I looked at her apologetically. “I promise, from this moment on I will tell you the truth about everything. You can trust me Hope.”
She looked into my eyes. It was like she was trying to read my thoughts to determine if I was telling her the truth. “This is all just so overwhelming.”
“Tell me what happened. Talk to me.”
“I found out I’m a witch. And a vampire hunter apparently. And...a werewolf somehow. I mean that’s crazy right? Werewolves turn into wolves. I’ve never done that.”
“I haven’t either.”
She looked confused. “I thought you were a werewolf.”
“Werewolves don’t start shape shifting until they’ve reached sexual maturity.” I’m pretty sure I was blushing. “When you have sex, it activates it.”
If there was ever a reason to not have sex it would be that. Being a virgin meant I didn’t have to shift into a wolf during the full moon.
I just admitted to the girl of my dreams that I was a virgin. Great. Just great. I was mortified.
She blinked a few times. “I feel like I’m in the fucking twilight zone.”
I laughed. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Chapter 35: Hope
I just lived through the weekend of hell.
I found out that not only am I a witch that comes from a family of vampire hunters, but a werewolf too. I know. WTF!
In all my dreams of what I expected my father to be, wolf was never anywhere on the table.
As I walked onto the school grounds, I looked around at all of the other students. Were some of these people werewolves or witches too? Who knew? It’s not like I looked like a werewolf or a witch.
I didn’t trust anyone in this town anymore. I was even weary of trusting Knight and he spent his entire Saturday trying to explain to me all that he could about werewolves.
They usually traveled in packs, so I was technically a part of one of those packs. I just had no idea which one. There were quite a few, but two main ones in Salem Point. His and Hayden’s.
Speaking of Hayden, she was glaring at me again as I came into her view. She was sitting with the other girls at one of the tables outside. The witches. I could not believe this was my life now. Witches. Crazy.
I was feeling bold today. I had the weekend to get used to the idea of all of this being real. I still wasn’t, but fake til you make it right?
One thing I was sure of was that I was now going to get Hayden to leave me alone. I sat down across from her.
She looked at me in surprise. “I’m sorry. Did someone invite you to the table?”
Lexie sighed. She gave me an apologetic look and glared at Hayden.
I smiled. “What are you going to do? Bite me?”
Hayden’s face contorted in shock. The crease between her eyebrows deepened as she straightened up in her seat. “What did you just say?”
I loved the look on her face. I wanted to laugh. I finally got the reaction I wanted from the mean girl.
Lexie was looking at me in shock too. So were Tegan and Aria.
I moved closer to them and lowered my voice. “That is what wolves do when they’re provoked right?”
Surprise turned to anger quickly. “Okay, how the hell do you know anything about that?”
“Listen, I don’t care what you and all of you are. I don’t want any part in any of this. Have fun howling at the moon and leave me the hell alone. Stop glaring at me and back the hell off.”
I got up from the table and went over to Jade, who was watching me talk to them from afar.
“What was that about?” she asked.
“Nothing. Just telling Hayden to back off.”
She smiled. “I like you more and more everyday Hope.”
I had no plans of telling Jade what I was. She wasn’t a part of this. I didn’t want to put her in any more danger than she was already in just by knowing me.
I was dangerous to be around now.
I didn’t like what my life was becoming. I didn’t like it one bit.
* * *
Later that day I went to the bathroom during third period. When I came out of the stall, Elizabeth was standing against the wall. She had her arms folded across her chest.
Even without knowing she was a vampire she would scare the shit out of me with the way she was looking at me. She was trying to intimidate me, and it was unfortunately working.
“I’m not afraid of you.” It was a total lie. I was petrified of her. I didn’t know vampires were capable of, but I imagined some pretty terrible things.
She grinned. “Then you’d be a fool. I don’t think you’re a fool Hope. Besides, I can hear your heartbeat. If you were an old man I’d say you were in danger of having a heart attack.”
I didn’t like this whole heartbeat thing. It made me feel like I had zero privacy. I couldn’t even hide how I was feeling.
She moved closer to me. I kept my feet planted to the floor. I had to take a stand. Otherwise these vampires were going to walk all over me. I wasn’t going to be their little victim.
She smiled and to my surprise it was a warm, genuine smile. That or she was really good at pretending. “You don’t have to be. I have no intentions of hurting you. For some reason my brother likes you. Both of them. I think.”
That was news to me. Wyatt looked at me like more of a snack than someone he liked.
A girl came into the bathroom. Elizabeth looked at her seriously and into her eyes. “Get out.”
The girl left the bathroom right away.
Wow. That must be nice.
I suddenly remembered the first night I was in town. Wyatt had tried to do that to me. He told me I wanted to kiss him, but it didn’t do anything to me.
“Does that thing not work on werewolves?” I asked her.
“What thing?”
“The eye thingy you do.”
“Compulsion. No, it doesn’t work on any supernaturals or anyone with hawthorne in their system.”
That was good to know. At least they couldn’t use their mind control tricks on me.
“Anyway, I have no quarrels with you, Hope. Given you don’t do anything to hurt my family.”
“I’m not planning on hurting your family. You guys are the vampires, remember? Your brother is the one that keeps sneaking up on me in dark corners.”
She waved it off nonchalantly. “Wyatt gets bored easily. If he meant you harm he would have already done something. He’s harmless.” She stopped and thought about her words for a moment. “Most of the time.”
“I don’t want to be a part of this world, so you don’t have to worry about me.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Oh, you poor, poor girl. Hope, you were born into this world. You’re in it, whether you want to be or not.”
She was right. Mom pretended she wasn’t a part of this world. She ran from who she was. But it still seemed to catch up with her. I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.
What if it wasn’t just some person that killed Mom? What if it was a vampire?
Chapter 36: Knight
I had to speak with my uncle. After school I went straight to his house. I had to talk to him about Hope.
I asked her if it would be alright if I told him about her. She wanted to see if there was a way to find out which pack she comes from. She wanted to find out who her father was and if he was still alive.
My uncle was the alpha. If anyone had answers, it’d be him.
“Hey Knight,” Uncle Gavin said. He sat down at his desk. “Your aunt said you were here. Sorry you had to wait. I had pack business to attend to. What’s up?”
“I had to speak to you about Hope.”
“What about Hope?”
“She’s a werewolf. And a witch.”
The crease between his eyebrows deepened. He scratched his beard and sat back in his chair. He looked like he was trying to solve one of those tricky math problems that I could never understand even when I tried. “How’s that possible?”
/> “I was hoping you could tell me.”
He shook his head. “As far as I know there’s never been anything like that. Most supernatural beings don’t procreate together. They’re afraid of what that will do.”
“That must be why vampires are after her. They’re afraid of her. She’s also a Warren.”
He knew the name right away. He came to town later in his life so he didn’t know Hope’s mother. “Maybe you should stay away from this girl Knight. She sounds dangerous.”
If only it were that simple. I couldn’t stay away from Hope even if I wanted to. There was this magnetic pull towards her that I constantly felt.
“I can’t. I can’t explain it, but I need to be around her. I need to be there to protect her. I feel drawn to her.”
He tilted his head. “What you’re describing sounds like a mate. Hayden’s your mate.”
I slammed my hand down on his desk, surprising him. I stood from the chair and paced the room to calm myself down. “I don’t feel shit for Hayden. I never did.”
“It’s not always so intense.”
Uncle Gavin was annoying as fuck. All he cared about was merging the packs. “What if she’s not my mate? I know you want the packs to merge, but maybe we’re not supposed to. Maybe the fact that I feel nothing for her is a sign that it’s a bad idea.”
He exhaled loudly. I was annoying him now. “Our packs have a history of mating with each other. We’ve just never had alphas mate together. This will create one whole pack that you and Hayden will lead. And your child will…”
“Oh save me the speech. I’ve heard it before.”
“Knight, this is your destiny.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you. If she’s my mate, I should feel something for her. But I don’t. You’re trying to force something that’s not there with Hayden.” I took a steadying breath. “But it is there with Hope. I’m telling you. I feel this pull to her.”
“We don’t even know what pack she comes from.”
“Who cares?” I didn’t care what pack she belonged to. I wanted to be with her. Not with her pack.
“That’s enough. One day you’re going to take over as leader to our pack and you’re going to marry Hayden and merge our pack with hers. It’s the right thing to do for your pack. You need to remain loyal to your pack.”
“I am loyal to my pack.” That was the only reason I wasn’t kissing Hope right now.
“You’re not acting like it. You’re an alpha Knight. It’s time you start acting like one.”
How could I do that when it meant giving up the only person I ever felt love for?
The feeling I had inside of me was too strong to ignore. If I couldn’t be with Hope, it was going to tear me apart.
Chapter 37: Hope
I walked home alone. I didn’t feel like talking to Jade today. There was so much going through my mind and I felt like I was going to burst.
Bringing Jade into my problems would be selfish.
I was really struggling with all of this. It wasn’t even the whole being a witch and a werewolf thing. It was Mom.
Finding out everything that she kept from me was bringing up memories of the past. I kept looking back on things that happened. Now that I thought about it, there were subtle signs that there was something she was hiding from me. I was nine when she died, so I didn’t recognize it at the time.
She always seemed to be on the lookout. She never socialized with people in town. She always kept our lives private. It wasn’t just stranger danger she taught me. She didn’t even want me speaking with other people’s kids. Any time I had a playdate, they had to come over our house. She never let me out of her sight.
Mom knew she was in danger. She was always protecting me. I just didn’t realize it was from literal monsters.
When I got home Christian was waiting outside. I narrowed my eyes at him. He was starting to bug me. Especially because I was still insanely attracted to him, but at the same time I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Vampires were coming after me. Christian and his siblings were vampires. But somehow they were good vampires? It was hard to differentiate the difference.
Although Wyatt didn’t seem very good, regardless of what Elizabeth said. She’s his sister. Of course she’s going to defend him.
Christian was different. The way he looked at me was nothing like how Wyatt looked at me. When we first met he tried to stay away from me. He even treated me like shit to get me to want to stay away from him. He was trying to protect me from this life. Too bad it was the inevitable.
I walked up the steps. “What are you doing here Christian?”
“Can I please talk to you?”
“I think we’re done talking.”
I went to unlock the door. Christian got up from his seat and came closer to me. “Hope, please.”
I turned back and looked into his eyes. “What do you want, Christian?”
“I need to apologize.”
“Apologize for what?”
“I shouldn’t have blurted everything out the way I did. It was wrong of me.”
“It’s fine. You told me the truth. I should be thanking you. I guess.”
“No. It wasn’t my truth to tell. This life is dangerous, Hope. That must be why your mother didn’t raise you to be a part of it. I’m sorry I dragged you into it.”
I wish it was that simple. Him being the reason would make everything so much easier. But I was born into this. Christian had nothing to do with the vampires coming after me.
I shook my head. “You didn’t. There’s someone after me and you saved me from them. They were after me because of who I am, not because of you.”
He saved me. That vampire could have killed me if Christian hadn’t been there. “I never said thank you for that. You saving me.”
“You don’t need to thank me. I couldn’t let anything happen to you.”
I looked into his eyes. His gaze was so intense. I couldn’t look away from him. I knew it wasn’t the compulsion since I wasn’t capable of being compelled. It was Christian.
I felt like kissing him. But that was the last thing I needed right now. I had enough complications in my life. Kissing a vampire was something I didn’t need added to the list.
Besides, I felt this connection with Knight that was becoming harder to ignore. This was so crazy. How could I feel this way for two guys at the same time?
I cleared my throat and looked away from him. “So, how old are you exactly?”
He grinned. “A lot older than you. I was born in 1756.”
“Wow. That’s pretty old.”
“I know. Technically, I am seventeen though.”
“Are you like one of those born vampires too?”
“No. I was turned. Unfortunately it was my own fault. I got close with a young woman that just moved to our small town. When my father found out what she was he tried to drive her and her family out of town. She left, but not before coming back to turn me and my siblings. She was the one responsible for the fire that killed my parents.”
“I’m so sorry Christian.”
“It was a long time ago. I try not to think about my life before I became a vampire. It feels like a different time. A different life.”
“I’d bet. I mean it was over two centuries ago.” I tilted my head. “Do you like being a vampire?”
“I did, at first. But through the centuries it became more of a hassle.”
I could see why it would be a hassle. Constantly having to move around and make sure no one figures out your secret. And don’t get me started on the blood. Ugh, disgusting. “I’m sure the whole drinking people’s blood thing must be difficult.”
“Actually, I follow a different diet. I drink animal blood. Downside is it makes me weaker than vampires that drink human blood.”
That was comforting. At least he didn’t eat people. But any blood drinking in general was still gross to me. “I don’t think there’s anything weak about you.”
He di
dn’t look very weak when he attacked that vampire. And knowing that he wasn’t as strong as the other vampire made it that much more special. He defended me knowing there was a chance he would lose.
“That man the other night.”
“The one that snapped your neck?”
“Yes, him. Who is he?”
“Kane. He’s a vampire too. And my stalker. He claims he’s here to protect me. But I don’t know if I trust him. His family sent him to kill me when I was twelve.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “Who’s his family?”
“He said his last name is Cassius.”
The name seemed to have meaning to him. He looked like he just saw a ghost. His usual pale skin was even paler than usual.
“Not good huh,” I said.
Christian got closer to me. He placed his hand on my arm. His touch was so gentle. “He’s not a vampire you want around. Hope, if they’re after you, then you’re going to need more protection than just one vampire.”
“Get your hands off of her.”
Knight was standing at the bottom of the porch steps, glaring daggers at Christian. It looked like he wanted to kill him with his bare hands. I had never seen Knight so angry. It was like looking at a completely different person. And his voice. When he spoke it sounded like he was possessed by a monster.
“Knight…”
“Get away from her.”
Christian turned to look down at Knight. He took a deep breath and stood his ground. I looked between the two of them. This was awkward as hell. Christian’s eyes started to turn a darker color.
“Guys, I think everyone needs to calm down.”
“I’m calm,” Christian said. “He’s the one with the killer gene.”
Knight scoffed. “That’s funny coming from a vampire. You need to get away from Hope now.”
“I don’t know, but I think that should be Hope’s decision, don’t you Hope?”
“Guys, please, I don’t want any more drama.”
They weren’t backing down and it was stressing me the hell out. “Screw this. I’m going inside. You two want to be idiots and fight, go right ahead.”
Protecting Hope: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Bloodmoon Series Book 1) Page 11
