His touch was gentle and made her body ache for more.
“I can love you like you deserve.”
She wanted to believe him, desperately. But she couldn’t forget the brightness of Aaron’s eyes.
She couldn’t, no matter how hard her body tugged her in the other direction. Tears fell from Ceci’s eyes, falling to stain on Lucas’s fingers.
“I can’t.” Her heart felt like it tore in half.
And with that Lucas was gone. His warmth taken by a cold gust of wind.
Cecilia did not sleep that night, the sobs that wracked her body scratched at her throat and pulled it raw.
She found herself staring into the ceiling and there was a part of her that hoped that if she just remained still, she would fade into the mattress beneath.
A knock to her door made her leap to her feet, but it was not Aaron at her door to peek in.
Marlo stood instead, his eyes piercing her with pity, anger, and disappointment.
“Have you made a decision?” The butler asked.
“Caleb…?” The name fell from her mouth, and the butler sighed.
“He’s as good as dead. Our leader is hunting him down as we speak.”
“How do you know?” Cecilia asked, almost hysterical.
Marlo fixed her a glare, “Because Lucas is not alone in hunting him down. He ordered us to make sure you were on your way home by noon if you had not made a choice then.”
“I don’t want to leave,” she cried, pressing a hand to her lips.
“Please, don’t make me leave.”
Marlo shook his head, “Choose.”
Cecilia let out a soft sob, spinning away from the butler.
A sudden noise startled her, made her whirl around and look at the old man. Marlo was leaning heavily against the door, his expression screwed tight in pain.
“Marlo?” she asked, hurrying toward him.
“What is it?”
The sound of something crashing made the two of them turn in the direction of the hallway.
“Master Aaron…!” Marlo grunted.
Fear pierced through Cecilia’s chest, she hurried toward the old man, grabbing him firmly.
“What is it, Marlo? What’s wrong?”
A sharp howl of pain reached her ears and Cecilia cringed at the sound.
“Something happened…!” Marlo insisted, clutching to his chest.
Suddenly, he grabbed her around the arm and threw her out the room.
“Get to him, now!”
Cecilia stumbled over her feet, running at Marlo’s insistence before she was flying down the hallway and toward the spiral staircases.
She hurried as she approached, seeing one of the maids—Sarai—gasping at the end, her eyes wide and pupils contracted.
“Sarai!” Cecilia exclaimed, “What’s wrong?”
“Master Lucas,” the woman explained through clenched teeth.
“Something must have happened to him…”
“What about Aaron?” Cecilia asked, her body feeling numb.
“Aaron is closest to him in the bloodline,” Sarai hissed, wincing and baring her teeth in pain.
“You need to get to him!”
Another crash exploded from the dining room, Cecilia glanced back at Sarai. The woman glared at her.
“GO!”
Ceci ran, hurrying toward the direction of the sounds. The dining room was all but destroyed.
In the center, Aaron was clinging to the edges of the table, his hands morphed into claws and his mouth elongated into serrated teeth that dripped with saliva as he huffed.
“AARON!” Ceci shouted, horrified.
The sound of her voice managed to get Aaron to look at her, his green eyes narrowed into that of an animal’s, she could still tell it was him. See the way his body hunched in severe pain.
“Ceci—” Aaron choked out gruffly through the length of his maw.
“It’s Lucas…He’s in danger—STAY BACK!”
He shouted as she tried to approach him.
“Something went wrong in the hunt. I don’t know what, all I know is that Lucas is wounded.”
A war of emotions tugged at Ceci’s insides, made her want to collapse to her knees and think of something.
“You need to help him,” Ceci said, remembering Lucas’s words.
“You need to go!”
Aaron wheezed, fingers digging harsh rivets through the fine wood of the table.
“I…I can’t. I don’t want to become a monster…”
Ceci’s eyes burned with tears.
“You can’t let your brother die!”
“Because you love him?” He asked, and the words were pained. Cecilia shook her head.
“Because it’ll kill you if you don’t, Aaron!”
She cried, wanting to jump into his arms and hold him.
“I can’t lose both of you like this! Please!”
Aaron paused, his eyes wide as she begged him, watched his body convulse. Before he could so much as respond, the earth beneath them began to tremble.
Confused, Cecilia looked around, seeing how the table shook slightly and how some of the vases shuddered on top of the furniture.
Looking in the direction of the long glass doors, Cecilia tried to see if the earth was doing the same outside.
Everything fell to a standstill when she saw several pairs of eyes and parted jaws of wolves in the distance, rushing in the direction of the house. Cecilia barely managed to shout for Aaron before the wolves suddenly burst through the glass.
Glass scattered everywhere and Cecilia ducked away from the shards. Something sliced into her shoulder but Ceci didn’t dare move until the clattering was over.
“Well, well!”
She heard and when she looked up, she saw the unforgettable face of the source of her nightmares.
Caleb sauntered in, his body taking form of man as his eyes honed in on hers.
“What a pleasant surprise!”
Cecilia began to scramble away, reaching for Aaron’s hunched body. One of the animals jumped toward her, tackling her to the ground. Cecilia let out a scream, cut off by the force of a huge paw on her chest.
“Cecilia!” She heard, but couldn’t shake off the immense limb from her body.
“I have to say,” Caleb laughed.
“I was not expecting to find my bride so… ripe for the taking!”
“She doesn’t belong to you!” Aaron roared.
The wolf above her gave a series of wheezes that resembled laughs. Cecilia shuddered away, smelling blood and flesh in its breath.
“I’ll say,” Caleb replied from feet away.
“She was almost taken by my enemy! Sometime later and we might have had an issue on our hands!”
“What did you do to my brother?” Aaron growled.
Cecilia tried to look from the stare of her current predator and towards Aaron.
“He’ll be dead soon,” Caleb replied flippantly.
“We managed to surprise him, I guess he wasn’t expecting as many wolves to fight him. Although, he was a bugger to beat.”
Something inside Cecilia caved to a violent desperation, “No!”
“Oh yes, darling!” Caleb’s voice sounded closer, his feet cracking over glass and ruined flowers as he approached her and the wolf above her.
She saw him grinning down at her happily.
“Your almost mate is well on his way… lucky for you, when he passes, you won’t die in the process. So everyone’s happy!”
“Fuck you!” Ceci snapped, surprised at the profanity that spewed from her tongue.
“Oho!” Caleb giggled, “I like my women with some bite. You’re nothing like the pathetic little girl from before, are you?”
He took another step close, kneeling by her head to reach toward her. Cecilia tried to inch away in vain.
Tears burned down her temples as she sobbed, livid at the way Caleb touched her face with false tenderness.
“Don’t you worry,” Caleb c
huckled.
“After I’m through here… I’ll be claiming you so hard, you’ll wish you’d died here.”
A powerful and vicious snarl ripped through the air.
Suddenly, Caleb was flying in the other direction and a large set of teeth clamped down over the neck of Cecilia’s predator.
The sound of bone crunching was like a branch snapping near her ears and the weight on her chest disappeared.
“What the FUCK?!”
Cecilia scrambled away, her eyes searching through the chaos before finding a black wolf standing between her and the wolves snarling back at him.
At this angle, Ceci could barely catch the way the wolf’s snout curled upward to expose terrifying fangs. This wasn’t Lucas, even though it looked like him. Lucas had been immense, almost the size of two full wolves. This wolf was slightly smaller, thinner, and its growl was higher.
Aaron.
Caleb rose to his feet, scrambling into his wolf form in a series of angry growls.
“Stay away from her.” Aaron’s voice came out grated from within the wolf’s throat.
“You and what Army?”
Suddenly two other wolves burst from behind Cecilia to flank Aaron’s wolf form. A gray wolf and a light brown wolf stood at his side.
“This one.” Sarai’s voice was harsh and livid from the brown wolf.
“Marlo,” Aaron spoke.
“Find Lucas.”
“Will you be alright?”
Sarai let out a snap, her tail whipping hard once behind her, fur bristling. “We’ll take care of these mutts. Find our Alpha.”
The gray wolf started for the broken doors. Darting with such a swift speed the other wolves barely took off after him by the time he had disappeared.
Caleb, the wolf with gray and brown in his coat, snarled, taking after Marlo. Aaron moved then, lunging toward him with a roar, Sarai following him closely.
Cecilia scrambled back, trying to stay as far away from the battle as possible. Her eyes followed Aaron’s body closely, gasping as he fought off several wolves at once. Sarai was vicious, slamming her claws over her opponent’s eyes before ripping her fangs into their jugulars.
Where Aaron was brute strength, slamming wolves into walls, Sarai was lethal speed. Still, despite their joined strength, they were being overrun and Cecilia tried to think of something she could do.
Reaching for a piece of shattered glass, she almost ran into the fray but stopped when one of the wolves from Caleb’s pack spotted her.
It began to approach her, eyes wide and lips curled back to expose fangs dripping with foamy saliva. Cecilia threw her piece of glass at it, it cut into its cheek but all else did nothing.
The beast hissed, shaking its head before lowering down to pounce.
“Aaron!” Cecilia screamed, afraid.
The wolf began to pounce, before the body of another slammed into it and threw them against the nearest wall.
Ceci turned to look, letting out a cry of joy when she spotted a much larger black wolf standing near the broken doors. Lucas.
He was injured. Blood matted parts of his coat and his body slumped somewhat. At his side was Marlo’s form, pouncing into the fray to defend Aaron.
Still, they battled, ripping into their enemies with considerable strength and fatal speed. At one point Sarai let out a high pitched whine, her body flying toward the wall on the other side of the room. Cecilia exclaimed.
In mere moment the battle turned tides until it was just Lucas and Aaron’s wolf forms cornering Caleb’s, snarling hatefully and spitting vitriol through their growls.
For a moment, Cecilia was certain they would win, until Caleb lunged toward an exhausted Lucas.
Aaron followed as fast he could, and Cecilia’s eyes took in the movement in slow motion. She saw Caleb’s fangs sink into Lucas’s neck, tackling him in the other direction before ramming into the remains of the dining room table. Cecilia shrieked in dismay.
Caleb pulled away, snout and fangs coated in crimson, but before he could so much as do anything else Aaron was lunging, tackling his enemy and sinking his own teeth into Caleb’s neck.
They landed out of sight, but Cecilia could hear the way their growls clashed until Caleb let out a whine and a choked yelp. Blood splattered the wall, and it went silent far too quickly.
Cecilia waited, frozen to the spot as her eyes struggled to find anything. Finally, Aaron’s body emerged from the chaos, limping and hurrying in the direction where Lucas’s body had fallen. It was then Cecilia bolted, hurrying through torn wood and shattered glass to reach the result of the chaos.
Aaron’s body was shifting, his whines and yelps morphing into words as his body shaped and molded into his own. His body was littered in bite wounds and scratches, clothes torn to shreds around his skin. Yet, the one thing that scared her the most was how he was calling for Lucas, begging him to wake.
“Lucas!” Aaron cried, digging his fingers against Lucas’s huge body.
“Wake up! Come on!”
Before her eyes, Lucas’s body began to shift and change, and all the wounds his fur had covered up no longer hid behind but became angry gashes of deep vermilion.
Cecilia fell to her knees as soon as she approached him.
“No, no!” She cried, seeing pronounced puncture wounds leak blood from his neck. Lucas’s gaze stared into the ceiling, half lucid.
“Lucas, please!” Aaron begged, tears cascading from his eyes.
“Don’t do this to me! I can’t lose you, brother!”
“Aaron…” Lucas wheezed. Cecilia hurried close, pressing her fingers tight against the wounds on his neck.
“We need to stop the bleeding!”
She encouraged, tugging at her own clothes to press against his skin. Something in her burned with fright, shook her to the bone with a numbness that was edging deeper against her throat.
“Aaron, stop,” Lucas whispered.
He rose an arm, covering Cecilia’s hands with one broad palm while his other hand reached for his brother. They both paused, stunned in their grief.
“Did…did you kill Caleb?”
Aaron nodded through a sob. “Yes.”
Lucas’s skin was pale, a faded white that told Cecilia it was too late.
“Good. He… he would’ve ruined our clan. You know what has to happen now, little brother.”
“I can’t,” Aaron pleaded, huddling close to his brother.
“I can’t take over from you, you are the only one who’s strong enough.”
“You killed the bastard that killed me,” Lucas wheezed with a grin, blood gurgling from his lips as he began to cough through the wounds. Cecilia wept.
“You’re strong enough, little brother. You’ve always been…”
“Lucas…” Aaron wailed. “Please.”
“Take care of her, Aaron.” Lucas murmured, fixing one final glare into his brother’s face.
“Make my death count. You protect our family…you got it? You protect…protect…” His eyes began to fade, lips falling limp as he settled into the broken wood beneath him.
Aaron took in a deep breath, holding on to his brother’s hand as Lucas passed.
Cecilia sobbed, collapsing against Aaron’s side. This isn’t what I wanted… This isn’t what I wanted…
Aaron’s silence was profound and when Cecilia glanced up, she felt Aaron pull her close. Together, they shared this grief. Together.
A small howl of grief rose in the distance, and Aaron suddenly turned to glance up in the direction of the sound. Deep in the woods, a few pairs of eyes beheld the sight, wolves that shared the color of the pack.
Without a word, Aaron stood, released his brother’s limp hand and headed toward the broken glass doors. Cecilia watched him, saw his body straighten despite the pain in his heart, because she could feel it.
She watched him as he beheld the faces of the pack that now looked to him as the Alpha. Aaron threw his head back and let out a loud cry, and the wolves followe
d in their own howls.
This was a victory, a most terrible victory.
Carefully, Cecilia looked down at Lucas’s empty gaze.
“I’m sorry…” She murmured, lifting a hand to close his eyes.
“I’m so sorry.”
Chapter 7
Three months later.
Rocko’s tavern was alive again with patrons and happy customers. When Cecilia returned, Rocko had been happy to see her, but his joy was short lived when he saw the expression on her face.
Gone was the wide doe-eyed innocence that made her his little Ceci. This was the expression of a woman grown at the force of grief.
She returned to work, saying nothing for a good few weeks despite falling in his arms and sobbing. At first Rocko had been afraid something had happened to her, but Cecilia insisted nothing had happened to her and he believed her.
She did not shy from his touch as if she had been abused, and it took some time to get some semblance to the truth out of her.
All he knew was that she had told him that someone precious had died for her.
“It’s my fault, Rocko.” Cecilia insisted as she wept in his arms.
“I was so selfish.”
“No, sweetheart,” Rocko had soothed.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Yet his words could never reach her like she needed.
For three months, Cecilia worked and took no misbehavior from the patrons at the bar. Where she had once expressed she had been happy to work and be content in this little town, all she did now was stare out the windows, distracted and forlorn. Rocko was worried for her, but he didn’t know what to do for her and so he left her alone.
Her distant stares slowly focused back into her work and her smiles slowly returned as well, but they were not as bright as they used to be. He wondered why, but she never said and so he never pried.
Until one day when someone walked through the door of his tavern. He was a man of tall stature, bronze skin, jet black hair and deep green eyes.
His expression was certain, decisive.
“What can I get for you?” Rocko asked when the man sat at the bar.
“I’m fine,” the stranger spoke.
“Are you Rocko?”
“The one and the same.” Rocko replied, slapping a towel over his shoulder with a scowl. “Who’s asking?”
Romance: Tied To The Wolf: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Werewolf Romance, BBW Paranormal Romance, Shifter Romance) Page 6
