The Wolf's Call (Two-Natured London) (9 page)

Rafe and Charly left Jamie to
his negotiations with vampires, and Bob to sleep on a rug by the fireplace. Not
even an alpha wolf-shifter fazed Bob for long. They headed to the breakfast
room at the back of the house near the kitchen, a cheery room decorated in
yellow that enjoyed daylight most of the day, that feature still as important
as it had been when the house was built, even with modern electricity. Most of
the space was taken up by a long oaken table that seated twenty, the maximum
number of clan members that could be in residence at one time. In contrast, the
huge dining room in the west wing had room for the entire clan to sit down
together, and then some. Floor to ceiling windows offered a beautiful view over
the park and, opposite them, a long side-table was laden with platters of food.
Since there would be a feast that evening, lunch was served cold, but Rafe was
hungry and food was food.

Lunch
was never formal in the house. There were already three men at the table
enjoying their meal, and the rest would drop in before long. Food was a serious
matter to them and they wouldn’t have paused for more than a nod at Rafe if
they hadn’t noticed Charly by his side. One by one, they ceased eating, put
down their utensils, and straightened their spines in curious bewilderment.
They then remembered that they actually had manners and got up, their chairs
scraping against the wooden floor. All their wolves peeked out too, sniffing
the air with interest.

Rafe
grinned at them. “At ease, boys. This is Charlotte Thornton, the solicitor I
hired for the Betchworth case.” Then he turned to Charly. “These are some of
the unmarried males living in the house. Soldiers, mostly.”

She
lifted her expressive black brows. “Soldiers?”

Rafe
shrugged. “Shifters aren’t exactly universally liked. We’ve had to adopt
practices that keep our cubs safe.”

She
nodded at him in understanding before turning to smile at the blokes. It was a
polite smile, but suddenly he got an overwhelming urge to step between her and
the men so that they couldn’t gawp at her. She was his.

Matt,
the oldest of the men present, noticed his tension. If Rafe’s possessive behaviour
amused him, considering Rafe had never shown such tendencies before, he didn’t
let it show. He just nodded at Charly, keeping his body language neutral and
his wolf deferent so as not to agitate Rafe; his ability to read situations was
one of the reasons he was high up in the clan hierarchy. Rafe was actually glad
that Matt understood him so well, for the new situation he found himself in was
unsettling him and he didn’t need additional provocation.

Matt
seemed to realise too, that Rafe did not intend to introduce the blokes to her.
“How do you do, Miss Thornton. I’m Matthew Collins, but you can call me Matt.
These two are Jonathan and Kenneth.” The two younger men were barely out of
their adolescence with their fifty odd years apiece, although they looked about
twenty. Nate and Ken nodded too, but they weren’t quite as good at hiding their
curiosity as Matt was; they kept studying Charly with eager smiles on their
faces. Human females weren’t invited to a lunch in the manor all that often,
and not once since Jamie’s divorce.

Controlling
his urge to snarl at the men for daring to cast their eyes at his woman, Rafe
guided Charly to the side table to fill their plates before taking seats at the
opposite end of the long table from the others.

Nate
frowned. “She doesn’t smell scared. Why are you sitting over there?”

Ken,
who was obviously faster to pick up on clues, cuffed him at the back of his
head. “Twat.” Then he flashed Charly a smile. “Please, ignore my friend,” he
drawled. “He was raised by wolves.”

Charly
burst out laughing and, delighted with his success, Ken spent the rest of the
meal trying to amuse her with silly anecdotes about shifter life. She responded
with ease, teasing the men in return, making Rafe both delighted and
aggravated. He liked that she wasn’t scared or appalled by his people, but he
didn’t want her to smile at anyone but him. Recognising the dangerously
possessive thought pattern, he didn’t intervene like he wanted to.
Consequently, he didn’t enjoy the meal as much as usual.

A
timely arrival by Kieran saved him from doing anything stupid, like throwing
Charly over his shoulder and carrying her to his bedroom and locking her there
– with him in there too, of course. Kieran was a few years younger than him and
looked about thirty, like most adult shifters. Tall and lithe, his physique was
ideal for the stealth needed for tracking, even if his auburn hair tended to be
noticeable no matter how well he hid himself.

“Lost
the bastard,” he said upon seeing Rafe at the table. If he found Charly’s
presence curious, he didn’t react in any way. “He got into a car. But I’m
planning to go around the village tomorrow to try and recognise the scent
there.”

Rafe
paused in his eating. “Good work. Any news about the wolves from yesterday?”

Kieran
nodded, heading to gather a heaping plate of food. “The building security got
the footage from the CCTV cameras at the car park. They didn’t recognise their
faces and neither did the local clan leaders, but they got the licence number
for the car – rental.”

What a
surprise. “Will they be able to find out who hired the car?”

“I
should think so, but not until Monday.”

Since
the strange wolves had dared to frighten Charly, Rafe wouldn’t have wanted to
wait even that long. But they would get the bastards eventually, and in the
meantime he would keep her safe. However, with humans getting their guns out,
it would be a challenge, unless he took up his earlier notion and locked her
up. The thought held some potential. Then he smiled to himself as he imagined
how well it would go down with Charly.

To
prove to himself that he was not overprotective or possessive of a human woman
he had no intention of keeping, Rafe didn’t say anything when Matt suggested he
show Charly around the house after lunch. He stayed to have a chat with Jamie
who had arrived in the breakfast room too. But when Nate and Ken showed signs
of joining their tour, he put an end to it, sending the insolent whelps outside
to help assemble tables for the banquet in the park.

Jamie
waited until the room was empty before speaking. “So, she’s the one then?” A
smile quirked his mouth.

Rafe
growled, aggravated. “I don’t want her to be.”

His
outburst genuinely baffled Jamie. “Why not? She’s amazing. Beautiful,
intelligent, and strong. She’d make a wonderful spouse for you.”

Of all
people, Rafe would have thought Jamie understood him. “She’s human.”

“So?
Your wolf doesn’t seem to care.”

It
most definitely didn’t. It hadn’t put out the call yet, but only because Rafe
had managed to prevent it. “She’ll die.”

Jamie
gave him an admonishing look. “We all die eventually. You can’t stop living
because of that.” Then he relented a little and leaned towards Rafe to
emphasise his words. “And you cannot base your decisions on my life either.
Yes, my wolf chose a human who wouldn’t stay, but that doesn’t mean it was a
wrong choice. If I hadn’t married her, I wouldn’t have Harry now. You two can
have children too, and they’ll be there for you after she’s gone.”

Rafe
hadn’t come to think of that. He wanted children, and suddenly he knew with
clarity that he wanted them with Charly. His heart started beating faster for
the mere thought. Perhaps having a human spouse wouldn’t be such a disaster
after all.

“But
what if she doesn’t like living with wolves?”

Jamie
shrugged. “Who says you have to live here? She’s a city girl and might be
happier living in London, so you could live there just as well. But she seemed
to be getting along with our boys just fine.”

His
fears put in perspective by Jamie, Rafe’s heart eased. He stopped struggling with
his wolf and they were finally of one mind. They would make Charly theirs.
“I’ll talk to her after the feast. It’ll give her a chance to experience that
side of shifter life first.”

Jamie
nodded. “You do that. And may I say, brother, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks. But she’s a stubborn woman. She might not want me
after all.” The thought felt like a knife through his heart now that he had
made up his mind. If he couldn’t have her, his life wouldn’t be worth living.

Charlotte found her tour with
Matt both informative and interesting. The house was beautiful and he had
anecdotes to share about every room; it made the place seem more alive, and
shed light on shifter life too. Most of his stories were about Raphael and gave
her a charming picture of the boy he had been, mischievous and a bit wilful,
but above all, strong.

Matt
began yet another anecdote, and she paused in her study of old portraits
depicting clan members from past centuries. “This here window was once broken
when Rafe and Jamie got into a wrestling match. Rafe had just learned to shift
and he was full of himself, like a future alpha should be. Jamie’s a century
older, but he wasn’t above teaching the cub a lesson. He won, of course, when
Rafe crashed through the window. He would have fallen if Jamie hadn’t been fast
enough to grab his arm.”

It was
a three story drop to the ground from the east wing gallery and Charly’s heart
went cold at the thought of what might have happened if Rafe had fallen. “Did
Rafe learn to best his brother?”

Matt
grinned. “Nah. He just learned to curb his temper.”

As the
brothers seemed very close, Charly concluded that both of them had matured
since those days. “So Jamie is over two hundred years old?” She wondered how
old Matt was then. He looked about forty, but there was a hint of grey in his
dark brown hair at the temples. “Is he married?”

Her
question made Matt look serious and he considered his words carefully, giving
her a notion that he was about to divulge something important. “He got married
about thirty years ago, but it didn’t work out. She was human, you see, and she
didn’t like to be married to the entire clan with its leader. She left, leaving
their cub with him. Jamie took it badly.”

Matt’s
hazel eyes regarded her steadily and she understood what he meant. He knew that
she was drawn to Rafe and wanted to warn her about it. And she understood
better why Rafe wouldn’t want a human spouse after an example like that. “Rafe
told me he won’t date humans,” she assured him, although her heart seemed to
break at the thought. But he shook his head.

“It’s
not that simple for us,” he said, using the same words Rafe had when he’d tried
to explain it. “His wolf has chosen you, and no matter how much he wants to
resist, he won’t be able to. He’ll have to have you.”

That
wasn’t what Rafe had told her. Charly didn’t know which was worse, that he
didn’t want her because of what she was or that he was forced to want her
despite knowing it would hurt him in the end. “What about love?”

Matt
put his hand on her shoulder. “Shifter unions are about more than love. It’s a
deep understanding of belonging to each other. Love is a human emotion.”

“But I
am human.” And she needed that emotion to be reciprocated. “So you’re saying I
shouldn’t expect anything from him?”

“No,
the opposite,” he said, to her surprise. “You should understand that once he
stakes his claim on you, he won’t let you go. You’ll be his for as long as you
live and he’ll expect you to answer with similar devotion. If you cannot do
that, just walk away now. But if you have your love to offer, give it to him
fully.”

He had
given her a lot to think about. “He hasn’t actually said he wants me other than
in his bed.”

That
made Matt laugh. “If you were a shifter, you would know that he intends to keep
you.”

Charly
had always taken pride in her strength, but she wondered now if she was strong
enough to love a man who didn’t love her back and would keep her anyway. More
importantly, would she be strong enough to walk away?

Unlike shifters, most vampires
didn’t live in clans or other formally organised groups, but in smaller family
units like humans. There had been a time when those families included many
generations of its long-living members – a six-hundred-year-old great-great
grandfather happily cohabiting with those barely into their
fulfilment
and looking the same age too – but, as with humans, a separation of generations
had happened at some point. Vampires had integrated more and more into human
society, living in cities instead of isolated manors that were easier to
defend. Humans weren’t that great a threat to them anymore.

Crimson
Circle was an exception to that trend. If not entirely secret, at least among
the two-natured people, it was secretive and chose to keep itself apart from
both human and two-natured societies. It couldn’t isolate itself completely –
for example, most of its wealth was generated by one of the top firms listed in
the London Stock Exchange – but it didn’t exactly advertise its existence or
its involvement in the outside world either.

Crimson
Circle consisted mostly of unmarried male warriors, some of whom had belonged
to it for centuries. However, it didn’t exist to defend the two-natureds
against bigoted humans anymore. Not because there weren’t any, but because they
couldn’t deal with humans the way they used to, by killing them. Instead, they
concentrated on defending vampires against their mortal enemy, renegades.
Renegade vampires were such a mighty adversary that the Circle hadn’t eased its
defensive stance against the outside world one iota.

It
therefore spoke volumes about the good relations Jamie had with Lord Foley that
only an hour later they were waiting in Jamie’s car outside the gates of the
Circle Manor, or what the vampires wanted the world to believe were the gates.
Their real location was hidden with powerful magic.

“They
are able to meet us during the day?”

Raphael
turned to Charly, who was sitting with him in the backseat, happy to tell her
anything about the two-natureds she wanted to know. “Circle warriors are extremely
strong in Might, no one more so than Foley. But even the weakest vampires are
strong enough to face the sun by the time they turn two hundred at the latest.”

“So
they don’t burn to crisp?”

She
was only half serious with the question so he laughed. “No, they don’t burn.
But they are dependent on Might; it activates them somehow, and because
sunlight affects their connection with it, it forces the weak-ones into slumber
during the day. That’s why most vampires are secretive about their daytime
location even after they have won the sun.” All two-natureds were
safety-oriented by necessity.

A car
appeared before them as if out of thin air, driving through the magical barrier
surrounding the manor, and Gabriel Hamilton, Foley’s First Son, exited it. He
was a huge man, at least two inches taller than Jamie and Rafe, and he had a
steely physique he didn’t bother covering with a jacket despite the cool day.
The short sleeves of his t-shirt revealed bulging biceps, and circling his
right bicep was a dark red tattoo of a thorn wreath, the emblem of the Crimson
Circle. Like all vampires, he seemed ageless, somewhere between twenty-five and
forty, depending on his mood. Rafe knew, however, that Gabe was born around the
same time as Rafe’s father in the early sixteenth century, which made him about
five hundred years old.

Charly
inhaled sharply when she saw him, and when Rafe turned to look at her, she was
staring at the bloodsucker in awe. Gabriel was a handsome bloke, something Rafe
hadn’t really paid attention to before. He had the classical, chiselled
features of Greek statues, with long black hair tied at the nape of his neck.
The look on his face was arrogant and cold, but women probably found that
enticing.

Rafe
growled, the sound startling everyone in the car, but he didn’t care. That
bastard had better keep his distance from Rafe’s woman.

Jamie
just smiled. “If you think Gabe is beautiful, wait till you see Alexander,” he
said. Then he exited the car to greet Gabriel. Rafe and Charly got out too and
Rafe stayed near her, his stance both possessive and protective. Now that he
had made up his mind, he wasn’t about to shy from claiming his woman before
other males.

It
didn’t go unnoticed, but Gabe only sneered. “I have to check you for weapons,”
he said, deliberately provoking him. The jerk knew wolves had no use for knives
or firearms. He just wanted to paw his female. No fucking way.

His
possessiveness getting rapidly out of control, Rafe growled again and stepped
towards Gabe. “You will not touch her.”

Gabe
wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, and so he took a step forward too.
But before either of them had a chance to act on their hostility, Charly put
herself between the two of them. “For goodness sake, Rafe, he’s just doing his
job.”

Rafe’s
anger rose as he saw his female standing too close to the vampire. “You want
his hands all over you, don’t you?” he growled with menace, never taking his
eyes off his enemy.

Charly
wasn’t intimidated by his anger at all. She walked to him, so close that her
wonderful body almost pressed against his, and lifted a hand to rest on his
cheek. Her cool touch was distracting, but not so much that he abandoned his
watchful stance. She wouldn’t give up. Her dark eyes sought his gaze and she
held it steadily until his rage subsided, exactly as a true wolf’s mate would
do.

Agitated
by the strength of his emotions, both possessiveness and rage, he pulled her
into his arms and buried his face into her neck, breathing in her wonderful
scent until he was calm again. He released her only reluctantly and shot a
fierce look at Gabe. “Be quick about it then.”

Jamie
took a good hold of Rafe while the vampire patted Charly’s body from shoulders
to ankles with quick efficiency. Rafe didn’t fight Jamie, but he growled the
whole time, unable to keep the sound in. The moment Gabe was done with Charly,
Rafe pulled her back to him again, needing to banish the vampire’s scent from
her. As he had known, Gabe didn’t bother searching him or Jamie, having scanned
them all with magic already, Charly included.

They
filed into Gabe’s black Audi and Gabe told them to hide their wolves. Then he
handed them blindfolds and told them to put them on too. Rafe and Jamie obeyed,
having done this numerous times before, but Charly stared at her blindfold,
bemused. “Why do we need this? I can see the gate right there.”

“Are
you sure it’s there?” Gabe asked, amused, baffling Charly even more. Rafe took
her blindfold and helped her put it on.

“It’s
magic,” he explained. She had a lot to learn about the world of Might, but he
was willing to teach her. “Magic is second nature to vampires, and the Circle
warriors are very good at it.”

It was
a ten-minute drive to the front door of the huge Elizabethan manor the warriors
called their home. They took their blindfolds off and entered the manor past a
warrior on guard duty, a vampire easily as scary-looking as Gabriel, but far
less handsome. That didn’t mean Rafe wasn’t prepared to beat the shit out of
him if he so much as glanced at Charly, but luckily for them all, the bloke kept
his eyes to himself. Rolling his tense shoulders, Rafe tried to calm down.
Foley wasn’t someone you went to this agitated.

Charly
seemed impressed by the formal foyer, a grand example of baroque pomp with dark
ornamental hardwood panelling and gilded leather tapestries, but Gabriel didn’t
give her time to admire the decor. He led them to a parlour on the ground floor
where Foley normally received his guests, the only room in the manor Rafe had
been to apart from a banquet hall where he had attended a few dinners. The
parlour was done in an entirely different style, with light colours and dainty
Regency furniture that looked too flimsy to sit on. In deference to their
host’s nature, yellow satin curtains were drawn before the windows, although
Rafe knew the vampire warlord didn’t need to hide from the sun.

Foley
met them mid-floor. He was almost as tall as Gabriel, but built more leanly,
although not with less strength. Rafe didn’t know his exact age, but he seemed
to be in his mid-thirties. However, since he was Gabe’s father, and there was
no age limit to vampire fertility, he could be centuries old. He was dressed in
expensive, low-riding blue jeans, and a white shirt with its top buttons left
open and its sleeves rolled up, which made him look youthful and harmless. The
image of harmlessness was enhanced by a heavy cane he was leaning against
because of some age-old injury he hadn’t bothered to heal properly. But no one
paralleled him in Might and only a fool would underestimate him.

Moreover,
Jamie had been right. The bastard was so handsome he was almost beautiful. He
had the same refined features and dark colours as Gabe, but his hair had a
short and fashionable cut. Even a scar that ran down the left side of his face
from eyebrow to ear didn’t diminish his manly beauty. It just twisted his
features a little, making him look a bit cruel.

That
was until he smiled. “James and Raphael, welcome.” He spoke with his natural,
low and cultured voice, but Rafe knew he was capable of infusing it with magic
too and
charming
humans with mere words.

Then
he turned to look at Charly and Rafe wanted to growl again, no matter how
unwise it would be to challenge someone of Foley’s calibre. The only thing that
kept the sound in was Charly’s hand wrapping around his arm, squeezing it
tightly. Foley smiled at her warmly and executed a gallant bow that spoke of
his upbringing in much older times. Even his modern clothing didn’t make the
gesture seem out of place.

“Miss
Thornton, a pleasure.”