Bloodmark (26 page)

Baran’s jeans were dirty with oil and grime. His black T-shirt stretched across his chest with every cautioned breath. The resemblance between him and Grey was unmistakable too. The same thin, muscular structure; dark hair; and badass beauty.

“Well, we knew this day would come, and it has. The Dvergars found our Ashling. It took them far longer than I had imagined, but now we need to decide how we are going to react to their presence, as a family,” Tegan said.

“Tegan’s right. I’m sorry for my making decisions without consulting all of you, as I should have,” Mund said. “If Ashling chooses Grey after all he’s done to destroy her, that is her choice, and I respect it. I am not Father, and so if you want Grey to be a part of this, it is your decision
alone
, Ashling, and your weight to bear.” Mund paced back and forth between us, the frustration clearly visible in his tense posture. “Grey,” he said, “I need you to understand something.”

Grey nodded.

“As much as I can clearly see you love Ash, you have to understand that without her, we are all lost. Whoever claims her at her eighteenth birthday will rule over us. This isn’t just about the two of you and your wayward love story. It’s about an entire lost civilization reclaiming our right to survive.” Mund placed his hand on Nia’s head, lightly caressing her curly hair, and she cooed in her sleep. “There is a lot at stake, and I need you to fully understand if you stay in this room now, you are not only bound to Ashling, you are bound to all of us, and all of our fates reside together, with her.”

Grey knelt down, once again, in front of my family, bowing his head to them. “I belong to Ashling,” he said. There was no question that what he had spoken was true and from the heart, but no one moved for what seemed an eternity as they waited for Mund to decide. Finally he placed his hand on Grey’s shoulder.

“As you should.”

The air whooshed out of my lungs. I felt relieved that Mund accepted Grey, though I didn’t trust myself with him yet. He stood back up and stood by my side. I lightly grazed my fingertips across his face. He turned to face me with a crooked smile, and his green eyes glowed with love and pride.

“I think we should leave,” Mund said. “We could hide for a time with our allies, the Sylla in Africa, while we plan our next move.”

“Maybe we should call the banners of all the Boru packs and protect Ashling at the Rock,” Quinn said.

“We could hide with our father at Castle Raglan,” Tegan said, and Gwyn nodded. “The Kahedin pack would protect us.”

The smell of fear filled the room, suffocating me. I was furious. Adomnan was ruining everything. This wasn’t what I wanted to happen. “What about Grey?” I said.

“His place is here,” Quinn said.

Baran stood quietly watching my family bicker about where we were going next. His silence was eerie. I knew he had an opinion, but he chose not to share it. Every emotion rippled over my skin, but anger was the strongest.

“We leave at nightfall,” Mund said.

“No. We don’t,” I said. “We don’t run. We fight. There is nowhere I can go that they won’t find me. There is nowhere left to hide. Don’t you all see—this is where we make our stand.”

Baran smiled. “I was never one for running.”

“Ash, are you sure?” Mund asked.

I looked at my family, and the strength of their love was enough for me to believe. I finally belonged somewhere. I had a family, friends and home, and that was worth fighting for. Grey smiled at me, that wolfish grin I loved so much.

“We stay and we fight,” I said.

“Then I follow you,” Mund said.

“And I,” said Quinn.

Tegan lightly touched my face. “I can see you.” I knew what she meant. I was finally becoming the woman I was always meant to be. I was meant to lead.

My family began to wander away to other rooms to busy themselves with other things rather than talk, but Grey and I remained in the kitchen. I sat on the counter, studying every feature of Grey’s face. If I died in this fight, I wanted to be able to close my eyes and see his beautiful face with my last breath.

“Ashling, I love you. I want to be with you.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry I betrayed your trust.”

“I know. But I’m not ready.”

“You can’t push me away so easily,” he said with a mischievous grin.

I hopped down off the counter, and I ran upstairs to my room. He didn’t try to follow. I closed my bedroom door, shutting out everything and everyone.

The day had already broken to afternoon. Getting comfortable for the hours ahead, I slipped off my sweater and jeans, revealing my tank top and underwear. I sat down on my bed, and I pulled out Calista’s journal and all my translations to reread once again. I must have missed something.

After five hours of rearranging myself around my room reading, I knew three things for certain: I was in every way the wolf Calista had written of, the prophecy was mine to fulfill, and some wolf had to claim me. It was the last part that concerned me the most. I had no idea what wolf could possibly claim me, now that I had bonded with Grey . . . even though I hadn’t yet forgiven his betrayal. Could a member of my pack claim me? Did it have to be in marriage? A life in a cage would be far worse than death.

A light knock at my door, and Grey slowly stepped inside. “I thought you might be hungry,” he said, holding up a cheeseburger for my inspection.

“Thanks,” I smiled. “Come in.”

He shut the door and walked to my bedside table. Setting down the plate before turning back around to face me, I felt him suddenly alert to the fact that I was half-naked. I quickly wrapped myself in my blanket and sat back in the window seat.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of being away from you anymore,” he said, sitting on my bed facing me. “Plus, your brothers were starting to make me nervous.”

The distance between us seemed like nothing in my small bedroom. I could almost feel his ragged breath on my skin ten feet away. Our hearts sped up in synchronized beats. I hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten. I could make out the shape of his face, but no other details except his bright green eyes that glowed in the shadows, just as my shadow stalker’s eyes did.

I quickly searched the trees for him—the green eyes I’d grown so used to seeing, my dangerous comfort. But they were nowhere to be seen. The first night in weeks that they hadn’t been there. Slowly I turned back to Grey, and I jumped to my feet. My blanket fell to the ground, all modesty forsaken.

“Was it you?” I said, pointing out the window. “All this time, was it you outside my window?”

He crossed the room to me, holding my hands. His everlasting calm was more than I could take. I was confused and upset.

“You can’t just hang out outside a girl’s window. It’s weird.”

“I never left you,” he replied.

“What? Why?” I said.

“At first I was just curious about you . . . and then I couldn’t stand the idea of being away from you. I feared I’d lose you. I feared one night you’d just disappear. I sat outside your window every night, protecting you. It wasn’t until the night you woke up screaming that I knew it was coming; I smelled them on the wind. I wanted to burst through your window to comfort you, but Baran was already there. So I fell back to my position as an outsider in your life.”

He never left. I couldn’t fully comprehend the depth of that statement. Even when I thought he had turned his back on our love, he had still stood watch, protecting me from harm. I wanted to scream. All this time I wasn’t sure if I was good enough for love, and it had been here all along.

Mund and Quinn burst into my room and stopped dead in their tracks, staring at our embrace, but Mund took two more steps into the room.

“I let you stay in this house. I am letting her choose you. But don’t be mistaken, she’s still my baby sister, and I will not hesitate to take your last breath,” Mund said. I suddenly realized my panties and tank top were hardly the apparel I wanted my brothers to catch me in while I was wrapped in Grey’s arms. I scooped up my blanket and covered myself. Quinn’s face was stretched so tightly trying not to laugh.

“Understood,” Grey said.

“Ash, get him some blankets from the hall closet. He can sleep up here, but on the floor,” Mund said as he and Quinn walked back out.

Quinn laughed from the bottom of the stairs. “And the door stays open!” he shouted.

18

Encounter

“I think your brothers really enjoyed that,”
Grey said.

I smiled and crawled into my bed, pulling the blankets up to my waist. “Will you lay by me until I fall asleep?” I asked, daring to look him in the eye. “Sometimes I have bad dreams, and it might be nice to have you here with me, instead of outside my window.”

He winked and disappeared down the stairs. I lay there staring at the ceiling, at nothing, with a knotting feeling in my stomach as my nervousness filled my mind. Moments later, Grey walked back into my room wearing black fleece pants and no shirt. His muscular chest was exposed for my viewing pleasure . . . and it was a pleasure. A shiver coursed through my spine and my pulse raced. He lay down on top of the covers next to me, creating a barrier between our skin, but I could still feel his warmth.

I rolled over, wrapping my arm over his chest, claiming him as my own, and I rested my head on his shoulder. I breathed in his enticing scent, excitement filling every fiber of my body. He lightly brushed my hair out of my face. The gentle caress was sensuous.

His left wrist was tattooed with the blade emblem, his brand. Bloodsucker. An icy chill settled on my heart. It was just another reminder of the dangerous game we played. I held his other arm and carefully unlaced the leather band, revealing his other tattoo. His right wrist carried the same mark as Baran, the mark of the Killian. But it was black; it wasn’t burned in the blood of his fathers. Instead, I was certain, he had been marked by his mother. It was her legacy and the only map she dared leave him.

“Why do you keep this one covered?” I said.

“I don’t know what it is. My dad said my mom tattooed it on me when I was two, right before she died. I don’t know what it means, and he couldn’t tell me either. He said if I didn’t know what it was, I shouldn’t go around showing it off. So I keep it covered.”

But I knew what it was, and I would bet his father wanted it covered because he knew too. I fought with the idea of telling him and decided in the end that truth always prevails.

“It’s the mark of the Killian, your mother’s pack.”

He looked puzzled as he studied his wrist. “How would you know that?”

“It’s the same mark as on Baran’s wrist.” I put my hand on the side of his face. “Grey, it’s time you knew the truth. Baran is your uncle, your mother’s twin brother.”

He pulled away from me as he sat up. He studied the two very different marks. One on each underside of his wrist, each claiming its right to him.

“You are of Killian blood, Grey. You are a member of Baran’s pack.”

“How can that be?”

“I guess your father fell in love with your mother without knowing what she was, and they had you. They each branded one arm with their lineage.”

I watched his face as the emotions raged over him. Everything he had ever known was a lie—it had to crush him. He lightly ran his fingers over his Killian Bloodmark before he lay down again, confusion clearly on his handsome face.

“I miss her,” he said.

“She left you the only way she knew would lead you home.”

He sighed. “So that’s why your brother called me a half-breed.”

“Mund can be a jerk sometimes,” I smiled.

“Why don’t you have a mark? I mean, that I’ve
seen
anyway,” he said, a sexy, mischievous smile consuming his face.

I bit my lip, trying to concentrate on his question. “We are born in our human forms and branded as babies with our packs’ Bloodmarks—the tattoos we have, that you have. But Father didn’t brand me. He was ashamed of me. I was able to shift into a wolf from birth, unlike all other wolves who shift at puberty.”

Grey just stared at me and nodded, despite the shocking information I was delivering. “Go on,” he said.

“My aunt Calista foretold a prophecy that I would unite the packs. Because of this, Father hid me and Mother on the cliffs of southern Ireland, away from the rest of the pack. They even faked my death to keep my existence a secret. Father didn’t want rumors of a red-haired girl with the Boru Bloodmark flying around Ireland. It would have raised suspicion,” I said.

“He fears you because you’re different,” Grey said, kissing my bare shoulder. “It has nothing to do with you.” His words floated through my mind. Was he right? Did Father’s hate and rejection have nothing to do with me?

“Thank you,” I said, letting his truth comfort me.

“So why does Gwyn have a tattoo on her neck and not on her wrist like Tegan and your brothers?”

“Because she’s not married yet.”

“What?”

I sighed, reciting what I had been taught. “Simply because a woman is property of her father’s pack and then her husband’s. So if you look, both Tegan and Gwyn have marks on their necks signifying their Kahedin pack heritage. Then when we marry, we are branded with our mate’s heritage on our wrists. Gwyn and Quinn aren’t married yet, so the ritual hasn’t been performed, but Tegan’s wrists are branded with the Boru Bloodmark.”

His face was twisted in anger. “Women aren’t property. It’s not like buying a car,” he said.

“In our culture, it’s different. We live as the old ways,” I replied. “That’s the problem when no one dies. It’s hard to progress as a culture when you have members who are centuries upon centuries old; they fear change. But it isn’t all bad. Being a member of a pack is what we are designed for. We live as one, we hunt as one, and we breathe as one. It’s in our blood.”

“So you’re unclaimed then?”

“Until my father brands me with the sacred blood of my fathers, I can’t be branded in marriage. And I belong to no one.”

“Well, I’d never brand you,” he said. It was wonderful hearing him say it, but I knew what it meant if I weren’t branded. It left me vulnerable to other males in our world. And it was still an honor to accept your mate’s pack as your family. It was more than a symbol, it was an idea of belonging.