Prince of Shadows by Susan Krinard

Alexandra was reading, her lips moving silently. He left the wall and went to her. Over her shoulder he could see the page, and the heading: Werewolves. And below that a picture, a drawing of an upright beast wearing tattered clothes and a slavering fanged grin.

The book snapped closed. Alexandra pushed it back. into the gap on the shelf, blocking it from his sight with her body.

“You’ll have to learn… not to sneak up on people’ like that,” she said.

“The picture,” he said. Stark pain lanced through him.

“That’s not what you are,” she said sharply. “And you’re not a monster. Whoever told you that—” She took in a shuddering breath. “I don’t pretend to understand exactly what you are, or what you can do. That’s what we have to find out. But I’ve made a life of studying wolves, Kieran Holt. Fighting down all the myths about them. I don’t believe in those kinds of labels, and by God I’m not going to hang one on you.”

There was such fierceness in her, such strength and beauty. Her face was as luminous as the first sun of snowmelt. He could lose himself in it, make a new world out of the ardent promise in her eyes.

She looked down, clasping her hands. “I have the utmost respect for wolves. And you are… partly wolf.”

She had touched and stroked him before he became a man. She accepted the wolf in him now. He reached for her instinctively, needing the reality of her warmth.

Her body resisted, but his need was too powerful, his wanting too potent. She was light and firm in his arms. He ran his hands over her back, shaping the curves and hollows through the cloth of her heavy shirt. She made a small sound in his ear; he lowered his mouth to her neck, where her skin was exposed, and ran his tongue lightly over it. The taste of her, like her scent, only made him want her closer.

“Kieran,” she gasped.

He knew she took pleasure in what he did; he sensed it as he’d sensed her fear before, somewhere far beyond thought. He wanted to make her feel good, to know the rightness he felt when he touched her.

Her hair was a thick mass in his hands. He nuzzled her cheek and traced the line of her jaw. Her eyes fluttered closed. Her lips were slightly parted; he was caught in the grip of another memory and acted on it without question, brushing his mouth over hers.

Alexandra wrenched violently free of his hold. Her eyes were open now, and her skin was flushed. She pulled her fingers across her mouth.

“If you want to remember how to be human,” she bit out, “one of the first things you’ll have to learn is that people don’t touch that way.”

It took several moments before Kieran understood her. He stepped back, knocking the bookshelf with his arm. A book fell to the floor with a sharp slap. The silence after was absolute.

Alexandra stared at the book and covered one side of her face with her hand.

“You liked it, Alexandra,” he challenged softly.

Her head jerked up. The bright color fled her skin, leaving it nearly white. “No!” She swallowed. “No. I just didn’t expect it. A man wouldn’t do what you did. Not without permission.”

Her fear was back. Fear of him. “A man wouldn’t do what you did.”

Anger stirred in him, a chaos of yearning. He pivoted on his foot and looked toward the door. Beyond that wall was freedom. Freedom from the feelings he couldn’t master, from the turmoil in his belly.

“Try to understand, Kieran,” Alexandra said behind him. “I’m willing to help you, but you’ll have to do what I tell you if you want to learn to be human. You may still have… instincts that seem right to you, that would be right for a wolf. But what you did… with me, the way you acted, is something other people wouldn’t understand.”

Other people. Human beings he must learn to face in order to become one of them. Deny the wolf or they would see what he was, turn him away, fear him. As she did.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *