ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (151 page)

He leaned in and kissed me. It was inevitable. Grant was like a magnet, and the only thing that made sense around him was this, to be drawn to him and to give myself over to him. And it was what I wanted. So help me, I wanted a werewolf.

I kissed him back. At first it was gentle and unsure, like he was scared he would chase me away despite how obviously I was attracted to him. But it turned to something serious very quickly. His arms closed around my body and he pulled me into him, his skin feverishly hot. His hands were on my cheeks, on my neck, on my shoulders. He stopped before he slipped further down, but my body craved him. He was like a drug and I was wildly addicted, after just one night.

When he broke the kiss – he had to do it because I wouldn’t – he smiled at me. His eyes were warm, and he looked at me like he did the night at the masquerade ball, like I was a vision, something from a fairy tale. But I was wearing normal clothes now, slacks and a shirt. And my hair was loose. But he still made me feel like I was beautiful.

“I don’t to fight you,” he said in a low voice that was a lot more seductive than the words he was using.

“Why did you summon the wolves?” I asked.

“They came when they felt my distress.”

“You were distressed?”

“You’re a vampire,” he said like it was supposed to make sense. I tried to find the meaning, why it was such a good reason to summon the pack, but I couldn’t find one.

“So?” I asked. “You like me, don’t you? It’s not like you see me as a threat.”

“All vampires are threats,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice. I narrowed my eyes at him, pulling myself out of his embrace a little, trying to put distance between us.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He noticed I was getting offended. His face closed.

“Let’s face it, Claudia. Our races are enemies. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Then why are you here, kissing me?”

“Something about you draws me to you. I can’t help it.”

“Well, I’m so sorry  that you have to put up with this inconvenience,” I said, laying the sarcasm on thick.

“What?” he asked, stepping back now so there was a distance between us. “That’s not what I—“

“Sure, of course not. It’s just that you’re horribly drawn to your enemy. Poor little Alpha.”

His eyes flashed when I said that, and the beast inside shivered, a ripple traveling over his skin. I could feel the power streaming from him now. He was getting angry.

“Look, it’s not like I chose this,” he said.

“No, why would you choose falling for someone as horrible as me?”

“You’re pulling this out of context.”

“
I’m
pulling it out of context? I’m not the one that made it sound like the worst thing in the world happened to me when I was attracted to you.”

“That’s not how I meant it, Claudia, and you know it.”

“Actually, no,” I said, my skin feeling as hot as his had felt earlier. “I don’t know that.”

“I just meant that you being a vampire wasn’t exactly my first choice.”

“No, you’re right. That’s much better.”

He threw his hands up in the air. I’d never seen an exasperated werewolf before, and if it hadn’t been about discriminating against who I was, it would have been funny. But it wasn’t.

“You’re a pain in the ass,” I said.

“Well, I’m glad you know now, so you know what you’re signing up for.”

“I’m not signing up for anything,” I sneered. “I prefer it when the men in my life actually
like
me.”

“This isn’t about like.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and stilled. I could go very quiet, like a statue. I could see that it unnerved him. Where werewolves were all fire and rage, we were all ice and control. He turned on his heel and walked away from me.

“Where are you going?” I asked. If there was one thing that really pissed me off, it was when someone walked out of a fight.

“Away,” he said. “I’m not going to stand here and be scolded like a child.”

I grunted and stomped my foot.

“So you’re just leaving me behind? You’re just sick of my company, is that it? I’m not good enough for you time so you’re just leaving.”

He shook his head, still walking away. I noticed how broad his shoulders were, how strong and muscular he was, even from behind. I trailed my eyes down and noticed he had a really good ass.

I shook my head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I yelled after him. “The clan can’t wait to dig their teeth into your pack.”

“Likewise, but you’ve already taken a bite out of me. We’ll be returning the favor.” He disappeared into the dark and I was left behind in a cloud of my own rage.

When he was gone completely, I felt myself deflate. I sagged, crumpled in on myself, and shuddered. It had been a disaster. Ridiculous. He was
so
childish. I huffed, but when I dematerialized home I felt like I’d lost something, and the ache inside me was bigger than I wanted it to be.

One more night, and then it was full moon. Why didn’t I want to do this?

Chapter 4

Full moon was here. When I woke up after a day of fitful sleeping I could feel the magic in the air, prickling on my skin. Monsters everywhere were going to be creeping out of their holes tonight, even if they weren’t pulled out by the moon. It didn’t matter who you were, if you were a monster, the moon bugged you.

I got dressed. Black tights with a black jersey that came to mid-thigh. Soft black suede boots with it and I pinned my hair up in a bun. Black because it was a night of chaos. And I could fight in these clothes. We met in at a clan member’s house with a garden big enough to accommodate us. There were over a hundred vampires, but not all of us would go to war. The younger vampires, the ones that weren’t very good at controlling themselves and using their new skills yet, would stay home. That left about sixty of us to go out and fight.

“Attention,” my father called. He wasn’t the clan leader either, but he was a damn close second. The master of our clan nodded to him.

“I just want to take this moment to say that even though our fights come and go, and sometimes we’re individually responsible for them, we will fight as one.”

He was pinning me directly and everybody knew, even though he’d said it in a nice way. This war was my fault tonight, and they weren’t going to let me forget it. Did I feel guilty? No, not about the fight. Just about who we were fighting. I swallowed hard and the clan cheered. My dad was a hell of an instigator. It was one of his special skills. We all had something. He could rally a horde to fight for a cause they didn’t even know they cared about. He made them care.

My skill was healing. I could heal myself up faster than any other vampire, and I could heal others, which was a big deal. As far as I knew I was the only one. It worked with the amount of compassion I had, but that trait was frowned upon. Vampires weren’t supposed to be nice.

Still, my healing power meant I was going along too. This fight needed me.

We dematerialized one by one, and the sound of soft whooshing filled the air. I closed my eyes and focused on where I was headed, picturing the field where we had to meet.

It was a deserted stretch of land that lay exactly in the middle between two towns. We decided on it because humans wouldn’t come out to it for no reason, and unless the circus was in town – which I considered to be debatable, considering we were a pretty scary show – no one came to the field.

When I materialized in the field the wheat colored grass was waist high and silver in the moonlight. The moon was a round and liquid in the sky. A sign of terror.

The vampires looked scary. We were all dressed in black without exception. Pale skin stretched tightly over bone, and all the vampires looked ghostly in the silver light, like they were made of marble. I shivered. This was really happening, a war where a lot of us would die.

A howl pierced the night air and chased chills down my spine. It was full moon. With the strength of the moon half the pack would have changed already, only the stronger ones still in human form. And a werewolf, once the wolf was free, was a dangerous thing. They thrived on fear, they lost control when there was blood, and they were animals. There would be no humanity despite their ability to appear human once the moon was out of the way.

The first wolves sliced through the trees, blurred lines of silver and brown and black as they ran. I felt the fear in the air. Some of the vampires were scared. The air was filled with charged energy.

Men and women stepped out of the trees, too. Grant was with them, still in human form. The Alpha. I could almost feel his strength from where I was standing, oozing out of him like a thick liquid. They all wore black, just like we did. When he stepped into the field and his pack joined him, some human some wolf, the power that followed them crackled around us. It was like a storm hovered over the field.

I looked up just to be sure, but the stars were out and there were no clouds. The danger came with the wolves.

The clan was ready. I could it in my blood. My fangs elongated, and when I looked around me other vampires had their teeth bared, their fangs long and menacing, promising violence and death.

There wasn’t time for talking. All the talking had been done. We were here for a fight, and that was all that was going to happen.

Silently the vampires spread out and lined up. The wolves did the same. Some of them snapped their jaws at eyes, eyes glowing red and yellow and green. The power crawled over my skin, and I braced myself against it.

“It starts!” Grant shouted. His voice didn’t sound like his own. It was deep and throaty, and it sounded more like a growl than a human voice. The vampires hissed and launched. Some of the men and women changed. It was a sight to behold. Their skins burst open and fur crawled across their bodies like water. The bones in their bodies stretched and moved, elongated, broke out of the skin naked and bloody before the fur covered it. Before long Grant was the only wolf that was still human.

The vampires and wolves launched at each other. We were faster than the wolves, moving at blurring speeds. They could smell us out and judge where we were going to be before we got there. Our bite had venom to it, but so did theirs. And because we couldn’t change into a monster because of the bite, like humans, we died.

It was like thunder when the two groups collided. Jaws snapped, teeth gleamed, screams and howls filled the air and before I could count to three the first blood was drawn. The smell hung in the hair, thick and metallic. It drove the wolves wild. They lost all control and the fight kicked up a notch. It was gruesome.

I didn’t fight. I did what I could to save my people. I launched from one vampire to the next, forcing my healing faster and stronger than I had before. I had to help as many as I could. These were my people.

As hard as I tried I still lost some. They were getting hurt faster than I could heal, and I was starting to get drained. The wounds closed up slower, blood still seeped through after a while, and I felt sluggish.

The feeding frenzy just made the wolves stronger. We were losing. We weren’t strong enough. The Alpha was lending his power to his pack. I knew he could. Our Master couldn’t do that. He could make and control and punish and we feared him, but he couldn’t strengthen.

What have we done?

W werewolf suddenly jumped me from the side, and knocked my wind out. I lay on the ground with the animal over me. It’s skin was searing hot where it touched me and I wondered if it would leave marks on me like burns. It was a black wolf with red eyes, and it’s mouth was open. Saliva dripped from its teeth and it growled low and threatening. I hissed and tried to get it off me, but I had no strength left. All I had going for me was a wilted healing power, and this wolf needed a gun to the head, not healing.

This was where I was going to die.

The wolf was on me and it was ready to strike. I could see death in its eyes, smell it on the rotten breath that came out of its mouth. I struggled to break free but it was no use. I wondered, with the strength of this wolf, if I would have been able to get out if I were stronger. If I had all my strength.

It didn’t matter. I closed my eyes, ready for the end.

A growl followed by a whine sounded above me and a bump made me open my eyes. The black wolf lay next to me, and a large chocolate brown wolf with yellow eyes stood next to me, panting. The black wolf got up and snarled, but the brown wolf held his head low. I could feel power streaming from it and surrounding me.

The Alpha. Grant.

Did he want to kill me himself? But he looked at me, sniffed twice as if checking that I was alright. Then the wolf curled into a ball and slowly the fur started receding. The bent legs straightened out. The muzzle retracted. It was beautiful, watching him change. The final product was the man, wearing a fur jacket the same color the wolf’s coat had been.

“Are you alright?” he asked me when he pushed himself up. He moved toward me like his muscles and joints were stiff. I nodded slowly, although I felt like I was fading.

Grant stood up and the power in the air shifted. He drew the wolves energy away from them. They were surprised, and they stopped fighting as a result.