Lycan's Blood Queen

by Catherine Edward

  Lycan’s Blood Queen

  (Book One of the Randolph Duology)

  By Catherine Edward

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  Copyright 2018 © Catherine Edward

  Supervising Editor(s): L. Austen Johnson, Camryn Nethken Editor(s): Rachel Powers, Chrysa Keenon

  Proofreader: Caira Coleman

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations and other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at Info@genzpublishing.org.

  GenZPublishing.org

  Aberdeen, NJ

  ISBN: 978-1-7339420-2-7

  Lycan’s Blood Queen

  Randolph Duology Book One

  CATHERINE EDWARD

  Dedication

  In the loving memory of my father Mr. Edward.

  To my mom, who always supports me in everything I do. To the paranormal romance author Cynthia Eden.

  Special thanks to author Melissa S. Vice, Rucha Kulkarni, Apurva Biswas and Alankrita Verma.

  CHAPTER 1

  Blood was the essence to his madness.

  The hunt was on. The adrenaline in his veins kept the creature thrilled. He found no delight in mundane things. What mattered was the chase.

  And the kill.

  While his initial thought suggested snagging a human for a quick snack, something changed. Though rain hindered his sense of smell by converging everything together, a persistent scent that stood out caught his attention. One that made him falter before taking the life of an earlier prey. The lucky bastard would live tonight thanks to the enriching and enticing aroma that pulled him its way.

  Hunting in the enemy’s territory was such a turn on, particularly this wannabe victim who smelled like honeysuckle. Boot-clad feet planted in heavy mud as the hungry predator tilted his head back. His nostrils flared as his senses tingled with the need to devour whoever carried the tantalizing sweetness in their blood. A flavor that begged for death.

  One plea he would gladly fulfill.

  Eyes that saw through the night, aligned in the direction his nose led him, bringing him to a dilapidated building made up of brick and mortar. His tongue flicked out and slid over gleaming teeth, careful of the fangs that sharpened with the thought and anticipation of draining the prey.

  But as he stepped forth, his head twisted toward an invading pungent smell.

  Dogs. And not one that could be shaken off easily.

  Chapped lips peeled back, and a defensive hiss slipped out with a flash of his fangs. At war with his desire to feed and the need to flee, he looked toward the building, then retreated to the woods and escaped into the darkness.

  ***

  Mia sighed, looking at the papers piled on her table. She had been working on her thesis for the past couple of hours, and she needed a break before she started seeing letters everywhere. Having chronic fatigue syndrome amid finals was not something she wanted.

  Her hands reached up and rubbed at strained eyes. They were probably bloodshot given how much they stung. She blinked the clock into focus. Half-past seven and she was nowhere near finished with her assignments.

  Great.

  On that note, she went back to focusing on the task at hand. Being an honors student meant having a boatload of work.

  Her stomach all but roared a few minutes later, reminding her she hadn’t eaten in the past six hours. Her kitchen stared back, appearing just as soulless as she felt. She’d forgotten to restock it. Not that she cooked much to begin with, but throwing ramen noodles into a pot sounded a lot better than putting in the extra energy to get dressed and stroll through the streets to hunt down a place of choice.

  Her stomach rumbled again, giving a final warning before it cannibalized on itself. “Okay, I’m leaving,” she told herself as she headed to get changed.

  Mia locked the door behind her as she stepped out, rolling her blonde hair into a sloppy bun. Distant thunder and the moist air promised rain showers. Even more reason for her to remain in. She wasn’t looking forward to being wet and cold. Probably explained why her building that housed nearly fifty residents was so quiet. It appeared as if they received the survival notice while it missed her.

  Despite how she felt about freezing in near rainfall, she reveled in the smell of crisp clarity after being holed up most of the day. The best part about the rain was the enriching scent it carried––of water and earth––the flourishing scent of life. Who would have thought mud would smell so aromatic?

  Pushing her fists deep into the coat pockets before they froze off, she headed toward a local diner nearby. Dim streetlights illuminated the outline of buildings lined on the side of the empty street. Rock music drifted from one of the worn-out apartment complexes. One of the lights in front of the nearby apartment flickered. The eerie glow of lights combined with the rolling thunder gave a haunted touch to her surroundings. There weren’t many shops in this part of town. Students and bachelors preferred this area for its cheaper rents.

  Idly, Mia thought about her father. Where was he? What was he doing? A normal person might just pull out their phone and call him. But that wasn’t their relationship. She was used to him not speaking with her often. Occasionally, little signs of his love for her would appear. A note. A sweater. And, books among the others.

  Sounded more like a butler than a father. Still, that was all it took to warm her heart.

  The only time they ever shared a conversation that lasted longer than a minute was when she graduated from high school. It annoyed her when he gave her a credit card, along with a list of rules to abide by. Guess it was easier to keep an eye on her while she was still under the same roof as him. College was a different story. If it wasn’t for her career of choice, her father would have been the hammer and the anvil to leading a robotic lifestyle.

  There had been a list of curfews that alternated around daylight savings and seasonal changes. People not to associate herself with—which comprised of the entire student body and then some—and things not to do in her free time. Clubbing, hang-outs, even driving around with anyone that wasn’t on public transportation, were serious offenses to her father. The only thing he didn’t monitor was her diet.

  Overprotective much? To most, perhaps. Paranoid was her answer—

  She bumped into something bringing her back into the present.

  "Watch it," the person snapped. A big guy from what she saw. Tall with dark hair and definitely the sensitive type based on the way he glared at her.

  Seriously? A wrinkle on his shirt bothered him that much?

  “Sorry,” she said with little meaning. He could’ve watched himself too. His pal standing behind him seemed the livelier of the duo. Handsome too with his blond hair and spring green eyes. Yeah, she supposed even Mr. Grumpy fit in that category, with his darker features.

  And whew, were they tall as heck, towering over her like skyscrapers. She wasn’t short to begin with, but their height and aura seemed. . .otherworldly.

  Dangerous.

  They sidestepped around her, moving on ahead. She continued on, involuntarily following their lead. Her mundane thought process halting as her instinct suddenly woke up. It was a shrieking alarm that forced her to keep her eyes on them. The same sensation you get when walking into the woods and coming across a mountain lion or a wolf. You stand your ground and hold your guard.

  Goldilocks turned his head over a shoulder, a glint in his eyes that didn’t seem so nice anymore. Her internal alarm dinged off electric signals all over he
r, and she almost expected them to do something. But they got in their muscle car parked along the sidewalk, the windows tinted so darkly it obscured her view. The warnings still didn’t go away, and she doubted if they were watching her. Only when the angry red Mustang came to life and backed out onto the black asphalt did her senses relax.

  Something was off. They were wrong. They were all wrong. And she hadn’t the faintest idea why or how.

  She somehow perceived that.

  Her stomach rumbled in the silence of the aftermath. Mia shook her head to clear her concern and schooled her expressions before entering the diner.

  CHAPTER 2

  Juan suppressed a growl as he walked through the woods with his brother. They rushed here after receiving a message from the border patrol. There had been a breach. Somehow, the intruder slipped through their tight security.

  They circled the perimeter, concluding their uninvited guest had escaped into the no man’s land once again. The brothers backtracked to where they started––the outskirts of the town. Scrunched leaves and the broken twigs guided them through its path.

  “The trail ends here,” Juan said. His head tilted, thumb and index finger caressing his square chin. A habit he obtained in his childhood. He squatted to study the wet footprints on the ground.

  His gaze lifted, peering into the darkness. Everything was calm, nothing out of the ordinary.

  The lingering dampness the atmosphere hinted at another downpour. His nose flared, drawing in the different scents from his surroundings––wet sand, trees, rotting leaves, small furry animals that ventured out of their holes in search of food––drifted through his nostrils.

  Then there was this stench that assaulted his senses. Corrupt. Damaging. The distinguished smell was laced with thrill––excitement of a predator. Who is the prey? Being a lycanthrope, he could smell the emotions of a person. His senses never betrayed him. He has spent years, honing his tracking skills.

  The furrow between his brows deepened. “He was alone,” Juan murmured, inspecting the tree line again. “And looking for prey.”

  “They’ve never hunted this far into our territory before,” his younger brother, Matthew, said. “This is the third sighting this week. Two humans are missing.”

  Juan’s jaw clenched. These weren’t just attacks, but an open challenge to their pack. One they’d gladly respond to.

  The messy footprints belonged to one person. The creature met no one that night. Their intruder was observing. He seemed to have remained at one particular spot a little longer.

  The spot allowed him vantage point to one particular building. He gazed at the old structure, concluding that the prey resided in one of the apartments.

  “Something’s amiss.” The leeches didn’t stalk or target a prey. They attacked out of the blue.

  “Brother, did you smell that?”

  He inhaled deeply, tuning in his senses before finally catching it. A mixture of citrus and flowery fragrances with an underlying stench that shouldn’t belong––

  An image popped in his memory. It was coming from one of the open windows. It was her.

  The girl they ran into earlier. There was a hint of a vampire-esque scent on the female when they met. It set their impulses on fire. But she possessed no characteristic features that can be defined as a vampire.

  Was she his accomplice?

  He was quick to curb that notion. It didn’t make sense. He rubbed his chin out of habit.

  Perhaps it was a coincidence, and he was actually here for someone else. But they needed to investigate this further. How she went unnoticed for so long was something he couldn’t come to terms with.

  The omegas that comprised the majority of the pack worked around the city. They should have been able to sense her presence. Last night’s encounter could be intentional. She showed no fear or shock. Her heartbeat was normal.

  “There’s more to this.” Every single thought ended with a question in his mind. How did she mask her scent? Witchcraft? What if there were more like her? The thought was unsettling to his beast.

  “We should tell him,” Matthew suggested after a moment of silence.

  Yes, they had to inform the alpha and the king of the lycans––their elder brother, Aaron George Randolph.

  “I’ll call him now.”

  The conversation was short and to the point. Not even hitting the minute mark when he hung up.

  “He wants us to tail her.”

  “I’m fucking tired of chasing tail,” Matthew said with rolling aggression. “We’re better off tossing her ass in a chamber.” Get rid of one pest for the day. “A fucking student at our university.”

  “It’s a place with a tremendous blood supply, and no one would suspect a thing,” Juan agreed. Smart girl, though. Unfortunately, not smart enough.

  “If

  things

  were

  easy,

  I’d

  have

  killed

  her

  already.”

  Nostrils flaring, his brother glared around. Given the tension in his body, he fought the temptation of pacing the forest floor to the dust and back, another of his habits. A natural born predator with an even deadlier side to him begged to be released from its host.

  “Easy, Matt.” Phone still out, he shot a text to some of the pack members. This girl intrigued him. She didn’t have the qualities of a vampire, yet she smelled like one. There was this strange aura around her; he couldn’t put his finger on.

  What are your intentions?

  He’d soon discover.

  “We need her alive.” For various reasons. But if what she confessed wasn’t satisfactory to their ears, she would not walk away fully intact.

  She was still the enemy.

  ***

  He stood with his back to her. A large figure in front of the massive fire roaring, more like screaming, into the night.

  She took a few steps toward him, her laced boots padding against the ground. As she got closer, the fire became brighter. Engulfing her in the warmth, but also blinding her.

  Then she saw the body in the pyre. Charred and blackened. Its head turned to her, a hand reaching for her from the blazing heat, holding tightly onto her boot, screeching her eardrums to deafness. The smell of decaying and burning flesh assaulting her.

  A hard grip on her shoulder forced her to face the hooded man.

  “Dad?”

  “Don’t look back.”

  It was a classic scene in most books and movies she’d seen. The protagonist waking up in the puddle of their own sweat due to nightmarish premonitions, right before something bad was about to go down. And it was happening to her.

  Sitting up in her bed, she glanced at the clock which showcased a rather disgusting number.

  Daybreak wasn’t in close proximity. She uncapped and gulped down the entire bottle of water kept under her bed. She set it on the table, lingering on the plastic container a moment longer than necessary.

  That hadn’t been a nightmare. It had been more like a memory. The fear and pain were too real.

  The sense of foreboding didn’t end with the dream, though.

  Later that day, there was urgency to her step when she left class. There was no logical explanation to it, but something was wrong. And she couldn’t help but see her father as the driving force behind it since the resurfaced nightmare.

  “Mia!”

  Mia stopped just as she reached the double doors that led her outside the building. Stella, the petite young woman, who approached her, was energetic as always. Her sable hair had been recently cut just below her ears, adding a sleek sophistication to her bubbly personality.

  Stella usually made her want to drink twenty espressos just to keep up with her, except today wasn’t that day.

  “Hey.” She kept things short and sweet. “Do you want something?”

  “Want something?” Confusion crossed her friend’s face. “I thought we were going to take our mock exams togeth
er.”

  Crap. She’d forgotten. It wasn’t like the weight of desperate worry looming over her had anything to do with her lack of memory.

  “Ladies! What’s up!”

  And here was Peter. The wrangler in decision making. He was a pretty absolute guy, though he lacked self-preservation. The all-American nice guy participated in every college event that was comprised of sports or social involvement. And he had an enormous crush on Mia.

  “You guys are taking the mock exams?” Peter asked only Mia, though Stella answered in her place.

  “Yeah. We are. We had no idea you were too.” She was surprised, not that Mia blamed her.

  He was nice, but he didn’t particularly excel in the science division, let alone participate in the practice exams.

  “I signed up the other day.”

  “Oh, gosh. That late fee is no joke. You should have paid for it when we did last semester. It was like a hundred dollars cheaper.”

  “Really? I didn’t know that,” he said, scratching the back of his head and looking away. The blush on his face was a dead giveaway as to why he was doing this.

  Thank you, Stella, for the rescue.

  Maybe now she could sneak off—“Why don’t you come with us?” Stella offered sweetly, like bad karma. “We were just getting ready to leave.”

  So, she wasn’t the saving grace Mia had thought her to be.

  Damn it.

  “Cool. Mind if I grab something to eat first? There’s this vendor that sells badass steak rolls.

  I’ll treat us—”

  “I have to make a phone call.” She suddenly interrupted him. She didn’t wait for them to respond as she stepped to the side, took out her phone and dialed her father. When it ended with a long beep, she texted him and tried not to let her worry develop into a panic.

  Everything was all right. Maybe he was just busy or just didn’t want to talk right now.