THE AWAKENING

A figure emerged from the house that immediately set her ears back in warning. Her hackles rose and she moved into a defensive posture without thought. Who was this man? Enemy or friend? She couldn’t tell. After the night she’d had, she wasn’t about to take any chances.

He broke free from the shadows and stood watching her with hard blue eyes that glittered in the night air like azure diamonds.

Like Ulster, he radiated power but unlike the sickly red that ebbed and flowed from Ulster like a fever, this man shone with a bright energy that crackled like a live wire and was just as dangerous.

He was the Alpha of Clan Janus. She could sense the truth of her sudden knowledge and there was no need to question what she knew.

He regarded her with open consternation, as if her arrival was neither a surprise nor welcome, yet he didn’t try to chase her away. She bared her teeth in a subtle warning, refusing to cow before him.

She didn’t care who he was.

On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst, the last few days had wavered at the tipping point of fucking awful and he was the final straw.

A low growl erupted from her throat and he lifted his brow in surprise at her audacity, even as he continued to watch her every move.

“My brothers tell me that you are the Prophesied One. I didn’t want to believe them. But here you are in all your glory, white pelt and all, and I have to believe they were right. You are female and yet you changed into a wolf form. My brothers tell me it’s our job to shelter you, to put our pups into your belly to cement our claim to the Prophecy but if they have that thought then it’s fair to surmise that every clan from here to creation will want to do the same.”

His lip curled ever so slightly.

you have taken the enemy into your body. How do I know you are not carrying the poisoned

pursed as a tense moment passed before

kill you and be done with it — fuck The Prophecy. If there is no Prophesied One, there is no Prophecy to

causing him to frown as if taken aback by a sudden surge of unpleasant

just been jabbed

she could see nothing aside from the man arrogantly deciding her fate but something beyond her understanding had just happened and it was significant enough to cause him to stiffen with open agitation as he barked, “It seems your power extends farther than you realize. The Gods will see their game played out,

hating him intensely. It wasn’t her fucking fault that she stank of the seed of

she was some freak show with a magical womb, all she’d done is get captured and

druthers, she’d rather be simultaneously studying calculus

shared his name so Cassandra had decided to dub him, “The Prick,” into the house and in spite of her less than welcome admittance, she was relieved when the doors closed behind her.

built to withstand an army. The house was dimly lit by recessed lighting strategically placed in the ceiling, but she could tell immediately that Clan Janus

smelled of rot and death. The furnishing gleamed as if polished by a studious

to a fine sheen. She could smell the beeswax

coursed through her and her vision shimmered and blurred. She had a heartbeat to realize that she was changing again as her bones went through the painful transformation from beast

but within moments, she was lying dazed and sweaty on the hardwood floor, nearly

she found herself