Rise of the Lycans: Shadows And Secrets

Chapter 2 – Bampot

Maeve

I slipped behind the wheel of my silver Jeep Grand Cherokee and started the engine. Grandad had surprised me with it on my sixteenth birthday. It was used but had low miles and was still in great shape. We lived in the northern part of the pack territory, and the library was near the school on the south side of the territory, which was several miles away.

“I can’t wait to see what your wolf will look like,” Nan smiled.

“You think she’ll be chestnut red like me?” I was short for a she-wolf at five foot and three inches tall. Not only was I short, but I was on the fuller, curvy side.

“I think she’ll be just as beautiful as you are.”

“Great,” I laughed. “I’m going to look like an oversized Corgi.”

I turned onto the main road that wound through a beautiful stretch of trees. The Moon Realm Pack was so big that the Alpha King split the pack into east and west when the monarchy was established, allowing his twin brothers to step into the Alpha positions. We lived in my favorite part of the territory because the forest in the north was beautiful. For as long as I could remember, I’d always felt a pull to nature. The trees, shrubs, wildflowers, rocks, rivers, and waterfalls spoke to my soul.

“Mitza just mind linked me,” Nan said when I stopped at the mansion. “She fixed you something special for lunch today.”

“I hope it’s her yellow rice and chicken!” I squealed and nearly jumped out of the jeep before I could turn the engine off.

Nan laughed, “Maybe I should have just invited her over to cook dinner tonight?”

In my chunky heels and skirt, I raced up the steps to the kitchen's back door as best as I could. Brianna and her father, Jarvis, were the first to greet me with birthday hugs when I stepped into the kitchen. Her father was the house manager at the mansion, and Mitza was his mate.

“I believe I owe you girls a shopping trip soon to celebrate your coming of age,” he grinned. Brianna was a month younger than me, and I couldn’t wait to take our wolves out for a run together.

“Mom made your favorite,” Brianna beamed at me. Her mother was from a pack in Florida before she joined the Moon Realm, and her Cuban cooking was delicious.

“Thank you!”

I knew everyone who worked in the kitchen since I arrived at the Moon Realm. They had become my second family. After a round of birthday wishes and hugs, I left with my special lunch and cookies before I ran into anyone I wanted to avoid.

As my rotten luck would have it, the Double D’s were headed my way. Denise and Dottie were part of the incessant group of females hoping to become the next mate or girlfriend of one of the royals. One might say they had turned it into an art, but I knew catching the attention of one of the royals was more like a sport.

It wasn’t just Rex and his older brother Lukas they were after; it was their cousin Ranger and his brother Phoenix, whose father Zeus was the Alpha of Moon Realm West. It was also Caspian, whose father Poseidon was the Alpha of Moon Realm East. Rex’s cousins Kairo and the triplets also received similar attention. They were born lycans and would probably have packs of their own one day.

“Haven’t seen you at training in a long time, Maeve,” Denise greeted me. “Busy scrubbing the royal toilets?”

When we were younger, I broke Denise’s ugly nose when she insulted me. Now that she had her wolf, and I didn’t, I knew better than to provoke her.

“Is that your breakfast?” Dottie asked, sniffing the air. “No wonder you can’t lose weight.”

Dottie was the biggest bitch of them all, and I wanted to tell her to shut her gob, but she was also the most vicious. I could see the glint in her eyes as she considered my birthday lunch. Any moment now, she would either snatch it away or dump it on the ground.

“I was asked to bring this to Royal Beta Wylder,” I lied. Everyone knew better than to mess with Wylder’s food, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

When I reached my Jeep, I couldn’t help feeling like we were being watched. It was the same way my body always reacted when I saw Rex. I wasn’t sure if it was just my nerves or if he was in the vicinity. Resisting the urge to turn around and look back at the mansion, I got in the car and drove away. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to avoid more than him.

After the incident with Nessie, I hated Rex Crow… until I didn’t.

Rex was five years older than me, and as I entered those raging hormonal teenage years, I realized how handsome he really was. No one was allowed to watch the adult lycans train in wolf form or shift because they were dangerous. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t sit in the kitchen while Nan worked and watch him swim laps in the pool outside as I pretended to read one of my books.

When I was thirteen, I wandered into the kissing cave and discovered Rex kissing Lara. His hand fondled her under her shirt, and I gasped. I remember how Rex pulled away from her and snarled at me for interrupting. He was angry. Panic shot through me, and all I could do was run.

As I lay in bed that night, I couldn’t help wondering what it would have been like if I had been the one pinned against the wall of that cave kissing him. He was beautifully sculpted, and I wanted to run my hands all over him. I spent the next three years watching him from afar, fantasizing about him even as I watched him with other females.

Somewhere in my foolish little heart, I believed that Rex Crow would love me if he only knew me. But the sad truth was, I was a nobody. An orphaned pup from a faraway land who had always struggled to fit in around here. I always knew I’d be an Omega when I finally shifted. Not some badass female warrior Rex always seemed to have hanging on or around him at pack events.

Lycans were believed to have been extinct over a thousand years ago until the Alpha King sired lycan offspring. We had all heard the story of how the Alpha King had descended from the original royal lycans and had managed to reawaken the lycan gene. All three of his pups were lycan. Lukas was the oldest, and he would become the next Alpha King, or rather, the next Lycan King. Rex and Storm were twins, and I had no doubt they would help rule the kingdom.

The other lycans in the pack were turned or born from wolves who had been turned, and they were all related to the royals. Not only did this pack have the most powerful shifters, but many in the royal family also had elemental gifts. It was no wonder why they were the ruling family—the Moon Goddess had truly favored them.

I parked the Jeep just outside the Library and checked the time. With ten minutes to spare until opening, I rushed inside and put my lunch away, thankful I had saved it from Dottie’s wrath. My hand reached for the tender spot on my head that once required twenty-one sutures, complements of Dottie.

When I was sixteen, Dottie found me in the kitchen during one of the pack celebration feasts. She had been jealous, and I had received a blow to the head from a rolling pin.

It was a celebration to honor the Moon Goddess, and everyone happily talked, ate, and laughed. The music thrummed, and people started dancing beneath the stars. I swayed along with the music and filled my cup with stolen wine Brianna had snatched from her parent's table. Alcohol didn’t affect shifters, but I didn’t have my wolf yet, and I definitely didn’t have the metabolism they did, so I enjoyed the slight buzz from it. Before long, several boys asked me to dance, and I said yes.

Nan had finally started allowing me to wear makeup, and I couldn’t wait to hide my freckles. Brianna had helped me curl my hair in large loose ringlets and set flowers in them. Nan had bought me the gorgeous gown we’d seen in the window of a boutique, and even though I wasn’t built like a typical shifter female, I felt beautiful.

Flaym had also asked for a dance, and I remember how he made me laugh until my cheeks hurt. I hoped to catch Rex’s eye, but he seemed to be scowling whenever I looked in his direction. I wasn’t sure if it was the liquid courage I had consumed or if I had read one too many romance novels, but I went to Rex and asked before I could change my mind. I imagined how he would say yes and pull my body against his as he dominated the dance.

“Will you dance with me now?” I smiled up at his raw beauty, meeting his piercing eyes. A hushed quiet settled between us, and my courage faltered.

“I thought the pups were gathered in the game room, playing dress up or something." Dread curled in my belly as I heard a snicker behind me and a female's laughter.

“I’m not a pup—” I started to say as he raised a questioning brow that silenced me.

“What are you? Thirteen now?” He questioned coldly, and I knew people were watching us.

“I’m sixteen,” I replied, fighting the sting in my eyes. Rex was cruel. Anyone with two eyes could see I wasn’t thirteen. In fact, people often thought I was older than I looked.

Suddenly, I felt my skin warming, and my face felt like it was on fire. I took a few steps back slowly as mortification filled me. “Never mind, I’m fair puckled.”

Turning to run, I bumped into someone and heard another burst of laughter. Not daring to make eye contact with anyone else, I ran into the mansion and hid in the kitchen. I reached for the dishes in the sink and started scrubbing them just as the tears fell. I scolded myself while towel-drying the pans.

How could I have been so foolish? And why was I so obsessed with him? He had openly rejected and humiliated me. He called me a pup… a pup playing dress up. Maybe the flowers in my hair had been too much? Would it have killed Rex to dance one dance with me?

“Well, if it isn’t the rejected little pup,” Dottie snickered as she entered the kitchen.

“Well, if it isn’t the pack’s cock hound,” I fired back before I felt an explosion of pain on the back of my head. A rolling pin fell to the ground, and my vision blurred.

When I opened my eyes, I was on the pantry floor, covered in blood. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t. Through the pain, I heard him call my name.

Hope surged in my heart because I was certain Rex had found me and gently carried me in his arms. I could hear the rasp of his voice trying to soothe me as he cradled me close. When I woke up in the pack clinic, Lukas sat beside me with Nan at his side. My eyes fell to his shirt, and I noticed the blood stain on his shoulder. Something inside of me told me it was Rex who had found me, but my eyes told me it was Lukas.

The banging sound on the library's glass door reminded me it was time to open, so I rushed to unlock the doors. Today is Friday, which means the senior women's book club will meet in the back reading room for coffee, pastries, and stimulating conversation. We also held story time in the children's section every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

There was something familiar about books that provided me with comfort. I spent a lot of time in this library growing up. If I wasn’t studying or working on homework, I was escaping to a swashbuckling pirate adventure. Books took me on adventures I’d never be able to go on. They took me to worlds and eras I could only dream about.

I wore beautiful regency gowns in my imagination, and Mr. Darcy wooed me. In my fantasies, I was taken captive by a pirate, Viking, or mob boss who stole my heart and did wicked dirty things to me. Of course, Mr. Darcy, the pirate, the Viking, and the mob boss all resembled a certain lycan with jet-black hair and enchanting blue eyes.

The first hour of library traffic was relatively quiet, allowing me to put away the returns in the drop box. The young parents with pups start to arrive for story time just as the senior book club members begin setting up in the back room. For as large as the pack was, I was surprised it didn’t have very many young pups. I assumed it had something to do with the late matings or so few matings.

“Happy Birthday, Maeve,” Dori greeted me as she entered the library holding fresh flowers. Flaym followed behind her holding a box of what I assumed were pastries.

“Thank you!”

“These are for you, sweet girl. I clipped them from my rose garden this morning.”

“They're beautiful!” I took the roses from her before I hugged her. Dori had always been so kind to me.

“Haggis, today is your birthday?” Flaym asked with a smile and moved closer to me. I noticed the way he sniffed the air and frowned. “I can’t smell your wolf.”

“Hoping she’ll be your mate?” Dori teased him.

“There’s a new moon,” I reminded him, quickly changing the subject. “Most of the book club is already here. They’ll be waiting for you.”

“Oh, I’m not staying. I’m just helping Grandma,” Flaym replied.

“She was talking to me,” Dori laughed and motioned for Flaym to follow.

“Grandma, what are you guys reading?” Flaym asked.

“Fifty Shades,” she quipped.

Flaym groaned, still following her. “You have got to be kidding.”

“What? Would you rather I tell you we’re reading Mein Kampf?”

I shook my head as I laughed and smelled the beautiful fire and ice flowers. Dori had a green thumb, and it showed. When she wasn’t helping in the kitchen, she tended to her vegetable or rose garden. I went to the small break room and found a flower vase. Turning the faucet on, I filled the vase and thought about the frown on Flaym’s face. He had tried to scent me. Was he hoping I was his mate?

When I was young, I always got mad when he called me Haggis. Though I loved eating Haggis, I didn’t want to be called Haggis. It wasn’t long before I realized Flaym had a special love for food, and being called Haggis was a term of endearment coming from him. Because I had moved here so young, I had lost most of my Scottish accent, but being called Haggis reminded me of where I was from.

I stifled a squeal of surprise when I returned to the front desk with my flowers. I blinked for a moment, hoping it was one of the other Crow brothers or cousins. They all looked like carbon copies except for Ranger, who had gray eyes. It was Rex, and his blue eyes were locked on me. I quickly lowered my gaze, refusing to make eye contact. He was so handsome it was intimidating.

“Good morning, Maeve.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat before I found my voice. “Good morning, Sir.”

I felt my face flush instantly and my heart race. Sir? Rex was not only a lycan, but he was an Alpha— a Royal Alpha , and I should have addressed him as Alpha. My gaze remained on his neck, but I could see in my peripheral vision that his full lips pulled up into a smile, and my belly started to flutter.

“My father needs a few books we don’t have at the mansion's private library.” His masculine and deep voice did things to me it shouldn’t.

“Of course,” I replied and moved to the chair. I haven’t been this close to Rex since he yelled at me last year during the Halloween party. I had been so horrified and embarrassed that I had avoided him most of the year.

He handed me a piece of paper and busied himself with his cell phone. His fingers had touched the palm of my hand, and I swear I felt my nipples instantly harden. Moon Goddess, I was such a foolish mess when it came to him.

His eyes remained on his phone, and I wondered if he was texting his girlfriend. I couldn’t help the sizzle of jealousy that rippled through me. Don’t be a Bampot, Maeve.

“I’ll search the database to ensure we have the books in stock,” I sound practically winded and suck in a deep breath to control my breathing.

I reminded myself that he was a lycan and could probably hear my heart racing or sense my emotions. Flaym once said lycans could read minds, but I didn’t know how that worked. Did they need to be close to you? Touch you? Or just look into your eyes?

I took another deep breath and inhaled his masculine scent. Sweet, suffering Goddess, just shoot me now! I wasn’t sure if it was his natural scent or expensive cologne, but whatever it was, it smelled amazing.

Rex rested his arms on the counter and leaned forward. Closer to me. In my personal space. His lip twitched before he spoke.

“You’re wet,” his husky voice whispered, and I instantly squeezed my thighs together.

“Ex-Excuse me?”