The Revelation (4 page)

             
“It's gone.” Viola returned abruptly. “Everything. The mansion's in ashes and the tunnels have been collapsed. Whoever they were, they were very thorough.”

             
At the idea of the old house, both beautiful and haunting, along with the tunnel beneath gone forever, Yuna's insides twisted. “How do you know it was hunters?”

             
“We have our ways. And there's always the destruction. Other people might have tried to investigate or preserve the sight... but hunters decimated it. It's part of their calling card; that, along with pain, fear, and death.” When Viola's gaze locked with Viola's again, her expression was pained. “If they were at the den, Yuna, that means they're only hours away. If they find us... if they find you and your pup, there will be blood.”

             
The thought made Yuna's blood run cold. “But, why?” She managed. “Why are they hunting us?”

             
“It's what they do.” Viola turned, her voice rife with bitterness. “Even though the conflict between us has faded as our numbers have, they've always been brutal in the way they deal with moonkind. We almost never escape unscathed.” The way Viola spoke- the way her voice trembled slightly and her gaze, usually so fierce, wavered slightly in uncertainty- it was more than enough to convince Yuna that the hunters were woefully bad news.

             
If what Viola said was true, then there were killers far closer to her unborn child and Luther than Yuna could ever be comfortable with. The knowledge that wolf killers even existed was enough to make her skin crawl. Though she'd heard Luther's parents mention them once or twice, the casual way in which her mate had rejected the idea of their nearness had reassured her. “What can we do?” She found herself asking as her hands found the small swell of her abdomen instinctively.

             
“We can leave,” Viola returned fiercely. “The sooner the better.”

             
“Where?”

             
“Scotland. Early, I know, but there's protection there; and any chance the hunters would follow us so far would be extremely slim.”

             
Yuna's head spun with the quickness with which her situation had gone from complicated to imminently life-threatening. It seemed these days, there was never a moment's rest from the dangerous world of the Douglases. As crazy as her life seemed to have become, however, Yuna could only remind herself that this was a path she had chosen. She'd had the opportunity to forget about Luther and move on with her life- to live in a normal, carefree cocoon.

             
Of course, she'd chosen Luther. Luther and every dark secret in his life shrouded in mist.

             
Sighing, she knew there was only one decision she could make. The lives of her mate, his clan, and her unborn child were on the line.

             
“How soon can we go?”

             
Viola's relieved smile was worth its weight in gold. “As soon as I talk to Liam. We'll find some way to break the news to Luther.”

             
“I'll tell him,” Yuna found herself volunteering readily. The thought of what might happen if Luther found out exactly what secrets his brother had been keeping from him didn't sit well with her. As much as Liam intimidated her, she'd never liked the idea of the brothers at odds.

             
Suddenly, Viola slumped forward against the headboard, swaying dizzily on the way down. Her stomach dropping quickly in shock at how fast the older woman fell, Yuna immediately wrapped an arm around her. She barely kept Viola's from making sickening contact with  solid mahogany. “Viola! Are you alright?”

             
The red-head shuddered in her grip. “Bathroom- I need a bathroom.”

             
No sooner had she helped Viola down the hall and to the restroom than the woman lurched to the toilet to throw up in a series of violent heaves. Yuna could only watch, her own insides churning at the sounds emitting from her companion. She'd never had the strongest stomach herself, and seeing Viola vomit was making her more than a little queasy.

             
Nonetheless, she waited with as much patience as she could muster for the older woman. Fifteen minutes that seemed like a small eternity passed before finally,  Viola rested her head against the toilet seat, her breathing slowing. It was at that point that Yuna deemed it appropriate to excuse herself and procure a glass of water for her friend. The redhead was obviously grateful, taking the libation to first clean out her mouth before taking a few tentative sips.

             
“Are... you ok?” The dark-haired girl finally ventured, leaning against the bathroom sink as Viola slowly came back to herself. Her expression exhausted, her companion glanced up at her. “I've no idea. I've been feeling slightly off for the past week or two, and today this Gods-awful nausea started. I've been in and out of the restroom all afternoon.”

             
“Have you changed anything in your diet?” Yuna sank down onto the carpet just outside the shower to place a reassuring hand on Viola's shoulder. “Did you stop taking any medicines?”

             
“No and no,” Her companion replied as she pulled the small lever at the side of the toilet, sending the recently emitted contents of her stomach swirling away. “I'm rarely ever ill.”

             
The haggard look on Viola's face, along with the way she clutched her stomach and her pale face, were somehow familiar to Yuna. When she realized the reason, she fought a split second battle within herself: a war between excitement and apprehension. “Viola... do moonkind... do you get periods?”

             
The woman turned to her, her face contorted in confusion. “What kind of question is that?”

             
“When's the last time you had a period, Viola?”

             
It took a moment or two for the red-haired woman to realized exactly why Yuna was pressing the issue. When clarity colored her face, she almost immediately flushed, shoving back from the toilet as if she'd been burned. “No. No.”

             
It was possible. From a number of talks she'd had with her friend, Yuna knew that Viola had to protect herself from pregnancy just like any human woman. She'd never known exactly if the reproduction cycle was the same between Luther's species and her own, but if Viola's sudden sickness had no other explanation, than only one option remained. “Viola, it's OK.” Yuna reached for her hand. “We'll figure it out.”

             
“It can't be.” Scrambling to unsteady feet, the older woman fixed Yuna with a look of utter panic before fleeing the bathroom. It was only moments later that the young woman heard the door slam, the harsh echo making her wince.

             
Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was having a rough time adjusting to life changes. If Viola was indeed... in that way, Yuna's issues weren't the only ones that the clan was going to have to contend with. The young woman couldn't imagine Viola giving up her child- human or not; and ultimately, that probably meant another confrontation with the Elders.

              Hunters.

             
Luther hadn't thought he'd have to worry about their kind within his lifetime; but to hear of them, from Yuna of all people! He deserved an explanation and he was hell-bent on getting one.

             
“Luther, wait. I know you're angry.”

             
Following him from the car as it rocked with the force of his slamming the door shut, Yuna was hot on his heels. Only moments after she'd revealed what Viola had told her and spoken to him about leaving immediately for Scotland, his blood had boiled. His ire had driven him straight out the front door and pell-mell toward his father's office.

             
This was nothing his clan could rightfully keep from him! This so-called 'protection' his parents spoke of was more than dangerous if it kept them from revealing information as dire as this to him. He'd been laughing off the possibility of their being hunted since his adolescence and now the enemy were practically on their doorstep.

             
“Luther, wait, please. You need to calm down.”

             
“Not now, Yuna.” The Alpha in him growled dangerously as he yanked the door almost off of its hinges, sauntering into the front room of the psychology practice. At the sight of his livid figure silhouetted in the doorway, Rebecca, his father's receptionist, shrank back in her seat. The few occupants of the waiting room beyond hid pointedly behind their magazines and cell-phone screens, hoping to avoid any confrontation. “Where is he?”

             
“In his office,” Rebecca squeaked almost immediately, pointing down the hall. Despite his mate's pleas, Luther immediately started in the direction of his father's lair. Magnus was his father, and had once been his Alpha, but Gods, there would be hell to pay for this.

             
Yanking the door open, he let himself in to face the surprised man over the meticulously organized surface of his desk. No sooner had Yuna hurried in behind him than Luther shut the door with as much grace as he could muster before letting his anger and frustration fly. “Hunters, father? Hunters? How could you keep this from me?”

             
Magnus had the grace to look abashed; but there was little else he gave his son. Though he had passed on the Alpha strain weeks ago, Magnus had yet to let go of the self-justification and pride that came from a lifetime of watching over his clan. “We told you that it would be best to take our leave. The rest was information we weren't entirely sure about.”

             
“Do you think me a fool?” Luther spat back, insulted that his father could continue to lie. “You've never suggested a move for this clan without being absolutely certain in your motives. Liam knows that it was they. How can you expect me to truly do my part as Alpha if you don't allow me the information required to be on top of protecting my people?”

             
“You are my son-”

             
“I am your Alpha!” Luther hissed back, slamming his hands down on the finished maple wood before him as his eyes flashed a brief, dangerous gold. “And this clan will tear itself apart it if it doesn't stop trying to do what's best for me and let me decide on those details myself.”

             
From behind him, he could sense Yuna's discomfort at watching the argument between them; but it was hardly enough to cut through his ire.

             
“Well, now that you know, you've apparently made the right decision.” The barely veiled satisfaction in the elder man's voice tested the limits of Luther's endurance. His father had always been powerful, and despite his propensity for hiding the truth, he had always had the clan's best interests in mind. Why couldn't he see now that whatever he hoped to do for the clan was dependent upon keeping his son and Alpha informed?

             
“There was no other choice,” Luther returned somewhat incredulously, throwing his arms up to face Yuna as he continued to fume. Yuna stepped forward to curl her hands into his tense shoulders. She spoke not a single word, only beginning a firm, intricate motion with her hands that had him on the edge of relaxation with minutes, despite the emotions still flowing rampantly through him. Even after almost four months of being bonded to her, he was still in awe at the ease with which the woman could read him. She wasn't moonkind, that much was certain, but she knew him as well as any mate of his own species would have- better, perhaps. Though he was rarely in such a fierce rage around her, she still knew what to do. When he could finally speak again, he raised his hands to still her dexterous fingers against his grateful muscles before enfolding her into his embrace. With a relieved sigh, she came, and within her he felt the fluttering of life that drove the actions of his entire clan.

             
“It was not even my choice to make,” he muttered to the man at his back as he held Yuna tightly to him. After a moment in which he let her nearness calm him into rationality, he turned to face his father again. “Whatever you may think of Yuna, father, she is the next Douglas matriarch. Above myself, she deserved to know.”

             
“Yuna is human.” Magnus returned stiffly, making the woman at Luther's side wince slightly at the frigidity of his words. “She has no idea of the threat we face.”

             
“Then inform her,” Luther returned with equal coolness. “Hasn't our family faced enough consequences of ignorance?” His allusion to Elias, his deceased brother and the oldest Douglas child, made his father sit heavily back in his chair. Luther knew that his father still hadn't completely recovered from the revelation that his elder brother had been the victim of a human mating gone terribly wrong. It was part of the reason, Luther supposed, why he was so reluctant to even spare Yuna the barest of kindnesses. However, the fact remained that what had happened between Elias, Laura, and their child was a product of woeful nescience. It was a tragedy that Luther refused to risk again. Not while he was the leader of the Douglas clan. “She understands more than you think, father; and she has more to risk from our deaths, even, than we ourselves.”

             
If the Hunters did catch up with them, it would mean an epic conflict. Luther had no doubt that several of their number would easily be killed. If no one remained to walk Yuna through her pregnancy and eventual childbirth, there was no way she would survive. The anxious light in her eyes at his statement was proof enough that she was aware of that particular fact.

             
Leaving his father in pensive silence, the Alpha took Yuna's hand to lead her out of the office and back down the hall. The waiting room was empty of occupants now, and Rebecca still eyed him with no small amount of trepidation as he approached. Inwardly, he groaned. The last thing he wanted was people afraid of him. Despite the fact that Yuna had warned him more than once that he was terrifying when he was enraged, he tended to forget that she was probably understating quite a bit. She, after all, was used to the ire of his kind. The vast majority of humans were not.

             
“I apologize, Rebecca,” He managed, rubbing his temple to soothe the sudden pounding there. “I didn't mean to disrupt your office.”

             
“It's your father's office.” Rebecca corrected him somewhat hesitantly, “So it's no issue of mine.”

             
“Nonetheless,” He continued, becoming more sheepish by the second. “It was callous of me to be so inconsiderate. I apologize.” His earnest expression had even his father's stern secretary soon smiling winningly at him. The Alpha had to hide an amused smirk at the slight flaring of possessiveness the gesture brought out in his mate.

             
“It's alright, Luther. No harm done. Now, if you'd please take your leave so the patients can stop hiding in their cars.”

             
“Right,” The young man replied, his cheeks coloring slightly as he led Yuna back out into the parking lot. Next to him, his mate had a sour expression coloring her pretty face, and he teased her with a small smirk

             
“What is this is all about?”

             
“You know, when I was looking for you, that woman was absolutely no help.”

             
“What help could she be? She hardly has intimate knowledge of the family.”

             
“Still... that, and the way she puffed herself up looking at you... shameful.”

             
Luther had spent most of his life being jealous of every adolescent boy and college idiot who had chased after Yuna while he'd felt himself incapable of truly being with her. He'd imagined endless ways of snapping necks and terrifying human men in the haze of his enviousness and he had to admit, after so many nights spent lost in frustrated daydreams, it was nice to see she suffered her share of covetousness as well. “Indeed. Quite shameful.”

             
She punched his shoulder at the barely-contained mirth in his words, before her face slowly sobered. By the time they reached the car, her mouth had turned down in an intense frown of concentration. Luther knew better than to press her. More often than not, Yuna revealed what was on her mind of her own accord.

             
“How soon can we leave?”

             
As he started the nondescript Volkswagen, his own expression became serious. “As soon as possible. A few days from now.”

             
“And everyone's coming, right? No one will be left behind?”

             
As much as his clan continually refused to acknowledge his mate as one of their number, Yuna was better as his partner than they would ever know. She cared about the entire family's well-being. Though she'd come to him with fear in her eyes for their unborn child, she'd spoken of the prospect of danger to every Douglas, not only those with whom she was close.

             
If only his parents and the elders could see Yuna as he did, they'd realize that there was no way that she could be anything like Laura. Not only didn't she simply follow them for the simple state of their being, she was constantly seeking any information she could absorb to help her better understand them. Viola had come to him on more than one occasion to ask exactly how much she should tell the young woman of their kind.

             
Luther had forbidden her from any restrictions, as far as Yuna's enlightenment was concerned.

             
However, it seemed that Viola hadn't had to go into great detail about the violence of hunters to scare Yuna into beating her feet. Indeed, part of him was glad his sister-in-law had withheld those particular details.

             
After all, Viola herself had been the victim of a Hunter raid on her family home in Germany when she could barely walk.

             
It wasn't something the crimson-haired woman liked to talk about and, apparently, only Liam knew the most explicit details. But Luther had heard that a young Viola had been shipped to America, to distant relatives, after Hunters had brutally murdered her parents and sisters, as well as burned their den to the ground. As it was, the woman almost never wore clothing that revealed more than the barest amounts of skin. An accidental sighting of her on her way from the shower at the Northern den had revealed that her back was covered in a network of scar tissue.

             
Viola's life had been hard. As a result, she was hard. Luther couldn't imagine anything breaking his sister-in-law.

             
“No one stays. It's far too dangerous.”

             
“Good.” The young woman's hand rose to stroke over her abdomen absently before she inclined her head to gaze up at him. “Luther, Viola says that your kind haven't killed any humans for at least a century. Surely, if they're this much of a threat to you, hell-bent on murdering the moon-ripened, there must have been a few of them taken down in the last one hundred years?”

             
At her question, Luther's brow gaze darkened. It had been a long time since he'd thought about what exactly Hunters were. Apparently, Viola had made it seem as if they were humans bent on taking revenge for supposed wolf violence that hadn't occurred in ages. Quite the contrary. No human could ever pose such a threat to their kind. Perhaps, he mused, as he often had in the past, hunters had once been human. But those days were long gone.

             
“Unfortunately, when we and they clash, they manage to kill far more of us than we of them. They've... done something to themselves. Some science or magic... we've never known. But whatever they've done, it makes them very, very deadly.” The thought of what they might do to his family- to his mate- made Luther feel sick inside. He cursed the years he'd spent assuming that he'd never have to face their wrath. They were years that he could have spent preparing. No moon-ripened could be truly ready for a Hunter attack.

             
At his words, Yuna wrapped her arms around herself comfortingly as she laid back against the leather seat.