“You can’t be serious.”
“It’s the times; they’re dangerous. After the deaths of our packmates, we don’t take chances any more. Rarely will we leave the Falls together. One of them will always be here with you if something happens to me when I leave the mountain.”
“If you leave, I leave,” she said stubbornly.
“That’s not possible. You can’t shift into wolf form. You don’t have the same survival instincts. I never should have dragged you into this, but it’s done now and I don’t want to lose you. It’s my job to be certain you are cared for if something happens to me. My pack brothers can do that for me.”
“So, I’m supposed to fuck them, so you have a clear conscience to go play elsewhere?”
“Dammit, that’s the problem with you being human. You simply don’t understand the instinct for survival in the same way. This is how we are made; it’s what we are. If you can’t understand that, I’ll get you out of here and find some other way to assure you’re protected.”
“How dare you say I don’t understand. I’ve been on the run and in hiding for the last year. I don’t want another lover besides you. I don’t want a back up if you should die.” She gripped the lapels of his jacket tightly. “I want you. If you die, I think I will, too. So you can’t. Do you understand me?”
Trey yanked her into his arms and his fierce, hard mouth swooped down to claim hers. The burning heat inside her flared swiftly to consume her. She pushed at his jacket frantically as he thrust her back against the stone wall that surrounded the lake. The control she had tried to maintain for so long shattered completely.
Chapter Nine
Trey ripped at her clothes as he pushed her to the ground. He knew he could very well lose her and the thought of that tore him apart. He had to be inside her as quickly as possible. How could he make her understand the instinctual mating that neither he, nor his brothers, could fight? That basic tenant of survival.
He yanked her jeans down her legs and ripped the fragile panties away, exposing her glistening mound. Leaning up, he unfastened his jeans and shoved them down, exposing his burgeoning dick to the night air. He was hot, and hard, and he needed to be inside her, to master her in the ways of his kind. How could she ever understand what drove them all? She was not wolf and would never be one. But she was certainly alpha female and more than a match for his primal nature.
As he fastened his hands on her legs and pushed them wider, she reached up to grip his shirt and yank him down. He didn’t resist. How could he, when it was exactly where he wanted to be?
She lifted and spread her legs, reached down and wrapped her long fingers around his cock, pressing the tip to her opening. She was already wet and ready, her lips engorged, and he slipped between them burying himself inside her vagina.
Wrapping his fingers in her hair, he anchored her to the ground. He felt the snarl building, high and fast, the need to claim his mate, the fear of losing her. The instinct to bind her to him was too strong to fight.
The emotions magnified inside him were so strong he felt himself start to shift. It was something he’d never allowed to happen before, he’d always kept control of the wildness. He pulled out of her just in time and fell back, his eyes never leaving her shocked face as the change began to take him. He shot up to his hands and knees, watching her, as he slowly backed away.
“You’re mine,” he bit out in a guttural voice, as the shift moved through him, altering him, bending him. “You’re my mate. Mine, Rainna.” As his muzzle lengthened and his vocal cords altered, as his legs and arms shortened and fur covered his flesh, he was horrified by what his deep emotions for Rainna were doing to him.
He was alpha, but in the end it was his ancestors who dominated him and he could not change what he was. How could Rainna ever accept the call of his nature? He howled at the bright, full moon, knowing that this was his weakest time and realizing that he should have exhibited more control. This was not a night he should have allowed his passions to run rampant.
Once last look at Rainna and he whirled away and loped off into the woods. He had to get away from her. He didn’t think he could stand it if he saw fear and loathing in her eyes. He had to run the passions off, far away from her. Then he would return to face whatever it would mean to his future with or without Rainna. He only knew that if she left him, there would never be another to take her place. Not for him.
* * *
Rainna watched as Trey disappeared into the darkness. With shaking hands she re-dressed. She wasn’t quite certain she could believe what had just occurred. She wanted to understand, but she just wasn’t certain that she could. When she was dressed, she sat back down on the stone wall and stared out at the glistening lake, the thunder of the falls surrounding her, blocking out every other sound in the night.
One moment he was a man and the next a wolf. How was she going to come to terms with that? This whole pack thing was turning her world upside down. The heat of her need began to subside. She turned her head as she saw a flicker of white off to the side within the darkness of the trees. She turned more fully in that direction. It looked like a ghost.
Rainna didn’t move. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that there were all sorts of creatures who lived here and this was probably just another. She wished Trey were with her. The figure breached the trees and moved closer. It was then that the features of the ethereal creature became clearer. It was a very pale woman dressed in a white, flowing dress. Her features were fragile and lovely in an otherworldly sort of way. She stopped next to the wall where Rainna sat.
“Hello, Rainna, my name is Morganna. May I join you for a bit?”
Rainna vaguely remembered the name. “You’re the healer.”
Morganna smiled and nodded as she floated to the wall to sit beside Rainna. She gazed out over the lake. “It’s all very strange to you, isn’t it?”
Rainna glanced at her, noticed the pointed ears peaking out through her long wavy red hair. And the hint of pointed incisors as she smiled.
“You’re a fairy? Or a vampire?”
A haunted look came into her large, luminous green eyes. “A bit of both, I’m afraid. And yet, neither.”
“I’m sorry. Are you and Kellen the only ones who are…both?”
“Here, yes.”
Rainna was curious about almost everything she discovered here. She should be afraid, but for some reason she wasn’t. “How did it happen? You weren’t born that way, were you?”
“No, not at all. Both Kellen and I come from the fairy realms. Our story is a long and difficult one. But in the end, I chose to be with him and to do that, I needed to accept the nature of what he had become.” She turned to look at Rainna. “It’s not easy, is it? Some decisions can be very hard.”
“Do you regret making the choices you did?”
The look that came into Morganna’s eyes was one of pure joy and love. “I could never regret being with Kel. He’s my life. And I would do anything to remain with him. You see, I know what it’s like to lose the one you love. When I was given a second chance, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to be with him.”
Rainna stared out at the lake and the reflection of the full moon. Did she love Trey enough to give up her past and stay with him? To become a part of his pack and not just his mate?
She turned back to Morganna. “You sacrificed a great deal, didn’t you?”
Morganna looked off toward the edge of the forest. Rainna followed her gaze and saw a dark shadow standing there. “I regret nothing, Rainna. It’s all been worth it.” She rose to her feet. “I have to go now. I know the decisions you need to make are difficult ones. He loves you very much.”
She was gone in an instant, crossing the ground quickly to join the dark shadow at the edge of the forest, and then they disappeared from sight.
Rainna wrapped her arms around her upraised knees. It was a lot to consider. Or was it so much in the end? She loved Trey. Okay, so he wasn’t like other men. But that w
as something she figured she could learn to deal with.
But then there was the thing with Carson and Donovan as well. Could she deal with that kind of relationship? If she planned to stay, it was definitely something she was going to have to consider. It wasn’t something she should just jump right into. Right?
There was a rustle to the right and she turned to see someone striding toward her. He had on different clothes, but she knew who it was. Her body was already aware.
“You’ve changed.”
Trey’s expression told her he didn’t find the humor in her double entendre. “I’m sorry, Rainna,” he said as he sat next to her. “If you really want to leave, I’ll find some other way to see that you’re protected from harm.”
Rainna saw the turmoil in his eyes. She held out her arm, for the first time certain of exactly what she wanted. “Bite me.”
His expression turned to one of shock. “Excuse me?”
“Bite me and make me a werewolf, too. Wouldn’t that solve everything? Then I would be just like you and could go where you went. And you wouldn’t have to worry.”
Then he did laugh. Uproariously. This was a side of Trey she’d never seen, yet she found it as appealing, if not more so, than his very serious side.
“What’s so funny?”
He finally gained control of himself and turned his pale gaze back to her and sat down beside her. “This isn’t the movies, honey. That’s not how it’s done. Actually, I don’t know if I can explain exactly how we became what we are. At least for the members in this pack.”
She moved closer and snuggled again him. “Try to tell me. I want to know.”
Trey wound his arm around her and pulled her against him. “It goes back a long way. The story that’s been told is that Cerberus, Hades’ three-headed guard dog visited the village of my ancestors. A witch tended his wound, but somehow his blood spilled into the water supply, or the witch put it there on purpose. Anyway, anyone who drank from the well fell under the werewolf curse. And it’s passed down through the generations. The people in the village were eventually hunted, many were killed, and the village itself burned to the ground because of fear. Eventually my family wound up here, in the States. And that’s the story, or at least as much of it as I know. My bite isn’t going to make you a werewolf. It might make you sick for a long time, but that’s about it.”
She was silent for several minutes. “Just hold me, Trey. I don’t know what to do. There isn’t a simple answer, is there?”
The strength of his arms surrounding her made her feel safe and protected.
“No, Rainna, there is no easy answer. What ever your decision, be sure it’s one you can live with, I guess.”
Chapter Ten
Rainna stepped out onto the porch the next morning with a mug of coffee cupped between her hands. The atmosphere seemed so different up here from anywhere else she had lived. The billowing clouds in the sky appeared to hover closely, shutting out the direct light of the sun.
She had to wonder if some of the people that lived here had something to do with that. From what she had gleaned so far, there were quite a few who did not thrive well in direct sunlight. Which is probably one of the reasons the town seemed more lively after dark than during the daylight.
She turned as the screen door banged shut behind her and a sharp expletive was uttered. Donovan was holding his arm, which was wrapped in a white towel. She quickly set her cup on the porch banister and rushed over to him.
“What happened?” she asked as she reached for his arm.
“It’s nothing…just stupidity,” Donovan grumbled. “I sliced my arm with one of the knives in the kitchen. I simply wasn’t paying attention.”
“Let me take a look.”
He tried to yank away. “It’s not necessary. Morganna will be able to help me. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Rainna refused to release him. “Donovan, I’m a nurse…or at least I was a nurse. Let me take a look.”
Finally, he stopped fighting her and allowed her to carefully unwrap the arm. The cut wasn’t as deep as she thought it might be, but it was still bleeding.
She supported it firmly and looked at it more closely. “I don’t think you’ll need stitches. Come back inside and I’ll take care of it for you. Do you have antiseptic in the medicine cabinet?”
“Yeah, I guess,” he mumbled.
She led him into the downstairs bathroom and made him sit on the commode. She set about cleaning the wound, then reached into the cabinet and pulled out a gauze bandage and some adhesive tape.
She bent back over him and began to carefully attend to the wound, making certain that it was clean. “I don’t think it will leave a scar. It looked worse than it was. You didn’t nick anything vital. There was just a lot of blood.”
“You have good hands, Rainna. It hurt like hell, but the minute you touched me, something happened. That cut was deep enough to require stitches. I’m not such a candyass as to run for a doctor at the least sign of blood.”
She looked up at him as she finished applying the last bit of tape. “What are you talking about? It really isn’t that deep.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say though. It was. Until you put your hands on my arm.”
She laughed. “That’s ridiculous, Donovan.”
He covered her hand with his own and she caught her breath. She felt the heat begin to swamp through her. Rainna had stayed away from him for a reason. And he had respected her wishes. But now, they had been forced together because of the situation.
She tried to pull away, but Donovan gripped her hand. “It’s true, Rainna. There’s a sensitivity about you or you wouldn’t be so susceptible to Trey and me. If Carson were around long enough, it probably would be the same with him.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do. Morganna could help you get more in tune with your gift. I’m betting this cut will be fully healed by tomorrow. And you. The cuts and bruises you sustained down at the cabin. You were completely healed within two days. Even Morganna’s special herbs can’t do that. It’s you, Rainna. And you do belong here. You belong with us.”
Rainna pried her arm from his grasp and stepped from him. She tried to remember the patients she had attended over the years before she’d had to go into hiding. Now that she really thought about it, she’d never lost a one that had been in her care. Was there something to what Donovan was saying? Or was it just wishful thinking, perhaps a pivotal realization considering she might want to remain in Vampyre Falls?
While she had been preoccupied, Donovan had gripped her arm again and was slowly drawing her toward him, until his lips were barely an inch from her own. She could feel his breath against her face.
“Donovan—”
And then his lips claimed hers and she felt the tingle, the tightening of her womb, the ache in her pussy. He pulled her onto his lap, his hand clamped down onto her thigh, imprisoning her there.
He lifted his head to gaze at her. “No one wants to hurt you, Rainna. Trey loves you. And we all want to protect you. He’ll do whatever you ask. If you want Carson and me to go, we’ll do it. Because we love Trey, too. But you need to know there is a chemistry between us that links us and makes us stronger. If that’s broken, it’s going to leave all of us vulnerable. I’m not trying to put pressure on you, but it’s a fact of our world. It’s what’s killing us slowly. When we separate, we’re left vulnerable. We didn’t realize exactly how strong the bond was until Kyle and Sybilla were killed.”
He released her and Rainna jumped up, staring down at him, her breaths coming short and fast. She saw the truth in his eyes.
“I want us all to survive, Rainna. And I think times are going to get tougher. More and more people are eager to join us every day because we’re being destroyed in the outside world. You have to be protected, not just because of your relationship with Trey, but because of the gift I sense in you. You are one of us.”
She didn�
��t have words to answer him. She couldn’t deny what he said because some part of her finally understood the truth. How she came to have this gift she had no idea. What it would mean to her future, she couldn’t begin to imagine. But she had to think about what Donovan was telling her and not just summarily toss aside what he said. She’d seen too much already, to not at least consider what he was saying.
“I’ll think about you what you’ve said. I don’t want to see Trey hurt. That has to be my first concern, you understand? I love him with all my heart. If something were to happen to him, I think I’d die. But to be honest, I’m attracted to you as well. But even in saying that, it isn’t that simple, is it? So I need some time. Okay?”
Donavan nodded, released her, and rose up, towering over her. “That’s all I ask, Rainna. I know it means re-thinking what you were taught in regard to society and monogamous relationships. One man, one woman. But there’s so much more at stake here. I’m just asking you to consider that.”
He circled around her and walked out of the bathroom. Rainna put away the bandages and tape. As she closed the cabinet she saw herself reflected in the mirror.
Did she know who she really was? Could she give these men what they needed? Did she want what they offered?
Rainna was frightened by the feelings that ran rampant through her. She didn’t understand the strong, primitive attraction that was at the base of her responses. Trey would do whatever was necessary to make her happy. Could she take the chance that her moralistic upbringing could put his life in danger?
Chapter Eleven
The meeting with the council was in an hour. This was the moment of truth that would guide the path she followed. And if she stayed, would she accept the relationship required to protect not only Trey, but all of them?
Animal Heat (Vampyre Falls: Wolf Pack Book 1) Page 5
