Hood's Obsession: Kingdom Series, Book 9

by Marie Hall

  Foraging for dry sticks and anything else that could be used as tinder, he brought it back to their makeshift camp. Setting it up, he surrounded it with large stones, but kept it unlit for now.

  Giles suspected Lilith wouldn’t tell him so, but she had to be hungry. The way she’d devoured food in the past two days, he could only imagine that her instinct demanded a lot of calories, and more than the rabbit or mouse she’d likely bring back.

  But when he went off in search of berries or nuts, he came up empty. There’d been plenty of food to pluck straight from the trees at their last camp; if he’d been wise he would have thought to pack some with them, but it’d been in such abundance he’d failed to imagine it wouldn’t always be so.

  For a brief moment he wished they were walking through Wonderland instead of these woods. Breads and cheeses and all manners of delights could be found on the trees that grew there. But Wonderland was the only part of Kingdom with such unusual trees; in this part of the endless woods they were surrounded by nothing more than pines that bore not a single cone to dig seed from.

  Huffing out a breath, he returned back to camp only to spot an unusual woman headed his way.

  Her skin wasn’t quite as dark as his, more like a creamy burnt caramel color. Her hair was short and spiraled in tight black curls around a heart-shaped face. Her eyes were wide and almond-shaped and a rich golden brown. She had full lips and a voluptuous body that instantly made his pulse quicken. Even the fact that there were two large swaths of dried blood staining her cheeks didn’t matter. The creature was alluring and he was unable to glance away.

  Barefoot and wearing only a leopard-spotted sarong, she strode confidently toward him. She looked at him as though she knew him. Stopping only inches in front of him, she cocked a hip out and flicked a wrist. “So, knight, how do I look?”

  Lilith’s scent of pine and rich earth washed through him, making his pulse thunder in his ears. Even her voice had dropped a seductive octave.

  He blinked. “I thought the plan was to travel inconspicuously.”

  Her laughter shivered across his flesh. “And a pale crone with a man as dark as ebony was inconspicuous?”

  She had a point, but still.

  Giles shook his head. “You stand out.”

  “I always do, knight. It seems to be a flaw of mine.” She moistened her much fuller pink lips. “Don’t you like me?”

  Clearing his throat, he took a step back. Even with the smears of blood staining her cheeks, she looked unbelievably gorgeous. Every inch of her.

  “You’re too beautiful.” There, he said it.

  Her eyes practically glowed. “Thank you.”

  “That’s not a compliment.”

  She rolled her eyes and gently hit his shoulder. “Look, I’m not becoming an old fart again. I’ll keep myself hidden, I promise.”

  Grunting, he turned on his heel and walked back. “I assume by the blood on your face that you caught something.”

  “Yes,” she said near a whisper.

  Nodding, he knelt beside his pile of twigs and shifted them around. Not that he needed to, but he couldn’t keep looking at her.

  It was her heat affecting him this way. It had to be. It wasn’t that he’d not noticed her beauty straight away, but he’d not felt this level of attraction before. Her nearness unnerved him.

  “Need help dragging it over?” he asked with clenched fists.

  “No.”

  When he turned to look at her, Lilith was gone.

  Lilith had brought the wild boar down with ease. She’d been so proud of her kill. Of her chance to show Giles that she was capable, that she wasn’t a child.

  Why had he said what he’d said? She’d hoped her latest transformation would be the one to get him to truly see her. To recognize that she was a woman and he a male and she was choosing him. She’d had time to think it through. There were ways around her deal with Rumpel, ways that could ensure her safety and his.

  It would never be a true mating, which meant Giles would be free to bind his heart to another someday down the road, and no shifter in Kingdom would recognize their mating as legitimate, but if it meant happiness, even if only for now, then wasn’t it worth it to try?

  She had no bluidy clue why she couldn’t turn her feelings off for the demone. But it was more than hormones. When a wolf chose it wasn’t simply because of bodily need. But because it recognized true compatibility. Against all odds, her wolf wanted not another wolf, but Giles.

  Closing her eyes, she bowed her head. Her family had made a mockery of themselves long before she’d been born. Her father had dared to fall in love with a human.

  Well, a magical vessel, really, but that was just semantics. Mother was a strong and honorable woman and she loved with the strength of the wolf. Father had made a wise choice, but the clan had never seen it that way.

  They sneered at her parents whenever they showed up together for no other reason than Mother was not pack. She was more than capable and twice as strong as most of the she wolves, but it didn’t matter, because to them she would always be human.

  Lilith had vowed she would do everything in her power to choose an alpha when the time came. And yet the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree, because here she was, following the same path as her father, and the more distance she put between her and her people, the less she cared what they thought.

  But no matter how she felt, Giles obviously did not feel the same. Growling, she lengthened her fingers into claws and ripped through the pig’s carcass, dressing it and ripping off the large chunks of flesh to roast. The rest she’d leave for the predatory birds to pick apart.

  Using the end of her sarong, she placed the meat inside of it and walked back to their camp, determined not to show Giles just how much his rejection had stung.

  Tonight was going to be hell on her.

  It took three hours of roasting to make sure the pig was edible. Much longer than anticipated. By the time it finished cooking, the sun was well on its way to setting.

  “We’ll have to make camp here for the night. You have a stream to bathe in if you’d like, and—”

  “No!” She snapped, tearing into the sizzling porky fat with her human teeth, wishing she could rip into it like a wolf. Already she felt the strength of the moon’s call, tempting her to turn wolf, to run wild and unfettered by this form. “I need shelter tonight.”

  His brows dipped. “I shall watch you as I did the night before.”

  “No.” This time when she said it she heard the shiver of a growl move through her chest. She wished to the goddess that she had bread or some other form of carbs with this meal.

  The bread wasn’t just to satisfy her cravings, but it also helped to lessen the effects of the blooming a little. A female in heat without her mate should avoid meat at all costs. The taste of the meat only fueled her wolf. But there had been nothing else available and she’d been starving. If she hadn’t eaten the pig, she would have attacked anything else living when she shifted.

  And she couldn’t take that risk.

  She’d looked for a while for anything other than meat and had even gone so far as to forage for mushrooms. As terrible as they tasted uncooked, she’d have gone for anything edible at this point, but her hunger was too great.

  “Your eyes,” he whispered.

  Taking a deep breath, she urged herself to calm and closed her eyes. “I know. They glow when I begin to bloom. It’s what I was trying to tell you. I have to be sheltered tonight. There is a full moon and without my mate to ground me I cannot control myself.”

  He cocked his head. “There is no town for miles. Perhaps I could shift and take you with me—we could probably arrive there before nightfall.”

  Swallowing hard, she rubbed at the throb building at the base of her skull. “There is a cabin built by my people for situations as these. It is not but a mile up the trail. We can get there in time.”

  Shoving three final chunks of pork belly into her mouth, Lilith c
alled her fire. The sun was minutes from setting. It didn’t matter to her if anyone saw her do it, either; the only thing that mattered was getting to that shack and locking the door.

  The transformation from woman to wolf barely fazed her. The shifting of the bones, the reshaping of her limbs… A typically painful process was the least of her worries. She didn’t stop to look back at Giles with an imploring look to follow like she’d done every time before.

  Digging her claws into the dirt she shoved off, running faster than she ever had before. Even the fear she’d felt when being chased by the pack of alphas was nothing to the knowledge of the chaos she’d inflict if she didn’t get to shelter.

  Trees zoomed by, and in her periphery she caught the glimpse of a moving black shadow with glowing red eyes.

  Tongue lolling out the corner of her mouth, she scented the air with it. Tasting the crisp scent of pungent pine needles, the decay of leaves on the forest floor, and musky odor of rodent burrowed in tunnels beneath her paws.

  Lilith ripped up the turf in her wake. Her human side barely able to comprehend that she had seven minutes, maybe less, before the sun was gone and her final tether of rationality slipped away.

  In the distance she spotted the brown pointed roof of the shack. The wood was weathered and old, stained a grayish pallor from exposure to the sun. It wasn’t large—it could comfortably hold two humans inside, or one she wolf in bloom.

  Grass sprayed through the air like tiny missiles as she dug her claws in harder so that she could better shove off. Her muscles flexed and bunched and her breathing had grown labored.

  The sky was a pinkish blue streaked with shades of orange.

  A tingling rush of the wild began to pump through her veins as she finally reached the entrance. The hinged wooden door looked barely useable.

  It took every ounce of will she owned to shift to her female form one last time before she’d black out and remember nothing other than the call.

  Grasping onto the edge of the dilapidated doorway, she yanked the brass keys hanging from a large rusted nail on the wall and quickly unlocked the heavy black padlock.

  “No matter what you hear, knight, do not open the door. No matter what.” The weakening rays of the sun burned like fire on her sensitized skin.

  He’d shifted back himself and was looking at her with a mix of wariness and confusion. “This does not look safe or well maintained.”

  Shaking her head, she ripped the door open and stepped one foot inside then turned to gaze back at him. This was not at all what she’d wanted, to be caught out in the woods during her bloom.

  Lilith would have much rather hidden below ground, caged in by forged iron—it was the safest way. But beggars could hardly afford to be picky.

  “It’ll hold. It’s been sealed with pack magic. The outward appearance is merely a mirage to keep squatters away.”

  She had less than a minute before the sun set but there was a gleam, a strange look in his eyes that made her desperate to stay and discover what it was.

  “What?” she asked quietly, her voice already shifting, becoming deeper and more guttural.

  His eyes traveled up and down her still-altered body. She liked her latest incarnation and wished to stay as she was a little while longer.

  “You look very different.”

  Not pretty. Not lovely. But different.

  Hiding her disappointment, she gave him a weak grin. “I am a chameleon, knight, this is what I do. Remember, do not open the door, no matter what I might do or say. Not until sunrise.”

  Red eyes narrowed, staring at her intensely, but she felt the seconds slipping by and knew she had no more time.

  “Here.” She handed him the brass ring. “Secure it quickly. And…”

  “Yes?” he asked as he reached for the key.

  Reaching out a hand that was more wolf than woman at this point, she lightly caressed the side of his jaw. “I’m sorry for what will happen tonight. If you leave I will be safe. Not even an alpha would dare intrude on me as I will be. But they will come, I can’t help it,” she whispered softly. “If you stay here, this night will be hell for you.”

  And just as the sun slipped beneath the horizon she slammed the door closed, trembling as her body shifted. Becoming neither human nor beast, but something in between. Something dark and wicked and full of claws and fury.

  The heavy chains jingled against the door and then she tipped her head back and howled as the madness claimed her.

  Giles slammed his back against the door as it bulged outward. Lilith had been crashing into it for the past hour, snarling and roaring and sounding unlike any creature he’d ever heard before.

  There was a legend on Earth of a monster that shifted during a full moon, known as werewolves, he’d assumed—as he was sure many others did, as well—that they were nothing more than a myth. Little more than an exaggeration of what a shifter could do, but he could almost believe the legend with her as she was.

  Her claws dug into the door and then she rammed into it again, almost tossing him on his ass from the impact. Kicking the door with his boot, he yelled, “Stop it, Lilith. If you’re aware at all, you have to stop. The door will splinter if you keep at it.”

  Immediately the scratching stopped and a dog-like whining sound took its place. He could hear the click click click of her claws, as though she were pacing back and forth.

  He frowned wondering if she’d really stopped because he’d asked her to.

  But then the banging started back up again, although this time on the left wall. Taking a deep breath he hung his head, wiping at his brow.

  His body ached from taking her blows, but there was no way he’d let her out, nor would he leave. Jogging over to the wall she was now tossing herself into, he noticed it held much better than the door had.

  Whoever had built this shelter had let it fall into ruin, she’d said it was spelled, and that could be true, but there still needed to be some level of upkeep involved to keep it in functioning order.

  A few heavy deadbolts on a ramshackle door would do little to hold someone with her strength inside.

  Realizing he had a quick moment to gather whatever twigs he could from off the ground so that he could light a fire, he kept his attention always on the shack but picked up whatever he could find within a ten-yard radius.

  Giles had prided himself on knowing all that Kingdom had to offer because he was the man in charge of Rumpel’s games. In order to make an applicant believe that they were in reality and not in some hidden keep of the castle, he’d had to learn all the little nuances of not just this world, but Earth, as well.

  He designed each trial and he knew that to fully involve each sense and make the brain believe what it was seeing was fact was to make even the tiniest little details as accurate as possible.

  It’s why he knew of the werewolf legend. What he hadn’t realized was that the legend obviously seemed to stem from a female’s blooming.

  Picking up several fat dried twigs and a couple of brittle leaves, he tucked them against his body, wondering all the while how Lilith was faring.

  Her howls echoed through the night, haunting and horribly lonely sounding. He closed his eyes for a moment as another one sounded. This one almost like a melody, a cry of heartache and yearning. And it was crazy that he should think it, that he wanted to attribute meaning to her howls, but when she did it, it was what he felt deep in his soul.

  Turning back toward the shack, he couldn’t understand his sudden desire to throw open the door and let her out, because his intellect understood she’d given him the warning for a reason.

  Shaking his head, telling himself it had to be her call and nothing more, he ignored his anxious need to return to her side. If there would be other wolves coming for her, then it would be well to have fire.

  Wolves were generally skittish of flame and would keep their distance, but then again, how powerful was a bloom’s call?

  “Bloody hell,” he groused, marching back
to the shack and breathing a sigh of relief when he could once again see the bulging of the wood from her ramming herself against its door.

  Tossing his sticks down, he kneeled and then snapped his fingers. Giles had been born of flame, fire raced through his blood, he could manifest its glow with nothing more than his will to do so.

  Touching the tip of his flaming finger to the twigs he caught them on fire. Vanquishing the flame, he tossed a few more sticks into it until it burned nice and bright.

  It was a trick he’d not shown her, preferring to build the fire the old-fashioned way while in her presence. Not that he’d made a conscience decision to keep his skill from her, more that he was a naturally private man and rarely took the time to divulge any information about himself willingly.

  Hopping to his feet, he walked back to the door and slid down it until his back was pressed firmly against it, determined to guard her.

  So far he’d spotted nothing moving through the woods. Maybe there was nothing close enough to be affected by her bloom, but then again the night had only just begun.

  Giles wasn’t sure how much later it was. Lilith’s crying had gone on unabated since the moment she’d locked herself in there, and after a while the sound of it had almost lulled him to sleep.

  But he’d been born a warrior, taught to listen to his natural instincts, and something was definitely wrong.

  His fire had nearly extinguished itself. The sky was a royal blue interspersed with ghostly white clouds. Waiting on bated breath, he stared through the thick black night, looking for anything that would dart or move between the trees.

  Suddenly Lilith’s cries grew stronger and louder and then she was again ramming her body into the door, clawing and whining. Giles jumped to his feet, ready to ask her to stop, when not one, not two, but three wolves suddenly materialized as though from thin air.

  They were monstrously big and most definitely alphas with the way they held their long, bushy tails straight out like banners. Their muzzles were back to expose thick, long canines and they moved in unison steadily forward.