The Revelation
Authors: Mj Riley
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #New Adult & College, #Paranormal, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Werewolves & Shifters, #Coming of Age
THE REVELATION
Dark Side of The Moon
: Book Two
M J R I L E Y
Copyright © 2014
Published by: Rascal Hearts
All Rights Reserved
. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
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Book Cover By: Rosy E. Fisher
She was cooking by moonlight.
Doing everything in the dark had always been second nature to her, and it turned out that cooking held a certain measure of relaxation when she did it beneath the glow of the full moon. Certainly, it was easier to measure her ingredients, but there was also the added allure of knowing that she was being watched over.
Though Luther wasn't in the house at present, Yuna knew that he was near. She could feel it through their bond.
As she slid a trussed chicken into the oven to bake, she turned to let the pale glow emanating from the night sky bathe her face in its low light. As much as she had once loved moonless nights, she now loved those when the moon was bright even more.
While she was washing her hands of chicken refuse and seasoning, the low sound of the kitchen door swinging open incited her to glance over her shoulder.
The sight that met her was not for the faint of heart. Two large, monstrous creatures stood on the threshold of her house, all fangs, fur, and gleaming yellow eyes. One was much bigger than the other, auburn hair matted with dew from grass and leaves, while its companion had a scar that bisected its left eye - and growled lowly at the sight of her.
“Liam.” Yuna could never get used to the way his transformation contorted her mate's words, even when she knew it was Luther. “It's Yuna. Calm yourself.”
The smaller being merely clenched and unclenched massive clawed hands before snorting dismissively. Turning, it dropped onto all fours to bound back into the moonlight.
Before her eyes, the larger creature left behind shrank slowly; Legs shortened and straightened, a barrel chest thinned and shrank; jowls receded into a face that gradually became hairless, save for a dark, thick crop atop its head. Within moments, Luther was standing before her. As they were in the peak of the ripening, his eyes still glowed a feral yellow, and he couldn't quite rid himself of the dangerously sharp claws that tipped his fingers, but he was much more human than most of his kind could attempt close to midnight.
“I smell chicken.” His low growl engulfed her in shiver of awareness as the mark on her shoulder throbbed with his nearness. Luther had said he'd always know when he wanted him; he hadn't mentioned that the indication went both ways.
Turning from him to hide her breathlessness, she opened the fridge. “Well, I just put it in the oven. It won't be ready for quite a while.” After some rooting, she retrieved the milk and butter. “Though I dare say you've already eaten.”
The young woman had made the mistake once, and only once, of asking what Luther and his family did during the ripening when they were in their canine forms. When he'd revealed that they hunted, she'd been interested in learning about the process. After a rather gut-churning explanation of how they sniffed out and cornered deer, she hadn't inquired about it again.
When she shifted to return to the counter, Yuna jumped slightly at the discovery that Luther was right behind her, scant inches away from her startled form. “I'm not hungry for food.”
As his words resonated through her, the husky, masculine scent of his canine form- his Alpha form- washed over her. When Viola had first warned her that it would be hard to resist, she'd simply laughed. Now, she knew better. “Then... what do you want?”
Despite the almost irresistible urge to throw herself into his arms, Yuna had not completely lost all her charms. Her teasing comment made Luther growl as he backed her against the counter, yellow eyes piercing, raw, and filled with desirous heat. “I want my mate; whining, whimpering and writhing underneath me. I want to feel her clench around her as she takes my seed. I want it now.”
The dark-haired woman's legs turned to rubber, and it was all she could do to remain standing as his words stoked a torturous fire in her abdomen. As much as she adored the proper, polite and gentile man she'd known growing up, Luther's animal side brought out her inner submissive. Blindly, she set the milk and butter on the counter as the moon-ripened man before her ran his tongue salaciously over the line of her throat to graze his teeth over the mark on her shoulder.
Sensation lanced through her and she gasped, her hands going to clench in the material of his shirt to keep herself from crumpling to the floor. She had no idea what magic preserved Luther's clan's clothes when they transformed, but it didn't keep them dry. The cotton material was just as damp as his fur had been. “Here?” She found herself almost panting the words; she was quite like a dog in heat and the irony wasn't lost on her.
“Not here.” Luther murmured against his neck, before nodding his head towards the open window. “Out there.”
Yuna flushed slightly. “But, what about Liam?”
“If Liam has any idea what's good for him, he'll be long from here by now.” The thought that Luther had somehow warned his brother that he was about to ravish his mate nearby made the young woman's stomach twist slightly in embarrassment. She supposed that Luther was Alpha now, and his word was law. Still, that didn't mean that she wanted his brother spreading scandalous rumors about their sexual exploits.
Before she could utter any further words of protest, her mate scooped her into his arms and took off out the doorway, bounding on two legs through the front yard and into the forest beyond. Even in his human form, the Ripening lent Luther amazing speed and agility. While he was far beyond average even when the moon wasn't full, now he could carry her like she weighed nothing, all the while running silently and quickly through the woods.
It didn't take them long to reach a familiar clearing. It was one they'd visited together numerous times throughout their childhood, and also a place that Luther had frequently brought her during Ripenings in the past few months. He had barely set her down on the mossy bank of the creek there before his claws were tangled in her clothing, ripping it apart.
Yuna had lost more clothing recently than she cared to admit. She could hardly mind, however. Not when it meant Luther's hands and mouth running deliciously over her bare skin. After he stripped his shirt roughly off over his head, his tongue tangled with hers and she moaned indulgently as she ran her fingers over the ridges and valleys of his well-formed chest.
As he licked and bit at her neck hungrily, Yuna found the fastenings of his pants and undid them quickly, jerking the denim material down over his hips and to his knees. With a low, primal snarl, the man bit at her stomach, her ribs, and finally took the tip of her breast between his canines to worry with his tongue until she was whimpering lowly. One of Luther's hands moved possessively over the curve of her hip to her waist, and then slowly over the slight swell of her pregnant stomach. Yuna was only three months along, and had barely begun to show; but even the smallest indication of the life growing in her was enough to draw a low sound of pride from his throat.
Yuna's cheeks flushed in pleasure as he kissed her thoroughly, his free hand trekking down to test the slickness between her thighs. As always, she was copiously wet for him; so much so that when he turned her on her side and pulled her back against his chest, sliding home within her, there wasn't a hint of resistance.
“Yuna...” He groaned against her ear, as he worked his hips powerfully against hers. “My Yuna.”
Moaning loudly, the young woman clung to him, pressing her behind back into his every thrust. “Yes, Luther. All yours.”
The sounds of their lovemaking colored the air of the clearing as the scent wafted over them. In the past few months, Yuna had learned that there were few things more arousing to a moon-ripened male then the scent of a female's sex. Admittedly, she found the aroma pretty intoxicating as well.
It wasn't long before Luther pulled him flush against her, biting down on the mark that bound them to one another as he thrust deeply inside her, painting her inner walls with his seed. Yuna never could resist the white-hot, overwhelming pleasure in pain that the gesture brought. Almost instantaneously, her orgasm washed over her powerfully so she was left shuddering in its wake as Luther held her.
When she came back to herself, it was to the sight of her mate propped up on a single arm above her, gazing down at her with the expression of the temporarily sated and much indulged. His clawed hand cupped a still sensitive breast, making her inhale sharply. “You're getting bigger here.” His fingers slid leisurely down the center of her abdomen to rest just above her womb. “And here.”
Yuna gave him a lazy, contented smile. “That is what happens during pregnancy, hon.”
Without a word, the man lowered his head to rest his ear below his hand, on the swell of her stomach. Closing his eyes, he made a soft, rumbling nose deep in his throat that vibrated through her until she swore her entire body was humming. Only when Luther was done did he again reveal his glowing, yellow gaze. His lips curved into a slight smile. “I can hear our pup's heartbeat.”
Yuna's eyes widened in surprise as she sat up abruptly. Her own hands quickly found the spot where Luther's head had so recently lain as she caressed it contemplatively. As she did, all the excitement, the anticipation, and the terror of what it could mean to mother Luther's child washed over her.
The past months had been something of a blur.
It seemed like only yesterday that she had been fighting for her life in front of a council of Elders bound and determined to protect their race- even if it meant stepping over her dead body in the process. Ultimately, it had been Yuna's willingness to sacrifice herself for them that had made them see her in a different light. Well, that and the discovery that she'd already been pregnant with Luther's child.
A child that would be moon-ripened.
Dame Strauss had promised them that.
Upon the discovery that she was, indeed, carrying the Douglas progeny, the Elders had unanimously decided against killing her. The entire process happened while Yuna had still been somewhat dimly absorbing the fact that she was pregnant. It was true, she hadn't been able to remember the last time she'd taken her birth control pill, but the news had shocked her perhaps most of all.
The child would, of course, be birthed in the land of origin. This, the Elders had afforded her little choice on. All expectant mothers were brought to Scotland to whelp. It helped to be closer to the ancient magic from which their kind had sprung. Scotland was also the safest place for her to have the baby; at least, it would be if she were a wolf herself. As Yuna was a human, she'd have to be locked away during the ripening. Not every party there, she'd been warned, would have nearly as much control as Luther and some of his clan.
Though the Elders had someone grudgingly accepted that she was not to have a very large part in the future of their kind, Dame Strauss had been singular in the way in which she'd spoken to Yuna about her future child. Citing the young woman's outpouring on change and the future of their clan, she'd said something about wanting to see where having Yuna among them would lead.
The gesture was somewhat reassuring.
It wasn't, however, the Elders threatening to watch her every move and bring her to reign if there were any signs of instability that had her the most apprehensive. Nor was it the idea of being among a plethora of beings who knew nothing of her and probably wouldn't be the most accepting of her. No, what had Yuna the most nervous was the prospect of the actual birthing.
The baby came early- and during the ripening. When her time came, the child was in its animal form. It was... ripping its way out of her. She barely made it through the labor, and after, she was never the same.
Marilyn Douglas's words haunted her almost daily. As much as the prospect of holding Luther's child in her arms appealed to her, as much as she longed to feel the baby's heartbeat against her breast, doubt still ate at her. What if she wasn't as strong as Luther thought she was? What if she didn't survive the birthing? Worse yet, what if she did and she was... changed by it?
The thought was terrifying.
Protectively, Yuna cupped her hand over her stomach, praying that she could prove to the Douglas clan that she was different; that she was worthy to help extend their line.
