Chapter 1

Arabella got down from her bike and heeled down the kickstand of the motorcycle just as the rain started to pour heavily around her.

She parked the large black bike which looked much bigger than her very close to the building to avoid the bike being beaten by the heavy rain.

She walked towards the bar in quick and long strode, loosing the chinstrap of her helmet and pulling it off immediately she got to the entrance of the bar and stepped in.

She looked around , she was trying to find her brother or his wife.

At the second scan around the bar, she located him walking towards the counter and he entered behind the counter .

He poured a mug of beer from the tap.

The sight still gave her chills. Cassius, Her beloved brother, Her family.

The family she thought were gone, the family she thought she'd never see again.

The fact that the once wealthy brother she remembered now tended a bar just made the scene more like a fantasy

Hey Arabella, he greeted her as soon as he saw her, with a smile that seemed the was stunned to see her just as she was to see him.

She worked towards him , her booting making loud noises with every step she took hitting the worn out floorboards, she wondered if he was thinking the same thing as she was, "amazed she was still alive too".

It's been almost three months now since she reunited with her brothers, yet their wonder hadn't diminished. Her beloved brothers.

Cassius looked from her face down to her boots for just a second

In that short second, some of her joy fled, maybe the amazement in his eyes had more to do with the fact that she was nothing like the little sister he remembered her to be.

But whether he was shocked by who she was now or amazed that she was still alive,his pale eyes lit with pleasure as he came around the bar's counter to give her a big hug

Hey Arabella, I'm really glad you stopped by tonight , he said as he released her. Maria and I were thinking about stopping by at your place to check up on you . You rarely stopped by here since you moved there.

She was immediately filled with guilt. Just a while ago when she'd thought her brothers were dead, she'd cried over the loss for many nights for years. She'd prayed and wished to have them back. Yet now that she finally had them again, she found it difficult to face them.

"I've been very busy with my research", she replied him, feeling the excuse was a weak one even though it was the truth, but not the whole truth.

She was scared that her brother wouldn't understand, much less like, the person she was now. She was so different, no longer the young, naive girl her brother once knew. But she didn’t want to be. She had gotten her family back now, and she wanted that girl back, too. That long-gone girl.

Whereas, aside from being more handsome, stunningly so, Cassius was unchanged. He looked just like the brother she believed dead in 1722. But time had no effect on vampires, except to make them more attractive. He was still the Cassius she remembered, he didn't change

She knew he didn’t see the same arrest of time in her. She’d once been the baby of the family-she had been ten years younger than Cassius but now she’d caught up to him. In fact, They were exactly the same age. And that was just the beginning of the changes.

Did he wonder where the silly, carefree and innocent sister he’d once known had gone? And who was this new and older Arabella, leather-clad, toughened woman who stood in front of him now?

You are looking great, he said as if he read her mind and he hugged her again.

This time, she closed her eyes and hugged him back. God, she had missed him.

“So this is your long-lost sister, eh?”

Arabella glanced toward the elderly voice that sounded behind Cassius. Even though she’d only been to Cassius and his mate, Maria’s-bar once or twice since moving here, she recognized the elder man who spoke. An old, thin man with a bushy beard and watchful eyes. He sat on the same bar stool where she’d seen him the last time she was at the bar with a mug of beer in front of him and a cigarette between his fingers.

“ Arabella, you remember-” Cassius started, but the old man cut him off.

“Just call me Old man Joe.” the man reached for his beer and took a huge gulp.

Cassius gave the old man a weak smile and shook his head. "Okay introductions have been made." Take a seat here , he pointed to a stool just beside the old man's and let me get you a drink."

Arabella nodded as she placed her helmet on the floor beside her seat. Hell, she needed a drink, she was about to ask Cassius for whiskey, when she stopped.

She thought, what will her brother think of her if he saw her taking whiskey? His baby sister who used to take almost forever to gulp down a bottle of water now asking g for a shot of hard liquor.

"I'll have a light beer of whatever kind you have." That was still acceptable she thought to herself.

Sure.” Cassius seemed fine with it as he reached for a mug.

The old man noticed her and whispered to her,. “That wasn’t what you wanted, was it?”

Arabella shook her head and smiled slightly, already feeling comfortable with the old man.

“Arabella,” called Maria as she came down from the back of the bar. The sound of her full name on someone’s lips other than her brother’s gave Arabella pause.

She was used to thinking of herself as Arabella-somehow she’d always managed that. And Cassius calling her Arabella was just natural. But everyone else, for years and years, had called her Bella. Somehow that nickname had been easier, as if Arabella had died with her family and Bella had been born. But now, people wanted Arabella back. She was just afraid that person was gone.

She forced her thoughts aside and cast a smile at the tall, beautiful redhead. This woman who was now her family, too.She was filled with another wave of guilt and anxiety, making her shift on her bar stool uncomfortably. Maria probably knew all about her. Or rather all about the “other” Arabella her brother had told her about. Another person who expected her to be someone she no longer was.

“How are you Arabella?” Maria asked, her slow, drawling accent and her wide, warm charming smile making it impossible to believe she was a vampire.

Charming being the operative word to describe most vampires. Charm wasn’t a word applied to werewolves. At least, not the ones she knew.

She refocused on her sister-in-law’s question. “I’m fine,” Arabella said automatically.

She was so far from fine, but that would require her to reveal just how far away she was from the Arabella of the past and she wasn't ready for that ,at least not yet.

“And Is the house working out fine?”

Arabella nodded, a small but real smile touching her lips. “Yes, I love it there.” She really did, even if she had been edgy and tense since moving there. “West Virginia is very beautiful.”

Maria grinned back, and again the room seemed to fill with warmth. It was little wonder why Cassius served beer in this backwater bar. Arabella suspected he’d do anything Maria wanted-just for that smile alone.

“If Maria had her way, she’d get our whole family moved to this godforsaken place,” Cassius said, joining them and placing the pale beer in front of Arabella. Then he took Maria's hand and squeezed them affectionately to temper his words. She elbowed him, but grinned at his teasing.

“Can you picture Jasper ever leaving the city?” Maria laughed. “That brother of y’all’s is far too in love with the perks of urban living to come here. But Dustin… ” She cocked an eyebrow like the idea of getting Dustin and his wife, Jane, to West Virginia might hold merit.

You can work on them, then maybe Jasper and Akila will follow.” Cassius leaned in to kiss his mate’s cheek, more respect and love in his ribbing than teasing.

Arabella watched them, a pang of envy flitting through her. What would it be like to have a relationship like that? But the notion was almost instantly ripped from her mind, replaced by an overwhelming swell of pure need. Sharp and breath-stealing

Just like the one she’d experienced in her barn earlier. What on earth was wrong with her?

She took in a deep breath slowly through her nose, trying to focus on the bottles lining the wall behind the bar. Clear bottles, green bottles, brown bottles, a few blue, too. She tried to focus on anything but the attraction between her brother and his mate. And this raging need moving through her.

“So how is your research going ?” Cassius asked her, not seeming to notice her agitation. That had to be good, right? She wasn’t totally out of control.

Cassius gave a frown look, however, when she didn’t answer. “Arabella? Your research?”

She pulled in one more calming breath. “Umm, yeah, it’s going fine.” Everything was fine. Keep saying that and maybe it would be so she thought to herself.

“Whats the progress? Are you any closer to a successful result, do you think?”

Arabella nodded again, then took a long swallow of her beer to hide her frustration with this uncontrollable agitation brewing inside her. The golden liquid tasted bitter, but didn’t have the bite she was craving.

Her family, her research, even her drink-nothing seemed to be satisfying as it should. Nothing reduced the feelings inside her. The strange restlessness that kept battering at her, wearing her down.

“Oh,” Maria said, glancing back to the booth where all her sound equipment was arranged. “This song is nearly done. Please excuse me.”

She rushed back down the bar toward the karaoke system and the small stage where a woman stood at a microphone. The woman’s eyes were moving from left to right as she followed words on a large teleprompter-half-reading, half-singing them-off-key and a little behind the music. A Karaoke.

Arabella turned on her seat, surprised that she hadn’t even heard the singer sing since she came in. Now that the singing had penetrated her stressed brain, it was pretty darned hard to miss.

“And that was ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly,’” Maria announced in an impressed voice, as if she’d found the off-key rendition very enjoyable. Further proof that her sister-in-law really was a kind, kind vampire.

Now, the next singer to come on stage is ,” Maria glanced at the square of paper she held, “Sophia Anderson-”

There was a cry of embarrassment from a table very close to the stage. Arabella spotted the woman with a look of annoyance on her face seated with a man, who she glared at, and another couple. She continued to frown at the man as she waved her hands adamantly in the universal sign of “no.” But the signal didn’t work-the others at the table kept trying to persuading her to take the stage.

“Have you heard from Dustin,”? Cassius asked, drawing Arabella’s attention to him for just a moment. But before she could ask what he meant, she found herself turning back to watch the escapade.

For a second, she felt bad for the poor woman, who still adamantly declined to take the stage and sing. She obviously didn’t want to sing. But then the woman stood. Maybe she would get up there after all.

Aravella reached for her beer, took a sip, and, for the first time tonight, felt a little normal. The atmosphere seemed to envelop her, as if she was meant to be there. A much-needed sense of contentment filled her. The talking, the laughter, the smell of drinks and salty, roasted peanuts. It made her feel oddly better. This was a good idea-a good distraction. Tomorrow she’d return to her research more relaxed and focused.

Arabella smiled as Sophia Anderson finally took the stage. The reluctant woman shook her head, glaring good-naturedly at her friends.

“All right!” Maria cheered from over her microphone, and much of the audience exploded into applause. Arabella clapped along with them.

Maria started the music and the woman’s voice filled the room almost from the first note. Arabella recognized the tune as a song she'd heard from the radio with a happy and contagious beat. And the woman sang it well-better than well. It was little wonder that her friends were urging her to get up there. She was a great singer.

Arabella glanced back to the woman’s table of friends to see their reaction to the woman’s fantastic singing. Two of them, a man and a woman, beamed with smile and clapped, while the other at the table, a male, just watched. He was somehow distant from the other two. The clapping male leaned over to say something to him, and the one who only watched turned toward his friend, Allowing Arabella her first full view of his face.

The smile on Arabella’s face disappeared. She was suddenly filled with a desire, so strong that it almost made her cry out, a desire that ripped through her heart, shredding any trace of calm she’d found. Every muscle in her body tensed, every sense sharpening until her whole being was centered on the man before her.

Without saying a word to Cassius, she rose. Carefully, purposefully, she went through the tables, her eyes never leaving the man. Just tables away, she stopped herself, fragments of her reasonable mind taking control. She glanced back to the bar. Cassius watched her, but when he saw her looking, he busied himself by taking an order from one of the patrons.

Her brother could sense her desire now. Of course he could. Vampires could sense emotions-and she knew hers ran very strong. Shame filled her, but still her gaze returned to the male at the table.

The man was beautiful he had dark hair, sculpted features, perfectly shaped lips that any woman would have killed for, yet on him they were sinfully masculine. He was beyond handsome.

Arabella had met many handsome men in her life, but her body had never reacted like this. Moisture pooled between her thighs, dampening her panties. Her nipples hardened, rasping the cotton of her camisole. Her mouth watered.

She swallowed. Control yourself! She said to herself, What are you doing?

But instead of walking back to her bar stool like her brain ordered her to, she took another step toward the table of friends. Then another. She sauntered slowly past the man’s chair, not getting too close, not drawing attention to herself-not just yet. She had to assess, she had to watch.She was stalking her prey.

She lifted her head to breathe in his scent. The hint of woodsy cologne, the freshness of soap and shampoo, the minty traces of toothpaste. And a warm, rich scent-a scent that made her want to tip back her head and howl.

She continued around the table until he was directly in her line of sight-then she sat down at an empty table just beside theirs. Her eyes never leaving him, she studied him. Oh yeah, she knew she wanted him.

For a moment, she closed her eyes as her rational mind took control. Why was this happening to her? It was as if the wolf in her was in control. But that didn’t happen. She didn’t stay in human form and think like the wolf. She didn’t allow that. Some werewolves did. Sam did. He was more wolf than man at all times. She didn’t allow that. She didn’t.

Her eyes snapped open. The man was looking at her. She’d felt his gaze before she’d actually seen it. Their gazes met, and even in the dim light, she could see his eyes were a mixture somewhere between brown and green.

Again her body told her this was what she needed. This was what she’d been wanting. He was what she wanted. She continued to stare at him, meeting his gaze, until he looked away.She watched him still. Unable to do otherwise. The need was in control now.

She was acting like a bitch in heat. And she didn’t care.