A single bulb hung over the table, leaving the tiny kitchen barely illuminated. Lucian regarded me closely while I ate, watching every move I made. More than once he followed my fork to my mouth and let it linger. It caused my insides to grow uncomfortably hot. Outside, the rain continued, the wind picked up and slashed at the cottage’s window panes. Every so often a lightening bolt would flash and light up a darkened corner. I don’t know why but I kept thinking I’d see something horrifying. I didn’t. Finally, I’d had enough and I pushed my plate away.
“Thanks,” I said. I looked at Lucian. “Why can’t I remember the past three weeks?”
“You’ve been transitioning,” he replied, lacing his fingers together on the table. “Your DNA is altering at a high rate. Your core temperature rises and it exhausts your body. You mostly slept.”
I nodded, liking the way his r’s rolled, then looked at him. Hard. “Did you kill my partner?”
“No.”
My gaze never left his. I didn’t believe him. “You tried to kill me.”
He leaned forward, his voice dropping low. “You dunna know what was behind you when I leapt at you.”
My blood ran cold; a new memory hit me. “I remember you falling on top of me, and someone else shoved you off.” I thought hard. “I remember angry, amber eyes.”
“’Twas Tristan. My kinsman,” he answered.
My eyes stretched. “There are more of you?” I shook my head, scrubbed my eyes, then met his gaze. “Who are you?”
Lucian sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s just say I was born this way,” he said. “A verra long time ago. ’Tis my MacLeod bloodline, no’ a curse. We have honour. A code. Rules we abide by.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “But there are others. Dangerous rogues. Lawless, with no regard to human life. At first, there were very few.” He looked at me. “But they’ve bred. They’ve bitten. And they’re out o’ control.” His eyes smouldered. “They kill for nothin’ more than reckless pleasure.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry I couldna save your partner. But there were more than one and it was either him, or you.” His gaze pinned me. “I chose you.”
I felt glad, and that made me feel guilty. “What happened to Pax’s body?” I asked. “What about WUP? Didn’t they come looking for us?”
“Aye,” he answered. He rose and walked to the window and peered out. “Another agent came, after I called. He looked about, asked a few questions, and left.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “The others – they took your partner.”
“Took?” I asked incredulously, rose and set my dishes in the sink. I crossed the room and leaned against the wall – a safe distance away from Lucian. “What do you mean?”
Lucian stepped towards me. “They did no’ kill him. He’ll become one of them.”
I stared, and then, strange as it sounds, I laughed. “You’re kidding me, right? We have both become monsters?”
“You’re not a monster,” he said, his voice almost a growl, his brows furrowing into an angry frown. “We come from an ancient noble bloodline of Pict warriors. We’ve vowed to protect humans at all costs – even with our own lives. ’Twas the price our ancestors paid for our lineage.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, closed my eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. I stared hard at Lucian. “You keep saying we. Who’s we?”
“My clansman. There are six of us. You, despite being a mistake, make the seventh.”
Once again, shock froze me. “So that’s it? Like it or not I’m a MacLeod wolf by association?”
He moved so fast my eyes barely kept up. One second Lucian was standing several feet away, in the next less than three inches separated us. He lifted his hand to my shoulder and pressed the pads of his fingers against my wound. “’Tis by much more than association, girl. You’ve got my blood rushing through your veins now and there’s no’ a WUP agent alive who can cast it out of you.”
I could feel my heart race at his touch; my skin heated several degrees and I tried to move past him. He wouldn’t let me. I felt his eyes on me, studying me with such intensity I had no other choice but to look at him.
“What do you want from me?” I asked. I found myself breathless in his close proximity. I felt hysterical tears push behind my eyelids. “What am I supposed to do?”
Lucian’s silvery-blue gaze regarded me for a long time before answering. “For now, you rest. You’re goin’ to need it.” He moved away. “Then, we train.”
For the longest time that night, my eyes remained wide open. Hours maybe. Lucian had left the bothy, but I knew he was close by – maybe just outside the door, probably waiting for me to go to sleep. I got the sense that he knew me way better than I knew him; almost as though he could read my thoughts, knew my fears, and strangely enough, consider them.
I stared at the dark wooden beams of the ceiling and let my thoughts ramble. Had Pax known about the ancient rogue curse, and about Lucian’s clan, would things have turned out differently? Would he be now transitioning into the very thing he hunted? I shivered at the thought of Pax’s fate; I hated it. It was weird, though. Part of me felt like WUP had abandoned us. The other part, though, knew they’d done exactly what they had to do. Pax and I had both been well aware of the risks involved in being a WUP agent and part of that risk was maintaining the agency. I suppose I’d never considered being bitten by a wolf.
“Do you have family?”
I hadn’t even heard Lucian enter the bothy, but he had; he now stood just in the recesses of the shadows of the room. I’d not noticed the storm that had begun raging outside; it was there, scratching and clawing the windows of the cottage. “No,” I answered, sitting up. “Not really.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice strangely seductive, raspy, deep.
I strained to see him. “Foster kid. You know, in the system? A ward of the state. I was shuffled around from one foster home to another until I was eighteen. Then, I was on my own.”
Lucian was quiet for some time before answering. “It’s better if you’ve no family, no one to miss you,” he said, and moved closer. I could see nothing more of him than an outline; yet I felt his gaze hard on me. “No previous life ties.”
“What’s it like?” I asked out of nowhere, intensely curious about what my body was going through.
Again, Lucian was quiet. “As your body changes, your senses will heighten. Your hearing mostly and sense of smell. You’ll gain mortal strength – which you’ll have to learn control over – as well as your wolf self.”
I considered that; it was hard to take in. A myriad of random thoughts hit me at once. “Where am I supposed to live?” I asked. “How the hell will I earn money? Support myself?” Those along with a million other thoughts crowded my brain. “This is insane,” I muttered under my breath. “Not happening.” I rose and walked to the single window facing the moors; a red hue illuminated the night sky.
Then, Lucian was there, behind me, not touching but so close I could feel the heat radiating off his skin. “Aye, ’tis happening,” he said, his voice low, and his breath brushed the side of my neck and made me shiver. “You will say goodbye to your old life, Ms Slater, mourn its loss, and get over it.” His hands grasped my shoulders and turned me around. His eyes flashed silver in the filtered light. “This is your life now.”
The way Lucian’s illuminated gaze bore into mine mesmerized me. I know it sounds crazy, but I felt as though I’d known him my whole life. And, as strange as it sounds, even before then. We stood in the shadows of the bothy – I had no idea what time it was – and stared. I’m not sure if he waited for my acceptance, or a reaction, or if we were simply trapped in a powerful moment. I didn’t care. There was a palpable, physical attraction – so strong it felt feral and unlike anything I’d ever experienced. He hadn’t released my shoulders, but his grip loosened and now, it felt intimate and hesitant at once. I wasn’t sure if my new senses had kicked in, or if it was because we stood so close, but I could hear Lucian’s heart beat. It was a strong, steady sound that reverberated inside my head and overpowered every other sound in the room. His hands slid from my shoulders to the column of my throat, then cradled my face. My heart beat quickened.