Once Bitten_Wolves of Hemlock Hollow

by Heather McCorkle

  A slight smile came to her as she looked at the sky. “Don’t be. I was wrong. This is Odin’s will.” She stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You fought honorably and well. You’ll make a fine leitar.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not sure I know what that means.”

  “It means you are the one who seeks out the newly bitten and tries to help them come to terms with what they are so they can control their wolf,” she explained.

  It explained why I had been drawn to Candice and that boy in the park. “But I awakened something in you. Doesn’t that mean you’re the leitar?” I had a bad feeling I knew the answer, but I was praying I was wrong.

  Her face became unreadable. “No. I’m the uppskera, the one who slays them if they fail to control their wolves or lose their mind.”

  Suddenly my calling didn’t seem so bad. There were no words that could make up for turning her into that. Hell, I wasn’t sure there were any actions that could. My problems with Raul melted away, ceased to matter. All I could do was stare at her. After a while, Ty came around and stood between us, taking my face in his hands.

  Through the blur of tears and rain I saw acceptance…and something else. Seeing him so vulnerable forced me to do something to lighten things. Taking his hands, I leaned into him. “Thanks for coming for me, even if I didn’t need rescuing.”

  A low sound vibrated through his chest and up into his throat, more of a purr than a growl really. “I will always come for you.” The double meaning of his words wasn’t lost on me, not at all considering that sultry tone.

  Despite the desire thickening his voice, he kissed my forehead and simply leaned against me for a moment.

  “The packs will try to use you. You and Ayra are the most powerful varúlfur in over three hundred years. I am sorry. This is incredibly unfair to you. To be twice turned, not just once into a varúlfur but also into the leitar,” he said.

  I looked up at him, searching his eyes. “It doesn’t sound so bad. At least, not my part of it. Listen, Ty, I know how hard it is for you to be here, and now this. You don’t have to be a part of this because of me.”

  His eyes turned dark and serious. “Sonya, there is not anything in any of the nine worlds that could keep me away from you, so long as you want me by your side. But be careful how you respond.” His eyes flicked out to the hollow and his head inclined in that direction. “Those gathered can hear us. If you want to be with me, it will mean being mated to me, a bond stronger than marriage to them. If you are not ready for that, that is all right. I can wait.”

  The warm flush that spread through me turned my lips up into a smile. I stood a bit taller and lifted my head. “I want to be with you, Ty Viðrrson, now and always. If you want to be with me, that is,” I announced loud enough for even those gathered an acre away to hear clearly, which really wasn’t that loud considering their heightened sense of hearing.

  Those gorgeous blue eyes pulled me in closer. I rested my hands on his chest. The look in them. I knew what it was now—love.

  “It is the only job I want, and you are the only person I will ever want.” He pulled me into his arms, leaned over, and kissed me long and sweet.

  It felt like he was claiming me right there in front of everyone, and I loved it. Tongue pushing through his lips, I turned the kiss into something far more intimate, making it clear he wasn’t the only one laying claim. Yips and howls carried up from the hollow below. Some sounded celebratory, some mournful, others angry. I pulled back from the kiss.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

  He put an arm around me, resting his hand on the small of my back as we walked. Ayra fell into step beside us. I couldn’t get off that bridge and leave those other people behind fast enough. Once we were on the ground and had scaled down the cliffside wolves poured in around us, tongues licking at our hands, noses touching our arms. Not one for physical contact, I had to force myself not to flinch or draw away. A few in human form whispered words of praise and awe. They called us Valkyries, heralds of a new age, some even whispered the word messiah. None of those titles felt right. I was only an out of work bartender-turned-varúlfur who had no family to miss her.

  With Ty on one side and Ayra on the other, I realized that wasn’t true, not anymore at least. I had Ty, and maybe even Ayra. And messed up as it was having a reaper for a friend and a werewolf for a boyfriend, it felt right. Finally, I had found who I belonged with and what I was meant to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sonya

  The scents of pine, hemlock, and a shit-ton of flowers flowed down my nose and throat, stirring me awake. After the drama of Raul’s trial yesterday, it was nice to wake up to something peaceful. While I didn’t care as much about the trial after finding out I was the seeker, I still went. Mostly because Ty insisted I needed closure. I suspected he had needed it more than me, but I didn’t let on. Bringing myself to care about Raul when I had something as big as the seeker thing going on was just not going to happen. The guy had plummeted on my priority list, and I was good with that. I would get to help people in a way I never imagined possible. The epicness of that overrode my anger toward Raul.

  Evidence had proven Raul had nothing to do with the others that were bitten in against their will. But I already knew that. Just being near Candice and the guy who lured me into Calder’s trap, I knew Raul wasn’t the one who bit them in. Turned out that really was a seeker thing—knowing who sired a new varúlfur. Sired was a disturbing way to think of it, but that’s what everyone called it.

  Raul was punished, I made sure of that. He was sentenced to be a kennari, a fact he hated, which made it perfect.

  Even now, lying in bed, I could feel the pull of people out there who needed my help. It wasn’t a bad feeling. I just needed to learn how to focus it so I could find them. Ty and I were working on it.

  From Vidar—a friend of both Ayra’s and Ty’s who had interrupted his sabbatical at some kind of temple and came all the way from Iceland because of Ayra’s and my awakening—I learned the seeker thing was a failsafe. When too many varúlfur were being bitten in and not successfully brought through the verða, the leitar and uppskera awakened in the chosen ones. Varúlfur communities everywhere were a bit worked up over it, considering it hadn’t happened in over three hundred years. That meant someone—or several someones—had been doing a lot of unsanctioned bitings.

  Recalling that fun tidbit of info meant I wasn’t going to get any more sleep. Through the window across the room I saw a pink and purple streaked sky standing out starkly behind the tall evergreens. I could feel the setting moon as surely as a compass needle could feel the pull of the north. It let go of the wildness inside me a little more with each inch it moved toward the horizon. Strong as that pull was, I could control it easily now. Without Ty’s training, though, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  That made me think of others who had been changed against their will and abandoned to deal with the verða alone. What Raul had done to me was bad enough, but what had been done to Candice and that boy I met near the police station…that was unforgiveable. Ayra had said she was going to find out who did it, at any cost, even if her own brother was involved. I would help in any way I could. But, everyone told me it was the reaper’s duty to bring about such justice, not mine. Being new to the whole pack politics and such, I wasn’t about to argue. Still, I felt bad for her.

  According to the book Ty and I had been reading, so long as I had been in contact with the new varúlfur, I would know their sire or dam when I met them by smell and the feel of their power. Whatever that creepy crap meant. It was a way I could help, though, and I’d take it, creepy factor and all.

  The thought made me wonder where Ty was. The overwhelming scent of flowers might have something to do with why his side of the bed was cold. I resisted the urge to call out. This place was still strange to me, its people even stranger. No sense in drawing attention when I didn’t have to. Ignoring my sense of smell, instead I
focused on sound. The beating of my own heart and swishing of my blood through my veins distracted me for only a second. Beyond it, I heard the drip of water in pipes somewhere, then eventually the beating of another heart. Not just any heart, but Ty’s. Rising from the bed, I followed the sound. For a split second I thought about putting on something other than tiny cotton shorts and a tank top. But no, it would take too long.

  The steady thud of his heartbeat drew me through the unfamiliar cabin like a beacon. It wasn’t being in a strange place and needing someone familiar. I needed him in particular. That wasn’t quite right, though. As much as I disliked this town, I knew it was monumentally worse for him. These people feared him, some even hated him from what he’d said. And he was here because of me. We needed to leave as soon as possible. Raul’s trial didn’t matter anymore. Bastard that he was, my feeling about Raul had become mixed. On one hand, I hated him for not asking my permission. On the other, if he hadn’t bitten me, I wouldn’t have met Ty.

  Cool hardwood teased the soles of my feet as I wove my way through the house. Ty’s freshest scent trail drew me almost as surely as the beat of his heart. It didn’t hurt that his scent was the only one in the house that wasn’t months old. That meant we were alone, which was how I wanted it. Aside from maybe Ayra, I wasn’t up to seeing anyone else. Ty’s sound and scent drew me to an open set of French doors that led onto a balcony. The soft rays of morning sunlight bathed Ty’s half-naked body in gold. His sculpted back was to me, and his big hands rested on the deck railing.

  Though my feet didn’t make a sound as I walked out onto that deck, he lifted his arm for me to duck under without even turning my way. Of course he knew I was there. How could he not? The tether that connected us felt like a physical thing. I nestled in against all those hard lateral muscles and snaked an arm around him. He had that deep, contemplative, scholarly look going on that made him appear impossibly sexier. His eyes lit up as they took me in, turning a lighter shade of blue.

  “Sorry I left. You were sleeping so soundly, I did not want to wake you,” he said.

  “Why did you leave?”

  His chest vibrated against me as he chuckled. Gods, I loved that feeling. Fingers slid beneath my chin, their soft touch causing goosebumps to rise. But he didn’t bend to kiss me as I expected. Instead, he gently gripped my chin and turned my head. The question I’d been about to ask fled my mind as my gaze shifted to the landscape.

  Flowers of every color and variety covered the hillside leading up to the cabin. It explained the smell. Now that I focused, though, another smell lay beneath the sweet, cloying cloud. It was the scent of whatever liquid flower stems leaked when you picked them.

  “Did you pick all these for me?” I couldn’t imagine how he would have had the time. There had to be hundreds, maybe thousands.

  “No.” The flat tone of his voice made me look up at him. Clouds of concern covered eyes pinched beneath pale, furrowed brows. He went on before I could ask what was wrong. “The packs did. They honor you in hopes that you’ll choose to join them.”

  I boosted myself up onto the railing and swung my legs over. With a flick of my head, I beckoned him to follow. Adrenalin coursed through my veins as I leaped from the second-story balcony. Legs bending to absorb the impact, I landed with ease. That would never get old. Only the rustle of grass sounded as Ty landed beside me. I took hold of his hand and started out into the flowers. Their soft petals tickled my feet, and while it didn’t hurt, I felt the pressure of thorns here and there. Scents so sweet they were overwhelming wafted up and around us. Lovely as it was, it was also sad to know all these flowers had been plucked at their prime and would soon die.

  “So, is being the leitar like being the slayer, where I can’t have a normal life and all that?” I asked.

  The hint of a grin pulled at his lips. “No. You can have a life and help new varúlfur at the same time.” I loved that he got the pop culture reference and went with it.

  I tapped my chin with a finger as if deep in thought. “Good. If I transferred to your university to finish out med school after all this seeker stuff settles, and maybe applied at the local hospital for an internship, would that be too weird for you?”

  He took me in his arms and gave me a long, thoughtful look. “Not unless you are uncomfortable with being the teacher’s pet,” he said in a voice that had dropped an octave into sexy territory. His brows pulled together. “Wait, if you are like the slayer, does that make me like the geeky English teacher?”

  Throwing my head back, I laughed long and hard. “No, the slayer and her watcher never had this kind of relationship. As for the other part, I won’t be in your class, so there’s nothing to worry about there.”

  He shrugged. “Not that I would have worried.”

  I rose up on my toes and crushed my lips to his, forcing them apart. He slid his tongue through my fangs and I rewarded him with a groan. My tongue pushed back, seeking his out. While we kissed I worked my fingers beneath the waistband of his sweats and shoved them down. Leaving him with his mouth hanging open, I drew away. Before he could protest, I descended on him and took his rock-hard cock in my mouth. His hands stroked my hair, pulling it back out of my way as I bobbed up and down the length of him. I drew away before he lost it. My gaze locked onto his and the need and desire in his eyes took my breath away.

  One push on his chest and he went down into the flowers on his back. Orange poppies and yellow daisies poofed into the air like down feathers. I moved over him until I straddled his lap, then took hold of his cock and pressed the head to my opening.

  “I’m yours, Ty Viðrrson, and I’m ready to start our life together, the packs be damned,” I said.

  I sat down on him so fast and hard that he cried out loud enough that every varúlfur within ten miles probably heard. Then he began to move beneath me and I forgot anyone else in the world existed but him.

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  Pack breakdown

  Reinhard: Raul’s pack.

  Alphas: Adre (Andres) and Gyda.

  Draupnir: Ty’s old pack.

  Alphas: Bain. Morene is his first verndari and stands in as the female ruling voice until he finds a mate.

  Arnoddr: Ayra’s pack.

  Alphas: Isak. Standing in as ruling female until he finds a mate is his mother, Iona.

  Glossary

  Varúlfur: werewolf

  Ráðið: council

  Verða: becoming

  Lögreglu: police

  Verndari: protector

  Kennari: teacher

  Konunglegur: royalty

  Uppskera: reaper

  Leitar: seeker

  Acknowledgments

  To those who love to read paranormal books, you rock my world and make my dreams possible. And fans who review, you make that world spin.

  Everyone thanks their editor, because let’s face it, they discovered them and believed in their work. But my editor went above and beyond that. Tera Cuskaden saw the sparkle through the coal and put just the right amount of pressure on me to form this book into the diamond it became. I couldn’t be more pleased with Tera and the team at Entangled. They are a special publishing house that I am honored to be a part of.

  A huge thank you to my better half for putting up with all the endless questions, research hours, and brainstorming. He never tired of the many discussions while driving or sitting on a ski lift, but then, he couldn’t get away. You are the best “plot consultant” anyone could ask for.

  To the 17 Scribes who took me in and made me one of their own, thank you. You are a wonderful, supportive group of talented authors that I am honored to be a part of.

  About the Author

  Heather is an award winning author of paranormal, steampunk, and historical romances who knew she wanted to be an author since age twelve. When she’s not writing she can be f
ound on the slopes, the hiking trails, or paddle boarding. As a native Oregonian, she enjoys the outdoors nearly as much as the worlds she creates on the pages. No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find her on her website and her many social networking sites. Entertaining readers, protecting endangered species, and uncovering stories and points of view that haven’t been covered are her passions.

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