ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (91 page)

I sat down on the bed, hugging myself against the cold that suddenly wrapped around me, and looked at the chair where his bag had been. Mine was still on the floor next to the chair. A bag looking as lonely as I felt. I walked over to it and pulled out jeans and a shirt, and pumps. There was only one place for me to go from here.

Home.

3

I woke up much, much later, well after the sun had set. A dark cloud hung over me. Something tugged at the back of my conscious, and I searched for what it was. When the reality of what had happened the night before hit me, I wished I hadn’t opened the floodgates. I tried, but I couldn’t subdue the surge of emotions again.

In the dining room my mother was reading the paper. She had a steak on her plate. Rare, the only way we ate it. It had to be so close to alive, it could almost escape. Of course, the aristocracy had stopped hunting ages ago.

“Are you alright?” she asked when she looked up at me. If I looked half as bad as I felt, she had reason to worry.

“I’m just feeling a bit feverish. I think I might have eaten something off,” I lied What else was I going to say? Oh no mom, my heart was ripped out and gobbled by a werewolf, but it’s nothing to worry about…

“I’m going out for a run.”

“Oh honey, please don’t,” she said, My father came in with his own plate, and sat down.

“Don’t what?” he asked.

“Blanche wants to go for a run.”

My dad shook his head. “Your mother’s right. You can’t go out now. The attacks have picked up the last while. It’s not safe for you to be out alone.”

I groaned, rolling my eyes. “I’m just going for a run, dad,” I said. It was ironic that the night before I’d managed to get out without a struggle, and I’d eloped. Now I just wanted to run until my brain stopped thinking, and now they were worried something terrible was going to happen.

What could be worse than what had already happened? Surely not death. That would be painless in the end. I shook my head. Melodramatic much?

“I’ll be fine, dad. I’ll stick to the close streets. I’m just going around the block.”

My father didn’t look happy, but I was old enough to make my own choices, and what was he going to do? Lock me up like a child?

I stepped out into the night air, and breathed in deeply. The air was icy and burned my lungs when I breathed in, but I needed the reminded that I was still alive.

I started running, pumping my legs up and down, my feet eating the distance. I ran away from the hell that my life had become overnight, the pain in my chest that seemed to keep up with me easily, the idea that none of this had meant anything to Ray. And the horror that I was married to a werewolf. And I’d taken his blood. And now my husband had disappeared.

I ran until my muscles screamed and my lungs felt like they were going to implode.

I stopped at the edge of the clump of trees that grew at the back of our block. I leaned my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. I gasped for air, but my lungs remained on fire, and the burn spread through my chest and into my arms and legs. Maybe I’d pushed too hard.

A movement among the trees caught my eye, but when I looked up I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Still, the night was unusually dark, the full moon the only point of light, and there wasn’t a sound around.

It took me a moment to realize the sound of crickets had also stopped. That usually meant—

A silvery blur came at me from the trees, so quick that even if my muscles had been able to obey me, I wouldn’t have escape. An enormous wolf lunged at me, jumping against me. I fell backwards, hitting my elbow hard on the concrete, and then my skull crunched on the cold cement, as well. The wolf was on top of me, fangs bared, a vicious growl rolling from its throat. It had black eyes, eyes that looked a lot like Ray’s. The moment I thought I shuddered.

The wolf transformed, slowly at first, it’s body a contorted blur, and then I could start making out human features. Hair only on the head. The nose shrinking. Paws turning into hands on my shoulders, pinning me down. And lastly, the teeth retracted and straightened out. Blunt, human teeth.

I didn’t know a werewolf could change back to human form at will when it was full moon. There were a lot of myths around the creatures, but what did we really know? The ones that were captured were killed right away, before they got the chance to escape. No vampire had ever really studied them.

With vague surprise I realized the man on top of me wasn’t Raymond. And under it all was the realization that I wasn’t scared of him.

“Where is he?” he said in such a throaty voice I wasn’t sure if he’d actually growled at me.

“Who?”

“Dante.”

I shook my head. I had no idea what this man – wolf – was on about.

He closed his eyes and shook his body almost like a dog would shake itself.

“Raymond.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t seen him since last night.”

The man made a sound that sounded a lot like a growl again.

“You tell him that if he doesn’t come to see the Leader of the Pack before the moon breaks, he’s dead meat. And the Leader isn’t one to make empty threats.”

“I don’t know where he is,” I stammered. “Well then I suggest you find him. For his sake.”

He released me and stood up. I scrambled into a sitting position. The sudden change got my head pounding, I was sure I had at least a mild concussion, and a sharp pain shot up my arm from my elbow when I leaned on my hand.

“Did you say his name was Dante?” I asked. My curiosity – or was it hysteria? – blurred out any realistic thoughts of escape. He looked at me with blank eyes, irritated that I was holding him up.

“Dante,” he said again. “Dante Heller.”

He shifted into wolf form, a transformation that happened much quicker than his change to human for. And in with a noiseless swoop he was gone almost in the blink of an eye.

“Well, what do you know,” I mumbled to myself, pushing up off the ground and wincing when my elbow complained again.

4

I wandered around the house. It was the middle of the day, and everyone – my parents, the servants – was asleep. I walked into rooms I hadn’t been in for years. The kitchen. The cigar lounge where my father has his meetings. His office.

I dragged my finger along the smooth, dark wood. Things had been different when I was a youngling. I used to play on the floor in his office. Or read books and talk to him about. It felt like years since he’d really seen me at all.

My thoughts wandered back to Raymond. Dante, the other man had said. Everything I’d known about him, everything I’d thought I knew about him, had been a lie.

How much of our relationship had been genuine? How much had been an act? What had he done all of it for?

I sat down in a leather armchair by the window. The steel shutters were down for the day, keeping out the fatal sunlight. The smooth, old leather under my fingers felt familiar, but an unpleasant ache was like a rock in my chest, and I had to breathe around it. The wolf’s words kept playing over and over in my mind.

If he doesn’t get to the Leader… he’s dead meat

Somehow I didn’t believe that he’d used ‘dead meat’ as a figure of speech. Werewolves were heartless. We all knew it. And they weren’t scared to take our whoever they needed in their ranks. If vampires were part animal – the battle for dominance and the matriarchal or patriarchal leader – werewolves were absolutely primal. They eliminated the weak links, and worked up in the ranks.

Dead meat.

I shuddered. And why shouldn’t he die for what he’d done? Why should he be let to live after he’d broken my heart, and my trust, everything he’d ever given me to hold onto?

The answer to that was clear. It was frustrating. Infuriating. I still loved him.

When the moon breaks

Full moon lasted two days. Last night had been the first. That meant that he had one more night left. The moon breaking referred to the first night it wasn’t full anymore.

That meant that Ray only had one night left.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and ignored the rock in my stomach that pulled me down. He didn’t deserve me. He was an animal.

Dead meat.

I walked out of the office and back to my own room. I opened the drawer and lifted a stack of books. Underneath it I found the envelope I was looking for. In it was all the notes and letters he’d sent me, parched flowers and ticket stubs. I threw it all in the little waste basket. One note on top landed with the loopy scrawl of his handwriting face up.

I bent down and took it out.

No matter what

He’d sent it to me in the beginning, just after my parents had forbidden me to see him. I’d broken it off with him, but he’d followed me home – now it made sense how he’d been able to get here so quickly – and he’d hidden in the bushes. When I’d past he’d stuffed the note into my hand before he’d disappeared.

Three little words, and in those words had been the promise that he would be back for me. No matter what, he would love me. Had it been love at that point? I didn’t know.

I didn’t want him to die. I hated that he’d lied to me. I despised what he was. I felt like he had destroyed anything we’d ever built.

But I didn’t want him to die.

I looked at the clock. Two hours until sunset.

I dressed into jeans and a black shirt, running shoes. I braided my hair into a single braid that hung down my back.

I found a backpack pack in the guestroom. What could I take that would save me? I want to the kitchen and rummaged around in the drawers. The knives were all aluminum, they would do plenty damage, but not death. I packed a butcher’s knife just in case. I shuddered at the idea of having to use it.

Werewolves couldn’t stand silver. I had a lot of silver, but all in the form of jewelry. Rings and necklaces and earrings. Also not deadly, although I imaged it could be uncomfortable.

Instead I found the silver in the buffet cabinet. Butter knives only, they would do little harm. I took a fork instead. If it really came down to it, I could break skin with that easier than with a butter knife.

I took a deep breath, and went back to my room. I sat on my bed, and watched the minute hands crawl slowly around the face of the clock. When the shutters finally opened, scratching and groaning, I closed my eyes and dematerialized.

I took form again in the park. The park was quiet, everything colored in shades of dark blue and gray, the only colors a vampire really knew outside their homes. We never got to see the world in its midday splendor.

I became still. In my mind I conjured the feeling that belonged to Raymond. Everyone had a feeling, distinct and unique, and if vampires concentrated enough, became still, almost like meditating, they could feel it.

Usually vampires could only feel other vampires when they were in close range. Raymond could be anywhere. But I’d heard from vampires before that once they’d shared blood, they could find each other. They could sense where they were, because of their blood calling out to them, and they could go to them, no matter how great the distance.

Raymond hadn’t taken my blood. I didn’t know if the same thing would work for us. I didn’t even know if I would be able to sense Raymond because he wasn’t a vampire. But I closed my eyes and opened up my senses, reaching out, looking for him.

At first nothing happened. I felt like I was just an idiot standing in the park with my eyes closed. But then, slowly, something changed. It was almost like a low hum, a very dim surge of electricity. It wasn’t very strong, but it was so much more than I’d expected. I focused on it, and it gradually became stronger, until I had a vague idea of a location.

I took a deep breath. And dematerialized.

5

When I took shape again, I was in a forest I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure how far I’d traveled, but I got the idea I was quite some distance outside the city. Tall trees all around me stretched up into the sky, and far above, in the murky darkness, a canopy of leaves stretched in all directions.

The forest was quiet. Too quiet. And eerie. Goose bumps crawled over my skin, and I moved around quietly, taking care where I put my feet. Raymond wasn’t here. Again I closed my eyes. The pulsating hum was much stronger now. He had to be here somewhere.

Either that, or this whole thing had been a complete failure. I hadn’t felt him and I’d followed something out into the wilderness.

I pushed the thought away. I’d come this far.

I moved slowly through the trees, trying to make myself small, following the feeling that buzzed all the way down to my core. I found nothing. Whenever I stepped through trees or around bushes and shrubs, there was nothing but more of the same.

And then I saw him. He sat in a clearing, curled into a ball, doing… nothing. He just sat there.

I stepped around the tree I’d hidden behind to watch him, and moved towards him. I suddenly needed to be with him. The same urge that had burned me from the start was there again, and I didn’t care about any of it.

I was just about to step into the clearing, when a pack of wolves appeared out of nowhere. One passed close by me, and if they’d been looking for vampires they would have seen me right away. But their attention was on Raymond. When the wolf was passed I took a step back and merged with the shadows of the night. From there I watched them.