AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
Misti Wolventon stared at the man before her. Jed Wright. The last werewolf she ever wished to see, well, second only to her father.
“Who the hell is this clown?” Jed demanded, gesturing rudely toward Anders Kraus, the man she would almost rather be her fiancé, even if he was, or rather had been a member of the rival Shadowed Star wolf pack.
A low growl rumbled from Anders. The last thing he needed was to get into a fight, right after being wounded from the ten wolves her father had sent to kill them both.
She touched his shoulder. “Relax,” she murmured to him so softly Jed wouldn’t be able to overhear her. Misti cleared her throat. “What are you doing here?”
His gaze shifted from Anders to hers, and his eyes widened. “What happened…” His nostrils flared out. “That smell,” he muttered.
He was smelling the dead bodies of those ten werewolves. If he discovered what they had done… It was bad enough he had found them together, in a most compromising fashion, both herself and Anders naked save for some strips of clothes used as bandages for their wounds…
“Listen,” Anders said harshly, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care, but Misti is too polite to tell you this herself, but you need to back the hell off.”
“Who the hell are you?” Jed stalked toward them, looking every bit the part of the angry predator ready to devour his prey.
“He is…” Misti’s mind went blank. What exactly was Anders to her? His father had sent him to kill her, but Anders had bedded her first and hadn’t been able to. Since his pack and hers—the Red Nightwalkers—were embroiled in a long-standing feud and were on the brink of war, he had felt so guilty over their tryst, he had gone to her pack to see about turning himself in, hoping to find a quick death considering his father would most likely have tortured him to death for his failure. The guard he spoke with attacked him, and her father’s second in command, Gerald, had tried to break up the fighting and ended up being nicked by the guard’s poisoned weapon. Anders had tried to help Gerald, whereas rumors had spread that he had kidnapped the second instead. Misti had hunted him down, had been ready to rip his throat out, when Gerald told her the truth, only to die a few minutes later.
So much death had entered her life since meeting Anders. So had a lot of emotions she hadn’t the time to sort through and figure out.
Jed was still slowly advancing toward them.
“Jed, you shouldn’t be here,” she said desperately. When she had been young, their fathers had settled that the two of them would be wed. Misti had never truly thought of Jed as hers. Honestly, she never wanted him like she did Anders. With Anders, it was all heat and passion and fire and lust. With Jed, it was… well, nothing.
Her fiancé circled around them. Anders tried to match his stride, and she placed her hand on his back, both efforts to hide his marking, but from Jed’s sharp inhale, she knew they had failed.
“A Shadowed Star? Really, Misti? You would disgrace and dishonor your pack for one of them?” His teeth lengthened, changing into fangs.
“Hold on, Jed,” she said, her mind racing. “You don’t understand. I—”
“You deserve death.” He snarled, his words almost unrecognizable through his fangs. “Death,” he repeated softly. He sniffed again and barreled past them. A howl pierced the dying night as he discovered their carnage. “You killed… You slew your own people.”
“It was kill or be killed,” she said desperately. This was so not going to end well.
“I know you and your father did not always get along, but you expect me to believe he would have you killed and not brought to him?”
She swallowed hard. Jed had been sent away for the past year or so, the details of why her father had never disclosed to her. Of course he wouldn’t know about everything that had happened, her falling out with the pack, her betrayal.
“He has no love for me, as you well know, Jed.”
“This is not the time for words,” Anders whispered to her.
She feared that to be the case, but she would not kill another werewolf unless she had to.
“If you think my father would ever have allowed me to take over the Red Nightwalkers, you are mistaken.” How clear she could see it now. Her father’s threats over the years had not been threats at all but promises. All along, he had intended for Xavier, her cousin, to be heir in her stead. Blood does not mean enough to Father. Love means even less.
“You would have been ruler, and I would have stood by your side. I can forgive a great many number of things…” Jed finally turned away from the carnage to stare at her. His yellow eyes—his wolf eyes—shone at her, glittering like wicked jewels, hard and unyielding. “Come with me back to your father. Whatever has caused your madness, we can find a way to drive it out of you—”
“Beat it out of me, more like,” she blurted out.
“No one will harm her, and that includes you.” Anders slid to stand in front of her, shielding her from Jed. While she did not need him to protect her—and he probably couldn’t in his wounded state—she still appreciated the gesture.
Jed stared from Misti to Anders to Misti again. “I will not forget what I have seen here.” He growled his promise.
“Jed.” She darted around Anders and clutched her fiancé’s arm. “I know this all looks bad, but if you would just let me explain—”
“As if he’d let me live long enough to hear.” He yanked his arm free, harshly enough that she tumbled to the ground, and he ran off, taking with him Misti’s hopes that she, and Anders, might ever one day know peace.
