Hunted By Fate by Shannon Mayer
Prologue
Long Ago...
and flickering, throwing shadows across one side of the combatants’ faces as they studied the game board.
“Evangeline, you have barely touched your drink, do you still think I would poison you? You must admit, that was a long time ago.”
Her eyes didn’t leave the board as she reached for her goblet of blood-spiced wine. She slid her fingers around the thick pottery stem and clutched it lightly, bringing it to her perfectly painted lips.
The board was scattered, and there was only one way she could see beating the wise king of the Werewolf Territory.
Distraction.
Lifting the goblet to her mouth, she took a sip of the overly-bold, crimson liquid. “It is hard to tell, old friend, if it is poison or just terrible wine.” Her lips quirked as she lifted her eyes swiftly to his and then away again. In that single glance, she still saw the same interest as always.
Lycan barked a low laugh. “Our wine is not that bad, Evangeline. Better should you choose to drink it more often.”
He growled her name, and she kept the shiver from showing by leaning forward and moving a piece on the board. He spoke of wine, but she knew what he was asking for, and it was much more than sharing drinks with him. “I would think that you have learned by now, I cannot.”
“Your husband dishonored you and even if he had not, he’s long dead. You owe him nothing,” he said softly, placing his hand at the edge of the table, their fingers a breath away from touching.
She slowly lifted her eyes to his. “And as I have said, time and again, this is not a thing that can be. Not for either of us.”
Forcing herself to pull her hand back, she did not drop her gaze from his, and the tension grew, the air heating between them until she could barely breathe with the images that tumbled through her.
One kiss had bound her soul to his in a way she would never understand. She should have set him aside and never glanced his way again.
His lips twitched and he dipped his head in her direction. “I cannot lower my eyes, Evangeline, but I will acquiesce to this contest of stares, for if I do not, I cannot be certain your clothing will remain intact.”
The gasp was involuntary and her heart tripped over what he was suggesting.
“I am—”
“I know what you are, Evangeline. I have never forgotten it, or that stolen kiss in the midst of a thunderstorm that left me craving a woman I could never have. There can be no other for me. Not truly. I know this. I have long since accepted this. Just as you need to accept that you feel the same, deep down in your heart. Why else would you be here?”
His words were bold, and they made her forget the reason that she had asked for the secret audience with him. Certainly, it hadn’t been to have a scandalous affair that would leave them both stripped of their titles, ravaged by their kin, and left for dead. No, that was not why she was here, though watching his mouth tip into a half smile, feeling the pull of his body as it leaned toward hers…she should have known this would not be so simple.
“My nephew Edmund has become a real danger,” she said softly. “I am at a loss.”
Lycan leaned back in his chair, dropping his eyes to the board as they both acted as though they hadn’t been mere seconds from something that was forbidden to both of their kinds. “What kind of danger?”
Evangeline stood, her silken skirts rustling the only sound as she made her way to stand by the fire. Staring into the flames was far safer than staring into Lycan’s deep brown eyes. She would lose herself in them if she was not careful.
“He is young, only twelve yet, and I would hope that perhaps his actions are a product of his youth, and not something more. Something…terrible.” She clasped her hands in front of her, clutching an edge of the silk.
Lycan joined her at the fire, side by side. Not touching, but so very close.
“Tell me.”
If her brother, King Stirling, found out she’d spoken of his son Edmund’s deeds outside the royal house, she would be condemned to death. But she had to protect the ones who needed her.
“It started young when he was barely able to walk, he would torment the small animals he was able to catch—”
“Our pups do the same,” Lycan said with a wave of his hand, “it is the way of a predator to learn to hunt young and toy with its food.”
She nodded slowly and then turned to meet his gaze. “But do your pups drag out the pain of their victims? Do they laugh and delight as those that they feast on cry for hours? I’ve seen your pups, they kill quickly when that time comes. And if they do not, they are stopped. Corrected by their elders.”
He was silent, his expression grave as she hurried on, for fear she would stall and not be able to tell the worst of what she had buried inside.
“He…looks for those who would trust him now. He has learned to manipulate at a rate that is terrifying, and his father turns a blind eye because he is heir to the throne.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I have found three human maids with limbs removed, tongues cut out, horrendous acts upon them…and when I found them, Lycan, they were not dead. Edmund is…I fear he is becoming a monster.”
The wolf king had gone quiet beside her, the stillness of a hunter on edge, ready to attack.
“You wish me to kill him, then?”
She grabbed his hand before she could stop herself.
“Gods, no! I would not have you put yourself in danger like that, Lycan. We need good men. Men who fight with honor, and for the love of their people.” Her throat tightened as she stared up at him. “I may never have you in my life, but I cannot imagine The Empires of Magic without you in it. That is not a world in which I wish to live.”
That truth should not have escaped her, and yet it slipped out.
She pressed on before she could dwell on her admission. “And Edmund is still just a boy. A troubled one, but death? No.” She shook her head furiously. “He is still my nephew, and I cannot forsake him so easily.”
He stared down at her, voice hoarse. “Evangeline…why would you share this with me if I cannot help?”
She released her hold on him and stepped back, but he followed until she was pressed against the rock wall. The heat of the fireplace at her back, the heat of the wolf king in front of her, and all she could do was stare up at him.
“There is another child, Lycan. A secret child. Just three days ago, he nearly did the unthinkable and attempted to murder his own sibling. It was sheer luck that I found them in time and stopped him.”
Lycan continued to close the distance between the two of them until his chest brushed up against the curve of her body. Nostrils flared as he closed his eyes and dipped his head so that his mouth was against her neck as he spoke.
“Speak plainly, Evangeline, for I find myself unable to think clearly at this moment as the blood rushes to places other than my mind. What are you asking of me? What is it that you…need?”
His voice had dipped back to a growl and she found herself unable to look away, to put her own thoughts into an order that would allow her to speak.
But for the child she’d sworn to protect and loved as her own, she had to do this.
She pressed her hands flat on the rock wall behind her and gripped the stone tight. The urge to lean into him, to curl her body around his was a deep-seated craving that left her praying she could be strong enough.
“I need you to protect the child that Edmund would kill,” she whispered.
Lycan’s eyes dipped to her mouth. “And in return?”
Her lips trembled as she spoke a dangerous truth once more. Of all those she knew in her life, he would smell out the lies. “You have my heart. My soul. For the rest of eternity, there will never be another man for me. You own me, even though we can never be. Is that not enough? To know that you and you alone carry my heart in your hands? If I could give you more, I would, but I would not endanger you, or any of those that I love and protect by…giving you the last of me.”
His eyes softened and his throat worked as he seemed to struggle to find words.
“There is no woman like you in this whole grand world, Evangeline. I would secret you away, run to the human’s realm and leave this all behind if you would come with me.”
Her lashes fluttered across her cheeks as he lifted a hand to brush away a tear. “I cannot. I have my responsibilities, as do you. You have your own family to care for—people you love. They would be in danger if you left.”
His body slowly eased against hers until she was pressed tightly between the wall and his hard-muscled frame. “I know all this; it does not mean I cannot wish for more. To wish for a life free of those responsibilities to be with the one soul that sings to my own.” His mouth rested once more against the sensitive lines of her throat, breathing her in.
Unable to still her hands any longer, she brought them up slowly and cupped his face, allowing her fingers to run across the stubbled line of his jaw, to feel the heat of his blood just under his midnight dark skin.
They stood there, breathing each other in, holding to the moment as much as they held to one another. A stolen time, a memory that would be tucked away and kept safe, for the precious warmth it would offer when the nights of winter rose and grew cold around them.
“Lycan.”
“My love,” he whispered.
Her breath caught in her chest and she struggled to get the words out. “Do you promise me? I must know that Edmund will have someone to stop him if and when the time comes. The child is illegitimate, but the Oracle has already spoken of the strength and power that will reside within–a strength that will rival Edmund’s one day.”
A sigh slid from his chest and he seemed to struggle to move, to step back.
The loss of heat was immediate, her hands sliding from his face, her eyes welling uncontrollably at the thought of what she’d lost. Of what she must give up in order to save those she loved.
“Your tears tell me there is more to this than what you are saying.” He brushed a thumb across her cheek and captured a tear.
“We cannot meet again, Lycan,” she choked on the words. “My brother has always suspected it wasn’t the fearful villagers on the mainland who killed my husband in the battle at the ravine all those years ago. I know you killed him for what he did to me, but the rage in you…it was not lost on Stirling. In spite of my vow to never marry again and play the part of the properly grieving widow, he is no fool. He knows there is something between us, and he would cut us both down. A truce is one thing, but accepting a love match between a vampire and a werewolf? Never. I do not care for myself, but for those who need me. And for you. I would not have you hurt for me, not for anything.”
The wolf king bowed his head, then slowly, so slowly went to his knees. “To live a life without you, Evangeline, my heart? My kind are not meant to be kept from their heartmates. They are not meant to live without the one that makes their wolf howl to the sky for joy.”
She bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, but even that was not enough to keep her from moving. From dropping to her knees before him. “My wolf king, there will never be a day when I do not think of you. When I do not wish you with me at my side.” She struggled through the tears that now streamed down her cheeks, staining the silk top of her dress. “I will see you in my dreams every night, and I will hold onto you there. For it is the place where we can be together. Only there that I can be myself, and tell you how my heart sings only for you. That my blood burns only for you.”
She pulled his forehead to hers and held him there. The minutes slid by too fast, and she knew that she had to leave. The sun would be rising soon, and here in the wolf territory, there was no protection for her against it.
A knock on the door shattered the moment.
“My king. There is an hour before dawn,” a gruff voice called from the other side of the door.
Lycan smoothed his hands over her face, trying to stop the tears from flowing but he could not.
“I would move the stars and moon for you if I could,” he said softly, “But if the only thing you ask of me is to protect a child, then I will do that with all I have in me. We will find a way to keep him safe from the sun.”
Evangeline took his hands and stood, rising in a single graceful movement, fighting to pull herself together. This was the moment. This was the time to be the duchess she’d been trained to be her whole life. To squash her emotions, to pull herself together. To protect those who could not protect themselves.
Still, she clung to his rough hands, a lifeline she was not yet ready to cast away. “She needs no protection from the sun. The child is born of a human mother.”
Lycan’s eyes went wide. “A rarity indeed.”
She raised her voice, calling to her maid, “Anna, come out now and bring our little one with you.”
A side door was pushed open, and a young woman stepped into the room with a bundled-up toddler in her arms.
Evangeline slowly released the king’s hands and stepped toward the maid. “Come to me, my dear one.” She held out her arms, and the child reached for her, a wide grin spreading across a cherub-blessed face.
She allowed herself one last squeeze and one last kiss, then turned to the king. “Your Majesty.”
As if on cue, the child waved at Lycan, giggling. “Hallo.”
His eyes softened as he shook his head. “Such a terrible task you have set me, Evangeline.”
“I am aware.” She took in a shaky breath. “I will write if I can. To stay connected. To help.”
His eyes shot to hers, understanding flowing between them unspoken. She would write to the child, and to him.
A dangerous correspondence.
Stepping close to the king, she lifted the child into his waiting arms, more tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Mama?”
Lycan froze and stared at her in question.
Evangeline dipped her head and stepped back as she clutched Anna’s hands. “I have raised this child as my own. I am giving you the other half of my heart, Lycan. You are the only one I trust.”
You are the only one I love.
Did her eyes tell him what she should have said earlier?
He dipped his head in her direction as Anna tugged her back. “Duchess, the sun will be rising, we must go. We must go now.”
But every step backward was a step away from the two she loved the best in this world.
Two that she could never see again…