by Yvette Hines
“…right on the side of the road like it had fallen off the back of a truck.” The news reporter was saying as she stood on one of the cities back roads by some old warehouses. “Some teenagers were using the abandoned area for skateboarding. They thought the body was a person.” The cameraman zoomed in on the upper part of the naked form as the reporter went on. “But, authorities have discovered sharp pointed teeth on the upper row. Yes, you heard it here first, it is one of those disgusting creatures that roam our mountains. What was it doing here? Are they coming to eat us now?” The reporters eyes stretched with fear and a timbre of doom resounded in her voice.
Adair pressed the mute button. The last thing Haulcon needed to hear was the slanderous names they continued to call his people.
When she noticed his gaze locked on the television, staring at the dead body they continued to show, she hit the off button.
“So, when can you get your tushy out there to that site? Do you know someone in the coroner’s office? Those would be some fabu shots there.” Princess had never stopped babbling.
Haulcon headed toward the door.
“Look, Princess I need to go.”
“Perfect. Call me when you’re out there.” Princess was saying as Adair disconnected the line.
She didn’t have time to clarify the woman’s misconception.
“Haulcon, wait!” Adair rushed toward him.
He already had the door pulled open wide by the time she reached him.
“That’s what you thought of us? Of me….that I was just a monster?” The hurt in his voice echoed inside of her.
“Honestly, Haulcon, when I first met you, I didn’t know what to think. You know that. All we had were myths and stories.”
“I need to go.”
“I thought you were taking me with you.” Her heart was sinking. Eight hours ago she had resented the fact that he was trying to orchestrate her life and drag her off to the woods to live with his clan, but now she felt abandoned that he was willing to leave her.
“I’ll be back. Nothing has changed. But I need to my people and find a way to get the body.”
“I understand.” She said it, but in her heart she didn’t.
His hand gripped the door tightly, but he didn’t exit. “You’re a reporter. That’s why you were in the woods that day.” He cut a sharp dark look at her. His eyes were such a dark green it sparked fear into her heart for a moment.
She took a step back before she realized what she was doing and stopped. Haulcon had said he would never hurt her.
“I won’t,” he said reading her thoughts. “But I need you to answer me.”
“Yes. I am a wildlife photographer, a journalist, and that is why I was hiking the mountains on assignment. That assignment had nothing to do with you or your people. Yes, Princess tried to contract me to do a piece on the mysterious valfs, but I turned it down. You have to believe me.”
The heated, tense expression on his face said clearly he didn’t have to believe anything. Since he had that damn shield up again she had no clue what he was even thinking.
“I have to go.”
“Okay.” She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Do what you need to get the body.”
“Ziplan.”
“Excuse me?” She stared at him.
His head was bowed now. He appeared as if he were carrying the weight of his entire clan and their grief on his shoulders. “The name of the creature they found was Ziplan.”
She could only nod her throat tight with emotion.
He started out the door then stopped. Turning around, he cupped the back of her head then pulled her to him. He kissed her deeply, slipping his tongue into her mouth. There wasn’t a thread of passion in the kiss. It wasn’t meant to excite her desire.
Ending the kiss as quickly as he’d started it, he left, closing the door firmly behind him.
Adair pushed her bag off her shoulders and allowed it and her phone to drop to the carpet. Going to the window, she watched Haulcon headed toward the back path of her apartments that led to the woods. As dawn broke across the sky, she saw a flash and suddenly Haulcon had changed forms—now a wolf. He raced into the forest, gone in a blink.
Wrapping her arms around her middle, she felt the gnawing ache inside of her. Haulcon was angry at her. She could see the pain in his gaze and felt the betrayal in his emotions. Even though he said he understood. With another death of one of his clan members looking like it was by human hands, she wouldn’t blame him for his suspicions.
If she would have been more clear and firm with Princess from the beginning, none of this would have ever happened.
However, it didn’t take away the sting of Haulcon’s lack of trust in her. He’d left her here. She was pregnant with his child and he’d walked away without a look back.
Going to her couch, she laid down. She felt tired, her limbs weak with emotion. There was no one she could even call to talk to about what she was going through. Her grandparents died a long time ago. Her mother was gone too. The only person she had was her father, but in some ways he was gone to her too. Lost in his head. Science, data and his research for a cure for cancer was all he understood.
Right now she was utterly and completely alone. She cupped her belly. There was a baby growing inside of her that she would need to care for. Whether Haulcon kept his word and came back or not. That was the only ray of hope and sunshine she felt.
Chapter Nine
“Another body was found. By the humans this time and it is being plastered all over their television.” Haulcon stood in the ballroom. His clan had awakened and was gathered before him.
Valfs started murmuring. He could feel the tension, fear and anger in the air. The last thing he needed was a group of angry valfs on his hands, but it looked like it was coming to the point of impossible to stop.
“What are we going to do?” someone called out.
“Tonight I will take a team with me to locate the body. I followed them earlier today to a place where they collect their dead.” He tried to meet as many eyes as he could. “We will get to the bottom of this.”
“How?” another questioned.
“If they want us dead then maybe we should fight them.” An angry voice shouted.
“Violence is not the answer. I don’t want a war with the humans. I just want to discover who is behind this and end it.”
More of his clan grumbled.
“Trust me. I am your Alpha.”
That single word brought silence to the crowd.
“At the moment it is only the unmated and those who are not the strongest among us that have been taken. It makes it hard for us to track their whereabouts once they disappear from the mountains. From now on all mates travel together and anyone unmated must be paired with another—sun down or sun up.”
“Yes, Alpha.” The declaration was weak but clear.
Haulcon understood that they were still wrestling with their emotions and fear. He didn’t consider it a slight. Hell, he had his own concerns about how to root out the truth. Even though he wanted this to come to an end, how long would it continue to go on?
His own frustration caused him to growl.
He knew there was still another issue that he needed to discuss with his clan. In light of the current situation, it was one that he looked forward to presenting less than the last.
Taking a deep breath, he let out his announcement loud and clear. “I have taken a mate.”
The room fell silent. The clan members looked around the room, angling their head left and right attempting to search out the female who had bonded with their Alpha.
Beside him stood Friedol and Nyca. They all knew his history with Nyca, but knew she was happily mated with another.
His mother and father were directly before him in the masses.
Nyca, Friedol, Tison, Larina and Chrysen all stared at him curiously. His mother was smiling and his father was staring at him with pride-filled eyes. He almost hated to see their
expressions change.
“Who is it, Alpha?”
“Let your mate step forward.” Someone else called out.
“She is not presently with us. She is a human.”
The collective gasp of shock was so loud and quick it was like the report of a gun.
“Humans are killing us and you desire to bring one in our midst?” A male called out.
“Are valf females no good for you?” Those hurt-filled words came from Sylista.
Haulcon knew she had been angling to be his mate. But even she knew that the draw of a mate was strong. If he had been able to turn her away so easy she was not meant for him.
“Please, Alpha, tell us this is either a joke or some way you are trying to bring about a sort of alliance.” It was Nyca that volunteered those words.
He knew she was attempting to give him an excuse for what the clan, and possibly even she, saw as a betrayal.
“It was not my intention to mate with a human woman.” He began, keeping his voice clear and steady. There was enough war waging inside of him concerning Adair and he didn’t need anyone else’s opinion adding to his own concerns.
“Then why did you?” Friedol questioned.
“She is the one who saved me. If not for Adair your Alpha would have died at the hands of one of our own.” Haulcon brought their memory back to what had transpired just a few weeks ago. “It is all because of her courage that I returned.”
“So, it is gratitude in which you offered her?” Those words came from his mother, a female version of him, as she stood dressed in a loose fitting gown that swept the floor.
“Not gratitude—more. This, just like for you and father, was ordained/orchestrated by the Great Spirit somehow.” He looked back at the crowd. “Truly, I wish I had more answers for you. I don’t know how my connection with her is even possible, but she carries my heir so it is so.”
The whispering that went about this time was that of excitement. Offspring always brought joy to the clan. It was a sign that they were flourishing and still strong.
“I know accepting her presence here will be difficult. For her and you, but I, your Alpha, look to you all to show her your support and protection as you would any valf.”
“We will, Alpha.” The group responded.
Haulcon didn’t believe for a moment that all of their doubts and apprehension was wiped away just because Adair was carrying. No. However, he knew his clan, they were honorable people. It would take time for them to open their hearts to his mate, but they would not do her harm.
“Thank you.” He bowed his head to them, showing them all his gratitude. Facing Nyca on his right, he said, “Gather some under your command and have them ready at the first shadow of nightfall so that we can go get Ziplan and bring him home.”
“It will be done.” Turning she left to do his bidding.
Shifting his stance toward Friedol, he said, “I hope I have your support?”
“I offered you my wrist and with that my loyalty for life. I know you Haulcon. If you have made our enemy your mate then there was a reason. I will stand by you as you protect her with your life.”
He placed a hand on his friends shoulder. “Thank you. Your faith I do not take lightly.”
“I know. It is how I keep you indebted to me,” Friedol replied in jest.
Haulcon smiled. “I must go and speak with Ziplan’s family then my own before I find my rest.”
“I understand. When will you bring this Adair to our territory? I can only surmise that it must be torture for you to be away from her and your heir.”
Friedol had no clue. It was especially hard since he and Adair had left things with such tension. “Extremely. In a day or so. I want to ensure there isn’t any fall out of us reclaiming one of our fallen before I bring her.”
“Okay.”
Moving away from his second in command, Haulcon went directly to Rishta and Mucor, Ziplan’s parents.
~YH~
Adair knew he was there. Even though it was dark in her house and she couldn’t see a thing, she could feel him. Her unborn child also declared the presence of his father by moving within. Over the last week since she’d last seen Haulcon, things in her body had started to change rapidly. She’d seen many pregnant women before and she was pretty sure that they did not grow as fast as she was.
“So, you decided to come back.”
“It had never been in my mind not to return for you, Adair.” His rich timbre was barely above a whisper, but she could hear him.
More in her mind than actual words.
“Hm, you could have fooled me.” She continued lying on her side, not moving since she realized he was there. “I don’t know how things work in your world, Haulcon, but here if a woman doesn’t hear from a man in a week, she pretty much can be sure it is over.” She allowed the anger she felt at him to drip sarcastically from her words.
“You’re my mate. We will never be over,” he growled.
“Don’t try and go all valf Alpha machismo on me. I don’t have the patience for your shit!” She pointed a finger toward the area she had heard his voice.
“Forgive me.”
She found him beside her on the bed, curled along her back.
“No.” She shoved her elbow hard behind her, aiming for his gut.
It made contact but he didn’t even grunt.
Damn superhuman toughness.
“Would you prefer I be human?” He fingered her hair back away from the side of her face and pressed his lips to her ear. “Is that what you want, sweet?”
“What I want is for you not to act like an ass and decide you have the right to have a big man pity party. Instead of leaving m-e.” Her voice broke. She should have realized how close she was to crying. Her emotions had been raw and on the edge all week. But she’d fought against them, kept them restrained. However now that Haulcon was here they seemed to have pushed past the wall she had built.
“Please, do not cry.” He dragged her into his arms. “I have no experience with how to handle a weeping female.”
Here the sincerity of his words just made her cry even more. “Well, you are going to get a lot of experience with them because this baby has my emotions all over the place.”
Cradling her, he asked, “Are you unwell?” He ran his hands over her body as if searching for something.
“No. I’m fine. I think. It’s just everything is happening so fast.”
Finding the swell of her stomach he cupped her there.
She felt the warmth of his touch. In some way it seemed to calm both her and the child. The baby shifted inside of her as if attempting to curl against his father’s palm.
“I can sense my child growing strong within you.” He flexed his fingers, grazing them along her nightgown-covered skin.
“You mean taking over my body. Just today I had three steaks in one sitting. I thought I was going to be sick.”
“Beautiful, I’m sorry.” He kissed her neck. “You need my serum.”
“Wish you would have recalled that fact while you were away.” She still had not forgiven him.
“I never stopped thinking about you. I just needed to ensure my people were safe. Secure. There is still a threat to us. Now that people know what we look like, the mountains have been crawling with reporters and hikers and all manner of humans. Those wanting to do us harm and those just curious.”
“I’m sorry, Haulcon.” She turned, facing him. “I know how private you want to keep your way of life. I can understand and respect that. Sadly, not all humans feel the same.”
“This I know.” He sighed. “Thankfully because of our distance from the city they have not even come close to truly locating us. However, we all must be cautious. Somehow with the fact that others have come up missing, someone has discovered a way to find us. Probably while we are out hunting.” He shook his head.
The stress in his voice was clearly evident.
“I feel what you are going through.” She placed a hand over his heart
. “However, don’t leave me again, Haulcon.”
The room was silent.
“Your pain is heavy.” He covered her hand with his. “Talk to me.”
She didn’t know if she could open up to him about what she’d been through in her life and keep her sanity. She’d learned not to deal with it. To keep it buried inside and pretend that all the hurt and ache wasn’t there. As a photographer she was a loner, by design and by necessity. She couldn’t risk needing anyone and then this giant of a male comes into her life.
“Before you, I had a way of life that worked fine for me.” She moved her hand from under his and moved away. Space was what she needed.
“In what way did it work?” He didn’t try to touch her, but allowed her the small distance.
Gratefully she continued, “My mother died shortly after I was born. I never knew her.”
“I’m sorry for your loss. What happened to her?”
“A human disease called cancer took her from me and my dad. She refused to get treatment while she carried me. It got worst as I grew. By the time I was born it had more than ravaged her body. I was told she lived another three months after I was born.”
Adair felt hollow inside, it always confounded her that she missed her mother so greatly. Someone she’d never known.
“Not having her around must have been hard for you.”
She stared off into the darkness. “More so because her death took my father from me at the same time.”
“He died too?”
“In a way he did.” She pulled her knees up as close to her chest as her protruding stomach would allow. “Something inside of my father died, shut down when he lost my mother. He became so focused on finding something that would have cured my mother’s cancer, made a difference, that he forgot I was alive. That he had a child.”
“Don’t cry. Please.” His own voice cracked.
Until he said that, she didn’t even realize that tears were not only running unchecked down her face, but she was also shaking with the emotions wracking her body.
In an instant she found herself engulfed in the strength of Haulcon’s arms and his cinnamon woodsy scent. It felt and smelled like home to her. Her heart ached at how much she’d missed him.
