Lucani Lovers: Shades Of Moonlight Part 4

Cold but feather-soft.

"You're going to be soaking wet by the time we get there if you don't pick up the pace."

Race's voice held a note of amus.e.m.e.nt that made her turn to look at him again. His expression had lightened some and that gorgeous mouth curved in a slight smile.

She smiled back as she lifted her hands to sign. "Want to be rid of me already?"

His eyes narrowed for a brief moment before he reached for her hand again and tightened his grip on her. "No."

Waiting for him to elaborate, she held her breath, but he had nothing more to say, which was par for the course with Race.

She released his hand so she could sign again then couldn't think of how to say what she wanted to say in sign language simple enough for him to understand.

Instead he grabbed her hand and pulled her along again. "Talk later. Walk now."

She wanted to argue. So she did. With one hand, she told him exactly how frustrated she was with him and knew he didn't understand more than a few words.

But his lips did that slight twist again that let her know he was amused.

"I'm pretty sure you just ripped into me but for once I'm happy I can't understand you."

She threw her free hand up in the air in exasperation and rolled her eyes but he just kept moving forward, that half-smile still tugging at his lips.

Mara couldn't quite contain her own smile. For the first time in what felt like forever, she thought maybe, just maybe, things had started to turn her way.

Cole Luporeale stared out the window of his office, watching the snow blanket the forest.

He registered the beauty of the white-tipped pines and pristine carpet covering the forest floor but his brain kept working the problem he'd been considering for the past few months.

What should he do?

Yes, there was so much more to the question. What should he do about Cat? What should he do about the Mal? What should he do about the coming war? The war only he seemed to know was coming.

A war that had the potential to further fracture the Etruscan races until they ceased to exist altogether.

And allowed the Mal to spread unchecked.

"Cole. You have a minute?"

Turning from the window, he made sure he had his game face on. He wasn't sure it would help. Sometimes he thought Dorian Pelligrini could actually read his mind.

It didn't help that his praetorian had been with him since he'd been nineteen. Now Cole was legatus of the lucani legion. He'd inherited the t.i.tle of king from his father and he'd managed to keep the lucani from splintering into several pieces over the last two years.

But even though he was thirty, she could still make him feel like a stupid kid with nothing more on his brain than s.e.x and drinking.

Vaffanculo, he really wished that was all he had on the brain.

"What's up, Dorian?"

She stopped just inside the door. She wouldn't come any closer unless he specifically invited her to.

"I heard about Mara. When are they going to try to break the rest of the spell?"

"Sounds like you're worried about her?"

Dorian shrugged and Cole hid a grin. Anyone who met Mara was taken in by her sweetness. Apparently Dorian had had the same reaction.

"The girl didn't deserve what those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds did to her."

"No, she didn't. And I don't know when they're going to attempt to break the rest. Margie said the first part knocked them all on their a.s.ses. They want to regroup before they try the second. Come in and sit, Dori. You're making my neck hurt."

She shook her head. "No time. Have you forgotten? You've got a meeting in five minutes."

Holding back a sigh, he nodded. "I haven't forgotten. Is she here yet?"

"No. But you know she'll be on time."

He nodded. The G.o.ddess Turan was never late. And every time she showed up, she left him with more questions than he'd had before she showed up. "And one of these days maybe she'll actually tell me why she comes to talk."

Dorian leaned against the doorjamb, dark-brown eyes staring at him with single-minded focus. "Maybe she likes the company."

Her deadpan delivery made him grin and brought out an answering smile on her beautiful face. Years ago, he'd accepted the fact that Dorian was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever met, smart and s.e.xy with a dry wit not many people realized she had. He'd never been attracted to her s.e.xually but he often wondered if she ever thought about sleeping with him.

h.e.l.l, they spent most of their time together, which meant if he went on a date-which he did occasionally-she went as well.

Which made him wonder if she had dates of her own.

What would she do if he flat-out asked her to sleep with him?

Probably lay him out flat with a left hook. He'd seen her take down bigger men.

"Cole? Is everything okay? You haven't seemed yourself lately."

He didn't feel like himself lately. He felt out of it, a beat off. Ever since he'd returned from New Orleans a year ago, where he'd held his first congress, a meeting of the North American lucani packs.

That meeting hadn't gone as planned. He'd nearly lost his sister Arabella and his best friend Steven Castiglione there.

And this past year had been...eventful, to say the least.

They'd gained a new G.o.ddess and added several members to their extended family. Some of whom had Mal ties.

That should've worried the h.e.l.l out of him. But Grace had proven her loyalty to the lucani. And her daughter and son and their cousin Mara were innocent p.a.w.ns in Mal games and Cole would never turn them out.

h.e.l.l, his best friend Steven had been born Mal and he'd more than proven his loyalty to Cole and Arabella.

"Times are changing."

Dorian's eyes narrowed in concern but her tone was droll. "Are you going to sing now? At least give me fair warning so I can leave before my ears bleed."

Cole shook his head, frustration and fear bubbling in his gut. Neither of which he ever showed outside this office. "Aren't you worried about what's coming?"

Dorian took a deep breath and released it on a sigh. "Of course. But that just means we have to be ready for anything. So that's what we do."

If only it were that easy. Because the person who needed to be sure the lucani knew what to be ready for was him. And he couldn't fail. The fate of an entire race depended on him.

"Cole. You're over-thinking."

"No, this time I don't think I am."

Dorian rolled her eyes. She actually f.u.c.king rolled her eyes at him. "Fine. You want to mope for a few minutes, have at it. But just remember. You're not dealing with a bunch of pansy-a.s.sed humans. We're also wolves. We've got fangs and claws and we know how to use them. If people forget that sometimes, that's their problem."

"Vaffanculo, you sound like you wish we were back in the forests spending most of our time in our pelts."

Coming from Dorian, that was a shock. She was one of the most human lucani he knew. Even in her pelt, she retained a sense of humanity.

"That's not what I'm saying at all. And you should know that. What I am saying is that maybe some of our people have forgotten what it means to be lucani. What it means to be Etruscan."

"You think I don't know that? I deal with it on a daily basis. More and more lucani are moving out of the dens and into the cities. Taking drugs to suppress their change. Our birthrate has been declining for centuries." And even more frightening, at least two teenage lucani who he knew of had not been able to call their wolves.

It was almost as if the lucani were losing their ident.i.ty.

"Then maybe they need to be reminded."

"Of what?"

Dorian straightened away from the doorjamb, long and sleek. "Of who they really are."

Then she turned and headed toward her office at the back of the house. Leaving Cole to wait for a G.o.ddess alone.

Chapter Four.

"He's a pretty happy guy, isn't he?"

Mara nodded, smiling. She couldn't stop smiling.

She'd spent several minutes crying at Grace and Kaisie's house at the first sound of Arin's voice. No, he couldn't speak, but his happy burbles when he caught sight of her made her burst into tears.

She'd thought Race was going to turn and run for the door. It would be a short trip, considering he'd planted himself in front of it the second he'd closed it behind him.

He'd stayed there while she listened to Grace talk about Arin's night. She saw Kaisie walk over to talk to him at one point but Race never took his eyes off her.

It could've felt creepy. It wasn't. Not at all.

It made her tingle all over. And when she thought about that kiss last night...

That made her heart race.

And just thinking about it in those terms made her smile. Arin smiled back and she rubbed her nose against his before she lifted her head to look at Race. His gaze had sharpened to a laser focus, taking in her every move, though he appeared to be talking to Kaisie.

"So you and Race. I like him."

Mara should've been expecting Grace's straightforward approach. Even so, she couldn't stop the blush from painting her cheeks red.

"Oh, you don't have to be embarra.s.sed." Grace reached out to pat her on the jaw and give her a smile. "h.e.l.l, if I were a few years younger, he'd be on my wish list too. Too bad there's never a good time for anything nowadays. But some things you just have to make the time for, in my opinion."

Grace's words stuck with her as she and Race made their way back to her little house.

The snow had stopped, leaving everything with a coating of white. Fresh. Clean. Amazingly quiet. Almost as if she couldn't hear again.

But that wasn't totally true. She heard Race's quiet breathing above her as he carried Arin on his back in the metal-frame backpack, though he barely made a sound as he waded through the snow. On the other hand, she sounded like a herd of elephants. Which was music to her ears.

She was listening to the crunch of the snow under her feet when Race dropped a heavy hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

"Don't move."

His voice was low, almost subvocal. A warning.

She looked up at him but his attention was focused to his left.

They'd been following the tree line of the forest. It'd never occurred to her to be worried about wild animals. She lived with a community of wolf s.h.i.+fters.

But this wasn't a wolf.

A black bear lumbered toward them from the forest. She sucked in a sharp breath, fear making every muscle in her body tense. She wanted to take Arin and run but she knew that was the worst thing she could do.

She held her breath, waiting for Race to tell her what to do. Hoping he had a plan.

The bear looked directly at them, made its way straight toward them. And stopped only a few feet away.

Then, like Winnie the Pooh, it sat on its haunches and growled at them. But it wasn't a growl. It didn't sound angry. And the bear made no attempt to lunge at them.

It sat there, waiting.

"Okay," Race said in that barely audible whisper. "We're going to-"

Arin began to babble loudly. And squirm in the backpack. Fear made her heart pound.

Blessed G.o.ddess, please- Arin stopped and the bear began again.