Tempest the Wolf

  Tempest the Wolf

  By

  Dahlia Rose

  Tempest the Wolf

  Copyright © April 2014 Dahlia Rose

  Cover Art by Mina Carter

  Formatting by Bob Houston eBook Formatting

  ISBN 978-1-939151-93-3

  All rights are reserved. No part of this e-book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Chapter One

  Tempest muttered to herself as she rolled dough on the wooden kitchen table. Her hands were covered with flour and each time she slapped the dough onto the table she kneaded it with angry vengeance. Her frustration had been on the rise of late, which meant the Cormina pack was feeling it as well. Being the Beta to shifter wolves meant that they needed her energy to stay calm. Fights between the younger wolves were becoming more frequent and the change that hit at puberty seemed rougher than usual. She had to get herself under control, it was detrimental to the pack. So she worked her frustration out on sourdough bread. At this rate this will be softest bread I ever made, she thought with a little smile.

  It would be so easy if Dom or Alex would tell her what her visions meant. The images of the moon, the white wolf reflection in the water, the fear clawing at her insides and the howl that chilled her blood. All of it told her something was coming, but Dom flat-out chose not to discuss it and Alex just said it wasn’t possible, so it made no sense to bother about it. It bothered her because every few nights she woke up drenched in sweat and breathing like she had run a marathon. Her wolves woke up instantly to calm her, and they’d wrap themselves around her to show her she was safe. But how could she feel secure about something she didn’t understand?

  “You want any help?” Vanity, her second, came in.

  Tempest had watched her bloom into the loveliest woman. Under Vernon she was almost killed while she was pregnant and had asked for sanctuary. Now Vernon was dead and those who helped enforce his cruel rule followed him into hell. Vanity was raising her baby with the man she loved and now lived in Tempest’s cottage on the boundaries of the bayou. Today little Matthew was on his mom’s hip. In a few weeks he’d be one year old, and he was already walking.

  “No not really, I need this,” Tempest answered and kept at her task.

  “The bread, or to beat the crap out of it?” Vanity asked with a laugh.

  Tempest sighed. “Both.”

  “The visions, mistress?” Vanity sat on a chair close by with her son.

  Tempest bit her lip not to snap at Vanity. She still fell back into calling her “mistress” no matter how many times she asked her not to.

  “Yes, how could I not be stressed about it? No one is telling me anything.” Tempest blew out a frustrated breath. “Can’t Dom and Alex see this is affecting my Beta abilities?”

  “They’re hoping you’d let it go, Tempest,” Vanity said. “If I tell you something, can you promise not to tell the pack masters? Hopefully it will ease your mind.”

  Tempest looked up from her baking and her heart leapt with anticipation. “Like you have to say that, my loyalty is not only to them but to you and the entire pack. I would never betray a confidence. What do you know?”

  “I’ve been asking around kind of quietly about werewolves,” Vanity said hesitantly.

  “Umm, aren’t y’all werewolves?” Tempest didn’t see this as helpful.

  She shook her head. “No, we’re pure blood shifters. Our second nature has been passed down through our ancestors, and sometimes our children receive the gift and sometimes they don’t. Werewolves are the bitten.”

  “I’ve seen this in movies,” Tempest said. “So if you bite someone you can turn them into a wolf?”

  “No, not any wolf can do that, the bite of a lone wolf who has gone rogue from his pack does it,” Vanity explained. “We need the pack connection to stay sane, for instance in grief if a mate loses his or her mate our pack bond will comfort. But some sink into madness and break ties with the pack. They run and cast off the last of their human form. Now, if they bite a human then they become a werewolf, it is an abomination and one that hasn’t been seen for a long time.”

  “Why are they deemed that, they’re not responsible for what happened to them,” Tempest said angrily. “That’s an injustice right there.”

  “Most cannot control the wolf inside them and become wild.” Vanity took one of Tempest’s flour covered hands. “Humans cannot understand this beast we carry, and each time they attack another innocent victim it brings us closer to being discovered. One person killed can be called an animal, but if it keeps happening or they form a pack, shifters and any kind of non-human creature can be brought to the public light.”

  “Okay, I can understand that, but what about the ones who handle the transformation, can’t they join a pack?” Tempest asked.

  “No pack will have them, they’re considered outsiders, and even so they’re usually killed off before that point,” Vanity said.

  “Who kills them?” Tempest wanted to know.

  Vanity looked away as Matthew clambered off her lap and toddled off. “I don’t know.”

  Tempest knew she was lying, it was coming off her in waves. But she didn’t press the issue. Vanity had put herself out there to get more information and for that she was grateful. She’d figure it out. She hoped another vision would come and explain it. But she’d lived with the images that flashed through her mind all her life. It was never clear, always fragments that were revealed of the future.

  “Thanks Vanity, you’ve done enough.” Tempest smiled and was relieved to see her shoulders relax. “There’s pudding in the fridge if Mr. Matthew wants one.”

  “He always wants something to eat.” Vanity laughed. “Heath thinks he’s going to be six feet tall before high school.”

  “Goodness.” Tempest laughed. “He’ll do you proud.”

  “When will you have some pups running around with the pack?” Vanity teased.

  Tempest felt her stomach clench with the idea of children. She’d thought about it more frequently now that she was the pack Beta and dealing with the growth of new families. Whose child would she have first? They never used any protection, and even so she kept a diary on her fertile times and when they made love. In any given night both took her and took her body to new heights of pleasure. Who would be first to plant seed in her womb was an even tie.

  “I guess when it happens, it happens,” Tempest said with a small smile.

  “But you want it sooner rather than later,” Vanity teased gently. “Don’t you?”

  Tempest nodded and admitted to the closest friend she’d ever had, “Yes I do.”

  Vanity covered her hand. “You need to stop worrying about that vision. Not everything comes true and this one seems so vague it probably won’t.”

  Tempest sighed and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “You’ve got a streak of flour, right there.” Vanity made a gesture with her hand toward Tempest’s forehead.

  She laughed. “Grab a towel and get it for me, if I do it with these floured hands it’s just gonna be worse.”

  “I hope this gets me a loaf of bread to take home, it would go with the stew I’m making later,” Vanity hinted.

  “You’d get a loaf regardless for Matthew, I can’t deny that face,” Tempest said.

  The baby toddled over on his wobbly one-year-old legs and hugged her legs. If her hands weren’t covered in flour, she’d have nuzzled and inhaled the sweet baby smell at his neck. Tempest let go of her worries for now and enjoyed the company of her friend and her friend’s baby. The problem wouldn’t get solved if she harped on it, and the pack
needed her whole and without worry. Vanity left about two hours later with a fresh loaf of bread wrapped in a warm towel, and she got a meal ready for her men. They came in when outside was dark, and when they threw open the back door the smell of the Louisiana bayou falling into winter came to her nose. She could smell the water and the moss in the cold breeze and closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the scent.

  “I’m going to have to bring in wood later for the fireplaces,” Dom commented as he walked over to her. “Hey, baby.”

  She smiled at his words as he kissed her neck. Dominic Cross was her dark wolf, and he had the looks to back it up. His pitch-black hair was longer since months ago he had stopped cutting it in his usually military style. She could run her fingers through the soft hair that was past his nape and listen to his growl in her ear in response. He brooded and very rarely smiled, but Dom would lay down his life for her or his best friend Alex.

  “You get the wood and I’ll set up the fireplace. Tempest love, where’s my sugar?” Alex Wakefield was her other mate and he had his signature boyish smile on his face.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck dutifully and kissed him, and he made a sound of approval in response. Alex was more open about his affection than Dominic, and where Dom would go charging in, Alex was the thinker except when it came to his family. She and Dom were his family, and together they ruled the now Cormina pack. They lived far enough outside of Cormina and its residents that they could roam freely in wolf form. But if anyone came looking all they would see was a group of people who decided to live together. The plantation property was massive, enough that homes could be built and people could spread out. Under Alex and Dom’s leadership as Alphas, a sense of order and calm that the wolves never knew existed took hold.

  “Is the fire pit finished?” Tempest asked.

  “Just about. Keith and Joe are going to do the last of the bricking tomorrow,” Alex said.

  They were building a fire pit in the middle of the compound for monthly pack meetings, disputes, or mating ceremonies. Unlike with Vernon, Dominic and Alex gave each member of the pack a voice, but they had the final decision. They ruled the pack fairly and kept the peace between all members.

  “How was your day?” Dominic asked as he sat at the table.

  “Eh wrong, get up and both of you wash before sitting at my table,” Tempest said. “You know the rules.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said and walked out of the kitchen.

  “And my day was fine,” she called out behind them.

  She wouldn’t tell them that Martha’s boy started his puberty shift too early and it took her almost an hour to get him back to normal. Her mind was chaotic and thus it made it hard for him. If she could keep him centered until he reached his birthday in three months his shift would be less painful, and then each time after that would be just like breathing. Just a little longer, Jake, she thought. If he became his wolf too soon it could hurt more than normal. She didn’t want the poor scared boy to deal with that. He was scared enough being twelve and waiting for the first appearance of his wolf.

  They came back and together they sat down as they always did to a meal together. It was one of the rituals they shared and that she loved. It was the normalcy of their routine that she favored in a relationship and life that was far from normal. That night after a long soak she got into bed with her men. As if sensing her mood was pensive, they held her in their usual position, one mate facing her while the other was at her back. It didn’t matter who it was, they just knew how to take turns. She loved their warmth, their strength, and being snuggled between them. Her eyes closed sleepily and she heard their breath deepen as they too fell asleep. I love them both, and if they think it’s not a problem, then it’s not. It was her last thought before she fell asleep.

  Running. The cold sting of the night air was against her face. She knew that this time it was real just like that stormy night when she met her mates. Fear and exertion made her heart beat fast out of her chest, and she could feel the rocks and cold grass beneath the soles of her feet. Please stop please snap out of it! she begged mentally. Who was she running from or toward? She heard a low howl and it made her shiver. It wasn’t like the howls she was accustomed to, the ones of her pack. There was something unnatural about the sound, and it propelled her forward. She heard the call of her wolves and they were searching for her, but the sound came from far away. Why didn’t they find her? Her men could track anything in their wolf form and be on their quarry in minutes.

  She stopped suddenly, and she felt the grips of her vision finally releasing its hold on her mind. Tempest was so thankful to be free of it that she didn’t notice she wasn’t alone until it was too late. The smell assaulted her before she was grabbed—sweat and cheap cologne. The grip was strong and from behind, she couldn’t turn around to see the face or her captor. As she struggled against a broad, hard chest she was hoisted off her feet, making her fight all the more.

  “You came because it was destined, you are mine.” The voice in her ear was a low rasp.

  “My mates are coming, they will kill you. I belong to no one but them,” Tempest cried out. She screamed as long and as hard as she could, hoping Alex and Dom would catch the sound on the wind and find her.

  “You’ll see,” he chuckled softly. “You will be our salvation, and I in turn will be yours.”

  “Whose salvation, who are you?” Tempest demanded. “If you wanted help you could’ve asked us.”

  “They sneer at our kind, but you’ll change that,” her captor said. “One mark and they’ll understand what it’s like to lose the thing you love the most.”

  She thought she was dead, and Tempest screamed and fought like a mad woman hoping to loosen the vice grip around her arms. But it was much worse, so much worse, because she felt his body partially change and knew her worst fears were going to be nothing like she expected.

  “No. No!” But it was already too late. She felt teeth sink into her skin where her neck and shoulder met. The pain was excruciating and the next scream was filled with agony. The long canines went down to the bone, she knew because she felt it snap under the jaws of her assailant. She felt herself passing out just as she was dropped like a rag doll against the cold ground. She tried to push herself up on her arms at the sound of something crashing through the dense brush. Her assailant chuckled as he stood over her. Tempest opened her eyes. She could barely make out a face with stubble and cold, dark eyes.

  “It has begun. See you soon, Tempest.”

  With those words she watched him shift into a wolf, and his yellow eyes gleamed out of a gray, fur-covered face. She fell back as it ran away and was lost, blending into the night and the Louisiana bayou. She was lying there when Dom and Alex in wolf form found her. Other howls came in the night and others from the pack surrounded her, sniffing and growling softly. Tempest moaned and a soft whine came from Vanity, the reddish-brown wolf closest to her. She nudged her with her nose and lay beside her offering warmth and comfort.

  “You’ll be okay, Tempest baby, you’ll be just fine.” Dom’s voice held so much emotion it cracked. She cried out as he tried to move her and he hushed her gently. “I know it hurts, but you have to let us see.”

  “She told us, we hid the truth and she fucking told us,” Alex said harshly.

  “They’re all supposed to be dead!” Dominic answered.

  “Can you kill her, the one you call Beta, lover, friend?” A voice echoed through the night. “Your kind kills us like rabid dogs, will you let her be done the same way? She will turn and she will be one of us, then she will be my mate and you will know the loss we feel.”

  “Never!” Alex’s voice was filled with so much anger she almost didn’t recognize it. “Take her home Dom, you and Vanity tend to her.”

  “Alex, please come home with us,” Tempest pleaded and tried to grab at his hand. This was all happening through the midst of her anguish, and still she knew that they needed her calming force.

  “T
ake her home, Dom. I’ll be there when I get there.” Alex’s voice was so cold that she knew there was no stopping him. He spoke to the other pack members. “We hunt and we kill any that hold his scent. If you find him leave him to me, because I will rip him apart.”

  She heard the words and her blood ran cold. “Oh Jesus, Dom, you have to stop him. I don’t want him to be hurt.”

  He lifted her into his arms and she bit her lip against the pain. “I won’t stop him, I’d be with him if I could but he entrusted me with what’s most important to us both and that’s you.”

  “What’s going to happen to me?” she asked in a tiny voice. In her heart she knew, she could already feel it in her blood fighting for control.

  He kissed her forehead gently before he started walking, and Vanity followed in her wolf form.

  “Baby, god I wish I could take this for you.” Dominic’s voice was anguished.

  His words said enough without even voicing the next step. Vanity had told her of the lesser wolves, the ones born of bite not blood. She would be one of them, and what happened next was the unknown. That was the most terrifying part.

  Chapter Two

  Alex followed the trail and then lost it, he found it once more and then it was gone. He knew the werewolf was playing with him, fueling his anger all the more. Damn him for what he’d started, damn him to the fires of hell. The pack began to tire and he soon gave them the long howl to get them back to him so they could head home. By the time they’d reached the plantation grounds the sun was coming up on the horizon. All he wanted to do was to get inside and see Tempest, but as he shifted two men in the pack stopped him from going to the house.

  “We need to meet in the center, the whole pack should know and make the best decision.”

  It was George, a wolf that was younger than him, but Alex scented him as having aspirations of leading the pack long ago. Alex gave a low growl, he had no patience for some kind of control issue right now. Dom came outside followed by Vanity. He put his hand on Alex’s shoulder and gave a squeeze.