The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (22 page)

“How'd she do?” Joseph asked his sister,
resisting the urge to tuck her dark blond hair behind her ear like
he'd done when she was a whelpling.

She wouldn't appreciate it now. He smiled at his
reflection.

Adriana looked up at him and scowled.
“Obviously, so great! She fainted when I glossed over the mating
ritual.”

“Glossed over?” Tony asked.

She waved her hand around. “I just mentioned, ya
know, you guys were gonna fight to the death over her and she'd be
with one of ya. No. Big. Deal.” Adriana put her hands on her hips,
daring them to contradict her logic.

Tony's mouth opened and closed and Joseph put
his a palm on his forehead and scrubbed his face.

“What?” she all-but-shrieked and Julia turned,
moaning in her sleep.

“See! She's gonna be fine. Better to have
radical honesty, guys. You should try it sometime, works like a
charm on the chicks.”

“Yeah, I see that!” Tony said, pissed at
Adriana.

Joseph knew it had been a mistake to have his
sister be the first one that greeted the Rare One.

Julia opened her eyes and saw two men standing
over her bed and scuttled into the corner where the wall met one
side of the headboard. She clutched the sheet and hoped for some
handy telekinesis. And why the hell hadn't that come when she
needed it last night as the tranquilizer darts flew? She winced
where she'd bitten the inside of her cheek to keep from crying.

No worry over tears right now. She was pissed
instead.

“Who are you?” Julia ground out, her voice
hoarse, her body tensed.

Adriana grinned. “See, she's just fine. You
jackasses got her off on the wrong foot and now you're gonna have
to romance her,” Adriana finished, supremely satisfied with
herself.

Julia, Tony and Joseph glared at her from
separate corners.

“Fine!” She fumed. “You guys can figure it out
on your own. Good luck with that!” Adriana took a look at Julia,
shook her head and marched out the door, slamming it off its hinges
on the way out.

Joseph cringed when the wood slapped together
with a resounding thwack.

“That ah...” he began.

“Nice family,” Julia said.

Tony laughed and Julia looked at him and his
smile faded.

She was acutely aware of being in a bedroom with
two men she knew to be werewolves in nothing but a cami and jammie
bottoms. She pulled the sheet up higher, clutching it underneath
her chin.

Joseph watched how she moved into the corner
defensively and was distressed about it. There was nothing he could
do but explain their position.

“Julia...” he started, then abruptly changed his
mind, “let's get some food.”

“Yeah, okay. Just as soon as you gents get out
of this room and let me get dressed.” Her eyes searched theirs, the
one that hadn't said much giving her pause. He was a big guy even
without being a werewolf. Julia was guessing he had a foot and over
a hundred pounds on her. There was something in his eyes, the
predator never really left them, she decided. She was going to keep
him in her sights for sure.

All of them.

They left the room and Julia ran over to the
door and slid the bolt to lock it. Like that was going to be any
help. She took her hand away, a slight tremor making it quake.

Julia spied some clothes on a lone chair in the
corner and pulled the drape as she passed in front of the window,
shutting out the forest from sight.

Her head snapped up a few seconds later when a
plaintive howl sounded.

It pierced her gut, there was something so sad
about it, tears actually flooded her eyes at the mournful call.

What was wrong with her? She shook it off with
difficulty.

Julia dressed. Moving toward the door she put
the flat of her palm against the wood, calming her wildly beating
heart. She pressed her forehead to the wood for a moment, clenching
her eyes, her mind touching on William and just as quickly shoving
the thought away.

He couldn't help her now.

She slid the bolt back and opened it, walking
out of the only sanctuary she knew, into the unknown.

He knew the routine and would bide his time.
They assumed that he was crazy. They were right. But he was also
determined. He had something worth escaping for. He now knew so
much more than he had, the memories of others a part of the fabric
of who he was now, centuries of genetic thought processes and
experiences crowding his skull.

They kept him here in this holding cell to
study him. They fed him, allowed him to kill, forced him to
exercise and maintain a standard of hygiene.

Not that he cared.

He had died that night.

Now he waited to be reborn.

The feral watched the lock turn and three of
his kind came inside. They used more now. After he had taken the
head of one, they now used three.

“
Time for your bath, feral,”
Tony said without compassion.

That would be the first of them he would
kill, he thought with satisfaction. His patience had become its own
force to be reckoned with
.
Soon,
they would taste it. He repressed a low growl, some of it escaping
like a breeze in the quiet room.

Joseph looked at the feral
warily, his eyes flicking to Tony's. “That's not helpful and you
know it. He can't help what he is any more than you can. Now let's
herd him in there and get it over with. And be careful.” Joseph
said, eyeing the wolf in front of them. Big in human form, he was
huge as a wolf, and one of the rare reds. It was a shame that he
couldn't be part of the pack. But he'd been turned, not born. That
branded him
other
in the pack's
eyes. All the benefits of the Were but without the protection of
the den at his back. An anomaly.

And feral, his mind nearly gone.

Who could blame him?

Tony snorted a laugh. “He is not Alpha to
me!” He rolled his big shoulders into a muscular shrug of
irritation that would have been impressive, but next to the huge
red wolf, it just wasn't.

“
Are you sure?”

Tony looked at the rare red
Were that stood in front of him, spinning emerald eyes laying an
unspoken challenge at his feet.
He
thought he was Alpha enough, those eyes said. He flicked a
glance at his Alpha. He wasn't sure but he'd sure like to test the
theory.

Sooner rather than later.

Instead, Tony threw a palm out at the large,
walk in shower meant to accommodate all things not human.

The feral allowed his shape to melt into
human form again, so seamless a transition Joseph sighed.

Joseph and Tony looked at him with envy.

The moon did not rule his Change.

Only theirs.

*

Julia

Julia let her legs swing back and forth as she
pushed scrambled eggs around on a plate with big blue flowers on
it. The cook, or mom-of-everyone, started to chatter again but
Julia was only half-listening.

“Eat up now, hun. Keep your strength up!” she
busied herself, wiping her practical hands, toughened by a thousand
meals, ten thousand dishes cleaned, off on her apron. She plopped
her elbows on the breakfast bar opposite Julia and said, “Dontcha
like what I made ya?”

Julia did, but the appetite wasn't top notch.
Not by a long shot.
Let's recap
, Julia thought. Husband
killed almost two years ago... best friend, gone. Taken by crazy
vampires because she was some kind of genetic prodigy. Check. Then
kidnapped by crazier werewolves.

Please eat and exchange pleasantries.

Riggghhht.

She was so into that.

Not.

She did anyway. “I do... like it. I'm just a
little tired after the whole getting kidnapped thing. That'll make
hunger...” she trailed off and Maggie picked up the thread of her
thoughts easily. “Unimportant?”

Julia's eyebrows quirked.

Maggie smiled.

“Oh right. Yeah, I guess.” Julia forced another
bite in her mouth, everything tasting the same when Adriana stalked
in, grabbing a couple of grapes from a fruit bowl and popping them
inside her mouth. Chewing vigorously she said, “Hey Maggie, what's
for breakfast?”

Maggie slapped her hand as she went for more
fruit. “Good for ya but you need some protein in your craw. You
know the routine.”

Adriana glared at Maggie and she glared right
back.

Interesting dynamics with the werewolves,
Julia thought, remembering how civilized everything was with the
vampire. With the Were everyone was passionate, yelling and
boisterous, hitting each other... different.

Julia thought about it more. She had almost
forgotten the blood letting episode with the vampires.

That hadn't been civilized. She repressed a
shudder.

She watched the girl and the older woman circle
each other warily and Julia resisted the urge to push away from the
bar and get out of the way.

“Sit your rear end down and stuff some breakfast
down your pipe before the men come. They'll clean everything out,
ya know.”

Adriana parked her butt next to Julia's, sullen.
“K.”

“Humph!” Maggie said, ladling a plate with twice
as much as she'd given Julia and slid it across to Adriana.

She dug in with gusto. When half the plate was
put away she caught Julia staring.

“What?” she asked, shoveling in more food.

“It's just... so much food...” Julia began,
looking at her own barely eaten food.

She shrugged a slender shoulder. “Gotta fuel up.
Eat more as the moon waxes.”

Julia cocked a brow.

“Ya know,” slurp-gulp, “gettin' bigger?” She
looked at Julia like she was mildly retarded.

“I understand what a waxing moon means,” Julia
said, insulted despite herself.

“Well thank God, I was startin' to really worry
about ya!” she said, giving Maggie a significant look and she
nodded back.

What? They thought she was dumb or something?
Julia frowned as the two werewolves from before came into the
kitchen.

Julia did get up then. Backing up against the
wall closest to the door she had used to enter the kitchen.

Their eyes flicked to hers and she did not miss
the subtle flare of their nostrils.

That was a creeper factor of about one
thousand.

They were scenting her.

Her eyes met Adriana's and she smirked then
added, like Julia needed clarity, “Bitch in heat, baby, bitch in
heat.”

Nice. Julia flattened herself even harder
against the wall.

Joseph glared at his sister and she blithely
ignored him, gulping some more orange juice and stabbing a sausage,
now impaled on the tines of her fork.

While he smoldered at his sister, Tony's eyes
bored into Julia's.

She shifted uncomfortably underneath that
gaze.

His eyes weren't right.

Tony watched the Rare One with barely contained
ownership. She'd have to bow to him. He would be Alpha to her. He
didn't care what Lawrence said. Maybe he was Alpha enough to take
him but because of him being the Packmaster, he didn't get to play
in the sandbox. Tony's lips curled in a predatory smile. The bitch
Rare One would free him of his status in the pack. He would be able
to Change at Will, the moon nothing to him. No pull, no more
domination. He could taste the freedom that she'd provide. And all
that bullshit about honoring Singers. That was for the old
ways.

It was gonna be his way.

Tony looked at her again and saw that she
interpreted some of what he thought from the expression in his
eyes. He hooded his gaze and looked away, better not to let her in
on his plan. As it was, Joseph was Alpha enough to understand what
he wanted. He hated looking away from her first. He didn't want to
give her the impression that her gaze was dominant to his.

After all, she was a weak female. She was of
rare blood, but female nonetheless.

Julia backed further against the wall. The look
the big Were gave her scared her. She saw Adriana catch the glance
between the two and shoot her arm out in a sucker punch that landed
expertly in Tony's solar plexus.

He issued a satisfying grunt that caused his
gaze to swing away in anger toward Adriana.

Tony felt the swing a moment too late, his gut
unprepared. That bitch Adriana swung at him and landed a nice one
in his bread basket, stealing most of his breath.

Embarrassment washed over him instantly and
before he knew what he was doing he was after her.

With his Alpha who was also her brother in the
room.

He saw red, a lesser wolf and female having
humiliated him in front of a potential mate of the most important
order.

Tony would crush her.

Julia responded without thinking, watching a
huge hand ball into a fist as it raised above the mouthy Adriana
while her brother was across the room.

The power that was not harnessed correctly,
without finesse, without will came to the surface in a surge of
brilliance, bursting inside her in a flash of interior light.
Without thinking, Julia directed it at Tony and he spun where he
stood, like an invisible wood plank had been leveled at his raised
fist and swung hard, making brutal contact.

He staggered against the breakfast bar and away
from Adriana, his back slamming into the fridge, a storm of magnets
clattering to the floor like hail.

His eyes snapped up and met Julia's. She knew
the remnants of what she'd done stood in the room between them.
Hell, even she could feel an almost static energy zooming and
ricocheting around them, pinging off the walls.

“Holy shit! That rocked! You clocked his ass!”
Adriana said, jumping up and raising her fist into the air.