Rising Moon: The Dark Wolf Chronicles, page 1
The first book in the Dark Wolf Chronicles
Alpha Leonidas Thorn - Prologue
“I think of myself a gentleman. My power, my strength and my action are driven by one thing- the instinct to protect the things I hold dear. But heed this: if you stand in my way, you will see nothing gentle. Only everlasting suffering and anguish far beyond your comprehension.”
Chapter 1
October 10th
The diner was nearly empty and the shift had been quiet. I rested my elbows on the sticky counter, watching a couple sitting in the booth by the window with their little boy and girl.
Both children had a milkshake the size of their head as they swung their short legs and held fries in their sticky fingers. The mother wiped their faces with a napkin as they giggled at their father puffing his cheeks and crossing his eyes.
“Nelda, I’m paying you to work,” my boss, Andy, said as he strode out of the kitchen, “So work.”
He threw a wet cloth into my hand as I dragged my eyes off the family. The cloth was cold and as I wiped the surfaces it left streaks of grease behind. I wasn’t being paid enough to care so I carried on until the bell above the door chimed.
“Hello Rivers,” a familiar voice said.
I turned around and smiled.
Blaise Sycamore. He came in everyday at the same time to see me. Always at 4 o’clock.
“Come for a run with me,” he said, tapping his fingers on the counter.
I sighed as I gazed into his glinting eyes.
“I’m working,” I said.
“Sack it off,” he said with a shrug, “You know you want to.”
I glanced into the kitchen where my brother, Conall, stood flipping burgers, watching us intently.
Turning back to Blaise, I sighed.
“I need this job and I need this money.”
Andy stepped out of the kitchens, his apron still tied tight around his podgy belly.
“What do you want, Blaise?” Andy asked.
“I want to borrow your waitress,” Blaise said.
Andy let out a short laugh, “She’s working.”
Blaise kept his eyes on Andy as he pulled out his wallet and held out a wad of cash.
“Can I borrow her now?”
Andy glanced down at the cash before looking around the restaurant.
“I suppose it’s quiet tonight,” he said, taking the cash, “But you better be back here for the dinner time rush.”
I grinned and began untying my apron, catching Conall’s eye. He raised an eyebrow, his lips tight and stern but I only flung my apron down and ran out of the diner with Blaise.
Air that doesn’t smell of fat and grease at last.
Chapter 2
October 10th
I raced through the forest, the pine needles absorbing my weight as I weaved around the trees, ducking under branches and leaping over streams. The wind brushed my skin as the leaves dappled the evening sun rays into flickering bursts of glorious light.
After a long day of work, this is what I craved. Freedom.
Blaise’s huge wolf ran behind me. It was dark brown with bulging shoulders and canines as long as fingers – the wolf of an Alpha. But despite those long legs, he stayed at my pace until we reached the edge of the Cerridwen pack village and slowed to a stop.
I turned back to Blaise to find him already in human form, slipping back into the shorts tied around his wrist. A smirk slipped onto his lips as he shamelessly stood in front of me completely naked.
“Turn around while you shift next time,” I said, darting my eyes up to the treetops, “How many times do I have to say this?”
“Why?” he said.
“I don’t need to see you naked!”
He held his hands up in surrender and turned as he buttoned his shorts up.
But his bare chest was soon pressed against my back as his hands slipped to my waist.
“Why do you hide your wolf from me?”
I sighed as he spun me around.
“Trust me, it’s not personal,” I said, “She hides from everyone, including me.”
“You’ve really never shifted?”
I shook my head, “I’ve never even felt her.”
He lifted his lip, “Strange.”
But he soon shrugged before lowering his head. My cheeks blushed as he paused, his lips inches from mine. I held my breath, my heart racing as his hands slipped from my waist to my hips.
He grinned before finally pressing his lips against mine.
Blaise was a handsome boy and the way he would push his tongue into my mouth sent my stomach into butterflies. I liked his wolf too. When we ran together, even in my human form we escaped the human world and satisfied my wild side.
“Come back to mine,” he whispered in my ear.
I looked into his hazel eyes as his fingers slipped under my dress.
“I should get back to the diner,” I said, my breath shaky.
“You’re not human, Nelda. Forget about work.”
I nodded and let him take my hand. He led me through the pack village, comprised of small houses scattered amongst the trees. In the centre, the Alpha house stood tall. He bustled me through the large oak door, up the stairs and to a bedroom at the end of the hall where the sheets were smoky grey and the air was filled with his scent.
I stepped slowly as I gazed around the room, running my finger along his bookshelf, reading the spines of each one before my eyes fell on the Cerridwen pack code.
“Come here,” Blaise said as I lifted the book off his desk to hold its leather jacket between my fingers.
“Just a second…”
As I was about to open it, he reached over me and seized it from my hands before pulling me towards the bed. He sat in front of me, positioning me between his legs as he guided my head to his lips.
I let him kiss me, but when he tugged at my dress, I smiled and turned back to the bookshelf.
“Are you teasing me?” he asked.
I crouched down to the books and shrugged.
He let out a heavy breath.
“Why are you messing around with me? I’m supposed to be your boyfriend.”
My finger paused halfway down the spine of a book called ‘The History of Cerridwen Pack’.
“It’s nice to spend time with other wolves sometimes, however much of a dick you can be. You are good to let us live on your territory, but the human world is lonely and brutal.”
My family were rogues but we settled in a town called Kellington five years ago. It was situated on the Cerridwen territory, but Blaise allowed us to stay so long as we lived in peace and stuck to the human world.
Adjusting was difficult and sometimes I craved nothing more than to escape back to the wild.
“So you want a pack?” Blaise asked, his head tilting.
I sighed and dragged my eyes from the bookshelf.
“It would solve all of my issues. We wouldn’t have to pay rent and bills, we’d have a pack doctor, we’d have a place to call home and we would get to live amongst our kind out here in the wilderness. Maybe I’ll even connect with my wolf. That’s all I want.”
A smirk played at the corner of his mouth as he laid back on his bed.
“I’ll let you and your brother join the pack… for a price.”
My heart leapt.
“What’s the price?”
A glint grew in his eye.
“Give me some time to draw up a list of my requirements. There’s a pack party tonight. You and Conall are invited and I’ll give it to you then. Nothing too much, don’t worry.”
His gaze flickered over my body.
“You could be valuable to me in more ways that you know.”
I clutched my hands together, unable to contain my smile as visions of being a part of Cerridwen filled my mind.
“See you tonight then?”
I nodded before turning to the door and sprinting all the way back into the town to my two-bedroom house.
“Where’ve you been, Nelda?” A voice said from the kitchen as I came through the front door, “Do you know how much grovelling I had to do to stop Andy from firing you when you didn’t come back?”
“With Blaise,” I said, my smile still wide.
I came into the kitchen where Conall, was sitting, eating cereal. He scrunched up his nose.
“This whole time? Are you dating him now or something?”
“So what if I am?” I said, kicking off my shoes in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Tread carefully, Nel. He’s a bad egg.”
I rolled my eyes, “Don’t play the concerned older brother card now. I’m not buying it.”
Since our Mom left, Conall had taken advantage of the absence of a parent. He stayed out until dawn before stumbling home drunk with a girl on his arm. I shared a thin plaster wall with him and I’ll leave you to imagine the horror of hearing that.
But he was alright.
Not the most responsible, smart or focussed kid in the world but we didn’t have it easy and he needed to have some fun.
Easy.
That wasn’t a word I would describe any aspect of our lives.
Our father died four years ago. It was a car accident. We don’t know how it happened. His car flipped and landed upside down in the ditch. He was an alcoholic and we assumed he was driving under the influence, but with the car and everything in it incinerated, we’ll never know.
After drunkenly arguing with every Alpha we’d e
I missed Mom too. After losing her mate, she was never the same. But two years ago, she couldn’t face living in the house any longer. Sleeping in the bed they shared, seeing his photos, smelling the lingering scent on his clothes, receiving mail addressed to him.
It was all too much.
So she left to live in the wild again. Conall and I stayed. We had a home and a life here. So we got jobs in a little diner on the edge of town and paid the bills ourselves.
As I said, nothing was ‘easy’.
After the last mouthful of his cereal, Conall knocked back a beer. There were three more empty bottles on the table and he was already smiling far more than anyone sober in our situation should.
“So I’m guessing Blaise texted you about the party?” I said.
He nodded.
“Please go easy on the beer, Conall. It’s not even 8 pm yet.”
He finished it anyway and let out a monstrous burp as he slammed it on the kitchen table. I sighed and ruffled his thick dark hair on my way to the sink. My lip lifted in disgust as I stared down at the murky water with unidentifiable chunks floating in it.
“And can you do these damn dishes? They’ve been festering for three days now. There’s fur on that one.”
He threw his head back and groaned, “Can you chill, Nelda? We can do housework in the morning.”
I turned around and raised my eyebrow.
“As if you’re going to be functioning any time before 3pm tomorrow.”
He gave me a wide smile as his eyes sparkled.
Conall was blessed with our mother’s genes. With soft brown curls and warm hazel eyes, he was the spitting image of her.
“Then I’ll do it in the evening. Whatever. Just go upstairs and put something slutty. Party starts in half an hour.”
I rolled my eyes.
“If those dishes aren’t done by this time tomorrow, I’ll skin you.”
He held his hands up in surrender, but I didn’t take my glare off him.
“I’ll do it, I promise!”
I jabbed my index finger toward him, “You better.”
He sighed and slunk into his chari.
“I’ll do it faster if you promise to stay away from, Blaise. He is nothing but bad news and he isn’t going to treat you right. And he’s going to be the reason you lose your job.”
I kissed his cheek and grinned, “He’s going to fix all of our problems. Just trust me, Conall.”
Chapter 3
October 10th
“Nelda!” Conall called up the stairs, “Are we going to this party or what?”
My eyes streamed with tears. Eyeliner smudged all over my face, my skin was pale, my hair greyish blonde and my eyes an uninteresting brown. I’d been staring in the mirror, attempting to make myself look less like death with make up for an hour now, but eyeliner was near impossible. I kept jabbing myself in the eye and I couldn’t for the life of me get the wing straight.
“Fuck it,” I mumbled, splashing water on my face before viscously rubbing my face with the towel, “Who am I trying to impress?”
I grabbed my hoody from the toilet seat and hurried downstairs to where my brother waited in the cramped hallway.
“For the sake of the Moon Goddess,” I said as I looked at him.
He wore a clean shirt and with his naturally glowing tanned skin and shiny dark hair, was handsome and presentable. Meanwhile, I was looking like a homeless swamp monster.
I’d chucked tomato sauce down my hoody, but Conall impatiently tapped his foot.
“We need to go, Nelda. We’re in danger of going over fashionably late.”
I groaned and grabbed my battered dirty converse from by the door.
Despite working six shifts at the diner each a week, Conall and I could scarcely cover bills. New shoes were certainly not on the cards.
“You’re looking dapper,” I said as I shoved my shoes on.
“Just get your ass out the door.”
As I locked the front door, Conall pulled a bottle of vodka from inside his jacket.
“Conall...” I groaned, “Please don’t get wasted tonight.”
“Relax, Mom,” he said, unscrewing the lid and tilting his head back, “It’s not like I’m going to drink it neat or anything.”
He swigged some and grimaced before holding it out to me.
I glanced down at the stains on my hoody and the state of my shoes. People would comment and I didn’t know how I was going to get through the night without slapping at least one of them.
“Nelda, I know you want it” he sung, shaking the bottle.
“Just a little,” I replied, taking the bottle.
Neat spirits were disgusting. Dangerous too, but the more I drank of Conall’s vodka, the less he had to be a moron with.
So I took a swig before and handed it back to him only three-quarters full.
“Be careful with that,” I warned, “Blaise is going to ask us to join his pack tonight. I don’t want him to change his mind because you’re wasted.”
Conall’s face fell, “Join Cerridwen pack? Why the hell would we want to do that? You know that means Blaise would be our Alpha right?”
“But we’ll get to escape this human life and act like wolves,” I said, “We can quit our jobs and-“
“If you want to live like wolves, why don’t we just sell the house and leave this shitty town. We could live wild, just the two of us. Or better still, we can find mum and be a family again.”
I shook my head, “We need a pack, Conall. We need to be amongst our kind."
“We’ve never fit in with our kind anyway,” he said, “You don’t even have a wolf, Nel.”
I swallowed and darted my eyes away.
“I do,” I said quietly, “I just need to find her.”
“I’m sorry,” Conall said quickly, “I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s just go and party, okay?”
When the thudding music of the party reached our ears, the bottle was only a quarter full and we were giggly. As we walked arm in arm, the continual trials and challenges of my life paused and a smile slipped onto my face.
“Okay,” I said as we reached the door, “Conall, for the love of the Goddess, we have a shift at 7 am. At least make sure you’re sober by then.”
“It’s adorable how lowly you think of me, Nel,” he said, chubbing my cheeks, “Now stop worrying and have some fun.”
The music pounded throughout the house and the smell of sticky wolf teenagers was rife in the air. It was the peak of misguided youth with alcohol, drugs and drunken make-outs.
A clammy hand grasped mine. Blaise had appeared next to me as he looked down at Conall.
“Mind if I borrow your sister for a moment?”
Conall gave a scathing smile before knocking back more vodka.
“I’ll see you later,” I said, “Don’t get too drunk.”
Blaise dragged me away and one metre from Conall, he pressed me against the wall and pushed his lips against mine.
“Disgusting,” Conall grumbled, “I’ll be outside drinking until my vision blurs.”
My cheeks flushed pink as I looked at Blaise, “In front of my brother, really? Blaise!”
Blaise only smirked and took my hand, “Let’s get you a drink.”
We wound through the crowd of sticky bodies to the drinks table where he poured me a drink of 50% vodka.
“So what’s your plan for the tonight?” he asked as he handed it to me.
I sighed, “Get wasted, forget everything going wrong in my life, pass out, and stumble home for my 7am shift at the diner.”
He smiled before narrowing his eyes and wrapping his arm around me. My stomach leapt at his touch as his eyes flickered down.
“I’ve got a better idea. But first you need to loosen up. Take that hoody off. I want to see what’s underneath.”
I rolled my eyes, “Of course you’re horny.”
“Always,” he said before reaching forward and pulling my hoody over my head and putting it next to a warm pool of spilt beer.
“That’s better,” he whispered as he placed his finger under my chin and kissed me again.
I rested my hands on his shoulders as I kissed him back. Stepping between my legs, he gripped my waist. But as he pushed his tongue further into my mouth, his hands slipped to my hips and then to my ass. The odour of vomit and sweaty bodies had suddenly grown overwhelming and my stomach lurched.
