Blood of Eden: A wolf shifter romantic suspense (The Guardians Book 1)

by JJ King

  “Seriously? That’s… amazing.” Katherine tried her best to sound normal and upbeat, adding quickly, “I’ve been thinking lately that there are some stories that the clan should refocus on, stories that tell of our history and past. We all hear the usual stories, but this one is so interesting, I think more people should know.”

  She sat back and listened silently, adding responses when necessary as Damien enthusiastically chatted on about his idea for publishing a book about wolf folktales. Her mind filled with image after image of Raphael cutting open her body and filling her skin with silver as part of some test and of the hunter emptying his gun into Quinn’s chest. Some part of her brain listened to Damien droned on about his research but after a few minutes, she subtly excused herself from the conversation with the excuse of having to get ready to head back to Wild River. She wished Damien, Joel, and Angelica a wonderful day before hanging up, trying as hard as she could to infuse some life into her voice.

  As she placed the phone back in its charger Katherine thought about what she’d just heard. It felt as though she were back in school and had been given the task of sorting through a difficult poem. There were always parts that were meaningless and insubstantial, but if you sorted long enough and thought hard enough you could always derive the truth from the crap and find yourself the better for having put the effort in.

  There were truths in myth, now she just had to figure out what was crap and what wasn’t. The only thing different about this time, this story, was the fact that every time she thought about these mythical and ancient Guardians, her stomach clenched and she felt as though her very soul was urging her towards the truth.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Katherine sat, curled like a child, in the big leather chair for hours, her mind a vat of churning questions and images, while she waited for Quinn to return. Never one to be patient with being kept waiting, every second that ticked by on the clock pushed her one step closer to the edge of her limit.

  She had been afraid of her own instincts lately. Quinn’s presence in her life had realigned her priorities and the process had been confusing.

  That had been a huge mistake.

  She didn’t regret falling in love with him or knowing him as her soul mate, but she should have known better than to dismiss her gut feelings about what Raphael had said about her, what he had called her, and Quinn’s knowledge of it. Quinn knew something, something important that he was keeping from her, and in the depth of her soul, she knew that for sure.

  Katherine’s stomach clenched and she felt a rise of gorge that she suppressed with a swallow from the warm and almost empty can of Pepsi she’d forgotten about hours ago when Damien had first mentioned the word Geliget.

  There was something about the word, about the story, that resonated with her, which was weird because she’d grown up hearing tales just like that one and none had ever felt… predestined.

  Every instinct she had was telling Katherine that she’d just found the root of the mystery, the tip of the big secret that the man she loved was keeping from her, and that she would find the answers she needed with Quinn.

  It was strange, though. The ache she expected to feel at the prospect of Quinn’s betrayal wasn’t coming. She felt a sickness in her stomach that she couldn’t quite place, but she didn’t feel as though she’d just lost her soul mate. And that’s what it would amount to. If Quinn had been playing her from the start, he would be lost to her forever. She would never forgive him and she would never again trust herself.

  Katherine’s heart and soul screamed against the very thought of Quinn as a possible traitor to her and her family. There must be a reason that he would keep who he was, what he was, a secret from her. That is, if he really was one of these Geliget, if they even existed. If they didn’t, if everything that had happened was somehow explainable, then she knew without a doubt that Quinn would have those answers for her.

  Done with suppressing her instincts, Katherine grabbed onto that certainty with all of her soul and pulled it close to her, like a shield, protecting her from examining any other possibility. Then, with that shield tucked securely around her, she waited.

  ♀♀♀

  His footfall was quiet, would have been silent to human ears, but she knew the moment he approached the front door of the apartment.

  She heard him open and close the door, then click the lock into place and slide the deadbolt across. She stayed silent and waited.

  Katherine knew he’d scented her when he stopped just short of the living room and turned to stand in the doorway, his body illuminated by the light he’d just turned on in the porch.

  “Katherine?” He sounded strange, sad and bone weary. She couldn’t help but feel a tinge of worry for him before she pushed that feeling down and allowed all of the pent up frustration of the day fill her. She reached over and clicked on the nearby lamp, needing to see his eyes when she asked him if he was a traitor.

  “What are you doing in here? Is everything okay?”

  He stepped toward her, raising his hand up to shield his eyes from the bright light of the lamp, but stopped suddenly just before her. Katherine could tell the moment his eyes acclimatized and he could see her own expression of anger, fear, and desperation.

  When she spoke it was through gritted teeth, “Where were you?” The sound of her own voice almost broke her, but she pinched her nails into her palms and tried not to give in to her need for reassurance. Katherine focused on the pain and fury within her and pushed any other emotions back.

  The exhaustion left his eyes at the sound of her voice and caution took its place. He dropped into a squat in front of the leather chair and reached toward her with a hand that she cringed back from.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call Kat.” He pushed a hand through his hair and left the strands sticking up, a tell he had whenever he was nervous. He would make a terrible poker player. “I had to get in contact with my family and… discuss a few things. That’s all.”

  “And what did your family have to say?” Visions of ancient Guardians filled her mind as she pictured Quinn’s family and she studied his features in the light of the lamp. He was beautiful, as wolf and man, with sharp bone structure and caramel colored skin from days spent in the sun. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, but he was her soul mate, so that was a forgone conclusion.

  Her soul mate…the one wolf in existence that her soul needed in order to be complete. The one man that had the ability to make her feel all that nature had gifted her with emotionally, spiritually and physically.

  She waited and prayed he would tell her the truth.

  He kept his head down when he spoke, as though he was embarrassed to utter the words, “My family…” he faltered, then continued in an almost formal tone, “my father, spoke to me of Raphael’s reign of terror against your family. He asked for an update and I explained to him what has happened in the time since we last spoke. I told him of our bond and love for one another and of how we miraculously escaped the hunter.”

  Katherine felt the rage that had surged through her for hours start to melt away as he spoke of their love for one another and the bond they had formed as soul mates. She tried desperately to hold onto it, to stay numb, but it was impossible.

  When the fury cleared from her mind, Katherine was left with questions that she desperately needed to be answered and a determination to hear those answers right now. She breathed in, exhaled, and then looked him directly in the eyes. “Did you tell him that you happened to survive a direct gunshot wound with a silver bullet to the heart? Did you tell him that Quinn?”

  For a second the room was silent. Only the beat of their hearts provided a backdrop to the question she’d posed. Quinn’s entire body grew stiff, with shock or anger she didn’t know. Katherine pushed herself out of the chair, forcing him to stand and step back. She stood directly in front of him in the shadowy room, her back as straight as she could make it for fear that if she relaxed just one tiny bit, she would
fall apart on the spot.

  Quinn stared back at her, chewed his bottom lip, and then nodded once. “I thought you might have caught that little fact.”

  Katherine wasn’t prepared for her own reaction when it came.

  She exploded, her hands reaching into her own hair to pull at the roots so she wouldn’t scrape her nails down his face in pure frustration. Fiery rage swelled through her again, throbbed through her veins as she replayed in her mind the moment he had been thrown back against the concrete wall from the blast of the gunshot.

  “You thought I might have caught that little fact!” Her voice sounded shrill and dangerously close to shattering glass to her own ears but she couldn’t control what she was feeling. She felt her wolf respond to her rush of emotions and the urge to change right then and there overwhelmed her. Katherine turned her head to the side and reached down to grab a pillow from the chair, then pressed it against her mouth and screamed or howled, she couldn’t tell, for a full minute.

  It helped. When she lowered the pillow her pulse was slower and the need to attack Quinn was passed. She still felt close to explosion though and wanted Quinn to know that.

  “I will not,” she ground out in a low growl, “stay with a man who lies to me, soul mate or not, so you had better tell me who you are right now.” The flood of emotions she was feeling changed abruptly from anger to grief and she felt a tear spill out of her eye and roll down her left cheek. Too emotionally exhausted to feel embarrassed at her display of weakness or her rolling emotions, Katherine just let the tears come. Her next words came out as sobs, “Tell me.”

  Quinn’s eyes were glazed with his own tears. He raised one hand and wiped the tears from her cheek then raised her chin so that her eyes met his. “Let me show you.”

  Katherine jerked away from the reassuring hand, her heart terrified to let him touch her, terrified that he wouldn’t touch her ever again. She felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, with confusion swarming around her, throughout her, leaving desolation in its path.

  Quinn didn’t move. His hand floated in the air near her face, not touching her skin, but wanting to.

  “Please,” his voice was ragged with emotion, enough that Katherine felt drawn to look into his eyes and see his fears, “please just let me do this. I can show you.”

  Katherine stilled and quieted her mind. She could see anticipation and fear swimming through Quinn’s eyes and she shut her own, closing herself off from distraction. She wanted to see, to know; she needed to.

  She nodded.

  He leaned forward quickly, bringing his body close to hers, and she cringed back from him again. The sound that came from him agonized by her reaction but he continued, reaching around her until they stood intimately together. Then he kissed her.

  His lips touched hers gently and she felt warmth flush throughout her face and neck. She was about to pull away from him, to force herself to dig deeper and find her answers when the first flicker of images caressed her mind.

  She stilled and waited.

  As a wolf and a member of a very close-knit family, Katherine was used to the invasion of other minds into her own. Sometimes it was done accidently when someone close to her was feeling too much and couldn’t control the overflow and sometimes it was done purposefully when silent communication was wanted or needed. During those times, it was as though her own thoughts momentarily shifted to the back of her mind while the thoughts of someone else filled her. She could hear and feel what was being said, being felt, by the other wolf.

  This was nothing like that.

  It was as though she was standing inside a cathedral at sunset and oceans of colors were surrounding her as light filtered through the stained windows. The images and colors were confusing at first, but they filled her with warmth and a sense of being home.

  The images shifted slowly and soon she was inside the mind of a small child, looking out through his eyes at the world around her. She could see everything that he could see and feel all that he felt, and what she felt and saw was beautiful.

  She, he, was in an old building that housed rows and rows of ancient leather-bound books and smelled musty. The smell was familiar and beloved for the child and, inside his mind and body, Katherine drew in a deep breath and relaxed.

  Then her entire body began to vibrate and she found her body falling to the hard floor of the archival room. Her eyes remained open even as his fluttered shut.

  Then she felt it. The sensation was indescribable and earth shattering all at the same time. Inside the mind and body of this small child, Katherine felt a wave of life flow through her, into her, becoming her. A heat filled her stomach, his small stomach, and began to work its way through her bloodstream, alighting his skin as it went until his whole body was so hot that she was sure he was glowing and about to burst into flame.

  Then the heat sunk into her very bones and she gasped. The child whose body she was a part of and whose limbs were sprawled across the hard stone floor was no longer the child he had just been. She could feel the difference in him, in the very blood and bones of his body and mind.

  He had seen them. This small boy, this child that somehow Katherine knew had been Quinn, had walked for long moments with the ancestors, the Great Old Ones that had been the beginning of our kind, and was the soul of her people.

  There was a seat of power in his body now, flowing throughout him, and she smiled because it was beautiful and wonderful.

  Katherine opened her eyes and saw Quinn staring at her, his eyes hopeful, worried, filled with a lifetime of fear.

  She tilted her head to the side and looked at him, seeing him from outside his body this time. Without a thought as to why she was doing this, Katherine reached out her hand and put it against his abdomen. She felt the rise and fall of his breath.

  “That was you?” She already knew the answer.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you a prophet?” The words came to her mind and flowed out of her mouth without her permission.

  He licked his bottom lip nervously and nodded once. “My people call me and others like me, Dreamers, but yes, we’re prophets.”

  The feeling of heat and white light that the vision had infused within her curled inward and cocooned itself in her stomach. She took her hand from Quinn’s abdomen and rested it on her own as if cradling newborn life within her. She opened her mouth to tell Quinn about the strange feeling and then stopped.

  A sense of quiet determination came over her as the tiny seed of connection to the Old Ones that Quinn had been gifted with sprung to life within her. She pressed harder against her abdomen and smiled faintly. She sat there silently, knowing that Quinn was watching her, and marveled at the impossibility of what had just happened.

  She could feel her people. Not just on a wolf to wolf basis as she’d always felt, but on a more intimate level. It was almost as though the beat of her own heart echoed the beat of her people, her kind, the world over.

  Instead of being terrified, Katherine felt calm within her soul. The anger she’d felt earlier was no longer a part of her. She felt balanced and solid, like a tree whose roots went deep into the Earth.

  “How did you do that?” She put her hand to her forehead and then touched his gently. “How did you show me that?”

  He smiled gently and shrugged his shoulders, “It’s something I’ve been able to do ever since the day I first dreamed.”

  “That was no dream.” Once again Katherine let the words that came to her slip unobstructed from her lips. She knew she was right, she could feel it. “They were with you. I felt them inside you.” There was no need to specify who she was talking about; they both knew. She paused to breathe deeply then raised her chin so that she could look into his eyes. “What are you?”

  Chapter Twenty Six

  “I’m a Guardian.”

  The house was so quiet and empty that his words, spoken in a low voice, resonated within the walls.

  “Geliget,” Katherine spoke the word her cousin
had taught her and felt a surge in her abdomen. She pressed her hand to her flat stomach and thought how this must be what it felt like to have a child move within its mother. She wasn’t pregnant, though, and the feeling she was having was more than just creating life. She was life, or at least that part of her that, even now, filled her body was a part of pure creation, pure life. A tear slipped from her eye and she closed her eyes to revel in the moment.

  When she opened her eyes, Quinn was watching her carefully. He kept glancing toward her stomach with anxious eyes then back to her face. She moved her hand off her stomach and brought it to her side. It didn’t feel like the right moment to go into whatever was happening inside of her. It felt private and incredibly intimate, now just wasn’t the time. Besides, she needed concrete answers from Quinn.