Heart of Stone - Book 1: Fighting Fate

Stone was awakened with a snarl on his lips by Gavin mentally yelling in his head.

[Vampires are in the city!]

He bolted upright on his large, plush bed, fear mixing with his anger. [What?]

[They slipped through the werewolves in the north. A swarm of them, like locusts.]

Cursing, he kicked off the blanket and hurried downstairs. He mentally called out to everyone in the pack for updates. Alistair and Gunner were already on their way to the city, while Gwen was just waking up and running downstairs, stark naked like him.

“Why didn’t the werewolves warn us sooner that their borders had been breached?” she asked. Worry creased her brows as she looked upon her father’s face in sympathy.

He held the front door open for her since she was right behind him and followed her out. They were far away from the city and deep within the woods, that they didn’t need to worry about locking it.

They shifted quickly, their bones crunching and grinding against cartilage. Their skin rippled as the muscles shifted position, turning to rubber in order to bend and move before hardening once more. Fur broke out on their skin and spread throughout their bodies. Their arms lengthened, their hands turned halfway between hands and claws larger than a human head. Their mouths and nasal cavities lengthened into muzzles—a painful procedure, but one that they got used to after a hundred times of doing it. A tail sprouted from their tailbones as they fell forward on their mutated hands and feet. Their internal organs churned and gurgled as they shifted slightly within.

As soon as he was transformed, Stone reached out to Gavin. [Is Aubree’s position secure?]

Gavin responded with a slight edge in his voice. [Yes.]

Stone’s throat rumbled, not liking even a hint of uncertainty regarding Aubree’s safety. The whole reason he had someone out there patrolling her neighborhood was to ensure no harm came her way. Maybe it was a little overbearing, protective, and controlling, but she was his soulmate whether he liked it or not.

[Oh, so you’re finally ready to admit that she’s your mate now, huh?]

Stone snapped his enormous jaws at Gwen as she ran next to him through the forest. She barked in laughter and skittered around a few trees to avoid his teeth.

[Guard the southern border in case any leeches try to slip through there,] he commanded.

She yipped back. [Aye aye, Captain.]

Stone picked up his pace and flew through the forest and into the dark backyards of suburban homes.

The position of the half-moon in the sky told him it was the middle of the night. They had roughly four hours to find the vampires and chase them out of the city because once they found a place to hide, that meant more complications and hunts until they were certain the streets were cleansed of them.

[How close are they to Aubree?] Stone asked.

There was hesitation in Gavin’s response. [Maybe a mile off.]

Stone knew that was a generous estimate. The city sounds and smells made it harder for them to pick up vampires, which only further encouraged them to keep them from entering the city limits. Out in the forest, the vampires were easier to sense because their hearing could stretch for miles. With city distractions, it was much harder to zero-in their senses on the living dead. Vampires were nearly soundless in their movements because of their grace and their scent was faint, except when they opened their mouths and the pungent odor of metallic blood filled the lycans’ nostrils.

Cursing, he mind-linked with Alistair and Gunner to get their locations. They were already deep in the city, but the farther north they went towards the vampire threats, the closer they got to the heavily populated downtown core. It was harder to conceal themselves there and the vampires knew it and used it to their advantage.

[How many are there?]

He waited for Gavin to get back to him.

[I only sense one in this area. Shit.]

Gavin swearing made Stone’s heart skip a beat. Fretting panic, he dug deeper into Gavin’s mind in an attempt to see what he could see. [What? What happened?]

[I think she saw me.]

Confusion laced Stone’s mind as he was forced to slow his speed in the residential area and proceed with more caution. [Explain. Who saw you? The bloodsucker?]

[No, the girl. Aubree.]

Stone furrowed his furry wolf brows. [How did she see you? She’s not outside, is she?]

[I was on the balcony. Best way to scope out the city. She must have woken up and was wandering around the apartment. She seemed tense and... agitated.]

Stone thought back to the dream, how she reacted to seeing him naked. At first, he smirked to himself, thinking, of course, she’d be ’agitated.′ The thought of her being flustered and aroused by the mere sight of him in a dream pleased him.

Until he remembered Adelaide and his last words to Aubree before he was awakened.

He growled to himself. He could not accept Aubree. Not now. Not while he still ached over Adelaide. The mere thought of Aubree sharing Adelaide’s soul hurt. How could she be born again as a human?

A human sexually involved with another human at that.

Bile filled his mouth and he bit back the vile taste. At least for Aubree’s sake, the male was clean of other female scents. That kind of loyalty was rare among the human species.

He couldn’t break them apart. That would be cruel. But he knew it was only a matter of time before he, nor Aubree, would be capable of fighting it. Time was on his side, although not hers.

Shaking his head, he attempted to clear his thoughts of his mates from his dream. It was because his soul and theirs were seeking each other in the dream world. It would be like this until they mated and marked each other. Their souls would not be content until they were made one once again.

Chiding himself, he reminded himself to focus. He was coming up to a busy street, so he had to concentrate on finding a way across.

[Stay in the vicinity,] he told Gavin. [I’ll have Alistair and Gunner aid the werewolves. Do you think Carina and Adranus are behind this?]

If they were, he knew Aubree was in danger.

[No, I don’t sense them. These vampires are too young and fresh.]

That was a relief. But young vampires, newborns as they were called, were more reckless. They didn’t try to conceal themselves from humans. They were concerned with one thing, and that was quenching their thirst. Usually, the ones responsible for turning them will guide them in their new lives as members of the living dead for the first week or so, but not always. The unguided ones came in two types: the naïve confused ones, and the crazed bloodthirsty ones. The latter were the most destructive and dangerous, while the former were mistaken as drug addicts or drunks, who eventually attacked someone because their thirst became too much for them to bear.

[Alright. Just... be cautious. I’m on my way and will try to steer away any bloodsuckers from the area,] Stone said.

[Yes, sir. By the way, Gwen’s singing in my head that you’ve accepted the girl as your mate. Is this true?]

Stone gritted his teeth and reached out to Gwen’s mind to scold her. [Guinevere.]

She cackled back. [First comes love! Then comes marriage!]

He shut her out and returned to Gavin’s mind. [No.]

There was no immediate reply and Stone used this moment of silence to take a deep cleansing breath and survey his surroundings. He skittered across the street and kept to the shadows.

[Oh. Okay. You know, it’s okay. We understand that this is hard and everything...]

Stone growled, wishing they would drop it already. Aubree was a human, couldn’t they get that through their thick skulls that it wouldn’t work?

[This ends here. Maintain focus on the target. Am I making myself clear?]

Gavin was quick to respond. [Yes, sir.]