Werewolf's Way [Chronicles of the Shifter Directive 1] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove)
Authors: Scarlet Hyacinth
Tags: #Romance
Chronicles of the Shifter Directive 1
Werewolf's Way
Hundreds of years ago, werewolves and vampires started a war that nearly wiped out all of humankind. They lost, and to pay for their crimes, they became the slaves of the draechen, trapped by the provisions of the new Shifter Directive.
Now, Alpha Graham Powers still maintains hope that he will be able to free his people. When he is captured by a draechen patrol, he finds someone who might be more important to him than freedom itself. His mate, Caelyn Sutharlainn.
Caelyn is a sprite, belonging to a species that tried to cooperate with the nearly omnipotent draechen. But when Caelyn meets Graham, he knows he cannot allow the strong, proud Alpha to be crushed by the draechen’s ruthlessness.
Together, the two attempt to flee the draechen forces. But does their love have a chance of holding its own against an empire? Can the werewolf and the sprite find their way in a world that refuses to accept them?
NOTE! You are purchasing Siren's newest imprint, the Siren Epic Romance collection. This is Book 1 of 7 in the Chronicles of the Shifter Directive series. The series shares an overall story arc with many crossover characters playing major roles in each book. These books are not stand-alone and should be read in their numbered order.
Genre:
Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length:
78,179 words
Chronicles of the Shifter Directive 1
Scarlet Hyacinth
SIREN EPIC ROMANCE,
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Siren Epic Romance, ManLove
WEREWOLF’S WAY
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-184-5
First E-book Publication: July 2013
Cover design by Siren Publishing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of
Werewolf’s Way
by Scarlet Hyacinth from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Scarlet Hyacinth’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Hyacinth’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
Welcome to the first book in my new series, Chronicles of the Shifter Directive. I will be brief and say I hope you like it. In fact, I hope you fall in love with the characters like I did.
Thank you to Siren BookStrand for supporting me through this project, to Rachel for encouraging me and kicking my ass when I needed it, and for my readers for their patience and continuous interest.
Enjoy!
WEREWOLF’S WAY
Chronicles of the Shifter Directive 1
SCARLET HYACINTH
Copyright © 2013
History books say the Black Death was likely brought in by rats and fleas. Countless theories rotate around finding out the cause behind it. But what history doesn’t know is that, for ages, a far darker power has existed, hiding behind facades of normality. The most dangerous beasts of all have always been the wolves and the bats, in fact, werewolves and vampires.
The two breeds have always been among the worst perils hiding within the paranormal world. From the times of the ancient emperors, they haunted the world of man. In the fourteenth century, as the human calendar states, their aggression reached its peak. The secrecy of every supernatural creature became at risk as attacks from vampires and werewolves turned increasingly frequent, targeting the thus-far-unsuspecting human population.
In desperation, an alliance was formed between the most powerful of shifters, the draechen—as dragon shape-changers called themselves—and the representatives of the magical world, the fae. Through the sacrifice of a prince from each species, the forces of the out-of-control vampires and werewolves were defeated.
As the victors, the draechen instituted a harsh, controlling regime over the beastly creatures, aiming to prevent any outbreak of violence. With the passage of time, the noble intentions of the martyrs of this cause became corrupted, turning righteousness into a comfortable state of affairs in which werewolves and vampires became slaves.
Other shifters grew increasingly restless, but all opposition was crushed as the draechen solidified their hold on the paranormal world. One by one, the shifter nations fell under the power of the newly dubbed Draechen Empire of Ornoz. A new international law was passed, the Directive of the Shifter Castes, instituting an artificial hierarchy in the shape-shifter world. Nine individual castes were created, social classes with specific rights or duties. The draechen were, of course, at the top, and werewolves and vampires at the bottom.
With Ornoz’s rising power, the old alliances melted into tentative truces as the magical races lived in constant tension that they would be next. In spite of not being under the influence of the Directive, magical creatures saw the ever-increasing greed of the draechen. Some chose to remain loyal to the draechen, while others retreated completely from the human world.
In this new, restless world order, there were those who resisted, underground rebel groups who attempted to break free of the hold of the overpowering draechen. Soon, the wars trickled into the world of the humans, disguised under the appearance of one of the many destructive conflicts mortals themselves organized.
History books say that sometimes, the worst things come from the best intentions, and in that regard, they are correct. But human history books ignore a lot of things. This is a chronicle of the truth, of the pain, the love, and the fighting that lies under the façade of the normal, human world.
“You’re joking.” Graham Powers frowned at his fellow Alpha, already exasperated. “In six months? Fuck, why are we even trying?”
“Because giving up isn’t an option,” Monroe Lovington answered. “And yes, I know the vamps are being ridiculous on this one, but there’s nothing I can do.”
Graham sighed heavily. “Yes, I realize that. It’s just getting tiresome. I feel like I’m in front of a brick wall and banging my head against it over and over for no reason.”
The other Alpha was quiet, but squeezed his shoulder in a silent gesture of comfort. Graham smiled slightly, although his heart wasn’t in it. From the sky, the moon shone over them, but even it seemed distant and cold tonight. Graham wondered if it had ever been close to his kind in the first place. Some people claimed that the moon had influence over werewolves, urging them into changing whenever she appeared to light the way of the lost ones through the darkened night. Once, Graham had believed it. Now, he was losing hope.
Shaking himself, Graham turned toward the other people present at this small meeting. Monroe’s brother, Taryn, gave him a knowing look, but fortunately didn’t comment on his more or less obvious desperation. Meanwhile, Graham’s own sibling and beta, Stuart, asked, “So what do we do until then? We can’t possibly try anything on our own.”
“No, we can’t,” Monroe replied. “We’ll just have to go on as we’ve done so far.”
“Running,” Graham elaborated bluntly. He hated that he and his people had been reduced to this, scurrying through the shadows like rats. Worse, he, Monroe, the members of the packs they led, and other werewolves like them were the lucky ones. Those shifters who lived under the stranglehold of the draechen, slaves to the will of their masters, they were the ones Graham suffered for.
No one offered any words of comfort since they were all just as frustrated and pained. Theirs was a constant agony, a sorrow that haunted them from the very moment they woke up in the mornings and followed them all throughout their nights, turning each and every dream into a nightmare.
But dwelling over this would solve nothing. “We should go,” he told his companions. “We can meet up again in a few months for a progress report.”
“Agreed,” Monroe replied. “We’ve lingered long enough here.”
It was very risky for two werewolf packs to meet up and mingle for long periods of time. The draechen had squads to hunt down the rebels who dared to interfere and challenge the regime they’d instituted. Alphas like Graham and Monroe had been trying to get other persecuted species to cooperate with them for ages, seeking to earn their independence from their oppressors, but so far, it had been pointless. The draechen were too smart and too powerful, and everyone was too afraid.
As if to confirm Graham’s assessment of his opponent, a dark feeling of doom suddenly encroached on his senses. “Draechen,” he and Monroe said at the same time.
Instantly, everyone melted into their wolf forms and scampered to hide. Taking cover was, at this point, a losing battle, though, and as the large forms of the dragon-shifters hovered above them, Graham knew that tonight, he and his people would be fighting a losing battle.