The Revelation (10 page)

             
“....He might be an asshole, but I still have faith in Liam.” Yuna was surprised at the certainty of her answer. “He must have gone to see the Elder for something else.”

             
“That male is dancing on the edge of sanity,” Ivita returned, her expression skeptical. “For him to have mated someone like Viola... there were at least thirty males that would have fought their own clan mates to have her- some of them Alphas.”

             
The revelation wasn't that surprising. Yuna knew that Viola's own clan had practically disowned her when she'd chosen to mate with someone who couldn't give her pups. It was eerie how, even though Ivita didn't know Viola was pregnant, she seemed to sense that the problem stemmed from the rift between her and her mate.

             
“She loves him.” The dark-haired girl replied simply. “Love is crazy, sometimes.”

             
“Which is exactly why the Elders are so reluctant about you,” Ivita teased with a small smile. “Luther broke laws for love.”

             
And he was continuing to, Yuna added silently, with no small amount of guilt. As an Alpha, Luther was supposedly a paragon of his race: a problem solver and a leader. He'd received the Alpha strain despite the fact that he'd mated with a human. His seed had been so strong- and apparently Yuna so genetically unique- that a pup had resulted from a mating that only produced them one time in one hundred million. According to Magnus, Luther should be making a comeback from the transgression; upholding the laws until he quoted them in his sleep and preparing for the birth of the next Alpha.

             
Instead, he was preparing for the arrival of yet another human into their fold.

             
Yuna couldn't even imagine how torn he must be.

             
“I wish my clan's Alpha was more like yours,” Ivita was speaking softly to her, her smile warm. “You're the future Yuna. If anything, your pregnancy is a sign that our kind is meant to mingle more with humans in the future.” She placed a hand gently on the younger woman's distended belly and Yuna's lips curved at her kindness.

             
It was individuals like Ivita that made her feel as if one day she might truly belong among moonkind.

             
“Yuna! There you are.”

             
The girl looked over to see Viola striding quickly toward them. The older woman nodded quickly at Ivita in greeting before speaking quickly. “Liam has just gone to Luther. He seems... disturbed.” Despite the fact that being separated from her mate had left her awash in both anger and loneliness, it was evident how deeply Viola still cared for him. There were times when Yuna had caught her watching Liam, her face contorted with a longing that made the young woman's heart twist.

             
Almost immediately, she was up from the sofa. She swayed slightly, still a bit unsteady beneath the weight of her growing pregnancy, and Viola steadied her automatically. With an apologetic glance at Ivita, she quickly followed her companion from the library and toward her and Luther's set of rooms.

             
Silently, she prayed that he hadn't done something that he would regret.

**

              Luther sensed Liam's presence seconds before he appeared. It was an ability he'd had to develop where his brother was concerned. The man had a habit of flying off the handle.

             
To his surprise, when his brother entered his room in a huff, it wasn't anger that contorted his face, but utter desperation. “Brother.” When he spoke, the scarred man's voice was pained. He barely took a moment to close the door behind himself before collapsing into the nearest chair.

             
The Alpha hadn't spoken to Liam since Viola had come to him with her ardent plea for help. They’d shouted, perhaps, and certainly argued; but no civil words had been exchanged. More poignantly, he hadn't had a proper, meaningful talk with his brother in years. They had always been at odds. Liam was the straight-laced, proper child while Luther was a rule breaker and an explorer. Until recently, his younger sibling had seemed happy with his lot. However, with the introduction of Yuna into their clan, Liam had seemed more and more on edge. From him, Luther had seen fury, disdain, indifference, and stubbornness... but never the despair that that stark on his face now.

             
“Brother, I can't. Humans are too frail. Too delicate. How could she want to keep the child?”

             
Luther wasn't certain if Liam had even been aware that he and Yuna knew of Viola's pregnancy. He seemed, simply, to be releasing pent up thoughts, and the Alpha wasn't about to interrupt him. It was rare that Liam spoke in actual words and not in threats. “I can't be a father, Luther. Not to a human child. I almost killed Yuna... the bloodthirst was reeling in my veins. Sometimes I still feel it; and she's a woman grown! What could I do to an infant?”

             
Luther remained silent. His brother needed to speak. “...Viola wants to be a mother. All that I am mandates that I tell the Elders and they force her to rid herself of the child... but how could I do that to her? She is my soul. She'd never forgive me.” The scarred man groaned tortuously as his dilemma assaulted him. “I'd never forgive myself. I am not as... heartless... as you may think me.”

             
Though Luther had been warring with his brother half his life, there was a place deep within him that retained the notion that there was still a very human side of Liam. He hadn't been witness to it in what seemed like centuries; yet here it was.

             
Above all else, Liam acted the way he did because he believed he was protecting his clan. In a way, his frustrations were Luther's frustrations. Certainly, he and his brother were worlds apart, but it was clear that Liam wanted to be a father just as much as his older sibling did... and why should the prospect be denied to him simply because of what he was?

             
Gods.

             
He had been cursed with the most convoluted clan the world had to offer.

             
“Help me, Luther.” Luther could only gaze, shocked, as Liam dropped to his knees from his chair to kneel before him. “As my Alpha and as my brother, I beg you. I must learn control before Viola births the child.”

             
When his older sibling finally found his words, they were slightly hoarse.

             
“And what of the Elders?”

             
“We'll find some solution. Just help me. I cannot slaughter my own child.”

             
There were men, Luther thought, who would enjoy the sight of someone they'd been at odds with for so long subjugated before them. The vision that Liam presented, desperate and on his knees, gave him no joy. Taking a step forward, he took hold of his brother’s shoulders and urged him back onto his feet. When his cerulean gaze found the younger man's, his expression was determined. “You can practice with Viola. I'm sure she will be happy to hear of your decision.”

             
“Liam.”

             
At that exact moment, both Yuna and his sister-in-law appeared in the doorway. Viola's dark eyes were filled with apprehension; but the moment they found her mate's, and he gave her a look that said more than any apology ever could, she flung herself into his arms.

             
“Oh, thank God.” Yuna hurried to his side. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Luther still found himself suppressing a small smile at the way their pup made her waddle slightly. She was like an adorable, raven-haired duckling. As she came close to him, he pulled her into his arms, adjusting his body slightly for the now quite prominent swell of her abdomen.

             
“I thought I would never see the day.”

             
“Yes, well, older brothers always tend to think the worst of their siblings.” At her teasing accusation, the Alpha shook his head with a small smile. She, of all people, should know that Liam was no ordinary sibling. He was strange, and he was volatile, but he was a Douglas. Douglases always took care of their own.

             
Blood to blood.

             
Part of the reason Viola had chosen to lavish Liam with her attentions, above every other viable male that had sniffed after her, was the hunger with which he'd gazed at her. After their first few hunts together, his intrigue with her beauty and strength had seeped into a deep-seated obsession with her body. The scent of his desire had intoxicated her, and the first time they'd made love had been beneath the full moon on her clan's lands in southern California. He hadn't cared about her scarred back; indeed, he hadn't been concerned with her past demons or her impenetrable exterior. He'd only wanted her.

             
And she had only wanted him.

             
Despite those ten years of arguments, difficulties, and conflict had passed since that day, she wanted him no less.

             
His body was strong- lined with lean, compact muscle crisscrossed with scars from a youth of defending his family name. She caressed every harsh line with her lips, reveling in the way he tensed and groaned beneath her touch. His body was as familiar to her as her own. She knew just where to touch him to illicit grunts and sighs of pleasure.

             
Atop him, completely nude, Viola nipped at the line of his throat, her sharp incisors drawing blood which she quickly licked away as she massaged his shoulders firmly. Beneath her, her mate growled lowly at the gesture, curling his fingers into her waist as he arched his hips against hers. His erection bobbed, heavy and crimson, against her behind, and Viola purred, rubbing against it indulgently. Undulating the length of her body, she slid down until she was poised between her mate's legs before taking his arousal into her mouth.

             
She had always enjoyed the musky, drugging taste of Liam's seed. His hands fisted amongst her crimson-locks almost desperately as she drew upon him, yanking until a sharp pain cleaved through her.

             
It only made her devour him with more fervor. She didn't let him remove her from his erection until she decided she'd had her fill of him. As soon as her head rose, Liam growled, shoving her over and onto the bed. Within seconds, he was mounting her from behind, his hard body pressed flush against her own.

             
Viola moaned almost deliriously as he thrust deeply within her, hands pressing her bodily to the mattress. Liam's hands traversed her scarred back both roughly and lovingly before he took hold of her hips once more to begin an incessant rhythm.

             
Though the man was her mate, and as their laws went, she was to obey him in all matters, Viola had never been the obeying type. With a low growl, she lifted her behind into the air to shove back against him, making him jerk within her in response. Turning her body slightly, he pressed her back to the bed on one hip, lifting a leg over his shoulder so he penetrated far enough to make her gasp, her entire body shuddering.

             
“You are mine, Viola,” he hissed, face contorted in passion. Taking hold of her wrist, he raised it to his mouth to sink his teeth into the mark there, making his woman cry out as delectation swept through her. When Liam withdrew, his mouth was stained with her blood, and the sight thrilled the animal side of her.

             
Grinning fiercely, she rose from the bed in an inhumanly quick motion to pin him once more beneath her. This time, when she sat on him, it was to take his member into her aching, wet haven. “I am yours, Liam.” She breathed, her hips undulating in a motion that drew a tortured groan from him. “And you are mine.”

             
Their bodies slid slickly against one another as they loved one another both violently and passionately. Liam promised her devotion, he promised her sex, and he promised her adoration.

             
In the aftermath, when they laid together, her mate's hand found the tiny swell of her stomach, still easily hidden. “I will protect our child, Viola. We will protect our child.”

             
Gently, Viola stroked over Liam's cheek. Her mate was complicated, and he was infuriating, even at the best of times.

             
But he was hers; and together, they could weather any storm.

**

              “There.”

             
As Micah gazed in disbelief at the spot Tasha indicated on the map, his stomach leapt in excitement. There was a small town- no more than a village, really- Broxburn. Beyond that, Tasha insisted with no small amount of conviction, there was a wood that tapered into brush along a sea cliff. It was a place the locals never ventured. It saw little visitation, and was supposedly a privately owned wildlife reserve.

             
Next to the wood was a grainy image taken a few months earlier. It depicted a black, nondescript van heading up a dirt road toward the wood. “Mid-march. Apparently a party of eleven paid an obscene amount of money to be transported to an undisclosed location.”

             
“But they went into the wood,” Micah murmured contemplatively.

             
“With luggage,” Tasha added pointedly, green eyes gleaming at the prospect of prey. “According to our sources, there's been neither hide nor hair of them since then.”

             
“Where did they come from before they arrived in Broxburn?”

             
“Edinburgh.” Tasha's smile was thin and predatory. “Direct flight from Washington State.”

             
Micah's fists clenched.

             
It had to be them. Their fruitless searching through minor dens with little to show had finally ended.  “It's the mother den, Micah. I can feel it.”

             
The prospect almost had him salivating. It would be the ultimate triumph to be able to take out such a large number of them at once.

             
And among them... among them would be the Douglas bitch.

             
Micah would make her watch as he killed off their clan's progeny, and then he would slit her throat himself.

             
She would pay for what she'd done. The vengeance he'd awaited for a lifetime would finally come to fruition.

             
“We leave tomorrow,” he stated firmly, and Tasha cast him a grin that simultaneously aroused him as it sent shivers down his spine.

             
Soon. Very soon.

**

              Though Luther knew that it was customary for the Elders to watch closely the development of growing pups- even within the womb- he was no less nervous each time Yuna went before Elder Agatha and Dame Strauss. While perhaps the German female viewed his mate in a slightly kinder light than her associate, both women were very clinical in the way they approached Yuna's growing body.

             
In Dame Strauss' chambers, the young woman lay down atop a bed strewn with an array of pillows as Agatha poked and prodded her body. Everything from swelling ankles to an aching back was taken into account. There had, after all, been precious few instances of human's carrying pups; and none that had been monitored by the council of Elders. Though he was sure Yuna had been told enough stories about violent births to scare her witless, Luther knew that the Elders wanted to lose a pup no more than she did. They would do everything in their power to make sure Yuna delivered safely.

             
Luther was there to ensure they gave just as much attention to his mate's condition as they did to their child's.              

             
Once Agatha was done with her physical examination, Dame Strauss then laid her hands over the young woman's swollen belly to ascertain the health of the child within. While, certainly, there was more than one doctor among the ranks of moonkind, the mother den had no equipment. They hardly needed it when their race healed almost five times as fast as any human. Therefore, it was left to the clairvoyant Dame Strauss to ensure that everything was going as it should.

             
Thin, lined hands hovered over Yuna's belly, her heart, and finally on her temples, before the German woman leaned back to fix Luther with a satisfied expression. “Everything seems to be in order.”

             
“She'll whelp within the next few weeks, with a little luck.” Agatha gave the human woman a once over before stepping away to clean her hands in a basin of fresh water. As Yuna struggled to sit up over her mountain of a stomach, Luther rushed to her side to help her. It seemed that every time they came into contact, he could feel the liveliness of their pup, restless inside her.

             
“Thank God for that.” His mate was groaning in a long suffering way. “I swear I'm going to pop any day.”

             
“Let us pray that you don't,” Dame Strauss replied with a small smile, making Yuna blush when she realized the Elder had heard her low complaint. Luther could only chuckle at the exchange. The final months of her pregnancy had made her overly self-conscious. In everything from making love to taking short jaunts down the hall, she became grumpy at the thought of anyone staring at her.

             
Despite her tiny size, Yuna was carrying quite well, or so he'd been led to believe.

             
Thought the small woman was dwarfed by the size of her own belly, she refused to stay in their room and in bed. Daily, she was out seeking Viola, or her companion Ivita, in an effort to learn as much about the upcoming birth as possible. Indeed, with the arrival of their pup so near, Yuna was consumed with ensuring its success.

             
Meanwhile, Luther was still left to ponder whether or not the Hunters had given up. Recently, the destruction of dens in the south lessened to almost nothing. Had their pursuers finally stopped searching for them? He could only hope that months in the Elder's protective custody had convinced them that his clan had simply disappeared. Their leaders certainly seemed to think so. Elders Baccus and Malcolm had even gone so far to brag on the prowess of their skills and the thickness of their walls. A hunter had never breached the mother den, they had affirmed, and never would.

             
Luther hoped they were right.

             
Yuna's time was so near that he found himself unable to sleep at night, assaulted with visions of what might happen if anything went wrong.

             
The effort of maintaining a calm exterior for his parents, preparing for his pup, and hiding Viola's pregnancy from the Elders right beneath their extremely sharp noses was taking its toll. He found himself exhausted after nights lying awake, wondering if all his efforts might be in vain.

             
Several times he'd attempted to speak with his father about what he should expect during the whelping; but while Marilyn might have begun to soften the slightest amount toward Yuna, Magnus insisted only that he could give Luther no concrete information as Yuna wasn't moon-ripened. While most of his clan seemed to be coming around where his mate was concerned, Magnus remained stolidly isolated. Yuna's own patience in the matter should have reassured him, but instead, he found himself only more nervous that her inability to see his father's stubborn nature might one day cause her serious emotional harm.             

             
Being Alpha was taxing.

             
And all the while, numerous occupants of the mother den had the gall to imply that his impregnating of a human made him less of a wolf. Luther could say with certainty that there was no other Alpha present as strong as he was. Every day, he lived knowing that he must be ready at every given moment to protect his mate, their unborn pup, and a clan at odds.

             
What could they possibly know of him?

             
The one thing that did raise his spirits was that Liam seemed to be progressing in his discipline. Where he'd often had to check his brother when it came to confronting Viola in his animal form, in the past months he'd been able to stay still and quiet as the young woman touched him. Viola, while learning slightly slower than her mate, was also doing well.

             
The expectant parents were, of course, as worried as their Alpha that they weren't learning fast enough. Viola had made Yuna swear to her that she would protect their human child if it came to that. If they couldn't control themselves during the baby's first year, she had begged, Yuna must lock herself and the baby away during ripenings.

             
Yuna, being one of Viola's closest companions, hadn't hesitated. Though Luther might have cautioned her against taking on so much responsibility- especially since they hadn't yet decided how to break the news to the Elders- his mate was steadfast. She loved Viola, she had pronounced; and she would protect her child with her life.

             
The memory made him hold Yuna to him tightly.