by Godiva Glenn
NIGHT BORN
A Night Wolves Novel
Godiva Glenn
NIGHT BORN
Copyright © 2019 by Godiva Glenn.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Follow Godiva Glenn at GodivaGlenn.com
ONE
Kyra sat on the edge of the river, dipping her tanned feet into the steadily flowing water. The crisp scent of the coming winter danced along the surface, and the cold splashes sent shivers from her toes to her spine. The trickling was music to her ears, but tonight, the water wasn’t alone in its singing. Across the narrow flow of water, the Sarka pack celebrated.
Chatting, laughing, making plans for the following night’s full moon.
And ignoring Kyra’s existence.
Her parents were there somewhere; Ethan and Villa were practically royalty. Her family—the Brada family—could trace their lineage back through the centuries. Her father’s ancestors came from the old world, and her mother was of the wolves originally inhabiting the States. Nothing would stop them from enjoying their place amongst the pack—a pack that had turned their backs on Kyra three years ago when she’d reached eighteen and failed to summon her wolf.
Now she was an outcast.
She could join them tonight. She could mingle and attempt to interact; pretend she was wanted.
A sharp burst of laughter pierced through her consideration. They were having an enjoyable time, and no matter how much she wished she could participate, it wasn’t worth the heartbreak.
No one would speak more than a few words to her. If they didn’t treat her with disdain, it was pity, and that was somehow worse. Even if she felt the desperation for interaction, tonight wouldn’t be the best night anyhow. The entire council was there.
Consisting of their alpha and four elders, the council’s presence meant all actions were taken more seriously. The same few lupine who may spare her a subtle nod on a normal day would look directly through her tonight.
But she’d only have to endure it a few more months.
She was only a member of the pack until Mikos Fekete, her betrothed, turned twenty-five. At that point, he would be forced to choose a new mate and break free of his obligation to Kyra. Once that happened, her tenuous place amongst the pack would be severed completely. She’d have to leave the land.
She narrowed her gaze and searched the group for the handsome object of her desires. She’d spent her entire life wanting him, and before she could have him everything was snatched away. The crowd split to one side and her heart pounded at the sight of him. There.
Tall and serious, Mikos Fekete was the most divine wet dream. His short, chestnut brown curls stood out amongst the traditionalist that preferred to wear their hair shaggy and long. Water beaded on his broad, muscled chest, evidence of an earlier swim. Though it was late in the year, he’d fear no chill. The river could be frozen, and he’d still dive in. A combination of reckless and cocky she still adored, even if he was now beyond her reach.
Females swarmed him, delicate fingertips gracing his strong arms, lust disguised as friendly touches. As lupine, hugs and pats were merely ways of reinforcing pack bonds, but lingering caresses were something else.
Kyra was used to witnessing the blatant flirting, but she took comfort in Mikos’s disinterest. He always seemed more interested in speaking to his fellow males than acknowledging the attention, and tonight was no different. His deep umber stare was focused intently on his older brother Viktor’s face while they spoke.
The two males were nearly identical, both standing inches over six-feet tall and built like the statues of gods. The main difference was Viktor’s shoulder length hair and the fact that Mikos had a sexy shadow of scruff across his jaw and chin. Then there was something else, an air of dignity that surrounded Mikos, dignity that completely escaped Viktor, even if Kyra didn’t think he was a bad soul.
Kyra never had a close relationship with Viktor, even when she and Mikos would spend nearly every day together. Viktor seemed to exist on the edge of what was expected from the pack. He had beliefs, he had honor, but he wasn’t much for laws unless they made perfect sense to him.
Mikos, on the other hand, took their lupine traditions seriously, even if his contemporary appearance hinted otherwise. For him, the night before a wolf moon was more than drinking and partying. When they were younger, he’d conversed with Kyra at length about the meaning behind the gathering.
Their human bodies had urges to celebrate in one way, but all things required balance. He preferred to take time to reflect on the lore and stories of how they came to be souls with three forms. The night before shifting was about respect for the old ways and remembrance of the lupine who’d existed before them. It was a night of becoming one with the earth. Embracing one’s true nature and running with the ancestors.
Things Kyra could never experience or even hope to empathize. Even if she shared her background with the pack, she couldn’t share a future. As far as she knew, she was the first from either side of her family to suffer from her current condition.
A noble lineage would die with her, and she understood the pain it caused her parents. Rising, she swiped nostalgic tears from her eyes and stepped into her boots. In her own way, she would prepare for the wolf moon.
* * * *
The moon cast cool tones over Kyra’s bare golden skin. A blend of her mother’s soft chestnut and her father’s olive hues, Kyra had been compared to an earthen spirit in her youth. As pretty as a fairy princess of the forest, her father would say when she was young. The human males she’d met would fawn over her as well.
She wasn’t vain, but she was aware of the fact. Her beauty was never denied, and it served as an additional slight that she’d never completed her transition. Bad enough that centuries of bloodlines made her lineage like royalty, which would now go to waste. But that she was a heavenly sight as well? Insult to injury.
A cool breeze caressed her bare skin, bringing the scent of the wild world around her. This was her ritual. Eyes closed, she soaked in the soft rays of the moon on her skin, the earth beneath her back, and the sweet smell of mother nature in her lungs.
Every night prior to a full moon she would bask in this clearing: naked, reverent, and begging for the change to come. Pleading for the ancestors to find her worthy and grant access to her inner power. Occasionally, she’d felt the wolf within her rise, roused from sleep but lethargic. It would yawn and retreat, never coming forward enough to grant her shift. Never lingering long enough to grasp.
Sucking in a deep breath, Kyra growled. She raged at the beast within her. No response. Minutes dragged by, the sound of her breathing and desperately pounding heartbeat echoing in her head. She dug her fingers into the moist, soft earth, sinking fingertips into grass and dirt. The ancestors lingered in their land, granting luck and watching over them. All she needed to do was find a way to communicate with them.
Naked and pressed to the land, she was as close as she could get. All obstacles removed, and because the moon would be full soon the veil between the worlds was thin. If she could reach across, maybe, just maybe she would find what she sought. After all, she didn’t bare only her physical form on these nights, she bared her soul.
The walls she built to protect herself during day after day of being ignored and mistreated were down n
ow. The strength she fostered, the anger and frustration that swelled as a result... all of that was pushed aside.
Her mind was cleared and free, focused on one single task. Find her other half. Tonight will be the night.
The wolf within her twitched its ears and lifted a curious face. The tang of sweat muddled with pride hit her senses—someone had entered the field—and as that external intrusion occurred her wolf vanished. No! Her eyes flew open, and she sat up, eyeing the tree-line that surrounded her.
She clenched her teeth and stayed low, squatting in the tall grass. Fury tinted her vision with black spots while she scanned the dark shadows. Anger flowed hot over her, lifting the fine hairs on her skin. Her ritual disrupted, and as she’d finally contacted her wolf. The intruder would pay.
“Kyra?”
Her head spun, and body tensed at the voice. Mikos stood short out of reach of the moon’s path. He stepped forward into the light, each movement alert as if she posed some danger. She brushed the grass from her black curls with annoyance.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” she asked.
His face lifted to the moon, and he took a deep breath. “I thought I smelled a human.”
Shame flushed her anger away, replacing heat with the chilling pain of rejection. To smell like a human... She sat back down and spread flat on the grass, shutting her eyes to hold back the tears.
“Well, it’s just me. And I’m busy, so if you don’t mind, I would appreciate privacy,” she said, steel in her voice.
“It’s pack territory. You can’t—”
“I’m still pack. I still have my right to this land,” she spat.
“But you have no right to deny me entry to it,” he muttered.
“You know what I meant.”
Heart pounding, she dug her shaking hands into the earth. She breathed deep and slow, seeking her wolf through the wreckage of her emotions. Hope had been dashed by rage, only to be swept aside by humiliation as his words rebounded yet again. I smell like a human?
She knew it to be the truth. It wasn’t an uncommon insult after all, but to hear it from Mikos was a claw around her soul.
His scent permeated her thoughts. The air stirred and became warmth upon her. The ground shook. She peeked through stubborn lashes to find him sitting close and staring at her. They’d spoken more tonight than they had in over a year, and usually, she’d want to reach out to him, but not now. Not now that he’d ruined her ritual and insulted her.
“Viktor doesn’t understand why I haven’t yet chosen a mate,” Mikos said, no emotion clear in his voice.
She shrugged, not eager to join this particular conversation. She wondered too, but she wouldn’t admit it to him. She had many ideas as to why he’d hold true to their betrothal instead of picking a new mate.
“I still remember when my parents introduced us. You were only five. I was nearly twice your age and refused to think I’d ever want to kiss anyone, much less you,” he said with a hint of joking, deep brown eyes glittering in the silver light.
Her lips curled into a smile before she could control her reaction. She remembered how things were back then, and it was easy to lapse back into the sweet memories of when life was easier. “You were bossy. When your mother said you had to protect me, you took it to mean interfering in everything I did.”
“Because you were reckless. And whiny.”
“I was a little girl.” She breathed in his scent, familiar but at the same time foreign. She wondered why he’d speak to her now, after so long. Perhaps it hurt him to realize they hadn’t spoken like this in years, as it hurt her. “You were big and brave. Everyone knew you’d be one of our strongest pack members. I was constantly seeking your attention. Trying to impress you.”
“Yeah.”
She glanced at him, but he was scanning her body. With everything else, she’d forgotten that she was naked. Their kind didn’t draw attention to such things, but this was different. This was the one who was to be her lover, and though they’d never done more than kiss in the past, the physical desire had been there.
Sitting up, she crossed her long legs at the ankles. His eyes followed the movement as if drawing a line from her feet to the scarcely hidden triangle of dark curls between her thighs. Heat rushed to her face and other parts, and she held her breath. He would be able to smell her arousal if she let it go that far. She exhaled and drew in the fresh night air, doing her best to ignore the masculine scent of him.
Even though their relationship was arranged, the chemistry between them was always natural. Up until her eighteenth birthday, they’d been inseparable, eager to become adults and further explore their desires. His eyes finally traveled the rest of their meandering course, past her breasts and mouth to meet her gaze. The molten chocolate stare and the passion within brought the pain of losing him crashing forward.
“I could still change,” she offered.
He nodded stiffly at her words, his jaw set, the serious expression she’d always loved now a cold mask she wanted to rip away. It was clear that he was slipping to the side of him that questioned his decision or thought she was hopeless. Even after all this time of being separated, she could read him like a book.
“My wolf is there. Reluctant but... She wants to come forward.” It was a lie, really. Kyra had no idea what her wolf wanted.
Leaning back, he turned his face to the sky. “Maybe. But you’ve been playing with the humans.”
Her jaw dropped, and it took a moment to recover. “Almost everyone does.”
“But in your case, does it help?”
It wasn’t unheard of to seek out humans for sexual encounters, but she knew what he meant. For her, it was like admitting defeat.
She twisted the cool grass between her fingertips and did her best to keep her voice calm. “I can’t seek comforts in you, my betrothed. But the wolf in me still has needs, even if she currently slumbers.”
His chest rose and fell, taking deep breaths but not speaking. Other women would have crossed his path, but she pushed that thought away.
“I’ve put it off, finding a partner. I’ve given you the time I could,” he said gently.
“I know.”
The available women of their pack were eager to offer themselves when Kyra had failed to turn. Mikos had passed and extended a rare courtesy to Kyra by remaining bound to her—even if it was only a label. In doing so, he allowed her to remain with the pack, the only family she’d ever known. Still, she had only guessed to why he’d done so, and furthermore, why he was still resisting a new mate.
Even enamored with him as she’d always been, she never thought he felt the same about her. When the relationship was a duty, she’d never cared. She was ready and willing to mate with him even if she knew he wanted her body but felt no love for the rest of her.
Now that it was out of her hands, she saw things in a different light. She loved Mikos, and she wanted him to love her in return.
But that will never come to pass. She deflected her sadness bitterly. “Do you know who it will be, or will you draw straws?”
He snorted. “Bitter?”
“I’m not bitter but if I were it would be my right, wouldn’t it?” She stood, tired of talking. Her ritual had failed. There would be no reaching the wolf tonight. “I loved you, and now I have to be exiled. I have to leave this land, my family, my friends, my... everything. And I do it knowing you’ll be settling for someone who doesn’t deserve you. Or maybe they do. Maybe you aren’t the wolf I remembered you to be.”
He was in her way before she noticed him move. Her nose inches away from his chest, his large hand on her forearm. Not trapped, but close enough. “Or maybe you didn’t love me enough to be the mate I deserved.”
Heat crossed her face as if he’d slapped her. She couldn’t recall the last time they’d touched, and even now, even if he was irritated with her, his hand on her skin made her shiver with need. Not sexual, but instinctual.
He probably doesn’t even know what
he does.
For him, someone fully in the pack, he never felt the emptiness she’d felt. To have gone the last few years with not so much as a handshake from another lupine was torture, and now she finally had a moment of solace, but it was tainted.
She hissed and pulled her arm free though her heart broke to sever the connection. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to wake my wolf and be with you.”
“Then why do you mate with humans and spite my generosity?”
She growled and shoved him but couldn’t move him. He remained solid and still, a hot barrier of muscle against her palms. She stepped away, fuming. “I have not ‘mated’ with anyone. I have played, but I’ve not found any of the humans to be worth the effort.”
Eyes narrowed, he seemed to be searching her words for truth. “Then what do you consider play?”
She crossed her arms and shook her head to distract from her warming cheeks. As far as she was concerned there was no shame in what she’d done, but it felt strange to discuss it when her emotions were churning and confused.
“Some touching. Kissing. What the humans call foreplay. I’ve not let one inside me. I’ve neglected that level of my needs.” For you. “And note that I don’t demand to know where you’ve been.”
A breeze lifted through the clearing, and he leaned over, inhaling the scent from her hair. The action took her by surprise, and she froze, afraid to move and break whatever magical spell had drawn him this close. She closed her eyes to savor the moment, ever torn by his rejection but understanding the necessity of it. The sweet air fell still, and she opened her eyes. She was alone.
TWO
Living with the pack but at a distance, Kyra had developed a steady ritual. She knew exactly where she needed to be at all times to avoid bumping into others and had planned her life around that knowledge. Today, however, she didn’t feel compelled to continue her usual hiding.
The Sarka pack was large and had recently taken in a new clan. That meant more families, more personalities, and more importantly, less space to keep from being discovered. It was work to avoid the newcomers, and it wasn’t work she felt like doing in her current state. Her discussion with Mikos the night before still had her in a daze.