Night Born

by Godiva Glenn

  His brows furrowed, and he leaned to one side, gazing past her to where Mikos and Peter waited. He rubbed at his chin then spoke softly. “I would give up anything to see my sister have what she deserves.”

  A shiver of rage traveled up Kyra’s spine at the thought of what Sierra ‘deserved,’ but she held her tongue.

  He straightened and met her eyes. “The Sarka pack was not the refuge we expected. But there was no other choice.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you being alone out here.”

  “Guilt?” His dark eyes pinned her. “I can’t deal with your emotions. My best move was to leave my baby sister with the same pack who planted that dark hatred in her. All I can do now is worry about what she will become.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “You have your love and you have a pack. Take your pity and go. It was always in your stars to look down on mutts.”

  “I never—”

  “Your pack is waiting on you, princess,” his deep voice mocked.

  Kyra took a deep breath. Despite his words, she felt no ill-will, and yet she felt foolish. Mikos was right. There were no words to cover the rift between them. Nothing to change the past or salve the pain. She took a step back.

  “You would be welcome in our pack,” she said simply, but his eyes registered no response to her offer.

  She left him with a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was truth in his words. She’d gotten everything she wanted, but others hadn’t fared as well. It wasn’t about what was fair, simply what was fact.

  Mikos placed his hand on the small of her back as she met up with him. “He is speaking from a place of pain and confusion. But at least so far he doesn’t seem to be going feral.”

  They walked together with Peter tailing them.

  Kyra kicked a rock from their path. “He’s accurate. When the Edon pack dissolved we welcomed them while calling them mutts beneath our breath.”

  “You weren’t a part of that.”

  “But for my curse. Otherwise... we both know ‘Princess Kyra’ would have rubbed their noses in it all.”

  “You shouldn’t give strength to questioning the past,” Peter said. “Stating ‘what-if’ as fact is a dangerous pit.”

  “He’s right. You only wanted to try and do something right with Kalle. You shouldn’t beat yourself up because it didn’t work.”

  “I told him he could join us,” she admitted.

  “I heard,” Mikos said. “I rather expected you would say that. That you wouldn’t approve of him being out on his own.”

  “I know what it’s like.”

  “Wolves like Kalle don’t need packs,” Peter theorized. “His spirit is self-sustaining. I believe he’s going to be fine.”

  Kyra didn’t reply but she hoped Peter was right. There was a speck... a tiny seed of guilt within her. Even if Sierra’s actions were her own, Kyra couldn’t help feeling some responsibility for things. But logically, she knew that everything went back to Ian and how he chose to lead.

  The lounging pack appeared on the hill ahead. Her heart raced with excitement to see them, a rush of emotion she hadn’t expected.

  “I know that the past isn’t all on my shoulders,” she said. “But seeing him reduced to that, whether he is better off, whether he’ll survive—it cements everything for me. That I know we have a lot of growing to do as a pack. I don’t think it’s a matter of atonement, but acknowledgment. We can do better. We have to.”

  “Exactly,” Mikos agreed.

  They rejoined the pack and reformed to continue on. They didn’t keep it a secret that the strange scent was Kalle, but they expressed a preference for allowing him privacy without gossip. They weren’t the pack that had banished him and wouldn’t be the pack to judge him.

  As they trekked, Kyra made a mental list of everything she wished to discuss with Mikos and their elders, starting with the expectations she once had of being lupine. The jaded fantasy of loyalty and family, the respect that she thought would guide her life—she needed those tenets to be more than a whimsical dream.

  Everything she had expected when she first met Mikos and felt safe—that’s what she wanted for her pack. That they love each other and not seek to destroy each other. To embrace their wolves and thrive.

  She’d spent enough time hiding and alone. It was time to step forward and help lead.

  EPILOGUE

  The moon crept through the sky, rising in movements too slow and far away to track with any semblance of patience. Kyra closed her book—the worn, gifted copy of The Call of the Wild.

  Tonight would be her first shift, and she was a bundle of nerves from head to toe. She’d not called her lupine form—not a single patch of fur—since that one minute where she’d defended Mikos. Soon the magic would call her down and she’d be in her wolf form for the first time ever.

  A tiny sliver of doubt sat at the pit of her stomach. An echoing fear that she was an imposter. A fraud. That she was still cursed.

  The door to her trailer opened and Mikos peeked inside. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  She’d run with Mikos tonight, of course. They all would. They were remote enough to run together this first night, though in the future they would likely form smaller groups. Tonight, they’d bond with their land.

  Sliding from their bed, she tucked the book under her pillow. “What if...”

  “Last night we celebrated, and you were as confident as ever. What’s happened?”

  She stepped carefully through the messy trailer. They weren’t settled, and their trailer had become a storage unit for miscellaneous pack property while everything was sorted. “You don’t know how it feels to bathe in the moonlight and go unnoticed. To feel neglected, if not downright rejected by the spirits of the ancestors.”

  “I know what it’s like to greet each shift with an empty chasm in my heart,” he countered. “To run under the moon and feel like I was running away from something I couldn’t name, in search of something to fill the gap that pained my every step.”

  She took his hand and let him pull her through the doorway and out into the clearing of their new pack center. His hands cupped her face and his eyes searched hers.

  “Kyra, I believe in you. You’re surrounded by love. You’re safe. Your wolf is ready to join you.”

  Smiling, she closed her eyes and puckered her lips, soliciting a kiss. He nibbled her lips then slid his tongue between them to tease her. As they kissed, she felt his wolf rumble, close to the surface and eager. She felt her own wolf now, faint but alert as if it stood watch at a distance.

  When they pulled away there was a golden ring around Mikos’s eyes and an unmistakable expression of pure happiness. She loved seeing that look on him, and even more so she loved being the one to give it to him.

  They walked past the faces of family and friends, all eager. A handful of teens were gathered off to the side. They weren’t at the age to shift yet and had been thoroughly lectured to behave during the night.

  Kyra tugged Mikos’s arm and lifted her chin in their direction. “They’re going to find the beer and probably freeze their little butts off doing stunts in the snow.”

  “The circle of life,” he mused. “That’s exactly what we did, after all.”

  “I guess we have to let them enjoy it while they can. Once Jessa pops, they’ll get to watch a baby every month.”

  He nodded and moved behind her as they joined Laurel and Peter, his hands moving to her shoulders and massaging. She nearly purred as his comforting touch chased away the spots of stress that had built up.

  Kissing her temple, he whispered, “No matter what, I love you and you are my future.”

  She tilted her head back and pecked his cheek. “There better be bacon in the morning,” she joked, trying to smooth her remaining nerves.

  She leaned against a tree and kicked off her shoes, then stripped in silence while everyone around her prepared for the shift. The breeze carried the collective anticipation of the pack, and it ros
e the hairs on her skin more so than the chill of coming winter.

  Holding her hand up to the moon she tried to recall her lupine form. She could envision the white fur on her palm, the dark grey on her fingers, but she couldn’t pull it forward. Yet just as her frustration peaked, something new flowed through her.

  Warmth from the earth tickled her feet and traveled upward, blossoming in a sensation she’d never experienced before. Mikos took her hand and shared a look that let her know he felt it too. Without a doubt, this knowledge burst in her thoughts, that this was what she’d been anticipating for the past couple of years.

  The ancestors were embracing her, and the moon was ushering her down. She gave in to the pressure to kneel and pressed her free hand into the dirt. Mikos’s hand slipped from hers and she shook with the magic of the shift. With each blink, her vision became clearer and the world became more vibrant.

  “Breathe,” Mikos said softly beside her.

  She sucked in the refreshing night air and tasted the crisp essence of forest and family. It was like breathing for the first time, and it was divine. Stretching, she felt invigorated from head to tail. Her wolf form couldn’t cry, but inside she wept tears of undeniable joy.

  Mikos nuzzled her, his massive black form towering over her and exuding safety and mutual happiness of her shift. Cold noses burrowed into her fur as her pack found her. They crowded around, welcoming her and committing her scent to memory. Her tail wagged as she rubbed against the warm bodies of her new family.

  Laurel brushed close and even though they couldn’t speak, it was clear that the rift between them had dissolved completely. Her best friend was back. There was no room for the mistakes of their past in their bright new future. Even Peter felt like family, his shaggy brown form following Laurel with an endearing expression and protective stance.

  She padded in circles until every last member had sunk to the ground and succumbed to the moon’s magic. There was an understood silence as they all embraced the moment, then all heads lifted.

  With a proud, exuberant chorus of howls, the Eclipse pack began their first run.

  The Night Wolves world carries on with Night Surrender. Continue reading for the first chapter!

  NIGHT SURRENDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  Wolves aren’t meant to be alone, no matter the romantic notion it seemed to be to humans. Wyatt was learning this the hard way, and it was a lesson he needed.

  He leaned against his trusty blue pickup while watching people wander through the town, going about their day. His own mind wandered with them, drifting from the voice on the other side of the phone where hundreds of miles away, his alpha was losing patience with him. He could hear it in his voice, even if his words were encouraging.

  “Damon and Rosa always return between missions,” Reid said for perhaps the millionth time. “I don’t know what happened between you and Charlotte and Damon, but they’re still family. Still pack. It’s not healthy for you to stay away. Just because your wolf is strong, it doesn’t mean you aren’t hurting yourself in the long run. Your spirit will grow ill.”

  Wyatt could imagine the look of concern that must have worn new creases into Reid’s brow, but he couldn’t go home. Not yet.

  “I know. Trust me, I can feel the wear and tear on my soul, and it’s not like I don’t miss my dad’s cooking and my mom’s feeble attempts at turning vegetables into something edible,” he half-joked. “When I return, I’ll be all in. I’m almost ready. And once I’m there, I’ll really be there. Heart and all.”

  “It’s not that I question your loyalty to the pack, or your devotion to the ancestors,” Reid said.

  “I know it’s taken me a while, but you know me. I don’t like things half-assed. When I come home, I’m going to be a better wolf than I was before.”

  While listening to Reid’s steady silence, Wyatt tapped his fingers along the truck’s roof and ignored the goofy smiles of two women who had walked by in slow motion. Human females were inexplicably drawn to lupine like himself, but he wasn’t interested. Short skirts and red lips weren’t his type. His type was the wild type that shifted under a full moon and didn’t play dress up.

  Finally, Reid exhaled. “Sooner rather than later. You know I hate having to come to town and make calls.”

  “Sooner, trust me. I’ll be back before the next moon.”

  They each hung up and Wyatt tucked the slim phone into the back pocket of his relaxed jeans. He had his reasons for staying away from the pack for now, and Reid probably had put together more than he wanted to admit.

  Still, he was definitely correct on one point—Wyatt’s wolf was strong, and being away from pack wasn’t driving him mad, but it wouldn’t last forever. If there was such a thing as soul-sickness, that’s how Wyatt would explain the empty ache that came from going too long without any connections to his own kind.

  He’d just come from checking on a new pack to the North, but he hadn’t stayed long, and during that short visit his wolf hadn’t settled down or even tried to play nice with others. Not even the ancestors. Nope. There was no place like home.

  A few of the females had tried to hang around him and be friendly, but even they couldn’t break through the wall around him. He was focused on one thing and one thing alone—his own self-healing.

  He stopped at a deli for a sandwich, then walked the street eating. One of the better perks of being a runner for the Bronze pack was being able to try new foods in unfamiliar places. He’d become a fan of a good roast beef sub lately, especially if he could get a healthy slathering of mustard on it.

  Too hungry to savor his meal, he finished quickly and wiped his hands on his jeans. Somewhere along this street, he’d find his target.

  His friend Charlotte’s mother, Mija, had spent many years in the human world and Nancy was the one close friend she’d had in that time. These days, Mija lived happily with pack and traveling wasn’t comfortable for her. She and Nancy continued their friendship via phone, and as a favor, when Wyatt was in the area, he’d check in.

  He’d visited more than a few times in the last four months, and it was a favor he didn’t mind, even if it meant rubbing elbows with humans.

  Strangely, when it came to her, he almost looked forward to speaking with a human. Nancy wasn’t a typical human, though he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what made her that way. All he knew was that whenever he came by, usually a few weeks at a time, she always made time for him, but didn’t crowd him. He visited for himself, and she didn’t get in the way of that.

  As he walked, he surveyed every short woman within sight. This town seemed to be populated by midgets, which didn’t help when it came to tracking a five-foot-two woman. Instead he sought out her other features.

  Her brown eyes were large and expressive, almost as distinct as those of the owls she seemed obsessed with. The first time they’d met she had a massive owl on her sweater, two dangling from her ears, and an owl clip in her wavy mocha hair.

  It was strange that he could recall that first moment, since they saw each other for perhaps a minute, and he was preoccupied. But then again, he’d always been a natural for saving details away.

  Or maybe it was something else. Memories triggered by scent. She smelled… clean. Most human women wore obnoxious perfumes that made him recoil and hold his breath. Nancy had only the most delicate fragrance of flowers to her, and it stirred a relaxing air in him when they spent time together.

  He turned a corner and scanned the people walking around. From various trips before and the reminding of Mija, he knew that Nancy had a pattern to her week. Given that it was Friday afternoon, at this time she would most likely be grabbing coffee or sketching in the park.

  He crossed the street towards the local cafe and spotted her immediately. She sat alone at a small outdoor table, one hand wrapped around a tall cup, the other tapping a pencil against blank paper. The only owls in sight dangled from her ears. She wore a plain white shirt and blue jeans today. Her hair was in a
messy bun sitting crookedly at her crown.

  He paused, considering his introduction. Every time he appeared, she always asked why he was in town, and he wasn’t great at answering that. He always gave a vague response about work in the area, and she was okay with that, but eventually she was going to pry about what work he did. Honestly, he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t already. Or had I told her I was a contractor or something in the past?

  He hated lying, largely because he could never remember what he’d lied about. Nancy was the only human he had regular contact with, however, and he couldn’t just tell her what he was really doing. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed that he’d have to have told her something untrue in the past and immediately forgotten about it.

  Awesome. Fucking awesome.

  Humans were notorious for being suspicious. What do I do if she doesn’t believe me this time around? He brushed the crumbs from his shirt and approached. Under the sun, Nancy’s dark hair picked up red highlights, something he’d never noticed before. Her face, scrunched in concentration on whatever she drew, was decidedly mousey.

  Yet that wasn’t a terrible thing. His sharp vision let him see the nearly invisible freckles spattering her cheeks and the narrow, gently upward sloping nose that made her look younger than her twenty-five years, an innocence countered by the focus in her eyes. She was easily an old soul.

  She took a sip of her drink and licked her naturally pink lips. A flush of heat ran through his body and he was bombarded with thoughts of her licking other things. Like him. What the hell?

  In his months of running he’d only made time for his sexual needs twice. Hookups turned out to be one of the less pleasant aspects of his time away from home. Wyatt had found that most women weren’t fond of the no-strings-attached notion.