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He closed his mind to the woman sobbing beside him. Women. They had ever been the cause of his troubles, from the mother who had abandoned him when he was thirteen to the treacherous female who had stolen his mortal life and turned him into a monster.
Verah was simply another in a long line of women he had foolishly trusted. Morbidly, he considered the fact that she would most likely be the last.
A deep breath carried the scent of the poor doomed creature who shared his prison. She was destined to die, whether by his hand or Verah’s.
He groaned softly as pain clawed at his vitals. He had spent the last five nights resisting the urge to feed on the woman. Each evening, the agony inside him burned hotter, brighter, like a fire that could not be quenched. His fangs ached, his veins were shriveling, starved for nourishment, for relief. Relief that lay curled up in a tight ball on the far side of the cell. He could feel her watching him surreptitiously, taste her fear as she waited for him to sink his fangs into her throat.
The hunger growling inside urged him to take her, to put an end to the physical torment that racked his body and the mental anguish that tormented the woman.
Muttering, “Forgive me,” he dragged her into his embrace and put both of them out of their misery.
* * *
Chapter 2
Kiya Alissano spoke softly to the frightened dog quivering on the examination table. The Rottweiler stilled immediately, its liquid brown eyes suddenly filled with trust instead of fear.
“I don’t know how you do it, Kay,” Wanda Sandusky said. “I tried to calm that monster down for ten minutes with no success. One word from you, and voilà! She’s practically asleep.”
“I guess I just have a way with animals,” Kay said, scratching the dog’s head. And it was true. From the time she had been a little girl, animals had trusted her—dogs, cats, birds, deer, squirrels, horses, even snakes.They never ran from her, never showed any fear which, all things considered, was pretty strange. It was a definite advantage in her job, though.
“A way? Girl, it’s more like magic.” Wanda glanced at her watch. “Since you don’t need any help in here, I’m going to lunch. I told my mom I’d meet her over at the mall around noon if I could get away.”
Kay nodded. Wanda wasn’t only a co-worker, but her best friend. “Bring me back a Coke, will you?”
“Sure thing,” Wanda called over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.
Kay stared after her friend, wishing she and her mother shared the kind of relationship that Wanda and her mother had. Wanda went out to lunch with her mother every week or so. They went shopping together and texted back and forth and did a dozen other fun things. Of course, it wasn’t Dorothy’s fault that she and Kay didn’t do fun things together. Her father rarely let her mother leave the compound. It still amazed Kay that he had agreed to let her go away for a year.
She looked up when Dr. Saltzman entered the examination room a few moments later. He was a tall, good-looking man with a plump, red-haired wife and six red-headed kids.
He shook his head when he saw the Rot lying quietly on the table.
“I see you’ve worked your Indian magic again,” he said, pulling on a pair of gloves. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Kay continued stroking the dog’s head, occasionally whispering to the animal in Lakota, while the vet performed his examination. The Rottweiler had been hit by a car and had been brought in bleeding from several cuts. One leg and several ribs were broken. The Rot had been reasonably calm until they carried it into the examination room and then it had bared its teeth, growling and snapping at anyone who came close until Kay entered the room.
“We’ll need to sedate her to set that leg and bind up her ribs,” the vet said, preparing a shot to anesthetize the dog. “Keep talking to her.”
Kay nodded. “There, now,” she murmured, still stroking the Rot’s head. “Dr. Saltzman will have you fixed up in no time at all.”
“So, what shall we do tonight?” Wanda asked as they left the office that evening. “Do you want to go to a movie?”
“Not tonight,” Kay said. “I have something to do.”
“A date?” Wanda asked, waggling her eyebrows.
“No, nothing like that. How was lunch with your mom?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” Wanda admonished with a shake of her head. “It’s that monthly thing, isn’t it? You’re planning to take tomorrow off, aren’t you?” Wanda poked Kay lightly on the shoulder. “Sooner or later, I’m going to find out what you’re up to.”
“Believe me, I wish I could tell you,” Kay confessed, digging her keys out of her handbag. “But I can’t. I’ll see you on Friday.”
“All right, girlfriend.”
Kay sighed as she unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel. She would love to tell Wanda why she had to take off one day a month, but it was never going to happen. She was bound by the law of the pack not to reveal their secrets, and the truth of what they were was the most tightly guarded secret of all. The penalty for disclosing it to humans was severe, and that applied to Kay, too. Being the daughter of the Shadow Pack’s Alpha wouldn’t grant her any special privileges or immunity if she violated pack laws.
As far as the wolves were concerned, there was only one law—the law of the pack—and they all seemed perfectly happy to obey it. Why wasn’t she? Why couldn’t she obey without question? Conform to pack hierarchy without a qualm? Be content to do as she was told and live within the pack boundaries? Why couldn’t she be who her father wanted her to be? Was it so wrong to want to make her own decisions, decide where she wanted to live, who she wanted to marry?
At home, she broiled a chicken for dinner and washed it down with a glass of wine, hoping the chardonnay would calm her nerves. Too restless to sit still, she dusted and vacuumed, cleaned the oven, scrubbed the floor. And all the while, she could feel the wolf prowling inside her, waiting impatiently to get out.
In the morning, she called Dr. Saltzman and told him she needed the day off, then she ate a quick breakfast, packed an overnight bag, and drove to her favorite haunt in the sacred Paha Sapa, the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Ancient tribal elders Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud had walked these hills and valleys in days long gone. They had sought visions on the tops of the mountains, hunted the buffalo on the plains, defeated Custer in a battle still discussed by red man and white alike. Sitting Bull had called the tribes together in a last, desperate attempt to defeat the whites so they could keep the Hills and protect their way of life. She often wondered what life would have been like if the Indians had won their fight.
