Gypsy Wolf (Strange Lake Falls Series Book 5) Read online

  “Kilian is pushing for the claim, and since any male children I have would be able to shift, the council is inclined to side with him.”

  “Wait, what about male children?”

  “Only female children born to me would be a soothsayer like me or a human. Male children are rarer, but they would inherit the werewolf genes and be able to shift.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Not many people take the time to learn about soothsayers. Anyway, the council is having a hearing in about a week in Nevada. They want me to come forth and present my case. I need to find a representative that knows pack laws and can help me.”

  “I may know someone. They’re in Vegas.”

  “I hate to ask you, but . . .”

  “I’ll take you. We’ll stop by and check in on my pack on the way.”

  “I thought you were from the European pack?”

  “We originated in Europe, but recently we moved to the United States because our numbers were dwindling.”

  “Oh. So we’re off to Vegas then.”

  “It appears so.”

  Chapter 3

  Lucas glanced sideways at Diana. She had fallen asleep a couple of hours ago, but was grumbling in her sleep a lot. He got the feeling that she didn’t have peaceful dreams. There were dark circles under her eyes, easily visible on her soft, pale skin. They somehow didn’t take away from her looks.

  Diana was a beautiful woman. She had long, dark hair and a pale, porcelain-fine complexion. Those full lips of hers had him fantasizing about her from the first moment he laid eyes on her. Well, truthfully, he wasn’t the first to notice her; when his wolf first scented her, it went crazy with the desire to get out and claim her.

  It really threw him for a loop considering he had traveled to Strange Lake Falls to woo the gorgeous Roxanne. The council had approached him, demanding he mate and do his duty for his people. Lucas’s own pack had only a handful of wolves left and something needed to happen to change that. He was given a file on Roxanne, and when he saw how gorgeous she was, he thought he wouldn’t mind being mated to her. She, on the other hand, had set her sights on a werepanther.

  He resigned himself to having to find another suitable werewolf female to mate and help him produce full werewolf babies. This obsession his wolf had with the soothsayer was completely unwanted and unacceptable. She couldn’t even shift. What kind of children would they have?

  Diana said that any male children she had would be full werewolf, but everyone knew it was rare for a soothsayer to not bear female children. She was definitely not the best choice for a mate. All of this was pointless. The council would never accept him mating a lesser werewolf, and his entire pack was dependent on the council’s financial support. He would do what he could to protect Diana, but then he would have to continue his search for a mate to save his pack.

  *****

  She was standing in the woods alone, but not alone. She felt others close by. She saw glowing eyes in the woods. “Who’s there?”

  No one answered. She had had this dream before over the last few months and it always went the same way. She would be alone in the woods, but there were glowing eyes watching her.

  She couldn’t stop herself from playing out the dream. She walked around the open circle and felt heartbeats, the beating of the pack. It was in danger from the eyes in the woods.

  “Help!” she called out. No one came. She had the sense that everyone was dead.

  “Diana,” a voice called out.

  She turned around and saw Lucas lying on the ground bleeding. “No!” She tried to run to him, but something invisible blocked her. She beat against the barrier. “Please, no!”

  *****

  She woke up breathing rapidly and shaking with fear.

  “Diana? Are you okay?” Lucas glanced at her with concern.

  “Just a nightmare. I’m fine. How long have we been on the road?”

  “About twelve hours. I stopped for gas and went to a drive-through. I tried to wake you but you were completely out.”

  “Sorry, I haven’t got much sleep lately. I keep having these recurring dreams.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “Not really. Do you want me to drive?” Diana asked. She could tell the dreams were visions, and she’d been having that same one over and over for a while now. They were creepy.

  “We’ll pull over to get some sleep. Then we’ll take turns driving eight hours at a time while the other sleeps. We should be able to reach Las Vegas in about three days.”

  “You should have woken me up.”

  “I wanted to get us as far as possible. I’ve been wondering something. How is this guy Kilian tracking you now when he couldn't before?”

  “Magic. It’s the only way. He must have hired a witch to give him a magical tracker.”

  “Then how come he couldn’t find you earlier, if he has a witch helping him?”

  “The magic of the commune would counteract a seeking magic. They must cancel each other out in some way. That’s just a guess, I don’t know how all the magic works for witches.”

  She watched Lucas pull into the parking lot of a motel. The light was out on one half of the neon sign. He parked in front of the office.

  “Stay here while I get us checked in,” Lucas told her, getting out of the car.

  She watched him go inside the little office. It had large windows so she could see him approach the front desk. A blond with large breasts leaned over and flirted with him shamelessly. He flirted back. Her wolf growled. What the hell? Her wolf was being possessive of him.

  “Get a grip wolf, he’s not ours.”

  He could be, claim him.

  “We’re not his type. He wants a blond werewolf to pop out a bunch of full-blooded werewolves.”

  We can give him pups.

  “Not the kind he wants, they would be lesser werewolves. He’s an alpha who won’t accept less.” Her wolf must have resigned herself to that because she remained quiet.

  It hurt to be treated as less when she was one of the most powerful soothsayers that ever existed. At least that was what her mentor Fada told her. None of the soothsayers in the past had been able to generate the electrical current she could. They had worked hard to train her.

  It took a long time for her to get that ability under control. Now, she could send a current from ten feet away using her hands to direct the power. Her triggers for the electrical power were anger or fear. If she felt either of those emotions to the extreme, the electrical power would manifest. Fada had warned her that using that power would drain her quickly and she was right. Whenever Diana practiced manifesting the power, she would be bedridden and helpless for days afterward. She resigned herself to using it as a last resort for self-defense.

  She sighed when the girl at the desk handed Lucas not only a key to the room but a piece of paper she knew must have her phone number on it. She looked away. She longed for a relationship. If the council had told her to pick a mate, anyone other than Kilian, she might have considered it. She wanted a family and a mate. She would even mate a human, if she found one her wolf would accept.

  Lucas opened the door and got back into the car. “We’re all set. The motel is under construction and only has a few rooms available. I asked for a room as far as possible from the construction noise, and there was only one left on that side.”

  “Good, I know you could use some sleep. You must be exhausted.”

  Lucas growled at her. “I’m not a weak wolf, I’m a powerful alpha!”

  She jerked over closer to the door in fear. “I’m sorry, I only meant you must be tired for being up almost eighteen hours.”

  He relaxed his posture. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She looked away. “No problem.”

  They didn’t talk as they parked in front of the room. Diana entered the small room and frowned. “Uh . . . are you sure they don’t have another room?”

  Lucas was carrying in their bags. “Yeah, they
’re booked. Why?”

  “They have only one bed.” She heard the bags hit the floor as Lucas took in the room.

  “Shit.”

  “It’s okay, you take the bed and I can curl up on the chair over there. It’ll be fine.”

  “Hell no, I’ll take the chair.”

  She almost laughed as an image of the large Lucas trying to fit in the small chair popped into her head. “We can share the bed.”

  He growled. “I don’t think that is a good idea.”

  She patted his arm trying to be reassuringly. “We’re both adults. We can leave our clothes on, if it makes you feel better.”

  His ran his gaze over her body in a very assessing way. She wasn’t sure whether to be offended or flattered.

  “I can go somewhere else to sleep for the night.” Lucas glanced out the window.

  Jealous rage filled her and she felt sparks on her fingertips. “Fine, go fuck the blonde bimbo!” She stormed to the bathroom and slammed the door.

  Chapter 4

  What the hell just happened? Lucas stood staring at the bathroom door. His wolf demanded he break it down and fix this. When he offered to sleep somewhere else, he’d just meant that he planned to sleep in the car so he would be able to watch over her. Diana assumed he was going to sleep with the blonde front desk attendant. Sure, she had flirted and slipped him her phone number, but truthfully, he got that a lot from women. Not to be conceited about it, but he was a good-looking guy.

  Diana’s reaction was obviously anger and a bit of jealousy. What had he done to inspire that kind of feeling from her? He had tried to be careful around her so that she wouldn’t know how attracted he was to her. Maybe he was putting off pheromones that affected her.

  He knocked on the door, but the shower turned on. He went outside to do a security inspection of the motel and the surrounding area. This place was not what he was used to, but it would have to do.

  As Lucas returned to the room, he opened the door and froze. Holy shit! Diana had just dropped her towel and was reaching into her suitcase for clothes. He had a perfect, unobstructed view of her body from the side. Drops of water ran down the curve of her luscious breasts. Her nipples were a darker pink shade. Her stomach was slightly curvy and the patch of her pussy teased him. She wasn’t stick thin or muscular like many of the female werewolves. She had soft curves and his mouth watered at the thought of tasting every inch of her. She gasped when she realized that he had come in and tried to cover herself.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m coming back in to sleep.” He closed the door behind him. He didn’t want anyone else to see what was his. Damn it! Not his!

  “I thought you were going to be with the blonde.” She quickly pulled a nightgown over her head.

  “I am not interested in the blonde.” He leaned against the door and watched her.

  “You could look away,” she growled.

  He chuckled. “Honey, I’m a werewolf. Modesty is not in our vocabulary. On top of that, I’ve seen many naked women in my lifetime.”

  She glared at him. “Well, I can’t shift, so I’m not used to getting naked in front of people.”

  He liked her fire; it made her eyes sparkle. She was exotic and sexy without even trying. “Are you this shy when you have sex?” The thought of her with other men made him angry for some reason.

  “I don’t . . .” She was blushing.

  He moved closer to her. “You don’t have sex? Have you ever had sex before?”

  She shook her head. “After what Kilian did, I didn’t want to let a man have that kind of power over me ever again.”

  He touched her cheek, feeling her shiver at his closeness. “You said he didn’t rape you.”

  “He touched me, hurt me. I didn’t like it. I panic when men are close to me.”

  “I’m close. Do I make you scared?”

  “No, my wolf seems to like you.”

  He blinked. He had surely heard her wrong. “Your wolf?”

  “I can’t shift, but I still have a wolf inside of me. I have strength just like any other werewolf. I’m not weak.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Yes, you did, you said I wasn’t even a real werewolf.”

  Shit, he had said that. “I’m sorry . . .”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ve heard shit like that my whole life. What I don’t understand is why I am considered less when I have powers that real werewolves don’t have, I just can’t shift.”

  He had never thought of it like that. “I’ve never met a soothsayer before and clearly I don’t know shit. Tell me about them, about you.”

  “There’s not that many of us left and werewolves outside the council don’t have much use for us.” She sat down on the bed and he gave her space to feel comfortable.

  “A long time ago, there used to be thousands of soothsayers spread all over the world in different packs. We used to be considered valuable back then. When I first went to live at the commune, I was devastated to find out that our numbers had been reduced to a mere hundred. None of the packs wanted soothsayers mixing with their real werewolves.”

  “What happened to all the soothsayers?” This was a side of the history of his people that he had no clue about.

  “Selfishness, greed, or fear. All soothsayers have the ability to see glimpses of the future; their abilities vary from person to person depending on their Romany heritage. Some are more powerful than others and have different sets of talents.

  “About four hundred years ago, the lead soothsayer in each district informed the pack alphas and council that werewolves were now greatly outnumbered by humans, and the humans were spreading out to populate more areas. Werewolves would no longer be able to keep to themselves has they had in the past. Soon it would be inevitable that werewolves and humans would live among one another. It was a future reality that they needed to embrace.

  “Back then, the thought of werewolves mating with humans was unheard of. It went completely against the old laws. The soothsayers’ message was not well received. The council demanded that the soothsayers give them a different premonition.” She swallowed.

  He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of water for her.

  “Thank you.”

  “I take it that the soothsayers can’t change the premonitions.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not how it works. We can tell what we see, but it is for the person who hears the premonition to change the future, if they can.”

  “So the council didn’t like the premonition. What happened next?”

  “The lead soothsayers feared for the safety of our kind and decided to call their own council to discuss leaving the packs.”

  “Let me guess, putting so many of the most valuable females in one place wasn’t a wise decision?”

  “No, it was a massacre. Over half of the soothsayers that came for the meeting were killed. None of the werewolf packs came to their defense. The council felt responsible for what happened and ordered all the soothsayers to be moved to a secret commune. A coven of witches was hired to cast a spell to keep the commune hidden and protected. Only key members of the council had access to the commune.”

  “Your numbers went down even after going to the commune.”

  “Yes, the commune is lonely. Only females are soothsayers, so there’s no chance of creating more soothsayers if we don’t mate. Many left the safety of the communes to mate with humans.”

  “Why would they want to dilute their ancestry like that?”

  She glared at him; he couldn’t help but find it adorable. “Soothsayers are not self-serving, holier-than-thou assholes like real werewolves. We care about having families and love.”

  “I care about having a family and love.”

  She snorted. “Please, you would have mated Roxanne in a heartbeat if she had not refused you. Did you love her?”

  He didn’t like how she made him sound so superficial. “I care about Roxanne. I’m sure that could have turn
ed into a loving relationship.” Suddenly she looked sad for some reason.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered about love, anyway. You’re an alpha and you need a full werewolf female to keep the line going.”

  “I won’t deny that’s why I came to Strange Lake Falls.” He had planned on mating Roxanne, but his wolf wanted Diana. He decided to shift the subject back to a safer topic. “So some of the soothsayers left the commune to have families. Is that how you were born?”

  She shook her head. “I am a result of a full werewolf mating a full Romany. I am not diluted.”

  “How many soothsayers are in the commune now?” He felt like an ass for having made that diluted comment.

  “There are only twenty-five of us left.”

  “That’s . . . horrible.”

  She nodded. “It’s also why the council wants me to accept Kilian’s claim. I am considered the most powerful soothsayer left and they want me to produce more soothsayers.”

  “Seems like we’re both in the same situation in a way. The council wants me to mate a full-blooded werewolf to produce full-blooded werewolf pups, and the council wants you to mate to produce more powerful soothsayers.”

  “I guess so.”

  He had always done what his people needed, always. “There’s only one problem that I see in their plans.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I want to fuck you into next week.”

  Chapter 5

  Diana was speechless. Was he serious? “Um . . . Lucas.”

  He was suddenly kneeling in front of her, keeping her on the bed. He cupped her cheek and brought her lips to his. She couldn’t stop him. She should have, but she didn’t. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, opening up to him.

  Lucas’s hands moved down to her legs. He pushed the hem of her nightgown slowly up her thighs. She felt his fingers trailing her skin until he got the shirt to her hips. She was sitting on part of the t-shirt, trapping it underneath her.

  Lucas growled and reached up and began to unbutton her nightgown. Each button that came undone he would touch a finger to her skin making her gasp. “Lucas.”