“Really?” Some of my bravado finds its way back. “You probably should have thought about that before you vanished for two years. I’ve moved on. I—I date, and I have lots of boyfriends.”
He glances away, but the dimple in his cheek tells me that my words did not have the effect I hoped they would. He’s fighting a grin.
“You can’t just pop back into my life, tell me you’re some wolf shifter prince, and expect me to forget I have another life that doesn’t revolve around you,” I finish. “That’s not fair.”
“Nothing about this world is fair, Sav. Whether you like it or not, you belong to it. Same as I do.” His eyes squeeze shut as if to block out an invisible source of pain. “When my grandfather died, I became second in line, behind my father. I had to join the court. It’s just the way it is. I couldn’t . . . come back, no matter how much I wanted to.”
“Until it was time to mess with my memories, that is,” I sneer.
“They didn’t tell me what they were doing until it was done,” he tells me. His eyes meet mine, and I believe him.
“So why now? Why bother reminding me at all?”
“Because you will need someone when it happens,” he says simply.
“When what happens?”
“You’re eighteen,” he answers as if I didn’t already know that. “Tonight is the night. You’re going to shift whether your memories have been messed with or not and whether you believe any of this or not. You need someone to help you through it. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“You’re volunteering your expert services?” My lips curl, and something dangerously close to a growl slips past them.
Luca’s eyes darken and lower to my mouth again. What little distance remains between us melts away, and his fingers dig into my waist to pin me against him. I breathe in the rugged scent of leather and man, and my reservations start to evaporate.
Who am I kidding? I knew from the moment I set eyes on him from across the bar earlier tonight that I would wind up here, in his arms and seconds from the most phenomenal kiss of my life. I want to say that realizing the handsome stranger is someone I once knew—and am incredibly angry with—made the attraction go away. I want to say I am strong enough to withstand the effect Luca has on me, but I’m not. I am putty in his hands.
I mold to him as he commands, the hard planes of his body acting as the perfect canvas for my softer curves. We fit together seamlessly, even better than before. My hands move to the back of his neck to complete the seal, and my fingers bury in his tousled hair. Another growling noise vibrates from the back of my throat.
Luca’s head dips to mine. His warm breath fans my neck as he nips at my ear. “You’re close. You are so fucking close, and it’s driving my wolf insane.”
“Your wolf? You—” I balk, suddenly feeling foolish. I’ve read Luca wrong. He doesn’t want me. Not in the way I thought or the way I reluctantly admit that I want him. It’s his apparently horny wolf calling the shots now.
“Sav . . .” He presses closer until I don’t know where I end and he begins. His lips graze my cheek.
My self-preservation kicks in, and I pull away from him with a smirk. “Sorry, Charming. I’m no Cinderella and that”—I nod at the necklace dangling from his fingers—“is no glass slipper.”
“Sav, wait!”
I bolt. I don’t exactly run since the idea of running in a room full of supernatural predators doesn’t seem like a good idea. I start toward the entrance but stop when I remember how well that worked for me the last time. Turning back toward the bar, I spot a door. Hoping it’s a fire exit or possibly another way back up the rabbit hole, I push it open.
I release a frustrated groan when my eyes land on the ornamental sink along the wall of a small, empty bathroom. Hearing Luca calling my name from somewhere in the crowd behind me, I slam the door shut.
It’s not the exit I hoped for, but it’s a temporary escape. Though I know it won’t last, I can finally think with a clear head. I stare into the round, oversized mirror above the sink, looking for a glimpse of the sanity I lost the moment that silver parchment fluttered out of the star-studded sky.
Since then, I have experienced an evening I couldn’t have created in my wildest of dreams. Despite how unbelievable it has been, I do trust that it is real. I have a nearly debilitating case of tingles between my thighs that tell me that, at least, the last few minutes have been real.
Unless it’s my inner wolf taking over as Luca’s apparently has been?
No. That’s absurd.
“I draw the line at the suggestion that some werewolf inside of me is making me feel this way,” I tell my reflection. “Sorry. Shifter. Apparently, there is a difference.”
I pace the small room, stealing glances at the mirror. “Then to suggest that I’m a princess?” I tug at the tiara perched on top of my head, but find it entwined in my hair. Nothing short of a pair of clippers is going to get that cursed thing off. “Damn it, Gwen. Did you superglue this thing on or something? Did Luca tell you to do that, too? Who does he think he is, anyway? Does he think all of this somehow makes his disappearing act not a big deal? Because it is. It’s a very big deal!”
I slap a hand against the cool ceramic basin of the sink and immediately regret it.
“Okay, that hurt,” I admit in a small, squeaky voice. Meeting my own teary gaze in the mirror, I sigh. “I loved him. I loved him, and he left, and he never came back. Why didn’t he come back? Why does he still affect me like nothing happened?” I pause as the most pressing question at the moment works its way through my scattered thoughts. “What am I so scared of?”
I stare at my reflection with narrowed eyes as if searching there for the answer. The magic of this night doesn’t appear to extend to the mirror on the wall because it doesn’t respond like I sort of hoped it would.
“So much for magic,” I mutter.
With a growl of frustration, I turn and swing the door open. The music pouring from the stage slams into me, loud and powerful, as I march past the bar where I glimpse flames shooting from Dec’s mouth. I scan the crowd, looking for Luca. I hope seeing him will lead to me having some sort of epiphany, now that I’m back in control of my hormones and thinking clearly. Mostly.
I glimpse the back of a black leather jacket that may be his and start in that direction. The angry cat lady I met earlier steps in front of me, bringing me to an abrupt stop. Her eyes narrow into vertical slits, and I take a reflexive step back.
“Vye, right?”
She doesn’t answer. She snags my elbow with one quick-moving hand, and a prickly pain shoots up my arm.
“Ow.” I rip out of her grasp. “Did you just . . . claw me?”
“Sorry.” Her uncaring shrug voids the apology.
“So . . .” I eye the black tail whipping around behind her. “What kind of . . . cat?”
She cocks one perfectly manicured brow.
“You’re a shifter, right?” I start slowly, tasting the alien words as they come out of my mouth.
She smirks. “He finally told you?”
I self-consciously touch the tiara on my head. “He told me everything.”
Her head tips slightly to the side, giving me a better view of her pointy, hair-covered ears. “Everything?”
“Well, probably not everything. I’m trying to find him,” I tell her. “I think I’m ready to hear whatever else there is to know.”
The narrow slits of her pupils round out some. The big black orbs don’t make her look any less threatening. “I know where he is. I’ll take you to him.”
“You would do that?” My voice echoes. It sounds funny, and I snort-giggle. Now both my voice and laugh are echoing together in my head, creating a disorienting melody with the music, and I don’t know if I want to laugh some more or put my hands over my ears.
“I will take you to him,” Vye says slowly. At least, I think she does. There appears to be a delay between the movement of her lips and the sound of her voice reaching my ears
.
I squint at her, unsure which of the three matching heads in front of me is hers. “What’s wrong with me?”
Long fingers curl around my wrist. When I look down, the room tips, and I nearly topple over.
“Easy, Princess.” I can’t tell because her voice is bouncing around between my ears along with the music, but I think she’s mocking me. Her grip tightens before I can ask, and she leads me away.
The crowd moves out of her way as if they are part of an orchestrated event. I can’t allow myself to be alarmed by that because my legs are giving me enough to worry about. My head is fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I should feel them moving.
“What’s wrong with me?” I repeat as I lean into my feline guide for physical support.
“Nothing,” she snaps, shrugging my head off of her shoulder. “You’ve been drinking.”
“No. It’s not that. It’s . . .”
We leave the ballroom and enter a long, dark, stone-walled passageway. We pass several large doors before it dawns on me that Vye has lied. She’s not taking me to Luca. She is taking me away from Luca. Turning into a side hallway, we pass a woman with long, blonde hair gathered on top of her head in an elaborate style, wearing a glamorous red dress and heels. Even if she wasn’t the only other person in sight, I am positive I would notice her.
I try to meet her gaze, to silently plead for her help, but I don’t think she notices me. Like the predator whose claws are digging into my arm, the lady in red is on a mission. The click-click of her determined footsteps fade behind me as I am led deeper and deeper into the unknown, inside a castle filled with magic, mystery, and danger.
Too late, I realize there is only one person here who I can trust, and I left him in the ballroom behind me, unaware that I have wandered into the panther’s den. Luca can’t help me now. I am on my own.
Vye pushes open a tall, heavy door and guides me into the room. It is large and open with nothing but a canopy bed along one wall that looks as if it hasn’t been used in a century or more. The opposite wall is partially open, with three stone archways illuminated by moonlight.
Vye leads me to the nearest one before releasing me. She tosses me forward with a growl, and I fly through the opening. I catch my footing, barely avoiding a face-first dive onto the rough, crumbling stone floor. Taking a breath of the fresh night air, I glance over my shoulder for Vye. Her black tail snaps back and forth before disappearing into the shadows inside the castle. She has left me here, but why?
Where am I?
Eerie silence surrounds me, and I realize that I can no longer hear the music coming from the ballroom.
“This is not good,” I mutter under my breath.
I stumble forward on rubbery legs I do not trust and take in the sight with eyes I am not sure I can believe. The full moon lights the dark sky above me with the aid of millions of twinkling stars. In front of me, a waist-high stone wall surrounds me in a half-circle. I creep to the edge and peer down into an endless darkness. I place a hand on the short wall when my balance fails, and a piece of stone breaks off and plummets into the chasm below.
“Oh, shit.” This is not the place I want to be when I can barely stand straight or see where I am walking.
I need to find my way back to the ballroom. To Luca.
I turn back toward the archways chiseled into the side of the castle. I make it only a few steps before I stop.
I don’t know if it’s something I see or hear, or some deeply buried sixth sense, but I know I am not alone.
Chapter Ten
I turn around as quickly as I can, considering I can’t feel my legs. My hands splay against the stone wall behind me as I peer into the shadows that surround me on the small balcony. The darkness shifts, and one man-sized shadow peels away from the black curtain.
“Luca,” I breathe.
Vye didn’t lie. He’s here. She took me to him. She may or may not have drugged me first, but she did what she said she would do.
“Thank you for coming here to see me,” he says.
It’s an odd choice of words, and he sounds strange saying them. I decide my warped perception is probably to blame.
I shake my head, but the cobwebs remain. “What’s wrong with me, Luca? I don’t feel . . . right.”
“It’s the magic,” he answers simply as he approaches me. “You look as if you need some air, Princess.”
“I told you to stop calling me that.” Despite my irritation, I take the hand he extends to me. I let him lead me across the balcony but not too close to the edge. “That’s far enough. You know I’m not a fan of heights.”
“Yes. I remember.”
“I think Vye did something to me,” I tell him. My shoulders slump from the weight of whatever has come over me. “I’m not . . .”
A blurry Luca steps into my line of sight. I blink, struggling to bring him into focus. His lips are moving, I think. I can hear his voice, but it doesn’t sound right. His tone is too hard, like his eyes.
“Luca?”
“The fairies overdid themselves this time,” he says.
“What are you talking about?” I stammer. As impossible as it sounds, I am dizzier than I was a few minutes ago. I’m growing more and more convinced that Vye actually drugged me, and the worst is yet to come.
“Don’t you worry,” Luca tells me in a voice that is anything but soothing. “You won’t feel a thing thanks to the fairies’ magic flowing through your veins.”
“Fairy magic . . . what?”
The man who looks like Luca, but who I am convinced is nothing more than a hallucination, continues as if I haven’t spoken a word. “First, I need to know what the prince told you.”
“You . . . you’re not . . .” I squint at him, and his face shifts. For a moment, he’s not Luca. Then he flashes me that same sexy smile I fell for two years ago, and I forget what I thought I saw.
“Let’s go over it again,” he suggests. “I want to make sure you understand everything. Tell me what I told you.”
“I know . . .” I stumble when the balcony shakes. It doesn’t, not really, but it feels that way under my trembling legs.
“What?” Luca grips my shoulders. “Tell me. What are my family’s plans for the crown?”
He’s desperate. Too desperate. It’s all wrong.
“Something is wrong,” I slur.
His face shifts again, and unfamiliar gray eyes gaze down the length of a long pointy nose at me. “I could bond you to me now,” he sneers. “The prince will give us whatever we want then. He will do anything to protect you, perhaps even give up the crown.”
I wince from the pain caused from his fingers digging into my flesh. I may not be able to trust my body or my senses right now, but my intuition is still firing away. “You’re not Luca.”
“Of course not!” The strange man roars. “My breed can only dream of living the pampered life of a royal shifter.”
I squint, looking for a tail or pointy ears or hair growing in places it normally wouldn’t. I see nothing to indicate what kind of shifter he is. I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not, but I know he looked like Luca a minute ago. Is there a type of shifter that can do that?
“I . . . I don’t understand what’s happening.” I grip the crumbling stone wall beside me for support.
“You call yourself a shifter princess.” His lip curls in disgust.
“I don’t, actually.”
“You howl at the moon,” he spits. “I can transform into anything I want. My breed is unique. We are strong. Tell me, how did your breed come to hold such power?”
“I don’t know,” I stammer. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know what you want from me.”
“They took it from us, that’s how,” he growls. “They bred an army, and they took the crown from us. For over a century, the wolves have dominated the high royal court that oversees all matters of shifter business. They have enslaved and weakened and abused other breeds for years. Most shifters want nothing to do with
the royal system now. Most have found their own families, created their own packs, or have gone rogue. Some aren’t even aware of the truth, but there are enough of us who do know. There have been whispers of a revolution, but no one has been brave enough to see it through. Until now.” His eyes darken as he appraises me. “I intend to change that.”
Some of the fog in my head clears. Enough to realize the extent of the danger I am in, but not enough to do something about it. My legs still feel like rubber, and I’m not sure which of the three blurry, terrifying, and unfamiliar faces I’m looking at is the real one.
“What do I have to do with all of that?” I plead. “I didn’t know I was a shifter until an hour ago. I’m still not entirely convinced any of this is real.”
“It’s real, Princess.” He takes an imposing step, forcing me to back up against the unsteady half-wall. “It’s clear to everyone that you are in Caspan’s favor. Controlling you gives me power over the most influential family in the royal court.”
“I think you misunderstand my relationship with Luca.”
“No. I understand it perfectly.” His cold smile turns into a creepy leer. “You, Princess, are the one who underestimates your worth to him.”
“Even if that is the case, it doesn’t matter.” I attempt to stand higher but only wobble from a wave of dizziness. Panting through the disorientation, I add, “You can’t control me.”
“Control you? Not necessarily.” He amends. “Infiltrate the House of Caspan through you and thereby achieve power at the royal level? Yes, I can do that.”
“How?”
“As a changeling, I am free to take any shifter as a mate. I am not limited to my own breed like others are. We are the one exception to the rules of bonding.”
“Wait.” I hold up an unsteady hand. “Did you say mate?”
“Consider it the shifter way of sleeping your way to the top. Nothing personal.” His eyes flare with a dangerous glint. It’s the only warning I get before his mouth crushes mine. One hand twists into my hair to hold my head still while the other pins me against the short wall.
The Monster Ball: A Paranormal Romance Anthology Page 60