Moonsong (5 page)

Chapter Five

“Are we gonna sing kumbaya now?” Millie asked out of the corner of her mouth.

“Shhh, Gran’s about to make her speech,” Scarlett giggled beside her on a fallen log before the massive bonfire.

Amelia’s gaze drew back to Chase sitting at Adele’s right hand. Eyes meeting, the curve of his lips made her wonder if he’d been aware of their conversation. There were about fifty or so attending the gathering, and they’d been chatting socially as one might expect at a family reunion. Never in a million years would she have guessed it was a pack of shape shifters. They looked so… normal.

The tables positively groaned with potluck dishes of all sorts, fried chicken, macaroni salad, pies and cakes. Not quite the raw slabs of meat Millie’s fevered imagination had supplied for such a gathering, and Scarlett dissolved into peals of laughter when she’d asked if there would be a fresh kill for dinner.

The crowd grew silent when Adele rose to her feet, addressing them in a ringing voice that easily penetrated the clearing. As Chase predicted, she waxed on about new beginnings and the hands of fate. Millie lost track of the thread after a while, her mind wandering back to the earlier conversation with Chase. Feeling his eyes upon her again, she looked up and found him watching her; that self assured smile on his face.

Not her cousin
.

Not a blood relative at any rate, so that meant what exactly? That it was alright to be attracted to him? Not at all sure what it was he wanted from her, Amelia was in no hurry to jump into anything, no matter how sexy his smile was or how much the way his artfully unkempt hair made her fingers itch to tame it. Still… all that jazz about new beginnings had set her mind to thinking. She would be in Cutter’s Folly for the near future at least; there was no reason not to see where things led…

“Oh… right.” A hasty smile thrust upon her lips and she rose, making her way to stand before her grandmother, noticing the impatience in her gaze before she dropped her eyes respectfully.

“I give you Amelie LaRoche, the Mother of us All.”

There was a collective gasp from the crowd, and Millie winced at being referred to as the prophecy figure so openly. Christ, she didn’t have to make her own speech now did she?

“Come now and pay your tribute,” Adele commanded. “Sit here by my side,” she gestured to the seat at her left hand.

A quick glance to Chase who sat on Gran’s right showed he lacked the playful smile he usually wore, uncommonly serious as he faced the throng of people. Millie took her seat, wondering what sort of ‘tribute’ was the norm among the people.
Her
people, she reminded herself.

The pack stepped forward, some alone, some grouped into little family units. All approached the same way; with eyes downcast, their heads canted to one side, exposing their necks while they went down on one knee, until Adele acknowledged them and they raised their eyes. Even the littlest of children was familiar with the ritual. There was an exchange of greetings and an offering was made. Sometimes it was a little leather pouch or a fold of bills, one wizened old man brought a wood carving, a five year old girl sang a song in her pure sweet soprano that drew an enthusiastic applause from the waiting crowd. All gifts were equally received with a regal nod from Adele. All paused to genuflect before Amelia as well, and with no idea how to receive such a thing, she simply nodded, which seemed to go over fairly well.

At the end of the procession, Adele rose and thanked them as a whole for their tribute, inviting all to eat from her table and enjoy the gifts from the Gods. Music struck up from somewhere, not a homemade band like she might have expected, but modern music from a boombox hidden among the trees.

Released from her obligation, Millie soon had an informal court of her own, offering to fetch food and drink, asking all manner of questions. Thankfully, she’d never been particularly shy and soon Millie was laughing and having a good time, trying to learn as much about them as they wanted to know about her.

Stevie, a little girl who proudly announced she was seven years old, glommed onto her side, playing with the hem of Amelia’s dress. Stevie’s older brothers, twins named Taylor and Tyler were her main gophers, bringing Millie anything she liked. Joking and jostling each other good naturedly, they jockeyed for the best position near her. A pretty blonde with sullen eyes hovered near the edge of the crowd, watching her closely enough to make Millie nervous. The girl didn’t look particularly friendly, yet she didn’t move away.

“Why are you a mother? I don’t see any babies, do you got one growing inside you?” Stevie piped up, her hand going to Amelia’s middle.

“
Okay
…” Clearly the girl had issues with her, but it was actually kind of refreshing to find someone who wasn’t falling all over themselves to fetch and carry for her.

“That’s Leah. Don’t pay her any mind, she’s just jealous,” Taylor supplied helpfully.

“Why should she be jealous of me?” Amelia turned to find Leah again, who noticed she was being watched and scowled before deliberately turning her back on Millie.

“Because you’re so pretty.”

“She’s sweet on Chase.”

“
She
wanted to be the One.”

“‘Cause she’s a grouch and a half.”

The responses came tumbling out all at once from various followers, so that Millie couldn’t quite make out entirely what each of them said, but she got the general gist of things. “Oh,” she murmured. So that was Chase’s sweetheart. Of course he wouldn’t be unattached, and it made sense now the way the girl glared at her.

“Momma says you gotta eat when there’s food on the table even when you ain’t hungry, ‘cause there might not be food around when you are,” Stevie announced.

“I suppose that’s true,” Amelia allowed, wondering if that was an often occurrence for the little girl’s family.

An offer to dance came next. And another. Passed from partner to partner, Millie started to feel like she’d danced with every eligible man from age twelve to seventy. Some, like with the twins, she danced with at the same time until she finally begged off. In search of a bit of solitude, she left the bright light of the campfire and wandered into the woods, just far enough to catch her breath and a bit of peace and quiet.

“I thought you promised me never to enter the woods alone at night?” A familiar voice came to her out of the darkness.

Trying to hide the fact that she’d jumped a little, Amelia’s voice was steady when she replied. “We’re already in the woods, and it’s not like I’ve gone all that far.”

“Far enough…” he growled, coming from a different direction this time.

“Oh come on, any wild animals would stay away from the fire and the noise wouldn’t they?”

“Or hover in the shadows, waiting for a weak member to stray away from the safety of the pack… waiting for the right moment to make their move…” The voice sounded closer that time. Amelia strained in the darkness to catch sight of him, but there wasn’t even a flicker of movement.

“Is that what you’re doing? Waiting to make your move?” she challenged, a teasing lilt to her voice.

Chase dropped to the ground on her right, landing light as a cat before straightening to his full height and stepping close. “You’re not so good at listening; let’s see how good you are with your mouth,” he smirked. Closing the distance between them, he leaned down to kiss her, giving her no opportunity to pull away.

Millie opened her mouth to retort, her reply cut off to little more than a squeak as his mouth closed over hers. Who the hell did he think he was?
A wolf…
a little voice deep inside reminded as she tasted his hunger. Awareness flushed through her body as Chase pressed her against the length of him, trapping her body between his and the tree. Everything about him was hard and unyielding, velvet over steel, but he didn’t punish her with his strength, he merely kept her from escaping while he explored the dark secrets of her mouth at his leisure. Amelia’s initial hesitation quickly disappeared, the blood singing in her veins as her arousal spread like wildfire wherever their bodies touched.

Still, a smidgen of self control remained and Millie shoved at his chest, desperate to create a little space between them. Chase barely gave an inch, blazing a trail of kisses along the curve of her jaw towards the smooth column of her throat. “What are you doing?” she demanded, even as her fingers slid up to curl around the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer.

“Showing you how dangerous the night can be.”

His kiss was everything wild and dangerous about the night as promised, and a secret part of herself that she didn’t even know existed responded to the predator who took what he wanted, instead of asking permission as society dictated. No thought for consequences or the future, Chase operated on a purely sensual level; she could feel it in the way the energy thrummed from his body to hers. It made her forget the party in full swing just a few feet away; forget her objections to being manhandled altogether. Somewhere in the back of her mind that bothered her in a big way, and a flare of panic went through her as he touched bare skin. “Wait…” she panted, breaking the kiss and drawing in a ragged breath.

“Relax,” Chase made no move to let her go, lips brushing over the sensitive spot where neck met shoulder.

“We should get back to the party.”

“I warned you not to stray into the dark woods unprotected,” his teeth scraped lightly over her flesh in a little love bite, and Millie hoped it wouldn’t leave a mark. That was the last thing she wanted to explain to Gran.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped irritably. Chase seemed unperturbed; stroking his fingers down the bare skin of her back, making her shiver with delight. It took Amelia a long moment to focus her thoughts again before she could reply. “Just because you’re a good kisser, doesn’t make you my destiny. Besides, what about Leah?”

“Does
she
know that? ‘Cause if looks could kill…”

“She knew exactly what she was getting into.”

Millie turned that over in her head for a moment, trying to decide exactly what he meant by that. “Look…” she stole a deep, calming breath. “I like you Chase, I’d like to get to know you better, but I don’t belong to anyone but myself. That’s about all I’m offering right now. If that’s not enough…” she shook her head.

Chase stared back at her for a long moment, and then the tension went out of his body and he found his smile again. “Alright then, that’ll have to be enough… for now. I’m a patient man, Millie… up to a certain point,” he replied, tilting her chin up and placing an almost chaste kiss to her lips. “So, if you’re not going to let me steal your virtue out here let’s get back to the party, and no more wandering off, you understand?”

“Okay, okay,” a roll of the eyes was given, “I read you loud and clear.” She accepted his hand for the walk back to the party.

“Good, I’d hate to have to give you another lesson.”

Chapter Six

Amelia wasn’t exactly breaking her word.
Not exactly.

But scarcely three days after the party she was climbing the walls with boredom. After the first day of shopping with Scarlett, there wasn’t anything left in town to shop for. Watching the boats in the harbor proved a nice diversion for one afternoon, but a person could only watch fishing boats for so long before it started to get repetitive. Even surfing the net got boring after a while on the slow connection at the house, and she’d been expressly forbidden from contacting any of her friends from New Mexico via phone or email.