Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy)

by Ayusso, Danae

  “Yes.”

  “Huh,” she said and eyed me, a look of contemplation washing across her face. “Yeah, I just don’t see it.”

  I made a face causing her to smirk. “What did you expect? Something more pretentious like Ambassador of the British Vampire Legion?” I mumbled.

  Her eyes widened.

  Shite, I should not have said that.

  “Jingle writing is a very honorable profession,” I assured her.

  Jay Dee nodded, thankfully letting my slip go by not pressing it. “The radioman in the flesh! Oh wait, the radio jingle man. Plop plop, fizz, fizz,” she teased.

  That was another spanking to be given at a later time.

  “So you have heard of me work,” I mused and her mouth fell open with a popping sound. “Believe it or not, jingle writing is good dosh. I do not mean to brag, but I am well rich.”

  Her shock was quickly replaced by something else, and she glared at me. “And what am I? The poor white wolf girl from the Res? Was this a sympathy dinner?” she demanded.

  “No!” I assured her. “Why would...honestly, you need to look past the res and pack,” my top lip in-advertently snarled when I said the latter and she cocked an eyebrow, “to the beautiful package which is next to me. You are amazing. I assure you I was not trying to boast. I was simply...in a very failed way, mind you... trying to reassure you that spending the brass...money in which I did for dinner was nothing and not to fret over it.”

  “Uh huh,” she said in a clipped tone but the fires burning in her eyes were extinguished.

  “The estate we left in Paris was mine, and I have a few others from New York to Tokyo in me real estate portfolio. If you ever want to go on holiday...” my words trailed off.

  Did I honestly just invite her to one of me estates for holiday? This is not going to end well.

  “Amazing,” Jay Dee whispered with a smile but I wasn’t entirely sure what was so amazing about my very odd, extremely troubling, and slightly creepy, behavior. “How do you...why did you move to this shithole, other than your sister and her little control issue?” she asked, chewing on her little finger again.

  Bloody hell that is hot.

  Control issue had to be the understatement of a lifetime.

  “Our coven is nearly twenty strong. In this last move, we separated because of the reason behind the quick relocation. Toran picked this location for some unknown reason. Typically we just go to a different estate. Collectively we have nearly fifty, however this time he only relocated himself, wife, and the ones you met at school. The others are in Wales.”

  “Did he say why?”

  No, Toran is the king of keeping secrets.

  I parked outside of her house and turned to look at her, I had to look at her. “No. I asked, however, I was not in a clear state of mind when I did. I was still narked over the hasty relocation, thus everything I asked came out as irate accusations. Perhaps this week I will address it with him more maturely now that I am in a better place mentally.”

  “So you’ve accepted small town life?” she teased.

  “No, not at all,” I assured her. “However, I found the company to be better than I could have possibly imagined.” I didn’t mean to say that aloud, but she blushed and looked away from me.

  Unable to deny it anymore, I reached out and caressed the backs of my fingers along the ridge of her jaw, then coaxed her by the chin so I could look at her. “Miss Jay Dee, why must you hide your face from me?” I whispered.

  Jay Dee nervously chewed on her bottom lip and shrugged. “I don’t know. This is...I don’t know what in the hell it is but I know it’s new and I don’t know what in the hell do to.”

  I smiled; I liked the way that sounded much more than I should have.

  “Khalil Gibran once told me that ‘Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.’ And never did I understand those words until tonight,” I whispered, caressing my thumb across her full bottom lip and my breathing shuddered in my chest.

  She opened to mouth to say something, and I longed to hear the words more than anything, but nothing came out.

  The moment was perfect so I leaned into her, and her lips eagerly parted, and mine answered her silent pleas to taste them, to indulge myself in what I had been envisioning since the first moment I saw her, but the very intrusive sound of three distinct growls coming from the porch stopped me in mid-snog.

  I leaned back and forced a smile. “Miss Jay Dee, I think you better go inside before your parents and brother rip me head off,” I said through a fabricated smile while trying to keep from growling myself.

  Bloody wankers! You will not always be around to stop me. She is mine!

  I shook my head to clear it and Jay Dee did likewise, but for very different reasons, I suppose. Never have I had such possessive thoughts and feelings towards anyone. I had absolutely no right to stake such claim to Jay Dee. We were different specifies, from different centuries, different society classes...and yet I couldn’t stop thinking of her as anything but mine.

  This was going to end badly, I knew it.

  Jay Dee leaned down and looked across me to the front door where her parents and brother were standing. “They sure do know how to kill the mood, huh?” she groaned. “Thanks again, Mr. Ashton,” she teased with a smile. “It was fun.”

  She started to get out of the SUV but I grabbed her hand, stopping her. “Did you need...would you like a ride to school tomorrow?” I asked, trying to keep the possessiveness from flaring in my words, to keep from snarling at her family and locking the car doors, to keep from pulling her into my arms before speeding away like Snidely Whiplash with a new young maiden to keep hostage and all to myself...

  I really needed to talk to someone about those outlandish thoughts and issues which were suddenly plaguing me and my commonsense.

  “I’d like that very much,” she said with a face-consuming smile and it made me smile in return. “Goodnight, Tanis,” she whispered breathlessly and I fought the urge to moan and follow her into the house.

  I watched her skip to the door as she argued with her parents and brother the entire way into the house in that unknown to me tribal language so I couldn’t understand them but I got the gist of it when Jarvis flipped me off before slamming the door behind them.

  Once she was inside, I drove home. I wasn’t entirely sure how I got there, but Steffen knocked on the window before he opened the car door.

  “Cousin, what are you doing?” he asked with a chuckle.

  I looked up at him confused. “Hmm?”

  “You’ve been sitting in the garage for an hour. Romeo and I were taking bets on whether you were trying to kill yourself or not, but you turned the car off before closing the garage door,” he said with a shrug.

  “Huh? No, not trying to kill meself. I am simply thinking,” I admitted.

  “That’s very dangerous for you,” he teasingly informed me.

  “Agreed.”

  He followed me inside the house and I went straight to my room; I was not in the mood for the interrogation which I knew would accompany coming in late, especially after the strange discussion I had with Toran before I left. However, Steffen wouldn’t leave me alone and ducked inside my room before I could close the door.

  “You can’t get away from me that easily, Cousin. What’s up?” he said.

  I rather have had Mum’s interrogation than Steffen’s nosiness at that moment.

  “The ceiling, stars, clouds,” I stoically answered, disappearing into the closet to change.

  “Okay, where were you?” he clarified and I silently cursed all that was holy for not paying better attention when I got home so I didn’t look nutter.

  “Having dinner in Bellingham,” I said, exiting the closet, pulling a shirt over my head. “I am knackered, is there anything else?” I asked, thoroughly annoyed and climbed up on the bed.

  Steffen followed, jumping up next to me and kicked his legs out in front of him, effectively making himself co
mfortable.

  “Bloody hell, you are going to stay all night until I say something, huh?”

  “You act like you just met me!” He smirked.

  Bugger.

  “I had dinner with a bird,” I mumbled.

  “Ooh,” he squealed like a little girl. “Tell me all about it, did you kiss?” he purred and batted his lashes at me; I hated it when he pretended to be the gay brother.

  “No, we did not snog. I wanted to...God knows I wanted to, but sadly I could not close the deal because of her bloody parents and narked brother.”

  “That’s hilarious!” he roared with laughter but it was short lived. “Wait, what chick?”

  I smiled, it was hard not to when thinking about her. “You know that bird with the arm on her? The one that can throw a fifty yard spiral like it is nothing?”

  Steffen sat up and looked at me with wide eyes. “Holy shit! Seriously? The hot blonde with the legs that go on forever?”

  I nodded with a face-consuming smile.

  “The one with the round ass that appears to be teasing you with each step she takes?” he asked.

  Again, I nodded; that was an understatement.

  “The chick with the rack that...seriously, I don’t know how she didn’t knock herself out when playing football.”

  I chuckled.

  “Damn, how did you manage that one?” he asked, scratching his head.

  “Long story, but in a nutshell, she does not care that I am a vampire.”

  “Wait, what? She knows you’re a vampire?” he harshly whispered.

  I nodded.

  “Are you insane? You know that’s against the rules!” he reminded me.

  “She lives on a reservation filled with werewolves so she was already well informed...well, as informed as a human girl living on a reservation with werewolves could be informed I suppose. What is peculiar though, she did not seem put off by it at all. No matter what I told her, she was completely accepting of it. I have never met anyone like her before...she fascinates me.”

  Steffen looked at me curiously. He knew that I liked short brunettes, didn’t like humans, really didn’t like younger woman, and was seriously narked about moving here. Now I was smiling and content being where I was.

  It wasn’t like me at all.

  “You know you’re going to have to fight Romeo for her, right? He’s been gushing about tapping that all day,” he said.

  I snarled but it was short lived. “He can try all he likes, he is not her type,” I informed him though I wasn’t sure what her type was exactly, but I was praying that it was tall, lean muscle, blond with masterfully done highlights and silver-streaked blue eyes...I was praying it was me.

  “You know that won’t stop him,” he lovingly pointed out.

  My smile confused him. “Trust me, Cousin, when I say that I do not have to worry about Romeo and his thrall. Miss Jay Dee wanted me thrall her after I got us a table at a crowded restaurant. I put a thousand times more effort than needed into it since she is so bloody stubborn, yet it did not register at all. She laughed at me in fact...she is immune. Romeo can try all he likes. Though he had better watch out, Miss Jay Dee is the type that would knee him in the bollocks and not think twice about it.”

  “Now that’s a show I’d gladly pay to see,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m glad you had fun.”

  “Thank you, I did. Can you drive tomorrow? I am picking her up for school.”

  “Seriously? Whoa, please, oh please, let me tell Romeo.”

  I rolled my eyes and dismissively waved him away, getting a playful punch in the arm in return. “Only if you let me get me beauty sleep,” I said and Steffen was gone, the door closing silently behind him.

  This situation was interesting but very troubling, and it was entirely new to me so I was looking at it pessimistically as I always did.

  Me cousin wants the bird I want, I mentally groaned, looking at the ceiling. Then again, he wants every bird; never had Romeo and I found the same bird or type of birds attractive—he likes airheaded charvas, and I am usually a closed off prick that didn’t want anything, let alone to know the bird’s name. Romeo is the least of my problems, honestly. Beside the fact that Jay Dee is human, young, innocence and untouched, she lives on a reservation full of werewolves...disgusting, questionable beasts that should have been eradicated centuries ago, in not-so-many words.

  If Toran would have heard me say that aloud, he would have staked me and left me in the basement somewhere in a nearly permanent timeout.

  And another problem, Jay Dee’s birthday was coming up, yet she does not want anything.

  “You impossible to read bird,” I mumbled aloud. “What is your type, cheeky bird?”

  I would have liked a snog. If it hadn’t been for her parents and brother glaring at us, I would have walked her to the door and, like a gentleman, gave her a peck goodnight.

  “Next time I will not permit them to stop me,” I said, and the possessiveness I was trying to push out of my mind was back, and the thought of calling Jay Dee mine made me smile even more. “Only a few hours until I get a second chance,” I purred in perverse expectation, and looked over at the alarm clock and tried to will the glowing blue numbers to move faster.

  It would be a cold day in Hell when I drank wine again. It felt like a giant had crawled inside my head, kicked the hell out of me for shits and giggles, and then decided to host a goddamn Pantera concert in there.

  I temporarily hated Tanis with a fiery passion for not warning me about the unfortunate joys of a wine hangover.

  And now, apparently, a demon was trying to either break out of my head or break down my door.

  Sadly, the demon I was related to and couldn’t, in good conscience, kill.

  “Stop pounding on the door!” I groaned, and tried to grab a pillow to cover my head with and ended up rolling out of bed in the process.

  Loud footsteps stomped across the floor before the annoying, amber-eyed demon jumped up on my bed and needlessly bounced up and down, just to make it squeak, causing my hangover induced super hearing to wreak even more havoc on my already throbbing head.

  “No,” Jarvis barked out loudly. “That’s what you get for drinking on a school night, young lady,” he parentally scolded.

  “I hate you,” I mumbled and rolled over, and whimpered as I stretched out on my back.

  He cocked an eyebrow. “How much did you drink? You look like shit!”

  “Gee, thanks for the lovely compliment,” I groaned, making a face; I felt like shit, but it didn’t stop there, no. I felt like shit which was re-digested and shit back out a couple of times before a buffalo tap danced in said shit. “We didn’t drink that much…okay, we did. But he was totally sober…I’ve never had wine before. Okay? It kicked my ass up one wall and down the other. Happy?”

  “Nu huh,” he huffed. “Not even close.”

  “Shut up. It went perfect with dinner…but, oh my god, ow. I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” I mumbled and he laughed. “What time is it…am I late for school?”

  “Nope. It’s six.”

  “What?” I cringed at my own loudness. “Why in the hell did you wake me up an hour early?” I whimpered, trying to cover my face with the blankets to block out the ungodly bright light coming through the window.

  “Why not?” he asked with a chuckle. “It’s totally something you would do.”

  True.

  “Touché,” I conceded.

  “In case you were wondering, I didn’t tell Mom and Dad who you were with. They’re rather suspicious though since you came home in a hundred-thousand-dollar SUV with a white guy. It was very reservation whore’ish,” he scolded.

  I groaned even louder; that was all I didn’t need today: parenting from Jarvis.

  “Seriously, Sis, are you banging with this rich suckhead?” he demanded, pulling the covers back with his toes.

  “Oh my god, what
is wrong with you?” I whimpered, pulling the covers back up over my head.

  Jarvis straddled me and pulled the covers back, pinning my arms to my sides. “There is nothing wrong with me, Sis. But then again, I’m not the one running around with vampires!” he hissed.

  “Vampire. Singular. There was only one,” I corrected with a smirk.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he harshly whispered. “You’re a damn werewolf. He’s a vampire. You two were born mortal enemies!”

  “Enemies of a feud that ended over a century ago,” I reminded him. “Have you ever met one?”

  The look on his face answered me.

  “Exactly. Neither had I! But Tanis is different…he’s so normal. He’s nice, polite, funny, self-conscious and cordial. He calls me Miss Jay Dee...I hate it but I love it. He opens doors for me and pulls out chairs, spends ungodly amounts of money on fancy dinners.”

  “Lots of guys would do that for you,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah, you’re right. But only with the objective of getting in my pants! Tanis looks at me in a way that no one else ever has and I really like it, it makes me feel special and not special ed.”

  He gave me the look that I’ve seen one too many times from him while growing up. The you-are-retarded remind-me-again-how-we’re-related look.

  “There’s awe in his expression with everything I say,” I tried to explain, “and a gleam of excitement in his eyes when he’s talking to me. The way he looks at me makes me feel like I’m the first and only woman on earth in his eyes.”

  He raised his hand as if he was waiting to be called on in class. “You sound like a goddamn love-struck bitch in a shitty chickflick.”

  I snapped my teeth at him and he laughed.

  “You gotta give me something here, Sis.”

  Damn it.

  “Jarvis…it’s...I mean...damn it,” I huffed. “All I’ve ever wanted was for someone to see me as a person. Not as a white girl, not as the demon sent by the white man to take what little bit of land the Lhaq'temish still owned, not as a weird white wolf, not glass, and not as a little sister who’s sniffing your butt because I ain’t got no friends to play with me.”