Blood Rites
Blood Rites
By: Quinn Loftis
Published by Quinn Loftis at Smashwords
© 2011 Quinn Loftis
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Other Books by Quinn Loftis:
Prince of Wolves, Book 1 in the Grey Wolves
Series
Acknowledgments:
First I want to thank God for blessing me
with a creative spirit. He has blessed me beyond measure. I also
want to thank my husband for all his support, for the teasing that
he gives me for writing teen paranormal romance. I like to remind
him that at least he's never bored being married to me. I also want
to thank a friend who has been a blessing to me, Melinda Senter,
for her help in the creative editing. Her wicked sense of humor and
eye for details has truly been a help. I also want to thank her for
the beautiful cover art she has created for me. I want to thank
Rachel Carr for being a fantabulous editor. I have been so blessed
to get to know Rachel and her help has been invaluable. Thank you
also to Jennifer Nunez for also editing and encouraging me to keep
writing. Thank you to all my beta readers and reviewers. I cannot
express my thanks for all your feedback and help. Finally, most
important in many ways, thank you to everyone who has taken a
chance on an unknown, self published author and purchased my book.
Thank you for the reviews good and bad. Thank you for taking your
valuable time and spending it with my characters and their
story.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
“
You know
I will look
ridiculous in that, right?” Jacque asked Sally while staring at the
red dress her two best friends had hanging on the back of her
bedroom door. “I mean, why don’t you just sew a hood on it, put a
basket of cookies in my hand and send me off to see grandma?”
Jacque asked sarcastically, if not somewhat dramatically. She
didn’t understand why Sally and Jen insisted that she wear a dress
for the bonding ceremony. She had repeatedly reminded them, and
would again, that it wasn't a wedding. Since the challenge
everything had been moving so quickly that she didn’t really have a
chance to veto their decision and nobody else seemed eager to jump
to her defense. So, alas, she stood in her room with her two best
friends wreaking havoc on her life, trying to tell her she was
going to put on this ridiculous red dress.
“So how did things with Fane go last night?”
Jen asked, pulling Jacque out of her thoughts.
That simple question reminded Jacque that the
challenge had only happened yesterday. It felt like it had been
days ago, but it had merely been hours. Last night after the
challenge, Fane had come to her to plead forgiveness for making her
believe he had died during the challenge. He'd really thought that
she would not understand why he made that decision. Jacque was not
going to deny the fact that it hurt, but she understood the
reasoning behind it, and if it kept Fane alive that was all that
mattered.
“It’s all good,” Jacque said
nonchalantly.
The two girls stopped simultaneously and
stared at Jacque in disbelief.
“I chewed Fane up like a chew toy and spit
him out. Sally about smacked him into next week. And that's all you
have to say to us? Hate to break it to ya, wolf princess, but that
ain’t going to cut it.” Jen folded her arms across her chest and
began tapping her foot. It was very obvious that Jacque would not
be leaving this room until she gave up the goods. She figured they
did deserve it after all they had done for her. Go on, Jacque,
throw them a bone she told herself.
"Fane came to my room and sat on the side of
my bed while I was still sort of asleep. I woke up to him kissing
my cheeks, my nose, my chin, and then my lips. I was sure I was
dreaming, but it seemed way too real. Then I freaked out. I decided
I must have jumped off the deep end after the week from 'folk lore
stories come to life' hell. I was seeing my dead mate sitting on my
bed.”
Before Jacque could go on Jen interrupted.
“Ok, that’s all fine and dandy, but I want the main course, not the
before-dinner rolls. Main course, Jacque, get to it.”
Jacque rolled her eyes. “I have to build up
to the main course or else it’s not really the main course.
However, for the sake of your sanity I will speed it up. After I
realized he was indeed real, he hugged me and I accidentally
groaned in pain.”
“Oh, hell. He went into possessive, jealous,
I-no-longer-have-a-brain mode, didn’t he?” Sally asked
sarcastically.
“Point to you. He saw the bruise on my
stomach and nearly went all werewolf kung-fu on his pack. I can’t
believe ya’ll didn’t hear him yell. But I got him to pipe down when
I pulled out the 'I’m bruised because you played dead' card. Works
every time.” Jacque winked.
“Nice,” Jen and Sally said, bumping
fists.
“Then we kissed. A lot. Yep, there was a lot
of kissing. Oh, and there was purring. But all clothes stayed on,
Jen, sorry to spoil your fantasy.”
“You are so not sorry to spoil anything. At
least tell me if he’s a good kisser,” Jen whined.
Jacque looked at her, emerald eyes narrowed
with a wicked gleam. “My sweet, sweet Jen, he’s a good
everything.”
“Ok ladies, both of you back into your
corners. Jacque's getting hitched today so there has to be a cease
fire.” Sally indicated the corners she wanted Jacque and Jen to
stand in.
“I am not getting hitched, there is no ring
involved.”
“Says the wolf princess who’s never been
bonded to a werewolf before,” Jen pointed out.
“Details, details,” Jacque quipped.
She suddenly felt claustrophobic, like the
room was beginning to get smaller. It reminded her of Alice in
Wonderland when she eats the cake and begins to grow until the room
is so small she is squished into it. She needed air. Jacque walked
over to her window and jerked it open. She felt the summer heat hit
her face, and even though it was blazing hot, it was refreshing and
helped clear her brain from all the worries that were slowly
stacking up on shelves in her mind. Each deep breath she took felt
like it was slowly pushing each stack of worry into a trash bag.
Breathe-she pushed worry about leaving Coldspring into the bag,
breathe- next was worry for her mom, will she come to Romania or
stay here, breathe- worry for her friends, breathe- worry about the
bonding ceremony, breathe- worry about the blood rites, breathe.
Finally the shelves were clean, and there in her mind amongst the
empty shelves was Fane.
“
Hello
meu inimă
, doing some
spring cleaning?”
Fane asked her, using their bond.
Jacque couldn’t suppress the smile that
followed; she should have known he would be listening. Especially
since she was more emotional than usual. Well, that was really not
a fair statement because she had been emotional for the past 5
days. Meeting your werewolf mate tends to do that to a girl.
“
Just needed to put things in their place,
how are you?”
Jacque felt the warmth he was pouring into her
mind, the love he wanted her to feel and it only made her want to
be in his arms more.
“
Soon, love.”
“
You keep saying that wolf man, when does
soon become now?”
Jacque teased him.
“Now go away. Isn’t it
bad luck to see your mate before the bonding thingy?”
She heard him chuckle.
“
No
meu inimă
, you’re
thinking of it being bad luck for the groom to see his bride before
the wedding. I can see you all I want. In fact I could come rescue
you from those two if you want.”
“
That’s okay, they mean well, they are
just a little rough on the execution. What time is this shin-dig
starting?”
Jacque asked.
“
It starts at 1:00 p.m. I’ll see you there
Little Red.”
Fane’s voice faded out of her mind and she could
feel his humor. Oh wasn’t he just too cute, picking up on her two
best friends’ idea of a sick joke, to turn her into the little girl
who almost wound up as the wolf’s dinner.
“My, what big eyes you have, wolf-man,”
Jacque said out loud, unable to stop her sarcasm from boiling
up.
“The better to see you with my love,” Jen
chimed in.
“What big ears you have!” Sally continued
their comic relief.
“The better to hear you with my love,” Jen
followed.
“What big teeth you have!” Sally mocked, her
hands on either side of her face.
“The better to eat you with my love,” Jen
cackled, but she wasn’t finished. True to Jen form she added her
own twisted sense of humor. “My, what big -”
Sally slapped a hand over her mouth, quickly
realizing where Jen was going with that statement. Jacque started
laughing so hard she had tears running down her cheeks. As soon as
Sally removed her hand Jen quickly added, “Thebettertoeatyouwith,”
before Sally could re-cover her mouth.
Jacque abruptly stopped laughing, “You
already said that,” she said, confused.
“So I did, my sweet, innocent flower,” Jen
started to explain but was once again thwarted by Sally.
“Jen, shut it. Jacque, just allow yourself to
ponder on that statement at a later date in time,” Sally told her,
sounding everything but the part of June Cleaver.
“Ok, moving on from our weird impromptu skit.
I get it, you want to dress me up all pretty for this ceremony and
I can either play along or you two will make it hell for me. That’s
what the red dress is about, isn’t it?”
“You’re smarter than you look, Sherlock,” Jen
said as she stood up. “We will give you your real dress if you
promise to play nice. Otherwise you’re going to be Little Red
washed out Riding Hood, cuz that red really does nothing for your
skin.”
“Gee, thanks for that keen observation,
Watson. Fine, you win, bring out the big guns.”
Jen stepped out of the room and was back
before Jacque could ask her where she was going. She came back with
a hanger with what she presumed to be her dress hanging on it, but
she couldn’t tell for sure because it was covered in one of those
zipped clothing protectors. As Jen hung it on the back of Jacque’s
bedroom door, effectively covering the dress that would have made
her the living version of a sick fairy tale, Sally began to unzip
the bag while humming the bridal march song.
“Cute, Sally, that’s just real cute,” Jacque
told her sarcastically.
“Watch it Red. I’d hate to have to
incorporate more of the famous fairy tale into your ceremony, but
I’ll do it if you force my hand,” Sally threatened as she pulled
the dress out from the hanging bag.
Jacque’s breath caught at the sight, so
simple yet very elegant and eye catching. She had to admit she was
impressed with her friends' taste. The dress was primarily white,
with a double flare skirt that came just above the knees. The waist
had a green sash sewn into the dress and the green flared out into
the skirt with some floral accents. To finish it off, they had
added a
hunter green, puff short
sleeve bolero jacket made of satin with ruffled edges running up
the high-necked collar and down to the sleeves. It was simply
perfect.