Left for Undead (4 page)

When Bear Shadow lowered his gaze to his shiny black
shoes, Crow Shadow looked away and shook his head, shoulders slumping.

“I don’t even love her, man. She’s nice, she’s cool, I
like her, she’s pretty—but I don’t know her well enough to say all that I love
her.   but I have to do the right thing or else that makes me a
hypocrite and a liar. Plus, the kid is gonna have a hard enough time in the
human world, not only being genetically different, but it’ll be part white,
part Native American, and part black. Jen works as a cashier at a donut shop,
understand? If I don’t do my part, then what happens to our kid? Her people
already disowned her for messing with a guy like me—I show up with canines and
they call the dogs and start loading shotguns. Shit. I can’t just leave her and
my kid to all that. Am I making any sense to you, man?”

Bear Shadow released a long, weary sigh as from the
corner of his eye he glimpsed Jennifer entering the wedding salon. He landed a
heavy hand on Crow’s shoulder. “I’m with you, man.   till the bitter
end—no matter how insane this decision is. Honor is always the way of the
wolf.”

Elder Balog Kozlov opened his eyes and sat up slowly
with an angry hiss. As he telepathically perceived Elder Vlad’s impassioned
message from half a world away, Elder Kozlov could feel that the sun had just
gone down over his beloved Carpathian Mountains, shrouding his castle in
darkness.

Unable to comprehend the sheer arrogance of the
affront Elder Vlad described, Elder Kozlov rose from his black marble tomb,
sliding the top off with ease to stand. Wall torches lit in the dank stone
subterranean lair as he passed them while his dark crimson robe billowed behind
him on a supernatural energy current.

“The Unseelie have been an abomination for centuries!”
he exclaimed through lethal fangs. “They play with our food. They taunt our
livestock—our humans! That has always been transgression enough for me to
eliminate them from my territories.” Imagine ranchers allowing wolves to run
amuck to torture and stampede prize stock. What would the wise rancher do to
protect his herd?

Elder Kozlov nodded, receiving the appropriate
response from Elder Vlad. “Yes. He would kill the wolf to restore order. But if
that wolf then got into his children’s bedrooms and killed six of his beloved
offspring.   what would he do to the wolf, then?”

Elder Kozlov closed his eyes and nodded, making a tent
with his long, spidery fingers before his mouth. “Yesssss,” he murmured in a
hiss. “We’ve tolerated them long enough.   but this is unacceptable.
We must find the parties responsible and make a display of butchery so severe
that any remaining offenders that had not been routed out would smell the death
of their kind on the land and fear to ever come near our property again.”

When he opened his eyes, his pupils glowed red within
the totally black orbs that had overtaken his irises. He nodded with
satisfaction and then turned to set his powerful gaze upon the stone gargoyles
around the crypt and watched the stone come alive ready to do his bidding.

“Elder Vlad,” he murmured, going over to a fawning
creature to pet it, “you may avail yourself of the resources from our central
lair. New Orleans is an important holding. Let me know when you need
reinforcements from Europe and it shall be so.”

Dawn broke across the sky at the same time a long,
forlorn howl awakened her. She’d know that voice anywhere. What the hell was
Hunter’s brother, Shogun, doing in the states when he was supposed to be on
holiday in China?

Sasha sat up, slightly panicked and ready to bolt
toward the door when Hunter’s log-heavy arm was slung over her lap.

“It wasn’t a distress howl,” Hunter muttered with his
eyes closed. “Just a casual visit at a very bad time.”

She lifted Hunter’s arm off her lap and then got out
of bed, quickly locating a discarded thermal undershirt, her panties, and her
jeans. “Shogun doesn’t do casual fall-by visits all the way from China.”

Hunter rolled over and groaned. “Can’t a man get a
little peace?”

She chuckled and kissed his forehead. “You got more
than a little piece last night. I’m going to find out what’s wrong. Put your
pants on.”

Not waiting for an answer, she hurried to the bathroom
to splash water on her face and to smear a glob of toothpaste in her mouth. The
next howl was within a hundred yards of their cabin, which meant a shower was
out; she barely had enough time to pee, wash her hands, and spit out the
toothpaste and make it to the porch when she heard Shogun coming up the
walkway.

She refused to acknowledge the butterflies that always
took flight in her belly when Shogun was around. It was that unspoken thing
that had gone down between them long before she knew he was Hunter’s brother.  
long before Shogun or Hunter knew they were half brothers. But try as she may
to put a long taxidermy pin in each butterfly when she opened the door, her
breath silently hitched when she saw Shogun.

Rose pink dawn sunlight framed his golden complexion
against a perfect backdrop. He’d let his hair grow long again and he stopped at
the bottom of the steps staring at her with intense almond-shaped eyes. He
looked good in the ivory sweater and jeans, looked healthy and like life was
treating him well. That’s what she told herself and that kept it safe. It
didn’t matter that there would always be some chemistry between them—that big
“what if” question that they’d never know the answer to. What mattered was that
they both had enough sense and enough love for Hunter to never act upon it.
Still, the huge diamond, turquoise, and amber engagement ring she wore suddenly
felt ostentatious. She hugged herself, hiding the ring after Shogun briefly
appraised it.

“Sister,” Shogun said, addressing her in the familial
title that was his way to ensure mental safety. “I hope this morning finds you
and my brother well?”

The small talk was killing her. That’s when she knew
Shogun was in distress. He’d retreated behind Asian formality and had not given
the more gregarious wolf greeting one afforded dear friends.

“I’m well; so is Hunter,” Sasha said quietly. “But how
are you?”

He smiled and looked off into the distance. “I am.”

She nodded. “I’ll get Hunter.”

For a moment she hesitated at the door, watching
Shogun close his eyes against the sun. Then she felt the cool autumn breeze.
God help her, she was upwind from him and had not showered. The moon was still
waxing full, even though it was dawn.   and Werewolves more than
Shadows felt the lunar pull. Sex scent covered her from head to toe. Sasha bit
her bottom lip and quickly spun to retreat from the porch but ran smack into
Hunter’s stone chest.

“Talk to him,” she whispered. “I don’t know what
happened in China, but he needs you.” Then she slipped behind the door.

Hunter looked after her for a moment but said nothing
as he heard the shower turn on deep within the house. “Brother?”

Shogun turned and gazed at him. “Can we talk.  
while we walk?”

Hunter nodded, not needing an explanation. It was the
unspoken understanding between them; his brother had to get away from Sasha’s
scent. Hunter knew his brother would always have feelings deep enough to swim
in toward his mate, but his brother was a man of honor. More important, Sasha’s
honor was embedded in the very marrow of her bones. Hunter couldn’t think of
any way that she hadn’t shown him how much she loved him, so he allowed the
tension to slowly ebb as he descended the steps to join his brother at his
side.

They walked awhile in companionable silence, each man
caught up in his own thoughts. Women’s intuition proved more accurate than
radar, Hunter noted as he watched Shogun’s body language. He was definitely in
some sort of severe emotional distress, so much so that his normally fluid wolf
pace was jerky and more like that of a human fighting against the underbrush.

As they continued their silent trek a hundred
questions began to catch fire at the edges of Hunter’s mind. How would he react
if his brother made some kind of confession regarding Sasha that he couldn’t
handle? Soon Shogun’s tension became Hunter’s own. Once they found a ridge,
Shogun stopped and motioned to the ground.

“Is this acceptable?”

Hunter nodded and sat down yogi-style, facing his
brother. Shogun sat in one lithe motion, matching Hunter, and then let out a
very weary sigh.

“I don’t know what to do, Brother. You are the only
family I now have, except my cousins, Seung Kwon, Dak-Ho, and Chin-Hwa.”

Pure relief rippled through Hunter; whatever it was,
it wasn’t about Sasha. He let out an exhale and chose his words carefully.
“Whatever the problem is, Brother, I stand with you.”

“This is a delicate matter, one that has so many
layers that I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Start at the beginning. That is always the simplest
way.”

Shogun sighed hard and looked out toward the
multicolored tree line behind them. “I met all of Amy Chen’s family while in
China, and some of her parents’ friends and family here before we left. They
are decent people. Honorable people. They want me to marry their daughter.  
and I have no family for them to meet.”

Hunter frowned. “I don’t understand. You are the
Southeast Asian alpha, leader of the Werewolf federation of clans in that region.  
no less than I am that for the Shadow Wolf clans of North America. There are
hundreds of—”

“The clan elders will not hear of it,” Shogun said
quietly, returning his gaze to Hunter. “In my homeland tradition that goes back
thousands of years in the human culture and is just as deeply entrenched in the
way of the wolf there, I do not have an understanding set of elders or even one
like your beloved grandfather, Silver Hawk.”

“Aw.   man.   But just because the
girl is human they—”

“Cannot cast their blessings on a union where a
mixed-breed heir could jeopardize the House of Kwon-Yin. For centuries my
ancestors ruled that region. A weak heir that is half human is sacrilege to
them. Every son I sired with Amy Chen would constantly be battled in dominance challenges
amongst the wolf packs. It would cause unrest and they are correct. Therefore,
they have asked me to decide—I can either marry a suitable alpha she-werewolf
and be free to do as I like or step down. But should I step down, and since I’d
be dishonoring my family name, I would be shunned. Dead to them.”

“Oh, shit..  ”

“Yes, Brother. The choices are limited. I can almost
hear my dead sister, Lei, along with my twisted dead mother, laughing from
their demon ashes. They both hated mixed breeds and considered such a creation
unholy. I thought if anyone could help me weigh my heart and my options, it
would be you, dear brother. You have lived this hell as a child and as a man.”

Hunter nodded. “But the union that created me was
between my Shadow Wolf mother and our Werewolf father. Both were wolves. That
was challenging enough, and after my mother perished with our father I was
lucky enough to also have my grandfather, a tribe elder, there to stand behind
me—as a full-blooded Shadow.   yet if I had come out half human, I
don’t know if Silver Hawk would have been as understanding. The elderly are set
in their ways.”

Shogun nodded. “Yes, and that is the crux of my
dilemma, but not all of it. They are affronted that Amy is Chinese and I am
Korean, to add salt into the wound. After the loss of so many of our line in
the clan wars, as well as from the demon contagion that affected my parents,
losing me to Amy could put her life in jeopardy. I would not be surprised if
they tried to kill her in order to bring me back to my senses and back to my
leadership position. All the while, I have sent traditional Chinese wedding
gifts to her family in a show of good faith.   dragon and phoenix
bridal cakes, male and female poultry—pheasants, sweetmeats, sugar, wine,
tobacco, chai-li, tea presents.”

Hunter wiped his hands down his face, rendered
speechless for a moment. The problem was too complex, too filled with emotional
drama, and way out of his league in terms of finding a quick solution.

Shogun allowed his head to fall into his hands. “What
am I going to do? Her parents don’t know that I’m not human. Amy knows; she saw
us all in battle when we saved her life and she saw too much through my evil
aunt’s eyes when her body was temporarily possessed by Lady Jung Suk..  
She’s seen the sidhe, she knows of the supernatural world, and once that genie
is out of the bottle one cannot force it back in.”

“Have you spoken to Amy about any of this, Brother?
She has to know—maybe she’ll help your decision.”

“It’s the full moon!” Shogun shouted, and stood in one
move. “I can’t be near her, Brother,” he said, walking in a tight circle.
“She’s made like porcelain.   fragile, her bones like that of a small
bird’—and I’m a goddamned Werewolf!”

“Okay, okay,” Hunter said, standing, trying his best
to calm his overwrought brother. “Then wait until the moon is waning and—”

“Her parents went to the feng shui expert, the
fortune-teller who picks auspicious wedding dates, and he chose a full-moon
date, next month!” Shogun raked his hair, dragging the red silk tie out of his
ponytail. “Chinese wedding ceremonies are very complicated. They install a
bridal bed; your best friends who are lucky—mated with children,
preferably—move it to add good luck and then throw red dates and oranges and
peanuts and pomegranates on it. Children are supposed to fight over the ripe
fruit in the bed to bring fertility energy to it. I am supposed to go to her
parents’ home and collect her in a red silk chair and bring her back to my
home..   There’s so much more that I cannot even explain it all. But
at the ceremony, she and I are to kneel before our parents, our elders, and
serve them tea as a sign of respect. There is a huge dinner. Her good-luck
woman is to attend her in all things until she is given to me. But it will be
on a full moon.   when my people are most prone to violence and will
most likely not just boycott our wedding, but crash it in full transformation.”