The moment Claire stepped foot on the gravel, a she-wolf raced up to her, pulling her into a bear hug. “I’m so excited to finally meet you!” she squealed.
Claire didn’t move. She could hear the wolf’s heart beat jumping with her. The way her blood pumped. The way her blood smelt. She was getting dizzy.
Colin noticed the stressed body language of his mate and pried the young woman off with a laugh, “Relax. Introduce yourself at the very least.”
Slightly embarrassed, she stepped back, throwing her long, brown hair over her shoulder. A young man, about Colin’s age, stepped forward and wrapped his arm around her waist, offering her a foolish love-struck grin. He looked a bit like Colin too. He stuck his hand out with a smile and said, “I’m Reed, and this is Kali.”
Claire smiled slightly, taking his giant hand in her own. “Claire,” she replied softly.
Colin wanted to pick up h
Elias sat in the corner of the room, watching for any change in the rise of the red silken sheets. He heard a large mouse, no, a young rat, run in the walls above and cursed under his breath. The knowledge of its existence would bother him during such an important day. The grand bed moved slightly, drawing his attention back. But it was just the breeze swaying the lace canopy, not the girl. He grunted and slammed the window shut, cracking the glass.Elias stared at the bed, brown eyes willing her to wake up. She had to work – the warlock had divined her success himself, led Elias to her door, and casted the curse that left her ready to be turned. If the warlock was wrong, Elias thought to himself. He will face serious regrets. As Elias began to muse the old techniques used to torture practitioners of magic, the girl gasped, panicked.She screeched, still feeling the searing pain of his blood working his way through her deteriorated body. Elias appeared at her sid
It was not until the next morning did the young woman really wake up. When she did, she screamed out, only remembering the pain she had been in, but felt no longer. Once her body registered that it was fine, she tried to look around for her glasses. But as she did, she realized not only did she not need them, she could see everything. The dust that caught the sun through the cracked window. The dirt pressed into the grain of the wood floor, even something darker that had dried into the lines. The slight texture hidden beneath the crisp white paint on the walls. As she looked down at her hands, she gasped.They were as they had been before. Before the barrage of white coats and hospital beds. They had taken on deathly pallor, with veins popping out as if they were all that stood between the bone and the skin. But now, they looked normal. The pink undertone had returned. Slowly, she reached for her face, nearly laughing with glee as she felt her full, hot cheeks. Not only that,
For years, the pattern continued. Claire would wake up, body burning from pain. And Elias would come and feed her. Sometimes his own blood, sometimes human. Her body continued to reject the mixing of their bloods, forcing Elias to transform her over and over again. He hated to do it, to see his child in such pain so often. The transformation was supposed to be a cleansing, a moment of unbelievable pain to prove the individual worthy of the power they would possess. A form of martyring. And Claire had long since proven herself worthy, feeling such unfathomable, excruciating pain hundreds of times.In the beginning, Elias had to force her to feed off humans. She hated it, and hated Elias for making her need it. It took her eighteen months to stop killing those she fed off of. It took another three years to stop crying every time she fed. Every time he kept telling her that once she was stable, should would no longer need human blood – any raw meat would suffice. But that
Colin stopped suddenly, causing Reed to crash into his back. “What the fuck?” he groaned, bending down to pick his phone off the ground.Colin didn’t answer, face towards the sky. He wasn’t listening to a word around him, unable to focus on anything other than the scent that wafted over him on the random breeze. “Did you smell that?” He asked his brother, turning on his heels and grabbing his shoulders.Reed wrinkled his nose, “You mean that dying doe? Yeah, of course.”Colin had noticed that, yes. But there was something else. Something that he had no words for. It smelt like a bonfire; warmth, safety, comfort.Colin was 24 years old and had not struggled with shifting since his teenage years. But in that moment, a snarl ripped from his throat as he dropped onto all fours. Reed knew what was happening and tried to force his brother to control himself, but there was no stopping him. Reed was thrown into a ne
Claire sat on the kitchen floor, staring at her reflection in Elias’s phone. Blue eyes. Bright skin. Brown hair. She looked like herself again. Only, healthier. “Elias,” she whispered. “What will change? Now that it’s all finished.” He smiled sympathetically at the young woman; instability had become her normal for too long. “You will be strong and fast. Your senses will get even stronger. And you will be able to use the same powers that I have, perhaps more.” She nodded. “What about blood?” His smile grew wider and brighter. “That is the best part, ma chérie. You will not need human blood anymore. Or blood at all, if you prefer. You can just eat raw meat.” He took out a large
Alpha Peter stared down Colin, completely ignoring Reed’s presence. With a raised brow, he sneered, “You’re saying that your mate is not human, witch, or wolf? What? Do you think some sort of fae was wandering in the Yew Coven’s woods?” Colin shook his head, trying to ignore his father’s taunting; there was always a trap set for him. Reed stepped forward, giving Colin a much-needed break from his father’s glare. “Alpha, I can confirm Colin’s words. The scent was not any creature I’ve encountered before.” He shot a vicious look at Reed, who bowed his head submissively, for disrupting his plans. He needed to see if there was more he could push Colin on, more to make this visit worthwhile. “And what do you think I should do, Colin?” “Spea
Chris and Matt had both seen Colin in serious pain before. They had both been the cause of it before. But this was too much, even for them. He laid in a pool of his blood as high-pitched whines escaped his throat. “Watch and make sure he doesn’t die!” Matt ordered as he ran up the steps to find the doctor.Doctor Cillian, an older wolf, came and looked down on the young man, horrified. “What did you do to him?” he snapped.“Watch your tone, Doc,” Chris growled, straightening his spine to tower over the old man, who nodded in deference. “He’s trying to shift, but he obviously can’t in there.”“Colin has been shifting for over a decade; he can control it. Why is he trying to?” Cillian pressed. At the brothers’ silence, he sighed, “I need to know so that I can give him the correct tonic. Why is he trying to shift?”Matt shot Cillian a sharp look and hissed, &ldquo
“Yes, of course I would welcome you to my home. Have I ever been anything but a gracious host before?” Elias said with a charming drawl over the phone in his office. He knew that Claire was outside the door, but he did nothing to dissuade her presence. As long as she stayed within the mansion, he did not care. But if there were plans for a sudden visit by the local arm of The Council, he would need to prepare her as best as possible. And to Elias, that meant to get her as far away as possible. As soon as the phone was set down, Claire sprinted away to the library. She scoured the books, grabbing anything on The Council that she could find. Elias walked past the room at one point but paid her no mind. He was glad that she was reading up; it would save him explanations. He knew exactly what was in his library, and he could shape his answers around that.