Dawn's Path: Completed Work

"Certainly." Tala blushed at the efficiency in which this man had undressed her with his eyes and just as quickly pushed back the flare of desire so evident in his. His eyes caressed her body like hands. Lighting a trail of fire wherever they roamed. Drew wasn't a thing like she'd been expecting. Unlike his brother who was often distracted by the close eye he kept on the future, Drew lived in the here and now. In appearance, he was similar to the man she'd called Great White Wolf her entire life. Taller and stockier, lean though with a musculature hard earned. Built not for prophecy and philosophical musings, but for war.

She expected someone older, as Drew was the senior brother. She expected someone less attractive, not repellant, but just not quite so easy on the eyes. Drew had the same hawk shaped nose as his brother. But, somehow it fit the rugged planes of his face. He dressed simply, having traded in the dress slacks and fine fabrics for jeans and a button down shirt worn soft, if not a little ragged, from frequent washing. His boots were weathered, the brown leather supple and the soles walked smooth. Some of the vampires had a flare for the types of fashion only too much money and too little common sense when it came to spending it could buy. But, he wasn't a man that needed expensive possessions to feel secure in who he was. He had a style that was unique and all his own. And it wouldn't have worked for anyone else but him.

She returned the courtesy he'd given her. Matching his heated appreciative gaze of interest. There were the beginnings of sparks between them. And she wasn't entirely sure of how she felt about it. She'd come her to escape her destiny not to run head first into it. Her wolf though, had plenty of other ideas when it came to the man standing beside her. And Tala was quick to blame her reaction to Drew on the bitch in heat sharing her skin. It was easier that way and far, far safer for all parties concerned.

Drew had no clue about wolf culture or that mating was not such a simple matter. She begrudged humans very little. But, for all their limitations, there was one thing they could do that she could not. Ever. And she envied humans the basic freedom they took for granted. Their lives were so short. In a blink they were gone. And she supposed it was basic biology, encrypted into their very DNA, that they could share their bodies so openly and freely and move on from one conquest to the next without consequences. Oh, they had their share of nastiness, diseases and such, if they weren't careful. But, that they could love so temporarily was a rare gift. What she wouldn't give for a week in a human's shoes. Every passing year the need to feel and experience grew harder and harder to deny. But, she didn't dare give in to it. She couldn't risk the chance that she'd be chained to someone she didn't love for no other reason than to scratch an itch.

Not everybody believed in the old superstition. But, the members of her pack had seen enough bad pairings to not chance it. The way into one of those matches made in someplace far, far worse than heaven was through the meeting of bodies. The men and women of her pack danced around the edges flirting and playing with one another while searching out a suitable mate. And in the end no matter how hard they tried to find precisely the right partner. One of two things happened. Lust won out and whether the superstition was real or not, they mated. Or the need to further the pack's DNA either from all the pressure placed on them to do so or the ticking of some mystical biological clock forced them into a match. She personally, would rather do without than end up like them.

Tala blew out a breath as she followed Drew down the corridor. The rear view of him was every bit as pulse quickening as it was from the front. The denim jeans riding low on his lean hips, hugged his butt with every broad stride. It was bad form and horrible manners to sneak peeks when a pack mate stripped to shift. And luckily, Drew hadn't bridged the subject of changing forms just yet. She would have been tempted. And she knew damn well whether it was a social faux pas or not, she would have given in and gotten an eyeful out of sheer curiosity if the goddess had gifted him as thoroughly with his clothes off as she had with them on.

Mentally she slapped her wolf in the chops and tamped down on her lustful musings. Thoughts like this wouldn't get her anything except for a lot of restless, sleepless nights and a hormone surge she could do without. The coolness of the early evening breeze helped to clear her head. Anna was right. Spring was near. Tala could smell it, earthy and fragrant full of life about to burst forth, on the winds.

Drew moved through these woods like he owned them. Sure of where he placed his feet. Ducking out of the way of a low hanging branch and avoiding the snag of thorny spindly bushes. Tala wasn't nearly as adept with navigating the rugged terrain. The ground was slick and muddy. The air damp with the promise of rain and plummeting temperatures after dark settled in and chased the lingering warmth of the sun away. For a land that she thought was flat and nothing but cornfields, there were plenty of steep hills and rocky outcroppings poking up through the soil. Her feet slipped, tripping over unseen tree roots, failing to find purchase on the loose rock, and tangling in the weeds that grew waist high in the summertime.

There were plenty of places to hide and lay in wait for unwary prey to wander past. The wolf in her panted with glee at the thought. But, there were also plenty of things to trip up a wolf inexperienced in this type of terrain. Thick tall grasses, prickly thorn bushes, rocks, sucking mud, and miles of cornfields would make spotting other predators more difficult. Humans didn't traverse these woods often. But, they did wander through them occasionally.

There were times of the year where the pack would have to be careful not to be seen. Hunting season primarily. The males in the pack were large and heavy with muscle, roughly the size of a small pony. One haphazard encounter with a human might turn the hunter into the hunted. And that would not bode well for any of them. Luckily, the humans could do nothing to completely mask the reek of their scent. And it shouldn't be too difficult for any wolf with a halfway decent sense of smell to avoid them.

Tala stepped into the clearing. Interwoven between the spindly saplings and tall grasses that had taken root, there were bare spots where buildings once stood. The taint of soot and ash still laced the air. Stray bits of charred wood crunched under the heel of her boot. And she had the sense, prickling along the hairs on her arms, that death had happened here.

Thick, lush woodlands formed a curtain of browns and greens around the broad, flat. Train tracks, the ties decayed and broken to bits and the rails rusted with age and neglect bordered the distant edge of the property. From some far off point, a stream wound through the woods, babbling in a soft whisper. No telephone poles or power lines marred the magnificent view. And it would be a very serene place if not for the inkling she had that something horrible had happened here. The ground was silent, keeping its secrets to itself, beneath her feet. Tala walked the site, reaching outward with her wolf senses to catch some hint as to what it might have been.

Drew caught Tala's hesitation as she walked across the uneven ground. He felt the prickling sensation of wolf power tasting and sampling the air. The secrets this land held were not ones of shame. Bad things happened. Over the centuries blood had bled more ground red than it had not. "Not so long ago this place was our home," he said with a wistful shrug. "Things change."

"What happened?" Tala asked. Drew spoke in a low, reverent tone. In that way that people did when they spoke of the dead. His lashes fluttered in a thick curtain over heavily veiled lids making his eyes and the expression in them impossible to read. His shoulders drooped slightly forward, as if the weight of the worlds he'd been chosen to bear was suddenly too great. His dark hair fell in a curtain of black velvet threaded through with sliver strands, hiding his face. His fingers curled into tight fists as if he could battle the foe or foes responsible for this all over again and change the outcome of whatever had happened here.

"An attack. Rogues. Everything," he said, sweeping his hand over the vacant landscape, "was burned to ash." He smiled a bitter, sarcastic smile filled with anguish. "But, history always remembers the dead as better men than they actually were. If only I truly could live up to my reputation and be the man the history books claim I was. Personally, I've never met the man I'm reputed to be, and more is the pity for it. Many died that night and everything we'd worked for was reduced to smoldering timbers and bodies littering the ground.

"This land became a place of death, smoke, and broken hearts. I haven't been back here since that night. War is an ugly thing, Tala. Pray you never see it. I wish I had." Any other time Drew might have welcomed the gentle press of her fingertips against his shoulder. He shook free of her sympathetic touch and walked the length of the plot to the border of the woods. She was just one more bitter reminder of how much he'd lost and how much he couldn't have. But, she didn't deserve his coldness or the emotional distance he put between them. She was young. She'd never seen the horrors of war or the destruction it left in its path. He hadn't meant to crush her hope with such truthful explanations.

Tala wasn't going to let Drew distance himself from her either physically or emotionally. Wolves were touchy feely types and this big bad vampire was going to have to accept that about them. The warmth of a hand was comfort and security and a way of communicating far more than mere words alone. She stood by his side and rested her fingertips on his shoulder once more. Hoping to ground him with the heat of her touch. "Drew I'm sorry."

Drew shook his head and soaked in the heat of her fingertips against his skin. "Sorry doesn't change what happened here. At least now the land has a purpose. Become the home it once was again. Fill it, Tala, with family, with hope, and with love. Do this to honor the ones who died to defend it. History aside, they were good men."

Tala nodded and lifted her fingers from his shoulder to sweep the hair back that had fallen over his forehead to hide his eyes. In them she saw such sadness and loss, more than any man should endure. He had the brothers, all these people around him and yet, he was still so alone. Isolated in the way that leaders of men often were. She slid her palms around to cup his cheeks, guiding his head down to press his forehead to hers. "My family is your family, Drew. You are pack. You build the house and together, all of us, we'll turn it into a home filled with laughter and life, and more love than you ever dreamed possible."

Drew rested his forehead against Tala's. Her skin was soft. Her fingertips warm against the coolness of his cheeks. Her eyes golden pools of light, filled with depths of understanding and one thing he thought a man like him would never have use for, compassion. He was lost in everything she was, her gentleness, her softness, and in the way she saw right though him deep into the heart of him. To her, he was not a leader. He did not have to be stronger than steel. He didn't have to pretend to be wise, all knowing, or all seeing. He didn't need any of the answers. And with her he'd never fear to ask a question. He was asking one now. And for once, just being the man he truly was. The man she saw him was. He asked in a rushed, clumsy press of lips against lips and the hurried tangle of tongue around tongue.

Tala lifted her chin and stood on her tiptoes. Her weight balanced in the strength and heat of Drew's embrace. The kiss was not the kiss of a man bent on conquest. He kissed with urgency and desperation. His lips tasting of decades of loneliness and long denied need. He kissed her deeply, fully, as if he were a man with an insatiable thirst and she, the oasis from which he drank. The stroke of his tongue along the border of her lips, the needful, craved probing of its tip, darting in and out of her mouth had her responding with fierceness she never knew she possessed. Her heart pounded out of control. The brisk scent of wolf and man and the heady, decadent taste of him on her lips sent her senses reeling. The gentle pressure of his fingertips tracing in a slow path over her spine did crazy, inexplicable things to her.

In his arms she was a woman, not a wolf, not a princess, or an object to be traded for the future of her pack. She was a living, breathing entity with both heart and soul. She was more than the value of the DNA she carried in her cells. Her fingertips found his hair. Tightly gripping the silken strands in her fists she clung to him, holding his lips to hers. Savoring the very essence of his labored exhales against her cheeks. He represented a danger to her that went beyond the tips of his fangs and the lethal power he kept under tight restraint. This man in the force and fierceness of a gentle, desperate kiss was the destiny she spent her whole life avoiding.

Drew ended the kiss as suddenly as it as begun. His body hummed with awareness. Cradling her dainty fingertips in his hands, he brought her palm to his cheek and closed his eyes savoring the softness and warmth of her skin. He held her there, so close to him, reluctant to let her go. But, knowing far too soon, he'd have no other choice. This woman, so tiny and delicate, had the power to bring him to his knees. She was a weakness he could not afford. Releasing her hands from his grip, he reached over her shoulder and toyed with the end of her long, sleek braid. Winding it around his fingers, he stared down at her.

Drinking in her lips, swollen from the pressure of the kiss and the heated pink of the blush staining her cheeks. Tala avoided his gaze, taking in the landscape instead of meeting his eyes. His thoughts were a battleground of confusion. Perhaps, women weren't as modern as they pretended and he'd taken liberties in the kiss that weren't his to take. Something between them had changed in the brief moments of their stolen kiss. It was subtle as the shift of a gentle breeze. And glaringly evident in her refusal to look him in the eye. "Does someone else hold your heart?"

"No. No one." Tala's voice trembled with the weight of the unspoken truth hanging between them. Her lips burned from the heat of the kiss. He spoke so softly, so gently. His question a plea she had little choice but to answer. He knew nothing of the inner workings of her world. The trap that waited for her and he'd inadvertently set. Love might be as free and as temporary for him, in his world before the wolf, as it was for humans. But, that wasn't the case. Not any more. The wolf chose him. And because of that choice, changed the path his life should have followed. She regretted it for him as much as she regretted it for herself. Neither of them was free. She tugged her braid loose from his fingers and stepped back out of his reach. "It's not that simple, Drew."

"Why?" He was cold, freeing from the absence of Tala's warmth. Her eyes flicked to meet his and in them he saw the dense, dark clouding of regret. He took a few steps and closed the empty space between them. Much as she would not allow him to distance himself from her, he would not allow her to distance herself from him. There was much, in that frown carved into her expression, she wasn't saying. "Tala."

"My family. My father says I should take my place in the pack. Pick a mate and raise a family. But, that's not what I want." She lifted her gaze to meet the intense stare of his mahogany eyes and lost herself in them. He reached out and offered her his hand. His fingers were long and those of a concert pianist. His lifeline was carved deep and stretched across the width of his palm. There were faint scars across the pads of his fingertips. The scars caused from pulling on a bowstring, either from a human lifetime of hunting or of war. His hands were no strangers to hard work. Thick calluses rimmed his palms. And the stain of earth and labor was eternally ground into his flesh. She lifted her hand and let her fingers hover over his before dropping her palm into the warmth of his grip.

"Tell me Tala, what do you want?" His voice was soft and raspy, begging her to answer. He understood what it was to want things you could not have. To be placed on a collision course with a destiny you wanted no part of. He'd lived it and he'd died for it and he had existed everyday since because of it. Gently gripping her trembling fingers, he couldn't stop now if he wanted to. Her admission of the things in life that she didn't want unveiled the possibility of the things she did want.

"You." The words were barely out of her mouth. Spoken in complete honesty, breaking the barrier between them. In that one word she'd sealed her destiny and his along with it. Drew's arms encircled her waist, cinching her against the powerful planes of his body. His hot exhale fluttered across her cheeks seconds before he crushed her mouth to his in a kiss.

Tala's body melted against his. Winding her arms around his neck, she tugged on the ends of his hair, trapping him close. The tangling of their tongues fueled a desire that he thought was long ago extinguished. Her taste was warm and earthy. Everything that was pure and good. He swabbed her mouth with his tongue deeply, memorizing every detail of her warm depths. He hadn't kissed a woman with such passion in over two hundred years. And it was definitely worth the wait. She was heaven in his arms. The gentle press of her body was an agonizing hell. He wanted her in a desperate way he'd never wanted a woman before.

Tala had to feel his bare skin. Wanted to touch it with her hands. Wanted to taste the sleek flesh with the tip her tongue. The hardness of his erection probed her stomach. His response to the kiss made her heady with want. The wolf, driven by pure instinct, begged her to let nature take over and claim this man. Sate their hunger and need with his body. But, she was no animal. Instinct didn't rule her as it did her wolf and she had to stop this before it went any further. The world was spinning out of control, moving too fast. Gasping, trembling and terrified, she broke free from the kiss.

Drew held Tala tightly, securing their bodies together with his embrace. "Too fast?" he asked. Her abrupt withdrawal left him confused and suddenly unsure. His very soul screamed for this woman. And the wolf inside of his head howled with fury, pacing in agitation, scrabbling at his brain with razor sharp claws for him to take this woman and brand her as his. She belonged to him.

What could she say to answer his question? Her wolf had them naked and rutting on the ground like the animal she was. Mate selected. Game over. "It's complicated," she managed to stammer. His hands on her felt so good. And it would be so easy to just give up the fight. Give them both what they wanted and desperately needed.

"Not really," Drew whispered. He dipped his head and used the tip of his tongue to toy with her earlobe. The skin was so soft and supple. A treat he savored as Adam had savored the first bite of the apple. And when Tala responded, arching her back and crushing her breasts to his chest, he growled with primal need.

Tala pressed her palms against Drew's chest, forcing their bodies apart. She desperately needed breathing room. Her control was weak and she wanted him badly. Hell, who was she kidding, both she and her inner wolf wanted this man. "The same laws that bind all wolves now bind you. Drew, when we mate we mate for life."