Book Three Sneak Peek
SETH AND ELAINA
I could not sleep.
Eight nights since I’d been pulled from the basement of the house of terrors and yet I could not find my rest. Instead, I found myself drifting off only to jolt awake with a panic just like now. My heart beat wildly in my chest, adrenaline thrummed through my veins, and I gasped.
Bars. A cage. Footsteps down the stairs.
A sapphire ring.
A pearl brooch.
A diamond pin.
No…an open room, a burning hearth, and a knocking at my door.
“Elaina? Are you ready?”
I swiped my fingertips beneath my eyes and took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m ready.”
The door creaked open and my father stood at the threshold, the silver threaded through his dark hair dancing in the candlelight.
A deep cracking furrow appeared between his brows as he entered, scanning my face and taking a breath to scent the air.
As he was our head Alpha, it was instinct to tilt my head to the side in submission but I found myself going further, curling into a ball as if I could hide.
“It is all right if you are not,” he murmured, placing a wide hand on the back of my head. “Especially after this last full moon.”
I winced and tried to hide my flinch, but there was no hiding the acidity of my scent that came with fear. Immediately, his touch retreated and he even took a step back. And though I could not stop the rapidity of my heart, I shook my head and forced myself to straighten.
“If we were to wait until I was, we would be waiting a long time.”
Another, softer knock echoed. “The carriage is here, love.”
Damien, another one of my Alpha fathers in our pack, held a cloak over one forearm I recognized as mine.
His thick mustache twitched as he caught my eye but his playful expression fell almost at once.
I was surprised to see him here as he usually ran his music shop Cavera lan Aiyah most nights.
But he, too, was outfitted in a similar grandeur as the rest of us, which must have meant the entire pack would be coming.
I stood slowly, smoothing a hand down the high necked emerald silk gown I wore.
Strange to feel such finery against my skin after so long in rags and dirt.
Part of me feared I had not gotten all of the grime off.
But that first night home I’d scrubbed myself until there were bleeding patches on my chest and forearms to go along with the rest of the mess.
“We can wait if you aren’t ready, darling,” Damien breathed as I approached. “It has not even been a week.”
What was the difference between a week and a month? A month and a year? I would be haunted until Deimos allowed me to find my final rest—perhaps even longer. So I pasted on the best approximation of a smile and allowed Damien to throw my cloak over me, bundling me tight.
“We are going to be late,” a voice snapped from the hall and I gritted my teeth.
Nicholas stood with a hand on his hip, eyeing the pocket watch attached to his waistcoat, tapping his toe in the perfect expression of impatience. The lone beta in my family pack eyed me shrewdly as we approached, flicking a lock of sandy blonde hair out of his eye.
“Zachary is already with the coach,” Nicholas said, an approximation of a growl in his voice. “If we do not leave now then we will not arrive on time.”
“Yes, my love,” my father soothed, running a hand up Nicholas’ back to curl his fingers around his neck. “We understand and don’t you see us all with you?”
The beta’s sharp gray eyes flicked to me. “We might be here in body…”
But not in mind. He didn’t need to say the words aloud.
I twisted my fingers together beneath my cloak as we made our way out of the house, my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
For eight days I had barely left my rooms. As we approached the carriage, I could not help but fear there were creatures lurking in the dark, pale hands tipped with claws waiting to snatch me back.
My breath caught in my throat but an arm slid around my shoulders, the scent of mineral and wood swirling in my nose.
I leaned into Damien, allowing him to all but hoist me up the carriage and into a seat.
“Hello my darling,” Zachary crooned, gathering me beneath his arm. His omega scent—sweet and cloying—soothed the fear as he tucked me beneath his chin. “It is brave of you to agree to do this so soon.”
Nicholas huffed across from us but was quieted by the soft growl slipping from my father’s teeth. But I had half a mind to agree with him. It was a dinner, not a battle. Though in our world it could always end up with both.
The almost nine months I’d lived within the basement of Samuel Raynott’s home, paraded out for countless immortals to feed upon, I’d done nothing but imagine a moment like this.
To be tucked beneath Zachary’s arm and surrounded by my father and his pack.
To listen to Nicholas’ grumblings and the music Damien played in the mornings on our pianoforte, for the comforting weight of my father’s hand on my shoulder.
My family.
And yet now that I was here, my skin crawled as if bugs lived within my bones.
Tension crackled with every breath and I knew they could scent it.
A Lycan’s sense of smell was more powerful than the strongest vampire and perhaps right in line with a Vyenur—the demons who hunted the monstrous venefica plaguing our streets.
There was no hiding my distress from them.
The wheels bounced over the cobblestones as we departed from the Belovuk pack house but I did not turn to watch its retreat.
That image was already seared into my mind from when I’d been taken, thrown sideways across a horse and raced off into the night.
Acid crept up my throat and I swallowed it back as my lids drooped, but even here in the comfort of my family I could not sleep.
We arrived only minutes later, the Darcay pack estate coming into view on the cliff’s edge overlooking the forest where all Lycans took their monthly runs.
Torches lined the drive as we approached, fanning out to frame the white stone house with its ornate columns.
My heart dropped somewhere near my knees as the carriage slowed and my father rose to exit first, turning back to offer Damien a hand.
Usually it would have been Zachary, as he was the omega of the pack, but tonight Nicholas followed Damien before the omega shifted me to the side.
“Take a breath, my love, then follow when you are ready,” he murmured, passing a hand over the chignon I’d wrestled my hair into.
I nodded, but I followed immediately, placing my trembling hand in my father’s and accepting Damien’s arm. The walk to the house was quiet. As with any Lycan dwelling, it was well known the walls had ears.
The dark wood door swung open as we approached, revealing a woman with silver swirled through her fashionable updo and smiling warmly.
“Bright nights to you,” she said with a soft musicality to her tone, dipping her head in my father’s direction even though she, too, was an Alpha.
“And you, Sophia,” my father answered, lowering his chin a fraction in respect.
She kept her head low for Damien as well, though lifted it at once for the rest of us. Brown eyes danced across my face, the light-brown skin of her eyes crinkling with another smile. “It is a relief to see you alive and safe, Elaina.”
“Thank you, Madame Darcay.” The words were ash on my tongue. I did not feel alive and safe.
Her hand twitched as if she thought to touch me, but my father stepped between us. “Are we the last to arrive?”
“Yes, the rest are gathered in the salon with my pack if you’d like to come this way. We gave our staff the night off, of course.”
Of course. For a night such as this, the less eyes and ears the better. On stone feet, I followed my fathers as we moved from the impressive white marble foyer down a brightly light hall with sconces between lovely landscape paintings of the very forest the house looked over.
“Through here,” Sophia breathed, stepping back and gesturing to the arched door and salon beyond.
“Richard!” a voice boomed and my feet stuttered back a step before Damien encouraged me in.
My father’s laugh was just as loud as the two alphas embraced, slapping each other on the back so fiercely I winced.
Alpha Ivan Darcay pulled away from the embrace his shock of white hair dancing in the candlelight.
His pack was assembled behind him according to rank—over twelve people of various designations and relationships.
“It is an honor to be here,” my father said, at once dipping his head low and exposing his throat to the other man.
But not just any man—to the Lycan who ruled all the packs within Oylen. At once Ivan encouraged Richard to his full height while we dipped into low curtseys and bows behind him in an identical show of submission.
“We are honored to have you,” the alpha replied, gesturing to us to rise. “Bright nights to you all.”
“And to you,” we murmured.
Ivan’s attention slid to me, bright blue eyes flaring with light as they flicked from my face to my cloak, to my twisting hands beneath as if he could see them. No doubt my heartbeat gave me away. A little of the warmth in his eyes faded while he stepped back and opened his arm.
“Alexander, come greet our guests.”
A male I’d seen up close only once before stepped forward, golden skin flushed as if he’d just come from a run and dark hair cropped short in a style that was just now becoming popular. His eyes—the same color as his father’s—were kind as he accepted my father’s forearm.
My father bowed his head over their connected arms. “It is a pleasure, Alpha.”
“Thank you for coming.” His free hand patted my father’s, encouraging him to rise. “And for your counsel these last few weeks, I find I would be lost without you and Nicholas.”
I frowned as Nicholas all but preened beside me. They had not spoken of meeting with the Darcay pack, but then again I had barely left my bed. It was not as if my father would have informed me of pack business while I huddled beneath my sheets.
My father took a step back, extending his arm out. “May I present our daughter, Elaina.”
Damien’s hand pushed lightly on my low back and I just caught myself before I stumbled forward.
But Alexander’s attention was a brand upon my skin, a burning I wished to erase, even if he was only staring at my face.
I blinked and the room was no longer bright and white, but dark wood and cloying with icy scents.
Again, and the Alpha before me was transposed with one of the many immortals who had sunk their flesh into my skin.
I blinked to clear my vision and tried to swallow the lump in my throat.
But I could not seem to make it move as I stopped beside my father, lowering into a curtsy and tilting my head to the side.
“Bright nights to you, Alpha.”
A calloused hand reached out to take mine and my muscles locked into place. I stared at a swirl in the wood of the floors as he encouraged me to my feet.
“And bright nights to you, my Omega.” My stomach roiled while a sheen of sweat broke out across my brow. But I forced a smile, forced myself to look up, to find his face which was kind and not monstrous. Skin not ice cold but warm. “I am relieved that you are with us once again.”
Small mercies from our god that he did not make some allusion to my being safe.
I nodded, murmuring some sort of platitude to the male I would marry and bond.
A marriage which would unite our families and strengthening the packs.
A bond that would bring power to our people and strengthen Alexander’s ascension to Alpha of all who lived within our country.
A shackle placed around my wrists never to come off.
Alexander gently placed my hand across his arm, turning us to the rest of the room. “With us tonight will be some familiar faces, I believe. Friends who wished to see you and who I wished to thank for bringing my betrothed back to us.”
The first I saw was the human witch I’d been with in the cell, the one I’d tried desperately to save as she succumbed to her fever.
Unlike when I’d seen her last, her hair was golden and shining, a few strands falling across her cheekbones from her delicate updo.
There was a soft rose flush to her skin, but it was with an inhuman pearlescent sheen.
Even still, her smile was kind and I found myself taking one step toward her, then another.
“Adrienne…” I breathed. “You…”
She met me halfway, a sob wrenched from her throat. Her grip was just shy of too tight and a male murmured beside us: “Careful, my heart.”
Adrienne’s hold gentled as she drew away, crimson tears gathering in her eyes. “My apologies, Elaina.”
So she had been turned—I wasn’t surprised, not with the extent of her injuries.
The Lycan who’d delivered me to my family had explained the men who saved us were powerful immortals.
I managed a smile, one that did not feel like needles sinking into my cheeks.
There were no words but she didn’t appear to need them as she gently pulled me back into her embrace.
And for once I did not wish to run. This woman knew of the horrors lurking within the dark, even if her skin was now pale white and colder than mine.
“You are well?” I breathed, even as the temperature of her skin had my heartbeat accelerating.
Adrienne pulled back to look me in the eye. “In this moment I am very well, my dear friend.”
I blinked but nodded, squeezing her marble-hard arms. “As am I.”
“This is my mate, Eamon Azad. He and his maker, Seth, are who took us from…” Her voice died and she cleared her throat. “They brought us home.”
The male at her side was as beautiful as she was with his waving dark hair and golden-brown skin.
I had no memory of him from that night, but he looked kind and I had the strangest sense of safety when I looked at him, so perhaps my subconscious remembered.
But it was the one behind him I could not seem to part my gaze from.
Unlike those around us who wore their hair either cropped or tied back, this male allowed his waterfall of shiny dark hair to slide freely down his shoulders and over the simple black doublet and trousers he wore.
Deep set eyes found mine, gold swirling in their irises as Adrienne’s blue ones had swirled.
But it was not his unearthly beauty that caught me within its web. Not the set of his full mouth, nor the scent of him like cinnamon and pine, it was the look in his eye that told me he saw my sleepless nights and terror.
It was his heart which beat in time with mine.