by Nina Croft
“I want to know where to find Ethan Stone.”
“I don’t know.” Kelly sounded sullen now.
“So where was he last night?” When Kelly didn’t answer, she continued. “Look, I can kill him for you.”
“You? How? You’re new—weak. You could never fight Ethan and survive.”
“I don’t need to fight him to kill him.”
“I can’t tell you anything,” Kelly said.
Frustration nipped at her. “Why?”
“Because I told her not to.”
Regan whirled around. Caleb stood in the doorway, naked except for a pair of faded jeans, the button unfastened. She stared at his chest for long seconds before raising her head to meet his eyes. They were cold.
“I told you we weren’t going after Ethan,” he said.
Suddenly, she was angry. It felt good. “No, you told me you weren’t going after him. I never agreed. You might be able to sit back while the world goes to hell, but I can’t.”
“Are you sure this isn’t just personal revenge? He got the better of you, and now you have to go kill him.”
He was being purposefully obtuse, and her anger rose a notch. “You know there’s more at stake than that. You told me so yourself. Do you really believe you can sit on the sidelines and do nothing?”
“I don’t need to do anything. Your friends at the Council are sorting it out. I don’t think they want any help from a werewolf.”
“Half-werewolf,” she snapped.
He shrugged. “Half-animal according to them.”
He actually sounded offended on behalf of the wolves, which surprised her. “The werewolves aren’t animals—you know that. Whatever they are, your father has molded them. Take him down. Give the rest of your people a chance to try a new way of living. Let them join with the Council and fight this thing.”
“What’s the Council?” Jason spoke from his bed. He’d raised himself up on one elbow and was watching them.
“I’ve heard of them,” Kelly said, swinging her legs round and going across to Jason. She smoothed the hair from his forehead, inspected him closely. Then she turned back to Regan and Caleb. “Ethan told us that the Council would destroy us, that they looked on us as little better than animals.”
“Well, there is that,” Regan said. “But on the other hand, if they wanted you dead, they would have done it a long time ago.”
“Ethan said this new ally would protect us from the Council.”
Regan gritted her teeth and took a tight hold on her temper. “Was this before or after he killed your friends and Caleb’s mother?”
“She was not my mother.”
Regan ignored him. “The Council has never done you harm—can you say the same for your so-called leader?”
“At least Ethan is one of us.”
“Better the devil you know? Don’t you see? He’s cut you off, isolated you all. Isn’t it about time you stood up to him? Help me find Ethan, and I promise the Council will protect you.”
“Do you know that for sure?” Caleb asked. “You heard what Kael said. He means to make the werewolves pay for what happened to his sister.”
Regan remembered, but she didn’t believe Kael would take his revenge out on innocents. “He was hurting,” she said. “But he’s a fair man.” A flicker of doubt flashed through her mind. Caleb must have seen it.
“You don’t trust him entirely either,” he said.
“He’ll do what’s best for the Council.”
“Which doesn’t necessarily mean good for the wolves.” He turned to Kelly. “I’ll send you away somewhere. Somewhere Ethan or the Council won’t find you.”
Regan ground her teeth in frustration. “And is that what you plan to do as well? Run away and hide? And when this ally of your father’s takes over, you’ll keep your heads down and hope he doesn’t notice you. Like the wolves have always done.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head in disgust. “Hey, you know what—I don’t actually need your permission, and I don’t need your help.”
His eyes narrowed. He took a step toward her, then stopped, and his gaze wandered over her slowly. Regan held herself up straight.
“No,” he said after a minute’s silence. “You don’t need anyone, do you, Regan? So tell me, why is that? You know the secrets of my past, you’ve seen my scars, but what happened to you? What made you the way you are?”
She stared at him.
What made her the way she was?
Oh, she knew very well, and it wasn’t something she’d ever shared with anyone, and she wasn’t sure she could start now. Only her mother knew what had happened all those years ago. Her mother had been there at the end to pick up the pieces and try to put them back together.
“I love you, Regan.” She remembered Sardi’s words so clearly, even after two thousand years.
“I love you,” she’d replied, and she’d meant it. Then she’d turned away and whispered the words that had destroyed him forever and shattered her heart into a thousand pieces.
She shook her head to clear out the echoes from the past.
Love caused you pain. She’d nearly allowed herself to forget that.
She looked at Caleb. He was waiting for her answer, and something twisted inside her. She didn’t want to feel that pain again. Her wolf woke and whimpered. Wolf wanted Caleb. Regan forced her down and stood up straighter.
“It’s none of your business,” she said, and she could hear the ice in her voice. Something flickered in his eyes. She ignored it and continued. “I’ve managed on my own for over two thousand years. I think I can manage a little bit longer.”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and stalked away.
Chapter Sixteen
Caleb sat at his desk, staring into space and wondering where Regan had stormed off to last night.
Shocked by her words, he’d let her go.
She didn’t need him.
He hated to admit it, but the words hurt him more than he would have believed possible. He wanted her to need him. They’d told each other that this attraction was a thing between their wolves, but Caleb knew it was more than that. He was falling in love with her, and right now, that thought brought him no pleasure at all.
A deep, nagging sense of concern tugged at his mind. The only consolation was she still had no idea how to find his father, but all the same, he wished he knew where she was. His wolf needed her close to him where he could protect her.
He almost laughed at the idea. As if Regan needed anyone to protect her. She could stop the sun, for Christ’s sake. What could he do for her that she couldn’t do for herself?
The phone on his desk rang. He reached across and picked it up.
“Mr. Stone. There’s an Ethan Stone in reception for you.”
At the sound of the name, a rush of black hatred ripped through him.
“Mr. Stone?”
“Send him up.”
What the hell could his father want? He considered calling the Council and telling them Ethan was here, but he couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t pass the information on to Regan.
He forced his hatred down; he needed his mind unclouded by rage. By the time Ethan came through the door, he had his expression schooled to blankness.
Ethan looked around the office. “I’m impressed. You’ve done well for yourself.”
Watching his father stroll across the office, Caleb realized that all his life, he’d been conflicted. He’d hated Ethan, but at the same time, deep down had been the need for his acceptance and approval. Now that need was gone—finally banished by Ethan’s own actions. Caleb could look at him without the blinkers of need, could see clearly the cold ambition that had deemed it acceptable to drive Caleb’s mother to suicide, to torture a young boy.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Not going to offer me a drink?”
“What do you want?”
Ethan shrugged and sat down in the seat opposite. “I believe you
have something of mine.”
Caleb was silent for a moment, wondering how best to play this, how best to ensure Kelly and Jason’s safety.
“I want them back,” Ethan said. “And I want the witch.”
“Why do you want them back?” Caleb asked, genuinely curious. “Why not let them go?”
“You know I can’t let the others see that. They have to understand the consequences of disobedience. I need to make an example of them.”
“Are your wolves getting restless, Dad? Are you losing control?”
“No!”
“You killed Tom and Sarah.”
Pain flashed across Ethan’s face. “Sarah was a mistake.”
“A mistake?” Caleb slammed his fist onto the desk. “You killed your mate, and you call it a mistake?”
His father ignored the question. “Where are they?”
“That’s no longer any of your concern. I’ve given them my protection.”
“That was stupid.” Fury stamped across his father’s features. “You had a chance to come in with me, to be part of something great. I guess some people aren’t meant for greatness.”
“And you are? Greatness?” Caleb shook his head. “You’re deluded. You’re the one thing that has held the wolves back all these years.”
Ethan didn’t respond, but Caleb could hear his breathing, ragged and uneven.
“Tell me about my mother,” Caleb said.
Ethan sighed. “We’ve been through this. I’ve told you everything you need to know.”
“Ah, but I’ve found some things out on my own. I know her name, and I know what she was.” He looked at Ethan and allowed a small smile to play across his face. “What I’m wondering is—do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well if you’d known what she was, then you probably wouldn’t have wasted your time torturing a child to make him turn.”
“Tell me what you know,” Ethan growled.
“You first.”
“I wanted a son. They gave me the woman in exchange for my promise that when the time came I would do their bidding. I didn’t know anything about her except they told me she was capable of bearing a werewolf’s child.”
“What was she like?”
“She was”—Ethan stared at him for long moments, clearly thinking what to say—“broken.”
Shock ripped through him. “What?” Then he remembered Kael saying his sister had been a prisoner for nearly two thousand years. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like.
“She was beautiful,” Ethan said. “Like some sort of fairy princess. Blond hair like the sun, eyes like the summer sky, and inside she was nothing but a broken doll.” He looked into Caleb’s eyes. “Whatever you’ve always thought—I didn’t kill her.”
Grief for a woman he had never even known washed through Caleb. “You didn’t try to save her either.”
For the first time, real anger showed on Ethan’s face. “You know nothing of what I did. I would have put Sarah aside, kept this woman as my mate for the chance of children.” He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I tried everything I knew to get through to her, but she was already dead in every way that mattered. In the end, I let her go. I gave her peace.”
“After you’d used her.”
“Yes, after I’d used her. After I’d got you.” He looked at Caleb. “I actually thought the one thing that might bring her back was a child. But I laid you in her arms, and she stared at you blankly.”
“Tell me something,” Caleb said. “Did you rape her?”
Ethan looked away. “She never fought me.”
Caleb shook his head in disgust. He got up, crossed the room, and poured himself a drink. He swallowed it in one go, and then came back to stand in front of Ethan.
“She was a shapeshifter.”
“A what?”
It occurred to Caleb then that Ethan was almost as ignorant about the supernatural world as he was. “A shapeshifter—they were an immortal race that was almost wiped out a thousand years ago. They can shift into any animal at will, but only change after puberty. Her name was Kyla, and she’d been a prisoner since long before her people were killed. Two thousand years of God knows what torture. It’s no wonder she was broken.”
He glanced into his father’s face. It was avid with interest.
“Are there others?” Ethan asked. “Like your mother.”
“Still thinking about yourself? Think you have a chance for another son? Do you really believe you’d have better luck next time? That your next son wouldn’t hate you the way I do?” Caleb smiled. “Well, you’re out of luck. They’re all gone except for one.”
“Who?”
“His name is Kael Hunter. He was my mother’s twin brother—and he’s looking for you.”
“Have you told him about me?”
“I won’t need to. He’ll find you.”
Ethan shrugged. “I have protection.”
“This ally of yours? I doubt he’ll protect you from Kael. Or from Regan and her sisters. They’re all looking for you.”
“Well, soon it will be too late.”
Caleb shook his head. “Just get out of here.”
Ethan rose to his feet. “I want Kelly and Jason.”
“They’re mine. Now go.”
He turned away and crossed the room to stare out of the window. He was sick of it all. He wanted nothing more to do with his father.
“Caleb—”
He swung round. Ethan was standing in the doorway. “What?”
“The witch.”
“You’re not getting her.”
“It’s not that. I want you to be careful. Don’t trust her.”
“What?”
“I have reason to believe that once this plays out, she may not be on your side.” He hesitated as if unsure of how much to say, and Caleb had to fight the urge to go over and shake it out of him. “It wasn’t coincidence she was chosen,” Ethan continued. “There are other witches, less powerful but easier to manipulate, but my associate was specific. He’s got very good reason to believe Regan will side with him.”
Caleb opened his mouth, but Ethan held up a hand. “I don’t know the details, so no point in asking me.”
“Why tell me this?”
“You’re still my only son. Be careful.”
The door clicked shut behind him. Caleb stared at it for a long time. What the hell had that been about? He crossed the room and sank into his chair, running his hands through his hair. His ordered life had turned to chaos.
Part of him wanted nothing more to do with shapeshifters, vampires, or witches. But another part admitted that wasn’t the case anymore. He wanted to know about shapeshifters. It was slowly dawning on him that he wasn’t human—no part of him—and now the shock of that discovery was wearing off, a deep craving to know his mother’s people was growing inside him. One day, he wanted to talk to Kael. The question was—would Kael ever want to talk to him? Raven had thought so.
He could do without vampires, but witches, or at least one particular witch, he was beginning to think he didn’t want to do without, perhaps even couldn’t do without. That was if she ever deigned to talk to him again.
What could his father have meant? That Regan would turn on him? He didn’t believe it, but he needed to tell her what his father had said. Except that brought him back to the fact that he had no clue where she was. He would call Catrin. She might have some idea. He reached for the phone, but it rang before he could pick it up.
It was Regan.
***
Regan had changed as soon as she left the house. She needed to run, and wolf was quite happy to oblige. She raced through the darkness until exhaustion finally claimed her, and then she lay flat out in the bracken, panting. In the deep recesses of her brain, she knew she should change back, think it through, go and persuade Caleb to let Kelly talk to her, tell her where Ethan had been last night. But things were so much simpler as wolf, and she fell asleep, head rest
ing on her paws, breathing in the musky scent of wild garlic. It reminded her of making love to Caleb on the forest floor, and she dreamed of him through the night.
The sun was already high in the sky when she finally awoke. She shifted at once, sat up, and shivered as the chill autumn air brushed her naked skin. A few whispered words and she was clothed.
Rising to her feet, she looked around her. She stood at the edge of a forest glade surrounded by pine trees, but other than that, she had no idea where she had run to. She thought about walking, finding a track to follow, but in the end, she whispered another spell and opened a portal outside Caleb’s house. She stepped through and realized that her magic was undiminished by the spells—she was back to her full strength.
She’d come to a decision during the long night.
Last night, with Caleb, she’d been angry, frustrated that he wouldn’t accept what needed to be done. And perhaps, if she was honest with herself, she’d been a little scared that she was beginning to care for him.
But scared or not, she couldn’t run away from this, and somehow, she had to persuade Caleb that he couldn’t run either.
She also needed to face her own demons. She couldn’t see how her past could be connected to all this—she’d always believed the past was dead. Now it appeared to be coming back to haunt her. Maybe by speaking of it aloud, facing it, she could finally put the nightmares behind her and move on.
A black SUV stood parked in the drive. Regan didn’t recognize the vehicle, and a sense of foreboding washed over her. She reached out with her mind, discovered Caleb was not at home, and some of her anxiety seeped away.
Kelly and Jason should still be here though. Had Ethan come after them? Was he here even now?
A movement at the front door caught her eye. She stepped back behind the broad trunk of a tree. Two men came out of the house and down the steps toward the vehicle. Both wore grim expressions, but neither of them was Ethan Stone, and her tense muscles relaxed. She thought about stopping them, and then decided checking on Kelly and Jason was more important. She waited until they’d driven away and then ran to the house.
She was too late. She knew it as soon as she opened the door, and the scent of fresh blood hit her nostrils. Pushing open the door to the sitting room, she stared down at the lifeless bodies. For a minute, she stood, trying to sense if the souls remained, but they were gone. It was often like that when death came suddenly, sometimes they lingered, but mostly they fled the scene. She hoped Catrin or Gina would see them safely on their way to the Shadowlands.
