by Casey Lane
“I seriously doubt that.”
Even after all these years, there was no question in Sebastian’s mind that this was Lyla’s girl – her accusations notwithstanding. She’d survived. But where was her brother, Xavier? He’d thought both children had died years ago, lost in the wilds. He’d searched for them for months, after he’d meted out justice to the rest of the traitors, but there’d been no sign of them.
Sebastian should have known better, though. Lyla was their mother, and she’d been tough as nails.
“You escaped here? To a vampire-run town?”
She drew herself up, folding her arms across her chest. “What, you’re sorry I managed to survive?”
“No!” A pause. “No, I looked for you.”
“Sure you did. To finish the job, no doubt.” She hissed, actually hissed, like a pissed-off cat. Then the skin on her face rippled, fur sprouting then disappearing, like her wolf wanted to come out. Probably to rip his face off.
He deserved it.
Not that he’d had anything to do with the attack, but he’d been alpha. It had been his job to protect his pack – all of its members. And those children especially so; they’d been defenseless.
He shook his head. This was pointless. He doubted she’d ever believe him; the pack supposedly followed the alpha, and her brother and mother had died. He’d buried them himself, hands raw and bleeding from digging so many graves.
He held his palms out to show he wasn’t going to do anything violent, and stood slowly. “I wasn’t involved in the attack.”
She followed his movements, her eyes wary. “No, you were just conveniently away.”
“Convenient for them.”
Her eyes flashed. “Packs don’t do anything without their alpha’s go-ahead.”
“I call bullshit on that.”
“Really? Then you were such a poor alpha that they turned on you? Thing is, you’re still here. If they rejected you, you’d be dead.”
She had a point, even though she was wrong.
Sebastian shook his head. “When a pack rejects their alpha, they usually have a new alpha ready to step into the void. That’s what happened with my father, when you were born. Some of the elders of the pack called for your immediate execution. My father protested.”
It had been one of the worst moments in his life. He’d been thirty, barely out of leading strings for a werewolf. His father had been challenged by one of their new pack-members, a former loner, who’d been just under six foot in height, and mean as pissed-off bear. They’d fought. To the death.
His father’s.
There’d been blood everywhere. His father had battled long and hard, but the other man had been younger and, it turned out, just that little bit stronger. Sebastian had been forced to watch as the newcomer had torn off the former alpha’s head. No were could heal from that kind of an injury.
And then the new alpha had ordered Lyla and the triplets killed; his second decree had been that Sebastian be exiled. Most of the pack had been averse to the barked commands, but the alpha’s will was law. It was the only way a pack could function. If you didn’t agree, you left, and no one had wanted to follow Sebastian into exile.
So he’d stepped up. Challenged the challenger. And won. He’d been too young to take on the position and, looking back, it was clear his pack hadn’t followed him like they would an older, more experienced were. They wouldn’t have betrayed him when his back was turned, otherwise. But there’d been no other choice. No one else had been strong enough to take on the alpha.
Apart from Lyla.
How he wished he’d known that back then. She hadn’t had the personality to hold a pack together, and she’d been weak from the birth, but she could have taken on the role until Sebastian had grown old enough.
Aria snorted. “So your daddy was a nice guy, but you aren’t?”
He couldn’t help the low growl of frustration that burst forth. “I didn’t order you killed. I was away!”
Her eyes hardened, cold and empty. “You aren’t welcome here.”
“I was invited.”
“Not by me. And I seriously doubt by the duke. Don’t come back, or I’ll be mounting your pelt on my wall.” With that, she turned and melted into the darkness.
He would have laughed at her statement, a tiny five-foot-nothing vampire mount his skin on a wall? But he’d felt her strength. She had the power to back her words up. He’d put gold on that.
All the same, he was going to be visiting her sooner than she’d like. With a grin, he climbed the wall and disappeared into the night.
Chapter Four
Ari hurried into her room, slamming the heavy metal door shut behind her. She dropped her cloak onto the floor, where it puddled at her feet. Leaning against the panel, she focused on breathing.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Gargh! She could still detect that amazing caramel and fig scent. She’d never remembered that about him. Why did he have to smell like a tasty treat? Why couldn’t someone so horrible stink like shit, or garbage, or something equally gross?
And since when had he gotten handsome? Her memory of him didn’t include the crow-black hair, or the tilted yellow eyes, or the bronze skin with full, biteable lips…
He’s responsible for your family’s deaths.
Her libido didn’t seem to care at all about that.
No. Uh uh. She was not going to go there, even in her mind.
“Beware the alpha.”
Xave’s words were sudden and loud in her head, almost as if he were still in the room with her, not dead these past ten years. Killed, largely, by his own hand.
Shutting her eyes, she thought back to the last thing he’d said to her. Like Nick, Xave had eventually stopped speaking, lost in the visions of the future. Fate was never set in stone, he’d told her once. It was fluid. People made decisions all the time, and sometimes, they made unpredictable choices. It changed things. Shaped their lives in ways that couldn’t be foreseen. That meant some things would never come to pass.
Every time Xave had seen her future, she had crossed paths with their former alpha. When she did, her brother had said, it would end in blood and pain and death. For her.
Because killing her family once hadn’t been enough.
He didn’t kill Nick and Mama. He wasn’t there.
No, he’d just left the pack unattended, a pack that had supposedly decided that killing the unnatural siblings had been the only way forward. Oh, she didn’t know for certain that Mama and Nick were dead, but Xave had seen it, and Mama had never come looking for them. If she’d survived, she would have. Ari knew that in her bones; she didn’t need some horrible mental ability to clue her in on it.
But where was Sebastian getting off, thinking that someone had invited him here?
Sharp pain sliced into her. Her hands had shifted into claws, and they were cutting deep into her thighs. She hadn’t even noticed they’d changed. The iron-rich scent of blood flooded her senses.
“Grrr.”
Annoyed, she pulled off her torn, blood-stained clothing. The wounds were already closing over. There were certain benefits to being an ‘impossible’ hybrid.
Ari was the only vampire-were in existence. She’d never known what to call herself: a vampere, or a werepire? She didn’t like either one, but there was no other name for one such as herself. She’d have to give it more thought. Because you’ve managed to come up with so much in the last few decades.
There might have been another hybrid, before, way back when the races had first been created, but none that her father knew of since, and he’d been alive a long time. He wasn’t as old as the Duchess of Ravens was rumored to be, but he’d seen a number of millennia.
She threw her pants on the ‘to be mended’ pile. It was embarrassing how many clothes had accumulated there. You’d think, at sixty years of age, she would have mastered the ability to shape-shift. Most weres had it under control before they reached
puberty. Not her.
There have to be some side-effects to being so awesome.
Hah. Wasn’t she just a comedian?
Still…she was faster than most weres or vampires, stronger too, and she healed really quickly. Then there was the other strange quirk – she didn’t have any body odor. Most people had a smell to them, like the bloody alpha with his caramel and fig flavor that made her mouth water. Her father reminded her of frozen lemons, with a hint of sugar. People’s scents tended to be a blend of their species, and the unique aroma that was just them.
Yet she didn’t have one.
Xave had teased her that it would mean she’d never find a mate like other weres, who supposedly detected their partners through a psychic sense of smell. No one would be able to find her, because she’d never show up on anyone’s register.
As an abomination that shouldn’t even exist, it was difficult to think about having a partner, a relationship, or a family. Who’d want to have kids with her? Who knew what she’d give birth to?
That didn’t stop her dreaming of having something of her very own, though.
Enough of that. She had things to do.
Naked, she stood in the center of her room, her skin prickling in the chill, the stone floor cold against her soles. The other bedrooms and guest chambers in the estate had thick handwoven rugs and carpets, but Ari hadn’t seen the point for her room. She tended to bleed a little too easily, and it wasn’t fair on the servants, forcing them to clean the mess up. She’d do it herself, but it wasn’t worth the war with her father – apparently, duke’s daughters didn’t do menial labor. How little he knew.
Pivoting, she stared at the huge four-poster bed, its sides swathed in sheer white curtains, the mattress covered in a damask quilt. That was about it for the fancy display. Oh, she had tables and chairs, but they were bare wood and metal, all hard angles. She had a window seat with a couple of cushions she’d embroidered, but that was only because she liked to read in the weak sun that streamed through the bubbly panes.
Sighing, she trudged over to the bathroom that adjoined her bedchamber. She’d better wash the blood off before she went to talk to her father about Sebastian Talien’s ‘invitation’. While she didn’t have a scent, her blood still did, and her father would want to know what had happened to her. Admitting she’d accidently hurt herself would be almost as bad as him finding out she’d been gallivanting over the city.
The bathroom had floor-to-ceiling tiles, all in a beautiful pastel blue that she’d chosen. The bath had been positioned in the middle of the room, and had gold detailing and four proud, clawed feet. While she loved soaking in a bath, she needed to wash fast, so opted for the shower was tucked away in the far corner. She turned on the faucet and waited for the hot water to emerge, then she scrubbed her skin raw.
There was no way her former alpha was coming back to the estate. Xave’s warning pounded through her head; she didn’t think she could deal with Sebastian again. He was too big, too powerful, too treacherous. And too bloody delicious-smelling.
She had to corner Father before he retired for the evening. It wouldn’t be fun, but then again, dealing with the Duke of Ashes never had been.
Chapter Five
“What do you mean, you asked him here?” Ari slammed her palm down on the huge metal desk in her father’s study. It dented a little.
Well, too bad. He’d gone and invited her former bloody alpha to the estate, without asking her first. It wasn’t like she wore an eyepatch for fun; she was deliberately hiding her were nature from the vampires in Skarva. It’s what had painted such a large target on her back as a child, after all, so why would her father risk exposing her secret?
The Duke of Ashes, otherwise known as Parker Ash, didn’t even frown, just slowly shook his head at her. He was seated behind the desk, his posture ramrod straight, the white plaster walls soaring behind him up to a high, vaulted ceiling. He was always so measured, it made her blood boil.
He was tall, at over six foot five, and all sharp lines, with ash-blond hair that he kept short – that meant daily trims for a vampire. She supposed he was good-looking, since most vampires were, but she thought he was about as interesting as a stick.
Wait, that wasn’t a fair comparison to the stick.
Her father’s even voice broached the temporary silence. “I honestly fail to see what the problem is. I didn’t think I required your permission to invite people to my house.” Such cold precision in those words.
“You do when it’s him!”
“Am I to understand you have some problem with him personally?”
And didn’t that just shut her up.
He didn’t bloody know? How could he not know?
Ari opened her mouth to speak, but then snapped it shut. He didn’t know. She wanted to place the blame on her father’s wide shoulders, but that wasn’t actually fair. She’d never told him, now she thought about it, about the pack that had slaughtered her family. Sure, he knew it had happened, but neither she nor Xave had been keen on rehashing their past, so they hadn’t given names, or a location.
They hadn’t wanted to lose the only parent they had left – because even though Ari didn’t like her father much, she’d known that he would have gone out and hunted down the pack responsible for his other son’s death. Vampires were like that, especially older ones like Parker: children were precious. And Parker hadn’t been aware he’d even had children, not until Xave and Ari had shown up on his doorstep. He might not have believed their claim, if not for the fact Ari was the spitting image of his long-dead sister, and Xave had had enough of his father in him that it made the question moot.
So Parker hadn’t doubted that they were his children, born of a short-term fling with a were. He hadn’t known about them – if he had, he would have come for them, Ari didn’t doubt that. Children were rare and prized to long-lived vampires, even freak offspring like her. Maybe that was why Mama had never said anything to him. She hadn’t wanted to fight for them.
Ari sighed and sat down. Normally she didn’t bother with chairs; she didn’t spend a lot of time in the office, mostly because she was too angry to listen to him. Glancing down at her hands, she frowned. Sprinkles of sandy-colored hair rippled across the skin, disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared.
Then, with a calm she didn’t feel, she met her father’s stare directly. His deep violet eyes were the same hue as her single purple iris. “Sebastian Talien was the alpha of my former pack.”
The Duke of Ashes exploded from his seat. The chair fell to the floor, and his heavy desk screeched a few inches toward her. “What?”
So, he really didn’t know.
“He was away when the attack happened.” Ari didn’t know why she said that. “But he was the alpha at the time.”
Her father took a few deep breaths, reclaiming his renowned calm, then turned and righted his seat. “I see.”
“I found him here, last night. He was sniffing around. Father, it is a bad idea to have him here.” Her chin jutted out. “Xave said so.”
Her father shut his eyes at Xave’s name, regret visible across his features. Talking about Xave was the only time she ever saw true emotion from him – aside from his out-of-character outburst before. But then, he had a lot of guilt about his son, didn’t he?
“While I don’t approve of Sebastian sneaking through the estate – and I will talk to him about that – you need help. And he has a certain reputation, regardless of what Xavier may or may not have said.”
“I need help?” Ari glared at him.
The duke looked down at her clenched hands, at the fur appearing and reappearing there.
“You can’t control the shift. You need to learn how. It makes you vulnerable.”
How fatherly.
Unfortunately, the bastard was correct.
“What’s this about ‘a certain reputation’, then?” she asked. “That he slaughters innocent children?”
Her father sat down, flicking his c
oattails behind him as he did so. “Quite the opposite.”
“The opposite of a child-slaughterer?” One blonde eyebrow shot skyward.
“That is what I said. It was very difficult to track him down, but he seems to have spent the last fifty years helping at-risk children. He’s rumored to have slaughtered an entire pack once, for harming one.”
Chills zapped down her spine.
“He killed a pack?”
Those normally emotionless eyes bored into her. “The most I could find out about the incident was that he killed the lot of them, after a child was hurt. And that it was several decades ago.”
Could that have been her pack?
No.
Don’t be an idiot. He probably started the rumor so that people wouldn’t hate him on sight. Although, would they have?
Not when there were rules about albino children. Stupid, horrible, disgusting rules.
Chapter Six
Sebastian was not excited about visiting the Duke of Ashes’ town estate. He was not. Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he’d eventually believe it. As much as it pained him to admit it, however, he was keen to see Aria again.
He barely remembered her as a child, just a skinny little urchin with a cap of blonde hair, who’d been thick as thieves with her brothers. He’d spent more time watching his other pack members than actually getting to know the pups he’d killed to protect.
But he was certainly interested in getting to know her better now, which was absurd. Yet there it was. It was a very rare day that someone was able to physically best him, and even rarer when someone left him slack-jawed with surprise. She’d managed to do both, and it made him keen to see what else would happen.
Straightening his collar, he did a quick check in the mirror. He’d do. Starched shirt, black evening suit and no cravat. He tied back his jet hair, then curled it into a bun. He wasn’t into fashion, and this was about as fancy as he was going to get. One shift, and his clothes would be ruined anyway.
