The Awakening Series Book 2

Book 2: Following Fate

The branches and low-hanging boughs skim my face, clawing my fur, and I duck to avoid them as I run through the forest, following Colton into the darkness.

My heart’s racing, blood rushing through my head, and I can barely keep up with my mate’s swift pace.

I focus intensely on the darting black slice of shadow ahead of me, moving so sleekly to lead the way. The rustling of foliage zips past my ears at speed, yet I don’t slow my pace.

“Colton, wait!” I mind-link him with a hint of warning in my tone.

Something sends my internal alarm bells ringing as the stealth shape of my man-wolf leaps through the dense forest and disappears into a thick brush mere feet before me.

He’s almost swallowed by the foliage, and I lose sight of him for a second. A tinge of panic hits me hard in the gut as a warning feeling grows inside me. I don’t know what this feeling is, but I have recently learned to listen to my gut.

Though I hear the other members of our pack rushing through the undergrowth with us, it brings me little comfort. Instead, my anxiety for the pack grows, and I leap after my mate without waiting for his response.

“I won’t leave you behind, baby. Just stay on my tail. Stay close.” Colton’s reassuring voice comes through the link inside my head in its usual warm, soothing huskiness, and that internal feeling of unease grows stronger.

Normally, his words calm me, but not at this moment. He doesn’t seem as aware of this feeling as I am, and his confident tone tells me he has no intention of relenting in this hunt.

The vampires are on the run, and we are close at their heels after chasing them from the boundary.

“No, wait, something is off! Pull back. Stop!” I link back with obvious intense caution and almost run into the back of him as I clear the next bush in a leap to catch up.

I see him at the last second and try to swerve in midair with a yelp in case I crash down on him. He’s stopped dead in front of me and swiftly side-jumps to let me land beside him without accidentally colliding.

“What is it?” His amber eyes lock on mine, glowing within the black fur framing them most sinisterly as I come level, panting lightly from our high-speed chase.

He looks eerily devilish out here in the dense wood in the darkness. Standing almost six feet on all fours, he is the most impressive wolf in the pack and a born alpha who still makes me weak in the knees.

Yet even as leader and master, Colton has come to trust my instincts as much as his own over the past months of ruling our pack together, and he always listens to me as he seems to be doing now.

“I can feel them…out there. They’re not running anymore. They’re waiting. I swear, I can feel it. It’s almost like they’ve stopped, and the fear they felt before has dissipated.”

I don’t hesitate and throw my nose toward the looming shadow of the mountain as though to press the point.

In the last months since I became luna, we have chased down dozens of the vampires who breached our lines and entered our land to pick off our weak.

We’ve killed many, more than I want to remember, yet they keep coming at alarming regularity. Even after they realized their weapon to immobilize us was useless if we stayed within our boundaries.

The doc and Mother Luna Sierra devised a frequency to be played over speakers around the homestead, making theirs utterly useless as long as we don’t stray out of earshot.

Not that the frequency can be heard, even by us, but our ability to be wolves proves it works fine, overwhelming the weapon and keeping us safe.

We are still inside that boundary, yet they have stopped trying to escape. It makes no sense. They always run to the outer limit when they know we’re close on their heels.

“A trap? I don’t see how. We outnumber them, and in a face-to-face fight, we’re the stronger.” He turns his head toward the darkness ahead, expecting to see them, and mentally tells the pack to stop and wait.

I exhale with relief as the responses are obedient, “Yes, Alpha,” and I feel the vibrations of our kin coming to a halt immediately.

Our sub-pack stands wherever they have halted in the forest around us, waiting to proceed. Obedience is their strongest skill, and they won’t budge without Colton’s say-so.

“I don’t know. Something feels different. I can taste the anticipation. There’s a smugness. I don’t like it. Call the pack back. We’re turning around. The territory line is just ahead anyway, and we wouldn’t be going much farther once we hit the boundary.”

As luna of the pack, I, too, have the authority to make them return via the link between us all, but I respect my mate’s dominance and let him be the one to recall them.

The hunt is over; we chased them out and are not jeopardizing any of us tonight. We’ve lost many over the last six months, and I can’t bear to carry the pain of their losses each time.

It never gets easier, even if it’s a wolf I never knew. Such is the curse of being the pack’s heart. Luna is to love all of them.

Colton hesitates and stares off into the darkness again, thinking, deciding, and then snorts in distaste, shaking his head and making it obvious he isn’t happy, but he agrees.

My man-wolf has become a hunter, and sometimes, I worry the thrill of battle is becoming something he’s getting too accustomed to.

Sometimes, when we defend our pack, he has a coldness that makes me remember he is still a Santo. I can almost taste his bubbling energy and will to keep going, the restless aggression because today did not end in a fight.

“As my luna commands…” Colton lowers his head toward me so his nose almost touches one of his paws in a mock bow—humor to lighten the mood.

Then, via the link, I listen to him recall the ones we are patrolling with and tell them to return to the home perimeter.

No one argues. There is just agreement and a rustling noise as they begin to turn back and head home. It’s an atmosphere of both relief and disappointment. They seem to be too used to this ongoing battle and bloodshed.

“Let’s go.” I nod backward into the bushes and turn to leave. But Colton stands for a moment, and I hesitate, pausing to look back at him and stare at his statuesque figure.

“What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t know. Something is out there with them. I can sense it now we’re still. I didn’t before, as it’s faint. It’s not just vampires… I can feel something else.”

There’s an undercurrent, an edge to his tone, and then he throws off his inquisitiveness and moves to me.

When Colton turns, I inwardly gasp at the unusual sight of his eyes glowing ethereal blue. It’s not entirely unknown. The witch in him sometimes piques, but it rarely shows in wolf form as it’s more of a human-related gift and usually held at bay by his lycan gifts.

It generally manifests for specific reasons, too, like using his healing powers while Sierra trains him to be more efficient with them or when he has visions and glimpses of the future. Or it is triggered when he nears his mother in her state of glow.

“Your eyes…they’re blue,” I point out, closing the gap between us to gaze into the almost luminescent color.

He frowns, shaking his head to try to shift it. This makes it obvious he isn’t aware it’s happening, so I guess there are no visions, nothing from him that is igniting the glow.

“That’s new. Usually, it only happens when my mother is near and using her…”

Colton swivels his head back to where he gazed before, immediately silent. His gaze narrows, and he scowls, a low snarl emitting from deep in his throat like a vibration.

“What is it? What can you see?” I look, too, my senses on high alert and body prickling as I can still feel the vampires in the distance, now feeding on his burst of hostility.

The downside to my blood being part of theirs is since I opened to my gifts, I can always feel them whenever they’re close. This sensation, mixed with my mate’s emotions, is making me feel nauseous and faint.

“It’s a witch. Let’s go. Move! Catch up with the pack. We shouldn’t linger alone; I need to protect you.” Colton’s words are heavy and laced with anger but also worry. He takes zero chances when safeguarding me and is most definitely overprotective.

I don’t argue, but instead, I trust his instinct and turn, pick up my paws, and run like the wind back in the direction we came from.

I can feel him close behind me, just steps away, even though I know he’s faster than me at a sprint. He’s staying back in case we are followed by whatever he thinks is out there because he never stops shielding me.

Not that I need it. Colton sometimes requires me to look after him as far as powers go.

As my gifts grew and I began to hone them over the months, I discovered how powerful I could be.

It was almost like sliding into a warm bath after a long, hard day: it freed and rejuvenated me.

From the first moments my gifts were freed, I learned how to use them almost like a forgotten memory, and even he admitted that I could be way more helpful than him at times.

Colton is having a more challenging time with his witch gifts, though. They were so long repressed and so at odds with how he was raised.

He is a warrior and a fighter, but his witch side is to heal, nurture, and care—much like his mom—and avoid conflict. It’s so contrary to who he is.

He sometimes has visions and dreams that he cannot separate from fantasy or reality as he tries to navigate what they mean and what he’s to do with them.

It frustrates him on so many levels because he is a guy who likes to have all the answers to life’s problems. He hates puzzles and trying to read meanings through vague images.

Sierra is working to expand that ability, but sometimes Colton is too rough-and-ready to sit down and center himself on his peaceable side long enough to do much about it.

We run back the several miles we covered in the hunt until the homestead looms ahead, high on a hill over the next mound of treetops like a welcome haven. We don’t slow down and can sense the closeness of the others rounding in as we come home to our safety net.

“Why would they have a witch out here?” I ask innocently as we slow to a trot and move into the clearing before hitting the new village we built around and behind the homestead to accommodate our pack.

It’s been a busy few months of creating a proper habitat for our growing pack, and as the houses come into view behind the tall cage fences, I relax and walk.

We’re within the perimeter of our haven. We’re close enough now that the other patrols in the pack will be circling, and we no longer have to watch our backs.

“You heard my mother. She told us that some of the witches joined forces with the vampires in this fight and were only too happy to see the downfall of the wolves. Some of them feel wronged by us.

“I guess this is the first of them showing up to prove her right. It’s been months of sporadic attacks that never succeeded. Maybe they think having a witch on their side might give them an advantage since their weapon is all but useless now.”

I don’t respond as a chill runs through my stomach, and I glance back into the dense darkness and try to feel anything beyond the tree line.

There is nothing; they never followed us back here, but the uneasiness I picked up first is still there. It’s almost like we’re being watched.

I shudder in subtle fear at the thought of what might be out there. I try not to let my mind run riot and imagine the worst.

“Don’t!” Colton nudges my face with his nose, reading my mind, pushing me away from where I’m staring, breaking my train of thought.

“Let’s go inside and change, clean up, and eat. Forget it for now, and we’ll talk to my mom in the morning. We’re safe within these boundaries, even from witches.”

His tone tells me he’s worried about what we felt out there, too, but he’s being his usual self: solid, commanding, and like nothing gets to him.

He is brushing aside the current problem and shelving it until after eating and sleeping, when I know Colton does his best thinking. He’s a dawn riser who uses quiet time to figure things out. “We’re all tired, and it’s almost morning as it is.”

“Aye, aye, chica. Do what the man says! I’m beyond starving. We have spent half the night out here. I need food and sleep!” Meadow saunters into the clearing, hearing the link conversation inadvertently because we were not shielding to a private mate link.

She nudges me with her sleek, brown, furry body.

As a wolf, Meadow is weirdly similar to her human form. She is sleek yet curvy, smooth-furred with slanted amber eyes that somehow sit well in her face to make her attractive as a lycan.

She isn’t as big as the males, but she is fast and fierce, and despite her slender build, I’ve seen her devastate everything in her wake and not even ruffle her fur in the process.

Knowing she’s a half-shifter removed any questions I had about her slight differences from regular wolves. They are subtle, but I see them.

Two more wolves appear in the shadows and walk past, the huge dark one stopping to run his body along the length of Meadow, rubbing his head up against hers as he falls into step beside her.

Her mate is as built as mine, only gray and equally rough. He nudges her suggestively, and the two wordlessly take off ahead without a second thought. Colton snorts in humor at their behavior.

For some, the haze is still lingering, it seems.

He pushes up against me to walk side by side with physical contact, and I lean my head into his neck to share his warmth as we cover the last bit of ground, relaxing into that firm body.

He takes some of my weight and guides me onward.

“You can talk… I don’t get a single night of peace from you, even before the haze hit.”

I laugh and lick him quickly, hitting the lower profile of his jaw with my darting action.

“What can I say? My mate is a vixen and completely irresistible! I’m alpha. I can’t be outdone in terms of testosterone and horniness, baby.” Colton is smug and yet also correct.

I know he means it, but it still makes me blush, smile, and nuzzle him adoringly whenever he talks like this. I’m still a little too enamored with my mate, even after months of being his.

The haze was crazy when it hit. We had only been mates for around three weeks when it swept over, and I was almost insane with the need to be joined to him about fifty times a day.

I never knew how bad the heat and desire could get when you mated up—never experienced a haze before turning, so it was a massive wake-up call.

How we got out of our room for more than three minutes daily is beyond me because nothing could satisfy the hunger or the uncontrollable urge to mate constantly.

No matter how many times or how good it was, it was just seconds of relief, and I was whining again to have him back on top of me.

Colton was only too happy to oblige, given he was in a worse state than me. Males apparently feel it with more vigor, given that it’s meant to make them want to procreate and spread their seed to enable their bloodlines.

Luckily, the haze only lasts two weeks and slowly tapers off when mating season dies away. Only then did the constant crazy hunger to be in his bed wrapped around him slowly begin to fade to a manageable level of need.

Not entirely, though. I don’t think I’ll ever stop lusting after him and needing to feel his touch every second of every day.

Since our union so many months back, we’ve rarely been apart, and I’ve grown and flourished with his love to become the luna I never thought I could be.

I genuinely believe it was the one thing I needed in my life to find myself once more and blossom under his tender care.

The people treat me with respect and love, and I’m growing as a mother to all with my born leader by my side as he shows me how to command without fear.

He’s nothing like his father as alpha. He listens to his people and walks among them as though he’s never been any different from them. He’s hands-on and involved with the building works, overseeing every detail each waking day.

We join patrols, make sure we know everything there is to know about the sick, the school, and the community’s problems, and rectify them as best we can.

His mother is a good mentor, but she grows restless here, and now she’s recovering well from her time asleep and slowly regaining her gifts.

She’s made it clear she wishes to return to the lab where the doctor resides again and continue her work with him.

She feels lost here, like she has no one to focus her time and energy on. Not that I blame her. Her life isn’t what she left behind when she fell into slumber.

The lab became ours after the Santo pack abandoned it and returned to the mountain under the command of their alpha.

With Sierra out, they had no use for or interest in it and knew that Colton would send some of his own to claim it to keep all his mother’s and the doctor’s work safe.

Which Colton did, and Doc could go back with a new, stronger, kinder pack for protection to continue his work into our species.

He visits periodically to discuss his needs and findings and keep Sierra updated. Who knew we would have human allies in this new world in which we live?

Sierra woke to find her son grown and mated and her husband a betrayer who still holds her home captive and defends it fiercely. She is no longer luna of the pack and no longer required to raise a child.

She has no real mate to create another child with, even though she’s capable enough and still in her prime. She’s at odds with the modern advances of our world, and she finds the noisy, chaotic business of the pack hard to bear.

She stays alone in her room most of the time and rarely ventures to see anyone except Colton, me, or the maids Colton has assigned her to meet her every need. Doc comes and goes to see her, but she is almost a hermit, living in the west corner of the homestead.

This used to be her ancestral home, someplace she visited from time to time.

Thanks to her, we found the secret tunnels under the estate that led to the apothecary that belonged to her long-forgotten relatives—the library of grimoires and books that contained histories we had never known.

It opened our knowledge of many things, and the shaman was excited to be given more insight into details he always longed to know.

The homestead had remained for generations of witches, but with her father mating with a wolf, he was an outcast, sent to live far away with his wife and half-breed child near the pack of his mate, who also rejected her.

His ancestors had no other heirs, and this place fell to emptiness when the last of his blood was killed in the vampire wars of old.

This was never truly Sierra’s home, although she did inherit it and come here over the years. She kept it a secret from Juan and used the protection placed on the land to keep it free from invasion.

Those spells work in our favor now. They are still held in place as applied in the ground for generations to keep nonblood out without invitation, which goes for vampires, too. Our safe haven is protected in so many ways.

Colton could walk in and invite his pack because he was blood, and the house became his. No one can cross the inner perimeter unless the heir welcomes them.

Colton being a witch means, without even knowing it, he keeps the inner sanctum safe by merely refusing to let non-pack members in. He set the spell when he first entered the house.

Later, his mother renewed the spell to cover all the runaways from the mountain who found their way to us.

It means vampires can get close but never in. And his mother assures us it should work for any other being that we don’t welcome to our abode.

It’s unbreakable magic. Only the Santo pack of our inviting can cross the inner threshold of the boundary lines now that Sierra has adjusted the spell to be more precise.

“Hey, Earth calling Lori.” Colton breaks into my mind, and I come out of my thoughtful daze to see the opening door ahead of us at the main entrance as we are welcomed home by the guards of the pack.

“Sorry, I was just thinking.” I sigh heavily knowing that we can soon go to bed. It’s been a long patrol tonight and too much running. I’m exhausted, filthy, and looking forward to lying down.

“Yeah, well, less thinking, more action. You were practically motionless with the slow pace you were traveling,” he jests and nudges me with his side, sending me reeling a little.

“Sorry.”

I follow him in, nodding at the guards in human form as we pass, and I still get that warm tingle as they lower their eyes, showing respect for their alpha and luna.

I quickly trail Colton to the main staircase and to our floor at hyper speed. I can’t get used to this where no males look me in the eye except those worthy: the sub-pack, my chosen femme companions, Sierra, and my alpha mate.

I guess the same goes for Colton, too, as only his select few can. Everyone else lowers to the ground as a sign of submission. It’s an old tradition wordlessly passed down, and we never question it.

Since the village is finished, we get the whole upper west floor of the homestead to ourselves. Only we, the leading pack, Sierra, some single warriors who walk the house perimeter at night, and a few of the housekeepers live inside the homestead now.

Guards swap every few hours outside, so we always have different faces coming and going.

We have a school room in the main hall while an outbuilding that will become the education center is being built, and the hospital wing still operates from the first floor.

So, there is motion and movement in this vast place at all hours, yet it still seems so eerily quiet compared to the months before the village started to fill out.

Colton swiftly gets ahead of me first, and when I catch up and follow him into the bedroom, he’s already alone in the inner suite, naked in human form, dusting off the muck and debris from the forest.

As soon as I see him, I transform into a human, and he floors me with that gorgeous, dimpled grin, his eyes back to their deep dark brown, his hair ruffled messily on top of that head.

My handsome, tanned Latino lover stands proudly in front of me in all his perfection with that devilish look in his eye, running a hand across his abs absentmindedly. That body in its tall, muscular glory weakens me at the knees.

“Shower?”

The cheeky grin makes me smile because I know it’s not an invite but more of a command.

“Just like that, you forget about the troublesome witches out there in the forest, and your mind is straight to shower? We both know that isn’t exactly what you mean.”

I stroll past him as though I have no intention of getting in there with him and squeal when he grabs me from behind and hoists me up princess-style into his arms.

“Worries will keep for a while. Urges will drive me insane. You know how hot for you I get after we turn and go chasing vampires in the forest.”

He plants a kiss on my temple, and I know struggling is futile. Besides, I’m not refusing because I, too, am hot for what my mate does to me.

“Colton, I swear, you have about five hundred reasons for being hot for me daily. Yesterday, it was because we had ribs for dinner…and the sun came out after lunch…and before breakfast, you woke up hot for me because it was Tuesday morning.”

I sigh indulgently and slide my arms around him as I try to get comfier in this grip he has me in.

“Baby, is it wrong to want to get naked with my mate as much as possible? We’re only young for like maybe eighty years, give or take.”

I laugh, knock the top of his head with a soft fist, and curl my arms around his neck. I savor the unique feel of his skin against mine, pushing my face into the crook of his throat to inhale everything good about him.

“Hmm…don’t change.” It’s an impulsive lovesick adoration as he carries me to the bathroom, but I mean it.

I have never known happiness or this sense of home before him, and being his mate these past months has fulfilled every wish and dream I never knew I had.

“I wasn’t planning on it. You love me this way…so, this way, I’ll stay. Got to keep my luna happy.”

He smirks, always cheeky, always grinning, and hauls me into the shower stall to get clean while being anything but.