Werewolf's Way [Chronicles of the Shifter Directive 1] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove) (34 page)

For a few moments, they just lay there, enjoying the quiet and the warm peacefulness of the afterglow. Oddly, the air seemed to glow in all the colors of the rainbow. It might have been that Graham’s brain had been short-circuited by the climax, but somehow, he doubted it. Stranger things had happened, and Caelyn was more than capable of doing that, and more.

Before Graham could inquiry into the oddity of it, Caelyn broke the silence. “You know, Sari thinks you’re handsome,” he whispered in Graham’s ear.

Graham grunted. “I don’t care. There’s only one guy whose appreciation I’m interested in, and I’m looking at him.”

“Is that right?” Caelyn laughed, crawling on top of Graham. He kissed Graham’s nose and brushed a gust of hot air over his ear. “Then how come you were parading naked in front of Sari?”

Graham chuckled and rolled them over, climbing on top of Caelyn once more. “Maybe it wasn’t him my display was meant for.”

Caelyn arched a brow. “Who else would have been the target? I was the only other person there, and I’ve already seen everything you have to show.”

Graham couldn’t help it. He burst into scandalized laughter. “So you’re bored with me. Is that it?”

“Well, you have been a bit lax about tending to my needs.” Caelyn grinned, clearly showing that he wasn’t serious.

“Oh dear.” Graham did his best to look concerned, but probably failed abysmally. “That’s an unforgivable mistake.” Shaking his head, he gave Caelyn a glance full of mock regret and started to pull away. “I’m so ashamed of myself. I don’t even know how I could begin to fix such a serious oversight.”

Caelyn grabbed his arm and stopped him, wrapping a leg around Graham’s leg. “I’m sure you can figure something out.”

Growling, Graham fell upon his mate once again, and he spent the rest of the day proving to Caelyn that he was more than qualified to tend to every need he had. He had remained aware of the things he’d left behind and sacrificed, but in the end, it had been worth it. He had found his way, his true path in life, by Caelyn’s side, and he would never leave it.

* * * *

Sari knelt in front of the monument and brushed his hands over the engraved surface. Closing his eyes, he sought the answers that often came to him whenever he visited The Obelisk of Eternelle. “What am I to do?” he asked his ancestors. “Why am I so restless? What’s going to happen?”

Voices seemed to whisper in his ear, images flashing through his mind’s eye. They made no sense to him now, and likely, they never would, but in those images, Sari felt the powers he had come here looking for.

The obelisk was said to hold the restless spirits of princes Talrasar and Kaelezrin. Sari didn’t know if that was true, and his mother had never given him a straight answer, but regardless, he was always inexorably drawn to this place, like a moth to the flame.

At times, he thought he could understand what the voices said, but more often than not, it seemed like a fool’s errand. How could he, with his limited comprehension, possibly grasp what messages his ancestors might be trying to transmit? If they were even doing so, that was, and Sari wasn’t completely insane.

Today, the obelisk didn’t provide him with a real answer, not that Sari expected it to. Still, when he opened his eyes, he felt a little calmer, more prepared to face whatever happened. And then, he saw it. At the base of the monument sat a toy carved out of wood. How strange. Sari hadn’t seen it there when he’d first arrived. He was pretty sure it belonged to Graham and Caelyn, since Graham had been crafting them for their still unborn child. But what could it be doing here?

Sari reached for the item and took it in his hand. This particular toy was actually a depiction of a howling wolf. There was a button on the animal’s belly, but when Sari pressed it, nothing happened. He guessed Graham mustn’t have finished the mechanism yet. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but there was no mysterious answer in the wooden eyes of the wolf. Even so, Sari found himself pocketing the item. He’d apologize to Caelyn and Graham the next time he came to visit. Maybe he would explain. He didn’t think they would mind anyway.

Nodding to himself, Sari took one last look at the monument and said, “Thank you. I’ll take good care of your gift, and I won’t fail you.”

And as he walked away from the obelisk, Sari thought he distinctly heard the words, “No. You won’t.”

* * * *

“They’re really dead, aren’t they? Those bastards killed them.”

Raleigh clenched his fist around his gun, fighting back helpless tears as he turned toward Caroline. “I’m sorry, Carol. It’s all over the paranormal grapevine. Prince Shtamakarein Tersain murdered Caelyn and Graham.”

Unlike him, Caroline couldn’t suppress her tears. She fell into his arms, sobbing, her tears wetting his shirt. Raleigh just held her, knowing that nothing he could ever say would make her feel better.

In front of him, his adoptive parents stepped out of the shadows, followed by Caroline’s father. His mother was still wearing her cook apron, which clashed horribly with the gun in her hand. “We’ll make them pay, Carol,” she promised. “I promise you that.”

Raleigh closed his eyes and remembered Caelyn’s smiling face, his easy laughter and honest affection. He remembered the way Graham would wrap a possessive arm around Caelyn’s waist and how the werewolf had grown closer to Raleigh’s family as time passed.

The couple had never realized that Raleigh and the others knew the truth about their identities and had their own stakes in the paranormal world. It hadn’t been very hard to figure out, since Caelyn’s rejection of Prince Shtamakarein was common knowledge. The Connors had connections with numerous sources that had kept them informed, without Caelyn and Graham being able to figure it out.

In spite of the fact that there had always been those secrets between them, Raleigh had cared about the two deeply. Their love had been like a flame that encouraged Raleigh to believe that he could find someone, too, one day. And now, it had been extinguished by that monster.

Raleigh didn’t say anything else to his family. In his mind, though, he made a promise of his own, a promise to his dead friends. He wouldn’t let the Dog-Catcher get away with this. Shtamakarein Tersain would regret the day he ever messed with Caelyn Sutharlainn and Graham Powers.

End of Book 1: Werewolf's Way

To be continued in

Book 2: Draechen's Mate

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A native Romanian, Scarlet was born in 1986 and grew up an avid fan of Karl May and Jules Verne, reading fantasy stories and adventure. Later, when she was out of fantasy stories to read, she delved into her mother’s collection of books and, of course, stumbled onto romance.

As a writer though, Scarlet Hyacinth was born one sunny summer day, when a dear friend of hers—the same friend who introduced her to GLBT fiction—proposed they start writing a story of their own. As it turns out, the two friends never did finish that particular story, but Scarlet discovered she had a knack for writing and ended up starting to write individually. And so, between working on her dissertation, studying for exams, and reading yaoi manga, she started writing the Kaldor Saga. Along the way, Scarlet met a lot of wonderful people who supported her, and in the end, she found her story a home and, in the process, fulfilled a beautiful dream.

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