Forever Claimed Read online

  Lucinda didn’t answer immediately. Then, “Your father is going to be furious. I don’t know if I’ll be able to restrain him or the pack.”

  “You can. I know you can.” In the pack the alpha female ruled, and her mother was the alpha.

  “I don’t know,” Lucinda said. “What I can tell you is we’ll be there tonight to judge the situation for ourselves.”

  “There’s nothing to judge! I’ve done that already.”

  “You think you have, but persuading the others will take more than that. Where exactly are you?”

  “At a cabin in the country north of the city. I don’t know exactly.” Then she had a thought. “I’m sitting at a computer. Maybe I can find out.”

  “Find out by the time we arrive later. I mean that, Dani. And don’t be surprised if your father calls you back. Is this a landline?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I have the number. I’m sure we can find out where it’s located. Just don’t do another thing until we get there.”

  Dani disconnected. Then she put her head in her hand and prayed she hadn’t just made things worse.

  Chloe’s voice startled her. “I can’t believe you just did that!”

  She turned around to see Chloe looking like an angry goddess in some kind of black drape.

  “Are you nuts? As if Jude and Luc don’t already have their hands full enough, you called in your wolf pack?”

  “They’ll help,” Dani said, because she had to believe it.

  “Help how? They loathe vampires. What in the world do you think is going to change their minds?”

  “Luc saved me.”

  “Right, and that’s going to stop them from ripping his head off how? Especially when they can probably smell him all over you.”

  Dani flushed. Was it that obvious, so obvious a human could pick up on it? “They’ll listen to me.”

  “Right. And I suppose you were going to spring this on everyone when your pack showed up howling at the door for blood?”

  “Chloe…”

  “This is stupid. Stupid! You just made the mess bigger than it already was.” Chloe whirled and stomped down the hall, calling over her shoulder, “And if you think I’m going to let them sleep all day and wake up to this mess without warning, you’re wrong.”

  Moments later, she heard Chloe hammering on doors and shouting at the top of her lungs, “Jude! Luc! Wake up. It’s urgent.”

  Dani had the worst urge to flee as she realized she was about to face two irate vampires. They had told her not to do this, with good reason. But she couldn’t stand the thought of them, and this Creed she had never met, facing all these rogues and possibly newborns alone.

  The sun was up, although none of its light was permitted to invade the cabin, and despite all stories to the contrary, two vampires emerged into the living room looking fully alert and awake. Terry trailed after them, but she looked sleepy.

  “What’s going on, Chloe?” Jude asked.

  “This…this semiwolf just called her pack down here. She thinks they’ll help.”

  Dani winced, but forced herself to keep silent.

  Luc came to her and knelt before her, taking her hands with surprising gentleness. “Why, Dani? We warned you not to.”

  “You need help. The other vampires won’t come, and it’s getting worse and worse. My pack…my pack ought to help. They’re the only help we can get.”

  “If they help,” Jude said harshly.

  Luc was frowning at her, clearly troubled. “Why would you do such a thing without telling us?”

  “Because you kept saying no. And you kept talking about all the newborns and people dying, and what good are my pack if they won’t protect people?”

  “They’ll protect people,” he said tautly. “But they won’t protect us. Pah!” He dropped her hands and rose, striding across the room, his back to her.

  “I’ll talk to them,” Dani pleaded. “I’ll go out and talk to them when they arrive. Just trust me.”

  “When they arrive,” Luc said sternly, “they’ll be maddened by the scent of vampire that clings to you. You’ll be lucky if they don’t attack you.”

  “You don’t know them! They’re not like that.”

  “No?” He faced her, and she didn’t know which upset her more, the look of betrayal on his face or the bleakness of his black eyes. “When they arrive, wake us before you do anything else. Wash yourself well. Then go out to meet them.”

  “And then?”

  “And then when you discover that all they want to do is kill us, leave with them. Leave with them, go back north with them and stay away.”

  With that he vanished down the hall. She heard the door close emphatically behind him.

  She felt a tear roll down her cheek but didn’t bother to dash it away. She’d tried to do something good, but had alienated Luc. And maybe the rest of them, as well.

  She looked from one face to another and read only dismay. Maybe even distrust. Another huge tear followed the first.

  “I’m sure,” said Jude finally, “that you meant well. But we may now have far more trouble than we had to begin with. Do as Luc said. Wash and meet them alone. If they can’t agree to at least a truce, then leave with them. I mean it.”

  Then Dani was alone again. She began to weep, wondering how it was that she had fallen into an abyss between two worlds.

  Inside, she had never felt more empty or alone.

  Chapter 7

  Twilight came at last. She had bathed as Luc had told her and changed her clothes. Nothing, however, could rub the smell of vampire from her jacket.

  No one emerged from the bedrooms, even though she expected them, judging the light conditions by the time.

  And then she heard it. Even through the walls of this bunker, she could hear the howls of her pack. Each wolf’s song was familiar to her, tied to a name. Tied to someone she loved. That they had chosen to come in this form rather than their human form told her much.

  This could be a fight she lost.

  She went to stand on the porch to await them, her heart hammering, her knees weak. Behind her she heard someone lock the door.

  Closing her out of their lives. Protecting themselves against her and what she had done.

  She wanted to sag, but forced herself to stiffen, to stand straight, to appear sure.

  The first wolf burst into the clearing from among the trees. Her father, readily recognizable by his black coat and massive size. Lycanthropes became wolves of exactly the same size as the humans they were the rest of the time. Her father was a powerful man, well over six feet tall, and two hundred pounds of pure muscle.

  He stopped at the clearing’s edge and lifted his snout, smelling the night. Then he issued a low, long howl and others followed. Her mother, petite by comparison, yet larger than an ordinary wolf, her coat colors of silver, white and caramel. The colors of her mask looked like a perpetual smile.

  Then her four brothers, nearly as big as their father, in every shade from white to black. She could hear others in the woods, but only the six emerged, the rest waiting to see if they were needed.

  Her father approached her first, sniffing closely about her, so big that when he lifted his head he could look her in the eyes. Twice he snorted, as if displeased.

  Then came the other five, first her mother and then her four brothers. They swirled around her, using their acute sense to read things she could only guess at because she wasn’t really one of them.

  Her mother nudged her until she stepped off the porch and into the snow, away from the cabin. She reached out to touch fur with all the love she felt for them, and ached when they each dodged her touches.

  She knew what they smelled on her.

  Then, in a motion so smooth it almost seemed like melting, her father and mother transformed into humans. It was not, however, a full transformation. Their bodies remained covered with sleek fur since they had brought no clothes.

  “I smell them all over you,” her father s
aid. “Why, daughter? Why?”

  “I told Mom. One of them saved my life. I’ve learned, Dad. Not all vampires are what we thought. Some of them are actually fighting to save humans.”

  “Your mother told me. I’m not sure I believe any bloodsucker could be good.”

  “Jerrod,” her mother said quietly. “I told you what she said. If she’s right, we can’t just take her from here. We might need to help.”

  “Help bloodsuckers?” Jerrod practically thundered the words.

  “Yes,” said Dani, lifting her chin. “At first I thought a war between vampires would be a good thing. And then I saw what the rogues are doing, and what the vampires who protect me are doing differently. I thought of what it would mean to the packs if the rogues win and take over. Father, listen to me. Imagine a world overrun by vampires who are fed by human slaves. What would that mean to the pack?”

  “That’s what they already do!”

  “No,” Dani said firmly. “Believe me. Think about it. If it were already that way, how is it so many humans survive? And when was the last time we were ever attacked by a vampire?”

  “They stay out of our way.”

  “They have no quarrel with us.”

  Her father started to speak again, but her mother touched his arm. “Wait. Think. Dani may have a point.”

  She looked at Dani. “Are any of them brave enough to come out?”

  “They thought you would take me away with you. They weren’t happy I asked for your help. They expected a reaction like Dad’s.”

  At that her mother smiled faintly. “I wonder why. Call one of them out.”

  Dani started to turn back to the house, but just then Luc stepped out through the door and closed it behind him. He stood on the porch, surveying the visible pack members, sniffing the air.

  “Eau de wolf,” he said sardonically. “Everywhere.” Then he stepped off the porch and approached slowly. “I am Luc St. Just. I found your daughter nearly dead in the park and saved her from the vampire who came back to finish her off. I regret this does not match your beliefs about us. I must have been in an off mood that night.”

  Dani sucked a sharp breath, wondering if he meant to be provoking.

  Her father sniffed. “Bloodsucker. Why is your smell all over my daughter?”

  Lucinda looked at her. “Dani!” she said, sounding horrified.

  “The cabin is small,” Luc said with a nonchalant shrug. “I’m sure her odor is all over me. I took nothing from her she didn’t offer. Well, perhaps a teaspoon of blood.”

  In an instant Jerrod became a wolf again and started to spring, but Dani stepped in front of Luc. “If you harm him, you have to harm me first.”

  Jerrod twisted in midflight and landed on all fours. Moments later he was an almost-man again. “What is going on here?”

  “I told Mom and I’m sure she told you. We need your help. Humans need your help. These vampires need your help to prevent the ugliest of their kind from taking over. You said you’d been reading about the murders. Well, we’re getting ready to fight the rogues, but they’re probably busy making more vampires. Think of it, Dad. Is that really the world you want?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Because if that’s the world you want,” Dani said firmly, “then leave now and I’ll stay to fight with these people.”

  “You call vampires people?”

  “Now I do. A handful at least.”

  He shook his head.

  But Lucinda moved forward, looking past Dani at Luc. “You saved my daughter?”

  “It was my honor.”

  “And you killed her attacker?”

  “Quite delightfully. I gutted him and broke his neck.”

  To Dani’s amazement, her mother began to smile. “That would have pleased me.”

  “It certainly pleased me.”

  Dani’s brothers were swirling around all of them now, clearly uneasy, but equally uncertain. Her father growled but made no move.

  Lucinda turned to her mate. “Will you take her from the only world where she might fit, Jerrod? You know how unhappy she was with us.”

  Dani started to protest, even though there was a certain truth to her mother’s words. Lucinda silenced her with a look.

  “So what are you saying?” Jerrod asked.

  “I suggest we relax and look into the matter before deciding anything.”

  Jerrod looked at Luc. “How many bloodsuckers are here?”

  “Just myself and one other, plus two other humans. And we expect one more of our kind sometime tonight. So you can identify him and leave him alone, he’ll be arriving with another human female.”

  “His slave?”

  “His wife.”

  Jerrod made a rumbling sound of disbelief, but then fell silent.

  “A truce,” Lucinda said finally. “For tonight. If we decide against you, we’ll leave with our daughter and leave you untouched.”

  “Fair enough,” said Luc. “I’ll tell the others.”

  Lucinda returned her attention to Dani. “I’m not sure you’re being wise, but you have your chance to explain. We’ll be back in a few minutes. We left our clothes in the car.”

  Then she and Jerrod melted back into wolf form and dashed into the woods, their sons following them.

  “Well,” said Luc almost sarcastically. “That went far better than I hoped.”

  Dani dared to look at him. “Do you hate me?”

  “No. But I’m not very pleased. This could have turned bloody.”

  She knew he was right. And it might still turn bloody, but not tonight. Her mother had given her word, and Lucinda’s word was better than gold.

  Twenty minutes later a car pulled up to the cabin and disgorged Lucinda and Jerrod, a handsome couple dressed in heavy wolfskin parkas and boots. Somewhere out there her brothers and cousins still lurked watchfully, but for now there was a truce.

  Only Jerrod hesitated to cross the threshold of the cabin. “This place reeks of bloodsuckers.”

  “Hardly surprising,” Luc said. “And now it reeks of wolf, as well.”

  Dani scowled at him. Being provocative was not the best way to deal with her pack. She noted that both he and Jude stood closest, while Chloe and Terri remained back in the kitchen area. For nearly a minute, no one moved, then Terri swept forward.

  “Coffee?” she said cheerfully. “I can also make something to eat if you’re hungry.”

  Lucinda studied her, then smiled. “Coffee would be nice. We feel the cold more in human form.”

  The room felt as electric as the air before a thunderstorm. While the coffee brewed, a lot of uneasy shifting took place, but at last the humans and the wolves settled at the table with mugs. The vampires hung back, adopting relaxed poses but not getting too close.

  “All right,” Lucinda said. “I know what Dani told me. We’ve read news reports of the murders and were becoming concerned for her, but nothing made us think of vampires.”

  “It was vampires, all right,” Dani said. She looked at Jude. “Can you explain? You do it better than I can.”

  “And I’m at the heart of what’s going on,” he said. He came closer to the table. “When I arrived in the city I set about cleaning it out.” Then, steadily, as if listing bullet points in a presentation, he laid out his philosophy of never harming humans and explained that the view was shared by most vampires, for their own safety if nothing else. “But in cleaning out the city, I evidently made some enemies. Now they’ve come back to inflict a reign of terror and probably to kill me and anyone else who resists them.”

  Luc also came closer. “They want to run the show. They don’t want to resist their native impulses, not even a little bit.”

  “But can they succeed?”

  “Here?” Luc asked. “Certainly. No others will come to our aid yet, and I suspect they are making newborns. Newborns, by the way, are the embodiment of the worst you think of all my kind. If not carefully controlled by their makers, they become berserk kill
ers.”

  Lucinda looked down for a minute, then turned to Dani. “You believe this?”

  “Completely.”

  “And you want our help against these rogues and newborns?”

  Dani bit her lip. “Mom, these three can’t do it alone. Would the packs be safe if vampires rule?”

  “You know we never involve ourselves in the affairs of other kinds.”

  “I know.” She felt her heart sinking.

  Lucinda looked at the two vampires. “We prefer to live in solitude and let others go their own ways.”

  “I prefer that also,” Luc said. “This time, however, order must be restored before chaos consumes us all.”

  “How would you have us help?”

  “I don’t know,” Luc answered. “I wasn’t the one who called for you. Initially I had no desire to get involved in this war. I simply came to warn Jude the rogues were coming after him. Then I saw what they did to Dani. I must admit, madam, that it made me angry. Angry enough that I decided to involve myself in what is surely not my problem. I could have left it to others.”

  It was almost a challenge, and Dani tensed as she waited to see how her mother would react. But if ever she had doubted Luc had been a marquis, she could believe it then. There was a certain arrogant surety to what he was saying. She just hoped it didn’t drive her family away.

  Lucinda spoke quietly. “You turned your back on a problem once. You thought it didn’t involve you.”

  Luc’s face tightened. “Yes. I did.”

  She nodded. “It haunts you.”

  “In more ways than you can imagine.”

  Lucinda finished her coffee and rose from the table. “I’ll call my pack together. I’ll tell them we’re going to help you. Part of that will require that you allow the entire pack to smell you so they don’t mistake you for the others.”

  “And then what will you do, madam?”

  “Hunt vampires.”

  She nodded to everyone in the room and headed for the door, Jerrod beside her. “Dani. I wish a private word.”

  Dani followed her parents outside, feeling very small, very young and unsure of herself. But lack of confidence was nothing new to her. She’d felt it for years and had only just started to shake it after her move to the city and living among humans. Just having her family back around her, though, was enough to remind her of all her inadequacies. She thrust her hand inside the neck of her parka to grasp her wolf’s head necklace, a reminder that her mother loved her despite her decision to leave the pack.