THE RIPENING (Dark Side of the Moon Book 1) Read online

  For a moment, the young woman just stared at him, her body language unreadable. When she spoke, she seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “What do you mean?”

  Luther exhaled hotly, raking hands through his hair. She was insane. Out of all the things to concentrate on, of all the things to want at that particular moment, she wanted reconciliation? She'd just walked into a nightmare, and she was still the same woman – one who never let a problem daunt her. How could he make her understand that there could be no future for them? His family would always pose a danger to her in their transformed states; indeed, in their human forms they barely liked to associate with her. Now that she knew their secret, she'd only be seen as a liability. She'd go from being tolerated to being hunted.

  The hunt had already started, for Christ sake.

  “Yuna, I'm a monster. My future isn't my own. I belong here, with my clan. I have responsibilities, duties...I couldn't possibly explain them to you here and now but I need you to trust me when I tell you that you are better off without me. You need to go.” Luther tried to harden himself against the way her eyes glazed over with hurt.

  “So...” She took a deep breath, “You and I... us sleeping together? What was that?”

  “It was a mistake,” he asserted simply, his hands fisting at her sharp intake of breath.

  Luther watched Yuna's hands clench and smelled the salty tang of threatening tears. However, when she next met his gaze, her eyes bore into him, intense, and raw. “You ass,” she managed, dashing moisture fervently from her cheeks. “You don't get it, do you?”

  “Yuna.” At last, Luther finally allowed the slightest edge of his own desperation to color his words when he spoke. “Please. Go.”

  “I love you.”

  The words were blurted suddenly, intensely, and the clearing almost seemed illuminated by the emotion that bolstered them. For a moment, Luther was struck utterly dumb as he stared at the small figure before him. Cuts and scratches marred her face, her clothes were rain-soaked and mud-stained and she'd come within moments of her own death.

  And she loved him.

  “Yuna...” he growled, wrestling with the impulses that warred inside of him. “You can't love me.”

  The dark-haired woman merely advanced on him, reached up to take his face in her hands and drew it down to hers. “Watch me.”

  And then her full, soft, sweet mouth was on his, and he was utterly gone. With a low, animalistic sound of longing, he swept her against him, feeling the tips of his fingers numb as his concentration slipped and fingernails curled into gleaming black claws. As her arms wrapped around his neck, he struggled wildly against the beast inside of him that beat relentlessly at his inner walls, howling to be let out. To transform now would mean killing her.

  She had no idea of the danger she was in.

  “Yuna.” His hands encircled her waist as he began to separate her from him, the line of his control wound tight as a bowstring. “Not now... too close to the ripening...” If he hurt her... if he had to see her blood on his hands... he'd never forgive himself.

  However, instead of releasing him, the young woman only clung to him more fiercely, refusing to let him pull away. “No. Luther, I want this.” She whispered in his ear, her voice as sweet as it had been the night he'd taken her the first time. “I'm not afraid. I'll never be afraid.”

  Whatever remaining restraint he'd retained was immediately abandoned. With a guttural groan, Luther fell onto her, his tongue tangling with hers as she sipped the life from him.

  What he'd expected did not happen. His body did not immediately contort into its animal form in the familiar burning rush. Instead, liquid-like heat blazed through him as he bore Yuna to the damp grass, igniting a fierce, carnal possessiveness that he'd only half experienced before. Every fiber of his being urged him to take her, to claim her, and to destroy anyone who might seek to cleave them apart.

  Growling, Luther shredded her musty cable sweater into woolen shreds, hastily tearing them from her body to reveal glowing, pale skin upon which the faint marks of his previous loving still lingered. The sight of those marks kindled an intense joy in him, and he wanted nothing more than to renew them, again and again, until they were permanently burned into her skin.

  Yuna moaned as his claws fisted in her hair, pulling her head back and her neck taut so he could run his tongue along its silky length and taste the divine musk of her sweat and desire. Her bra he made short work of, tossing the cotton scraps off somewhere into the trees before immediately focusing his attention on the straining, dark peaks of her nipples. She made the most alluring sounds beneath him, whining and gasping as he bit, sucked, and laved the tender bits of flesh with moisture. He didn't stop until they were pink and swollen from his ministrations- until she was panting him and begging for mercy. He could imagine, as he never had before, his pups suckling from the warmth of her bosom- and the thought gave him almost obscene pleasure.

  Luther took her mouth again, his teeth dragging against her lower lip until he drew blood, which he lapped away brusquely, the flavor singing through his veins. He rubbed his clothed erection indulgently against her bare white belly, feeling himself grow almost painfully hard at the thought of being within her again.

  In a quick motion, he flipped her onto her stomach on the grass, yanking her pants and underwear down to her knees to spread her legs wide and expose her to him. Her scent assaulted him first- sweet and intoxicating, begging his attention- before he took in the sight of her slick, pink, swollen flesh.

  She was so ready for him.

  “Luther-ah!” He silenced a low moan when he buried his face between her legs, lapping at her like a man starved. His woman's sweet musk was only for him- his to taste and exploit as he saw fit, melting her body into the perfect vessel to mount and take his seed. Yuna squirmed and screamed beneath him, her womanhood pulsing divinely against his tongue until her juices dripped from his jaw.

  Growling, Luther straightened, yellow eyes glinting darkly in the moonlight as he crouched over her and tore open the button of his pants. Only moments after freeing his throbbing erection, he slid it against her sopping opening from behind.

  She begged for it- just as his bitch should beg for him.

  Taking her hips in a bruising grip, Luther gave into her, pressing deep within her hot, inviting passage. Yuna cried his name, drawing a snarl of masculine pride from him as he proceeded to plow her hips into the soft earth underneath them. Every vestige of what made him, from earth to blood to ancient strength, sang through him, demanding that he make her his irreparably and for all time. His hand drew her head up and back as he fucked her, revealing the tantalizing line of her neck and shoulder along with the fading bruise from their last encounter.

  He'd been foolish, he realized, not to truly mark her then.

  This time when he bit, his teeth sank deep, past her flesh and muscle, and a ragged scream escaped her as the searing heat of the force that made him what he was swept through her, bonding her to him in a moment of intense intimacy, and insurmountable power. The rush was enough to make him tighten and jerk deep inside her, filling her with copious amounts of his seed.

  Beneath him, his mate's body undulated and quivered as she reached her own completion before collapsing, boneless, into the dirt.

  In the moments after, Luther slowly released his hold on her, reveling in the site of the ragged wound that would heal into a permanent scar- a proclamation to all in his clan and beyond: she was his forever.

  Part Three

  “You fucking idiot. What have you done?”

  Rolling over from where she'd been nestled against Luther's dozing form, Yuna fought back the sleepy haze, attempting to focus on the sharp, angry voice that had just echoed through the clearing. It took a moment for her vision to finally clear, but when it did, she discovered that she and Luther were not alone.

  Four figures stood amongst the trees.

  Two of them she recognized almost immediately. Liam Douglas ha
d grown since the last time she'd seen him, but the harsh lines of his face and intensity of eyes just as blue as his brother's had not. He was staring at her with cold fury radiating from his well-muscled form. Beside him stood the graying, imposing figure of Doctor Douglas. Even though Yuna knew he was close to 70, his posture was tall and stiff, and the expression with which he fixed her and Luther through gold-rimmed glasses was utterly unreadable. The remaining two people there were women who Yuna had never seen before. One had deep crimson colored hair that dropped in luscious waves to her waist, and eyes so dark they seemed almost black in the early morning light. Standing next to her was a much smaller female who was wrinkled with age, her eyes set deep within her head and wispy gray-brown hair atop her head thinning.

  Almost immediately, the young woman sat up, grabbing the soiled shirt that Luther had given her for a pillow and using it to cover her nudity as well as she could. Before she could say a single word, the man behind her had sprung into movement. He placed himself between his family and Yuna, his eyes flashing yellow. The low growl that built in his throat made the young woman shiver in a strange mixture of foreboding and arousal. She remembered the deep thrum of that growl against her back while Luther had been riding her, and the memory sent a thread of heat snaking through her. “You've ruined everything.” Liam's harsh snarl snapped her back to the present as he barked across the clearing at his brother. “You've doomed your entire clan. I should have known that you'd never be strong enough to continue the line.”

  “She must be dealt with.” The reedy voice of the old woman colored the air next. In Yuna's opinion, of the four standing there, she looked the least imposing. But her next words quickly banished that assumption. “Kill her, Liam.”

  The younger Douglas brother growled as his teeth began to lengthen. He crouched, preparing to leap. “My pleasure.”

  “If you touch her, I'll rip your throat out.” The vehemence in Luther's words froze Yuna's insides. She didn't quite know what was going on here. While the young woman had always known that the Douglases didn't exactly like her, she hadn't thought that they'd be willing to go so far as to murder her.

  Then again, until the previous night, she hadn't known that they were werewolves either.

  “Luther, you would divide us over a female? A human female?” This time it was Magnus who spoke, and the frigidity of his words made Yuna slightly ill. “We must correct this mistake.”

  “If you wanted her to live, brother, you shouldn't have marked her. You've killed her.”

  With those words, Liam leapt at his brother. Yuna gasped as the transformation from man to monster rippled over his body in midair. His ears lengthened and migrated, his face pushed forward and elongated, a mouth full of fangs splitting it in two. His limbs lengthened and contorted, growing claws and twisting him into a lethal shape.

  But Luther had transformed as well.

  The young woman screamed as the two creatures collided, howling, snarling and ripping.

  They were trying to kill each other!

  As little as Yuna had heard Luther speak about his younger brother, she'd known that they didn't have the best relationship. Now it seemed something had tipped the grudging balance of their relationship from tolerant to something decidedly more warlike.

  Yuna didn't know Liam, and she didn't know the Douglases, but she knew that most of their secrets and conflicts probably drew from the nature of their disposition. She couldn't even begin to comprehend the scope of what it must mean to be... well ...inhuman, but she couldn't think of anything that might be worth killing your own brother for.

  “Stop! Please, stop!”

  The two ignored her entreaties, biting and tearing at each other's flesh, sending blood and fur flying through the air copiously. “Make them stop!” Yuna cried desperately to the three figures across the clearing from her. “Whatever I've done, I'm sorry! I'll fix it. They're going to die!”

  “Liam, stop.”

  For the first time, the crimson-haired woman standing next to Magnus spoke. Her voice was deep and hoarse, as if she hadn't used it for a long time. However, the sound of it was enough to stop the two creatures in the clearing cold. Yuna breathed a sigh of relief as the woman's dark eyes looked from Luther to Liam, before finally resting on herself. The young woman reddened slightly as her intense black gaze bore into her for a full minute before the redhead went on. “She has no idea what's been done. Perhaps there's still time to rectify this.”

  “Impossible.” The elderly woman to her left snapped. “There is no way to break the bond once it's in place. You, of all people, should know that, Viola.” Yuna thought she saw a brief flash of pain through the younger woman's gaze, but decided she had just imagined it.

  “Luther isn't Alpha yet. We still have time.”

  Alpha? What the hell was an Alpha?

  “It doesn't matter!” Yuna jumped at the screeching, contorted speech that issued from Liam's inhuman mouth. “Luther is, unfortunately, the only viable candidate. He must receive the strain and he must be mated to a viable female. Blood to blood.” With growing horror, the young woman recognized the creature that had first pounced on her the previous night. It had been Liam.

  The man had almost taken her head off.

  And now he was talking something unintelligible about strains and mating and females. “She,” he said with a malicious gaze and a clawed finger in her direction, “is not a viable female. She is a dangerous distraction that should have been done away with long ago!”

  “Watch your mouth!” Luther barked dangerously. “You are talking about my mate.”

  “Luther, please.” The woman called Viola now addressed Luther's animal form. “We need to discuss this. Let's talk to the elders.”

  “Viola, stay out of this. As your mate, I command you.” Liam's voice was twisted in rage.

  “With due respect, my love, you may request my silence but you may not command me.” The red-haired woman's words were brusque and cutting, making the large yellow globes of Liam's eyes widen in surprise.

  “Luther.” All present turned to look at the head of the Douglas family when he finally raised his voice again. “Are you really willing to fight your brother to the death over this matter?”

  There was no hesitation from his eldest son. “I am.”

  The Douglas patriarch's face hardened before his mouth opened once more. “Very well. Bind her.” When both Viola- who Yuna had just been beginning to think was on her side- and the terrifying old woman began to move toward her, she scrambled to her feet, preparing to run to the sound of Luther's murderous growl. “We will not kill her,” Magnus reiterated firmly, his blue eyes piercing. “Her fate will be decided by the elders. Until they arrive to speak on the matter, she will remain here.”

  By this point, Yuna had been taken into the surprisingly strong grip of the elderly female. From seemingly nowhere, both she and Viola produced lengths of thin, strong cord. It only took a few minutes before she was trussed like a Christmas goose- and still humiliatingly naked to boot.

  “Yuna, I won't let them hurt you.” Luther's eyes were beginning to bleed back into their deep blue color as he gazed at her fiercely.

  “The elders will decide what to do with her.” Liam snapped in rebuttal. He'd already diminished back into his human form, which, in Yuna's opinion, was no less terrifying than his animal one. “Don't think the odds are in your favor.” He directed this threat at her, his eyes narrow. “Luther, weak as he is, represents the continuation of our line. You will not end it.”

  Yuna had no idea what he was talking about.

  All she could do was let them drag her back toward the crumpling mansion as a gray dawn broke over the forest, leaving the previous night, and what few fond memories she might have of it in the rapidly clearing lightening.

  As it turned out, Yuna's instincts about the Douglases being too proper to stay in a crumbling mansion had been correct. Instead of being led back to the interior of the huge ancient house, the young
woman was instead imprisoned beneath it. A large trap door in what must have been the old wheel house revealed that the space beneath the estate had been hollowed out into a series of tightly packed earthen caverns. The floors and walls were lined with marble, and the rooms were furnished with the luxury customary of the extremely wealthy.

  Yuna's eyes bugged slightly at the sheer size and scale of the underground dwelling. It must have taken years, decades even, to hollow out so much space. As far as she knew, the Douglases hadn't been here for decades.

  But then again, she was beginning to realize how little she knew about the family.

  She was taken past a fully outfitted kitchen, a library, a few lushly decorated bedrooms- all underground and running on full electricity- and down a few levels to the bottommost part of the structure. There, Liam tossed her into a room without a single piece of furniture, and only a single lamp. Before she could utter a single word of protest, he'd slammed and bolted the door behind her.

  At first, the young woman was outraged enough to slam her still-bound form against the door and demand to be let out; despite everything that had happened in the past 12 hours. After about thirty minutes, she rethought her strategy. Her good shoulder was beginning to ache, and it probably wasn't so wise to risk enraging people with the capability to turn into monsters who could rip the flesh from one’s bones.

  From that point onward for many hours, she sat in a corner of the lowly lit room, contemplating her fate as her limbs slowly numbed.

  She'd been kidnapped and basically taken prisoner by what were, for all intents and purposes, werewolves. They, for the majority, seemed pretty bent on killing her for some reason she couldn't quite comprehend. All she knew was that it had something to do with Luther, someone being alpha, and she lacking female viability, or something or other. The more she mulled over it, the more confusing it became.

  Vaguely, Yuna remembered Luther telling her that they'd needed to talk before he'd left her. Indeed, before they'd first been intimate, he'd mentioned that there were things that he needed to tell her. This was hardly what she'd expected. Though she'd known any kind of romantic dealings with Luther would be complicated with his family's disapproval, their trying to do her in was slightly over the top.