A Bite of Frost: Paranormal Anthology

by Zoe Parker

  Kali felt her lip curl, a display of her own dislike.

  “You have no say anymore, Michelle. This isn't your pack.” Moira chided. Michelle’s eyes flared with temper.

  “Our leader is weakened because of his mate’s death,” Michelle snapped. “Only someone at full strength can lead.”

  “You are not the strongest here,” Moira countered, her eyes on Kali. Kali knew the Lupe Law. She shook her head in denial. She wanted no part of leadership of any kind. No part of the Lupes either.

  She had no intention of joining their pack or even hinting at it.

  “She has no mate,” Michelle shot back. “Ebon will not mate anyone.” Her bitterness leaked out a little in that statement. Kali had always been good at assimilating information. It didn’t fail her now. This Michelle had tried and been declined.

  Moira laughed. “How many other females has he broken through walls to get to, Michelle?” She then stepped forward with her hand held out. “Let me see to the wounds you’ve reopened.”

  Kali stared at her hand liked it possessed tentacles.

  “Its okay, no one will hurt you here,” Moira reassured her. Kali frowned at the Lupe. Hurt her? Maybe not. Sell her off as a broodmare? That’s the likely outcome. Moira’s eyes gentled even as they filled with humor. “I won’t let them make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

  More blood trickled down her stomach. She sighed.

  “Can I at least pee and get a smoke?” The silence of the room didn’t deter her from impatiently waiting and when no answer came forward she turned to go find the bathroom on her own.

  Chapter Five

  Eventually, tired and sore she ended up in the bedroom. With reassurances that she could leave any time she wanted, she didn’t miss the irony of the door locking behind the woman who brought her a tray of food. So much for not being forced. They claimed to be locking her in for her own protection. Moira told her that fights were breaking out over who would vie for her.

  Vie? Who the hell used that word?

  She sighed and put the untouched tray aside. She should eat and she knew it, but her stomach told a different story. She didn’t know them so didn’t trust them; neither did her tender stomach. A bullet in the gut is killer on the appetite.

  Her eyes fell on the barred window. Yes, barred. It gave her that comfy feeling inside. But despite everything, she was alone for the moment and that was okay. Her thoughts were kind of raw and this safe—ha—little room would give her the time she needed to gather herself up.

  The bars on the window would only hold her as long as she wanted them to. Something she doubted they fully realized. Her craving for a cigarette kept her from lying back and forgetting everything for awhile. Apparently, none of them smoked. They were health nuts. She heard, at least five times, how bad a habit smoking was. Who cared about lung cancer when she wasn’t going to live long enough to die from it? They ate people and thought smoking was bad; that was such a weird set of beliefs to possess at the same time.

  Loud voices from downstairs carried clearly to her, pulling her from asinine thoughts about meat eating Lupes grazing on alfalfa sprouts and broccoli. Lupes didn’t have the same hearing as Strix, however she did. It didn’t surprise her that she was the subject of the argument. The biggest debate was was what to do with her. A decision that was not theirs to make.

  Margie had been her teacher, in some ways her savior and she hadn’t had much control. Kali fought her all along. It was their way, the whole dominance thing and thinking they could control everyone in their circles. She understood them, in purely a logical sense, and completely disagreed with them.

  She smiled when she heard the word ‘Exiled’. They were freaked out by Ebon’s presence. Which kind of amused her. It kind of freaked her out too, but not in the same way as them. They feared him, everyone feared him.

  He didn’t scare her, he made her feel something else entirely.

  There was a reason the Lupes and Strix feared him. He wasn’t a ‘good’ guy. Something she knew without doing any actual soul searching. He wasn’t inherently evil, just not good, either. Kali had no idea why she was so sure about that fact, but she was as sure about it as she was about sitting in the bed. Or breathing oxygen.

  Just as she was sure she was attracted as hell to him on a level that was so beyond normal that she pinched herself to make sure she was awake. Yep, it hurt. Margie warned her about a true alpha and now she got it. She got all of it.

  She realized too that she was glad Ebon wasn’t a ‘good’ guy. Kali wasn’t exactly a good person anymore. She paused in her thoughts and listened more closely. He apparently killed any Lupe or Strix that fucked with him. Since he possessed no designated territory he had no qualms about going where he wanted and taking what he wanted. Mentally she shrugged. The Lupes downstairs criticizing him for it were just as guilty. Lupes were constantly infighting and were always at war with Strix.

  Rumors aside, she doubted they knew him at all.

  But she wanted to.

  Confused at her own thoughts, she thumped backwards on the bed. The craving for a smoke intensified. Her eyes drifted closed at her sudden tiredness. A nap wouldn’t hurt, just a little one.

  Chapter Six

  He bent two of the bars outwards to fit through. Their presence didn’t please him at all. This was a prison for her, no matter what they told her. For a few hours he sat in the restaurant across the street and watched the house, debating how he was going to handle this situation. Eventually, he was drawn to peek in the window like a creep. He was curious at her decision to stay and the only way to get any real answers was from her.

  The foolish Lupes had to know they couldn’t hold her. She was so much more than them.

  His eyes fell unerringly on her sleeping form. A smile lifted the corner of his mouth. She slept with he same abandon she fought with. Her arms were thrown out to her sides while one leg bent up and the other was bent out as if she were running. Slipping through the space in the bars, he walked on silent feet to the side of the bed.

  Desiring to touch her, his fingers drifted across the skin of her exposed calf.

  It was so smooth, and so soft that he repeated the action. Other than for food, and incredibly brief bouts of intimacy, he hadn't truly touched a woman in centuries. It amazed him that such a simple touch could affect him enough that he felt like a horny teenager again. He let his fingers trail further up, pausing at the large scar on her upper thigh. A burn. Trials of her short life. His fingers continued up her thigh. Stopping at the juncture of them, he stared at what lay hidden just below the sheet.

  It called to him, that secret place of hers. Called to the beast he was. The one he couldn’t hide with humanity he didn’t possess. Unable to stop himself he leaned forward and let his lips, his tongue touch her leg right beside the source of the heat calling to him like a siren from lore.

  The smell of her swamped his senses.

  Fuck, she smelled so good.

  “You are a weakness I do not need.” Why he said those words out loud, he didn’t know. But it drew him from the spell her nearness was weaving over him. He straightened and took a step back. It was harder than he thought possible to pull his eyes away from the core of her. The core he wanted to lose himself in. Would lose himself in… eventually.

  He managed it. With eyes that missed nothing, he took in her healing injuries.

  The ones on her stomach were the worst. Several ribs had been broken and were now only blackened marks on her pale skin. One cut went from slightly above her belly button to the top of her - he pulled his eyes away. If he fell under that spell again he would do something that might completely piss her off.

  She wasn’t ready for that step yet.

  Her breathing changed, hinting at her ensuing wakefulness. He moved up the wall to the dark corner to watch her. The minute her back arched he realized he should’ve left instead of staying to watch. Her upper body lifted off the bed offering up - his teeth clenched he fou
ght the returning need to touch her.

  “So, you really are here. I thought I was dreaming.” Her voice startled him. It was not something he experienced often. Her eyes fell on him in the darkness. He dropped to the floor. It was foolish to think he felt her so intensely and she couldn’t feel him. Of course she could.

  It was how it worked.

  “Why did you stay?” His soft but deep voice sent chills straight up her spine. It only added to the arousal already pulsing inside of her. The dream she had…wow. Dreams of his hot mouth on her - she cleared her throat.

  “I'm curious how they live.” She was curious why Lupes were in obvious Strix territory. How it all tied together. Even curious if this could open previously closed doorways for her.

  His head cocked slightly, studying her an with intensity she could feel through the dark lenses of his glasses. She shivered. Not in fear. “There is more,” he stated.

  Her eyebrow raised, but she didn’t add anything. At this point it wasn’t really any of his business.

  “Why did you come when I was panicking?”she asked instead. His stance slightly shifted.

  “There was no choice.” Unsure of what to think of his reply, she studied his face.

  “There’s always a choice.” He shook his head and stepped closer.

  “Not in some things.” He had the sexiest voice she had ever encountered. A little raspy and deep with a hint of an accent.

  Christ, Kali, stop being goo-goo and keep your shit straight.

  He spoke nonsense. Right? Her brain was just tired that was all. The healing was sapping her energy and making her think silly shit. Looking up, she found him still staring at her in the exact same position. It was rather eerie, him doing that.

  “So young.” Her eyes narrowed at his words. Every instinct in her clamored at his danger level. They also pulled her towards him. How freaking crazy was that?

  “I’m not some dumb little kid, asshole.” Yes, she was offended.

  “Mouthy, aren’t you?”

  “So?”

  “Are you ready to leave?” The change in subject caught her off guard.

  “What? To go home?”

  He smiled and slowly slid his sunglasses off. Eyes as blue as the sunlit sky held her hostage as he said, “With me, where you belong.” He stepped closer to her and grabbed the corner of the sheet. Tugging on it, he pulled it off her, leaving her naked and completely exposed to his gaze. “After you get dressed. If you stroll down the stairs naked they might try to touch you. Then I’ll have to kill them all.”

  She should feel moral outrage that he felt like she needed him to defend her. Instead, she was instantly and utterly turned on. She still had to try and be offended. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “What do you need, Kali?” That was a very weighted question with a myriad of hidden meanings.

  “Everything, Ebon,” blurted out of her mouth. With a startled squeak, she covered her mouth with her hand before any other stupidity came out of it. When he smiled again, her hand fell away and she sighed.

  Denial had never worked for her; she meant it. This was the bond Margie told her about and she’d blindly stumbled into it. Should she fight it like she fought Margie? Or for the first time, take a step off the cliff and roll with it?

  The tension in the room climbed to the point that a fine sheen of sweat broke out on her upper lip. It definitely wasn’t the only wet part of her body. Then he did the one thing that cinched the deal completely; he pulled out a pack of smokes and handed her one.

  Taking the lighter he was offering her, she gave him a hesitant smile. Lighting up the smoke, she took a deep drag and exhaled with relief. For the first time in the last year and a half, Kali was completely at ease with what she was becoming. Because now she saw the wisdom that Margie tried to impart.

  She wouldn’t be doing this alone.

  “Do you mind killing people?” She doubted he did but felt asking was the polite thing to do. That smile grew even more and he stepped even closer.

  “Do you mind that I like killing people?” he countered. “I’m very good at it.”

  “What else are you very good at?” She was flirting with him and couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  “Everything, Kali.”

  The answer that would set her future in stone flowed easily from her.

  “You like Chinese food? I could eat me some Singapore noodles right now,” she said putting her hand out towards him. Easily getting the hint, he grabbed it and pulled her to her feet and then kept pulling until she was right up against him. “My treat?” she squeaked out.

  “Oh, you’re definitely a treat.” The thumping of feet coming up the stairs ruined the sexually charged moment that Kali was starting to enjoy. Giving the door an annoyed look he stepped away from her and swung a pack off his back. After his eyes traveled from the tips of her toes to her head he handed it to her.

  “Are you ready for what’s next?” he asked her, watching every movement she made while getting dressed in the clothes he was thoughtful enough to bring for her. He even brought her a hair tie.

  “You know what, Ebon… if you’re part of it, then yeah.”

  He grabbed her and pulled her to him, shocking her just enough that her mouth opened. When a warm tongue slid inside to explore hers, she only hesitated for a heartbeat before kissing him back. They were strangers, yes, but to her body … her soul - he was so much more.

  “We need to go before I kill them all just so I can fuck you.”

  The last bits of her humanity faded away as the monster in her fully woke up. Sharp teeth on display, she smiled at him.

  “There is no turning back, Kali.”

  She paused with one leg out the window and looked at him. He was guarding her back, letting her go first, and that reassured her as she answered, “Come on, let’s go before they get here. I don’t have another outfit to get dirty.” With a smile that was all pleased monster, he followed her out the window, and as they walked towards their future together she didn’t look back at the one she was leaving behind.

  She had a noodle date with a monster.

  Also by Zoe Parker

  The Facets of Feyrie Series:

  Elusion, Book One in the Facets of Feyrie Series

  Ascension, Book Two in the Facets of Feyrie Series

  Deception, Book Three in the Facets of Feyrie Series

  Book Four, Obliteration, coming early 2019!

  The Fate Caller Series:

  Cadence of Ciar, Book One in the Fate Caller Series (an RH series)

  Book Two, Rhythm of Rime, coming early 2019!

  Anthologies

  Shifting Destiny, a multi-genre shifter themed anthology

  Copyright © 2019 by Melony Paradise

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  The following story is a Paranormal short

  Forbidden love, a twofold curse, and a witch scorned. Two lovers will suffer for following their hearts.

  Tucked away in a remote mountain valley, a cover of witches turns on one of its own. When a young witch, Danielle Rose, fell in love with a human, she knew the coven would be against it. She never could’ve guessed how vengeful the High Priestess would be.

  Julius Hartfell loves Danielle, would do anything for her, even if it costs him everything. Now his life is changed forever and he must escape the coven’s hunters before they take away the one thing he cherishes most… Danielle.

  With the hunters on their tail, Danielle and Julius must flee through a dark forest during a treacherous winter storm, but the hunters aren’t the only ones after them. Will they survive the night and find the freedom to love in peace? Or will they pay the ultimate price?

  Chapter One

&nbs
p; Crackling torches surrounded the circular clearing, casting a glow on the snow. The moon hung low behind the winter clouds, brushing the treetops of the forest bordering the covenstead. A brutally cold wind blew a fireball off course, narrowly missing me. I felt the heat as it passed by my torn skirts. Julius and I had been stripped of our warm outer clothes as my coven mates ripped at us with their greedy hands.

  “How could you betray us for this mongrel, Danielle?” Patience stood tall on the top step of the covenstead home, lit from behind by the enormous fireplace inside. Her blonde hair hung like a silky cloud around her thin face. “Elijah is your intended. Together, you would have been deliciously powerful. Your children would have been princes and princesses among our people. Yet, you spat on our traditions, turned your back on your family, for this… this common human. It’s disgusting!”

  Unyielding hands wrenched my arms, fingers digging through the thin fabric of my dress. I glanced up at the two men keeping me on my knees, wincing at the sneers of Patience’s treasured enforcers, Kohl and Marcus. Beside me, two other witches, Samuel and Nathaniel, held Julius down, his dark hair plastered against his pale cheeks, blue tingeing his lips. My powers would protect me for a time, but Julius had no magical defense against the weather… or Patience.

  “Please, my priestess, let Julius go.” I tried getting a leg under me, but my captors held me down. “He… he doesn’t know our ways. He knew nothing of my betrothal. Send him back to the village and punish me. I swear I won’t fight back.”

  Elijah, with his long, blonde hair and thick winter coat, strode down the steps from where he’d stood beside Patience. His ice-blue eyes bore into me as he circled around behind me. I could hear his angry breathing, almost a growl.