Annie hung up the phone and started getting dressed while telling Lukas about what Kato said. They didn’t say anything about him leaving, and Annie didn’t want to bring it up, even though she knew she had to. She needed to know where he stood–she didn’t want to wake up the next morning only to find him gone without even saying goodbye.
“Wait,” she said, pulling him back slightly as they walked to the door. She interlaced her fingers through his, squeezing slightly for some courage. “Tell me what you’re going to do. Tell me, so I’m not surprised. You know that I don’t want you to leave.”
“I know,” he sighed, looking down at their interlaced fingers, squeezing back, which sent waves through her veins. “I’m not going to leave. Now, at least.”
“Just promise me you’ll tell me when, or if, you decide you’re going to leave,” she begged. “I can’t stop you from doing something you want to do, but I wish you would just let me know. Please?”
“I promise,” he whispered, pulling her to him and kissing the top of her head. Her arms curled around his chest, and she hugged him with all of her strength, not wanting to leave this room.
So, they stood there for a few seconds, just hugging each other in silence. They both came to the realization that once they left that hotel room, everything had the potential of ruining their little relationship. They knew they would have to hide what had just taken place, including their growing love and trust for each other, and a part of that ate at Annie. She didn’t want to keep her feelings a secret, though she knew the consequences of what would happen if she didn’t.
“Do I need to say that we have to keep this between us?” Lukas asked quietly, not breaking their embrace.
“No,” Annie whispered back to him, her face resting on his chest. She could hear his steady heartbeat, and she wished they were as stable.
Finally, after a few more seconds of them avoiding the future, they finally broke from their embrace and left the hotel room, not touching once they walked out into the world.
Annie hated the distance they kept between them as they walked to her car, but she knew what would happen if anyone saw them together. She knew that being with him in any way was basically a form of suicide, but she didn’t care. At this point, with everything that had happened, she trusted Lukas more than she trusted her own pack. She didn’t want this forbidden relationship that she and Lukas found themselves in.
She wanted to hold his hand, kiss him in public, laugh and tease him in front of her friends. But she couldn’t. She never would be able to, because he was a rogue. And that bothered Annie more than she would ever admit.
Chapter 23
Lukas and Annie walked into Annie’s house, both a bit nervous that someone would take one look at them and know what they had done. Lukas felt like a teenager that just had sex, and didn’t want to tell his parents for fear they would yell at him or something, even though he knew that this situation was much more serious. If someone found out that he and Annie had had sex, they would kill him without asking a single question. And then Annie would become a rogue, and that was something he wouldn’t let happen as long as he lived.
They found Kato and Hann in the living room eating food that Lukas assumed Hann had just made. Kato looked grim, while Hann greeted them at the door with a friendly smile on his face. He slapped Lukas on the back in a friendly manner, and Lukas tried his best to not wince. Hann hugged his daughter and kissed the top of her head, inviting the both of them to eat the huge meal he had just made for everyone.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Annie asked, sitting down and making a plate for herself, Lukas right behind her. “Kato didn’t really elaborate on the phone, and I’ve been worried ever since.”
“Well, it seems that Kaiser is ramping up his attacks on the shifter packs around Europe,” he told them, sitting down in a loveseat and crossing his legs, not at all seeming like it bothered him in the slightest. “He just recently took down a pack in England, which has the Elders worried because he’s so close. He’s taken down almost five packs in the last week, so everyone is on high alert.”
“Wait, he’s in England?” Annie exclaimed, putting down her full plate. She had completely lost her appetite in the matter of a few seconds. “Dad, that’s just an ocean away. There’s literally only one place he can go next: here. America. Maine. It doesn’t matter, it just means that he’s close.”
“I’m aware, darling,” Hann told her, still not looking like he was as concerned as everyone else. Lukas didn’t know how he could stay so levelheaded and calm in a time like this. Lukas, himself, was stressing from Kaiser showing up. He felt like he should take a shower to rid himself of all the evil that Kaiser inhabited.
“Okay, so what are we going to do?” Kato asked, with Annie nodding her head in agreement vehemently.
“We’re going to sit tight and wait for the bastard to show up,” was the only thing Hann said, still smiling.
“Wait, so we’re not going to do anything in preparation?” Annie asked, amazed and shocked by what her father was saying. She had thought that her father really had some grand plan this whole time, and he was just keeping it from her. Now that she realized that he really didn’t have a plan, and he didn’t think they should have a plan, she didn’t know what to do.
Lukas desperately wanted to reach out and clasp her hand to show her that he was here for support, but he had to keep his hands to himself. Only one day of them being a ‘thing,’ and he already couldn’t control himself.
“I’ve been around to every single member of the pack,” Hann told them in a reassured voice. “I’ve kept them in the loop, and I’ve attempted to ignite a fire of confidence in them. I am confident in my pack and in my shifters. We are strong, and we will not let some group of evil murderers come through and tear us apart. We are better than that, and we are ready.”
“Please tell me something else that will comfort me instead of us just waiting for shifters to come and murder us all?” Annie asked, almost desperately.
“If it helps, after much consideration and talk with Ross and my other security detail team, we have decided to call the Elders for support. They have responded with putting teams of shifters around the town in various parts for extra support. We will signal when we are being attacked, and they will come in to help. We all plan on ending this little charade when Kaiser shows up in Maine.”
Lukas looked at Hann, still seeing no fear or anger anywhere on his smiling face. He was a bit envious of the alpha, he knew he was wearing a poker face, but he wanted to know how he had mastered hiding his emotions so well. Lukas thought he was good at mastering his emotions, but he knew deep down that he wore his emotions on his face and his heart on his sleeve, which wasn’t the best thing in the world. Especially in the shifter world when every shifter he met would probably try to kill him.
“I have also been studying Kaiser’s patterns and motives behind these killings and slaughtering of the packs, with help from Lukas and some Elders that have come through with questions,” Hann told them, leaning back in his chair a bit more. “Kaiser and his rogue pack are focusing on weak packs around the world. For example, when he was in Italy, instead of picking one of the bigger packs that were only a few miles away from where he and his pack traveled, he instead decided to kill a much smaller, much weaker pack.”
“So, do you think that his pack isn’t as strong as we’ve been led to believe?” Kato asked, leaning back on the couch.
“Not quite,” Hann mused, thinking to himself. “They could be strong as a pack, but not individually. I believe that maybe this pack has the ability to be strong, but they’re all a bit uncontrollable. Remember, this is a pack of rogues that haven’t been in the shifter world for a reason. They were ostracized because they broke some type of rule and were then banished. Maybe they don’t work well with others?”
Lukas couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable as Hann talked about rogues, even though he knew he was right.
“There
’s a lot of infighting,” Lukas said, remembering the constant bickering and fighting from when he was with the pack. “The only reason they are all still together is because, so far, they’ve been winning. I have a feeling that when things start to get hairy, or they start to lose, a lot of those shifters will leave Kaiser hanging.”
“That’s exactly what I think, Lukas,” Hann smiled at him, making Lukas look down at his plate almost shyly, playing with the food that he couldn’t stomach because of the talk about Kaiser. His mind kept going back to what Kaiser would do if he got his hands on Annie.
“So, you think we’ll have a better chance because of our strength compared to the other packs?” Kato asked him, seeming a little bit more assured.
“Definitely,” Hann replied. “Also, we have one other thing the other packs, God bless them, didn’t. We know that they’re coming, and we know that they’ll be here soon. We have people looking out for them on a daily basis, now. We won’t be taken by surprise, that much is sure.”
Lukas felt a little better about the situation, but he still kept on thinking about Annie during all of this. The need to protect her hit him like a train, until he realized that, no matter what, he would protect Annie. Even if it meant that he would die himself.
Chapter 24
They thought he was far away. They thought he was still in Europe, still in England, still an ocean away.
He wasn’t.
Kaiser stood and stared at the house Hann left, eyeing the property and the younger woman around Kaiser’s own age that he hugged goodbye. This must be the daughter. The halfie. The child that had brought about his own father’s destruction. Oh, Kaiser dreamed of the moment when he would be able to tear her apart, limb by limb, while her pathetic father watched in agony. He could almost taste the pain that would drift off of Hann in waves.
Kaiser was alone, in the woods, hidden from view from every aspect. He had told his little family to wait in Vermont for his signal. He would go and get them when the time was ready. For now, he wanted to scope out the place. He wanted to watch his enemy interact with his beloved pack, with his beloved little halfie.
Kaiser had to keep all of his anger in as Hann drove away, leaving his daughter alone in the driveway, with an etching of worry on her face. Kaiser could see that wariness all the way from where he was hidden. Worried about him, possibly?
Kaiser desperately wanted to learn about Hann and his little family. He had just arrived in Maine a few hours ago, and even though his pack wanted to rush in with guns blazing, he knew that it would just get his own family killed. And he couldn’t have that. He wanted–no, he needed–victory. And he would have it, if he was patient and smart.
He wouldn’t be like his father. Even though his whole life had been to avenge his father’s wrongful death, he wouldn’t become as shortsighted as his father was. His father had rushed into situations because of his ideology that he fought for so hard, yet he never took his time to understand the best way to go about getting his goals across in a way that wouldn’t end in his untimely death. Kaiser was different. He knew he was different. He could feel how different he was.
Kaiser found himself staring at Hann’s child for a long time. She was outside in her backyard now, and Kaiser had to shift to a different part of the woods to keep an eye on her. He could feel her weakness from this distance, which made him bristle with anger. She was the main reason that his father wasn’t around, and he would make sure that she paid for her very existence.
As Kaiser watched her, he saw her stiffen and stop pacing. He ducked down slightly, slowly as to not rustle any of the leaves or tall plants around him. He didn’t blink or take his gaze from her for one second.
She looked like she was smelling a scent, or trying to locate something that seemed off. She suddenly became tense, and Kaiser watched as she walked forward to where he was hiding. She couldn’t possibly sense him . . . could she?
Kaiser shook his head, a grin on his face for the stupid idea that crossed his mind. There was absolutely no way that a halfie like her could recognize him. And after a few tense seconds of her staring towards the area where Kaiser now sat on a rock, hidden behind a tree, she finally went back to pacing, the tenseness leaving her shoulders for the moment.
He continued to watch as another female walked out of the house, walking over to Hann’s daughter and hugging her. Hann’s daughter squeezed her hard, burying her face in her hair. Who could this other shifter be?
When Kaiser smelled her scent, he almost jerked up in surprise. The other female, she was no shifter, she was a human. He couldn’t believe it. Shifters and humans didn’t normally interact as closely as these two did. Kaiser, himself, despised humans more than regular shifters, he thought they were a weak species that should just die out already.
But Hann’s daughter, being close with another human? Something was off, that much Kaiser knew. Maybe it was a halfie thing. Maybe this daughter of Hann’s was more human than she was shifter. Kaiser didn’t really care, he thought she was an abomination no matter what. It would make killing her that much sweeter if he knew that she was a human lover, in any shape or form.
Wait, there was no way this human could know about shifters, could there? Kaiser didn’t put it past people like Hann and his daughter to tell those humans–that dumb species–about shifters. After all, Hann had married, mated, and had a child with a human woman. And rumor had it, that woman died from childbirth because the frail human species cannot carry the strong children that shifters create, even if that child is a halfie like Hann’s daughter.
Oh, this was about to get interesting. If this human female knew all about shifters? Well, then Kaiser could play with that. He would give these Bellova murderers just what they should’ve gotten all those years ago.
He would give them what they deserved.
He would give them the Elders.
Chapter 25
Annie thanked every God and supernatural being out there for her best friend, Thea. They sat in the backyard, Annie spilling everything that her father had told her before he left about half an hour ago. Kato was in the living room with Lukas, so Annie felt it was safe to let Thea in on all the details.
She was worried beyond belief. Both Kato and Lukas had tried desperately to calm her down when Hann left, but her worries just kept on getting the best of her. She knew who she needed, she needed her best friend to give her advice and tell her that everything was going to be okay.
They were sitting at their backyard picnic table, the moon and stars giving them their only light. Thea sat across from her, the moonlight lighting up her pale blonde hair that was tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head.
Annie loved nights like this, when it was dark and a little chilly. There was a light breeze that blew her hair around slightly as they talked, but the sweater she was wearing made her warm against the chilly wind. If Annie was a full-blooded shifter, she wouldn’t feel this cold. She would be so warm-blooded that light chills like this wouldn’t even affect her. Annie embraced her human ability to feel this cold, even if it did make her a bigger outcast in her pack. When winter came around, she was the only one in winter clothes, layered up to keep from the cold.
As Annie and Thea sat there, Annie, after much consideration and after Thea comforted her about her father, decided that she was going to spill the beans about Lukas. Because if she could trust anyone in the world, it would be Thea.
“Okay, so what I’m about to tell you has to stay between us,” Annie told her, wrapping her sweater around her and shivering a bit.
“Girl, you know that you don’t even have to tell me that,” Thea responded as she warmed her hands on her hot chocolate mug. “You know that everything you tell me goes to the grave, no matter what. I got you, girly.”
“Lukas and I had sex.” Annie thought it would be better to just come out with it and not beat around the bush. She still didn’t know how she was processing the whole thing, and she hadn’t had a chance to talk to Luk
as since it all happened. With the news about Kaiser and the nerve-wracking emotions she’d been having about her father, she was able to push her emotions and feelings to the side. But now that she was alone with Thea, and had gotten all of her worries about her father off of her chest, her mind went back to Lukas. And she needed to tell someone.
“Oh, my God, give me details,” Thea said, her blue eyes bright with excitement. With a huge smile on her face, she leaned forward toward the table with enthusiasm.
“Thea,” Annie began, wanting to go into all the sexy details with her best friend but knowing that she shouldn’t. “He’s a rogue. What I just did . . . this could end up being the biggest mistake of my life.”
“You haven’t told anyone else, have you?” Thea asked, her face now becoming one of worry and not happiness.
“No, you’re the only person I’ve told. You’re the only person I’m ever going to tell.”
“Okay, good. You shouldn’t tell anyone else. Keep this between you and Lukas, no matter what.”
“We’re going to, but that’s not the problem,” Annie sighed, rubbing her tired face with her hands. She felt like she hadn’t slept in weeks. She knew she needed to get her strength back up to par so that she would be prepared for when Kaiser came rolling into town. “The problem is that I-I think I really like him. Like, this is more than just a sexual frustration that I have for him. This is something . . . well, this is something I’ve never felt before. And I don’t know if I can explain it accurately.”
“You like him?” Thea almost whispered back to her, her eyes wide. “That’s . . . well, that’s scary.”
“I don’t want him to leave,” Annie told her, looking into her light-blue eyes and finding comfort in them. “He was trying to leave today, and I stopped him. We talked about everything. I found out what he did to become a rogue, and it was nothing like I thought. He’s not bad or evil or disgusting. He’s just a regular old shifter that has problems like the rest of us, but because his enemy was in charge of things, he got the blunt end of the sword. And he became a rogue when he really shouldn’t have. But I know he’ll have to leave soon, more than likely once Kaiser leaves. And I think that’s going to kill me.”
Lukas: Moonlight Wolves Book 1 Page 9
