Marcus looked at his eldest son and sighed. Scott had excelled at everything, his training, his ability, his... conquests. But his stubbornness was his biggest flaw. He had fought long and hard to let the legend of the Queen of the Blood Singers die a natural death. She did not exist, he'd argued, it was only legend. But Marcus remembered the reverent way that his father had discussed her Coming. He knew that Julia was the queen.
If her scent was not sufficient confirmation, she had the mark of the moon branded on her forehead, as foretold. The pearly crescent shone at her temple, a testimony to her position amongst them.
Scott could deny it until he was blue in the face. But Brendan was one of their finest Trackers.
His nose never lied.
Then there was the soul-meld. His eye's met his son's. Only Singers of royal blood could soul-meld. It was a double confirmation.
“Hate her if you will. But remember this,” and he spoke to all of them but directed his words at Scott, “she has been through many traumas. We don't know what... or how many. What did she tell you?”
Jen told him what Julia had said to Scott.
Marcus threw up his hands. “So what we have here is a Singer who lost a husband...”
“Infant bride-much,” Michael muttered and Marcus' brow cocked.
“Nothing,” Michael expounded but was terrible at hiding a smile.
“And, she was held by both factions: Were and vampire?” When he looked for confirmation Brendan nodded.
“Then,” he began to pace the wooden planks of the covered deck and some squeaked with age as he passed, “she is kidnapped by her own people, told she is queen, then treated abominably by my eldest son.”
“Twice,” Marcus said, looking at Scott who glowered back, the barest hint of shame creeping into his expression.
Scott folded his muscular arms across a chest that proved his time on the mat. “Okay, I guess I could have handled it better,” Scott said, still trying to stop his guts from churning. His entire body yearning to get back to her. He hated it, the loss of his independence as he saw it.
“Ah... duh!” Jen said. He glanced at her and she continued. “Unless anyone objects, I suggest you get your dumbass up there and apologize!”
Marcus scowled at his daughter's use of language but let it go. From all accounts, Scott had behaved badly. And to a female Singer! The Queen, no less. It could hardly have been worse.
He nodded and Scott said, “I hate feeling trapped. She made me feel...”
“Complete?” Brendan asked with just a hint of envy. Why couldn't it have been him? He'd have been happier than a pig in shit to have Julia. Hello? The Queen of the Singers... his soulmate? Yeah, kind of a nice gig.
Scott thought about it. Yeah, he guessed she had; but she'd blind-sided him. He'd been totally, no... completely unprepared for a soul-meld. But dammit, he had reveled in his independence, refused to go on the wild goose chase of an acquisition for another Singer. Let his hot dog brothers and sister do it.
And look what the cat had dragged home.
He looked up at the window of her bedroom, feeling miserable. How could he fix it? Did he want to? He realized belatedly he may have misjudged her. Badly. Scott remembered those huge amber eyes looking up at him in anger... wounded by his careless words. He'd fallen right into them, as soon as she was inside the circle of his arms, he couldn't think of anything but her. And the protection of her. He sighed and began to walk toward the front door.
“Wait,” Marcus said and Scott turned, a question on his face.
“She needs extra protection from this Were.”
His children turned to him. When he had their full attention, he resumed, “You understand how dangerous a turned Singer is. The Queen will be like a homing beacon.”
Brendan nodded, understanding. “He'll be a problem, alright.”
Scott's heart began to speed, his intuition kicking online. Already his thoughts were on Julia. Where was she at this very moment? He was instantly pissed that he gave a rat's ass. He felt like his mind was tearing in two. His intellect rebelled against what his soul was compelled to execute... feel.
Julia, it screamed. Where is Julia? Scott shook his head to clear it from the fuzziness of the duality of his nature.
“Why?” Scott heard himself asking despite himself.
Michael hadn't paid attention to this part of his training and shrugged but Jen had been an apt pupil like Brendan and she said, “It breaks the mind of a Singer turned. His mind is gone. He'd want to belong with us, but wouldn't know how...”
“He'd hurt Julia if he got his hands on her,” Brendan said. “Those Singers that have been turned are crazy-as-hell.”
Marcus wanted to refute that but knew he couldn't. As descriptions go, it was a good one.
Scott's hand clenched the solid brass knob of the screen door and it creaked in protest under his abusive grip. “So... let me get this straight, this... feral werewolf was once a Singer, got nailed by a Were attack and is now scenting after Julia.”
“Yeah,” Brendan said.
Scott scoffed, “Let it try. I'll rip its paws off and scratch his own ass with them!”
Michael laughed. He might be able to do it. Scott was the strongest male Singer in their group. He got a visual and Scott's eyes narrowed on him.
“What's so damn funny?” Scott asked.
“A couple of things, I'm guessing,” Brendan said.
“Enlighten us, please,” Marcus said in his droll way.
“First,” Brendan held up a finger, “Scott didn't give two shits and an eff about Julia, hated her as a matter of fact.” Brendan waited for a dissenting comment or grunt. When none came, he continued, “Second, the visual of you tearing off the Were's paw that we saw at the compound, and scratching its...” Brendan shook his head. “No pal, sorry. He's big-time feral in his pants.”
“And just big time?!” Jen agreed, adding, “he's the biggest Were we've ever seen... red, different.”
Scott frowned like, so?
“In other words, it may take more than your pissed off attitude to subdue this fella!” Michael agreed with his siblings.
“Ah!” Marcus began and they all looked at him. “That's where you're wrong...” he had them again and said slowly, “when a soulmate's partner is threatened, there may be more in the arsenal than what the Singer was bestowed with at birth.”
Scott's hand dropped from the knob. “What do you mean, Dad?”
“I mean that it is your singular purpose to protect and nurture her.” Marcus' eyes speared Scott's. “She is in the gravest danger right now, the most vulnerable. Until this feral is caught and disposed of, he will not stop until he has her.”
“Will he kill her?” Jen asked.
“I do not know. But, ask yourself this,” they leaned forward to hear his last words, “does anyone want to find out?”
Hell no! A primal yell sounded from deep within Scott and against every intellectual imperative his feet strode through the doorway and flung him up the stairs toward her room.
Toward Julia.
Julia threw branches away as they scraped past her, crashing through the brush that threatened to stab her viciously. She was furious. The more she walked the angrier she became.
It was useless though. Being angry didn't matter, letting go of the Singers and what she was, did. Every step she took was a greater distance between she and Scott and in her mind she was happy.
But her heart grieved. She felt a little like she had after Jason died. But how could that be? She didn't even know Scott! In fact, he'd made a point of being an ass!
Julia rounded the bend of a stand of trees, having utterly forgotten the one that sought her when she stopped in her tracks. A massive Were stood in front of her, his green eyes pegging her intensely. She hauled in a lungful of air to scream and he was on her, his hand that had talons twice the length of her fingers wrapping her mouth and tickling her ears.
Julia's vision grew dim, her fear making he
r bladder burn for release. As her world faded to gray the last thing she saw were those emerald eyes staring at her.
Julia lost consciousness and the feral pressed her light body to his. He turned, covering more ground than she could have on her own, his half-wolf form perfectly suited to the dense conditions of the forest.
He ran, the burden of the female an abiding comfort. It was the only instance he had felt a sense of peace since he Became.
Whatever he was now.
CHAPTER 29
Scott put his hand on the multi-faceted knob, the crystal a solid weight under his palm and turned it. The five panel door swung inward, the momentum of it carried by its own weight. His eyes swept the sunlit room, missing nothing.
Julia was gone.
His heart thudded to a stop, the words he'd spoken crashing back with the weight of the ages into his mind. His eyes found the flaw in the room.
The window was open a crack, maybe two inches. The white curtains, like billowing fingers of smoke, fluttered with the breeze allowed in by the opening.
He walked to the window, his siblings entering Julia's room behind him. He stood at the window, the low sill pressing against his upper shins. Scott could clearly hear the voices of various people from a distance, the strange acoustics of the oddly formed bay accentuating the noises.
Amplifying them.
Julia would have heard everything he had to say about her down below.
His disinterest.
His hate and disrespect.
Scott hung his head, clenching his hands into tight fists. He understood now that she would have left before he had wrestled his emotions into some kind of basic order, prepared to right his wrong, give her some neutral deference.
Now she was gone. Possibly in danger.
Grave danger.
Scott turned, his back to the window. He spied something of hers and picked it up. It was a hoodie. He crushed it to his nose, inhaling the scent of Julia, his chest tightening with recognition.
Soul recognition.
His deep brown eyes flashed to those of his siblings and father.
“She's gone,” he said. Guilt rode him mercilessly.
“Great,” Jen said.
“You pushed her away,” Brendan accused.
“Ya think?” Scott replied. His eyes were twin holes of burning fury. At himself. “I screwed up, I got that. But now's not the time for talk,” he speared his brother with a look. “Can you find her?”
“Absolutely,” Brendan said. Then paused for a heartbeat. “The better question is, has he found her?”
They were all quiet for a moment then with silent agreement, they turned and rushed out the door. Julia's hoodie was gripped in Scott's fist like a lifeline. He had never been so focused in his life. He needed to find her. All the bullshit legends of his childhood that he'd discounted, Singer Royalty, soul-melding, all of it... was no longer legend.
It was his new reality.
They ran down the back stairs, the very ones Julia had used but a mere hour before. Bursting out of the back door, Brendan tracked Julia to the forest's edge. His grave stare focused on Scott.
“What?” he asked. For the first time, terror sunk its teeth into his psyche. Scott had never had need of fear; it was an alien emotion for him.
Until now.
“The feral's in these woods,” Brendan said, using the very words that Scott had not wanted to hear.
“Does he... has he...” Scott asked, his grip on Julia's sweatshirt making his knuckles turn white.
Brendan nodded, once.
Scott yelled, his rage-filled bellow heard by the sensitive ears of the feral who swiftly widened the breach between the Singers and himself.
The feral picked up his pace, the girl in his arms unaware of who carried her.
Or who followed.
****
Were
Adriana felt like her ass had been handed to her. As usual. She always felt that way when she got done “visiting” with Lawrence. She kicked a rock on the way out of his chamber. Which wasn't really accurate. His quarters, as she preferred to think of them, were huge, she'd never been in his actual bedroom. They always met in his cavernous library, his great desk a mighty wooden anchor in the center of a sea of books. She always felt like her ship was sinking.
Like now.
He'd reamed her up one side and down the other. Tony had come up smelling like a rose... like always. In fact, she wanted to kick his ass too, the list was growing. It really rubbed Adi the wrong way that she was every bit the fighter he was but when it came down to talon to talon, he'd best her. Her fists clenched. She had twice the heart that he had. But he was just that much bigger than she. If skill and training were equal, someone with all those pounds and muscle would be victor. It was the opposite of fair.
Sometimes she hated being female. Adi liked the one thing she had over him though.
Ironically, it was her gender.
He was destined to mate with a female Were. He was second to her brother, Joseph, the most powerful Alpha in their region. Because of his station within the werewolf hierarchy, she should have looked at Tony as top on the list of potentials. That's how he'd looked at her until she made it clear he was a Loser with a capital L. Now, his choices were limited. But Tony didn't really want a mate. No, he wanted a female Were trophy, squiring her about under the snouts of all the other male Were that couldn't be mated to a female Were. There were too few. She smiled.
Adi enjoyed bristling his fur with that every chance she got. He was so full of himself. Like today. He'd painted his role in the escape of the feral in such a way it made it sound like she'd been irresponsible. Not the truth. That he'd put off a difficult chore on a female at the worst point of the month? The feral had showed her a kind of mercy. Tearing her shoulder out of its socket yet not killing her. Not so crazy after all.
Then there was the other question about the feral.
Who was he? Really?
Why the interest in the Rare One? Because no one could convince Adi differently, if he'd wished for escape earlier he could have. No. He'd wanted Jules. She'd stake her life on it.
Tony followed her out with a smirk, whistling.
The asshole.
Then Joseph came, casting a look her way. She waited and he walked over to her. “You know, if you'd be a little...” he rolled his eyes skyward, searching for the perfect word, “softer with Tony, he'd cut you some slack.” Her brother shrugged.
“No,” she responded shortly. “He can kiss my ass!” Adriana said, folding her arms across her chest. “I'll never suck up to him. Besides,” she looked at her brother again, “did ya see how he made me look in there to Lawrence? He never does or says the right thing. Every verbal angle he plays is uttered for his benefit, never anyone else but his own.” Couldn't Joseph see that?
Joseph did. But Tony was his second, an excellent fighter. It didn't matter that his sister couldn't get along with him. They'd have to reach some kind of mutual understanding to co-exist. He told her as much.
“Whatever!” Adi responded in a loud voice. “I'll just avoid his obnoxious carcass and try for civility.” She rolled her eyes then nailed Joseph with a solid stare. He raised his brows in question and she plowed forward, changing tactics. “Who is the feral?”
Joseph sucked in his breath. He had been sworn to secrecy. “I can't say, Adi. You know that. We've been over it and over it...”
She interrupted him, “it's for the safety of the pack... blah, blah. Yeah, whatever. I gotcha. But I want to know why we would even keep a feral?” Her eyes shifted to his, searching and a wild idea began to form. It couldn't be... she asked, “Does he have something to do with Jules?”
It was the barest flicker but Adi caught it, snapping her fingers. “Tell me!”
Joseph sighed, holding up a palm. “We thought that if the Rare One needed... encouragement, we could use the feral.”
Adi scrunched her brows together. That didn't make sense. Joseph saw h
er confusion. They stared at each other for several moments.
“How? How could... he coerce...?” she asked.
Joseph told her. It took almost a half hour and when he finished only the birds in the trees could be heard in the deafening silence that his revelation had left behind.
Her slap against his skin rang out, startling the birds which perched on high branches to exchange the safety of the trees for that of the sky.
“How could you?” her voice shook with contained rage.
Joseph felt the sting of her slap and knew he deserved ten times worse. There was no excuse, he should have fought harder against it. Now, there was no taking back the deceit.
Adi's eyes narrowed on him. “Whose idea was this?”
Joseph didn't answer, his eyes were answer enough.
Of-fucking-course.
Adrianna stalked off in search of Tony. Joseph tried to grab her arm to stop her and she tore it away from him, turning on him like the wolf she was. “Don't touch me! It was unforgivable.” Her eyes locked onto him without mercy. “Ya know what? It's good that the Singers took Julia. Maybe somebody can treat her like a human being instead of something to be manipulated. We don't deserve her.”
She strode off in search of Tony.
Joseph watched her go, his self-loathing a solid weight in his body.
In his soul.
****
William
William was hopeful. He clapped the Locator on his back as he left the kiss with a thank you and the blessing of their lightwalker, Gabriel. A huge favor as future collateral. It would hang over the coven's head. But if he could regain Julia... it would not matter. Their kiss' prosperity and importance would be solidified forever.
The vampire turned, giving William his steady regard. “You have the map?”
William nodded and he gave the barest smile of acknowledgment. “I wish you the best fortune in locating your Singer.”
They both knew that Julia wasn't just any Singer. But neither said it openly. They had put their competition aside for the moment but the possibility of a sister kiss trying for the Rare One was not beyond the scope of possibility. William was keen on not forgetting that basic fact.
Destiny's Dark Fantasy Boxed Set (Eight Book Bundle) Page 62
