The Revelation (9 page)

             
He knew from experience that some of them would be permanent.

             
“What of the others?” Tasha's breath was ripe with excitement as he fumbled with the fastenings of his pants, her eyes locked with his. “They'll be expecting us.”

             
“They can wait,” he growled. “I've more pressing matters to attend to.”

**

              Before coming to Scotland, Yuna had spent countless hours fretting over what it would be like to be completely immersed in her mate's world. She'd imagined that she might feel intimidated, despised, oppressed, and extremely out of her element, but never had she imagined she'd feel such intrigue.

             
Luther had hidden his true nature from her for almost the entirety of their lives, and in the short time since she'd been initiated into the Douglas clan, it had been impossible for her to gain answers to all the questions she had. Viola hadn't even been truly able to explain the life cycle of the moon-ripened. She'd estimated Yuna would be pregnant for between 8 and 11 months, but couldn't conjecture on an exact time frame because she was human.

             
Magnus and Marilyn were loathe to tell her any of their kind's history or lore, for fear that she might use it against them. Talking to Liam was a lost cause, Nita and Ryan didn't exactly jump at the chance to be around her, and Luther... Yuna felt that she served more as a reprieve from his complicated Alpha role. She didn't feel completely comfortable peppering him with questions about his origins or his kind.

             
She had only been in the mother den for about four months, and while the reception she garnered from most of the occupants was little more than growls and displeasure, she'd been surprised to find a small conglomeration of moonkind that weren't completely against her intrusion into their domain.

             
For the first few weeks, Luther hadn't let her stray far from his side. When she wasn't with him, she was behind the locked door of their room they'd been assigned- and this was especially true at the time of the monthly Ripening.

             
It had been eerie, the young woman mused. The first time the full moon had risen over the expansive turrets of the ancient manor, the walls themselves had seemed to vibrate with some kind of untenable, mysterious power. From behind her securely bolted door, she could hear a large number of transformed wolves roaming the halls, snarling, scratching, tussling and howling.

             
Beyond her window, she'd watched them emerge onto the front lawn in a flood. There had to be at least sixty or seventy of them, of all shapes, sizes and sexes, pairing off in to groups or setting out alone to hunt and bask in the moonlight. To her surprise, Yuna had discovered a small sliver of jealousy that she couldn't join them. To be so free and roam so far must be an indescribable sensation.

             
After the first Ripening, however, she'd grown used to the vast differences between living with her mate, and living in a true den. Within weeks she realized exactly how deep the dysfunction in the Douglas clan ran after witnessing interactions among members of other clans. Though there were many languages spoken that she didn't understand, and many looks cast her way that were probably more dangerous than she understood, trust and unity were apparent in almost every additional clan currently staying in the mansion.

             
They clustered in small groups about the grounds and within thick walls, at any time of the day or night, murmuring closely to one another as she passed. Though there weren't many of them in residence, Yuna even saw one or two children. Of course, the tiny ripened ones were ushered close by their parents the moment she came near.  She saw them for just long enough to take in their miniscule features, from small canines to wide, yellow eyes. It appeared that no matter what the time of month, the color of pups’ eyes remained constant. Additionally, they clutched at their parents and clan members with claws that still hadn't darkened to black, and communicated their distress in a series of whines and barks that were far more canine than human.

             
All this Yuna took in, realizing that her own child would be more foreign to her than she had previously imagined.

             
Though the only other pregnant female in the manor fixed her with a look of the utmost loathing when she saw her, Yuna did happen upon those who were quite willing to answer her questions.

             
“I've been looking for you.”

             
The young woman's head jerked up from where she was reading through a thinly bound book about Broxburn, provided to her by Viola, to meet a pair of dark-gray eyes. They were set deep in a face that seemed of Middle Eastern descent, with a nose that was a bit too large and a mouth that was thinner than one usually saw in women. Despite the fact that she acknowledged that she might not be the prettiest, however, Ivita had a heart of gold. She was one of the only moonkind that had taken as her duty to educate and welcome Yuna rather than trying to run her off.

             
It was she who had explained to Yuna the numerous differences between human children and pups. Ivita had also been more than happy to expound on the history of the ripened, to the point where Yuna found the woman a better source of information, even, than the huge library on the second floor.

Thanks to her newfound companion, she'd realized exactly how difficult her acceptance into the Douglas clan had been.

              The seemingly endless historical accounts of what had happened when moonkind and humans had interacted for the past centuries had been enough to make the young woman's stomach crawl. There had been slaughterings, death, and tragedy in profusion enough that immediately upon listening, Yuna had understood the Douglas clan's reluctance. Their kind were only just entering a new age, and though the young woman didn't believe any less that changes would eventually come about, comprehending the various conflicts in the history of Luther's kind brought new vision.

             
“What for?” she inquired, setting aside her book to give her companion her complete attention. Settling in next to her on the couch, Ivita leaned close to murmur lowly in her ear.

             
“I've just seen Liam leaving Elder Malcolm's quarters.

             
Yuna winced.

             
Viola and Liam hadn't spoken since the woman had revealed to her mate that she was with child. Though her husband's stubbornness infuriated and pained the crimson-haired female, she was more worried that Liam would go even further than merely abandoning her. If he told a single one of the Elders that she was carrying a human child, there would be little that even Luther could do to stop them from forcing her to give up the baby.

             
For the past weeks, Yuna had been watching her mate's younger brother like a hawk. When the Alpha wasn't looking, she sneaked behind the scarred man- at a safe distance, of course- praying that she wouldn't find that he'd betrayed his wife's secret.

             
So far, he'd been silent.

             
Though Yuna was fully aware that Liam was a stickler for the laws of his people, she was also pretty certain that the idea of doing away with his own child was something he didn't take lightly. The fact that there had been no evidence to show that he'd gone to anyone was enough to confirm her suspicions. In fact, Yuna sometimes found her heart aching for the younger Douglas son. Without Viola, he sometimes looked lost, and his temper went unchecked. Several times he'd been admonished for inciting small skirmishes with males of other clans.

             
His and Luther's shouting matches echoed through the halls of the manor, making both Yuna and Viola wince at their intensity.

             
As of yet, however, he didn't seem to be aware that his brother and Alpha had been coaching Viola through the basics of controlling herself in her transformed state. To Yuna's pleasure, she and Luther had discovered that the older woman could, in fact, stave off her transformation to some extent beneath the full moon; and that was promising. Keeping herself from tearing at human flesh while she was in animal form, however, was proving to be more difficult.

             
During the first ripening, Luther had chained his sister-in-law to the bedpost and brought Yuna in, leaving her just inside the door. There had been perhaps three meters of space between the two women, and Viola had strained and snapped at Yuna in a way that had made the young woman more than a little bit nervous. It had gotten a bit better since then; but the sable colored female still growled lowly in Yuna's presence. It would be a while before she was ready to move on to younger fare.

             
Under Ivita's tutelage, Yuna had learned of the importance of control among the ripened.

             
Apparently, centuries ago, it had been nothing for their kind to walk and talk like humans in their wolf forms. Now, whatever power had granted them those skills seemed to have faded. Those with large measures of self-awareness could walk upright, manipulate simple objects, and even talk while transformed, though their words came out in a mutilated, grated drawl that Yuna had been the object of more than a few times. Ivita had revealed, however, that the vast majority of moonkind lacked even the composure to stand on two legs and tell a human from a deer. It was why most clans ventured deep into the woods during Ripenings. They needed to stay as far away from civilization as possible to avoid any casualties.

             
Learning about the hierarchy of discipline among the moon-ripened helped Yuna with Viola. It also increased her respect tenfold for her mate. That he could avoid transforming during a time that Ivita had informed her was almost always an unfailing trigger for their race was astounding. Viola, of course, cited that she could have no better teacher.

             
Yuna knew that her mate's confidence wasn't nearly as high. Every night, as he held her against him in their bed, he wondered aloud if he was teaching Viola fast enough; if their lessons were even helping her. He questioned whether Liam would ever accept his human child, or if the council would one day storm into Viola's quarters and drag her away screaming to cut the babe from her belly. He worried if his clan would ever come together enough to function in the way that was needed to support their pup.

             
What weighed most heavily on his mind, without a doubt, was the invisible presence of hunters that drew daily nearer to the den. Though there had been no concrete information as to their whereabouts, there had been several instances in which smaller dens close to Edinburgh had been ransacked, if not completely destroyed. At each site, a message identical to the one that had been blazoned across the gates of the Douglas manor had been left.

             
It was enough for Yuna to know that they were in the same country as her and her child; but to imagine that they were hunting them... trying to weed them out like rats... she'd admit the notion had caused her more than a few sleepless nights. In fact, it seemed that the more her stomach swelled, the more anxious she became.

             
Shortly after arriving, they'd had a meeting with the Elders to discuss the possible danger the Hunters posed. To Yuna's shock, they treated the threat as if it were a nonentity.

             
Elder Agatha had pronounced the den impregnable. She'd gone even further, implying that the possibility of the hunters finding them ludicrous.

             
We've been protected here for hundreds of years. Apart from our numerous levels of defense, the grounds themselves are imbued with an ancient magic. Not that anyone could penetrate far enough to trigger it, but if they did...

             
Her words exactly.

             
After the grave way they'd been greeted Dame Strauss, Yuna had thought that they would be more alarmed by the appearance of the Hunters in Scotland. Instead, they merely send out scouts. For the purpose of 'ascertaining damage and ensuring that the location of the mother den remained undiscovered'. As frustrated as their casual attitudes made the young woman, Yuna would have gone to Dame Strauss to demand answers if Luther hadn't stopped her. Her mate had insisted that even if the German Elder disagreed with the other members of the council, she wouldn't make waves unless danger was imminent. It was apparently the way the elderly woman operated.

             
She had, after all, only stepped in to save Yuna's skin when her death had been all but sealed.

             
All in all, Yuna had spent the last months in a frenzy of worry while simultaneously trying to absorb as much information as she possibly could about how much danger she was in.

             
According to Ivita, her stress showed.

             
“Do you think he told?” Her mind quickly returned to the matter at hand as the woman at her side grasped her hand, her voice still low. Though Ivita didn't know exactly the nature of the secret she was keeping, Yuna had confided in her that they had to watch Liam to make sure that he didn't reveal any... sensitive information.