THE RIPENING (Dark Side of the Moon Book 1) (11 page)

              Out of nowhere, his mother's visage rose in his mind.

              Her face... her expression when he'd spoken of humans having wolf pups... he'd never seen quite that look before. Far from being affront at the very subject he'd mentioned, it almost suggested knowledge of such things.

              The thought made him frown.

              More secrets, and more lies.

              A week passed, and the tension in the den only increased until the very air one breathed was thick with malice. Between nightly transformations and the daily presence of a human in their midst, every member of the Douglas clan was exhausted. Liam and Luther were tearing one another apart at every given opportunity despite their parents' vain attempts to mediate.

              Viola and Liam had gone through some unseen falling out and were no longer speaking, which only further increased the younger Douglas brother's ire until he was growling at everything that moved.

              Atop an atmosphere crackling with discontent, every member of the den was preparing for the visit of the Elders. The five most influential of their kind were rarely seen outside the land of origin.  While many of the clan present were affronted that Luther, their future Alpha, would be the cause of such drama, there were others who were eager to catch a glimpse of the elusive five.

              Yuna remained isolated in her cell in the lower levels. Though Viola brought her food and water every day, Liam's mate wasn't very good company, especially as she hadn't opened up again since their first and only conversation. In the cool darkness, she had more than her fair share of time to think of what might become of her. Admittedly, going a full seven days without seeing Luther, without being able to talk to him about his clan and their unfathomable rules, without being able to kiss him or touch him... or even tell him goodbye, was killing her. Slowly.

              By the end of the week, she was at the point of hoping that the council would arrive quickly, so that the whole thing could be over and done with. Waiting was always the worst part.

              The young woman thought that it might be late some night on the seventh day- all she had to tell the time with was Viola bringing her meals, and embarrassingly, a vessel in which she did her business- when her door unexpectedly opened. All lights beyond her room had been turned off, so the hallway was pitch black.

              There was a beat in which the doorway gaped wide, and Yuna tensed. If someone from the clan had come for her head early, there was nothing she could do. She barely had clothes, let alone anything with which to defend herself. She slid backwards into the corner of the room, making herself as small a target as possible. Not, she considered, that it would help. Every one of the Douglases had excellent night vision.

              “...Yuna?”

              The dark-haired girl's breath whooshed from her lungs.

              “Luther?”

              “Both of you be quiet. You'll wake everyone.” The young woman jumped as Viola's voice cut through the darkness to join her brother-in-law's. “You have two hours. The Elders will be here tomorrow so if you're not out by dawn, we're all going to be punished.”

              “Thank you, Viola.” Luther's gratitude was as genuine as it was grave, and Yuna nodded her support, knowing the older woman could see it in the darkness.

              “Two hours.”

              The door slid closed quietly, and immediately the air was charged with the presence of the man she loved. She reached for him, blindly, and within seconds his arms enfolded her, and her senses filled with the clean, spicy scent of him.

              God, it seemed like forever.

              “Yuna, I'm so sorry.” His low baritone in her ear was the most welcoming thing she'd ever heard. “This entire mess is my fault. I should have been honest with you from the very beginning.”

              Yuna clung to him tightly, burying her face in his chest as she bit back a stressed deluge of tears. “You know I wouldn't have run from you, Luther.” She managed, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I'd never run from you.”

              “You'd have been in danger all the same,” he replied lowly, a large hand curling into her dirty raven curls. “No less danger than you are now. But at least there would have been no secrets between us.”

              “I think you're forgetting...” the young woman rebutted lowly as she raised her head to look up at him. “My dad had a shotgun.”

              Her attempt at deathbed humor drew a half smile from Luther; even in a marble cell, awaiting what was probably a death sentence from his family, she was still a sucker for that smile. “He did, didn't he?”

              Yuna laughed weakly before laying her head against his chest once more. A sudden flare of heat in her shoulder caught her off guard and she gasped as it spiraled deep into her belly, kindling a slow throbbing in her womb. “What...the hell?” She managed as she pulled away from Luther to grasp at her arm as though she'd been burned.

              When she met Luther's gaze, she was surprised to see an expression that mirrored her own in heat and intensity.

              “It's the mark.” The blue-eyed man explained huskily before he reached out to grasp the edge of her sweater and tug at it until it exposed her right shoulder.

              Yuna's mouth dropped open. She'd admit that she hadn't paid much attention to the wound since Viola had told her it would heal on its own. Secretly, a naive part of her had hoped that if she'd ignored it, perhaps it would disappear altogether.

              Instead, her shoulder had closed into a deep red and purple scar that gleamed in the low light of her cell. The skin was smooth as a newborn's, but she could clearly see pinpricks of color that represented where Luther's individual canines had bitten deep.

              The memory made her shudder a moment before she looked back at him. “The mark is making me hot for you?”

              Her blunt question made Luther's lips quirk slightly in amusement. “You were already hot for me. The bond intensifies the sensation when I'm close to you.” As if to demonstrate, he stroked his fingers over it in the lightest of touches.

              Yuna's thighs clenched as a heady wave of warmth rolled over her, making her slightly lightheaded. “Oh, God.”

              Though exploiting their new-found connection was more than enough, in Yuna's opinion, to keep them busy for two hours, Luther stopped after only minutes, making the young woman eye him in expectation.

              “I want to let you go,” he murmured hoarsely. Yuna's head jerked up to meet his gaze, which was tortured. “To give you a chance. You could run.”

              “Luther,” she cut him off softly as sorrow welled in her breast. “They'd catch me, and they'd punish you.”

              “Yuna, I won't let them kill you.” His whisper was so fierce that for a blind moment, the young woman let herself believe that everything was going to be alright- that he could somehow protect her from centuries of tradition and the unyielding laws of his kind. But one look in his eyes told her that he felt just as desolate as she did.

              The fact of the matter was that they didn't have many options. Yuna had been alone, in the semi-darkness of her cell for a week. She'd had a long time to think, and a long time to contemplate Luther and his amazing, frightening kin.

              There was something unexplainable by man.             

              A phenomenon, hidden from everyday eyes.

              Sure, their ways might be slightly barbaric, and she might think that Luther's brother was a complete asshole, but the fact of the matter was that he was an asshole for a reason.             

              His people were going extinct, and he was acting in the only way he knew how.

              If there had been any way, any at all, that Yuna might have been able to save her parents’ lives, she would have. For years, she'd imagined confronting the hit-and-run driver who'd taken their lives and emptying the chamber of a gun into his head.

              Fortunately for both herself and for him, the man was locked in a maximum security facility somewhere in Texas on a life sentence.              

              But her desires, did they make her any different than Liam, really? Taking something from someone who'd stolen from her?

              “Are you glad you did it?” The inquiry escaped her on a whisper and Luther's eyes narrowed as he gazed down at her.

              “Did what?”

              “Are you glad you marked me...it wasn't a mistake?”

              Almost immediately, the man took her firmly by the shoulders- sending bolts of arousal streaking over her skin- and brought her close, lowering his head until their eyes were locked.

              “You are mine, Yuna. You'll always be mine. There could be no mistake.” The intensity of his gaze took her breath away, and the young woman raised her hands to take his face between them as her heart swelled. 

              “Luther-” he cut her off as his mouth fused to hers.

              The kiss filled her heart with utter and complete love for him. How could she have ever doubted this man? As her tongue slid against his lithely, he groaned, pulling her into his lap a moment before he spoke against her lips.

              “If they won't agree to hear my terms... to spare your life... I won't take the strain.”

              The young woman's eyes snapped open.

              She must not have heard him right. “...What did you just say?” Luther's deep blue eyes flashed yellow for the briefest of moments.

              “Unless they agree to negotiate, I won't become Alpha.”

              “But...” Yuna searched vainly for words as her thoughts whirled. “Viola said there wasn't anyone else. If you don't become Alpha, who's going to head the next generation?”

              “There won't be one,” her lover replied, his voice resigned as he released her to lean back against the cold wall of the cell. “It will end with me.”

              “Luther, you can't. Your kind are dying out. They'll go extinct all the quicker.” Yuna placed a hand gently on his thigh, her gaze soft even as her mind was clouded with confusion. She couldn't imagine what he must be going through, but ending his species couldn't be any kind of reasonable answer.

              “Maybe we're not meant to continue.”

              The auburn-haired man's low statement drew the woman's gaze upward to his.

              Yuna had known Luther her entire life. She knew that when he felt strongly about something, he tended go after it with his entire being. However, she also knew that he was far from obsessive. The expression on his face wasn't of one so crazed with adoration that he was willing to maliciously lash out against his own family. He'd never been like that - and he hadn't changed - this she was sure of. So she remained silent, and waited for him to continue.

              “Look at us, Yuna. We're well into the 21st century and we're keeping someone prisoner underground. We're ruled by a set of laws that are supposed to protect us, but is based on an outdated system that isolates us from the world. You can put whatever mystical, ancient spin you like on it, but the fact is that our ways are archaic. Christ, my family is contemplating murder simply because I've bound myself to someone who's not one of us.”

              “If I can't give you viable children-”

              “What if you could?”

              Stopped cold in the middle of her protest, Yuna stared at Luther in utter shock.  She was almost certain that she hadn't heard him right; yet it was beyond her to ask him to repeat what he'd said. For a moment, she returned to the conversation that she and Viola had had shortly after she'd been imprisoned.

              The dark-eyed woman had been pretty clear on the fact that humans couldn't provide children of their kind. All the talk about Yuna not being a viable female had inscribed that particular information deep into her consciousness. She'd caught herself, more than once, angry at the Douglas' selective language-and even more so at herself for only being what Luther wanted- not what he needed.

              But apparently, that wasn't the whole truth.

              “How?” She found herself demanding. “How could I?”

              “I don't know,” Luther admitted, covering her hand with his own. “But my mother does. Her expression when I mentioned the possibility was unbelievably transparent. She knows something... and I'll get her to reveal it before the Elders.”

              “If there is a way for me to have wolf children with you,” the young woman mused, trying not to let herself become too excited at the prospect, “Why would she hide it? Wouldn't that be the ultimate solution?”

              “Why indeed,” Luther's reply was low and slightly forlorn. “This family has far too many secrets, and far too many laws. What we need are explanations and adaptations. If we can't adapt... we might as well be done for, even if I do become Alpha.”

              For a moment, Yuna was silent, contemplating.

              Luther had a point.

              As good as the Douglases were at hiding, she herself was living proof that they couldn't hide forever. If they did do away with her, how long would it be before someone else came along?

              The young woman bit her lip.

              The small spark of hope that was kindling inside her was almost more than she could bear. If they could just get the Elders to listen, and Luther's mother to talk... she might be spared. Even more, she and Luther might have a future together.

              The chance was slim, but it was there.

              And Luther was with her now.

              All at once, the young woman threw her arms around Luther's neck, pressing her mouth to his as she kissed him with every vestige of emotion that he possessed.