Violet's Shadow Read online

  “So you’ve heard me this whole time? You heard me tell you to stay inside. And you heard me tell you to go inside and you didn’t? You heard me tell you to protect yourself and instead you chose to put yourself in harm’s way when I could have easily defended us?”

  “Yes to all but the last part.”

  A growl bounced off the walls of the small space, landing in the pit of her stomach. “How was I supposed to know you could defend us? How was I supposed to know you weren’t going to eat me? This is the first time we’ve met, Shadow—”

  “Shadow is what I am, not who I am.”

  Violet’s knees hit the couch and she “oofed” as she fell onto it. All the while the wolf continued to pad closer.

  “Again, why did you not follow my orders?”

  “Orders. As if. Well, let’s see. You appeared in the woods out of nothing, and I was pretty sure I was losing my mind. Then you chase me all the way here, and I think I’m going to be your dinner. Not to mention the fact I don’t follow orders real well. Then I hear you in my mind. What was I supposed to do? Invite you in for dinner? Then you place yourself between me and the knotheads out there—who I’m assuming you knew were there. Just hide and leave you with three dudes who wanted to play tee ball with your head? Right. Not in my nature.”

  He stopped in front of her slightly parted legs and faced her with those glowing red eyes. “But you will follow my orders.”

  Violet wet her lips and stifled a moan as he leaned forward and nuzzled the tops of her thighs. “I don’t like anyone telling me what to do.” Except in bed, she added in her head as he breathed in deeply. Directly over her pussy. There was no doubt he could smell how wet she was. Could be from the adrenaline from the fight.

  Or her being scared shitless earlier. It definitely wasn’t from the single command he issued in a voice lilting with some kind of accent. She clenched her hands into fists at her sides to refrain from grabbing his head and holding it in just…the…right…spot.

  This really took the term animal attraction to a whole new level.

  “But you like me telling you what to do. Don’t you?”

  And with that he licked her jeans. A whimper escaped her throat as he ran his tongue over Violet’s denim-covered pussy. Then he reared slightly up and placed his forepaws on either side of Violet’s hips. “Do not move your hands.”

  She raised her hand to touch his fur. “Who are you?”

  The room shifted, and Violet’s eyes began to water as if she were looking at the hot pavement in Florida. She blinked to clear her vision and gasped, assaulted with the most breathtaking man she’d ever seen. His sun-kissed skin and mahogany hair radiated strength and vitality and his startlingly focused gaze weighed upon her.

  His red eyes brightened and his nostrils flared as he stared at her, drinking her in.

  And he was naked. Bare as the men outside had been. While she barely noticed them, he was beautiful.

  Solid muscle under sinew of flesh she ached to taste. And his scent? It was like the most perfect cologne she’d ever smelled. Another whimper passed her vocal cords and she trapped her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. “What are you?”

  He tunneled his fingers through her hair and yanked her forward, stopping no more than a whisper away from his lips being on hers.

  She instinctively grabbed on to his hips and dug her fingers in. Holding on. She never wanted to let him go.

  When he spoke, the flesh of his mouth moved against hers. He breathed the words into her soul as if they were something she’d needed to exist even a moment longer.

  “I’m…your Shadow.”

  Chapter Two

  His mouth?

  Perfection.

  How it felt, and tasted. Pressure. How he licked against her lips until she opened them…fuck.

  Apparently, she’d never been kissed before. Not really. Not if his kiss was the standard to compare all others by.

  Then his hands were in her hair. Tugging her head to expose her throat so he could lick and nip her skin as she kneaded the flesh at his waist. She hooked her ankles behind his thighs as he kneeled before her.

  It probably should have been submissive in nature. Him at her feet. But he was nothing if not dominant and powerful and possessive and…delicious.

  And he was a Shadow.

  A Shadow?

  “What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing? Get off me. Get off. Get. Off!” Shoving, she scrambled away from him, crab crawling to the other end of the couch. She stood to pace away, but immediately felt as if she’d made a mistake. Losing his touch left a physical ache in the center of her chest. It…hurt…not to be touching him. What the hell did that mean? “Making out with the dude with red eyes. Great.”

  “Do you do this a lot?” He stood, and she kept her gaze firmly on his face ‘cause her peripheral vision was quite good.

  “Well. I’ve never made out with a, whatever you said you were, before. So I’m going to say no.”

  “I’m your Shadow. And I meant talk to yourself.” His voice. Holy shit his voice. It was like bourbon on the rocks. Fire and ice. Rich. Sensual. And his eyes. The way he stared at her made her stomach flip over.

  “Oh. Shadow. Yeah. Still means nothing to me. And thanks for pointing out the talking to myself thing. Really sensitive.”

  “I’m not here to be sensitive.”

  “Then why are you here exactly? And for all that is holy in the world wrap a blanket around your waist.” She grabbed a throw off the end of the couch and practically threw it at him.

  Remove practically.

  His slow smirk as he covered himself told her he knew exactly what effect he had on her.

  Super.

  ‘Cause self-conscious was really something else she needed to add to her plate at the moment.

  “I’d like some answers.” She crossed her arms and waited. Glaring at him didn’t seem to have much of an effect. Especially since he stared at her boobs beneath her pink tank top. “Hey, buddy, eyes up here.”

  His red-eyed gaze drilling into hers sent a shiver of awareness up her spine. The sensation settled heavily between her thighs, and somehow he must have known it because he glanced along her body and back up again.

  “Rayden.”

  Waiting for more information proved useless, but for a second or two, she was struck momentarily speechless. “What did you say?”

  “My name. Rayden.”

  “Rayden?” It came out a whisper and a question, not because she couldn’t pronounce it, didn’t hear him or wanted to see how it tasted on her tongue. No. It was because she knew the name—had heard it hundreds of times in her dreams.

  He nodded. “And you’re Violet.”

  “How the hell do you know my name? Or that I was here? Or you could talk to me inside me head?”

  “A little birdie told me.” He watched her as if he was waiting for something. “She told me quite a bit about you actually. Don’t know how much of it I believe. And from the smell of you we don’t have much time to get acquainted before we have to get you out of here.”

  “From the smell of me? Good Lord. I showered this morning. And out of here?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not going anywhere with you…until I have some answers.” The first six words were all she had any intention of saying. The last five words she apparently copied off some post mortem form labeled “Cause of Death.”

  “We don’t have time for twenty questions.”

  “We have plenty of time if you’d just stop trying to order me around.” Where her bravado came from she truly didn’t have a clue. She was normally more of a go-along-to-get-along kind of girl. For some reason, he raised all kinds of hackles inside her and all she wanted to do was push back. Embracing the attitude seemed like a good idea and everything else was screwy so she decided to run with it.

  “You’re going to answer a few questions.” Heat expanded inside her as if she’d been kissed by fire. One deep breath, followed by another
allowed the heat to recede to normal…ish. “Now start answering. How did you know I was here and how long have you been watching me?”

  Lowering his chin several degrees followed her glaring at him, but he said nothing as he continued to stare at her.

  A force of wills. Sounded like a great idea, and she had to convince her leg to calm the fuck down to keep from tapping her foot. So she just stood there, facing off with him. Seemed like forever, but probably no more than a minute.

  “I could have tracked you anywhere.” Finally, he spoke. Score one for her. “As long as you were within a hundred miles of me, I’ll always be able to find you. Until the ascension ceremony and then I’ll be able to find you anywhere on the globe.”

  “Ascension ceremony? Are you becoming a leader or something?”

  “No.”

  “Then who’s this ascension ceremony hoobie hoobie for?”

  A single nod in her direction made her stomach plummet to her toes.

  “Me? I’m ascending to something?”

  Another nod.

  “I don’t know who you think I am, but whoever it is, you’re wrong.”

  “You aren’t controlled by me. Earlier on the couch I told you not to move your hand and you did it anyway.”

  “Duh.”

  The way he narrowed his eyes and the flex in his jaw told her she’d gotten under his skin. Point two for her. To what end she had no idea, but it still felt good. “If you weren’t who you are, you wouldn’t have been able to move.”

  “Or I’m no one to you and you totally flashed the wrong girl.” Panic lit inside her and she tried to tamp it down. Attitude was better than huddling into a ball in a dark corner.

  Totally better.

  She glanced at the corner.

  A tiny growl rumbled through him, and her lips tingled at their remembered kiss. “And before when I told you to go inside, yet you stood there defiant as any Alpha I’ve seen.”

  “Defiant as any female worth her salt.”

  A muscle in his jaw flinched as he clenched his teeth. “When I was a wolf you could hear my thoughts.”

  “You were loud enough about it.”

  “Without Shadow blood in your veins you wouldn’t have been able to hear me at all. And I shouldn’t have been able to…”

  She waited. Pulled out the what the fuck face and still nothing. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re worse than most girls when you ask them if something’s wrong.”

  “You’ve been restless lately. Can’t sit still. Feel somewhat ill all the time. Have a hard time controlling your temper. Hungry.” It wasn’t the word he used, but how he said it. From the swipe of his tongue across his bottom lip to his perusal of her body from head to toe she knew exactly what kind of hunger he was talking about.

  And he was right.

  She’d been so horny for the last several months she wanted to come out of her skin. Except when she even thought about sleeping with someone her skin crawled. Getting away fast enough wasn’t an issue, because she never got close enough to begin with.

  Except with him.

  On the couch.

  And her entire body urged her to drag him onto it and keep him there until she’d had her fill.

  A groan tried to escape her throat, but she clamped it down. Pacing so she had something to do with her extra energy sounded better than taking him on the couch.

  Yeah. It was a lie, but she was fine with thinking it.

  Mostly.

  Focus. “Were your eyes always red?”

  “No. Each Shadow is born with their eyes the color they will be when they shift. When they’re a few days old they fade to their normal color. Normal being a slightly different version than what you’re used to. But the Shadow is always underneath.”

  “How old does someone have to be to change? Or can you do it when you’re born?”

  “Twenty-five or so seems to be the magic number. Believe you just had a birthday, right?”

  Violet froze and glared at him. “How’d you know?”

  “A little birdie, named Hannah, told me. Same birdie who told me your name, and where to find you, and when you’d be here.”

  “Have you been stalking me the whole time I’ve been here?”

  “Protecting you. Yes.”

  She had no retort. “Who’s Hannah?” The moment the name passed her lips an overwhelming sensation of family filled her. Of a sister. And a lovely lilting voice inside her head offered up one word. Fate.

  The overflow of emotion assaulted her once more and she had to put all her concentration into schooling her features until she could get them under control again.

  “You’ll meet her soon enough. And man, you ask a lot of questions.”

  Taking a deep breath bought her enough time to wrap her snark around her emotions again. “I’m just getting started after the clusterfuck whatever happened outside the cabin earlier. Who in the world were they anyway?”

  “Assholes.”

  “Clearly. Care to be a bit more specific?”

  “No.”

  “Helpful. Then why were they after me?”

  “For the same reason I am.”

  “Which is…?”

  “You see things.”

  Rolling her eyes seemed like a good way to respond so she started with it and finished up with, “I have eyes. I can see all sorts of things.”

  “And in your dreams? And when your eyes are closed? You can still see things.”

  The urge to retreat was strong, but instead she took a challenging step forward. “Impossible.” She repeated her mother’s mantra.

  He moved forward, mirroring her position with his arms crossed. The way the muscles in his arms bunched as he flexed them wasn’t lost on her. “Not impossible, but really quite rare.”

  “Not that I believe anything you’re saying, but you look about my age. If that’s right and you just shifted,” yeah, she made air quotes with her fingers, “a little while ago then how come you know so much about—”

  “I’m nearly three hundred.”

  Silence. “Uh-huh.”

  “Not believing the truth doesn’t make it any less true.”

  She ignored him completely and pressed on. “One more question.” Her heart rate increased again as she got close enough to smell his cologne. Damn, he smelled good. Nerves lit up along her spine and she stretched her neck to try to relieve her headache.

  His eyebrow lifted in clear skepticism.

  “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Real funny. Why are your eyes red? I mean that color. I know I asked it early, but, do all Shadows have red eyes?”

  He shook his head. “Some Shadows have red eyes when they change. Others yellow. Some teal. Pink. Black. Depends on who your family is. Your parents. Some, a rare few, even have violet like yours.”

  She froze. “What did you say?”

  “Violet. Like yours.”

  “I have brown eyes. Dull, boring, meh brown.”

  “Not anymore you don’t.”

  “Stop messing with me. I’m not a Shadow. I’m just a girl.” Bypassing the couch, she moved toward the dresser on the far wall with a mirror on top. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I’m nothing but a— Oh, my Gawd, my…”

  Violet eyes stared back at her. Bright shimmering irises. “But how?”

  She faced him again and didn’t even know what to say.

  “You’re a Shadow, Violet. Your father was a Shadow.”

  “I never knew my father.”

  “Your mother was a Shadow.”

  “My mother is an accountant.”

  “Your mother is a thief.”

  “What? And what did she steal?” She looked down at her no-name jeans, and two-year-old sneakers. “We live like gypsies so it couldn’t have been very expensive.”

  “Priceless actually. It was priceless.”

  Violet shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly more than a little cold. “I don’t
believe you. I’m probably just dreaming again.”

  “Dreaming. And have you seen me in your dreams?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Shadow man.” She tried to look down her nose at him, but she got distracted, knowing what he was packing beneath the thin blanket.

  “So you have?”

  “Perhaps someone who looked a bit like you. Same red eyes no doubt. But it doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn’t?”

  “The eyes. You said someone’s eyes changed when they shifted. But I’ve never crawled out of the shadows like I saw you and the other guys do. And you’re a man right now. Hold on. When they were out there, their eyes weren’t an off color. Why are mine purple now? Why are yours still red? Why are—”

  “What?”

  “You’re asking me questions now?” She threw her hands up, and a warm sensation jolted down both of them. “We’re never gonna get far then.”

  He stomped toward her and then walked around her. To stare in the mirror. He looked just as freaked out as she’d felt a minute before staring at her own eyes.

  “Surely you’ve seen yourself in the mirror before.”

  “Yes, I have.” He stated it so matter-of-factly she had no idea what to make of his odd behavior.

  “Are they normally not red when you’re in your—man suit?”

  “No.” That was it. No other info came after it.

  “No, please. Slow down. I can’t process all of the information you’re throwing at me.” She turned and paced away before he could twist and glare at her. Her mind spun and she felt light-headed so she grabbed the edge of the couch. Something he’d said earlier seemed important, but she couldn’t put her finger on why.

  “Why don’t a lot of Shadows have violet eyes?”

  “It’s extremely special.” He said it almost as if he were sad to answer. What a strange reaction.

  “I’m lost.”

  “No, Violet.” He faced her and his eyes seemed to glow brighter again as he moved closer. “You are finally found. And by the look of things just in time. We don’t have long to get you back to—”

  “The look of what things?”