Ch 1
Muzzle tinged red with the fresh blood of a deer, Lucian rounded a curve of the mountain trail. Evergreen trees towered over him, obscuring the moonlight and filling the air with the strong, damp smell of pine. He padded over to the ledge and looked down. Beneath him, a few modest properties snuggled up to the base of the mountain. Far enough away from each other to afford privacy, but close enough to feel secure in having a neighbor within walking distance. The scent of their fires tickled his nose, and every now and then he saw a human pass in front of one of the lit windows of the houses, oblivious of the creatures in the dark watching them from above.
He envied them sometimes. Humans. They had no fucking idea of the dangers happening all around them or the things they shared their world with…or the creatures that protected them from some of those dangers. There were times Lucian wished he could throw the unknown into their faces, just to bathe in their shock. To see their happy little lives get tossed upside down.
But what purpose would that serve? It wouldn’t make anything better for him or his kind. If anything, it would make it worse. Because humans, as history has proven time and time again, don’t acclimate well to anything considered “other”. They either enslave things that are different from them, or hunt them for trophies to hang over their mantles. No doubt they would do the same to things like him, in their “appreciation” for that protection.
With one last look, he decided it was time to go home. The others were waiting for him, and despite his frustration with them, his sense of duty to the pack weighed heavily on his shoulders.
An emotion he recognized well, but couldn’t name, tore its way through his chest as he started to turn away from the cozy scene below. But before he could leave, movement in the trees far below caught his eye. Sitting back on his haunches, Lucian tilted his head and watched through the mist floating midway down the mountain as a girl burst from the woods directly below him and ran across the stretch of cleared land toward a small, white house in the distance.
Two figures emerged a few steps behind her, their excited grunts and hisses reaching his sensitive ears over the girl’s heavy breathing. Her pursuers ran with an awkward lope, their bodies twitching so hard one of them stumbled and fell. Lurching to its feet, it quickly caught up to its friend again.
An olc.
No, worse.
Soul suckers.
Baring his teeth, Lucian threw himself over the side of the drop off. The way was steep, and he half ran, half skidded down the mountain, landing hard on his haunches when he reached the bottom. He used the momentum to spring after the things chasing the girl, covering half the distance between them with one leap. The smell of rotten meat soured the cold air as he neared, confirming he’d been right. These two were Dark Fae, overripe with dark magic and crazed with the hunger for humans. If he didn’t catch them before they reached the girl, they’d suck out her soul and leave her corpse for the crows.
Lucian pushed forward, weighing his options. There was no way he could take them both down from behind in enough time for her to get to the house. And even if she managed to make it, it wouldn’t matter. Once they knew where she was, a few walls never stopped these things. Though a little sheetrock and paint did wonders to hide the scent of humans if the crazed ones didn’t know they were in there.
Unfortunately, these two would know exactly where she was hiding.
Making a decision, Lucian lowered his head and lengthened his stride. When he reached the an olc, he pushed hard off the ground with his back legs, leaping over their heads and landing directly behind the girl. He caught a whiff of honey flowers right before he spun around to face them. The scent lingered in his nose, sweetening the air with a memory that danced right on the edge of his thoughts, but he had no time to nail it down.
Disgust rolled through him as Lucian faced off with the two Faeries, their sour scent overpowering everything else, and the wisp of memory blew away with the stench. He bared his teeth and growled in warning to distract them from the hunt. It was enough to give the things pause in the face of this new threat. In their efforts to slow their momentum, they stumbled over their own feet and each other so as not to run into him, and Lucian took full advantage of their surprise.
With a vicious snarl, he clamped his jaws around the bony thigh of the one closest to him and tossed it out of the way before going after the second. The diversion gave him time to remove its head before the first one launched itself back into the fight, wrapping its stinking limbs around Lucian from behind and sinking its teeth into his shoulder.
With a grunt of pain, Lucian leaped off the ground and flipped over in midair, landing on his back with the thing beneath him. The impact jarred them both, and Lucian let out a yelp of pain as he felt its teeth tearing through the skin and muscle of his shoulder.
Scrambling to his feet, Lucian bared his teeth. Wasting no time, he pounced on top of it before it could get up, tearing into putrid muscle and petrified bone, ripping it apart with his powerful jaws. When it stopped moving, he stood watch over the remains, just to be sure, before he released his jaws and spit out the shoulder and a piece of an arm, gagging in disgust.
Tremors of adrenaline ruffled his fur as he caught his breath, ears pricked for any indication there were more of these fuckers, or worse, that the human neighbors had noticed the ruckus. He heard nothing but his own breathing, and that of the girl.
She stood about twenty feet away, hair dripping with the rain that had begun to fall during the fight and which was quickly turning into a right downpour. She blinked against the wind and rain as she stared at him, her stunned expression frozen in a mixture of disbelief and horror. Her scent blew to him on the cold breeze, and Lucian stilled. It filled his nose, teasing the back of his throat as he inhaled the smell of honey flowers deep into his lungs, knowing he should flee, but unable to force his paws to move.
Finally, after long minutes that felt more like days, she pushed her hair out of her face and wiped her eyes, her movements jerky and hesitant. From this distance he could see the freckles spattered across her cheeks, white with terror, and the shock of blue-green color in her eyes. Lucian realized too late, as usual, what he had done. There would be no explaining away what she’d just witnessed, especially when he would have to shift back to do it.
Moments like these were the times he envied the bloodsuckers their ability to fuck with the memories of humans.
Angry with himself for jumping into the fire without thinking of how it would burn, and unsure what to do now that he had, Lucian began to pace back and forth with nervous energy. His mind spun with different ways he could fix this mess he’d caused as he kept one eye on the girl, constantly gauging her reaction. The heavy rain soaked his fur, but he barely felt it. All he could think was he needed to leave. Run away. Eventually the details of her memory would fade, and her tales of a giant man/wolf would seem less and less believable, even to her own ears.
The headless bodies, however, would be a wee bit harder to ignore.
“I know what you are.”
Lucian tilted his head at the first sound of her voice. Though it was a bit on the shaky side, the dulcet tones rippled over his fur, easy as a warm summer breeze. Gooseflesh rose on his skin as her words sank in. But, she couldn’t know what he was. Not truly. It wasn’t possible unless she was “other”, like him. And if that were true, she wouldn’t have been running from the soul suckers. Or living here.
No. She was human.
His steps picked up speed. Back and forth. Back and forth. In his gut, the instinct to escape waged a fierce battle with the inexplicable need to remain near this human girl.
Her voice gained strength. “And I know you can understand what I’m saying. So, thank you. For helping me.” She paused. Looked to the side before bringing her gaze back to him. The directness of it made him uncomfortable, and utterly aware of her. He must look a monster to her. Not truly a wolf. Not truly a man.
But, if she was frightened of him, she certainly hid it well. “If you promise not to eat me, I can look at that shoulder wound for you.”
Even in this form, his nostrils flared with her scent and his body hardened with eagerness. An image of the two of them lying skin to skin with his face buried between her legs pushed out every other rational thought. Lucian shook his head hard, scattering the fantasy and focusing back on the here and now.
Could it be possible this human really knew about his kind? It wasn’t completely unheard of, but it was very rare. Few humans who did were allowed to remain living, for the safety of his species and others like him.
Without Lucian being aware, his pacing brought him closer. He caught another whiff of that enticing scent again, stronger now. Flowers dripping with honey. Bog stars. The white flowers that grow in the north. Flowers and warm female.
The scent made his mouth water. He could see now that she was not as young as he’d first thought, but a woman full grown into her thirties, at least, though the unassuming way she carried herself—and the freckles—had thrown him off at first. Her arms were wrapped around her waist against the cold, pushing her breasts up out of the low neckline of her short-sleeved shirt. A woman’s full hips filled out the loose pants she was wearing. They were too long for her legs and too tight around her hips and belly, and the dark plaid design reminded him of a pair of his own PJ’s. Perhaps she had a male in that house, waiting for her, and those were his pants she was wearing. But if so, why was she out here alone, running around at night in her—or his—sleeping clothes?
“My name is Keelin,” she said. “Keelin Doran.”
Though her voice still trembled just a bit, she stood her ground as he came closer yet. Lucian’s steps gradually slowed until he came to a stop directly in front of her. His nose was at a level with her breasts, and the urge to take that final step forward and bury it in that soft sweet warmth was nearly irresistible.
“Please.” Her eyes, so big in her wee face, begged him. “Let me help you. And maybe, in return, you can tell me what the hell to do with this—” She glanced around at the body parts lying behind him. “—mess in my lawn.”
Tell me what the hell to do… His hackles rose. The only way he would be able to tell her anything was if he wasn’t a wolf. Och. She wasn’t telling tales. She knew exactly what he was. He glanced over at the bloody arm lying nearest him. Lucian had nearly forgotten about the soul suckers, so caught up had he been with the woman. Aye. The lass was right. He couldn’t just leave bodies strewn about her lawn. Catching her eyes with his, he lowered his head once and raised it again, hoping she would understand.
With a nervous shift of her eyes, she nodded back. “Good. Come on inside.”
She turned to lead the way into her house, head down to shelter her face from the rain and arms wrapped tight around her middle against the cold. Her hair, longer than he’d first assumed, nearly reached her waist. And as he followed the length of it down her back, it was hard to get up the will to follow her, so much did he appreciate the view of her walking away. But, eventually, he managed to put one paw in front of the other and padded along behind her, eyes on her sweet arse, barely resisting the urge to take a bite from the mounds of flesh. Not to hurt her. Only hard enough to get her attention.
A growl of a different sort rumbled through his chest at the thought.
Keelin glanced back over her shoulder, eyes alight with worry. Lucian ground his jaws together and looked away. She followed the direction of his stare for a moment, brow furrowed as she tried to see what he was growling at through the rain, then she turned and climbed the few stairs up onto her porch. At the back door, she turned to him. “Let me grab some towels before you come in, if you don’t mind.”
Lucian paused just outside the door, rain pouring down on his head and back. With a small, apologetic smile she rushed into the house, closing the glass door but leaving the storm door open.
While she was gone, he took the opportunity to change back. The process went quickly, now that he was calm, though no less painfully. He’d find out pretty damn quick if she’d meant what she’d said when she’d told him she knew what he was.
Keelin returned, her eyes lowered to watch her footing and her arms full of towels. When she looked up, one hand reaching for the door handle, she let out a startled scream to find him crouching naked in the rain with his hands covering his nether regions.
Lucian stood without thinking, both hands up to shush her.
Keelin’s eyes dropped to his manly parts. Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut again with an audible click as she quickly looked up at his face.
Yanking the door open, he grabbed a towel from her arms, shaking it out before wrapping it around his hips to hide his nudity. He scowled at her forced expression, schooled into a careful mask despite the flush in her cheeks. “Dinna be so surprised. It’s cold an’ raining. Ye’d be much more impressed if it was the middle o’ summer.” With the towel wrapped securely around his waist, he looked up in time to catch her averting her eyes. “I’m sorry. I dinna mean tae sound so crabbit, or tae startle ye. I just thought it would be better tae get the shiftin’ done when ye weren’t around tae witness it. It can make anyone a wee bit squeamish, even a brave lass like yerself.”
The lass in question took a step back, putting some space between them, but otherwise gave no indication that she knew who he was or where he’d come from.
Perhaps he’d misunderstood? “Ye did say ye ken what I am. Is that no’ true?”
She took another step back. Lucian followed, only enough to close the door to prying eyes, but didn’t get any closer. The lass was feart. That much was obvious. Despite her brave words just a short time ago. “Ye said yer name was Keelin. Keelin Doran, ya? Tis a fine Irish name for a bonnie lass.” Lucian grimaced. He was blethering on like an idiot, but thought if he just kept talking, eventually she would snap out of whatever had a hold of her and they could get on with things. “My name is Lucian. Lucian Kincaid. I was no’ actually born a ‘Kincaid’, but I took the name when I was adopted into my pack. My family. I was verra grateful—”
“You’re a werewolf. A shifter.”
So, the lass hadn’t lost her wits after all. “Aye. That I am.”
