Secrets (The Serenity Series Book 1)

by Dawn Kirby

  We lay there, panting in fear and pain, as we watched the blood saturate her clothes. The rank odor of burnt flesh filled the air between us. Visible signs of pain racked her face as the bullet eased out of her body. In seconds the wound healed over. The shot had done little more than stun her, but at least we were inside.

  What she had in store for us now was anyone’s guess. Oddly, the attack I expected never came.

  “You have to invite her in,” Raine informed me breathlessly. He pressed his bloody arm tightly against his stomach. “She can’t come in the house unless you do.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” I assured him.

  Now I knew why David had asked permission to come in the night before. No matter how desperate the circumstance, he and Declan physically couldn’t go inside without my consent. I also knew why Judith was livid. The two of us getting into the safety of the house wasn’t part of her plan. Getting shot probably never entered the equation either.

  Judith calmed down enough to lick his blood from her lips. She sucked some more blood off her fingers and smiled sweetly down at Raine. A mischievous glint flashed through her eyes.

  “So, Mr. Thomas, there are two of you,” she said sweetly. “Imagine that. I taste something else in you, too. It’s different though, so much sweeter than JD. What exactly are you, love?” Her smiled turned vicious. “Not that it matters. Logan will be very interested to know he has an uncooperative member in his territory.”

  “You tell him and we’re both dead,” he said flatly. He then kicked the door shut.

  After lying there for a few more minutes we got up off the floor and went into the kitchen. His arm looked so much worse under the fluorescent light. Her fangs had sunk in at least two inches ripping, flesh, veins and muscle along the way. I ran upstairs and got some peroxide and a towel from the guest bathroom. It was the only one in the house I didn’t have to go through an obstacle course to get too.

  He was already standing over the sink by the time I got back. Blood still oozed out of the deep wounds. While he held his arm still, I poured the whole bottle of peroxide into the gashes. He gritted his teeth against the pain and held his trembling arm as steady as he possibly could. I knew it wasn’t going to be enough, but it was all I could do for him. I needed help and he needed stitches.

  “Can we make it to your Jeep?” Even I knew it was hopeless.

  “She’ll stay out there as long as it takes,” he mumbled. “You’re stuck with me ‘til daylight.”

  “I thought Donovan said she lived here, too,” I said, trying to keep his mind off the towel I was binding tightly around his arm. “Wouldn’t that be enough to allow her to come in?”

  “Not here,” he grunted. “David bought this house for Mia before you were born. He didn’t want Judith to be able to get to either one of you.”

  “Why won’t your arm stop bleeding?”

  “Something in a vampire’s bite causes the blood to thin.” His good hand balled into a tight fist. “They have to be able to keep the blood from clotting to feed. Don’t worry, I’m a Were. It won’t last half as long. ”

  The blood slowly soaked through the towel. The blood loss left his face pale, his eyes dull, and his body shivering. I tossed the bloody towel on the counter and got a fresh one out of the drawer. Once I wrapped it tightly around his arm, the bleeding started to subside.

  “Give me your phone,” I demanded. He sat down at the table and stared at me. “Now, Raine!”

  Once I had it in my hand, I flipped it open and called Kale. Hopefully, he was still close to Drew. If he could get her here she’d know exactly what to do. I’d seen her help her mom stitch up her dad plenty of times. Granted most of the time his wounds involved power tools. Surely he’d had some this deep before.

  “What now, damn it?” Kale growled.

  “Where are you?” I asked quickly.

  “I’m still at Brody’s,” he said sweetly. As long as I wasn’t Raine he could talk. “What’s up?”

  “Is Drew still there?”

  “She is, but Mark left her here about an hour ago. I can’t imagine why, she is hot.”

  “I’m really glad you like her,” I told him impatiently. “Can you bring her to my house? I need her help. Raine’s been hurt pretty bad.”

  “What happened?” he asked alarmed.

  “Judith was here. The bleeding is under control, but Raine needs stitches.”

  “Leah, I’ll have to wait till dawn to come. Judith won’t leave until the sun forces her to.”

  “I don’t think it can wait that long,” I told him. “Just tell Drew that Leah Stone needs her help. She’ll go with you if you use that last name. Call me back when you’re close.”

  I hung up the phone and handed it back to Raine. My plan was to use the garage. If that was considered a part of the house, I could get them in safely and Drew could take care of Raine’s arm.

  The trick was getting Drew in the car with Kale. I was asking a conceited guy to bring a hotheaded woman to me without any questions asked. I knew she’d come, but I didn’t know for sure what kind of shape Kale would be in by the time he got her here.

  “You didn’t have to get your friend involved,” Raine said.

  “Yes, I did,” I said choking back tears.

  I was the one that pushed her, not Raine. I didn’t want him to see me cry, again, so I picked up the gun and placed it on top of the refrigerator. I focused on washing out the coffee pot next.

  “Leah, please look at me.”

  “I can’t.” I could hear the desperation in his voice, but I couldn’t face it. Tears rolled down my cheeks. This was my fault. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You didn’t do this, I did.” He stood and wedged himself between the counter and me. “You were trying to get me in the house. Never in my life have I seen someone face death and stay as calm as you did.” He put his good hand on my cheek and wiped away the tears. “I’m the one that let her get to me.”

  “I just wanted to get you in the house.”

  “You were doing a great job,” he said smiling. “I mean that. That shot you took at her probably saved my life.”

  “I should have taken it sooner, but I didn’t want to hit you.”

  “I couldn't care less when you shot her, point is you did it,” he said loudly. “Most people would have left me there to fend for myself.”

  “Even against that,” I said exasperated. “I’d die first!”

  “So would I,” he said softly. The flecks of blue and gray lit up his eyes again. His hand moved down to my shoulders, toying with the braid in my hair. My body tingled in response to his gentle touch. “Do you know what Judith meant when she said Michael would use you?” he asked, taking my arm cautiously. His eyes turned into dark thunderclouds before my eyes.

  “Well yeah, a little torture here and there would be par for the course,” I answered.

  “I’m sure it would be, but that’s not what she meant,” he said, locking his eyes on mine.

  “What else could he possibly do? I already know the ultimate goal is to get my blood,” I said. “Whether it kills me or not.”

  “It means,” he started, but then stopped and inhaled sharply. “It means he will use your body. Michael doesn’t ask permission, he just takes. If he gets his hands on you, he will take you.”

  I was speechless. A sexual motive had never even entered my mind. Normal people don’t think that way. If they do and act on the impulse, they go to jail. Then again we weren’t dealing with normal people. Just the thought of that man’s hands on me was repulsive. I’d only heard his voice, but that was enough. I stood there, my mouth open, staring at him.

  “Are you okay, Leah? I didn’t mean to scare you. I just want you to know how his mind works.”

  “He would do that?” I whispered.

  “In a heartbeat,” he said roughly. “Humans are property to him. He uses them as he sees fit and then kills them. With you he’d have the best of both worlds. You’re h
uman enough to break and vampire enough to use. Michael is the worst kind of vampire.”

  “But I’ve never,” I stopped mid sentence. All this time I thought taking my blood was the worst thing that man could do. Obviously, I was dead wrong; taking my body would be so much worse.

  “You’re a virgin?” he asked softly.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “I figured as much,” he said sharply.

  He surprised me. The reason he’d attacked her was to protect me from her words. The same way I was trying to protect him from her actions. I just didn’t understand why.

  “They were just words, Raine,” I said softly. “She couldn’t hurt me with them.”

  For a minute he stood there, looking at my hair entwined in his fingers. I knew how I felt about him. That was clear to me when I saw him standing in my room. Sure I’d only known him for a few hours, but the first time he touched me something deep down inside woke up.

  “You affect me, Leah. I can’t explain it.” His eyes met mine again. “When I saw you asleep in David’s truck, I felt something. All I wanted to do was touch you, protect you. I know it’s goofy, but I can’t get you out of my head.”

  “You have the same affect on me,” I admitted. “I don’t know what it means, but I like how it feels.”

  “So do I,” he whispered.

  “You don’t think-”

  “This is a crush? Maybe just a physical attraction?” he asked finishing my sentence. I nodded. “No. Do you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t think?” he asked, his lips hovering just inches from mine. I closed my eyes expecting a kiss, but he reached past me for the two cups in the dish drainer instead. “You let me know when you’re sure.” Disappointed and shocked I open my eyes to look up at him. “Leah, we don’t have the time or the luxury to play games. Not with all this going on.”

  “I’ve never played games, Raine,” I said with a sigh. As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point.

  “That’s a good thing.”

  “Oh, spare me,” Judith grumbled. I looked up to see her standing outside the open kitchen window. “Men are so stupid. Why do they even bother with girls when they could have women?”

  “I take it she wants you, too?” I asked, pouring us both a cup of coffee.

  “She wants everybody,” he shrugged. Judith turned to glare at Raine. “Well? Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “I’m gonna have so much fun draining you,” she seethed. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for death.” A split second later she was gone.

  “Do you think she left?” I strained my eyes trying to find her, but couldn’t see her anywhere.

  “Not a chance,” Raine answered. He put his cup on the table and sat down. “She’s out there somewhere.”

  Looking around the yard a few more times, I finally saw her standing underneath the tree. Her back was to us, but I had a feeling she would know every move we made for the rest of the night. Determined to keep my wits about me, I drank my entire cup of coffee and poured myself another. That too, was gone in a flash.

  “Doesn’t that burn?” he asked, frowning at the empty cup.

  “Nope, it feels great,” I said, sitting down beside him.

  “Is it just that or heat in general?”

  “Heat in general.”

  “Something tells me the cold water never gets turned on in the shower,” he said, finally getting a drink out of his cup. I simply smiled in answer. “Thought so,” he snorted.

  The intense pain I saw behind his eyes marred the stunning smile on his pale face. I glanced down at his arm. The bleeding seemed to have stopped for the most part, but his hand had started to swell so that he could barely make a fist.

  As I looked at his arm, I remembered what Judith said about his blood. It wasn’t major, just curious. The scent of the werewolf was obvious. She’d said herself there were two- Kale and Raine. But why would she say Raine’s was sweeter than JD’s? Wouldn’t one werewolf taste the same as another?

  Curious as to what she meant, I inhaled deeply and focused on the smell in his blood. Maybe I could place what she couldn’t. Pushing the smell of the storm aside I found what I was looking for. The werewolf scent was barely there. His blood smelled as refreshing as if we were standing in the middle of a forest. I could actually close my eyes and hear the peaceful sounds.

  “Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want too,” I said, offering him an out. “If you decide not to I’ll understand.”

  “Shoot,” he said, pushing away his still full cup.

  “Why doesn’t your blood smell like JD’s?” I hated to say it so bluntly, but there was really no other way. “His was harsh. Yours smells much more pleasant.”

  He took a very deep breath and then put his good hand in mine. His eyes were stormy again and the dark haze faded to light blue. Whatever his explanation, it must be huge.

  “Only Granny, Kale and David know the truth about me,” he said quietly. “Judith can tell Dane I’m a werewolf. I’ll survive that, but if she tells him about the difference she tasted in my blood, Dane will hunt me down and he will kill me.”

  “Why, because your blood isn’t overly concentrated with the scent of a dog?” I mumbled.

  “It’s not that,” he said. “My blood smells different because I am different.” His hand tightened around mine. “I’m not just a werewolf, Leah. I’m a shape shifter, too.”

  “And that means?” I asked softly.

  “It means a werewolf isn’t the only thing I can change into.”

  His eyes stayed on mine as I turned his revelation over in my head. Raine being a werewolf didn’t bother me. Being able to shift into something else didn’t bother me either. Neither one of those things affected the way I felt about him. In fact, it intrigued me. I wanted so bad to ask Raine what the other animal he could turn into but I wanted to know why it was a death sentence for him even more.

  “Why would any of that make a difference? It’s not like it affects him.”

  “That’s just it,” he said. There was no emotion in left in his handsome face. “It has everything to do with him.”

  “How?”

  Clearly he was struggling with what he was about to tell me. His eyes were asking for understanding, but his mind must have been telling him something different. Twice he tried to speak, but he said nothing. I scooted my chair closer to him and put my hands on his knees.

  “There is nothing you could tell me that is gonna change the way I feel,” I assured him. “Just tell me.”

  “We share the same secret,” he finally said. “Only Dane is just a shifter. He shouldn’t even be a part of the pack, much less their leader.”

  “How did it happen then?” I asked curiously. “Wouldn’t someone be able to tell the difference between the two?”

  If I could tell a difference between the two when they bled, surely a full-blooded werewolf would smell it in a minute. Kale’s sense of smell was as good, if not better than mine. An older, more experienced member should have picked up on it a long time ago.

  “When he came here, nobody really knew who he was. The leader of his pack in Austin made him leave his territory. He couldn’t control him anymore,” Raine explained. “Dane’s always been mean. Walker, the leader here at the time welcomed him in with open arms. He liked a man who took control of his own fate and made things happen for himself.”

  “Did he not know that he’d been sent away?”

  “He didn’t care,” he answered, disgust saturated his voice. “He and Dane were a lot alike. For the next few years he took him under his wing and groomed him to take over the pack in the event of his death. He even gave Dane his daughter’s hand in marriage. She didn’t love him, but then she didn’t really have a choice. They had two children together and divorced five years later. The divorce was Dane’s idea.” His eyes were so dark now they were almost black. His warm hand caressed mine. “When were
wolves marry, it’s forever. That commitment is not something we take lightly. The fact that he had the nerve to ask to end their marriage should have sent up a red flag.”

  “But it didn’t?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “It tore Walker up to allow it, but his love for Dane was much stronger than the love he had for his own child or the pack. Soon after the divorce, Dane moved his mistress- Mark’s mother Athena, to Weatherford from California and introduced them to the pack. Mark was already two years old by then and the apple of Dane’s eye. About six months after he and Athena were married Dane decided Walker’s time as leader had come to an end. Instead of doing the honorable thing and challenging his mentor, he killed him.”

  “What did the others do?” I asked, after I’d managed to catch my breath.

  “What could they do? They were leaderless and afraid. Werewolves don’t live by the same rules humans do. They can’t afford to.” He shifted in his seat a little. “Every week or so, for the next few months, another werewolf turned up dead. All of them, including the leader and his wife had been shot in the head. If they were old enough to challenge Dane for leadership, they died. He couldn’t risk a challenge.”

  “I take it no one knew he was behind it.”

  “According to Granny, Dane being involved never crossed their minds. For all they knew a human had found out about them and decided to wipe them out one by one. When there was no one left to oppose him, Dane called what was left of the pack together and laid it all out. He told them everything he had done and why. Save the shifter part. That night he allowed anyone that wanted to leave his territory to do so, but if they ever came back he made it clear they would be killed on sight.”

  “Why not finish what he started and kill everybody?”

  “If he did that, he wouldn’t be leader, would he?” He ran his hand through his hair and stretched his neck. “Anyway, most decided to stay. They agreed to live under his rules, and never question anything he did. He swore he only had their best interests at heart.”