by Sarah Makela
Fear mixed with forbidden lust. I didn’t want to be this messed up, but sometimes...it felt so good. My shoulders hunched, and I grudgingly accepted the mug, keeping my gaze fixed on the warm cocoa—with a spoonful of whipped cream, just the way I liked it.
My aunt was too good to me, and I didn’t always feel deserving of her care.
CHAPTER FIVE
Carmela
After traveling almost a block, I slowed my pace and glanced over my shoulder to see if Derek had followed me. Kind of silly, since he could’ve caught me before I made it out of the alley. Crashing through the window wasn’t as painless as the movies made it look. Feline shifters had it so much easier. Then again, the blood loss had made me weak. Whatever the method, I still freed myself from him.
Although not every part of me was happy about that.
My vampiric savior had a strange allure about him, one I hesitated to admit even to myself. Not that it mattered—Father had chosen my mate. Soon enough, I’d be in his possession.
Would forever in the vampire’s care have been so bad?
Shit! What am I thinking? I needed to get a grip. We were enemies. Mortal enemies. Even if we had some kind of fling, our people would hunt us to the ends of the Earth, hell-bent on our deaths.
Father would kill me. Literally.
Rubbing a hand down my hip, I limped along the cracked sidewalk, scanning the row houses that lined the street with their peeling paint and dusty windows. Other people strolled along the pavement, but they averted their gazes from me, obviously uncomfortable. I couldn’t blame them. Derek might have cleaned the wound, but blood stained my blouse and dressy jeans.
I groaned.
Shiny new clothes weren’t easy to come by; not in this day and age. People of my class tended to have fine things, but not me. Father was so controlling. He never allowed me to look ‘too nice.’ Chandra, on the other hand... Don’t even go there, Carmela. It’s not worth it.
Even though I was twenty, he didn’t treat me like an adult. He treated me like a possession, always wanting to show me off at Alpha meetings, but never spending time with me. How would I tell him I didn’t want to be with someone who only wanted a female to bear his pups?
If anyone really looked at traditional werewolf society, they’d know how much it favored the female sex rather than their male counterparts. Yet men these days liked the prestige and power of being in charge. No one considered how change might improve our existence. Equality? Not in this lifetime.
My home came into view, and a sigh of relief shuddered through me. Finally. I’d be able to calm my parents and check if Chandra made it. If not, I’d go search for her myself. I didn’t care how long it took.
Chandra’s life was worse than mine. Her parents had tossed her on the streets to fend for herself when she was little. Only when my mother heard about her sister and brother-in-law’s death did we find out what happened to her, and I’d hate myself if she’d perished while I was safe and tended to at Derek’s house.
I glanced over my shoulder at the now-deserted street before heading up the front steps. I didn’t want anyone to know where I was going. Yes, I was paranoid, but people were out to get me. Whoever had alerted the Cazador to the nocturnes at the Teatro didn’t care if my people lived or died.
Steeling my shoulders, I pushed my hand into my jacket pocket and withdrew my keys. Before I could slide them into the door, it swung open. A scowl curled my father’s thin lips. It was enough to bring any pup to tears.
I gulped and stepped inside after him. “Hi, Dad.”
“Where have you been?” His nostrils flared, and he narrowed his dark eyes at me. My heart raced. He ran a fingertip over the arm splint and brought it to his nose. “What is this scent?” He inhaled deeply but shook his head. “You were out getting in trouble? Do you have any idea how worried your mother was about you? We were about to send out a search team.” He placed his hand on my uninjured shoulder and drew me into his side. “Wouldn’t want anything to happen to my girl.”
Even as he said those words, his tone was flat. Maybe he didn’t want anything to happen to me, but he wanted that so I could be mated to some influential Alpha’s son. I knew he wasn’t concerned for my well-being, and he never bothered to deny it.
While I was growing up, I witnessed many arguments between my parents. Particularly he liked to snarl that his only offspring hadn’t been a boy. That Mom was at fault for not bearing more children.
When my mother gave birth to me, something in her body gave out. Her womb couldn’t handle having a pup within it. Mom liked to say my birth was a miracle, but I didn’t agree, not when Father made me feel otherwise.
Grimacing, I glanced up at him.
He shoved me toward his office on the ground floor. “Come now. I’ll call Dr. Matthews. Your mother is waiting to see you. Go show her you’re okay.”
I walked through the French doors into the large bookshelf-filled room with its grand oak desk, positioned facing the door. The sting of being sent here when I was younger never went away, regardless of the many times I’d been in the room since.
My mother leapt from a chair angled toward the large stone hearth. “Oh, my dear! Come. Let me look at you. What trouble did you get yourself into?” She crossed the room to me, her light brown eyes wide with concern.
“They raided the Teatro. Chandra and I ran, but they caught up to me and shot me.” My gaze landed on the other chair as my cousin stood.
“Carmela, you’re alive,” she said. “I hope you’re okay.” She smiled, but there was something off about her tone of voice, as if she knew something I didn’t. “We were so worried.” She didn’t give away anything more. Could she be trying to warn me? If only I could decipher what she was hinting at.
Father’s voice came from the other room, most likely using his treasured analog phone. He was a business owner, which gave him a certain level of influence; probably one of the factors that contributed to my family not being lower class like other werewolves. With that influence, he sometimes had the ability to go outside the norm of what others could or couldn’t get. The phone had been a gift from one of his loyal clients. They were fairly rare and expensive these days, unlike before the disaster when almost everyone had a cell phone.
“You should sit down, sweetheart. You look pale.” Mother guided me to the chair Chandra had vacated. Leaning my head back against the chair’s plush upholstered fabric, I closed my eyes and brushed my fingertips over the cottony splint holding my arm in place. My shoulder still burned in agony, and whatever sleep I’d gotten at the vampire’s didn’t seem to help the drowsiness weighing me down now.
If the bullet had been lead, I might’ve been able to shrug the injury off, but that wasn’t the case. The Cazador had known what I was. They’d shot me with silver. Fear chilled me to the bone.
“Are you cold? Here, I’ll fetch a blanket,” Mother said from nearby, but I didn’t pay her much attention. Goosebumps rose up over my skin, and pain gnawed on my shoulder like a dog with a bone.
Weight descended upon me, and I blinked my eyes open. Mother smiled as she tucked a large wool blanket around my shivering body. “Does that help any? Should I have your father light a fire?”
“She does not need a fire, Katarina. She needs the doctor to examine her.” Father walked around from the back of the chair to tower over us. “Who fixed you up?” He tugged the blanket down, his gaze dropping to the arm secured to my side.
“I don’t know, Father. I passed out.” I couldn’t tell him it had been a vampire. For some reason, they weren’t able to smell Derek; it probably had to do with the blood and fear that coated me.
“You don’t know?” He straightened his spine, and ferocity creased his forehead. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
Mother placed a hand on his thick arm. “Honey, maybe she doesn’t—”
Father snapped his attention toward Mother and snarled at her. His gaze was so intense it would have made anyone else spill t
heir guts at his feet. He turned his head back to me, his eyes narrowing. Now I knew why Chandra had acted off; Father was in a seriously bad mood. “What about when you woke up?”
“When I woke up, I found my way home.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself enough that he wouldn’t downright accuse me of lying. But with the way he was acting, it was hard. I didn’t want him to strike Mother or anyone else.
Leaning in closely, he growled, “You better not be lying. Do you understand?” I quickly nodded. “Good. You know I’m fully capable of disciplining you, right?”
Fear choked me. He wouldn’t think twice about hurting me. He called it ‘disciplining,’ but that didn’t cover what he did. What he seemed to enjoy doing. “Yes, Father.” My voice broke slightly, and I wanted to avert my eyes, lean away from him, do anything to gain distance between us, but that wasn’t the way to handle him. Not as a werewolf. He’d believe me to be guilty, which I was if truth be told, but he couldn’t know that. He’d kill me if he thought a vampire had tainted me.
“Doctor Matthews will be here shortly. Go up to your room. Don’t make things difficult for him. He’s coming all this way because you couldn’t stay out of trouble.” His lips curled back in disgust, and he straightened to his full height.
I pulled away the cozy blanket and tried to stand, but my muscles weren’t cooperating. Dizziness swept through me, and I bit my lip against the wave of nausea roiling my gut. “I don’t feel well.”
Father grabbed me by the front of my blouse, popping a few buttons in the process, and hauled me from the chair. The tips of my toes barely touched the ground as he lifted. Breathing became difficult, and the gnawing pain in my shoulder grew almost unbearable as my shirt pressed into it. Sheer hostility filled his eyes, and he watched for signs of my pain.
I groaned and wriggled, trying to take some of the pressure off my shoulder by holding myself up, but he hefted me higher.
“Dear, I’ll help her to her room. She’s hurting. Please don’t cause her more pain.” Mother stood a few steps behind my father. Fear was evident in her widening eyes. She didn’t want to get involved, didn’t want to upset Father, but she loved me. Loved me enough to risk Father’s wrath.
Father’s grip fell away, and I plummeted to the ground. A loud smack of flesh sounded simultaneously with me thudding against the floor. I lay on my uninjured side and blinked my eyes to see Mother on the office rug with a big red handprint on her cheek. Blood trickled from her lower lip.
“Don’t tell me what to do. She’s my daughter. I can discipline her how and when I see fit. She left us to worry over her whereabouts. And look at this.” He whirled, waving his hand at me. “She comes back injured and ‘not knowing’ what happened. The little bitch knows how important she is, especially when she’ll be meeting her mate tomorrow.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and he slid his gaze over my body. “Damn. With the condition she’s in, I’ll probably need to reschedule.” He paced across the room and back, retracing his steps in a circular track. “I don’t want the boy thinking he’s in for more trouble than she’s worth.”
I stayed on the ground, unsure if standing would provoke him further. Instead, I tried to lie as still as I could. My shoulder didn’t like this position, but I remained quiet.
Mother climbed to her feet slowly, regaining her prim posture. She glanced between her husband and me. It was apparent she wanted to do something, but she was afraid of enraging him further. So she stood there, waiting like a servant.
“Fine, go to her,” Father said after a long stretch of silence.
Mother knelt beside me, carefully pulling me into her arms. Her smile held regret and sadness, and I didn’t have to wonder why. She hated the way Father treated me. At least one of my parents cared. I loathed that once I left, she’d have to continue to deal with how he treated her. Werewolf society didn’t allow for divorce; we mated for life.
Mother carried me upstairs, then nestled me into bed. She brushed my hair back from my face and sighed. “How did you get hurt, my dear?”
“Honestly, the Cazador shot me with their silver bullets. I managed to lose them. I was bleeding heavily, then I passed out.” That was pretty close to the truth, too. I covered my mouth with a hand, stifling a yawn. “I’m not sure what happened after I passed out.” Also true.
Mother shook her head sadly. “You know that story doesn’t please your father. I find it hard to believe myself. Are you certain you don’t know who helped you? If anything, tell me so I can thank them. I’m glad someone took care of you.”
I smiled but refused to answer.
“You should have stuck closer to your cousin. You’re there to protect one another. Soon you’ll have a new home and a great privilege amongst your people. Your father doesn’t want you to mess up that opportunity.” Mother shrugged her shoulders in a dainty bounce. “You get some rest, and I’ll be back once the doctor gets here.” She stood and walked out of my bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
The smile slid from my face, and I leaned my head back. Why was everyone going on about how wonderful being an Alpha Queen would be? I didn’t want the chore of shooting out babies in a loveless relationship. I’d seen the horrors of arranged relationships in the example my parents provided. Male werewolves were known for their atrocious tempers. Who said I wouldn’t be paired with someone who resembled Father? I didn’t want that kind of life.
I wanted love and respect. Was that too much to ask?
CHAPTER SIX
Chandra
I bit my lip hard and stayed as still as I could in the high-back chair Aunt Katarina had occupied moments before. Uncle William’s temper was on a very short fuse, and I didn’t want to risk his wrath, especially not when it was overblown like this.
I wished I hadn’t been left downstairs alone with him. Fear tickled the back of my throat. Sometimes he excited me when he got all Alpha-male, but other times he held such violence inside him that it was better to stay out of his way. Right now was the latter.
He normally didn’t hit Aunt Katarina, much less do what he did to Carmela, in front of everyone. We all knew he abused behind closed doors; now his rage was out in the open. This could set a horrible precedent.
His gaze swung in my direction, and I couldn’t breathe. Heat burned my skin, and I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt. He narrowed his eyes as he stalked toward me, his arms crossed. He stared me down as he had Carmela.
“I guess you were telling the truth, but I know you’re hiding something.”
My eyes widened before I could control my reaction. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told you everything,” I said, my voice breathy even to my own ears.
He fisted his meaty hand around my upper arm, yanking me from the chair. “Don’t play coy with me, little girl. I brought you into this household. If you don’t want to go back on the streets where Katarina’s sister left you, you’ll do as I say.”
Adrenaline pumped through my veins. Those words ripped through me, leaving me raw. Pain radiated from my arm, but it was nothing compared to the hurt in my heart. He stomped toward the stairs up to my bedroom, dragging me with him.
I’d taken his rough treatment, but only because I yearned for something better. However, the thrill of Uncle William had diminished. I couldn’t believe he was taking this out on me. Why not aim it at its rightful target, Carmela? But he wouldn’t sully his little girl—she was far too important.
He shoved me toward the bed, then pulled a set of keys out of his pocket.
Panic sent my pulse into overdrive. If I could have, I would’ve run, but I knew I’d never be safe. Not from the Cazador, as the Teatro incident proved, and not from him.
Uncle William was powerful. He’d made me feel safer with him than anywhere I’d been before coming into the Santiago household. But right now, he was wrong. Dead wrong.
The key turned in the lock with an ominous click.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Derek
I
cracked my knuckles. The broken shards of glass had lain on my spare room’s floor long enough. If I didn’t want wind and red dust blowing through my house, I needed to cover the window and sweep up. I turned my attention to the jagged hole, still unable to believe I’d let her escape.
I nailed a large piece of cardboard and a sheet of plastic over the hole. If I didn’t fix this within the next day or two, I’d get a notice from the community. Guess I’d be going to the local hardware store. The Cazador hadn’t circled back since last night; they appeared to have moved on.
It wasn’t as if the city’s other residents demonstrated much upkeep of their areas, but everyone liked to believe things hadn’t changed from before the moon rained down to Earth. That meant keeping up with ridiculous regulations. When I took a deep breath, I could still smell her floral shampoo, still see her caramel-colored eyes, petite frame, and supple curves. Beyond her physical beauty, I appreciated her fire. She didn’t cower from me, regardless of her injuries.
I shifted my weight and glass crunched under my boot. My fist clenched on the broom, making the wooden handle groan under the pressure. Damn... I’d gotten caught up in daydreams again.
I should sweep up the glass from the downstairs walkway too. I might be fined if someone were stupid enough to walk down the alley and step on it, most likely some homeless person who might make a lovely snack.
I didn’t like going out of my way to deal with silly mortal rules. If I could have, I would’ve left city life behind, but food was scarce elsewhere. Humans felt safer in cities these days.
My thoughts drifted back to Carmela; my blood warmed, and I rubbed a hand through my hair. Her expression when she first smelled my breath had surprised me, but that interaction stuck like a note from a lover: the smile on her face, the way her eyes lit up when she giggled.
