Dawn to Dark

by Halston James

  “Don’t stop,” he says, rushed, pained.

  I trail kisses from his neck down to the beginning of his shoulder, and when I land there, he moans; it’s feral, and it unleashes something in me I didn’t know I had. I tug at strands of his hair with one hand while I vacuum the blood under his skin to the surface with my mouth. When my teeth lightly scrape his skin and I feel his erection dig into my stomach, I feel like I may combust right here on the spot. I’m catching fire from the inside out, and no amount of water could ever put me out.

  “Ahem.”

  Like the fates like to laugh at my expense, they call my bluff. That clearing of the throat is an ice cold bucket of water on the fire. Our fire. The interruption snaps the moment in half, into the before and after.

  Caleb holds me close to him and turns so I’m not visible to whoever has caught us. I can’t help thinking of earlier, to my thoughts of self-preservation… he’s protecting me, even now… even when I don’t care to protect myself. He makes me not want to hide.

  “What is it, Lowell?”

  He isn’t angry, but you can still hear the remnants of desire in his voice, and it makes my blood simmer. In that instant, I look over at Lowell - and like I’m not myself, I shoot him a murderous look. Caleb tucks my head back into his shoulder, but not before giving me a sad smile. Like he’s sorry too. More sorry than he can convey.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt. I wouldn’t have, but it’s urgent.” And with that, Caleb pulls us apart and holds me at shoulder length. “I need you to go to your bedroom. Wait for me there.”

  “What’s going on?” Just like I now remembered what I was here for, I snap out of whatever trance I was in. “Did you find something?”

  “No. It’s family business,” Lowell interjects.

  “I’ll be right there, Lowell,” Caleb says, and Lowell dismisses himself.

  “I have to go, but please believe I don’t want to…”

  “It’s okay.” And it is. I’m not mad; just slightly dejected.

  “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Wait for me tonight. I’ll come to you.” With a quick kiss on the lips, he’s already leaving me, and I can’t help feeling colder in his absence. Like he’s the sun and I’m just a cold, cloud covered, gray sky.

  I’d wait up for him for hours, but he never showed.

  6

  I punch at the fifty pound bag bitterly and without stopping, letting out all my anger and pent up frustration. A week had gone by, the longest one of them all - and as luck would have it, my last one here. The chief got wind of what happened with Eddie and Caleb, and given the lack of leads, he’d decided to pull me out. The items of interest I’d sent it had led to nothing so far.

  “Whoa, there. It’s just a bag, Bells, even if you are imagining his face.” Apparently, Lowell had told all the Randolph men about my first name. Callum had teased me relentlessly about it.

  “Stop.” Punch. “Calling.” Punch, punch. “Me.” Punch. “That,” I grit out.

  Callum chuckles, “Don’t gotta get upset, Bella. I’m sure he’ll make it up to you. A lot.” I can hear the amusement dripping in every word.

  I grab the bag with both arms and hold it until it stops moving, then slowly, already feeling the soreness in my muscles, I take off the boxing gloves and unwrap my hands. I get on the treadmill and punch the buttons to amp up the speed. Before I can hit the start button, Callum’s arm is in my path, blocking me.

  “Let’s take a run outside. The fresh air will do you good.” I wonder if he somehow knew how sick I’d been. As if my anger wasn’t enough, I also spent the last week hurling repeatedly into the nicest toilet I’d ever seen.

  We run in step, in silence around the manor. One lap turns into three, four turns into seven, and we don’t stop until I’m panting for breath and tears are streaming noiselessly down my face. Callum looks away and pretends not to notice. Once it’s all out - all of it, the anger, the shame, the frustration - it feels cathartic and we slowly make our way back to the front entrance of the house. The sun has already set, and I decide to stay on the stairs and cool off. I signal to Callum that I’m fine, and he squeezes my shoulder and goes inside without me.

  The night is cool, and the breeze feels good against my skin. Out here in the wilderness, the stars shine brighter and look closer and you can hear every sound. So, I hear it when it sounds like a twig snaps in half right at the tree line. I look to the spot where I heard it, but I don’t see anything but darkness; the lights from the house aren’t bright enough to see that far. I get off the steps and start getting closer, absentmindedly reaching to where I normally keep my gun, even though I don’t have it on me. The further I get from the house, the more the hair on my skin raises, then two golden orbs appear. They’re faint at first, just a soft glow, but the closer I get, the brighter they become. Once I’m at the tree line, the lights have receded further into the forest, and now there are more of them, glowing clearer than before. They’re mesmerizing, stunning me into silence, begging me to follow them.

  I hear Lowell’s panicked voice come across the lawn. “Frankie.” He’s never sounded like that before, and it’s the first time he’s ever called me Frankie.

  “Frankie, get inside! Please!” He seems so far away.

  I hear another branch crack, and my heartbeat quickens, then one of the sets of orbs steps into the moonlight and I gasp as a werewolf, teeth bared, steps closer to me. My heart stops beating, and I’m rooted to my spot. He scratches at the dirt like he’s ready to pounce, and his paw is a foot or two in width alone.

  I hear another voice. This one makes my stomach drop. Caleb.

  “Isabella, get your ass inside! Now!”

  With his scream, something inside me snaps and I’m finally able to break free from the trance I was in. I turn and run without even glancing back. I run as fast as I can, and only when I’m close to the house do I look back - but all the yellow orbs have gone. It’s then I realize they weren’t fireflies at all; they were werewolves - and from the looks of them, enormous ones, sizes I didn’t even know existed for the breed. I don’t know how long I stand there staring at the nothingness before I feel someone pulling on my arm.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?! We’ve been calling you!” Caleb screams in my face as he shakes my shoulders violently, the pain not even registering, adrenaline coursing through my body.

  I look past him and back to the trees. “They looked like fireflies,” I hear myself say, but my voice sounds so small.

  “I can guarantee you they weren’t.”

  He yanks me by my arm, and I let out a yelp as he grabs my injured one. He instantly lets me go, regret on his face. I stop and massage my shoulder, shooting a glare in his direction.

  “I’m sorry, but we need to move. Now.”

  I dig in my heels like I’m not going anywhere, and without warning he throws me over his shoulder and carries me inside, passing Lowell and Callum and taking me straight to what I make out is an office. He makes sure to set me down gently against the desk. I watch him as he walks around the room, frustration etched in every movement, as he tugs at his hair, kicks a chair, and slams his hand down against the door.

  When he finally approaches me, he’s a man with a mission. He approaches me like a predator stalking his prey. “You want to tell me what you were doing out there?”

  I back up slowly as he gets closer, but there’s nowhere for me to go, I’m trapped against the desk. He places his hands on either side of me. I feel my body start to sweat out of every pore; it makes me feel lightheaded, but I try to hold my ground.

  “Do you know how stupid that was to be out that far all alone this late at night?” The space between us crackles with heat, and the sweat begins to run down my back.

  “How stupid was it?” I’m slightly dizzy as I stare at his mouth, and I wonder if this is normal, feeling this way. It’s never felt like this to me, and I wonder if this was how it was really supposed to
be.

  “It was reckless.” He whispers against my lips, his hands moving slowly from the edge of the desk to bracing my hips. “And stupid.” I lean into him, and although I like to think it’s to be more enticing, it’s because I physically need the support.

  “You said that already,” I whisper back, my head swimming, overwhelmed and overheated.

  He caresses my neck and pulls my old T-shirt at the collar. It tears effortlessly, and his fingers trace the curve of my neck, the slope that connects to my shoulder. He whispers, “You’re angry with me. You think I didn’t show up because I didn’t want you.”

  “Yes,” I breathe out. “Caleb...” I plead as his lips ghost my neck, but just as quickly, I feel him pull away. I keep my eyes closed, anxiously awaiting his next move, but it never comes. When I open my eyes, he’s staring at me with concern in his eyes.

  He places a hand on my forehead and bites back a curse. “Jesus, you’re burning up. How long have you felt like this?”

  My body sags after he points it out. I’ve felt sick since I got here, but nothing like this past week. The stomach aches, the fever, the sweating, it all grew in intensity after the night of the fundraiser.

  “On and off for weeks, but this week has been the worst.”

  It doesn’t hit me until then, the ache I feel all over my body, I feel so heavy that I feel my body slump with it. I lean against Caleb, and although I feel myself burning up, he’s giving off even more heat, but I don’t want to move away.

  “Have you been drinking the tea Lowell makes for you?” he murmurs in my ear.

  I feel my lips move, but I don’t hear any sound come out. My vision cuts in and out. I feel all the energy leave my body as I collapse into Caleb’s arms, and the last thing I hear is him roaring for Lowell as everything goes pitch black.

  7

  I feel strong arms cradle me and place me on a bed. I manage to open my eyes and see I’m in a room I don’t recognize. I go back and forth between consciousness and fading out. I feel my body alternating between burning up and feverish chills. I sweat through the sheets and toss and turn wildly. My hair sticks in strands to my neck, back, forehead, and face. The ache in my stomach is stronger now. Throughout the night, I hear muffled voices coming and going from my room, but I can never wake up to be present for them. It was like I was in a tunnel far away and I was just getting echoes. I thrash against the bed like my body wants out of its cage, like I can’t rest, can’t be still. In that moment, I felt like this fever or whatever it was would kill me.

  At some point, Lowell appears in my blurry vision, and I don’t know if it was because I’d called him or he just happened to hear me crying. Crying. I didn’t even know I was sobbing uncontrollably. I felt so powerless against this. Was this what dying was like? Lowell’s face hovers over me, worry embedded deep in his features. He brings a wet rag to my forehead and wipes some of the sweat. He tries to calm me down, but I’m not coherent enough to understand the words he’s saying; I just hear bits and pieces. I hear another set of voices… Callum and… Caleb.

  “Caleb, her body can’t handle this!!” I could hear the dread in Callum’s voice. “You have to do something...”

  “They saw her already, smelled the scent. It’s too late. What am I supposed to do? If I send her away, they’ll find her.” The tone of Caleb’s voice isn’t one I’ve heard from him before. Even earlier today, he sounded tortured and out of his mind.

  “Jesus Christ,” Callum says.

  I try to focus and make sense of all the blurs, but my body hurts, and I let out a moan as I try to sit up on my elbows to join the conversation.

  “Everyone, leave,” Caleb demands.

  Silence follows, and I hear the door close. I feel the bed sink in a bit, then someone runs another wet rag over my cheeks, my head, and lastly they wipe the tears in my eyes. My heart’s wild beating slows, and I feel his arms wrap around me. He presses my face to his chest. The shaking starts to slow until it stops altogether. My mind stops racing. The fever seems to break while he holds me, even though he feels like he’s burning up just the same. There’s so much I want to ask, but exhaustion takes over.

  “It’s going to be okay, Isabella, I don’t know how, but I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  8

  When I wake up, I expect to be alone, but I’m not; in fact, I’m surrounded by Caleb, Callum, Lowell and Risa. I tense up and realize my whole body is sore, and Lowell hands me a cup of hot tea.

  “Drink it. It’ll help.”

  I try to look at Caleb, but he won’t make eye contact - and just like that, I know whatever intervention is about to happen can’t be good. I look at all of them one by one, and they all look incredibly stressed.

  “Am I dying or something? Why do you guys look like that?” Nobody answers. Nobody even makes eye contact. “Someone just spit it out,” I demand.

  Minutes pass, and nobody speaks. I’m wading in the awkward silence. I think about the night before and try to replay the things I heard, but my mind is a wreck, and it’s hard to remember any of it. Before I can bring it up, Callum is begging Caleb just to tell me.

  “Tell me. I can take it.” And it’s true. Whatever he was going to say, I could handle. I’d handled a lot worse.

  “The werewolves from last night... they... uh...” He takes a deep breath, amping himself up for what he’s about to say…

  “They were from a neighboring pack,” Callum finishes. “The Lyall pack.”

  “Okayyy. And…what does that have to do with me?”

  “They’ve been feuding with us for years, and they believe a debt is owed to them,” Lowell continues.

  “Feuding? Over what? What debt?”

  Callum looks to Risa as if asking permission, and she nods her head and clutches his hand. “Do you remember that bar fight I mentioned?” Callum asks me, and I nod my head. I couldn’t forget it if I wanted to.

  “Well, first let me back up. The book on wolves you were reading, how far did you get?”

  “Not very far,” I admit.

  “Okay, so in our culture, we date and stuff like you guys do, but for us it’s just a little different.”

  “How?”

  “We have mates. Predetermined and destined. You can’t control when it happens or who it happens with, but when you meet them, you just know. It’s like a lock clicks inside you and everything makes sense and nothing is ever the same. It’s the most beautiful thing we have, and we cherish it above all else.” I automatically think of Caleb and can feel my cheeks warm.

  “So... Risa is your mate.”

  Callum and Risa look at each other, and she smiles at him, and the moment feels so intimate, I have to look away. I look at Caleb, but it looks like he’s gnawing at his knuckle so hard, I swear I almost see a trickle of blood. I want to beg him to stop, but he still isn’t even looking at me. I wonder if he’s met his mate yet; just the thought of it makes my insides sting with envy.

  “She was working at a bar years ago, and the Lyall pack came in. That particular night, their pack leader, Vance, set his sights on Risa, mistaking her for his mate.”

  Mentally the picture becomes clearer, and I’m scared about what else he’s about to reveal.

  “They cornered her in the bar. They were drunk, and she and the bar staff were outnumbered. Luckily, Caleb happened to be nearby, and he…rescued her.”

  I had a million questions. “Is that where you got the scars?” He finally makes eye contact, and I’ve never seen such sad eyes. He nods. “So it was just Caleb? You took them all on?”

  “There are some bloodlines that are stronger than others. The Randolph bloodline is stronger than the Lyalls,” Lowell says.

  “So they hate you guys because of this? Because you were Callum’s mate?”

  “At the time, we had no idea we were mates. I hadn’t met her, and she wasn’t even on my radar. I wasn’t even in the country. It wasn’t until I heard what happened and came home that the bond clicked into pl
ace.”

  “The bond?”

  “The mating bond,” he states.

  I look around the room. It’s a lot of information to take in, but honestly, I still don’t know what it has to do with me.

  Caleb’s knee begins to bounce up and down, and Callum gently pats his shoulder, telling him it’s his turn. He puts his hands together like a steeple as his knees continue to bounce. “Although I overpowered them, that didn’t stop Vance from wanting revenge. He believed Risa was his, even though she wasn’t. He sought out an ancient witch and had her place a curse.”

  I lean forward, a huge ball sinking to the pit of my stomach... witches?... “What kind of curse?”

  “Since I took what he thought was his, he thought it was only fair to take mine. A mate for a mate.” My heart sinks, right along with my stomach.

  He has a mate.

  “He took your mate?” I croak out.

  “He wants to.”

  Three words that end me. He’s mated. He’s mated, and he kissed me. I’ve kissed him. I look at Callum and Risa and what they have, and I instantly feel dirty.

  As I’m thinking the worst of myself, Caleb groans and rubs at both of his eyes. “How can you not see it?”

  “See what?” I ask, totally clueless.

  “You think I could kiss you like that if I was mated with someone else?”

  I look around the room, uncomfortable at having this conversation in front of everyone.

  “They know everything. Don’t worry about them,” Caleb says.

  Suddenly, I’m angry. Angry that he’s making me do this here, now, when all I want to do is curl up in a ball of shame. “I wouldn’t have kissed you if I knew.” It was all starting to make sense, why he was never here, why he never came to my room. He had someone.