Midnight Whispers - Paranormal Romance (3 page)

Kyra smiled.
“I think I will go pay them a visit. It will be nice to see them again.”

Tying her
bonnet beneath her chin, she stepped outside into the warm, sunlit air.
Crossing the field, she allowed the sweet smell of grass and flowers to relax
her. She’d intended to make her way to Jake’s, but found herself instead
heading away from the Whitaker farm and toward the forest instead. She wasn’t
certain what she would find there, or whether or not it was wise to ignore her
aunt’s warnings, but something about it always seemed to call to her, and today
it was stronger than ever. Surely she was meant to go in there, to discover whatever
secrets lurked beneath the branches?

It didn’t
take her long to reach the forest, and she stopped for a minute just outside
the reach of its shadow to study it. The trees stood tall and sturdy, strong
and yet somehow peaceful at the same time, and other than the twitter of birds
she could detect no wildlife. Was this really where the howls were coming from?

Taking a deep
breath, she stepped beneath the treetops and followed a path that appeared to
be well traveled. Having seldom walked in a forest before, she was surprised at
just how much darker it was— more light actually weaved in between the
tree trunks than it did down from above the branches. The ground was thickly
dappled with shadows, but her eyes adjusted quickly. She could hear animals
rustling in the underbrush as they scampered away from her, and caught a
glimpse of red as a cardinal shot past.

As she headed
deeper and deeper into the forest, she noticed that the tree trunks grew bigger
and more craggy—ancient, she thought. It seemed fitting that the closer
one got to the heart of the forest, the older the trees would be. What was
strange was the fact that even though she was getting closer to the center, the
wildlife was growing more and more sparse. She would have thought it would be opposite.

The trees
began to thin out, and suddenly Kyra found herself standing in front of a pale stonewall.
It rose high, easily seven feet tall, and she frowned, wondering how it was she
didn’t notice it until she was standing right before it. Generally with
something so tall, one would see it from a distance, but this thing seemed to
crop up out of thin air.

“How
strange,” she murmured, running a palm against the stone, which was warm to the
touch. Something tickled her awareness, and she looked to the left to see an
opening in the stonewall she hadn’t noticed before. Walking up, she realized
this was the entrance to a maze.

“
Well,
I’ve come this far
,” she thought, after a quick look around. “
I might as
well continue on.”

She wandered
through the maze for a long while, and soon became hopelessly lost. Since she
was without a single notion as to how to get back, she pressed forward
doggedly, refusing to acknowledge the fact that the sunlight was waning at an
alarming rate. For some reason, in her heart she believed that if she could
just find the source of the howling before the sun set, she would not be
harmed. She didn’t know why she believed it, but the conviction was strong
enough to propel her onward until she was flat out running, clutching the skirt
of her muslin dress on one hand and the bonnet that had slipped off her head
with the other.

When the exit
to the maze finally came in sight, she could have cried—her relief was
that great. Without a thought as to what might lay on the other end, she
stumbled out of the maze, and smack into a rock hard wall.

“Ahh!” she
cried, clutching her forehead. As she looked up, she quickly revised her
assessment—it wasn’t a wall she had slammed into, but into a very hard,
very muscular chest. Her eyes traveled up, and up to rest on a handsome and
very familiar face—the very same one she’d been seeing in her dreams.

“Hello,” the
man said softly, his yellow eyes gleaming. “And where have you come from?”

She opened
her mouth to respond, but she had trouble concentrating over the roaring in her
ears and the sudden dizziness that overcame her. That’s it—she was
hallucinating. There was no way this could be real. Her eyes rolled back into
her head, and she slumped forward into a dead faint.

****

Bryce leaned
back in his chair as he watched the woman sleep. Long, flaxen hair spilled out
against the pillow, no longer confined by that silly bonnet she’d been wearing
when she’d fainted—he’d tossed it on a nearby table. Her lashes fanned
against her creamy cheekbones, her blush-colored lips were parted slightly, and
her chest rose and fell steadily as typical for one in a restful sleep.

She’d already
been unconscious when he’d caught her in his arms, and had provided little
trouble to him when he’d taken her back to his cabin. Her body was slight and
did not weigh much, but her size and strength were not what concerned him. It
was the fact that she’d managed to find them at all. It had been a very long
time since a human had last stumbled upon their location—and she had been
a woman, too.

When she’d
first seen him, he’d watched her eyes widen in shock and horror, but also
recognition, and that puzzled him, nagging at his memory. He was certain they’d
never met before—he would have remembered her not just for her beauty,
but her scent. Even now it wrapped around him, infusing the air with its
combination of honeysuckle and spice—sweetness with a bite. He usually
found that personalities often ran closely with scents, and knew that she would
be a handful when she woke.

More than
a handful, I’d say,
his conscience murmured, and he growled a little as his
thoughts took a lustful turn. The simple muslin dress was high waisted,
designed to show off her curves to perfection—and this woman was not
lacking in the least.
More than a handful, indeed.

Shaking his
head, he tried to focus, but it was hard—for some reason clear headedness
had eluded him the moment she’d stepped into his line of vision.
No—before
that
. He’d scented her at least five minutes before she’d appeared, when
he’d been standing in front of the gates. It had been his turn to take watch,
and though they usually did it in pairs, his partner had wandered off.  So
when the woman had appeared, he’d been the only one to see her.

It wouldn’t
take long before the others were alerted to her presence, and they wouldn’t be
happy to see an intruder in their midst. He needed to wake her, and ask her
questions first, because he had a good idea of why she was here, and though it
didn’t make him happy, it also meant that he would have to protect her at all
costs should his suspicions prove true.

No sooner had
he completed the thought did she start to stir. A smile curved his lips as he
watched her eyes flutter. Good, good. Now they could begin.

****

When she
awoke, it was to find herself lying face up on a soft bed. For some reason her
arms were stretched out behind her, and she quickly discovered why when she
tried to move them—they were tied to the bedpost.

“I was
wondering how long you would be out for,” a masculine voice said, and she jerked
her head to see the man sitting in a wooden chair, leaning on the back two legs
as he casually munched on an apple. His eyes gazed lazily at her, and she
blinked, noticing that they were a bright green. Had she imagined them to be
yellow when she’d first seen him? Perhaps she’d projected it onto him from her
dream?

“Any longer
and I would have had to wake you myself.”

Kyra
struggled to get free of her bonds, and only succeeded in rubbing the skin of
her wrists raw. “Who are you?” she snapped, trying not to let the fear show in
her voice. “Let me go!”

The man
leaned forward, and the front legs of the chair came down onto the wooden floor
with a sharp snap. “Why would I do that, when you only just got here?

I have so
many questions I want to ask you.”

“Like what?”
Kyra snarled.

He rose up to
his full height, and Kyra swallowed as he towered above her briefly before
perching his body on the edge of the bed, right by her hip. It occurred to her
that she was completely at his mercy, and there was nothing she could do to
stop him from doing anything he liked. And as his yellow eyes gleamed, the
exact same look in them that had been there in her dream, she knew that he
didn’t intend to leave her untouched. And for some reason, that didn’t frighten
her nearly as much as it should have.

“Like how you
managed to stumble upon our secret enclave. Like why you looked upon me with
fear and recognition when I first saw you. Like why you smell so…intoxicating.”
He leaned forward and dipped his nose into the hollow of her neck before Kyra
could stop him, then inhaled deeply. Gooseflesh cropped up onto her forearms
and the back of her neck, and she couldn’t stop the shiver from wracking her
body.

“Please move
away from me,” she whispered.

“Why on earth
would I want to do that?” Each word he murmured pressed his lips against her
collarbone, inducing yet more shivers. Her body grew hot and cold at the same
time, confusing her terribly.

“It is…
uncomfortable, to have you so close.” She was embarrassed at her body’s
reaction, and didn’t understand it in the least. This man had kidnapped her,
proving that despite her utter lack of knowledge of him, he was dangerous. The
only feeling she should be struggling with was fear and contempt.

His eyes
gleamed with laughter as he drew back and then stood, once again imposing his
height upon her. “I can tell.”

She glared at
him, and then struggled to marshal her thoughts—perhaps if she could
convince him she meant no harm, he would release her. “I was walking in the
woods, taking some time to myself. I stumbled upon a maze, and thought it would
be fun to see if I could navigate it. Now I’m wishing I hadn’t.”

Bryce folded
his arms and watched as she shot daggers at him with her eyes. Her dark eyes
sparked with fury, and her creamy skin was flushed with passion. He wondered
what it might be like to invoke a different kind of passion in her—one
that involved using his lips and his hands, rather than words. He tried to tell
himself that getting so close to her, so intimate was a way to throw her off balance
so that she would have a harder time marshaling her defenses, but he knew it
wasn’t really true. She beckoned him like flower did a bee—and he knew
she would be much sweeter than any blossom.

However, now
wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. He needed to focus on what she was
saying. His nose told him that she wasn’t lying, but he knew she wasn’t telling
him everything, either. “That doesn’t explain why you looked at me as if you
know me.”

The woman
sucked in her breath and averted her eyes. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking
about.”

Laughing, he
sat down again. “Of course you do. The pulse in your throat just accelerated,
and your pupils’ dilated. It’s pointless to lie to me, woman.”

“Kyra,” she
spat, wishing she could get out of these restraints. Being forced onto her back
made her feel incredibly vulnerable—even sitting he still towered over
her this way, and put her at a very physical disadvantage. “My name is Kyra.”

“Kyra.” He
said her name softly as he traced a path down her cheek, and her stomach
quivered. Angry with both herself for reacting this way and with him for
touching her, she jerked her head sharply and bit down on his finger.

“Hey!” His
eyes flashed yellow, and fear trembled through her—she hadn’t imagined
it. He snatched his hand back and the expression on his face was so livid she
worried that he might strike her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she turned her face
away and mentally and physically braced herself for the blow.

She was
surprised when he only let out a gusty sigh. “Don’t be daft, woman. I’m not
going to hit you. I likely would have done the same thing in your place. And
honestly I should have expected it from the way you smell.” He laughed a
little.

Frowning, she
opened her eyes to see him watching her with a half-amused, half-irritated
expression. “What on earth does that mean?”

His yellow
eyes gleamed with that hunger again. “I can’t get your scent out of my head.”

She stared at
him. “Let me go, you beast.”

He laughed
again, but this time the sound had an edge to it that raised the hairs on the
back of her neck. “Beast?  You don’t know how right you are.  Why do
you think we live in such secrecy? If we had the choice, we would live in the
open fields just like your people. But shifters have never been welcome amongst
humans.”

“Shifters?”
Kyra asked, and then screamed. One moment he was there, the next gone, and in
his place was a very large wolf. Eyes wide, she tried to scramble away, but the
restraints held her firm against the bed, and she cursed. She was not going to
die. She was not going to die!

The wolf
inched his muzzle forward and she froze, then shrieked as he licked her bare
feet. Oh God, what was going to happen to her? Was he taste testing her? And
where had he come from anyway? Was she hallucinating? Had her grief finally
caught up with her and turned her mad?

The wolf
locked eyes with her then, and Kyra stilled—they were the exact same
yellow as that man’s had been when his eyes had flashed. Something in her
relaxed as it clicked into place, as the part of her mind that stored her
irrational fears quieted and her instincts spoke to her.

“A shifter,
you said?” she murmured, then shook her head disbelievingly as he actually
nodded.

In another
blink of the eye he was a man again, sitting at the foot of her bed. His eyes
gleamed yellow for a moment, and then faded back to green. “You took it much
better than I expected you to.”