Alpha Initiation (Alpha Blood #1) (Werewolf Romance) (10 page)

The car stopped, and I turned my attention to my surroundings. We were parked in a circular drive in front of a two-story building made from hewn logs. The cracked and weathered wood exuded a great age. On the left side of the building was an old coach house that had been transformed into an enclosed garage. A pair of thick wood doors at the front of the main building were open and led to a large lobby with a decor that hearkened back a few centuries to when women wore billowing dresses and men sported hats and long, pulled-back hair. Tapestries hung down and covered the wooden walls and old lamps hung between them. Their glass casings once held candles, but now were filled with fluorescent bulbs.

A short, hefty man with a wild black beard stood beneath a wooden frame that covered the entrance. He wore a pair of black dress pants with a white blouse, none of which matched the wild appearance of his hair that stuck out in odd angles from beneath a beaver hat. We got out of the car, and he smiled and hurried forward to us. His stomach bounced up and down like a bowl of jello. "Good evening, my good friends," he greeted us in a thick Russian accent. He clasped Luke's hands in his own while Alistair gathered our luggage.

"Good evening, Burnbaum. How goes the business?" Luke replied with his own grin.

"Very good, very good, but I hear of trouble for you. Everything is all right now?" he wondered. His voice told me he didn't think the trouble was over.

"I'm afraid not, but I'd rather talk about this inside," Luke insisted.

"Of course. I have your rooms prepared for you." He led the three of us inside while the driver drove the car to the garage.

To our right stood a large room with a few dozen square wooden tables scattered about the floor. Guests sat at the table dining on a wide assortment of dead things, and I wasn't meaning vegetables. I recognized the usual fowl and hoofed animals, and noticed several pieces of meat that weren't familiar. To our left was the large front desk and a hallway that led back to the employee-only section of the inn, including to the garage. In front of us was a wide wooden flight of stairs that led upstairs to the rooms. That was the largest set of stairs I'd ever seen. The banisters alone were hewn from five-inch wide trees, and the steps themselves were carved out of a dozen four-foot thick logs. To the right and behind the stairs were a pair of doors that were shut tight, but I heard music drift out from between their cracks. Overall the place was beautiful, and a nightmare for an environmentalist.

Burnbaum led us to the front desk, slid a large ledger toward Luke, and picked up an old-fashioned quill pen. "If you would sign in we can talk."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Why not before?" he asked him.

"It is by orders of the Council. They want to know everyone who comes to stay," Burnbaum replied. His eyes showed a bit of mischief in them and he wagged his bushy eyebrows. "Sign here with name that pleases you. I mean, if it pleases you to sign name," he corrected himself.

Luke grinned, took the pen, and wrote down a few names in the ledger. I glanced over his shoulder and saw he wrote
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
. He dropped the pen on the desk and turned to the busy dining hall. "Where's a quiet spot to speak?" he asked our host.

"It is this way, in your room," he told us.

Chapter 12

Burnbaum led us upstairs and straight down the long hall that reached to the end of the deep building. Halfway down was a hall that ran perpendicular to the main hall and spanned the width of the inn. There were dozens of rooms, and each of them had thick wooden doors. I had no doubt they all had very thick walls, too. We were led left along the perpendicular hall to the very end. A window sat at the end of the hall and looked out onto the wooden-shingled roof of the old carriage house.

Burnbaum opened a door on the right, stepped aside, and gestured for us to enter. Luke led the way with Alistair close behind him, but I hung back. "You will like it, I promise you," Burnbaum spoke up.

"It's not that," I replied. I glanced down at the other rooms. "Don't I have my own room?"

Burnbaum chuckled, and it was mesmerizing watching his belly bounce up and down. "My Lord takes only one, and all others are full."

My face drooped and I sighed. "Just my luck. . ." I grumbled.

Luke stepped out of the room and glanced between us. "Is there a problem?" he wondered.

"No problem. The lady here just asks about rooms," Burnbaum replied. "How you like yours?"

Luke smiled. "Perfect as always, but now we need to talk about business." He turned to me and nodded toward the room. "Wouldn't you like to see the room?"

"Our room?" I guessed.

"The bed is large enough for three, but yes, our room," he told me.

I sighed and stalked past him. The room was in the same elegant barbarism as the rest of the inn, complete with a four-post bed made of small logs and thick boards. To the right Alistair was busy putting away our clothes in a wooden dresser, and beyond him lay a door to what I assumed was the bathroom. I checked it. Yep, definitely a bathroom, and done up in the modern plastic style rather than the wood decor.

Burnbaum was the last inside, and he closed the door behind himself. Luke's face lost what little humor it had and he turned to our host with an impatient air. "What can you tell us about the train wreck?"

Burnbaum pursed his lips together and shook his head. "Very little. Lance and Christian passed through two days ago, and some of their men stayed here. I do not know when they left, but I heard they went along the tracks toward Townsend on their own train and come back the next day."

"And no one knows how far they went?" Luke asked him.

"No one but each other, and they won't tell," Burnbaum replied. "Do you suspect they blow up the train?"

"Not the train, but the tracks were set with explosives. I don't know if they meant to kill anyone, or if it was just a warning," Luke mused.

"Just a warning?" I exclaimed. "The train could have all fallen over and we would've all died!"

Burnbaum chuckled. "It would take more than metal to kill us unless it is silver."

"Unfortunately, there was more than just explosives in that bomb," Luke revealed. He turned to his manservant. "Repeat to me what you found, Alistair."

"At least some parts of the explosive device was silver. I inspected the engine and found fragments of silver nitrate wedged into the machine. Fortunately, the impact was minimal and the engine took most of the damage," Alistair told us.

Burnbaum scowled. "I do not like this one bit. There are disagreements, I know, but this is no good. They will kill innocents."

Luke smirked. "I'd like to think I'm an innocent, but I see what you mean. Lance or some of his compatriots desperately wanted to keep us from the Council meeting."

I raised my hand. "Could I get in on this conversation? Who exactly are these Lance and Christian guys?" I'd heard the name before when that lady had called and warned Luke about the moved meeting.

"The monsters I told you about," Luke replied.

"Oh, those guys. I take it I don't want to get to know them?" I guessed.

Luke shook his head. "No, but that can't be avoided. They're the leaders of two other werewolf regions, and will be there for the vote."

"What vote?"

"For High Lord, or First Alpha, the grand leader of all the regions. It's the highest executive position in our loosely bound government."

I gagged. "Bureaucracy? Couldn't I have stumbled into a world without a messy government?"

Luke and Burnbaum chuckled, and the larger man stepped forward. "Our government is good. It has worked for several thousand of years."

I raised an eyebrow. "Thousands of years? I don't think any country's been around that long."

"Ours is a country without borders," Luke assured me. "But as I was going to say, Lance and Christian possibly planned our detour to keep us from the vote for leadership. Only those region leaders present at the election can be elected. This is so a werewolf leader in rebellion can't be voted into the office by sympathetic factions."

I sighed and plopped myself down on the bed. My head suddenly hurt and I squirmed on the sheets. "Great. I've been kidnapped by a politician."

"It's an inherited position, but yes," Luke agreed.

I rubbed my aching head and fanned myself. "Is it getting hot in here?" I asked the others. Luke raised an eyebrow and glanced at the others. Burnbaum smiled, bowed his head to us, and hurried out. Alistair pursed his lips, but bowed and also left. I was alone with Luke and outside the sun set behind the mountains around the town. "Did I say something wrong?" I wondered.

"On the contrary, you said something perfectly fine," Luke consoled me. He strode over to the door and turned the old-fashioned key in the lock, and then removed the key. He set that on a nearby table and turned to me with a wide grin and glistening eyes. His voice, too, had changed. There was a deep growl to it. "As I told you this is the night when you become a full werewolf, providing I'm with you."

I scuttled back to the head of the bed and waved my hand at him. "Then get out because I don't want to be a were-anything," I protested.

Luke smoothly stepped over to the end of the bed and grasped one of the bottom posts. I noticed his hands were longer and thinner than I remembered, and his nails were sharpened to points. "I'm afraid there's no going back," he growled.

The need in his voice was unmistakable, and it awakened within me my own lust. My breath quickened and my heart beat faster in my chest. I felt a wave of heat wash over me as I thought of his long arms around me, seducing me to his whims and fulfilling my own carnal desires. My deceitful thoughts kept me from noticing Luke as he slipped away from the post and set himself on the bed. He crawled on all fours over me so his hands were on either side of my legs, and one clawed hand reached out and grasped my thigh. His touch burned like fire, a roaring flame of sensual need that overwhelmed my senses.

Luke growled and I whimpered. Outside the last rays of the sun disappeared and with it my desire to fight him. His hand traced up my thigh to my waist and leg long, deep cuts in my jeans that revealed my uncut, quivering skin. I slipped down so I lay atop the luscious pillows and my breasts heaved with my impatience. Luke slid up and lay himself atop me, where he buried his face into my neck. His sharp teeth nipped and suckled at my tender skin. I gasped and clutched at his shirt. The cloth was aggravating me, keeping me from him, so I pulled and tore at it. My strength surprised me when the shirt ripped in two, but my eagerness to touch him dulled my confusion.

I ran my hands all over his smooth back as his hand slid up the outside of my leg and slipped beneath my shirt. His warm fingers danced across my quivering skin and I jumped when he touched my bra. He growled and cut away the strap with his nails. I moaned when he touched me, softly at first but soon with more insistence. I squirmed beneath his gentle, firm handling and rubbed my legs against him. I was hot and wet between my legs and my body demanded friction.

Luke grunted and raised himself so he loomed over me. His breath was ragged and his eyes had a wild flare to them. He clenched his teeth and shuddered. "I-I can't control the Beast for much longer," he warned me.

In response I grabbed my shirt and pulled open the buttons to reveal my heaving, swollen breasts. "Please don't," I whispered.

Luke's eyes widened and all semblance of man was swept away. He growled and swept down to experience me with his mouth and hands. Our clothes were torn and tossed aside in a rage of frustration and incessant, demanding need. We clawed and rubbed against each other, and he took me with a swiftness and feral lust I'd never known. I howled when he penetrated me, and he thrust hard and fast into my hot, wet center.

I reveled in the feel of him trapping me against the bed and making me his in a furious, lust-filled lovemaking. My hands dug into his back, pressing him close to me as our wet bodies slid against each other. I panted for breath as the heat and tension built inside me. The full moon rose outside the windows and shone down on us. I was filled with a strange sensation as my muscles tightened and my hands lengthened. Beneath my fingers Luke's back strained and stretched as his body transformed. Fur sprouted over us as our lovemaking reached a feverish pitch. Our faces elongated and our teeth filled with sharp teeth.

I squirmed and clawed at my lover, my mate, and he snarled and pinned me fast to the bed. Our sensual experience turned into an animalistic orgy as we sought release from our human bodies and our indescribable sexual thirst. I felt my stomach tighten as my orgasm washed over me, and I leaned back my head and let out a great howl. Luke soon joined me and together our cries echoed through the night. They would do that countless more times as we rutted our way until morning, and then collapsed into each others' arms.

Chapter 13

I woke up groggy, covered in dry sweat, and aching in parts of my body I didn't know existed. There was a limp body atop me and the sheets were twisted around my ankles. My cheeks blushed when I realized the limp form was Luke, and we were both very much naked. Memories from the night before flashed through my mind and it looked like a commercial for aphrodisiacs and shavers. I lifted one of my hands and was relieved to see it wasn't a paw. I was back to my human self.