Desire the Night(39)

Gideon shrugged. “Anything. Everything.”

“He’s very strict. Very honest. Very Indian. His ties to the past, to the old ways, are strong. There are legends of shape-shifters among our people, tales told around campfires late at night.”

“Only they aren’t legends, are they?”

“Not entirely. It’s believed that the first true werewolf was a distant ancestor who was cursed by a witch for killing her pet wolf. Angry and afraid of what he’d become, the young warrior went crazy, killing everything that crossed his path.

“That first werewolf was the son of a Lakota medicine man. The shaman trapped the werewolf, intending to kill it for the good of the tribe, but he couldn’t do it. Instead, he tried to remove the witch’s curse, and when that failed, the shaman met with the witch and begged her to remove the spell, but she refused. He went to her every day until, after six months, she took pity on the old shaman and altered the curse so that it was only in effect on the night of the full moon.”

“Good thing the warrior didn’t kill a grizzly bear,” Gideon remarked.

“Anyway,” Kay went on, “the curse was passed from father to son. Over the centuries, our people learned to control their feral side until, today, we are a relatively civilized race. The Alpha keeps the pack in control. The pack keeps the individual members in line. There’s no room in the pack for rogue wolves. They’re dangerous to others, and to our existence.”

“And the compound is to help keep the pack in line?”

“More or less. We can hunt here, on our land, without fear. Our children are schooled here. They’re taught the old ways, the old stories. There was a time when we were a proud people. My father is trying to instill that same sense of pride and honor in our youth. It isn’t easy.”

“I’m surprised he let you go off on your own.”

“I think he was hoping that living on my own would scare me back here, that I wouldn’t be able to cope with life in the real world and that I’d come running home. Instead, just the opposite happened. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. I had friends, a job, responsibility. I had the freedom to make my own decisions, my own mistakes.”

He mulled that over a moment or two before asking, “So, who are the other wolves that can change at will?”

“My aunt Greta. She’s the pack’s Alpha female. Victor and his father. Of course, they aren’t members of our pack, but allies.”

Gideon nodded. “Come on,” he said, as another howl filled the air. “Let’s get back to our room before we draw a crowd.”

Kay didn’t argue. Whether she liked it or not, her days of freedom were over.





* * *



Chapter 19

Kay sat in front of the TV, though she had no idea what she was watching. Her eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep. All night and into this morning, she had heard her father howling. Had she been able, she would have shifted and gone out to meet him. Her sudden desire to run through the night with him had come as a surprise. Since leaving the pack, she had rarely thought about changing except when the moon was full, but last night, she had wished for the ability to change at will and join her father. Almost, it had felt as though she had the power to call on her wolf if she could only concentrate hard enough, but it was just wishful thinking. Only full-blooded Alphas and those of their bloodline had the power to shift back and forth at will.

She glanced at the bed where Gideon lay sleeping. Gideon had made love to her when they’d returned to the bed-and-breakfast. Never had he caressed her so gently or kissed her so tenderly. He had held her close all night long, kissed her one last time before surrendering to the dawn.

It had felt like good-bye.

With each passing hour, Kay’s uneasiness at the thought of returning to the pack grew stronger. What would her parents think when she brought a stranger home? To her knowledge, no one other than her father had ever brought an outsider into their compound—especially someone who was a vampire. Gideon was vulnerable during the day. Was she putting his life in danger by not sending him away?

Her thoughts returned to her father. She had spent a good part of the morning wondering if he had known she was nearby, but if he had known her whereabouts, she was pretty sure he would have been knocking at her door, demanding to know why she hadn’t come straight home.

Curling up in a corner of the sofa, she hugged a pillow to her chest. Between her father and the witch, neither her future nor Gideon’s seemed very secure.





Gideon woke with the setting of the sun. Sitting up, the first thing he saw was Kay, staring out the window. He didn’t have to read her mind to know she was unhappy. He couldn’t really blame her. It was hell, being forced to submit to another’s will. Thanks to Verah, he knew that firsthand. His only real chance of avoiding the witch was to stay away from Kay. If they separated, Verah would never find him. His problem would be solved. But Kay would still be in danger. And if Kay couldn’t or wouldn’t tell Verah what she wanted to know, Verah was as likely to kill her as not. And that was a chance he couldn’t take.