Chapter One
It was a dark and stormy night. Within the abandoned house, two children cringed beneath a bed. The shutters banged and the shingles rattled and the floorboards creaked with age. The sagging rafters swayed as the raging wind tormented the pointed roof and moss-covered walls. Outside, the front gate swung wide open, battered by the storm. The winds and rain together barraged the old, dead trees growing in wild abundance in the front yard. Their gnarled branches scratched the windows, which were grimy and streaked with dirt. The dark sky was roiling with storm clouds, within which lightning cracked and thunder boomed. Not a single star was visible throughout the turmoil. Cold breezes swept through the house, chilling the two teenagers to the bone.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” the girl yelled over the racket. Her long, black hair whipped around her face, getting into her eyes and mouth. “I think we should go back to the barn,” she added, as an afterthought.
The boy shielded his sister as a beam crashed onto the floor before them, sending splinters exploding into the air. “What? Are you crazy?! Going out into that storm is suicide,” the boy said, flinching as a tree branch thumped into the window across the room.
As the night wore on, the girl grew more and more nervous. She huddled close to her brother, head resting on his shoulder, and a worn red blanket draped across her shoulders. When thunder rumbled, both siblings jumped and drew farther back into the closet, where they had relocated a half hour before.
The boy shivered and pressed himself into a corner, behind a box full of old clothes. His long, uncut blond hair, as unruly as a lion’s mane, fell into his face and he brushed it away almost leisurely, as if he was used to it.
Both teenagers wore faded Levi’s and long, midnight black t-shirts caked with dirt. Their feet were clad in worn-out, shoelace-missing sneakers. They had matching camouflage backpacks, which stood propped up against the closet wall. Their faces were dirty, unwashed, and the girl’s hair looked like a bird’s nest.
The girl scooted over to her brother and lay, curled up into a ball, at his feet. Her teeth chattered as another breeze blew through the dusty old house.
“You’re right,” the boy said quietly, as the storm began to die down. “We should’ve stayed in the barn, not this creaky old piece of-” He stopped talking abruptly and closed his eyes.
The girl looked up, amused. “What’s the matter, Luke? Can’t curse, now that we have a reason to?” She laughed and sat up, squeezing herself between her brother and the wall to keep warm.
Luke grimaced and shoved his sister. “Shut up, Raven,” he growled, crossing his arms. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.” He stopped and his eyes widened in sudden realization. “Oh, Raven, I’m sorry,” he began.
Raven sat up angrily, her face already wet with tears, and got to her feet. “Who cares, Luke? So what if it’s my fault that we’re sleeping in barns and eating rats and getting sick because of hay fleas? So what?” She glared at him. “You could at least forgive me,” she finished somewhat sadly.
Luke stood up and wrapped his sister in a hug to calm her down. “I forgive you, little sis. I would do anything for you to be safe.” Then, he frowned. “It’s not just your fault, anyway. It’s half his fault.” His eyes darkened with anger.
Raven froze, and she stared at the wall without saying anything. Her navy blue eyes were full of despair.
Suddenly, as the storm began to die away, a door somewhere in the house slammed. Luke’s head snapped toward the entrance to the closet, and Raven could feel his heartbeat quicken through his shirt. Then, as a streak of leftover lightning illuminated the room, Luke’s eyes fixed upon a dark silhouette that had formed in the entrance.
Raven yelped in delight and fled the closet, throwing herself into the arms of the boy who had appeared there. She shrank against him like he was a security blanket.
“How did you find us?” Raven asked happily, gazing up at Aaron wonderingly.
Aaron shrugged and glanced at Luke, who had slipped his pocketknife out of his backpack and was clenching it so tightly his knuckles were white. “You weren’t too hard to follow,” Aaron said with a fading smile. “I just went to the least suspicious room to wait.”
“Let me guess,” Luke hissed through bared teeth. “You hid in the bathroom, right?” His whole body was rigid, and his focus was rapidly changing from Aaron to Raven.
Aaron managed a grin. “Yeah, I did. How did you guess?’ His thick black hair was as snarled as Raven’s, and his eyes were far from submissive.
Luke shrugged stiffly and gestured with his knife to Raven. “C’mon, Raven, let’s go.”
The girl turned to face her brother in shock. “I’m not leaving Aaron,” she said quietly, baring her teeth.
There was silence for a few heartbeats, and the only noise was the water in the gutters pouring off of the roof. Then, Aaron spoke.
“I understand why you came with her, Luke, but we all know that it’s just me and Raven who should be running,” Aaron said slowly, as if easing himself into cold water.
Raven looked at her brother, then at Aaron, then said, “Why don’t we just travel together? Aaron, you’re in as much danger as me, and Luke, you came this far already, so . . .”
The two boys exchanged a glance, and Luke sighed. “You know I don’t want you to travel with your almost murderer,” he said, drawing out and emphasizing the last two words.
“You know that wasn’t on purpose!” Raven exploded, letting go of Aaron and stepping closer to her brother.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Aaron said in agreement, adjusting his black backpack and narrowing his eyes.
“How does someone almost kill his girlfriend on accident?!” Luke hollered, eyes flaming with anger. His knife was trembling in his fist.
Aaron snarled and stepped up so close that they were face-to-face. “How does someone trust his sister so much that he’d let her run off with some random dude he’d never met, believing that she’d be a-okay? Huh? Maybe you should’ve been more responsible.”
“Responsible?” Luke spat, raising the knife at his side. “I’m not the one who engraved his name into an innocent girl’s side just to show that he loved her!”
“I did not carve my name,” Aaron hissed. “I only cut the first letter of my name.”
“I don’t care what letter or number you sliced into her skin, all I care about is that you pinned down my sister on a concrete dam, used her shoulder as a whittling block, and left her there to die!” Luke yelled, so loud that dust rained down from the rafters.
The silence that followed was so quiet that Raven could hear Luke breathing, and her own heartbeat sounded loud and obnoxious. Then, Aaron spoke up.
“I didn’t leave her there to die, Luke. I left because the bloodlust was upon me, and if anyone came near to me while I was still lobo, I would’ve undoubtedly killed them. As it was, I don’t even know what I did to her,” Aaron whispered, looking at the floor.
Luke snarled and glanced at Raven. “Raven, come here and turn around,” he ordered, slipping the knife into its sheath at his side.
Raven swallowed and walked over obediently, then faced away from her brother and Aaron, knowing what was coming. She breathed and closed her eyes.
Luke picked up the very bottom of Raven’s shirt, and since she was wearing an army tank top underneath, he had her take the shirt off without fear. “See?” Luke said, turning Raven so that Aaron could get a good look at her shoulder. “See what you did to her now?”
Aaron looked up, and he jumped back in horror; Raven’s shoulder was a mess of inflamed scars, red and puckered, some not even healed yet, and amidst the chaotic swirls of slashes, just barely visible beneath the other wounds, was a slanted letter A.
“Now do you see why I’m trying to take her away from you?” Luke asked quietly, letting go of Raven and facing Aaron. “Your kind is violent and cruel, and this is just an example of what you do for fun.”
Raven’s eyes flickered with anger, and Aaron saw this and gained some strength. “My kind? Don’t forget, bloodsucker, that my kind is also her kind, and she is just as violent as I am when she is under the influence of a fresh kill,” he growled.
Luke twitched in surprise at what Aaron had called him, then his face hardened. “So . . . Raven brought you into the circle of trust, huh,” he said slowly, eyes flaming. “I assume you know what I am, then, and that even though you are very strong, I am stronger, no matter what?”
Raven flinched and stepped up to Luke. “Luke, please . . . let’s go. Don’t hurt him. You want me to get away from him, fine, but showing your fangs was never part of the bargain.”
The boy drew away from Aaron, for indeed, his fangs had been slowly emerging from his canines. “Raven, come,” Luke said quietly, and snatched up his backpack off the floor.
Raven grabbed hers, then grabbed her pocketknife out of her pocket. She then turned to Luke and leaped at him suddenly, pressing the knife to his throat. “I’m your sister, and you respect me. I know all of your secrets, what your weaknesses are, how you think.” She paused. “You need not be reminded that, even though you are a vampyre, I am just as worthy as you, being a female lobo.”
Luke nodded slowly, staring into his sister’s eyes. As Raven began to free him, his eyes began to glow a vibrant silver. He grabbed her forearms, pinning her in his grasp.
Raven was completely still as Luke began to speak. “You are my sister, and I love you. We go to the city tonight, and you may do what you please. But remember, yes, I am vampyre-“
Suddenly, Aaron dove at Luke, knocking him away from Raven, who stirred momentarily with fire in her eyes.
“How dare you?” Aaron snapped, his canines and ears lengthening. “You dare glamour your own sister.” He punched Luke in the stomach, making the boy double over.
Raven stormed over and grabbed Aaron, making him freeze and draw back quickly. Then, she turned to Luke, who was staring up at her. “Aaron is going with us, whether you like it or not, and you will not bite him in his sleep,” she growled at Luke, and for a second her brother could see the sleek, proud she-wolf lying under the surface.
Chapter Two
“So . . . where’re we going?” Aaron asked, adjusting his bag higher onto his shoulder and glancing at Raven, who was examining a map just ahead of him.
“Hmm, it looks as though we’re heading in the right direction, at least,” Raven said slowly, turning the road map a little and furrowing her brow. “But we’re still ten miles from Houston, and then there’s at least four miles after that until we get to the safe house.” She cast a look at her brother, who’d been silent most of the trip. He was fiddling with a portable phone, and he looked like he wasn’t concentrating very hard. “Do you think we should make camp now?” she asked him.
Luke shrugged and continued to fool around with the cell phone. “I guess we could. Oh, Aaron has his own tent,” he added quickly, “so he doesn’t need to share ours.”
Aaron laughed and stopped walking, slinging his bag down off his shoulder. “Haha, like I’d want to share a tent with you,” he said scornfully.
Luke’s head snapped up and he shot back, “Not with me, maybe, but with Raven?” Aaron was silent, and Luke chuckled. “You have your own tent, buddy,” he said with a shake of the head.
Raven glanced back, amused. “Oh, boys,” she sang, pointing to a low hill on their right. “There’s a good campsite, so if you’d please stop arguing and get out the tents, we could actually get some sleep before morning.”
The next three hours were spent attempting to put the tents together, but to no avail. Soon, the three teens surrendered to sleeping on the ground. They spread out their sleeping bags and curled up next to each other for warmth. However, Luke had managed to position himself between Aaron and Raven, ‘just by chance’.
Raven soon heard the snoring of the two boys, but her mind would not shut off. So, when light footsteps sounded in the undergrowth, she was the only one to hear them. And, of course, being the only one awake, she was the only person dragged from her sleeping bag by the hooded stranger.
“Raven!” Luke called, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound. “Raven, where the heck are you? This isn’t time for a nature walk!” He introduced the sarcasm into his sentence to hide his fear.
“I don’t think she walked,” Aaron said quietly, from where he knelt beside Raven’s sleeping bag. “It looks like she was dragged, by someone else.”
Luke raced over, and the two examined the clue thoughtfully. Then, Aaron jumped to his feet, stuffed all the sleeping bags into their backpacks, grabbed his and Raven’s packs, and began to follow the drag trail.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa . . . where are you going?” Luke asked, grabbing his bag and rushing up to Aaron.
“Where does it look like I’m going?” Aaron snapped, not looking at the other boy. “I’m gonna go get Raven, that’s where I’m going. Are you coming or not?”
Luke growled and fell in behind Aaron, who had his face aimed directly at the trail like a bloodhound. Suddenly, Aaron stopped, and Luke ran into his back.
“Holy . . .” Aaron whispered, staring straight ahead.
“What?!” Luke hissed, edging around the other boy. Then, he too froze; in the dirt, the tracks had stopped, but there, clearly imprinted in the sand, was two sets of wolf tracks. “Another lobo?” he guessed, and Aaron’s expression confirmed his fear.
“The tracks are those of a purebred Alpha,” Aaron snarled, poking at the edges of the prints. “Alpha’s have a. . . way of controlling she-wolves, particularly female lobos. It’s a gift only the Alpha males possess.”
Luke frowned. “So you can’t do. . . whatever it is that other wolf can?” he asked.
Aaron shook his head. “No, I’m not an Alpha; I’m a Beta. I can’t control female lobos’ thoughts like this one can. I’m afraid that he-” He broke off, his gaze fixed on something else in the sand.
Luke knelt beside Aaron, and together they read the message in the dirt; Three years- come back for me. -R
Aaron stood up. “The tracks disappear in a couple yards,” he said quietly. There was a light drizzle of rain last night. We’re lucky we got this far.” His eyes slowly closed. “Three years . . . what happens in three years?” he asked Luke.
Luke didn’t answer for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was veiled with hurt and sadness. “In three years, Raven will have been able to legally run away.”
They were both quiet for a good minute or two, then Aaron gasped and his face paled. “Oh, no,” he said under his breath.
“What now?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.
Aaron fell to his knees in the dirt, and his hands rose to cover his eyes. “How old is Raven?” he asked hesitantly.
Luke thought. “Sixteen, like me,” he replied slowly. “Why?”
Aaron ignored him. “Sixteen years in lobo is twenty-five years in wolf. She’s old enough to have pups.” He yanked his hair in anguish and added, for Luke’s benefit, “That’s what the Alpha wants her for; puppies. Raven’s an Alpha female- it all adds up.”
“Wait, wait, hold up.” Luke held up a hand. “This . . . Alpha kidnaps my sister, and it turns out that she’s old enough to have puppies, and this guy can make her do whatever he tells her to?” His face became as pale as a sheet. “He’s going to force her to have his puppies?” he practically breathed.
Aaron looked up at Luke, tears in his eyes. “It appears we won’t find out for three years,” he said sadly, lowering his hands. “And by then she could have completely forgotten us- and the Alpha could have claimed her by then, and forced her to claim him as well. I claimed Raven, but she hasn’t marked me back yet.”
Luke frowned. “You claimed her?”
Aaron nodded. “The A on her shoulder- I claimed her as mine. She hasn’t marked me yet, which means that someone else can scar out my claim and make their own mark, then make her mark them.”
Luke sagged visibly and sat down hard. “So this guy is gonna force her to marry him, pretty much?”
“Yep,” said Aaron. “You’d better prepare to be an uncle, ‘cause pups grow fast in a lobo’s womb.”
