Willow (Willow Falls Saga) - By Donna Lynn Hope
Preface
I saw her through the frosted glass of the living room window. She was older now and round with child. Her husband, stockier in build with hair slightly thinner than before, was on the floor playing with a wide-eyed little boy. She brought him a toy and eased down next to both of them. The fire, which crackled in front of them, flickered off her dark hair, highlighting the red undertones that were veiled in normal light. Her cheeks were warm and she was radiant. I watched as she caressed her belly and could see the little one making small ripples under her blouse. She smiled with contentment.
The simple domesticated scene sent stabs of razor sharp pain throughout my body. What I would give to be in his place and what I would do to be rid of the ache I felt for her.
I had been drawn to her long ago and watched from afar as she aged; her presence, which was so striking to me before, was magnified ten-fold by the maternal glow she now emitted. Time had altered her appearance slightly and time would continue to wear down her sharp doll-like features but in my eyes she could only grow more exquisite.
I knew I would be as fascinated with her when she was eighty as I had from the moment I caught a glimpse of her silent, troubled face when she was in the tail end of her seventeenth year. Her laughter, her voice, her scent, and her deep but tortured soul would haunt me and compel me to be near her.
My emotions were like a scorching fire. I restrained the beast that had the urge to execute a great deal of destruction. I would take her now, even round with another man’s child, if I thought she would welcome it. My hands clenched into fists as I thought about how easy it would be.
I didn’t think it probable, but her decision to stay where she was made me love her all the more. She, like her exquisite mother before her, chose normality. She chose him.
I put my hand on the ice cold window and closed my eyes, willing the scene vanished from my thoughts.
I opened my eyes. The frost on the window seemed to spread until everything in my line of sight was covered in it. A fog began to form, enveloping me in it. Instead of a window, there was nothing but air. The fog began to dissipate as quickly as it moved in. I was standing in a field--the prized place where I drew her portrait as she rested in her reverie. In the distance I saw her. She was wearing a sleeveless white dress with her Husky by her side. Her hair was down, falling over her shoulders and she was smiling. I whispered her name to myself as I stood immobile with my eyes focused on her, willing nothing to change for fear she would disappear.
Prologue
There was a chill in the air with a coolness that cut to the bone and infused the soul with a longing for warmth and safety. A shadow had moved across the full moon and the ambiance was perilous. The wind picked up and her long golden hair whipped around her slender face. Her almond-shaped, sky-blue eyes scanned the horizon and her hand shook – something ominous was in the air. That’s when she saw them. Their forms blended into the darkness but nothing could hide the angry eyes that glinted so dangerously in the dark. One by one her kind emerged from the tree line. Their stench was foreboding and their gait was feral. She knew why they were there. Not long ago there had been another. He had come to her and warned her. He implored her to leave but being what she was, she could never stay hidden for long. She refused to leave, it wasn’t in her blood to run, and held out hope that there would be more time.
Her heartbeat quickened, her breathing slowed and she felt the all-too familiar surge of adrenaline. It wouldn’t be long now.
She heard the front door. She recognized her husband’s footsteps as they descended the wooden stairs and then he was behind her. His strong, weathered hands gripped her shoulders and her left hand reached up to hold his with their fingers interlocking on contact.
“They found us…” she whispered.
He closed his eyes and reassuringly nudged the back of her neck with his face. “It was only a matter of time.”
He held her close but she was trembling. He knew it would be soon. He could feel it in his arms – the static, the heat, and the vacillating rhythm of her pulse.
Only one stood slightly in front of the others. Beta she inferred. She knew him. His amber eyes were empty. He lost any trace of his humanity long ago. His dark coat was full and lustrous; he was, as they all were, lithe and striking, and yet, malicious – a foul disgrace.
They weren’t supposed to be.
Ones such as she were meant to be protectors. In the ancient world they had been called “The hounds of God,” and they had once been revered. Her father Sergei told her it wasn’t a curse to be what she was, but an honor. She, like all the others, couldn’t be turned, nor could they turn another. They were born into their way of life.
And yet, here she stood, silently wondering what happened to that code or if it was something a good man like her father told her so she wouldn’t infuse herself with self-hatred and resent her own existence.
She had seen that honor practiced long ago but not since her ouster. Her clan, once a seemingly loyal and familial pack, abandoned her years ago. In their eyes she had betrayed her own kind because she had dared to love someone different, and now she stood unaided and alone.
Nowhere in their laws was it forbidden for her to love a human and it was prohibited for a clan to abandon a member of the pack by leaving them exposed and defenseless as she now was. Humans posed a small threat. What couldn’t be seen posed the greatest. Her father, if alive, would have never stood for the uprising that took place following his death. Her father would have seen the disgrace for what it really was – the destructive consequence of envy.
Unwillingly, she had been claimed by Vadim, the strongest and most dominant member of the clan but she rejected him and followed her heart, and her heart led her here, to the man standing with her. In him she had found valor without the aid of supernatural gifts. It was the kind of honor that she had been taught but saw less and less of in the world around her.
In her world, having gifts sometimes caused a sense of pride so great that it meant ruling instead of serving. At one time there had been harmony among her kind. Now there were uprisings with the desire for power so great it caused betrayal and infighting. How could they stand against evil if they couldn’t even agree on what that was?
Her thoughts turned to her husband standing tough and formative behind her, his hands still offering their support. Courageous human though he was, it was impossible for him to assist her to victory. They were hopelessly outnumbered and they both knew it. And what of their young daughter who, even now, rested in a crib in the attic of their two-story cabin just a few feet behind them?
She shook her head and tried to remain focused, but she was first and foremost a wife and mother. She was a woman who didn’t want to be a fighter, but fight she would, for the ones she loved.
Instincts raged within her. First there was the genetic impulse to change and then there was the maternal instinct to run inside where she could protect her young, but if she did that she would lead them to her and they must not know about her. If she was considered disposable for merely loving a human, what would they do to her child?
She couldn’t hide the reactive tremor; it was already giving her away. She must not let her thoughts betray her further, and yet, the cherubic face of the little girl with her likeness and her father’s coloring lingered in her thoughts. Her daughter wasn’t one or the other, but both, a dormant with the possibility to be anything.
She closed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the visions that kept her from concentrating on the danger at hand. Her daughter would be safe. She could believe nothing else. She shielded her thoughts and squeezed her husband’s hand; his tightened with hers in supportive response.
The beta, second in command, approached and stared her down with a wicked smile forming at the crease of his mouth. This will be too easy.
He turned to the others. Smell their fear? The air is rank with it. Remember why we’re here. What flows through her veins is poison and we have orders to take her down.
He turned to her, made the link, and sneered. You know why we’re here, don’t you?
She twitched as energy raged throughout her body. Yes, I know.