BRIAR
Cool air floated around me in a soft mist that coated my skin. My gossamer frock was strange on my body, the dreamy fabric making me shiver as the chill of the outside air seeped through the thin layer that served as a gown. It wasn’t something I remembered owning, nor a choice I would have made if I’d dressed myself. Where was I?
I frowned as I stared at the space surrounding me. A clear sky above was filled with bright stars, contrasting with the dense fog on the ground. But with each step, the white mist cleared enough for me to see my way. I followed the path, my heart hammering in my chest, desperation humming in my veins. I needed to figure out how to get to safety. I shouldn’t be out here alone, in the night, somewhere I didn’t know.
The air shifted, and my ears popped as the pressure changed. Soft rustling, like the sound of wings, sounded in the distance. “Who’s there?” I called.
“Come along, Briar. We don’t have much time.” The man’s refined British accent was warm but apathetic all at the same time. As though he were bored but wanted to soothe me.
“Where are you?”
The mist parted until I saw him. A beautiful man with golden hair and bright white wings.
“You—”
“Yes, I am an angel. Sent by God, etcetera. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a message to deliver and other things to get to tonight.”
“You have to tell me something?”
His silver irises blazed as his focus went from me to over my shoulder. A shiver of anticipation rolled down my spine. Lucas. I could sense the vampire as though I were feeling my own heartbeat.
Training my gaze behind me, I followed the angel’s gaze. There he was, devastatingly handsome in a velvet smoking jacket and tailored black pants. His collar was carelessly unbuttoned, and that thick dark hair was tousled as though someone had just run their fingers through the locks. Unbidden jealousy barreled through me.
“Lucas,” I breathed.
“Briar.” He smirked and sauntered toward me, a cat stalking his prey.
When he reached me, he took my hand, and I swore a shock of something powerful rushed up my arm. The two of us approached the angel, not saying a word. Between us, a stone altar appeared, and the angel stared down at the slab.
“Your destinies are joined. The two of you will be the beginning of a new era.”
Lucas released my hand and placed his palm up on the stone. My pulse pounded in my ears, but something told me to press my palm to his.
“Palm to palm,” Lucas whispered, his eyes burning with need.
I had to be dreaming. His hand was warm, his pulse beating in time with mine. “Why are we here?” My voice was a tight whisper.
“You’re here because this is where you’re meant to be. The two of you are fated to walk this path. Destiny cannot be escaped, no matter how you try.” The angel drew a shining blade from a hilt at his hip. “Palm to palm. Soul to soul. Blood to blood.”
My gaze flicked to Lucas as his fingers twined with mine, holding my hand tightly as the angel brought the blade down, the sharp silver dagger piercing the center of my hand and driving deep until it sank into the stone beneath Lucas’ own palm. My vampire didn’t flinch as our blood mingled and ran together through a small channel etched into the altar. I watched the trail of liquid as it dripped into a gold chalice.
“What is that for?” I asked.
The angel brought his hand to the top of my head while lifting the chalice to my lips. He murmured in a language I didn’t understand, but still, I took a sip. Then he did the same with Lucas, and from the tightness in the vampire’s fingers, I knew the taste of my blood was almost too much for him to handle. Then the angel dipped his finger in the blood and pressed it to first my lips, then Lucas’. I was overwhelmed with the need to seal this ritual with a kiss. I needed to feel Lucas, to show him I wanted him even if I shouldn’t.
Turning my head, I kissed the vampire who was my greatest enemy, and my heart leapt in elation. This was right. This was destiny. The angel had shown me the truth.
Blinding pain shot through my left hand as the dagger was ripped free, and I cried out.
I sat up, alone in the dark of my bedroom, heart racing, skin clammy with sweat, the taste of Lucas a phantom on my lips and tongue. My hand burned, palm throbbing. What had just happened? What kind of strange dreams was the vampire stirring in me?
Rubbing my palm to ease the ache, I inspected the center for some sort of mark. My skin was smooth and perfect. It had truly only been a dream. I lay back down and stared at the shadows on the ceiling as I tried and failed to get back to sleep. Lucas Blackthorne was too far in my head for my own good. I had to stop seeing him. Even my subconscious was trying to trick me into rationalizing being with him. Dreams of an angel marrying us in some strange blood ritual were proof positive. Lucas Blackthorne was dangerous. I had to avoid him, or I’d go mad.
Over the last three days, I’d effectively avoided all things Lucas. Aside from the lingering ache in my hand, I’d even pushed the dream out of my mind. I hadn’t been plagued by thoughts of the vampire, of his large hands gripping me, or the taste of his lips. I’d focused on my duties to the pack. Today I’d spent the afternoon hours working with orphaned shifter children who lived together in a shelter in town. The matron who ran the shelter had lost her own mate twenty years previously, and since then, she devoted her life to caring for the children whose parents were killed by hunters just like her mate had been.
“Thank you for helping us today, Briar. It means a lot for them to see their Alpha’s daughter showing them she cares.”
I placed a palm on hers, needing her to understand how important this was to me. “It’s not their fault they have no parents to show them these things, and you can’t be expected to do it all, Haddie. Controlling their shifts is something their parents would have taught them. I’ll continue to work with them until they all have the skill.”
She smiled at me, but her happy expression soon turned concerned. “Briar, what happened?”
I followed her gaze to where my hand rested on hers. Blood dripped onto the pale blue fabric of my dress, spreading into a crimson stain.
My eyes widened, “Oh, I must’ve cut myself.” Panic curled in my chest. The wound was back, the wound from my dream.
“Oh, goodness, let me get something for that. How on earth did that happen?”
I shook my head, not knowing what to say. She returned with a piece of linen cloth and wrapped the wound tightly. “You should stay here until it stops bleeding. I can fetch the doctor.”
The clock in the hall struck seven, and I knew I couldn’t stay any longer. The sun was already down, I’d stayed far too long, and Nik would be searching for me soon.
“No. I’ll be fine, I promise.” I smiled and took my coat off the hook near the door. “Please do call if you need any more help with the children. I’ll be back the same time next week, and we can see where they are with their control.”
With a curt nod, I left, hand throbbing. The sun had set long ago, and the streets were bathed in inky darkness, the sky a deep midnight blue. I strode down the sidewalk, heart still racing with each pulse of my wounded palm. It couldn’t be real. It had been a dream, nothing more. I had to be losing my grip on reality.
It took me a few minutes of walking to realize I was going in the wrong direction. I had instinctively walked into a deserted, well-manicured park I’d never explored before. I should have left. It was night, I was bleeding, and there were vampires everywhere in this small town outside of our property. But something inside me pulled like a rope tied around my waist. I couldn’t deny it, and the closer I got, the less my palm ached.
My breath caught when I walked through an archway between a line of hedges, and I found myself in a dark maze that smelled of juniper and clean air. The pain in my hand was nearly gone, but my veins buzzed with excitement.
Something called to me. Something that promised fulfillment and…more.
I wandered through the maze until I reached the center. My breath caught in my throat at the sight before me. A statue of an angel, wings extended, head tipped to the heavens stood at the far end of the center of the maze. But that wasn’t what stopped me. It was the man sitting on the stone altar who had my heart stuttering.
“Lucas?” I asked.
“I knew it.” His whisper was hoarse and pained. “I knew you’d be here.”
I strode to him, confused by the pained expression on his handsome face. “What happened?”
“You didn’t meet me. I was so angry with you.”
Guilt gripped my heart. I thought I’d be safer avoiding him. “I…convinced myself it was for the best.”
“I can’t get you out of my head. I’ve tried. But that dream.”
“Which dream?”
He gripped my left hand and removed the temporary dressing Haddie had provided me, then pressed my palm to his. There, in the center of his palm, was a matching wound, the blood dried, the skin healed as mine now was.
“Palm to palm.” My words were a simple soft utterance of what he’d said in my dream, but he answered with a kiss so filled with longing it brought a sob to my chest.
He broke our kiss and threaded his fingers in my hair as he stared at me. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“What?” I was breathless from the sheer passion in his kiss.
“Stay away. Pretend we’re enemies. How can you be my enemy when I want you so badly?”
“We want things that aren’t good for us.”
He nuzzled my neck. “But you, Briar, are very, very good for me.”
“Lucas,” I moaned.
“Say, yes, love. Let me fuck you here on this altar. Let me make you mine.”
I wanted to. God, after what we’d shared in our dream, after the ritual, it seemed inevitable we’d be together. My thighs clenched as he lifted me up and sat me on the cold, smooth stone.
“You dreamed it, same as me. That ritual was something special. It joined us in some way, can’t you feel it?” He split my legs apart, opening me to his hips. Then he ran his nose along my throat before nipping my ear. “I’ve been hard as fucking stone since the moment I woke. For you.”
I shivered as the velvet of his voice worked its way over my skin. “It was just a dream.”
“You know it wasn’t. Tell me you’ve shared a dream with someone else. Tell me you woke and were able to forget the moment he drove that dagger into our hands. Tell me that, and I’ll leave you.”
I swallowed. “I can’t.”
“That’s right. You can’t because you know this is more than desire.”
He rolled his hips, the hard length of his arousal pressing between my legs and making me moan. Then with a palm between my breasts, he pushed me back until I lay on the altar, head hanging over the side, exposed and at his mercy.
“Are you a virgin, Briar?” His wicked words sent excitement and fear through me. He was sin itself, and I was about to give in to him. “Has anyone had what’s mine?”
My chest tightened, and in a rush of fear I sat up and shoved him away. I couldn’t do this. Not here. It was all too much. Lucas was clouding my thoughts and dreams, and I couldn’t trust myself to make the right choice. “Stop.”
Shock replaced the confidence in his expression. “What?”
“I said, stop. This…I’m not yours to ruin in the garden. It was a dream. Nothing more. This can never work, and you know it.”
I closed my legs and slid off the altar, heart racing. Lucas reached for me, but I slapped his and away. “Don’t. Please. I have to get home.”
“Tomorrow night. Meet me here again.”
I wanted to. I wanted this to be our secret place. “We have to be careful. Nik will be looking for me.”
“He doesn’t deserve a moment of your time, my wild wolf. He wants to leash you. But I? I want to let you run wild and take me with you.”
I shook my head. “No. Both of you want to cage me. I’m not a fool.”
“Perhaps not. It’s more likely I am the fool, but it won’t stop me from chasing you. The man who wins your heart should see the truth of what you need.”
“And what is that?”
“Someone who can match your wild spirit with his own. Someone whose love is not a delicate, fragile thing. Someone like me.”
I shook my head again and started toward the path that would take me out of the maze. “I think I’d rather be alone than in a doomed romance with someone who wants to kill me.”
“Oh, Briar, I don’t want to kill you. But I’m quite certain you’re going to end up killing me.”
With that statement ringing in my ears, I left, praying he wouldn’t follow me, wishing he would, and hating myself all the while.
LUCAS
I didn’t know why I was there, aside from the fact that I asked Briar to meet me again. I should have been anywhere but this park with the moon shining in the unusually clear sky. It had been clear nearly every night this month rather than the typical overcast, rain-soaked evenings I was used to. I hadn’t been able to escape the memory of the dream I’d shared with Briar, and I didn’t want to. Not now that I’d come to the realization of why we were so drawn to each other. The dream had solidified it for me. She was mine. I was hers. There was nothing to be done about it now. I would go to my grave with her etched on my bones.
I saw her standing in the moonlight, her hair glowing from the cast of the moon’s rays that fell on her. She looked like an angel. No, not an angel. Briar looked like my fantasy. She was a powerful, beautiful creature made to be cherished and worshipped. She didn’t know it, but I’d lay down my life for her in an instant.
“You came,” she whispered,
“Of course I did. Did you really doubt my word?”
She smirked and toyed with the curled end of her hair. “Never trust a vampire. That is the lesson I’ve been taught since I was a child.”
“I am only half vampire.”
I strode toward her, my hands itching to feel her soft skin. She smiled, biting her lower lip, eyes twinkling with excitement.
“The last time we were in this maze, I nearly fucked you on an altar.”
Her cheeks turned pink, making my hunger rise enough that I had to avert my gaze and fight for control. I hadn’t fed in too long. Gentle fingers found my cheek causing me to instinctively lean into her touch. “Why does every brush of your fingers make me feel more human than I ever have?”
“And you make me feel more wild than I should.”
“There’s nothing wrong with giving in to your wild side, Briar.”
She bit her lip again, and I reached out to stop her. I couldn’t take it. “Don’t do that.”
Curious eyes met mine. “Why not?”
“If you break the skin, I won’t be able to keep my lips off you.”
“You want to feed?”
I took a shuddering breath. “Always.”
“Have you been denying yourself?”
“I don’t usually need to feed so often. But being around you, it’s like…like being near the one thing you want more than anything in the world, but you know once you take it, that’s it. Your greatest desire will be gone, and you’ll have nothing to show for it.”
She cocked a brow. “Because you’ll drain me dry.”
“No, Briar, Because once I take your blood, you’ll leave me. You’ll remember what a monster I truly am, and I won’t be able to get you back. You’ll see the truth.”
She linked our hands and tugged me into the maze. “I think you forget I have a beast of my own. One I’ve worked hard to gain control over. But I only won that battle by accepting her. She and I are on good terms now, and she knows who the dominant one is. Me. The human side of me.”
I pulled her against my side, needing the warmth of her body, wanting her scent all over me. “Are there some of you who go the other way? Who give in to their beasts and become feral?”
“Yes. We’ve lost a few of our pack to their wolves. They live in isolation, never shifting back to their human forms.”
“How do you know if it’s going to happen?”
She shrugged. “It’s not a simple test or formula. It happens gradually. It’s part of the reason we’re pushed to take mates. Father thinks having a mate, even if it’s not your fated mate, will keep us grounded. It…levels the human and wolf and makes both easier to control.”
“Balance,” I muttered.
“Yes. Exactly. That’s why I’m teaching the children how to control their beasts now at their young ages before it’s too late.”
I stared at her with a question on my tongue, but I didn’t have to say a word.
“We have been hunted for centuries; every month, another child of the pack loses their parents to the hunters. We’re up to twelve orphans since last January. The hunters are getting smarter, more prepared, better at tracking us.”
“And what do you do for the children?”
“I teach them what I know. I suppose I take on the role of parent when it comes to passing on the things I learned at their ages.”
I smiled then, thinking of her with a child, giving them her undivided attention, sharing her love with them. That was something we could never have. A family would put both of us in danger, but mostly, it would likely kill her to carry a vampire’s child.
“What just passed over you, Lucas?” She cupped my jaw and stared at me.
“Nothing. Simply a fleeting thought.”
“You lost your mother, didn’t you?”
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes against the thought. “I did. She died bringing me into the world. I was a murderer from the moment I was born.”
“Not by choice.”
A bitter laugh left me before I could stop it. “Don’t try to sugar coat my story. I’ve killed plenty of people in my years. Even if I’ve made a decision not to continue, I still made husbands widowers, left children motherless, and I had no remorse about it.” A silent voice in my head whispered, but you do now.
“Are you trying to drive me away?”
I shook my head. “I am trying to be honest with you. This is the man I am. Selfish, careless, heartless. I am more vampire than human because the weakness of the human side of me has been cut out, and every time it begins to grow back, they’ll remove it whether I want them to or not.”
“Who is they?”
“My family.”
“Is that what you want?”
“To be rid of my humanity?”
“Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she stopped and stared into my eyes.
I stepped closer until she was pressed against the wall of evergreen shrubs. “I fear, wild wolf, I may have no choice but to be selfish with you. Every moment we are together makes me wish I could steal the sweet sin of your lips with mine.”
Her ragged sigh only urged me on. I brushed my lips over hers, then backed away. This wasn’t about sex. Tonight was the night I’d show her my soul and pray she didn’t reject me.
I offered her my arm and cocked my head. “Shall we explore this labyrinth together, love?”
She giggled and took my arm. “Yes, but, Lucas?”
“Yes?”
“Call me love one more time, and I may slap you.”
Arousal coursed through me. “What shall I call you then?”
“Yours.”
My chest lightened at that. “My pleasure.”
Perhaps we could make this work. If we could convince our families our union would be a good thing, we might be able to live our lives happily…together. But as we reached the center of the maze again, instead of a benevolent archangel statue, the extended wings and heavenward face seemed ominous—like the angel of death rather than a messenger with news of glad tidings. This angel brought with him only heartbreak and tragedy.