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.

and blood, which means you have taken the enemy into your body. How do I know you are not carrying the poisoned seed

a tense moment passed before announcing with

done with it —

to frown as if taken aback by a sudden surge of unpleasant sensation.

onslaught and grunted as if he’d just been jabbed in the gut by an unseen force.

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

him intensely. It wasn’t her fucking

aware that she was some freak show with a magical womb, all she’d done is

she had her druthers, she’d rather be simultaneously studying calculus while getting a

man, who still hadn’t shared his name so Cassandra had decided to dub him, “The Prick,” into the house and in spite of her less than welcome admittance,

The house was dimly lit by recessed lighting strategically placed in the ceiling, but she could tell immediately that Clan Janus lived by a different standard

gleamed as if polished by a studious hand each day. Not one mote

smell the beeswax and lemon as it lingered within the grain of the wood.

coursed through her and her vision shimmered and blurred. She had a heartbeat to realize that she was

moments, she was lying dazed and sweaty on the hardwood floor, nearly unconscious as her body

gentle hands lifted her from the floor and she found herself