“That’s not dumb.”
“It’s kind of embarrassing.”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek, and he pulled me into his arms, layering kisses on my earlobe and neck as we lay there, watching the sky as morning approached. The beach was beginning to populate with people who watched us curiously.
“Let’s get out of here. It’s feeling too crowded,” he said.
We drove down the beach where the water made the sand dark and wet, past everyone’s prying eyes. It would be hard to hide our relationship now that we made it so public, but I didn’t care. I would stand next to him and fight any battle.
The drive to my house was almost painful. I knew it meant he was leaving me there for the day. I hated the idea, but it was inevitable. He said he had stuff to do before his father got back. He came in to use the bathroom, and I found myself plotting how to keep him. Not that I couldn’t live through the day. I just wanted him to stay. He walked across the living room to where I sat and straddled me. He kissed my cheeks, first one then the other, followed by my chin, nose, and forehead. Then he stood to leave, but I wanted a kiss, a real kiss. I grabbed his arm and pulled his face back down to mine, kissing him until there was no breath left in either of us. He panted breath back into his lungs as he slightly tripped on his way to the door.
I spent the rest of the day and night dreaming of him. I couldn’t get him off my mind, and Sunday evening came before I knew it. I sat at the kitchen table, sketching the slain wolf from Grey’s T-shirt. I shaded in the wolf head, making it darker and more intense. There was something trapped in its expression. Was it fear?
The front door swung open, and Baran stumbled in, cussing in the language of the Bloodmoon. It was obvious he was enraged. I darted into the living room. His movements were murderous, and I was frozen in fear. Did he know I disobeyed him?
I started to back away from his fury, but his anger vibrated through my spine. I felt unable to speak and even more afraid to move. I watched him pace back and forth around the room, flinching every time he looked in my direction.
I smelled a human’s scent on him, one I recognized, but I couldn’t remember whose it was. It was accompanied by several wolves’ scents, a melding of unknowns, but one I did know.
Mund.
Panic started to take over, and my hands were shaking. If anything happened to Mund, a piece of me would die with him. He was all I had for so long. I couldn’t imagine living in a world without him. He was my only friend.
“Baran?”
He turned to me as though he noticed I was in the room for the first time. Pure hate poured out of his eyes. The door opened again, and Mund stumbled in. He was dirty, and his shirt torn, but it was him. I jumped past Baran into Mund’s arms, knocking him off the porch and onto the ground outside. All my fear disappeared. Despite Baran’s still raging voice, Mund laughed.
“I missed you too, kid,” he said as he stood up, throwing me over his shoulder, carrying me into the house. “I told you I would come for you.” He set me down on my own two feet and took in the sight of me. I was still wearing an oversize sweatshirt and a pair of hole-filled blue jeans.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s just odd to see you wearing anything but sheep hides.”
I shoved him playfully. “Just trying to fit in,” I said.
“You didn’t buy those with holes in them, did you?”
I grinned.
He shook his head and turned back to Baran, who was still pacing. “Let’s talk through this. What happened before I met up with you?”
I jumped on Mund’s back, but he tossed me on the sofa. “Come on, Ash, this is serious,” he said. I didn’t get to see him for weeks, and this was the welcome I got? I rolled my eyes and listened to their conversation.
Baran stopped moving and stared right through us, as though he were reliving it. “I went up into Canada to hunt, but on the way, I picked up a trail from a pack of wolves headed south into Michigan. So I tracked them. I picked up four scents. Two male, two female, and they were in a hurry. A human was tracking them. He moved on foot at speeds that matched, if not surpassed, theirs.
“I caught up to them to find only three remaining, and the remaining male was injured. The human had captured their companion. We tracked him, but it was too late, and the trap was set for us. That was where you picked up my trail and followed it to us, only to risk your own safety.”
I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “What happened to the others?” I asked.
“Their companion, Leon, was dead before we got to him. The other three made it out alive. They headed back up into Canada,” Baran said. “I didn’t get a look at the Bloodsucker, but I will never forget his scent. Did you get a good look at him?”
Mund shook his head. “No. I kept my eyes on you.”
“The rumors are true—they’re back,” Baran said.
Mund shrugged and reached over, messing my hair into a snarly mess as he walked into the kitchen. “I see you haven’t changed a thing since I was here last,” he said, opening the fridge and scanning its contents.
“I get by,” Baran said.
“You’re drawing again, Ash, that’s great,” Mund said. I jumped up in a heartbeat, but my sketchbook was already in his hands. He looked at the drawing, then snapped his eyes up at me in dread and anger. “Do you know what this is?” he said, shoving the sketchbook in my direction. I shook my head no.
Baran pushed past me to see the drawing. “Where did you see this?”
I shook my head.
“Where did you see this?” Baran asked again.
“I don’t know,” I said. My heart pounded in my ears. “I dreamed it.”
He disappeared into his office and reappeared back again. He opened a large, hide-bound book, flipping through the hundreds of pages too quickly for a human to see any of the content. He removed a thin sheet of paper to reveal the same image I had drawn.
“The Bloodsuckers, as they are known, are the hunters of wolves, the original clan of human men Old Mother called on to hunt the forsaken packs. But when they started drinking wolf blood from our still-beating hearts, they absorbed our power and lusted for it and became Bloodsuckers. They began exterminating all werewolves from the earth. Our sacred blood gave them inhuman strength, speed, and sense of smell. The power corrupted them, and we became the hunted,” he said. “Most of what we know about them is just legend, but it is said if they drank the blood of an Elder God, they would corrupt all the human race. Without the love of animals, there is no measure for humanity. They were supposed to be extinct, but now . . .” he shook his head.
“After that human killed Leon with a silver blade and set the trap for us, and with Ashling’s drawing, I can’t assume it’s just coincidence any longer,” Mund said. “We have to take precautions. I will send for Quinn—we’ll need him. We have to keep Ashling safe.”
Baran studied my wide-eyed face. “I think you should join the school with her, Mund. Then you can stay close and protect her.”
“I agree,” he said and sat on the sofa. His spine stiffened, and he sniffed the air. “Baran, are you in the habit of letting humans in the house?”
“I don’t know, am I?” Baran asked.
“Grey dropped me off after the movie, and I let him use the bathroom,” I said trying to sound innocent.
“I told you to stay away from him,” Baran said.
Mund interrupted, “Who’s that?”
“Brenna’s son,” Baran said.
“Bloody hell,” Mund said. “Really?”
“Who’s Brenna?” I asked.
“None of your damn business, Ashling Boru. I gave you one rule to follow this weekend, and you couldn’t even do that. You will spend the next week locked in your room while you think about what you have done.”
I looked to Mund to save me from Baran’s unfair ruling. But he shook his head at me and said, “You best go, Ash.”
11
; Free
Who was Brenna? And how did Baran know her? That’s what I really wanted to know. Grey never said what his mother’s name was. Just that she died and how she died. I shivered remembering what he had said. Was Brenna why Baran didn’t want me around Grey? Or was there more to him and his secrets? I was old enough to hear what was bloody going on. Though, I shouldn’t have lied about where I saw the design . . . but I didn’t want to bring Grey into this, yet here he was. The center of all of it.
If Grey’s father was a Bloodsucker, then his father probably killed Leon. His job would be the perfect cover and would explain all the traps. But if Robert was a Bloodsucker . . . was Grey? Was Grey’s sole purpose in life to hunt me? Kill or be killed?
That sure was some kind of twisted Romeo and Juliet crap.
What kind of relationship ends well when the families are mortal enemies? I could name so many literary examples that all proved our love would be our demise. But for my entire life, I was told I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t part of the pack, so their rules didn’t apply to me. My life was my own. I just had to figure out what Grey was.
I knew Grey wasn’t a killer. He let me go that day in the forest. He didn’t know it was me, but he chose to let me go. I spent the night at his house, alone, and he didn’t hurt me. It didn’t make any sense. Unless I was the bait, and the trap was set to catch my family too. I couldn’t believe he would hurt me. I believed he loved me as much as I loved him. I needed to stop scaring myself. The self-torture bit was getting old. We loved each other.
Was his father a Bloodsucker? Robert was a very dominating, old-fashioned man, and there was the house, the carvings, the wallpaper, the wolf rug . . . my skin crawled with the memory. If his father was a Bloodsucker, maybe Grey chose not to be and that was what caused the friction between them.
Footsteps on the stairs interrupted my theories. Mund stood in my doorway, studying my angry face. He knew my moods as well as I did.
“I am sorry, Ash,” he said. “This is hard. We just want to do what is best for you and to keep you safe.”
“I guess.”
“So you have to understand that his wanting to keep you away from Grey is to protect you.”
“Do I?” I asked. “I don’t understand why Baran has some weird grudge against Grey and why that should affect me. Isn’t it my choice? Isn’t that what you always told me?”
Mund smiled back at me. I hated when he did that. He acted as if I were throwing a fit like a child, but I wasn’t a child anymore, and I was right.
“You know it isn’t that simple.”
“You can’t protect me from everything, Mund.”
“Ms. Boru, will you please hear me out?” he said with an exaggerated accent.
I almost laughed. He walked across the room and sat on the bed next to me, as still as a statue. What was he playing at? I mean, it was Mund. He was tricky, like a fox. Although he was a wolf, but whatever.
“Ash, what’s with this boy? Are you taking this stand because you really like this one particular human? Or is it because you want to stake your independence? Help me understand.”
I sighed. “I love him, Mund. When I open my eyes, all I want to see is his face. He makes me happy, Mund. He really does,” I said.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, comforting me. But he couldn’t fix this with a hug. I wanted Grey, that wasn’t going to change. My eyes welled up with angry tears, but I didn’t let them fall. I looked up through the puddles in my eyes to see Baran, but he wouldn’t look at me. I thought he was my friend.
“Baran?” Mund said.
“I don’t know about this.”
Mund laughed. “Do you think I want my baby sister dating some punk? No. But I can’t come home every day and see her cry either. Besides, you don’t want to see her mad.”
Baran grunted.
“I’m joining the high school. And if we know when and where they’re together, we can keep an eye on them. It’s not like he’ll hurt her. You told me yourself, he’s a good kid,” Mund said. “I think we should trust her to make this decision, not make it for her.”
“What about Brenna?” Baran asked.
“That’s doesn’t concern Ash, Baran, and you know it. And Grey was as much a victim in that as Brenna was.”
I pulled away from Mund, wiping the dampness from my eyes. I wanted to push Baran for details on Brenna, but then I risked making him angry again, and Grey was more important than my curiosity.
“You heard her, Baran. You know how she feels.”
Baran simply nodded his head. They were going to let me see Grey. I wanted to howl to the moon, for my love, my victory, but something about Baran’s face made me leery. He turned and walked back downstairs without another word, leaving Mund and me in the aftermath of Hurricane Brenna. Though I didn’t yet know the damage.
“Mund, does that mean I can keep seeing Grey?”
“I want you to be safe, but I can feel the love you have for him. I don’t understand it. He’s just a human, but if he makes you happy now, I’m okay with that. Now get some rest. We have to start translating that journal of yours, and school starts next week.”
“Thanks, Mund. Grey and I really love each other,” I said. “I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
“He may love you for the rest of his life,” he said, “but you will mourn him for the rest of yours.” I knew he was trying to make me realize my mistake in falling in love with a human, but I wasn’t listening.
The week flew by without a single visit from Grey, and I didn’t have his phone number. Baran promised he would tell Grey to stop by the house if he saw him at the shop, but he never came. It was as though he had vanished. The separation was physically painful. My stomach was tied in knots, and I was constantly nauseous. I would have gone crazy if it wasn’t for Mund making me study ancient Greek and the language of the Bloodmoon. I had to translate every individual letter to get a word, and each word to get a sentence. It was monotonous, but it filled my time with something other than worry.
The labor had been worth it. I knew it was the journal of my aunt, Lady Calista Vanir, and it was filled with prophecies. Every one I researched from the early entries had come true: wars, conquests, marriages. It was frightening and intriguing. Her last entry was in her own blood, just as Baran had said it was, but it wasn’t even a sentence. Mund said before she died, she had written the words using her own blood, handed the journal and her wedding ring to my mother, and said, “This oracle is for the dream—she will need it.” She turned back to her mate, Ragnall, and said, “I will always be yours.” Then she died. It was tragic and poetic.
Claim her, rule them all. The last thing she wrote.
The prophecy predicted the birth of a baby girl with snow-white skin and crimson curls at Carrowmore’s Bloodmoon of the Vanir family line. She would unite the packs and bring balance and love to the humans. How could I ever unite the packs? I was just one wolf. How could one person change the fate of the world?
Every wolf in every pack around the world knew of the prophecy all these years—except me. I was frustrated with my entire family. How could they protect me by making me ignorant? They didn’t trust me enough to tell me my purpose. I was born of her bloodline on the earth where her blood spilled at Carrowmore’s Bloodmoon. I was her dream, and still they kept the truth from me. I was appalled by their distrust.
It did partially explain why Father was trying to find someone he trusted to claim me. Brychan was a gentleman and Tegan and Gwyn’s brother, a trusted family ally, but why couldn’t he just tell me that?
Baran said other packs were trying to abduct me or kill me, and that was why they hid me away from the world for so long. But was Adomnan determined to kill me—or claim me as his? It was frightening to even think about. I constantly felt the cold sweat of fear waiting for him to attack. He didn’t come, but my fear remained.
A week passed without any sign of Grey. It made me incredibly sad, but my nervousness at sta
rting school scared me nearly as much. On the morning of my first day, I rushed around the house, getting ready. Mund was ready far quicker than I, and he was completely at ease. Considering he was over four hundred years old, he looked remarkably like a seventeen-year-old boy. He hadn’t aged a day since he first changed, but he shifted with every full moon, unlike Father, who lived closely among the humans before he took the throne and aged as a mortal with every Bloodmoon he missed.
Mund bought a heroic-looking white-and-silver motorcycle that waited for us in the driveway. I followed Mund outside to find Grey waiting for me on his motorcycle. I was excited to see him, but his smile brightened my mood, and I jumped on his bike.
“See you at school,” I said to Mund, and Grey and I drove away. Mund was clearly annoyed, but he would get over it. I wrapped my arms tightly around Grey’s chest, letting his warmth radiate through me.
“So that was your brother, huh?”
“Yep. That’s Mund.”
“He sure doesn’t like me,” Grey laughed.
“He’s just hard to get to know. You guys will love each other in no time.”
“So he’s joining high school? I thought he was married.”
“Yeah, he is. He’s just not finished with school,” I fibbed.
“Huh . . .” he said.
“Where were you all week?”
He was quiet for a while. I almost thought he hadn’t heard me, but then he finally responded. “I’m sorry about that, Ashling. I had a fight with my dad, and I couldn’t leave the house. I hope you’re not mad.”
I hugged him tightly. “Nope, just glad to have you back in my arms.”
“Me too.”
We arrived at the school with Mund right behind us. I spotted Emma, Beth, and Eric chatting by Beth’s truck, and Lacey was watching for Grey’s arrival. Lacey was ready to attack. It was amazing how she looked so evil dressed all in fuzzy pink. Such a contradiction. Maybe if she’d eat something, she wouldn’t be so crabby all the time.
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