by A C Warneke
“I thought if you fell in love with him, it would thwart my sister’s plans,” a man said in a low, guilt-ridden tone. “He would have been able to offer you in his place and be free, at least that was the plan. But the fool boy fell in love with you and couldn’t even make the offer. In the end it didn’t really matter though, did it? She had his heart the entire time.”
A silent sob worked its way through Daisy’s throat but only managed to come out as a whimper. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the small, rodent-like form of Roman’s companion. “Xerec. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He cleared his throat and continued anyway, in spite of her protests. “If it helps….”
“It won’t.”
“If it helps,” he repeated with a little more force. “She played me for a fool as well. And the pisser of the thing is, I liked him. He was a good man.”
“He’s still a good man,” Daisy said softly, her words filled with passion even if they lacked volume.
“You never told him about the night I saved your life,” he continued to push.
Her eyes darted to his and she struggled to remember that night when all of her thoughts were of Roman. “I was going to but the time was never right and now it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“I guess not,” Xerec said, squatting down next to her. “I didn’t tell him anything either because it would have caused him too much grief and guilt because he hadn’t been there for you.”
“But you were, weren’t you?” she asked softly. At his grunted acknowledgement, they fell into a tense, grief-filled silence. After a moment, the vague image of a dark man and the smell of sulfur popped into her head and she frowned, “You’re not really a demon, are you?”
He huffed out a twisted laugh as he drew his hand down the front of his scrawny body. “This is my punishment for dismantling Osiris the last time. The veil that hides me is far older than the one that fell and it still stands. This is the form I must take when I walk the Middle world and it is not very pretty, even for a Wayfarer demon. I wish you could see me as I am in the Underworld. I am a sight to behold.”
Swallowing, her thoughts in turmoil, she murmured, “I think I saw you that night.”
Hearing her family calling her name, she pushed herself to her feet. Keeping her back to the god in disguise, she asked, “Will you keep an eye on him? Just for a little while? Just until he gets settled?”
“Of course,” he vowed and she hoped he kept his word. She didn’t want Roman to be alone.
Nodding her head, she dragged one foot in front of the other as she headed back to the house. Her family was going to ask a million questions and she couldn’t think. Maybe she’d take some time off from school and travel the world. Maybe she’d ask Dominic and Jeanette to travel with her. She’d be the third wheel but that suited her purposes because she wanted to be alone.
Just for a little while.
Just until she could learn to live with a missing heart.
Chapter 21
One year later….
Daisy sat on the bed in the hotel room, oblivious to the magnificent view just beyond the balcony. In the morning she’d wake up and appreciate the beautiful white sand and the enticing bluer than blue water of Hawaii but tonight she was still jet lagged. For the past year she had been travelling far and wide, chasing down any lead she came across in her quest to find Roman. From the Serengeti to China to Australia and everywhere in between with no trace of him, she was starting to think Apollo took Roman off to Mount Olympus or some equally mythological world. If it weren’t for Dominic and Jeanette and their unfailing companionship and love, she might have given in to despair long before.
She had traveled to Greece in the off chance that Mount Olympus wasn’t just a myth and she’d be able to track down Apollo. Unfortunately, while the mountain range did exist, the portal to the gods’ world was expertly concealed. Since they were so close to Rome, she made a point of searching out his brothers, specifically his twin brother. Remus had looked almost exactly like Roman, from his golden hair and brilliant, sapphire blue eyes to his impressive physique. But there was cynicism in his eyes that had eluded Roman despite two thousand years of imprisonment.
It had been torture because he looked like Roman but he wasn’t Roman and when she met him after she had had a little bit too much to drink, she told him so. Staring at the wall, seeing the past, she remember the conversation with him as if it was only a few hours ago instead of a few months.
“Who?” he asked, a slight smile starting to curve his sensual lips.
“Your brother,” she said with a hiccup. Reaching up, she cupped his beloved face and tears stung the back of her throat because it wasn’t Roman. “The one none of you remember. The one I fell madly, passionately, desperately in love with.”
“Then he is a lucky man,” Remus said with a mocking smile.
Daisy’s lips curved up because if they hadn’t, she would have lost it and she would never have been able to stop crying. “He doesn’t remember me.”
“Then he is a fool,” he crooned, reaching up to touch her cheek.
But she jerked her head away before he could touch her, laughing at his poor attempts at seduction. “Promise me you’ll try to remember him. It isn’t fair that he should be forgotten by all of his loved ones. Well, except for his father but then Apollo is special, isn’t he?”
He grabbed her arms and jerked her closer, his eyes blazing with new intensity. “How do you know my father?”
Ignoring his question, she continued on, “It is worse to be forgotten by you since you share his face. But I guess it doesn’t matter since he no longer remembers you either.”
“Tell me how you know my father?” he repeated, shaking her in his impatience to get answers. But she could only frown up at him, wondering what the hell he was talking about and why couldn’t he be Roman, her Roman. And then wondering where the two behemoths came from who looked enough like Roman for her to know that they had to be his brothers as well.
Their hands were on her non-Roman as they looked at her with unspoken apologies in their eyes. “Let her go, brother. She’s just a girl.”
But Remus’s eyes burned with emotion and she wondered if a part of him remembered Roman, if she kept picking at him, the blinders would fall off and his memory would return. Holding his eyes, his blue eyes that were so jaded and sad, she whispered, “Try to remember him.”
That’s when Dominic appeared, disheveled and slightly out of breath. Jeanette was right behind him, her skin glistening and a soft light in her eyes. Daisy knew the moment Dominic saw Remus as her brother sucked in a sharp breath and blurted, “Jesus.”
Daisy was about to say something when Dominic grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him, concern in his eyes as he asked, “Is it him? Have we found him?”
Daisy had shaken her head no and no longer had the ability to fight back the tears. With a helpless gesture, she stumbled away from the group, knowing her brother and best friend would follow.
She stayed away from gargoyles after that.
And through it all, there was Dominic and Jeanette, completely, irrevocably in love Dominic and Jeanette. Even though they knew they were destined to be together, they held off on bonding because they weren’t ready to have children. Despite having to traipse after a girl on a foolish quest to find her love who had forgotten her, they enjoyed travelling. Seeing the world with their own eyes had done amazing things towards making Dominic grow up and become the man Daisy always knew he could be. Jeanette made no secret about falling in love with him again, over and over.
There was a knock on the door and before she could say anything, Jeanette entered the room. “Hey, how are you holding up?”
Daisy almost smiled but she was too tired, too disappointed. “I think I’ll be ready to head home after this.”
“You’re giving up?” Jeanette asked as she sat down on the bed.
Pressing her lips together, inhaling through her nose, s
he slowly shook her head no. “Not exactly. But we’ve been chasing after a ghost for a year and we’re no closer to finding him than when we started.”
“You never know,” Jeanette offered, resting her head on Daisy’s shoulder in sympathy. “Maybe he’s the wolf that’s running amok here on the island. After all, wolves aren’t supposed to be on Hawaii.”
With a frown, Daisy shook her head. A part of her hoped it was Roman, that she’d finally found him but the other part prayed it wasn’t. The reports had been sketchy, since no one wanted to admit it was a wolf. What they all seemed to agree on was that the creature was making a general nuisance of himself. Daisy was sick with worry that if it was Roman, he had gone feral and there would be little anyone could do for him except put him down and she couldn’t live with that. “I know. It just seems weird that his father would leave him here to fend for himself, though I guess I don’t know what Apollo would or wouldn’t do. But I’m afraid to get my hopes up. Again.”
“Then I’ll hope enough for both of us,” Jeanette offered. After a moment of silence, Jeanette asked, “What will you do when we get back home?”
“I’ll probably finish up college,” she said on a sigh, though that no longer held any appeal for her. She had learned more in the year of travelling than more than two years in college and however many years in school before that. “Plus, with the twins, I’ll probably be needed to help out around the house.”
Jeanette snorted, “I still can’t believe your mom had another set of twins.”
Daisy’s smile came a little more easily as she thought about the newest additions to the Tremain household, Vivienne and Veronica. As always, though, her thoughts drifted back to her Roman dilemma. Apollo had told her not to go chasing after him but she hadn’t listened, figuring she was more determined than him, forgetting he was a god. It didn’t matter because she wasn’t going to give up the search. Once she was back home, she would use whatever resource she could get her hands on and try to approach the problem from a different angle. No matter what, she wouldn’t stop until she found him.
If she were very lucky, they could become friends and then lovers once more. If she were less lucky, she’d find him and he’d already be mated to someone else and she would have to be happy for him because he was finally happy. If he was happy. If he was miserable, she would do whatever was necessary to free him from his bond if he was in utter despair.
Pressing a kiss to Daisy’s cheek, Jeanette stood up and let out a jaw-popping yawn. “I’m going to head back to the room and see if Dominic has learned anything about our mysterious wolf. Do you need anything?”
Shaking her head no, she said, “I’m good. I’m just going to crawl into bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow is either going to be a great day or an awful one.”
As soon as Jeanette left, Daisy didn’t crawl into bed. Instead, she dragged her sorry carcass over to the balcony and leaned against the railing, breathing in the tropical ocean air. Sometimes she wished she didn’t have such a strong connection to Roman, that she could move on, because it was so difficult to keep getting her hopes up only to have them slaughtered when she didn’t find him. But the idea of moving on made her heart ache unbearably so she kept searching.
Her phone rang so she dug it out of her back pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey, sweetheart,” her father’s calming voice murmured from the other end. “How are you doing?”
She smiled because everyone was asking her that these days, not that she blamed them. “I’m good. What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” he quickly assured her. “I just have a small favor to ask of you… and your brother, of course.”
“Anything,” she said, meaning it. After this last year, she owed her parents a debt that could never be repaid for their unwavering support and love. If her father asked a favor of her, she would grant it in a heartbeat.
“I hate to ask this of you,” he continued, making her a little nervous. “But the Alpha of the Alaskan pack is interested in a… more permanent alliance between our two packs.”
Daisy swallowed because she knew where this was going and despite her vow to do whatever he asked, she wanted to tell him no. “I’m not….”
“Of course not, sweetheart, and I told him that the choice is yours and it isn’t likely he will be your choice. He still wants to meet you,” he said quickly before she had to say the words. “It would be advantageous for you to meet with him as a representative of the Tremain pack, not as a potential mate.”
Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Fine. After we deal with this thing here we’ll head up to Alaska. They’re just north of Fairbanks, yeah?”
“Yes,” he said. After giving her the rest of the information, they said their goodbyes and hung up and Daisy was left with even more on her mind because now she had to worry about how not to offend an Alpha.
Hot, fetid breath moved over her cheek, pulling Daisy from a deep, dreamless sleep. Slowly, she pried her eyes open and came face to face with a wolf, a wolf with blue eyes. Pushing her hair from her face, she blinked again to see if she was imagining things. But, no, the wolf’s eyes were definitely blue. In a sleep roughened voice, she croaked, “Roman?”
Instead of shifting back and having a conversation as humans, the wolf nudged her neck, making his intentions known without words. Pushing against his heavy chest, she shook her head, “If you want to talk to me, Roman, you have to shift. I’m still latent. Of course, you don’t remember that, do you?”
Reaching over, she turned on the lamp that was on the night stand, blinking to adjust to the sudden bright light. The wolf was still there, sitting on her bed and staring at her. “Roman, you have to change. I know it’s difficult but listen to my voice and follow it out of wherever it is you are.”
The wolf let out a low growl which sent a shiver of dread down her spine. Pushing back against the headboard, she realized there was nowhere for her to go. If Roman didn’t shift, she was going to have to deal with a feral, horny wolf and his sharp claws and deadly fangs. “Listen to my voice, Roman. Try to remember being a man. Please.”
A tear slid down her cheek because in all of the scenarios she had envisioned, being killed by him when she finally found him was not one of them. If Apollo were standing there, she would rip his head off for doing such a shit job of protecting Roman. The bastard had let Roman go feral on an island with no wolf population. “Please, Roman.”
The wolf shifted, leaving a naked man glaring at her. “You bitch.”
“Jon,” she breathed, his name coming out as a whisper. Pressing her hand over her racing heart, she tried to tamp down the well of elation that threatened to bubble up within her. It wasn’t Roman! But then the reality of the situation crashed down around her because she hadn’t thought about Jon since he accosted her at the mall. She had never given him the Siren’s kiss goodbye.
“Of course it’s me,” he growled, still more wolf than man. “I’ve finally lured you to my cave.”
“This is my hotel room,” she told him, trying to concentrate on her memories of him, of their time together, but it was nearly impossible. Jon had occupied a whopping zero percent of her thoughts in the past year and it was obvious that she had occupied far more of his.
Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, forcing the memories back into him. Instead of releasing her, he slid his fingers into her hair and held her steady as he took more. Fear gnawed at her as she struggled against him but he was too strong.
“Shift, bitch,” he growled, pushing her down to the bed. Leaning over her, his eyes lit with madness, he sneered, “I want to claim you as a wolf.”
“I’m not yours to claim,” she breathed, her blood raging through her veins as she tried to figure out if there was any escape for her. If she died, it might be for the best that Roman had no memory of her so he wouldn’t have to mourn her. When Jon snarled at her, she held up her hands and squeaked, “I can�
��t shift, Jon.”
“Then this is going to be brutal,” he growled, a maniacal grin curving his lips as he started to shift.
With a surge of adrenaline, she shoved him off the bed and flew off the other side. “Don’t do this, Jon.”
“Did you really think you could kiss me goodbye?” he asked, halfway between a man and a beast. “You’re my fucking mate and I’m never going to let you go.”
“Jon,” she said, thinking if she said his name often enough, it might reach the sane man deep inside of him, the man he used to be. A year of living under the spell of the Siren had really screwed him up and she just prayed there was still a rational man she could reach. “Think about what you’re doing.”
“I’ve thought of little else since I met you,” he snarled, falling to the ground onto all four legs. The man was gone completely as the wolf looked up at her with his blue eyes.
“Dominic!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, lunging towards the bathroom as the wolf moved behind her. With barely any space to spare, she slammed the door shut as Jon slammed his body against the door. Twisting the lock, she turned around and leaned against the door, trying to catch her breath, wondering how long the door would keep the determined wolf out.
And then she wondered if she really had to go to Alaska. Maybe she could ask her dad if she could put off Alaska for a few months, maybe a few years. A loud thump against the door made her bounce forward and she knew that the door wasn’t going to hold forever. If she had her phone, she’d be able to call her brother, whose wolf was far stronger than Jon’s since Dominic was the son of the Alpha.
Was this her punishment for chasing after Roman? For refusing to let him go? Or was it her punishment for being unable to shift? If she had bonded with her wolf, she would have been able to fight in her wolf form; she would have been able to protect herself. Or was this her punishment for singing in a bar full of hormonal wolves? Whatever it was, she was fairly certain she had learned her lesson.