t meet my gaze.

  “Seriously? Five minutes! She was a wolf for five damn minutes and you pounced in and made your claim?”

  I don’t know if it was my raised voice or the fact that so much was going on now, but Jack came walking out onto the porch, wiping the sleep from his eyes. “What the hell is going on out here?” He asked before he caught sight of Ashley standing there next to me.

  Asriel looked horrified when he realized how much power was rolling off of me. He looked from me to Evan, silently begging him to intervene.

  Evan laughed at him. “No way am I getting in the middle of this one. You need to explain yourself. Preferably before she blows up.”

  “Yeah, and before I blow up,” Jack had closed the distance between himself and his sister. He too had tried to catch her scent, so he would be familiar with how her wolf smelled too. “You have got to be kidding me!” He roared.

  “Okay, cool it Jess, Jack…” Ashley said, stepping between us and Asriel. “It’s my fault anyway, not his.”

  “What do you mean? Ashley, you haven’t even been a wolf for a full day. You don’t know what this means.” Jack all but whined at her.

  “Jack, just listen…” she started and then turned to me too. “Jess, I’ve been your friend, and hanging around here long enough to know exactly what it means. I’m not stupid. But, as it turns out I’m even more of a horn dog as a wolf. When I was a human I had an insatiable appetite for hamburger.” She leaned over and whispered to me, “you know, human guys.” Then she kept going. “But when I became a wolf all of a sudden I had this craving for steak, and there he was. A giant, juicy, steak…”Ash had turned and flung herself into Asi’s welcoming arms in the blink of an eye. The look that passed between those two left no doubt about what they’d done while they were gone. They were bonded.

  “Jesus Ashley, what can I even say to that?” Jack ran his hand through his strawberry blond hair. “I’m going to leave you guys to figure all this out. I’m sure Sierra is waiting up for news still.” As soon as he dropped off the last step Jack looked back at his sister. “I’m really glad you made it through.” He turned to Asi then. “I thank you for helping her get past all that pain, but I promise you this, if you do anything to ever hurt my sister, and I will find a way to bring you down!”

  “I would expect no less.” Asi answered him. Jack nodded at him and stalked off toward the other side of the pack lands where his cottage was located.

  The shock of everything that had gone on the past couple days was catching up to me, as was my lack of good sleep. “Of course it would be one big ball of easy for you!” I said to Ashley. “Turn wolf painlessly – check. Find a suitable life mate – check. Make out in front of friends and family – double check.” They had intertwined again as soon as Jack walked off, and I was pretty sure I knew what Ashley saw between Evan and I that first night at the club now. Wow, for the first time I understood what people must have seen that night. I definitely had looked like a slut! “Hey! Come on now, not on my porch!”

  Evan was full-on laughing at my tirade. “Let’s give them some privacy.” He stood, and grabbed my hands pulling me along with him. I followed him into my house, and right up the stairs to my bedroom. We entered the room, and he closed the door behind us. “You’re tired. You fell asleep on me out there in less than 30 minutes. I never realized I was so boring.”

  “You are anything but dull. I’ve just had a really long week, and it all caught up to me. If anything, you should blame those magic fingers of yours.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I was referencing the fact that he was massaging my head when I fell asleep, but the grin on his face said he was thinking other things. “Oh, no, that is so not what I meant.”

  “Mmmhmm, and what did you mean? I think we should put these magic fingers to the test again, and see if they wake you up or cause you to pass out this time. It’s all in how I use them, I promise.” I had turned my back, starting to walk away from him, to hide the grin on my face, when his hands wrapped around me, pulling me into him. It was obvious that the talk of what he’d like to do with his fingers was turning him on. One hand splayed out across my abdomen, while the other slid down my thigh, dangerously close to that sensitive area that was currently heating up between my legs. A low growl came from Evan as he drug that hand back up my thigh, past my waist, and then further up, hiking my shirt up with it as he went.

  I didn’t want it to stop. His hands on me, left a trail of fire burning in their wake everywhere they went. My breaths were coming out in shallow pants, as he turned me around to face him, pulling my shirt over my head in the same movement. A sigh escaped my lips as one of his hands caught at the latch of my bra, and the other one pulled on the button of my jeans. His mouth captured mine as the back of my bra sprang open and he stopped tugging at my jeans long enough to use both hands to slide the bra down my arms and off of me. He tossed it to the side of the room, his lips having never left my own. I was completely lost in the moment, enjoying him undressing me, kissing me so passionately, and all I wanted was more. I grabbed his waist, and pulled him closer, feeling his hardness against me as I gripped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up. He helped out and slid his arms free, letting me pull it the rest of the way over his head, and discard it in the growing pile of clothes on my floor.

  There we stood, skin to skin, scorching each other everywhere we touched. “Evan” I whispered as he trailed hot kisses down my neck, finding that spot that caused my knees to buckle as he nuzzled in further, scraping teeth across the sensitive area, then leaving a lingering kiss there before moving on.

  Evan pushed me away ever so slightly, so he could take me in with his eyes, “so beautiful,” he managed before his mouth was back on me, trailing kisses further down my neck, then landing on my breast. He cupped one in each hand, and placed feather light kisses down around my nipples, stopping a moment to suck first one in his mouth, and then the other. I threw my head back, moaning as the feel of his suckling my nipple into his mouth sent a tight thread of heat to pull all the way down into the core of me. I wanted him so bad in that moment that I no longer cared about the promises I had made my parents long ago about making sure I went through with the proper bonding ceremonies. I wanted to be one with Evan, and I wanted that now, as his hand dipped lower, and he finally got my pants unbuttoned and started slipping them down my thighs.r />
  As they too made their way into the pile of clothes at the side of my bed, Evan guided me closer and pushed me down on top of it. The moment my ass hit, his hands were grabbing at my panties, and pulling them off too. He continued trailing kisses down me from my breasts, to my abdomen, and lower. I was frustrated when he bypassed the one place I wanted him to go, and instead continued trailing kisses down my left thigh to my knee, and then from my right knee up the thigh, and his hands came to rest over my hips. As his kisses trailed further up, he slipped his hands down underneath my ass and pulled my hips forward just as his mouth found my center. My hands clawed into his shoulder as his hot, wet tongue touched me there for the first time. Suddenly, I understood what all the fuss had been about, when Ashley went out on the prowl for a new lover. If I had known what I was missing out on, I would have been prowling right along with her.

  Evan showed me repeatedly what his magic fingers could do, and the inexplicable pleasure his mouth was able to carve out all over my body until I couldn’t take it anymore. There were no more nerves or first time jitters on my part, I wanted to feel him inside me, my body was throbbing with the need of a different kind or release, and while I didn’t exactly understand it yet, I knew in a primal way that I had to have him. I pulled him up to me, kissing him slowly, relishing in every inch of his body that my hands trailed over. He still wore his pants, and I was about to remedy that situation, when we heard a loud thump from downstairs, followed by a shriek.

  Evan growled, and then whispered to me, “stay here, I will check it out.” He tossed the blanket at the end of my bed over me, and looked back longing at me once more before he tore off out my bedroom door and down the stairs. I covered up, and plopped back on the pillow reliving everything that he’d just done to me. My entire body tingled. I fought the sleepiness that took over me, but my exhaustion and complete relaxation won out instead.